One of our first stops was the Uffizi Gallery. I didn't take pictures inside, but the link will give you an idea of what we saw. My favorites include Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation, Botticelli's Primavera and Uccello's Battle of San Romano, especially the center panel. Unfortunately, the Uccello was out for restoration, but we did get to see lots of other magnificent paintings.
The building is a U shape with a courtyard in the center. There are lots of activities there, including artists that set up to sell their works as well as living statues and street performers at the far end where you see the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. But more about that later.
The bottom of the U is on the street adjacent to the Arno. There is a tradition of lovers placing locks on some of the chained barracades there. It's illegal, but hard to enforce.
We didn't have a lock, but we did have our ubiquitous tie wraps.
This is the river from the Uffizi side. The bridge is the famous Ponte Vecchio.
Trout is walking through the arcade along the river near the bridge. Artists set up here, too.
There is a break in the shops on both sides of the bridge in the middle. People gather here to look up and down the river.
Did we tell you that the primary form of transportation (besides human feet) is the motor scooter?
Of course we ate our last evening meal at the Open Bar again. This is what was going on along the Arno. Yes, a lot of English is used...
Part of the entertainment for the event was the rowing. Here's the Ponte Vecchio in the background.
They seemed to only go between the bridges. This is the Ponte alle Grazie, the one we walked on to get home, only a few blocks away.
Our timing for walking home that night was perfect. These are the sunset pics I got as we crossed the bridge.
It couldn't have been a more spectacular finish to our week in Florence.
But now about one of our 1st experiences. There is, as it turns out, a very popular mime named gReY who works the tight passage called the Offici square. It's between the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and the Loggia dei Lanzi. He got me. He threw his arms around me from the back, I hugged him back and he said, "finally a nice one."
Then he proceeded to act like he was making love to me. He told me to close my mouth (I was laughing), and acted like he was kissing me. We ended up on the ground. Then he tried to get me up, but I probably outweigh him by 50 pounds, so that was very funny for everyone. He did get me vertical, after a couple of tries. Like in many of the videos, he got white grease paint all over my face. I used the glass of some of the doors to the Uffizi offices to see to wipe it off.
Trout said it was hilarious. He stood by and laughed and wished he had the camera instead of me. When I started preparing the posting, I tried to find the mime who got me, and discovered his name and that there are a number of videos of his performances. There are many pictures and clips with him doing something similar to other women. This clip is more of an interview with him. It's long, but very interesting and well worthwhile watching to the end.
