Florence
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| View over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo |
Across the
Arno on the south side of the city, a lovely drive winds its way under a canopy of leafy trees, past pretty
villas and through olive groves to the panoramic terrace, Piazzale
Michelangelo. It is possible to walk it,
but we took the bus instead. The view is
pleasant and a tad closer than Fiesole, so it's easy to make out the old city
limits. But it is quite busy.
For some reason, a rather gauche statue of
David (copy #2) with the allegorical figures from the Medici tombs (San Lorenzo
and also copies) at his feet, takes centre stage. Dotted over the terrace also, were some less
than inspiring modern sculptures. In a
city resplendent with good taste & art, this was just a bit too “show
pony”. Or are we just becoming too old & grumpy?
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| View over the city and the Ponte Vecchio |
A dormant
Iris Garden lay below the terrace – May is the time to be in Florence if you
want to see an international collection of blooms befitting the city’s floral
symbol. From here, we made our way up to
San Salvatore al Monte. It’s a tiny and
somewhat plain church after all of Florence’s wealth and exuberance. I’m sure it has a history but none of my
books explains it, however our turistico-ing bus talk-fest told us that
Michelangelo favoured it for its simplicity.
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| Wood carving (?) in San Salvatore |
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| San Miniato al Monte |
After San
Salvatore’s sparseness, San Miniato al Monte seemed like a dream. It was built in 1018 over the shrine of St
Minias, who was beheaded for his faith (3rd c BC). Holy relics were the drawcards of their time
so the powerful Wool Importers Guild financed this Romanesque wonder. Again, photos show far more than we could
describe… here’s another generous serve then!!
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| Sinners beware! San Miniato fresco |
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| Interior San Miniato |
Following
our Uffizi visit, we had no time to linger…sadly. It was late and we had to be back in Le
Grazie by 8pm at the latest or starve.
We made it through the supermarket doors in the nick of time. Then of course, it was back to the boat. But not quite as easy as it sounds! Let me set the scene. Early evening is the start of passegiata, a
wonderful time (and cooler temperature) of the day to walk about the town dock
in your best gear and meet friends for drinks or a chat. Some come to the dock to take photos,
girlfriends pose or a new bike, boat, or scooter is shown to best advantage. Now, we’d left WJ3 locked and lights on. For added security, we had even tied Bruce to
the stern – it was important to look as if we were home.
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Florence Graffiti - with a swim theme.
Was it a sign of things to come |
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| Venus is swimming too! |
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| And a Medici.... |
So, the
Cap’n had to swim. In the midst
of passegiata and a modelling session underway nearby, our Cap’n striped to his
undies, dived into the bay and in perfect Australian crawl (freestyle), made
it to WJ3. Dripping wet, he then motored
back to collect GS and the groceries – all as if this happens every day. At the dock, there wasn’t a murmur (even the
model didn’t scream at the baggy Bonds!) but we knew that “those crazy
visitors” will be spoken of for quite some time to come!
All was well
though; the other woman hadn’t strayed.
So we stayed a few days to recover and revise our exit plan. Yes, that nasty Mistral was still blowing and we needed to cross to Corsica…
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| A final Florence reminder or three... |
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| Campanile at night |
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| Medici Lion |
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