Today we took a walk to the Arno River and walked over it on the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio is lined on both sides with jewelry stores, with windows filled with gold, silver and jewels. It is a pedestrian only bridge, so it’s a nice place to walk and browse without worrying about some lunatic in a Fiat coming and running you over.
On the other side of the Ponte Vecchio we visited the Pitti Palace. There we walked through the rooms where the Medici family once lived and saw how lavish their lifestyle was. The walls and ceilings were covered with paintings and frescoes and the rooms were filled with incredible furniture.
We also visited the Pitti Palace’s Gallery of Modern Art, which there means pretty much anything from the 19th century on. We didn’t tour the Boboli Gardens, but they were viewable from parts of the palazzo.
As we’ve learned, any visit to a museum is going to be filled with some goofy people and tour groups. For the most part, though, the Pitti Palace was remarkably low on both. The only goofy people were this small group of Asian folks who kept setting off the alarms on the paintings. I witnessed the one lady do it twice; she would stop in front of a painting, back up further and further to get a better view and back up so far she would run into a painting behind her and set off the alarm.
Also, the Pitti Palace has my vote for worst bathrooms so far. The toilets didn’t even have seats on them (men’s or women’s) and they smelled like pee.
Oh, and just a quick message to those people whose job it is to sit in a chair and do nothing all day but make sure nobody messes with the art: Please, don’t let me interrupt your phone call. Feel free to just sit there all day with your John Grisham novel or your magazine and look surly. I’m sorry your job is so hard.
We also went back to the Duomo and visited the cathedral. It was very big and airy inside – very different from the frescoed interior at the basilica at San Marco.
Today had an interesting vibe to it as it was Sunday and a lot of stores and restaurants were closed. Still just as many illegal street vendors selling knock-off purses, watches and sunglasses, though. And we saw some guys making crazy paintings with spray paint. Plus there was a whole family of gypsies/beggars by the Duomo; one of the ladies was washing herself with bottled water. There is definitely never a lack of things to see!
Tomorrow we’ll visit the museum at the Duomo in the morning, and then it’s on to Rome in the afternoon.
Ciao!