Kilometres Walked : 14

Wednesday 19th April, 2023.

Up bright and early with the sun shining we headed to The Uffizi Gallery to get a good head start on the hoards of tourists. Famous for its outstanding collections of paintings with particular interest in Botticelli’s – ‘The Birth of Venus’ & ‘Primavera’. Getting in much quicker than expected (it’s good to be early) we were first completely stunned by the ceiling frescoes lining the hallway. They just continued and continued. I still can’t quite fathom how they were so intricately painted on a ceiling and that after several hundred years, they are still there. Regularly taking a seat on one of the many benches along the hall, I sat back to take it all in.

And then there was Botticelli. My absolute favourite of the day. The extremely impressive Primavera (Spring) being the one I loved the most. All of his work is quite amazing and his attention to detail is fantastic. The Birth of Venus is obviously the other beauty but there was something about Primavera that just stopped me in my tracks. Wandering back and forth several times to take it in, I realised that it’s been a while since a particular piece of art has really got me. Eventually we moved on to the rest of the gallery. Now there’s only so many Madonna & Child paintings one can look at. Luckily there were more amazing ceilings to qawp at, a few very impressive Rembrandt’s and one beautiful room I didn’t manage to get a photo of as I set the alarm off reaching in to far to try to take the photo 😳 we moved on quickly after that one😆 Caravaggio’s Medusa and more extraordinarily detailed Roman marble statues finished the morning off nicely.

Three hours later with heavy feet we headed back to our apartment for lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering around the cobblestone streets again craning our necks and enjoying the scenery.