Trips

            Next, we went out to catch a D bus, having finally figured out the transit map of Florence.  The bus dropped us off at the plaza in front of Santa Maria del Carmine.  The main church was typical of the many churches in Florence but the chapel to the right of the high altar is something very special. 

Santa Maria del Carmine	Santa Maria del Carmine
Santa Maria del Carmine - non-private confessional	We had to exit and enter a different door and use our Firenze Card to enter the Brancacci Chapel.  The chapel has several frescoes we had learned about.  Masolino’s “Temptation of Adam and Eve” and across from it Masaccio’s “Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden.”  Filippino Lippi frescoed the two sidewalls with “The Dispute with Simon Magus,” “The Liberation of St. Peter”, and the “Crucifixion of St. Peter”.  Our favorite though is Masaccio’s “The Tribute Money,” where Jesus tells Peter to go find the coin in the mouth of a fish and pay the tax.  St. Peter appears three times in the scene
Brancacci Chapel	Brancacci Chapel
Masaccio - The Expulsion	Masolino - Temptation of Adam and Eve
Masaccio - The Tribute Money	Masaccio - St. Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow
We then walked to the Pitti Palace built for the Pitti family of bankers and later bought by the Medici family and still later it was used by Napoleon to show off his power. It was also used by the Emperor of the united Italy in 1871.  The palace is now a complex of museums with the largest collection in Italy, which is saying a lot!  We started our tour in the Palaina Galleria and hunted among hundreds of Medici collections of art for a few we were familiar with.  The walls of the 35 rooms were covered eye level to ceiling with large and small paintings in elaborate gold frames.  The ceilings were all elaborate and the doorways were framed in marble.  We found more Lippi's, several Reuben's, and Raphael's, and Titian's (Tiziano).  The Caravaggio was out on loan.  After being amazed at the billions of dollars worth of art in this gallery, we went into the Apartments of Reali and saw the anterooms, throne room, family chapel, and one bedchamber.  The furnishings and ceilings were again beautiful and the walls were covered in silk.             We then walked through the Treasury Gallery with collections of gold, silver, ivory, lapis lazuli, gems, cameos, and on and on.  The Medici family sure bought and collected a bunch of precious things.             We ate a sandwich croissant and water at the museum cafe and then walked briefly in the Giardino di Boboli (the Boboli Gardens).  It was more grass, trees, and hedges and way too hot to really enjoy.  The gardens are on a hill and look out over much of Florence - beautiful on a cooler day!
Model of the Pitti Palace	Pitti Palace stonework
Pitti Palace	Pitti Palace - ceiling
Pitti Palace	Pitti Palace - typical room - floor to ceiling artwork
Pitti Palace - room after room	Pitti Palace
Pitti Palace	Pitti Palace
Pitti Palace	Pitti Palace
Boboli Gardens	Boboli Gardens
Boboli Gardens	Boboli Gardens - something modern
After the Boboli Gardens, we got on the C3 bus, which was air conditioned, and we had seats, and took a detour from the printed route but ended up 15 minutes later at the Ponte Vecchio where we wanted to get off and walked up to the Duomo.  The Baptistery was open this time, so we went in.  The ceiling is amazing, the original Bronze doors are in the Duomo Museum, which is closed for renovation, but the rose window from the Duomo façade was on display in the Baptistery.  It was taken down and restored because the glass was deteriorating and needed to be replaced and re-leaded.  It is another beautiful, very large piece of work.
Baptistry	Baptistry floor
Ceiling	Assumption of the Virgin Mary - Rose window from the Duomo

        We walked back to our hotel and relaxed, rehydrated, showered, and went to a nearby restaurant for an included dinner of veggies with cooked barley, boiled beef and canola beans, and tiramisu.  It was okay.
            On the whole our three days on our own in Florence were a resounding success.  We saw nearly all of the famous artwork we came to see and lots more.  You could spend months in the museums, churches, and galleries just feasting your eyes on the glories of the Renaissance.

Continue on next page