Last post!

AT LAST, THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.

Did they make it home? Could they fit everything in the luggage? Were there problems on the way? How long did it take?




We caught a taxi at 8.30am to the Florence railway station so we could catch the 9.33 train to Rome.




Nice train, room enough for our luggage. Once we reached Rome we took another taxi to the airport. We were dropped off at the wrong terminal (T5) and needed to take a transfer bus to terminal 3.




After checking in, 2 kilos under the generous Emirates weight limit, we left on the first leg, which stopped at Dubai for 3 and a bit hours. Not the worst transit lounge.




Then the next leg of around 7 hours to KL, for much shorter transit...




Finally we reached Melbourne at 1.40am. The pilot wished everyone good luck with the grand final next week and we watched via the camera as the lights of Melbourne and then the runway approached. Josh met us and drove us back.

True to form, managed to miss the freeway turnoff and decided to try out the Bolte Bridge. Home at last, admiring the crops of beans and peas that have grown while we have been away. Tomorrow, time to catch up with family before we just go on a
Iittle trip...

Until next time!

- Posted when we have lost any feeling of confusion.

Final days in Florence!

IT WAS WITH A STRONG SENSE OF FOREBODING that we took to the streets one last time.

Today we saw two museums in the morning. First we visited the Bargello Museum. It is world famous for its statue and weapon collections.




These owls were part of a group of bird sculptures that used to be in a grotto.




This wooden Jesus is believed to be by Michelangelo.




An amazing ceramic Madonna and child.




Our next visit was to the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. Yet another green and white marble building, it dates back to the mid-14th century.







There are many frescos, telling stories from the bible and the lives of various saints, painted throughout.







The Spanish Chapel, formerly a Dominican chapter house, has frescos showing St Thomas Aquinas combating heresies and the like.




A final salad for lunch, plus a final panna cotta for Sue. No milk in those!

Our final visit was a brief return to the Medici Chapels. Don wanted to find the war scene painting by, or based on one by, Leonardo, which he had seen earlier.




The looked for painting -- based on a cartoon of part of a much larger painting which was abandoned. A book explaining all is on the way from Amazon...







We went out for dinner and enjoyed a very Italian meal ... from the big antipasto platter to the caffe affogato. And chianti classico.




On our way back to the Hotel we walked through the Palazzo Della Signoria for the last time. We sat and listened to a street guitarist and watched people go by and the moon come up.




- Posted as we depart for Rome and thence to Argentina

Uffizi again

THE UFFIZI GALLERY IS PRETTY BIG, and we felt that we had not quite done it justice on our earlier visit. In the line by 9.00, we first looked at the statutes in the long corridor, many Roman of around 2nd century CE, often copies of Greek statues some 400 -500 years earlier.




Umm, no photos here, sadly.







Then we revisited Italian, French, Flemish, and Spanish paintings of the 13th to 18th centuries.

After a picnic lunch in the little courtyard -- farewell wild boar sausages! -- we visited the Galileo Museum ... not so much a history of science as a collection of scientific instruments and teaching aids.

These are different ways of working out where you are at night.







A map of the world as they knew it with Norway and Europe at the bottom.




Don was keen on this box of facts and tables stored on little rulers!




Models to show various scientific principles.




This is a collection of glassware used in laboratories (thanks Venice).










Apples and bananas for tea.

- Posted on our last night

Pitti palace

WE WERE OFF AND RACING just after 9 o'clock to see the Pitti Palace, of which we saw the gardens yesterday.







The palace is a collection of Florentine art from early Renaissance on. Don having a little rest after the 14th to 18th centuries and before the modern art!







We walked around for three hours.




To recover, we found a park along the river in which to eat our lunch -- more wild boar sausages, pecorino, and salami with fennel.










Without plates we had to make do with a plastic bag to lay out our feast which also included tomatoes, lettuce and basil!







Check out the new bag.

After picking up our washing and eating a gelato we headed off to Piazza del Duomo, for a look inside the cathedral this time.




The Baptistery is made of white and green marble and has its famous golden (actually bronze, in any case replica) doors called the Gates of Heaven showing stories from the old testament.




Inside there are brilliantly colored mosaics showing old testament and new testament stories.




The gilt dome above practically glows, even without artificial lighting, and makes life down below feel very drab, by comparison. I guess that's the intent!




Next we visited the cathedral. As noted in a previous post a couple of weeks back, its facade matches that of the baptistery.







However inside, though huge and spacious, it was surprisingly plain and empty in comparison to many of other cathedals we have seen.




Although the famous dome is of course spectacular.








After a gelato and a rest, it was off to see a performance of Rigoletto, albeit with cut down cast and orchestra at St Mark's Anglican church.



Full throated singing from 10 feet away!

- Posted when wifi permits

Boboli Gardens

MONDAY, MONDAY, MUSEUMS CLOSED.

After breakfast at eight, we went to the market to buy bread, tomatoes, and lettuce. Don had a little rest while I made our lunch, drawing upon carefully hoarded Tuscan rations.

Then we set off for the Boboli Gardens, which are part of the Pitti Palace.




The Palace was shut so we spent hours looking at the gardens -- 35000 square meters, and rather like a smaller version of the Vesailles gardens. But with grottos -- this one near the entrance.







This is another Egyptian obelisk, reportedly 3500 years old, but perhaps a copy. It is the fifth one we have seen these holidays!




This is an amphitheater arrangement, useful for state occasions and the like.




We ate our lunch near this statue of Neptune.




We left the gardens and explored the Belvedere fort on the top of the hill.
Chinese artist Huan Zhang had an exhibition.




This piece was called six arms, three faces.




This aluminum Buddha was used as a mold for the other Buddha made of ash.




The ash Buddha is slowly disintegrating, just like some of us.




From the fort we had great views of the city and surrounding hills.










We returned to the Boboli Gardens, and paid our respects to Ceres, or some such deity.








We walked this 'cyprus alley' down to the lower lake, checking out the bird life in a prettyish sort of wilderness running beside alley.







On our way out we saw two more grottos. The first one was the children's grotto.







The second was the Buontalenti grotto.







A light dinner at caffe Quelo.

- Posted that very evening