Day two in Florence was spent at the Uffizi Gallery. We had purchased tickets (at great expense) online several weeks prior to arriving. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. By the time we arrived for our fairly early viewing the "non riservo" line had a several hour wait. We waited about five minutes....
The collection itself was astounding. We spent hours in the first few rooms before realizing there was no way we could view the entire collection at our current pace... unless they let us stay the week! We hiked up our pants and breezed through the rest of the museum while still trying to appreciate the artwork. This was a bit of sensory overload. My two favorite pieces were Leonardo's unfinished Adoration of the Magi and Botticelli's Primavera. The first had such dynamism and emotion compared to the rest of the works shown (clearly groundbreaking work in its era). For the second, I loved the way Zephyr and Chloris are portrayed. This detail doesn't do it justice, but will give you an idea.
After the Uffizi we visited the Institue and Museum of the History of Science. Unfortunately most of the exhibits were closed for renovation and what was there was slightly boring and disappointing. I'd like to think of it as the Franklin Institute with less funding.
Finally we made our way up to the center of historic Florence, gazed in admiration at the Duomo and Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise.
All in all, a pretty busy day. Unfortunately since we spent the majority in the Uffizi Gallery where photography is verboten I decided not to lug along my camera gear. Wendy's point-and-shoot did a wonderful, job, though, so I've posted five more photos to the end of my Florence set.
