April 12 -- lunch and the Accademia

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I like the bouquets of cones, and the serpentine nested cups on the shelf (upper left).

You know my daughter had researched Florentine gelato -- we got ours at Carapina. I had nocciolo (hazelnut), and she tried three kinds.  I bet the green one is pistachio, but I don't know about the others.  Mmmmmm.

Jeanie, I was thinking of you!

Too bad he wasn't farther along in the process -- I'd love to have seen the finished project!  (I can tell he does this often -- the knees of his jeans are worn through....)

A store apparently named Golf.

Which does not seem to have anything to do with golf as we know it.....

Walking through the same outdoor market we saw after coffee this morning.  Cheese with ... stuff ... on the outside.  I wonder if I would like any of it.  Or all of it....  This strikes me as an attempt to be different, rather than to be delicious, but maybe it is delicious after all.

Walking back past the Duomo.

I wonder if this is still a church.

Vendors.  Many bright scarves for sale, everywhere we went.

Our restaurant was near this end of the row of buildings above, as I recall.



Beans are one of the staples of Florentine cuisine.  I love beans.....  But this time, I had minestrone.  It was delicious.  The beans and sausage were good, too.

The ambience in this restaurant.  I would gladly eat here again.....

Walking on toward the Accademia.

I wonder what "superdry" means.....

We arrived at the Accademia, where, guess what, no pics are allowed.  So tiresome.


David is pretty amazing.  The look on his face ... so determined, but not, I thought, entirely certain he would succeed......

He is displayed beautifully.  There is a dome over his head that is in perfect proportion to his (very large) size, which has windows and lights him perfectly.

There was a sign, indicating who had provided the money to restore him.  We saw signs wherever we went, noting who had provided the money to restore this and that.  How nice, that people all over the world are taking ownership of the responsibility to preserve our human artistic history, and are stepping up to pay for conservation!  (If I were paying for it, however, I wouldn't want them wasting my money on a sign saying I paid.  I'd rather have them spend that money, too, taking care of some art!)


The Accademia has some unfinished sculpture by Michelangelo.  So interesting, to get a look at his work process.  Some areas of a given sculpture were at the "smoothing out" point, where other parts were still "roughly hewn at the quarry."  I discovered that I thought the whole sculpture would be roughed out, and then the whole thing would be refined a bit, and then the whole thing refined a bit more.  I had no reason to think so, but that's what I had thought.  Not true for the few pieces of Michelangelo's unfinished work in the Accademia.

There are also some notable paintings at the Accademia.

(Digression -- one of the things I am really enjoying about writing about all of this is that I am extending and solidifying my knowledge about the things I saw, here in the comfort and privacy of my study.  I can look up the things I saw, read more about them, think about them in the context of other things I know.....  When I don't have pictures of things I saw, I don't remember them nearly as well, and I don't have anything to look up and think about....  I also can't look at my pics up close, and see things that I couldn't see when I was actually there, because of the advantage I get from my camera's zoom, and its macro focus.............  Humph!  Sigh....  End of Digression.)


Another room at the Accademia had a lot of plaster models from which sculptures would have been made.  When taking a Grand Tour of Europe became de regueur amongst rich young Britons, it was the done thing to have one's portrait sculpted.  Apparently it was not uncommon for plaster models to be made during a visit to Florence, from which sculptures in marble were done later.  My daughter noticed that while the men seemed to be individuals, the women all looked alike, aside from hair style and clothing..........  Odd.


There was also a collection of musical instruments.  I did take a few pics in there, as there were no signs saying not to.

This is called a serpentone.  I like the name, and the shape.....

This is a piano-guitar.  It looks like depressing the keys may have an effect on the tuning of the strings......  It was made by Dodds & Claus, in New York, about 1793.  I think it's the only American thing I saw in an Italian museum.

There were computers one could use to read more about these various odd instruments, and, best of all, hear the sounds they make.



Walking back to our apartment.  Google translates this as "zoophilic guards."  I have no idea what that may mean.  It doesn't look like an animal control vehicle -- no crates for holding animals.  I never saw any Italian domestic animals that looked like they were homeless.  Dogs appeared to be with someone, and the very few cats I saw looked plump and healthy.

Decorated bike.

Shoe in a shop window.  I don't think this is a bike shoe, but I think the shoe and sock colors are perfect with the bike above.

What is up with tying the shoe behind the ankle?  Difficult to tie, and it has to be uncomfortable.......

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