Trip to Florence

From Pisa I took a train to Florence. The weather was really good. So I managed to travel light as well.

Florence is a much bigger city than Pisa. It's also prettier in my opinion. I had very high expectations of Florence since everyone I came across recommended it.

When I arrived into Florence, I walked around the city. Everywhere in Florence is within walking distance. It's easy to get sucked into the scenic beauty of the city as I realised I have walked for more than 10km without feeling exhausted!

River Arno cutting across Florence

Narrow roads of Florence

Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (The Duomo)

I have to come back to Florence a second time because I didn't get into the Uffizi Gallery and the Galeria dell'Academia where most of the important art pieces of Florence are located. Queuing to get in would have taken half a day!

Queue to the Uffizi Gallery

Florence is crowded with tourists

Florence was once Italy's capital in the mid-19th century. It was also the "playground" of the minds of Donatello and Michelangelo. Perhaps the most famous attribute of Florence is Michelangelo's sculpture, David. It's so famous they have a duplicate in the city!

Florence gave me a very strange feeling. The impression it gave me, especially from Piazza della Signoria was that the place was once where nudism thrived.

Neptune

Michelangelo's David

Perseus has to behead Medusa in nude?

A peek-a-boo loincloth at Palazzo Vecchio

A silhouette of the sculpture "Rape of the Sabine Woman"

The beauty of the naked body and erotic sculptures must have been worshipped in this place. I was also intrigued by the audacity of sculptors like Michelangelo to present their art to the public.

I stood in front of the sculptures and put myself at the time of Michelangelo. I imagined him unveiling to the crowd his latest creation as he pulls away the canvas. What must have been the reaction from the crowd? What if it was in Malaysia? How would the crowd react then? I could imagine the crowd exclaiming "Choi!"

I stood there laughing to myself as I tried to let my imagination run wild and appreciate the art at the same time.

At Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza, I could spot some people having mixed reactions when they spotted the naked sculptures. Some didn't look comfortable looking at the genitals of David for too long. They blushed. Some giggled away while whispering comments to their partners. Some didn't seem bothered. I was one of them.

But one sculpture kept me wondering after I left Florence. I kept wondering what was in the mind of the sculptor, Baccio Bandinelli, when he sculpted a naked Hercules in such great detail with his genitals annoyingly close to the face of Cacus!

Hercules and Cacus