Our first stop was the Accademia where Michelangelo’s David is on display. There is a copy on display outside the Uffizi, but this is the real thing and the main draw to the museum. It is pretty impressive, like looking at the Mona Lisa or Sistine Chapel ceiling. There were other nice pieces of sculpture as well, but one of the coolest things was blocks of marble that he had started work on but never finished. Connie and I talked about how hard it is for us to imagine carving something so beautiful out of a big chunk of stone. With the unfinished pieces, you can see how the process begins. Another interesting display was in a room dedicated to plaster casts. Apparently, the first step is to create a rough version of the final piece out of plaster. This involves creating several molds of parts of the final piece and combining them into a model. There were several examples of the finished models on display – some of them quite intricate. There was a video showing how the process works.
After a break for coffee and a snack, we headed down toward the Bargello Museum. On the way, we passed by the Duomo, Florence’s famous cathedral. Started in 1296, the builders left a huge hole in the roof for the dome that they couldn’t build. They knew, however, that some day someone would complete their dream of a crowning dome for their magnificent church. That person turned out to be Filippo Brunelleschi, who in the 1400s built the largest dome in Europe since the Pantheon in Rome, which he had studied. The original builders also didn’t add a façade to the church and for most of its life the exterior walls were just rough brick. That’s hard to imagine given the beautiful Neo-Gothic exterior of black and white marble that adorns the church today. That change was completed in 1870, just in time to celebrate the newly united Italy.
The Bargello Museum is housed in a large building that was once a police station and prison. You enter into the great central courtyard with a long stone staircase leading to a balcony all around. Second floors here are always at least 20 feet above the ground floor. There were some sculptures on the ground floor and the balcony, but the real goods were inside. The main attraction here was Donatello and especially his David. Apparently, everybody who was anybody did a David. However, nearly all Davids stand triumphantly with Goliath’s head at their feet. Rick Steves – on whom I have relied heavily for background material – and others believe that Michelangelo showed David not at his moment of triumph, but rather as he’s facing his adversary – steady, confident and concentrating on what was to come.
We may not have given the Bargello its full due, being somewhat tour weary. When we left, we headed over to Baldovino for a late lunch/early dinner. This is the restaurant that Peter had recommended. There was a street repair project going on close enough to the restaurant that its outside dining space was really constricted. We slid in next to another couple who were just finishing their meal. They turned out to be from Florida and we engaged in a conversation while they paid their bill. They gave us the rest of their bottle of wine and she even offered the rest in her glass before we wished each other bon voyage. When we saw minestrone on the menu we had to have it. The San Francisco Bay Area has a large Italian descendant population and minestrone is big there. Though good, it was nothing like what we make back home. Meanwhile, a young Indian couple slipped in to where the other couple had been sitting. We engaged them and it turned out that they live in Dublin, Ireland (not California). They told us about how they met, got married and ended up taking jobs in the Irish IT sector. Having these kinds of conversations is one of our favorite things about traveling.
Back at the hotel we discovered that I had not forgotten my phone in the morning, but had lost it somewhere along the way today. Connie tried calling it and using Find my Phone, but with no luck. I was really bummed. After her third attempt at calling it, however, someone called back. A woman who works at the Accademia had my phone. Tired though we were, we trudged back to the museum and got my phone. What a relief.