Profiles in excess tourism in Florence. The subjects of the double portraits are said to be the Duke and Duchess of Urbino circa 1475, but the dates of marriage, death and ascension to to the dukedom make that impossible (interesting history and analysis of the art at https://tinyurl.com/2vvt3tdu). The museum was so crowded it wore down our old bodies. I really wanted to see the Caravaggios but we had to get out of the herd.
Oh, and the Duomo was closed.
Home now, a day late. The flight from London to Chicago was way behind schedule and, until you have flown on an A380, you have no idea how very long it takes to get 460 passengers' luggage onto the carousel. Spent the night at an airport hotel and arrived home yesterday.
We will have to look at pictures of Italy for a bit, not too much of a hardship. This is a view from the nave of the Siena Duomo looking toward the altar seen in Friday's post. I get a sense of the enormity, solemnity and overstated grandeur of the place.
The nave of the Siena Duomo. I know something about Western art history but I'm no expert. Something here is sliding between the baroque and rococo but I couldn't define where the line falls. In any event, the visual effects are overwhelming. The church construction was begun in the 13th and 14th Centuries, and it is mind-boggling to consider the architectural and engineering skill. The decoration developed over the following centuries. It is impossible for even an interested tourist to take it all in.
As mentioned, lots of flying today. May get some photo editing done on the long London - Chicago segment but I don't know when I'll get my next post up.
Last day of leg wearying, joint aching tourism. We do okay walking around on vacation but Tuscany is full of settled mini-mountains, built that way, I suppose, for defensive purposes. 10,500 step day yesterday, which may be a modern personal record. What the health app on my phone does not record without consulting the altimeter is the hill climbing, many days 300 - 400 feet / 90 - 120 meters. We've had enough.
On our final day here we visited the Siena Duomo, which is an architectural and artistic spectacle. The central dome over the nave invites visitors with a supple enough neck to contemplate heaven. I got the shot because my camera has an articulating LED screen.
Drive back to Bologna today and spend the night at an airport hotel. Tomorrow it's BLQ - LHR - ORD - STL, 11 hours of flying and 5 hours of airport transfers, gods of the air willing. We are ready to go home.
Day trip to Florence yesterday. I'll spare you the details of how bad a job Google Maps did on the tiny, twisted streets of the city center and how lost we got just trying to find parking. Anyway, I really wanted to go to the Galleria degli Ufizzi.It was as crowded as the Louvre in mid-summer or the Metropolitan in New York during Christmas week. Arguably not worth the effort.
I remember the other time I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus here, perhaps 25 years ago. I don't remember the season but the place wasn't crowded. I stood in rapture for a long time in front of this work until a guard jabbered at me in Italian because an Asian tour group couldn't see through/around tall me. At some point this gets so tiring that I can't absorb any more.
Apologies to Frances Mayes' wonderful book, but we have been driving around Tuscany for a couple of days looking for the quintessential view and the light has been just dreadful. Dull, hazy, formless. The landscape shots I took are unusable. After climbing uphill about 125 meters from the parking lot to to the central piazza in Montepulciano, I had to satisfy myself with some strange entertainment. A German video crew had these two young women race around a corner and then collapse. I couldn't make any sense of it. The tourist sitting on a bench wasn't interested at all.
Seen in the small Tuscan hill town of Pienza. Must be the original Model 1.
Didn't make it that far yesterday, with the effect of warm, humid weather and lots of hills on old muscles and joints. Will try for Montalcino and Montepulciano today. Had some fabulous Nobile di Montepulciano with dinner last night. Tuscan cuisine is not for the faint of heart.
