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.
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.
