We start this day with Jane Zaloga, who will present a lecture on The Medici. A family who has been involved with; art & architecture and politics & popes. Jane Zaloga has a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture from Harvard University. I found a link that tells a bit about Jane and her history and architecture background. While looking at this site also found a link to help “re-visit” the Uffizi Gallery and see each picture in each gallery – without the crowds (-:
http://www.edstephan.org/tuscany/7.html
Complete Catalogue: For a painting-by-painting catalog, go there, select a room, then a painting, then click "image".
http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi/roomsidx.htm
The Medici family burials is here at the Basilica di San Lorenzo – very plain on the outside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Lorenzo,_Florence
Jane only has an hour on our schedule. We then have an hour with Cristina and Michela, our tour “shepherds,” to prep us for getting ready for the trip to Venice by train tomorrow morning.
We follow this with lunch @ Ristorante Lorenzo de Medici on Via del Giglio 49R
http://misiedo.com/en/italia/firenze/firenze/lorenzo-de-medici/
Yummy pizza, with about 4 different sets of topping served as the prior serving was enjoyably savored.
We then walk in the rainy drizzle that greets us with cooler weather than we have had over the past 3 weeks. We mostly had wonderfully mild, dry weather the whole trip.
Paola Vojnovic, who welcomed us to Florence, and guided our tour to the Bargello Museum on Friday, takes us to see the Accedemia. If we only saw one item here that was special, it was the Michelangelo version of the David statue – all 14 feet tall of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)
http://www.sbas.fi.it/english/accademia/
An online Accedemia room by room virtual tour is here.
http://www.sbas.fi.it/english/accademia/visita/
Check out the view of The Tribuna del David
After return to the hotel to “freshen up,” it was a special evening at Palazzo Borghese for Renaissance dining and entertainment. At some point, most of our group was individually selected by a court jester to play a part in one of the skits. I was selected to rescue a damsel in distress, who was bound by a locked chain. I had to find the member of the audience who had the key to unlock the chains. In order to get the key released from that person, I had to kiss the hand of the lady holding it. I thought, why stop at the hand, why not play the lothario and kiss her up her arm. Lovely Alice enjoyed the special attention. (-:
http://www.palazzoborghese.it/en/english.html
This next link provides some comments on the entertainment, and also the waiting in line at many of the museums they visited. For us, it was usually an early waking. With walking to all places we visited, but luckily, our waiting was not as long as a few who complained in this TripAdvisor link.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187895-d1101504-r142015708-Caf_Tour_Travel-Florence_Tuscany.html
After an evening of fun and frolicking, it was off to bed. Again, our luggage must be outside the room door by 6 a.m. At least we won’t have to drag the bags thru the rain we have had this past day.
Photo 1. Jane’s title slide on Medici Family
Photo 2. Shows Jane, an American ex-pat, who like many of our guides, came for a “visit,” and decided to stay
Photo 3. The Basilica di San Lorenzo – final resting place for many of the Medici family
Click below for today's online photo album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/magwheel44/2013C2CDay23of28
