Colossal Waste: EuroTour 2010, Day 16, Florence

We were up insanely late last night, and yet we woke up fairly early. Never a good combination, but what can you do? Regardless of how much sleep we did or did not get, we will stick to the plan; grab breakfast, hop onto the hotel shuttle into town, and hit the one and only site in Florence that we have never visited.

Before breakfast I had a chance to take this picture of the hotel's garden. See the stairs in the center? They were in the picture yesterday that featured the face of the hotel.

Sean and Barbie ready for breakfast in the shade.

Double cappuccino. Amusing how perfect a coffee can look.

I ordered the eggs benedict. If IHOP served these, there would be a nose and mouth painted onto the plate with some sort of goop.

Sean got the eggs florentine, which makes more sense in Florence, but I owe it to the boys back home to eat as much ham as possible. Sean & Lon stated that the poached eggs here at Il Salviatino are the most perfectly poached eggs possible.

I got a citrus plate in addition to my eggs benedict. Yes, that plate does scream, "I am healthy and good and will make you a better person."

What, you might ask, is the one site in Florence that Barbie and I have never visited? That would be Palazzo Pitti, residence and palace of the Medici family.

Inside the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti, you get an idea just how well they did financially. This Tuscan family started the Medici bank, which became the biggest in Europe during the 15th century. What I recall learning in Junior High is that the Medici's were among the greatest patrons of the arts in history. Now that I am old, I kind of see them as a disturbingly wealthy "new money" family that compensated for their lack of status by purchasing royal titles and as much art as they could. But you know what? The why and how do not matter here. This family was the wealthiest in Europe during one of the most important periods in European art. Had they not thrown their money at people like Michelangelo and DaVinci, one has to ask if there even would have been a Renaissance.

By the way, the Palazzo Pitti was built by Luca Pitti in 1458. Pitti was a Florentine banker, but by 1549 the Medici family stepped in and purchased the palace. Clearly the Medici Bank had surpassed the Pitti Bank. The Medici's amassed much of their art and jewelry in the Palazzo Pitti, and King Vittorio Emmanuel III donated the palace and all its contents to the Italian people in 1919.

I always mention it. It was not until Vittorio Emmanuel II, grandfather of the aforementioned Vittorio, united Italy under his rule in 1861, that the nation of Italy existed. Until that time, the Italian peninsula was a collection of separate and sometimes warring states, speaking different languages and occasionally living under the rule of foreign Kings from places such as Spain and Austria. It blows my mind; the thought that "Italy" did not exist when the USA was born.

Barbie in the amphitheater, magically in four places at once.

Obelisk THERE! (Obelisks always make Barbie and I think of our friend Michael Lynn, as he always commented last year when obelisks were on the Waste.) Nice to see that the Medici's purchased Egyptian relics as well as supported the Renaissance masters.

Barbie presents you with the Boboli Gardens. The gardens are vast and beautiful... but if you want to see the most beautiful gardens we have ever seen, take a peek at the Powerscourt Gardens outside Dublin.

The Palazzo Pitti, seen from the Boboli Garden.

There are statues throughout the garden. I do not know their names.

You do not get many views better than this one from the Boboli Garden. I wanted to point out our hotel on the hillside across town, but trees blocked the way.

When we came across this modern statue, I was smitten.

This intentionally incomplete and fractured work reminds me of Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, who made it clear in Paris that being broken or incomplete does not diminish the artistic value of a work. Then again, praise all the deities that Michelangelo's David was never broken.

Seeing the statues at the end of this path, I was drawn like a moth to the flame. And Barbie the trooper went with me.

At the bottom of the path was a pond surrounding a garden with a Neptune statue, which was disappointingly gated. And this super-creepy sea creature dude seemed to be guarding the fence.

You can see the central Neptune in the background. No clue at all who the statue in the foreground is.

A rather un-colossal David copy, with the pose slightly different and the tree stump even in the wrong place.

You know, you have decide if you are a pegasus person or a unicorn person. Until you do, you will never truly know yourself.

Barbie on the Ponte Vecchio.

These teenagers are using the Ponte Vecchio for its most logical use, a make-out spot.

We stopped for a light lunch. I got a cheese plate with sliced apples and honey. The honey is on the lettuce leaf.

Barbie got the... prosciutto and melon.

We came back to the hotel and... did I mention that it was over 90 degrees today? I felt about as salty, sweaty, and dirty as I can get. Time for a shower.

The rain shower in action. How beautiful is that square of rain?

When it came time for dinner, we headed into town to a restaurant that we ate at in October, 2006 and absolutely loved.

Italian graffiti with Japanese and internet inspiration. Florence has entirely too much graffiti.

A Florentine street, on the south side of the Arno where the younger, hipper people live.

Barbie especially liked that this happy face graffiti was, "For Elizabeth."

The restaurant we loved three years ago no longer exists. Truly tragic. To save the evening we went to the nearby restaurant where Sean & Lon enjoyed a wonderful meal the previous night.