To be precise, perhaps I ought to say ‘Offices’ rather than just ‘Office’ as that is what ‘Uffizi’ means. The building was begun in 1560 to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates. And I used to think that Thames House South, on Millbank, in London, where my father worked for many years, was grand!
Having been warned about huge crowds, we decided to start early yesterday morning, well 8.30, but it seems that everyone else had the same idea, and there were already long queues to buy tickets. Fortunately, with our PassePartout cards, we could ‘jump the line’ and were soon inside.
We are planning to do a little of the Uffizi at a time and so just followed half of Rick Steves’ tour. Here are just a few favourites.
Verrochio was the teacher and da Vinci one of his students, aged 14 at the time. Da Vinci painted the angel on the far left (in profile). The story goes that when Verrocchio saw the image, he appreciated that this mere boy was already painting far better than he, himself, ever would, so gave up painting for good.
I love the way baby Jesus is patting the bald head of one of the three kings.
So much art had made us hungry so we headed off for the indoor food market, Mercato Centrale. The building dates from the late nineteenth century at a time when Florence was the capital of Italy and was designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, best known for his cast-iron and glass-vaulted Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II in Milan.
The building was renovated a few years ago and is now a place where local people can do all their food shopping and grab a bite to eat. The ground floor has food stalls and outlets selling local dishes and snacks. Upstairs is more set up for more restaurant-type food. Feeling adventurous, we tried a typical Florentine dish downstairs.
The food was all right, we both finished the contents of our bowls, but we decided it wasn’t something we’d rush out and have again.
On our free guided walk round Florence this morning (we are such cheapskates) we learned more about this dish. It is made, apparently, from the fourth and final stomach of a cow (sorry, vegetarians). I don’t think it’s one for the recipe folder.
Tortoise Travel 