Friday 2nd October
We started the day at Academia D’el Arte, where David is housed. I thought it would be another statue and we had already seen the copy in the square yesterday, but I had another WOW! moment, when I walked into the gallery where David is located. Breathtaking! The first galleries we walked through had an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, with drawings and sculptures by Michelangelo. There were wonderful juxtapositions of the exhibits and descriptions and explanations about form/structure, substance/subject , medium and expertise and when it all comes together it is perfection. It was a fabulous introduction to seeing David, where subject, form, medium and expertise do come together to create perfection.
What do you do after seeing that? Well, what about a stroll to Il Duomo? Il Duomo was very different to most of the cathedrals and churches we have seen lately. While the exterior is richly carved and made of striped pink, white and green marble, the interior was understated and sparse, until you get to the dome, which is huge and covered in paintings beautifully coloured and descriptive. Wow! again.
After all this beauty we needed some reality checks and wandered through the markets of Florence and lost count of the number of bags, scarves and gloves stalls, all selling the same things. I finally bought some gloves and am still on the look out for perfect shoes and the perfect bag(s). Two more days here so I still have time! Looked at a lot of shops and bought a couple of gifts and happened upon an Austrian market selling reindeer antlers, fluffy slippers and lots of sausage. Unusual!
We had dinner at a little restaurant across the river and had a range of fabulous pastas (primi piatti) and meats (secondi piatti) and contorni (side dishes) with chianti. Overfull, we strolled around Palazzo Pitti, across the Ponte Vecchio, where workers were erecting scaffolding in preparation for painters, listening to a busker singing Time After Time, before returning to the smallest hotel room in all of Florence.
Fashion Observations – Paris to Florence
· Purple is THE colour – coats, dresses, shoes, bags, tops – everything is purple, everywhere
· Leopard print is never out of fashion
· Shoes cannot be too spiky or too high
· Tops cannot be too low
· European women must have incredible balance – try walking on 15cm stilettos on cobblestoned streets. Impressive
· Winter coats are bright (so not Melbourne), appliquéd, mix of fabrics, loads of colour
· Lots of leather jackets and swing coats that are two toned, usually a contrast collar and cuffs
- Pink shirts and jumpers are in for men
· In France, men’s shirts have two small buttons at the neck
· In Italy, men’s shirts are colourful, shaped and have just one button at the neck
· Italian men dress very well, top to toe, smart and stylish with shiny shoes
· Shop windows are works of art
· Venetian men are more handsome than Florentine men
· Many Florentine men are very good looking, but noses here are just a bit more prominent, but nowhere near as large as French noses
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