Italy Day 7 Florence: History of Science, Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Boboli Gardens

Sunday in Florence. It's quiet. Fewer shops/attractions are open. Church bells are ringing sporadically. We headed south to the Arno from our hotel on Via Palazzuolo, then strolled along toward the Ponte Vecchio (we turned left/east and headed along the north coast). 

Couple of guys fishing.

Now that's a view to which Alfred might really enjoy his funky drink.

We had some time on our hands, so we had a little photo shoot along the way.

With all available modesty, I took the most incredible picture of Ilana.

I don't mean to brag but... I should consider working as a photographer .

I showed her the picture and asked her to take a similar one of me:

Not even close.

While we were walking, we noticed more and more padlocks chained to every possible anchor near the river. Love padlocks, if you haven't heard of them, are a relatively recently adopted tradition in Europe and the trend is spreading all over the world. The idea is you go to the river with your sweetie and a padlock. You lock the padlock to something nearby (usually a bridge), and throw the key in the river. Thusly, your love is locked forever. It's a nice sentiment.

I guess the anchor selection is pretty slim at this juncture of the river. 

Is that a combination lock in there? Someone didn't fully understand the concept... 

Unfortunately, the locks cause a considerable amount of damage to the bridges of Europe. The tradition has sparked a flurry of anti-love-padlock laws, and city workers removing thousands of locks from bridges. I hope the relationships all worked out... In Moscow they even went so far as to install special "trees" as designated anchors for the love padlocks.

Nothing can stop Gemma and Pol's love.

We headed past the Ponte Vecchio (we'll go by it after our first stop). Our destination was the history of science museum (Florence Card accepted). The museum is located just East of where the Ponte Vecchio meets the North bank of the Arno. The building is adjacent to the southern end of the Uffizi Gallery, if that helps.

In the Museo Galileo, which it is formally called, we found an incredible selection of old school science toys. It's our kind of museum.

What is this, a leveler?

Optical Illusion.

Globe of the heavens (likely with the earth at the center)

Ultra mega super globe of the heavens.

More different globe of the heavens (stars).

A lot of the museum is dedicated to the works of Galileo, favorite son of Florence. Galileo was the first guy to take a telescope, which was originally designed as a military technology, and point it upward. He basically invented astronomy as we know it. He discovered that the moon had craters, and that Venus had phases, and that Jupiter had moons, and was persecuted for claiming that the Sun, not the Moon is the center of the solar system. He was an all-around astronomical bad-ass.

Galileo drawings of the moon and the shadows created by craters. 

Telescopes. 

biiiig telescope.

So that did it for all the Galileo stuff. The rest was pretty entertaining as well:

This is apparently how you used to weigh a person. 

Had a lot of fun pretending to be apothecaries with this old chemistry set (it was encased in glass).

Stand back! I'm going to try science!!

Gotta just grab that mortar and pestle so I can grind up some sulfur to get rid of the bad spirits in the blood. 

Which drawer contained the leeches?

And that was the Museo Galileo. Top marks! Up next: The Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte.

The Ponte Vecchio - which translates to "the old bridge", has been around for a long time. A bridge has existed at this point, the narrowest point of the Arno River, since Roman times. Since the middle ages, the sides of the pedestrian bridge have been lined with shops. Usually butchers, but today it's all overpriced jewelry and souvenirs - we weren't really looking to buy.

We took a in the middle of the bridge.

One fascinating thing about the bridge is the Vasari Corridor. The story goes: those lazy Medicis, not wanting to walk outside between the Pitti Palace and the Palazzo Vecchio, commissioned a second story hallway constructed to connect the two. The corridor runs over an alleyway between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery, from there it runs over the Ponte Vecchio, and then up the hill to the Pitti Palace. It's a hard life, walking outside is just one of those things the Medicis shouldn't have to do...

We arrived to the Pitti Palace, just a little bit South of the Ponte Vecchio. While we waited to meet back up with our machatunim there, we watched an Italian kid play out an extremely entertaining exercise in futility:

Then, we met back up with our machatunim and entered the Pitti Palace.

The Pitti Palace is sprawlingly gigantic. It was the main residence of the Medicis, and was used as a base for Napoleon. Today, it encompasses about 8 museums under the same roof, not counting the - also sprawling - Boboli Gardens that are attached to the palace. The Florence card is valid at all of these museums. We visited the main ones, and a couple of obscure ones. The draw of these museums is mostly: here's how the Medicis used to live. Murals, moldings, private chapels, and lots and lots of tchotchkes. Those Medicis sure loved their tchotchkes.

This statuette is smashing!

Collect them all! Each sold separately. 

Each color on this table is created by another kind of stone fitted perfectly into the table. 

This painting is my favorite kind of painting:

Gabinetto di Rubens, by Cornelis de Ballieur II

Some guy named Rubens must've had gabinets full of Renaissance masterpieces... Cornelis de Ballieur II isn't a household name, but maybe it should be. Paintings like these are the stunning to me. The main subjects of the painting are nothing to squawk about, but the setting is nothing but existing masterpieces recreated in miniature and elaborate scientific instruments. I am just blown away by the skill it took to create this painting. Click here for another one.

We finished up at the Pitti Palace having visited many of the museums there (including the costume gallery which, for the record, is worth skipping). Next, we spent about an hour or so strolling through the Boboli Gardens.

Amphitheater in the gardens.

The garden is also also a statuary... so the Medicis would have something nice to look at besides miles and miles of perfectly trimmed hedges and lawns. 

We are tourists.

There are also some incredible views of Florence from certain points within the gardens:

The Palazzo Vecchio!

We left the Boboli Gardens and headed back towards our hotel to rest for a couple of hours. This time, we walked along the South side of the Arno. Took a few more pictures along the way:

My parents at the Arno.

A stray love padlock. 

We napped in our hotel room for a couple of hours and met up once again with our Machatunim at the Piazza del Duomo for dinner. We ate an early dinner at one of the really touristy places down one of the alleyways directly south of the Duomo itself. Dinner was tasty as usual. Italian food is good, have you heard? After dinner we headed back to Vivoli. Second time in two days going to the small gelato place, but when you've got the chance to eat the best gelato in the entire world - it's worth going back for seconds.

Strolled lazily back to our hotel. Had to prepare to go to Venice bright and early the next morning. Our walk took us through the Piazza della Repubblica - which is very beautiful at night.

Goodnight Florence.