Florence - 4

Florence - Day 5 (Day 4 was a day of rest)

Before we started for the day I took some pictures from our windows, and of the apartment.
sometimes there is a street musician below our window and Pete throws down some coins

very lordly....

Via Bufalini with its high density parking

Our living room

the floors and bathroom are all marble and lovely to walk on barefoot
the shower has so many nozzles from which the water spurts it took us a while to work out how to
have a normal shower...

The bathroom with the amazing shower. Sprays down the sides,
an overhead rose plus a hand held with a circular door  closure 

A quiet morning, Monday, because our target for today was the Museo Archeologico, and it was not supposed to be open until 2. We walked up the Via degli Servi to Piazza SS Anunziata where the museum was located. When we found the museum, we also found that the museum was open from 8:30am to 2:00pm and not as specified on the web site.

Fortunately we got there just before 12:30 and became part of the group allowed into the Etruscan - Greek - Roman exhibition at 12:30. They limited the visitors to this exhibition to certain times.

The artefacts on show were magnificent. I know I have overused this term but there are no words to describe the beauty of the objects displayed.

Piazza SS Anunziata

A very curious fountain

 Here follow pictures from the Museum.

I find myself reacting very strongly to all the ancient vase paintings, I always have and these were magnificent
the clarity and colour, the detail of every horse's leg in a four horse chariot is simply amazing...

Many of the vases and kraters were undamaged

most of the artefacts we saw were Etruscan who are especially fascinating particularly when one discerns the merging of the Greek styles with the native..

there was so much more and beautiful but hard to photograph because of the lighting

The Athlete

the training gesture for the little dog seems very familiar...

Man training his dog

I just realised that all of the above are Greek items but they were found in Etruria

An Etruscan tomb

 she is terribly elongated but super elegant and lovely Etruscan lady

The Chimera

 After we were escorted out of the museum at 2pm we found our way to the Piazza San Marco where we had lunch before heading back to the apartment. What we had seen was so beautiful we did not want to crowd the memory by looking at more things in another museum.

Saw a Mephisto shoe shop on the way back to the Piazza del Duomo and bought a pair of shoes each. The slogan for the Mephisto shoes is Devilishly Comfortable and so they are.

On the way back we passed through the Piazza and I sa an opportunity to get some pictures of the Ghiberti door

The Ghiberti Door to the Baptistry. I finally got a reasonable picture

The details are fantastic.

Detail over the central door of the Duomo

 After a rest we went out to see the Santa Croce church

Again a very old church that was given a face lift in the 14th century

A small street, most of them in this part of Florence are the same,
narrow to the point of being dangerously one way. This was a
street of leather shops

Behind the Signoria, you can see the Palazzo Bargello on the left,
the tower in the centre belongs to another church which was being renovated and we did not enter.

We have been doing quite a bit of reading about the period, there are a couple of lovely books in the apartment in execrable English translation, but it is crystal clear that it was a very belligerent time and rather nasty and yet so much great beauty was created; not just the accumulated artworks but the living spaces for the mighty lords are beyond magnificent and unusually tasteful  ...or is it just that this is how our tastes were formed?

The Bargello, every bit a fortress. The enemy?
Your neighbours apparently