Florence Museums

The first gallery we visited in Florence was the Galleria dell’Academia … home of course to the lovely David. Last time I was here, he was being cleaned or fixed or something – so good to be able to see him in all his glory this time around.

We did have about a 30 min wait in 38C+ temps to get in … although I’m sure pre-COVID this would have been far longer.

Number next was the Uffizi – something I think you should see at least once in your life, but to be honest – not my cup of tea. I can hear the gasps of horror from here!!! It gets worse … I can take it or leave it … YES!!! I KNOW!! I’m a philistine!! (This is not news). We were there for Jarrah’s “once in your life” visit – I’ve been before 🙂

Uffizi is also one of the shooting locations for “Hannibal” (the TV series) and Jarrah’s obsession for the last few years (in case you didn’t know) – otherwise I may not have even got her in there for her “once in a lifetime”!

We paid extra to reserve entry at a specific time and so glad we did. Although temps were 38C – the “feels like” temp on the weather app was around 42C. We arrived, went straight to collect our tickets and after a short queue of about 10 mins, we were in. There are some silver linings to travelling during the throws of the pandemic. During “normal” peak season, the queues can take hours. Think we queued for at least an hour the last time and we arrived at opening time.

Jarrah wanted to try to recreate a scene from Hannibal (he and Will sitting on a leather bench looking at Primavera) but alas, they’ve either moved the painting and there is no bench/couch. Or the whole thing was CGI and hence nothing at all like reality 🙂

On our last day in Florence we went to a contemporary art exhibition that we stumbled across the previous day whilst doing the rounds of our “Hannibal” self-tour.

This I found far more interesting and enjoyable (Jarrah too). An exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi by Tomás Saraceno. Hard to explain but you can read a bit about him and his art here.
I especially love the large balls inside the courtyard of the Pallazo – reflecting the architecture of the Pallazo (pics above).

Lots of mirrors reflecting their surroundings, one installation that created sounds from air movement, helium filled balloons anchored by pens that are creating “art” when they move from people walking past them, cobwebs created inside glass boxes and displayed in dark rooms with strategic lighting – all very interesting and effective.

Spider artworks below 🙂