Many travelers claim that Uffizi is an overrated, badly designed museum swarmed by people who aren't even into arts. Others say Pisa is a tourist trap with no architectural merit worth visiting. I enjoyed both and Uffizi was actually my favourite museum of the trip. There's no way I'm missing these places just to be a travel hipster!
Itinerary of the day: Galleria degli Uffizi → Piazza della Signoria → Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella → Mercato Centrale → Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa) → Florence
We started off our day with a plentiful breakfast at our B&B Soggiorno Panerai, served right to our room, prepared by the lovely owner Albena.
Aside from fresh juice, fruits and pastries shown in this photo, there were also coffee made to order and a zucchini/egg dish made by Albena! First time ever that I was unable to finish a hotel breakfast.
With a full stomach, we were ready to beat the crowds to the Uffizi museum. At 7:30, the usually crowded Piazza della Signoria was almost empty.
At this early hour, we were one of the first visitors to enter, so we ended up not using our reservations.
There were simply too many artworks to talk about in the Uffizi, so here I select a few that left a big impression. No photography allowed in the museum, so for the purpose of clarity, all the following photos of artworks are linked from WikiPaintings.
After entering, we skipped through all the pre-Renaissance religious altar tempera art (already seen too many at this point) and went straight for Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Only a few Japanese business men were around and we were able to enjoy this famous piece in peace.
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As I was basked in joy looking at Birth of Venus in relative quietness, a Chinese guy walked up to me and asked (in Mandarin) if my guidebook had more information about the painting.
Me: "Sorry, there is not much information in the book, but maybe I can tell you what I know?"
Chinese guy: "(cuts me off) this painting is the only worthwhile painting in the Uffizi right? You know, the only one with contribution to mankind."
I was a bit offended (and oddly humoured at the same time), so I just slowly backed away from him. If he really thought so, now that he had seen the Birth of Venus, perhaps he could free up some museum space?
More interesting interactions with random Chinese tourists would come later (4 encounters in total), but now back to enjoying arts of the Uffizi.
In Botticelli's room was another of his masterpiece, Primavera.
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Uffizi houses a few of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, which are a rarity. The most notable ones here were Adoration of the Magi, Annunciation and Baptism of Christ. All three were done in his younger days.
A few of Michelangelo's paintings were placed in the room with the same name, such as this Holy Family with St. John the Baptist. My parents and I had a fun discussion about how the inclusion of Joseph and Mary's defined biceps rendered this painting taboo. How dare you Michelangelo how dare you not draw woman according to standard of beauty!
The Raphael room was under maintenance when we visited, and I was unable to find his Self Portrait (on loan, perhaps?). Madonna of the Goldfinch will have to do.
Titian's Venus of Urbino was of particular interest to me. Rumour has it that the lady in the painting was modeled after the famous Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco. Mark Twain called this most erotic painting ever...gasp I am so offended by this nudity.
The ones I listed so far are undoubtly the most famous paintings exhibited at the Uffizi, but these were not the entire reason why I loved this museum so much. Hanged on the walls near the ceilings along the main hallway, there were rows and rows of small portraits of famous (and not so famous) historical figures! Nobody was paying attention to them because they were so unnoticeable, but once I started looking, many were fairly recognizable.
(ok I admit I was most excited about Age of Discoveries historical figures)
Ponte Vecchio could be seen from the hallway windows. Not once did we step foot on this bridge, but it's Florence's icon regardless!
There were also extensive portraits of the Medici family, given that Uffizi used to be their office. Near the exit there was a new section of "Blue rooms", set up just this past January, of "foreign" paintings such as works by French/Flemish/Dutch/Spanish painters. I fangirled extensively over some Rembrandt and Van Dyck here.
Uffizi Museum took an entire morning to go through! By the time we got out, Piazza della Signoria was again filled with tourists. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's town hall, is shown on the left side of the photo. Inside was where Michelangelo and Leonardo had their famous art combat, Battle of Cascina and Battle of Anghiari respectively. Both drawings didn't survive, so I skipped going inside.
The courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio is open to public without admission fee. In the top part of the photo is the extremely recognizable Medici balls coat of arms, which could be seen everywhere in Florence.
Spending 1.5 days in Florence already busted our mental "church/museum quota", so we gave Basilica of Santa Maria Novella a pass.
After exposure to so much arts, we felt like a change of pace would be suitable. 600-years old pharmacy Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella sells skin care products made from old recipes developed by Dominican monks. Each product has some sort of story linked to it, such as "Queen's Water" made specifically for Catherine de' Medici.
The store itself was also really fun to look at. I've used their camomile facial cream and can recommend it, even for people with sensitive skin like mine. If you think €30 for 100 g of cream is expensive, the same product sells for double the price in US and triple in Asia. Buy in bulk here if you have the chance!
As mentioned in yesterday's trip report, I went back to Mercato Centrale to have another panino con lampredotto. My dear father however, was craving for wurst. Dad, I will bring you to Germany one day, just why are you ordering wurst in Italy...
These wursts were actually not bad, so quite a valid option in Mercato Centrale.
The rest of the day was then allotted for Pisa. While buying our regional train tickets, we also started buying tickets for the next few legs. We were a bit rushed and mistakenly bought the wrong dates OTZ. Thank goodness we bought base fare, so we could still exchange it without penalty. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to communicate with Trenitalia staff very efficiently, even with a language barrier...all in all a valuable experience!
Like many parts of the world public toilets require a fee, and Italy's were the first ones I see equipped with automatic doors operated by coin machines. Train station most visited by tourists, for example this Florence SMN, had public toilets at the stupidly expensive price of €1. Some more remote places charge €0.25~€0.50, so I doubt the pricing has anything to do with actual maintenance cost...
Train from Florence to Pisa took about an hour, and it was another 30 minute walk from Pisa Centrale station to Piazza dei Miracoli.
The same Arno River that flowed through Florence reached here.
Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pisa, since 1343. This is not even the oldest university but I already found it hard to register just how old this school is.
At the Piazza dei Miracoli, the three main monuments all lined up together - The Leaning Tower (campanile), Baptistry of St. John, and the Duomo, forming an iconic visual image. The tower leaned even more than I expected!
We needed take a break from cathedrals and towers, so we only planned to pay admission to see the Baptistry, and observe the rest from the outside.
On each hour, the ticketing staff would walk to the center of the Baptistery and sing a few notes to showcase the echo effects of the structure.
At the piazza, we ran into Military school students from Modena!
Dad totally understood my obsession with uniforms, he even encouraged me to go up and ask for a photo! The students were very friendly to let me do so! What a pleasant surprise at the otherwise predictable Pisa.
We returned to Florence just in time for dinner at Trattoria Sostanza (Il Troia). This restaurant was our last chance to find the perfect bistecca alla fiorentina.
I'm glad to say that we found it! The steak doesn't look so nice in this photo, but the taste was impeccable! The meat was juicy, naturally sweet and melted in my mouth. Fat and marrow around the bones were also heavenly. We ordered the minimum weight (1kg), but we could easily have more!
One last look at Florence at night. Many tourist seemed to visit Florence as a day-trip from other Tuscan towns, so even the Duomo area became deserted.
A lot more things could still be done in Florence, such as more churches and museums south of the Arno, but we could only enjoy so much arts in one sitting. We were happy with what we saw, and can leave this beautiful city without much regret.
