Under The Tuscan Sun

Florence is a beautiful city. Clean, with quiet well behaved traffic, wonderful food, and amazing scenery. Basically a tourist marketer's ideal version of Italy.


Near the top of all the 'must do' lists is the Uffizi Gallery. It must contain more than 1000 pieces of art and sculpture, the smallest of which would be valued more than our house. The total value must be in the billions of dollars yet most of them are not behind any sort of protective screens, so one could touch them easily. True, that would set off alarms, but by then any damage would already be done. Remarkable approach to security for some of the art world's greatest treasues
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Oddly, we pretty quickly had seen enough. They were wonderful, however the sheer number was overwhelming. Our pace through the various rooms got faster and faster, and the time spent looking at the masterpieces got shorter and shorter. I have no doubt that art lovers could spend many days in the Uffizi, and one could buy a 'multiple entry' ticket for that very purpose. 

We just ticked it off the list and moved on... 

More fun for us was the Scientific Museum. It was amazing, both the beauty and utility of the scientific instruments they built from the Renaissance period onwards and the discoveries they made with such relatively primitive devices by modern standards. 
It was also fun to look at the development of maps and globes, especially as time passed they corrected errors and filled in the blank spaces. 
Stepping up another level of fun was the Hands On Da Vinci Museum. Here full size working models of some of da Vinci's inventions were available for visitors to play with. How cool is that? 
There were also explanations of some of da Vinci's mathematical and engineering treatises, and wooden kits with which budding mathematicians and engineers could try them for themselves. I watched many visitors try and give up , but not this visitor who triumphed on each display :
And the highlight of Florence? Perhaps the Pitti Palace, Ponte Vecchio, or one of the many other grand buildings and churches? 

No, it was a horse and carriage ride around the historic district with a guide pointing out the main features. 
Why was that so special? Because the actor Jeff Goldblum waved and winked at Mary as we clip clopped past! 



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