Well, it's 10.15pm on Wednesday evening and we are back on the EuroStar to Rome. Both of us are really, really tired. We had a fairly easy day of it, but I think perhaps the schedule has caught up with us a little! Added to the fact that I am now in my 5th day of some kind of cold/sore throat/Tina Turner voice thing....ah well!
The last post was James musing on what was happening in the Wine Bar and Florence in general. Now it's my turn to update on what we did today. The day got off to a slow start for us. We set the alarm for 8am this time around, and didn't get up till 8.30am. We checked out of the hotel around 9.45am, saying goodbye to the irrepressibly cheery Marco at the Hotel Dali. Off in search of coffee and breakfast again. We ended up in a little cafe called "Jolly Cafe". While I wouldn't necessarily describe it as particularly jolly, they did serve me the campest ever cappuccino. I think I should try to serve on of these when I am back at Starbucks....they took a glass, filled it with water and then dumped the water out. Into the glass they then shook mocha powder, followed by espresso and steamed milk. The caps that I have been having have been more like an extra foamy latte from Buckies, certainly not the half milk half foam standard that we have to follow. In this "jolly" cappuccino on top of the foam went a little bit of whip, some chopped almonds and a sprinkling of mocha powder again. It was really quite delicious. James had his default Americano, and we both munched a croissant.
Having done this we decided to head to the Academy to see the statue of David, which has always been one of James' ambitions. Stopping along the way to buy a few postcards, we arrived at the gallery to find it fairly quiet outside. We forked over our 6.5e and headed inside. Prior to seeing David, the first gallery was full of late Byzantine up to early Renaissance art. It was quite odd to see such a huge span of work all in one room, but interesting all the same. However it wasn't really what we were all about, so we soon headed off to the main gallery. Some of you may have read my friend Ilona's comments about the run up to David having some additional Michelangelo statues there. True to her word, they were all lining the corridor and were quite spectacular. They are unfinished works that were destined to be used in a tomb, and it is really quite eerie to see these figures emerging from huge slabs of marble. It certainly provides quite a contrast to the main event of seeing Mighty Man himself.
There in the middle of the room, underneath a huge dome was Michelangelo’s David. He is really very impressive and totally dominates the space around him. Size is really what it seems to be all about, and there is no ignoring the fact that he is there! The power that is contained within the work is amazing. I quickly read through the notes that I had brought with me and then we spent some time wandering around the piece looking in more detail. Michelangelo seems to exaggerate certain parts of the body in his works, and this was no exception. The feet were huge, as were the hands. They were a little out of proportion really, but somehow they seem to work. There was also one other part of the statue that totally stood out, and that was the fact that it has the biggest balls in possibly the history of sculpture! Not sure what that is all about, but they are totally there!
After David we checked out the last few rooms, which contained yet more Byzantine work (does it never end?). Then we headed back out into the Florence daylight once more. We had nothing specific on our agenda for the day after seeing Big Balls, so, as James has already said, we just wandered our way around Florence. We were both feeling pretty tired, so it was to be a pleasant afternoon with many stops to sit down. We looked in shops, went into book stores, had a coffee and eventually ended up back at the Wine Bar with another bottle of Chianti. As James said, there was some book reading going on, which may have been quite interesting, but we couldn't understand a word of it. Consequently it was a little like someone performing magic tricks on the radio...somewhat lacking. I peeked over the railing from where we were sitting and the people also looked bored to tears as well. I was tempted to rush into the room and do my "Ursula the Usherette" impression and start shouting "Popcorn, candy, sodas" but decided against it! The picture accompanying this post is of the book readers. The chap in the middle looks like a little like Remington from Starbucks! After a while, and the end of the wine, we left, stopped off at our chosen eatery for dinner and headed back to the train station. Onto the train, and that brings all of you, dear readers, up to date!
Tomorrow we pack in the morning and then we will have a leisurely final day in Rome. Friday morning we head out to Menorca. We have a ghastly 8am flight from Rome airport, which means leaving the hotel around 5am to get the train to the airport. Then we have a long layover in Madrid before arriving in Menorca around 9.30pm or so. What fun!
I will try and post this tomorrow somehow. We will though be in Rome, land of the place that seems to hate USB sticks, so I am not quite sure how that will happen. It will possibly be the last post for a few days, as we will need to get ourselves sorted in Menorca over the weekend. Once we are back on line, I’ll post again!
Hope all are well,
Luv D&J
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