Mark says: We had booked out Uffizi tickets months in advance and so getting into the Uffizi proved to be very easy and quick. After walking up 3 flights of stairs we entered a long hallway – busts and sculptures, and many paintings of the Medici’s and Popes lined each side, while frescoes adorned the ceiling. It was quite an amazing start to the Uffiizi. A number of doors in the hallway led off to a variety of different rooms that each housed their own pieces of art history. If you wanted to see 12th Century art, or the start of the Renaissance, or Leonardo da Vinci’s work, you just had to locate the room it was in.
Tour guides rushed their groups past us, pausing for seconds to look at the highlight in each room before moving on. Thankfully we could take our time and look at every piece of art, and pause for long periods in front of those that we really enjoyed, including Botticelli’s “Primavera” and ”The Birth of Venus”.
We finally came to the end of the hall, thinking that this was near to the end of our Uffizi experience, but no, we turned right to find another short hall and then right again to find another very long hallway set out the same as the first. So off we went again and this time discovered “Venus, Satyr and Two Cupids” by Carracci and Leonardo’s “Annunciation”.
We took a quick lunch break in the Uffizi café before continuing downstairs. Again we thought this was near the end, this time we found a history of the Uffizi all laid out before us. Admittedly it was very interesting and we learnt a lot about the building, Vasari the architect and Cosimo the head of the ruling Medici family.
About 6 hours after we began our Uffizi journey we finished, however it was probably the most compelling 6 hours of our European tour so far.
Michelle says: I’m buggered!
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