Trips

           Out in the heat again we walked to Orsanmichele and then on to the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medici family church designed by Brunelleschi. Michelangelo was commissioned to do the façade but the work was never even started. Included in the complex are gardens, a cloister, and the Medici Chapels.  The latter consist of the New Sacristy (designed by Michelangelo) and the Chapel of the Princes, both containing tombs of many of the Medici.  The Chapel, in particular, is stunning!  The variety and colors of the marble are wonderful, but it is a little dark for decent pictures and was, of course, covered with the inevitable scaffolding of renovation. The Chapel contains several famous Michelangelo sculptures.

Orsanmichele	Orsanmichele - Four crowned saints or martyrs - Banco
Basilica of San Lorenzo	Basilica of San Lorenzo
Basilica of San Lorenzo	Tomb of Cosimo de Medici (Pater patriae)
Medici Chapel - Dome in the Chapel of the Princes	Medici Chapel - marble floor in the Chapel of the Princes
Medici Chapel - Chapel of the Princes	Medici Chapel - New Sacristy - Medici tomb with Michelangelo’s Dusk and Dawn
Medici Chapel - New Sacristy - Michelangelo’s Night and Day	Medici Chapel - New Sacristy - Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child flanked by the Medici patron saints, Cosmas and Damian
Tonight was our Grand Circle home-hosted dinner.  Our home was actually a B&B and organic farm out in the surrounding countryside.  They grow grapes, of course, and make wine and have olive trees and make olive oil.  They grow wonderful tomatoes and all other vegetables.  The ten of us had a very tasty meal cooked by the wife.  The husband, wife, and her brother all spoke good English.  The drive there in a hot mini-bus on more narrow twisty roads were enough to give us more white hair.
Home-hosted dinner	Home-hosted dinner
Fri., 7/17/15 – Florence             We got a better start this morning and squeezed onto a C2 bus to take us down to the Uffizi Museum.  We had to wait only five minutes in a line to enter the museum, but once we entered we spent 3 ½ hours there looking at masterpieces.  We started on the second floor, which would be third floor in the US.  We found nearly everything on Marge’s list including:                         Botticelli                                 Adoration of the Magi                                                                         Birth of Venus                                                                         Calumny of Apelles                                                                         Discovery of Holofernes                                                                         Primavera                         Bronzino                                 Eleonore of Toledo                         Cimabue                                 Madonna of the Holy Trinity                         Fabriano                                 Adoration of the Magi                                               Filippino Lippi                       Adoration of the Child                         Fra Angelico                           Coronation of the Virgin                         Fra Filippo Lippi                    Madonna & Child - Angels                         Gentileschi                             Judith Beheading Holofernes                         Giotto                                      Ognissanti Madonna                         Leonardo                                Adoration of the Magi                                                                         Annunciation                         Michelangelo                         Holy Family                           Monaco                                   Coronation of the Virgin                         Parmigianino                         Madonna of the Long Neck                         Piero della Francesca            Portraits – Montefeltro & B. Sforza                         Raphael                                  Madonna of the Goldfinch                                                                         Self-portrait                         Titian                                      Venus of Urbino                         Veneziano                              Saint Lucy Altarpiece                         Verrocchio                              Baptism of Christ                         van der Goes                          Adoration of the Shepards  - the Portinari Altarpiece You can see why we took our time and found what we came to see.
Neptune Fountain in the Piazza della Signoria	Copy of David in the Piazza della Signoria
Loggia dei Lanzi - an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art across from the Palazzo Vecchio Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa	Pictures from the Uffizi Uffizi - ceiling
Monaco - Coronation of the Virgin	Tribune Hall - list of the astounding contents
Tribune Hall	Tribune Hall
Tribune Hall	Looking at the Ponte Vecchio from a Uffizi window
Ceiling detail	Michelangelo - Holy Family or the Doni Tondo
Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi	Botticelli - Birth of Venus
Botticelli - Primavera	Views from the windows of the Uffizi Gallery - Palazzo Vecchio
Views from the windows of the Uffizi Gallery - Palazzo Vecchio	Views from the windows of the Uffizi Gallery - Palazzo Vecchio bell tower
Raphael - Self-portrait	Parmigianino - Madonna of the Long Neck
Parmigianino - Madonna of the Long Neck	Eventually, we ran out of steam (too much beautiful art and too many people) and went to sit in a small cafe to eat calzones for lunch.  It was too early to enter the Palazzo Vecchio because it was closed from 12 to 1 PM, so we went into the Galileo Museum and found a real treasure.  The museum has a large collection of mostly 18th c. scientific instruments: telescopes, surveying and architecture tools, microscopes, static electricity machines, and devices to teach about motion, Newton’s Laws, etc.  It was a lot of fun to look at and guess how things worked.
Galileo Museum
Balance

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