Today I took it a little easier and even slept in a little! All this walking and touring is tiring! So for the morning and early afternoon, I toured the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens attached to it. It reminded me of the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris, but on a much smaller scale. Inside the Palace were both some really nice Italian paintings as well as the various elaborate rooms used by the Medici family. The first Medici was one smart businessman. He was a finance guy and got the gig to be the banker of the Pope. Who at the time was Pope Wells Fargo the third. (OK, I hope nobody bought that cheezy line!) But seriously, what a great business model to marry what at the time was probably the two most powerful things, which were Banking and the Catholic Church. Gordon Gecko step aside! So the Medici's were the power brokers of Florence and built this big old palace to show it all off. Both the building itself and the grounds were really impressive and it had great views across the river back into Florence. I've included a few pictures of the outside. Check out the whooping crane right next to the fountain. Cool! The inside, like a lot of palaces, has so much art crammed on to every imaginable space on the wall as well as the ceiling painted that it's a bit busy but it definitely shows off who's got the cashola! 🙂 I included a pic of one of the rooms so you can see for yourself. In the afternoon, I just wandered around and got "lost" down several side streets like the one I included here. Though it's a relatively large city, there are still many side streets tucked away further from the Duomo where you can really enjoy the quiet and beauty of this city. I also included a picture of what I thought looked funny. Here is this beautiful old portico with columns and statues and they turned it into what appeared like a sort of tacky flea market type thing. Gotta love commercialism! Well I hope everyone's weekend is winding down nicely. Take care.
The Wandering Italian 