Uffizi This and That

What is Florence but art? The Renaissance exploded here. Come here to see Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, Raphael, etc etc etc. The museums groan with their collections. If you stayed two weeks, doing one museum per day, you would not run out. Add the numerous churches and duomos with their own collections of masterworks, and you had better have some really good shoes. So, you have to hit the highlights and come back another time for more, no?




We had to see David again. Who could resist that 14 foot hunk of burning love? And I cannot believe I forgot not to take pictures. Oops! Mea culpa!

Venus on the half shell at the Uffizi was another must. It was at the Uffizi that we decided to let Rick Steves hit the highlights for us, never mind the audio guide, and we can't possibly see it all anyway. Just because he is so irreverent, I am including a bit of his prose for these paintings.

Compare Titian's Venus with Botticelli's newly hatched Venus and you get a good idea of the difference between the Florentine and Venetian Renaissance. Botticelli's was pure, innocent and other-worldly. Titian's should have a staple in her belly button. This isn't a Venus, it's a centerfold, with no purpose but to please the eye and other organs. While Botticelli's allegorical Venus is a message, this is a massage. The bed is used. Titian and his fellow Venetians took the pagan spirit pioneered in Florence and carried it to its logical hedonistic conclusion. Using bright, rich colors, they captured the luxurious life of happy go lucky Venice. By the way, visitors from centuries past also panted in front of this Venus. The poet Byron called it 'The Venus' . With her sensual skin, hey-sailor look, and suggestively placed hand, she must have left them blithering idiots.


After all that art, a cappuccino on the roof of the Uffizi restores the eyes and gives us time to pose for our own masterpieces.