Florence - Buildings and Views

 I can't really call this one Florence - Architecture, much as I'd love to, but I just don't know enough about architecture for that not to feel pretentious. So this is a collection of photos of famous and perhaps not so famous buildings in Florence and some views over the city which were taken from various different places. I did my best to keep the omnipresent building cranes out of my photos but it was a difficult thing to do and occasionally I failed. 

above and below, photos taken from windows of the Uffizi - you can see the rain on the hills in the top one

this is the terrace cafe at the Uffizi looking towards Il Duomo

and this from the same place looking over to the much nearer Palazzo Vecchio

This is the front of Santa Croce from the ground ...

...and this is Santa Croce from part way up the Palazzo Vecchio. You can see how far back it goes, it's absolutely huge and presumably it would have cost too much, even in Florence, to face the sides and back with marble as well as the front!

This is a very small part of Il Duomo, it's impossible to get all of it in at ground level. It's amazing. Years ago someone told me I wouldn't like it because it was garish, but you know, I did like it. As I said to someone else, I wouldn't build one like it in my back garden but taken for what it is it's rather lovely. And totally breathtaking. 

This is the bell tower of Il Duomo. You can pay to climb it. We didn't. 

Part of the charm of Florence, like Paris, is just being there and slowing down and looking at stiff that might not be famous but somehow says something about the city. We did a fair bit of sitting and people watching and building spotting; this one was in the square in front of the Cathedral. I loved it.You can also see how crowded the area around the cathedral is, even in the wet! It rained quite hard that day. 

Today's  was definitely a photo heavy post!

Florence - Art

 or some of it anyway. 

The main pull of Florence for me was the art so it will be no surprise to anyone that we spent our first day in the Uffizi. The OH was inclined to the view that it wouldn't take us that long as it was 'only two floors' Ha! 

It was only two floors but they were both huge. Also the lift wasn't functioning so that was a lot of stairs to climb. The top of the Uffizi is a l-o-n-g way up. In fact it's so far up that at the top there is a notice advising you not to look down. 

It's very regimented. They call the Alhambra 'the factory' in Granada, but honestly that's  a lot more relaxed than this was. I forget how many times our tickets were checked but it was at least four,and we had our bags scanned as well. There is also a one way system so you can't just check out the bits you're interested in and then leave, or skip bits. We did rush past the sculpture. We know nothing about sculpture. And to be fair there are lots of seats so whenever we felt the need for a sit down and a breath catch, there was somewhere to sit. Full marks on that score. And of course the places was rammed with tourists. 

I feel to fully appreciate the paintings in Florence you really need at least an MA in Early Italian Religious Painting. Otherwise it's just a lot of Annunciations and Visits of the Magi and lives of saints that, if you';re not Catholic, you've probably never heard of. There are, I discovered, only so many annunciations and Visits of the Magi that I can cope with and the Uffizi reached that limit quite early on. 

However, a few highlights

This one does come from a series of a life of a saint of whom I had never heard and depicts his miraculous repair of a broken kitchen sieve. (I kid you not). Personally I cannot detect a kitchen sieve, broken or otherwise, in this picture, unless it's the rhomboid(?) on the floor near the right hand corner, bu anyway it tickled me. 

I was gobsmacked by the skill of whoever painted this picture of an open book 

Then there were the Botticellis , of course 

That birth of Venus photo is rubbish but as always with famous pictures there were crowds round it - and the Primavera of course - which is why it's sideways on. I'm not bothered because I bought a post card. For once a gallery shop actually stocked a postcard of a picture that I wanted. 

And there were just loads more; a beautiful Leonardo, some lovely Rafaels although not many, a few amazing portraits,  mainly by Flemish artists! 

The Leonardo

and if you looked at that angel and said Gosh, how Burne Jones is that? - well snap! 

The problem with galleries like this ( apart from the tourists) is overload. Ideally you would live next to one, and visit every day for  a year and just look at a very limited number of paintings each day, and then you could appreciate each of them more fully.  Counsel of perfection I know. So I shall just be grateful that I got the chance to go at all. 

Wool stats and finished projects for September

 A more satisfying result than the last couple of months, that's for sure. In was only 100g which was the Yarn Unique artists club skein and I have not ordered September's even though it is Matisse so I'm giving myself a pat on the back for that. Out was 464; net decrease for the month 364, net decrease for the year now 5840. So that's something. 

Unsurprisingly, I finished yet another  pair of socks - a very old skein from The Knitting Goddess and these were for the OH. A bit subdued for him but he seemed pleased with them regardless, and they went on holiday to Florence. 

The 'big finish' was this stole for which I used the Giddy yarns 2023 Advent which was A  Midsummer Night's Dream themed. I find stoles easier to wear than other shawl shapes which was why I chose this pattern, the Adventuresome wrap by Ambah O Brian which someone had given me as a gift a while back. It too made a debut in Florence. Once I got going it was easier to knit than it probably looks. 

No predictions whatsoever about how October's numbers will go, I don't have a clue! 

Florence - Food

I thought just to mix things up  a bit I'd do Florence by theme rather than day by day, and I'm starting with the food because we arrived late afternoon and went out for a stroll and a meal so the first photos I have are of our first evening meal. 

We had pre-booked tickets for the Uffizi on our first full day so we went out to time our walk to there, so that we could turn up on time, and then once we'd found that we had a quick look around the Piazza della Signoria,  and then wandered off down several of the side streets trying to decide where to eat. It's always a bit of  gamble isn't it? Too close to a tourist hot spot and you're sure you're getting ripped off; too far away and can you make yourself understood/find anything on the menu that you recognise? 

Anyway we found a little place that looked nice, and the menu had several things on it that we did recognise,  and it had pannacotta on the dessert menu so we went in. And we had a lovely meal. We started with bruschetta, which was fabulous

and followed that up with lasagne for me and wild boar pappardelle for the OH ( don't have photos of either of those and then for dessert I had the pannacotta and the OH had tiramisu. Sadly the pannacotta was a bit gelatine heavy and so I wished I'd gone with  the tiramisu myself but you live and learn. 

And here's the OH looking wildly enthusiastic about being in Italy. 

The next day we had 'lunch' in the cafe at the Uffizzi!

No photos of  the evening  meal which we had in our hotel; I had ravioli which was very nice and the OH had a cheeseburger. 

I don't think we had any lunch the next day as we had booked a restaurant for the evening which had been recommended by a friend. It was, as I often say, Not Cheap and we wanted to do full justice to it. so we 'saved ourselves' as the old phrase has it. 

It may not have been cheap but the food was beautiful and the views from our table overlooking the Arno were amazing. There was great bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, the OH started off with a risotto with lemon, mint and zucchini, and then we both had the same main and dessert. The main was lamb with little cubes of potato, leek. onion, and plums and the dessert was a chocolate and hazelnut concoction that was totally delicious. 

The views from our table 

to the left ( Ponte Vecchio) 

straight over the river

and to the right

I didn't actually take any photos of the food but I did take one of the table and it does show the  OH's risotto

A special evening.

And the following night, given that we had to be up early the next day for breakfast and then the airport transfer, we ate at the hotel again and this time I follower the OH's lead and we both had cheeseburgers.

I don't know why the OH is always telling people that I don't like foreign food. I think what he means is that I don't like curry and although that is foreign, and although I don't like it, this leaves a long list of foreign cuisines that I'm happy with; Italian, Spanish, Swedish,  Czech, Austrian, Mexican, North African and Chinese.  As well as plenty that I have yet to try. Also, if you've been paying attention, you'll note I had one more Italian meal on this trip than he did!