Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “Q”.
In the movie “Four weddings and a funeral “, there is a song that goes “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes …”, sung by a group called “Wet Wet Wet”.
All of which is very ironic. Sunday when we arrived in Florence it was wet. Yesterday – Monday – was worse. This morning was wet, wet, wet. And cold.
Wet enough that when I took some rubbish out to the bin near the entry gates – a round trip of maybe 50 metres, I was drenched. My nice, dry shoes were soaked. Not a good start.
Cold enough when we walked to the bus stop this morning that I couldn’t feel anything in my fingers or toes.
And then I made a strategic blunder.
I took one of Laura’s big umbrellas with us today. Serious mistake.
The rain was coming down hard as we walked to the bus, but lucky me had a big umbrella.
We caught the 14 bus into Florence. The AirBNB listing says it is a 20 minute trip into Florence. Plus the 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop, and plus the 20 minutes you spend standing around like a shag on a rock waiting for a bus to actually arrive.
20 minutes if you are lucky.
And then in reality, and especially with the rain, the 20 minute trip is closer to 45 minutes … but we have had some that have taken over an hour.
We were clever bus ninjas today – we got off a few stops earlier than our usual stop so that we could very cleverly swap to a different bus and get much closer to our starting point for today’s adventure, with less distance to walk in the rain.
Sadly, the 2nd bus never turned up. Not when it was supposed to, and not for another 30-40 minutes after it was supposed to.
And when it did turn up, it was chockers. Plus it had a couple of ticket inspectors on it. Argh!
This morning we were booked to see the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor. And then this afternoon we were booked to see the Galleria dell’Academia.
With many of these historic sites, you have to book a time to get in. You miss your time, you miss out on visiting.
You may remember yesterday we had to be at the duomo at 8.15am. Same deal today.
Today’s adventure was a little different, though. We were booked to see the Vasari Corridor – the “main event” – at 12.15pm, and that automatically gave us access to the Uffizi Gallery also.
Stay with me.
You have to see the Uffizi Gallery first, and that takes at least 45 minutes. Then you must (MUST!!) be at the start point for the accompanied tour (not a “guided tour”, an “accompanied tour”) of the Vasari Corridor on time. 12.15pm in our case.
But you are recommended to start the Uffizi Gallery 2 hours before your appointed time so that you have ample time to see it all.
If that 2nd bus had turned up on time, we would have been at the start point for the Uffizi Gallery at 10.15am. But that wasn’t to be 😞
We arrived at the start point for the Uffuzi Gallery about 11.15am, and there would have been maybe 1,000 people queued up with no specific entry time requirements. Most people don’t do the corridor.
We got in the queue.
So let me recap: we were standing in a queue behind probably 1,000 people, it was pouring rain, and there was insufficient time between when we were likely to enter and when we needed to be at the corridor, and we still needed to navigate security.
And there was absolutely no organisation by the staff in the management of the crowd. It was every man, woman and child for themselves.
Can it get any better?
We finally got through security around 11.45am, giving us little time to see the Uffizi Gallery … unless we hurried.
Remember that big umbrella I borrowed from Laura’s place? Big umbrellas aren’t allowed in, so I had to queue up for the cloakroom to drop it off.
But here is the kicker … I couldn’t drop off my umbrella at the cloak room because they have to give you a numbered tag, and they’d run out of tags. I had to wait until someone came back to collect their umbrella so that their numbered tag could be re-allocated to me.
And there was probably 20 people in the queue ahead of me with the same problem.
Anyway, long story short, I dropped off the umbrella and was allocated #177, and off we went.
Eventually.
My “ticket” was a dog-eared post-it note that had seen better days, and I wasn’t feeling confident that I … er Laura … would ever see that umbrella again.
They say a minimum of 45 minutes to see the gallery but we did it in something like 15 or 20 minutes. We didn’t see much.
Now as I’m sure you know, I’m something of a cultural vacuum. When I think of culture, I think of yoghurt.
It was a fascinating gallery of art and historical artefacts, but I confess that I don’t truly understand the background or context to why the gallery was created. I’m going to have to check on the Intergoogle.
So we raced through this gallery of timeless and possibly priceless exhibits, and got to the Vasari Corridor – the “main event” – on time.
That was a miracle, and no thanks to the Italian curators of the venue.
The Vasari Corridor is approximately 1km long and was built by some Grand Duke in the 16th Century so that he could travel freely between two Palazzos (Palaces) – his personal palace Palazzo Pitti, and the Government palace, Palazzo Vecchio – and he wouldn’t have to mix with the great unwashed, because he was fearful for his safety. Poor guy.
The corridor also connects to a church – the Church of Santa Felicita where the Grand Duke could enter a balcony of the church without having to sit next to any sinners.
Sorry, that probably sounded like sarcasm.
It was interesting, but because it was only an accompanied tour, there was minimal commentary. And it was only a corridor.
The Uffizi Gallery was full of artworks, and this was a corridor with (as far as I could see) nothing special except a view into the church, and a view over the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge).
So … I’m not sure if I missed something, but it was only a corridor.
If you’ve been to Singapore and caught a train, you’ve walked in corridors before, although – I acknowledge – not necessarily with the historical significance of the Vasari Corridor.
The whole morning felt like a bit of a fizzer to be honest. Maybe if I was Italian … or Catholic?
We felt like we had rushed around and queued all morning, and not seen much. And now it was time to collect that stupid umbrella from the cloak room.
The end of the Vasari Corridor deposits you back into the outside world, on the other side of the river. Remember how I said that the corridor is about 1km long? We were now about 1km away from the start of the Uffizi Gallery, and outside the gallery, with no (simple) way of getting back in
So we navigated our way back to the start of the gallery, and there were now probably 1,500 people queued to get in … and with no practical way to bypass the queue to get back to the cloakroom.
I waved my post-it note around like it was an important and official document, and – with some queue jumping and trying to look important – I got back to the cloakroom via yet another security check in about 30 minutes.
We needed food (… I actually needed a drink, or a sedative …) and MBW wanted to look at the leather market to get a bargain on a handbag. So we headed off to the markets and MBW beat some poor vendor down from €35 to €20 for cash, then we had pasta for lunch at the food markets.
MBW had carbonara, while I had gnocchi and it was OK. Not the best pasta I’ve ever had, but not the worst either.
We had a few hours to kill before the Galleria dell’Academia at 4.45pm.
We found a McDonalds and had ourselves a couple of coffees, used their toilets and wandered the streets for an hour and a half.
Back into another queue to get in, although we were lucky because we had pre-booked tickets. Those without tickets were doomed to join a queueueueue. A long one.
The main attraction at the Galleria dell’Academia is the Statue of David, 17 foot high, and carved by Michelangelo in the early 1500s out of a single block of marble.
David, BTW, is the same one from the biblical story of David and Goliath.
Here’s a fun fact: Michelangelo was only about 26 years old and relatively unknown when he carved this statue, and he only got the job because two other “notable” artists declined to do it because they felt that the marble was floored.
So we got into the gallery and guess what? Umbrellas aren’t allowed in the Gallery, so I had to drop it off at the cloakroom.
Have I mentioned that it hadn’t rained in Florence since we entered the Uffizi Gallery around 11.30am, and we now had partially blue skies?
Stupid umbrella. Stupid Geoff.
The Statue of David is truly a masterpiece, and that was the highlight of our day. The Gallery also contains lots of plaster casts by other artists like Botticelli, lots of paintings, and a musical instrument gallery holding violins, including some Stradivarius.
Around 6.00pm we were pooped and decided to head home.
Our ever-unreliable number 14 bus was again unreliable – consistently unreliable – and we waited 30 minutes for 3 services to not turn up.
When one finally did arrive, it was at about 125% capacity but we pushed our way in anyway. We weren’t waiting any longer.
That was an unpleasant experience. Peak hour traffic plus a lot of hot bodies packed into a bus was not a fun way to spend 60 minutes and end the afternoon.
The Grand Duke would have been horrified!
We got back to our station (Il Girone) after 7.00pm with nothing in the fridge that could reasonably be described as dinner, and there were no shops or restaurants nearby or open.
So we had cheese and crackers with coffee for dinner. Pre-packed our bags ready to leave in the morning, and went to bed.
I’m sorry to say that Florence hasn’t been our favourite city so far. The Statue of David was amazing, and the climb to the top of the Duomo yesterday was a fabulous experience.
The pasta making class was great too, and I’m looking forward to making pasta when we get home.
But Florence is just madness. So many people crowding around, and we are not even in peak season.
The other thing that spoiled Florence a bit for us was our accommodation. While it was comfortable and included parking for Claude (who got a couple of days rest), the apartment itself was freezing and we could only get the central heating going by asking the host to please turn it on.
Seriously, before that I was in my thermals so I wouldn’t die from hypothermia.
And the rain didn’t help either.
And the queuing for things that were just poorly organised and managed.
Some people rave about Florence, and maybe under different circumstances we might too, but there were just things that spoiled the overall experience for us.
C’est la vie.
Così è la vita.
Sorry if you are a fan of Florence. If I ever come back, there’s a few things I’ll do differently … like not carry a stupid umbrella and just get wet.
Tomorrow morning we head for Milan for a couple of nights.
And then we have a long drive over the alps to get back into France. Probably through the alps, I suspect.
Ciao
#Europe2025