back to Firenze!

It was nice to be back in Firenze and I couldn't wait to see all my favorite sites.  However, not everybody was down for more museums and stuff. They are suffering from that museumed out syndrome (Stendhal syndrome).  How does one remedy that, you explore the city on your own terms then.  I bought the Firenze Card, with all sights/public transportation for 50 euros.  A little pricy, but I think of it as my donation to Florence.

Our hostel was already situated on Via Ricasoli, where the Accademia is located, so we started there.  It's nice cutting the general line without tickets by using the pass, and I waited in line for less than 5 minutes.  However, when I got inside, most people go straight to the other Michelangelo statues, than the David. However, I wanted to start with the Botticelli's and stuff in the room you're supposed to start in.  The only part that sucked was that the Rape of the Sabine Women statue was currently being restored.  And the exhibition this time was on two different factions in the ity or something.  It was interesting reading all their ancint graffiti prasing their own guilds. It was interesting walking pass the unfinished Michelangelo's this time, since I now know they were meant for the tomb for Pope Julius II at the San Pietro in Vincoli church I saw last time when I was in Rome, and from reading Ross King's book on Michelangelo.  The David is always impressive when you look at it, since it's just such a massive statue, and there are like art students pretty much all around all sketching the statue.  After the David, we saw the little like sculpture studio area, and skipped the upstairs portion since I wasn't really impressed last time.  From there, I went straight to the Ufffizi.   The door man told me they were only going to be open for about a hour, if that was ok, but that was all the time I needed.  There was zero line to skip, and essentially a straight walk through.  I was pretty much all about seeing the main pieces, starting with Giotto/Cimabue's Madonna and Childs.  Then zipping through to the Battle of San Ramano piece, and then into the room with the two Botticellis.  I tried to sneak some pictures of the Birth of Venus and Primavera, but I failed.

After this, I made a line straight to the Da Vinci's to see his Annunciation and John the Baptist stuff.  I think his Annunciation painting is probably one of his best pieces.

After this, it was quite simple to avoid everything since they're doing restoration work in the rooms on the opposite side on the upper floor, so I could go straight to the room with the Michelangelo.  Saw the Laocoon statue, walked downstairs, and got to see the rest of what I wanted to see, Raphael's Santi pieces, and Caravaggio's works

His Medusa piece is pretty great, even though he is using like the same model for a bunch of his pieces.  I looked at the Loggia statues before I walked to the best gelato place in Florence, La Cararria, then walked past my old apartment on Via Anguillara to Santa Croce, except there was some scaffolding on the square for the Calcio Storico game this weekend,  then I walked to my old supermarket, BIlla, which is now Conad City to pick up some drinks.

I rounded up the gang who were passed out at the hostel, and we went to the Golden View restaurant across the Ponte Vecchio on the Arno.  They had like a live jazz band playing, so that was pretty cool, and they assigned the American waiter to us.

We cruised around the streets at night with some beers, before going to place I hate the most, the Red Garter, before going back to bed.