travelingidahogirl

Duomo Museum (Florence 3)

After we left the Uffizi, it was nearly dark. We headed to Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge—seriously, I don’t think the Italians have anything on us as far as naming places, but they do, somehow, sound more impressive in Italian; maybe not to them?), a famous bridge over the Arno River. There are small shops along the bridge, kind of like the Rialto Bridge in Venice. We didn’t go into any shops, just looked through the windows—primarily jewelry shops. The place was pretty happening—lots more people in the streets—more Italians—now that it was dark. I don’t know if they always have lights strung up or if it is a Christmas thing, but it was pretty and made the cold more tolerable.

We made our way back up towards the duomo, but made a stop at a shop selling shirts because T had been begging for an Italian soccer shirt for about a half hour. My mistake. The first time he said he wanted a blue shirt, I told him, “No—that’s an Italian soccer team shirt and we don’t know which teams are good.” (Plus, people here get passionate about their football teams, and I didn’t want to piss anybody off.) As soon as he heard SOCCER shirt, he absolutely HAD to have one, as he has been told that he can play soccer when he is older. It turned out fine—he got his blue #5 Italia shirt (the name on the back is Cannavaro, if that means anything to any of you), which he promptly put on over his long sleeve shirt. Later at the restaurant, his little chest was pushed out as soon as the coat came off. He rubbed his hands over the satiny material every time the waiter walked by, and he was given the desired “Ah, bueno, bueno” from a few people.

Before dinner, we stopped in at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, a museum right behind the Duomo, which houses some of the original art of the cathedral. We didn’t spend a lot of time here, but it was well worth the visit, if for no other reason than Michelangelo’s Pieta, his last piece—unfinished—of sculpture (I think it was his last?). It also has a scary Donatello (La Maddalena—Mary Magdalene always gets a bad rap, but yee-ouch!) and some beautiful Luca della Robbia (another new name to me) marble reliefs.

T was disappointed that none of the statues moved.

posted by travelingidahogirl @ 3:23 PM