TRAVEL ITALY: Pompei, Herculaneum and Castel Sain'Angelo

MONDAY 27TH JANUARY

Got the train to Rome arriving at 9 and getting the 9.20 to Napoli arriving in an hour having decided to go via the High Speed train. Got the local Napoli train onto the Sorrento line and got out at Erculo Scavi. You exit the station, and walk straight down the hill about 400m arriving at the entrance to Herculaneum. It's a small town like area, quite poor looking, shabby with lots of graffiti, but we came here for the ruins, not to shop.
You walk over a long bridge area over the ruins. Its amazing, much better condition than Pompei as it was further away from Vesuvius when it erupted, instead getting covered in a cloud of ash. It's AMAZING! It just looks like an old abandoned town from 100 or so years ago its in such good condition, up to 3 stories remaining in some areas!
We snacked on our packed lunch, it was quiet, barely anyone about, making it more fun to explore. We ate in someone's house, in the atrium, which was nearly 2000 years old! Frescoes still adorned the walls in pretty great condition, along with marble work tops and pots in different Taberna. There was even wooden steps and door frames remaining!!!! It's here where the famous and very resourceful "house of Papyrus" was found parts of which we saw in the museum on Friday. These rolls gave some of the best facts about the Roman era and daily day of life due to their preservation thanks to the volcanic eruption in 79AD.

We saw some of the public male and female baths, with greatly preserved marble baths, frescoes and mosaics depicting water Gods and Nymphs. Pillars stood full height, buildings basically intact in a few of the houses, shops and temples. Unfortunately the main larger public baths were closed, but we found something amazing whilst down there, under the "sacred forum" fascinating and terrible at the same time...in the archways underneath, almost in cellar like areas, where tens of - small, large, old, young, alone, together, hands clasped in support, curled and hidden in fear - skeletons. Perhaps up to 30 in these 5 or 6 archways. It was so terribly morbid. They had come here, terrified, fearing for their lives from something they didn't understand, hiding in somewhere safe, under a sacred area. But they were not safe. Although they would have prayed, cried, whispered final words of love and endearment, they were buried and died, alone and together underground in ash. Horrific. It was awful, seeing the skeleton mother with a small child clasped to her breast. A couple entwined in fear, another, head hidden under their hands. It was a pitiful sight.

 We explored onwards, sneakily going over barriers as no-one was around. I was on the first floor of someones house, I climbed ancient stairs! The Curbs and roads were amazing to walk upon, again huge stone slabs were placed together to form the roads and pathways, but here, the curbs were raised exceedingly high (obviously to keep off the horse dung) It was so liberating to explore this ancient UNESCO world Heritage site without hundreds of tourists.
Back at the exit/entrance, we could see some of the models of items that had been removed, mainly statues. We were thrilled to recognise them as ones we had seen at the Naples Museum of Archeology!

Back onto the local train (which runs twice hourly) we stopped at Pompeii Scavi, it was cold and had started to rain; a drizzle. We stopped in one of the restaurants and had a cappocino each to warm us up, the waiters were impressed that they guessed right away we were sisters...most Italians do.
This time we got in, we had bought a combination ticket for the 3 sites so we could just walk on in. I presumed it was small from what I'd seen last time and from our tour of Herculaneum. I was very wrong. We walked up a slight hill and under a huge arch to the entrance of the town, or what i guess could have been called a city then, IT WAS HUGE. 
Bleak and dreary today standing cold amongst these huge surrounding ruins, you could tell it was once bustling with life. In the archways of the centre was hundreds of pots and clay pieces, some statues and some of the casts. One of a man, and the famous dog, held in a glass container. Some of the coins in the fountain had melted into it due to the heat of the eruption, they were in such great condition I believed them to be from now, thinking people had chucked coins in for luck. 
We walked left, entering one of the first of many street filled with houses, villas and Taberna.
The map we had really gave no real indicator of size! Small streets cut between some houses, creating alleys, so much larger and unfortunately for us, confusing than Herculanum. Some of the streets with the huge Cobbled stone paths were actually indented, deeply in parts, from cart wheels, it was amazing! Here they used bigger slabs as forms of pedestrian road footpaths to keep civilians off the dirty horse road, some of the footpaths were nearly as high as Rebecca was tall (she is just over 5 foot to be fair) 
on near the bottom we came across what seem like a tomb and monument area, it was all quite eery. I kept cracking up because i kept loosing track of Rebecca, she was being slow staring at the ground for "souvenirs" We befriended some stray dogs which were now being looked after by the UNESCO people of the Pompeii site under the "Cave Canem" scheme, think of the famous, beware of the dog mosaic from Pompeii. 

We walked up along a tall embankment area around the bottom edge of pompeii, around the north gate and walls overlooking the town and Vesuvius in the background and some of the Huge remaining aqueducts. We passed many houses, Taberna, temples, atriums and horto areas. Unfortunately due to how close pompeii was, the amount of people who had visited and natural erosion over the years the majority of the places were sealed off, available to only look at from the paths, and there weren't very many remaining mosaics or frescoes, the remaining pieces having been saved from further ruin by transfer to the Naples Museum of Archeology  (another reason to visit! To see the highlight finds that are no longer viewable here) 
It started raining more heavily, it was getting late and dark, the exit was impossible to find as well, thankfully we did find it having spotted some of the amazing theatros and passing on the outside some of the ancient Roman  Parentalias and Necropolis' from 14-37AD 
We walked along the outside of the pompeii site and hopped back on the train. We headed to "dante" again for some shopping and dinner (more tasty cheap pizza!) This time our high speed train did up to 300km/h on its return! It was a bit concerning though that the first compartment we were on was smoking, and when we tried to get off and asked a conductor he just referred us to another compartment (we arrived safely though!)

It's almost disappointing when you arrive back in Rome, the Naples underground is far superior, newly refurbished, the trains and the stops are state of the art and beautifully decorated, Dante looks like a high end swimming spa resort with all its crystal blue mosaic tiles. Florence is still the nicest though!

TUESDAY 28TH JANUARY
Averrdici, ciao!

Having argued bitterly with my sister for not getting up early we were not able to do the final tow things on my list today, Castel Sain't Angelo was chosen, however villa Borghese was not (Sooo sad, there's Caravaggio works there! And the Villa Medici nearby) We arrived in central Rome around 11, and for once, the sun was out and it was a bit warm. Jackets were pulled off and we basked in the partial heat.
We viewed the lovely Piazza de papleo browsing shops on our way past as we strolled to Castel Sain'Angelo.Originally a mausoleum to Emperor Hadrian in 2AD it has, over the years been used as Barricks, a fort and stronghold, a prison, a treasury, papal rooms and finally, a museum. The Archangel Michael was said to have appeared on the roof of the moment plague of 590Ad. Hence the change of name to "saint angel castle" We crossed the Tiber river and the Pont Angelo, entering the monument,
following the spiral upwards procession just like thousands of Romans once had to pay respects to Hadrian, we came to the intersecting floor create by Pontif Alexander for a drawbridge and continued on up. here we viewed the museum section, seeing some beautiful greek and Roman artefacts, such as; Alexander the Great (Like Hadrian, also Diefied) Julius Ceasar, Marc Anthony and Octavian (the man who brought down the ruin of Cleopatra and Egypt) Although the Borgia rooms were not viewable, Paul III were, all beauitfully frescoed with a huge gallery sized library. more stairs finally led to the top terrace pverlooking all of Rome and guarded by the Stuatue of the Angel Michael (the 6th angel model, this one from the 18th century) We strolled along the top battlements and then the lower circular foundations, its amazing to think of how this monument has seen and has been used for so much, so many different things, from Popes and Prisioners to Emperors and tourists, its witnessed so many historical momuments, even more so than the Colosseum. 

Afterwards we browsed the antique shops and ate lunch at the Trevi Fountain, for once it wasnt completely pakced with tourists!We then headed to Spagna coming across an amazing antique and hand made cameo shop called "Marco's" ran now by Leonardo he had some fabulous antique and new pieces which he'd hand made in his workshop, unfortunately he was unable to use his lovely pink hawaiin conch shell in his pieces as it had become endangered. He also informed us of how the Japanese loved him, showing us an article about him and the shop in a Japanese magazine. his pieces were all half price for the January sales, id spotted a beautiful antique handpainted ivory cameo, originally 180euro, after some sweet talking I walked away with it for 70 euro. SUCCESS! the shop was also filled with lovely venetian glass pieces, next door was a custom tailors, definietly worth a look, just on from the left of the Spagna Metro exit.
We sadly got the metro and then the bus back to the hotel before getting our lift to the airport (a very small airport may I add) departing at 8.55pm Italy and arriving in Dublin at 10.30pm GMT. back to normlality and worse weather unfortunately!

TRAVEL ITALY: Roman Forum, Palantine and the Colosseum!

Our Hotel does two morning shuttle bus lifts to the Ciampino train station so we had a bit of a lie in and got the 10am shuttle bus. Love the train here, its double decker, it makes me feel like a 13 year old again when you had to always sit on the top deck of the bus, the novelty has worn off now, but not for a train! It's new and I feel awesome! (I know, I know, 21 going on 12)

At the Termini we got the B line Metro and got off that the Colosseo station. The first thing you see when you get to ground level is the sheer size of the Colosseum, raising high and wide in front of you, sun shining behind it. A very impressive sight never mind that its 2000 years old!
Thankfully an off peak season and early on a Sunday it wasn't too full, however, we decided we'd head first to the +Roman Forum  and Palantine.
A "redutto" combination ticket to see all 3 was just 7.50 euro, choosing to forego the audio guide.
We turned left and explored the Palantine area first, the area where the mythological story of Romulus and Remus began, the founders of Rome.
We spotted a HUGE aqueduct, some of which are still used in Rome and has brought fresh drinking water throughout Rome since the Roman era, I later used a public water tap to refill my bottle!
There was the old "stadium" or "horse training ground" which would have been like a beautiful garden track area for the horses. Lots of different levels of buildings remained and huge sections of architecture, amazing to still be in existance after so long, especially since it's exposed to the elements. Rebecca (My sister) and I were quite naughty....we may have taken some "souvenirs" from the ground, shards of stone, even some pottery. Bad I know, totally worth it though (I have some shards from the royal palace in Bangkok and Angkor Wat) It had become quite cold and had begun to rain, we had some lunch under a tree and marvelled at how some of the oranges had already begun to ripen even though it was January. The was a miniature indoor museum built to house some of the artifacts found in the area to protect them from the weather, statues, frescoes and part of marble designs.It was quite interesting it showed and explained how the Romans used art and propaganda to depict Queen Cleopatra as a Gorgon (Medusa) and the struggle and defeat of Marc Anthony and Agustus as okay by depicting them as Hercules and Apollo. There was also many designs the defeat of Egypt. There were even older archeological finds underneath, from the megalithic period!
We looked down into Flavia's house but unfortunately it was all sealed up (perhaps for renovation purposes?) It looked amazing, large with great frescoes remaining on it! We could look through Augustus' house though, protected under a series of roofs. We could go inside some of the rooms here and look at the remaining bright frescoes in reds, oranges, yellows and greens.
We wandered onwards, walking through many of the "hortos"  one of which still had a beautiful marble working fountain in some of its originality from over 2000 years ago, impressive! We took an underground walkway (which would be so eery to do at night!!) and ended up behind Flavias (known as a Crypto) from around the "nymph garden" having gazed over the Roman forum from a beautifully raised Panoramic area.

We saw the beautiful underground natural looking grotto known as the "Nymphaeum" which still had some remaining frescoes and mosaic tile floors, the "fountain" was designed to look like a natural underground waterfall.
The Roman forum  was amazing, more buildings remained, more columns, like an ancient city centre closely spaced together. The sun was finally out, and although still cool it looked beautiful, the sun against the azure skyline with ancient marble ruins, temples, columns and buildings, darted before us, amidst paved paths and grass areas.

There were some tour guides taking people around the ruins, couldnt believe it when I heard and American guide compare the great fire of Rome to the 9/11...ITS NOTHING LIKE IT!!! I really cannot stick some Americans, they think they know everything and always try to relate everything to them (then again, I know a lot of non Americans like that too!)
There were remains of some of the temples; Apollo, Saturn and Cybele (a female temple) Ceasars temple and the Cryio was where the public could go to listen to the emperor and voice their own opinions and problems. It was HUGE! And still in great condition. The ground floor was nearly 2 stories in height, there were still some hints of frescoes on the walls.It was interesting to see that he interior architecture so popular in the villas of the Renaissance period was seen here, the high rooms and arch ceilings!

I loved being able to walk upon the large cobbled slabs where the Romans once walked upon over 2000 years ago!

Next was the famous Colosseum. Beware of the gladiator men, do not get a photo with or off them, they will demand a fee,  a large fee! Beware pickpockets and scammers, a friendly man outside offered us a tour which would cost 30euro each!

Its so huge, the floors so large! It's always been a famous Roman monument over the centuires, a constant remainer of Rome's greatest, its witnessed so much! Although most of the marble has been stripped away over the centuries for other projects (mainly by the rich for personal monuments and buildings) it still depicts the greatness and advancement of the Roman Intellect, their ability to create this huge arena through sheer man and animal power.
Games were performed here, Gladiators fought, Christians and Prisioners died, animals attacked and water shows were preformed. Many Christians were attacked, killed and eaten alive by beasts, remains of wolves, horses, bears and even griffons (which i personally thought were mythological) were found!

 We went up to the 2nd floor (only those with special permission or on a tour can go to the 3rd remaining floor) It was still really high up but the view was still excellent, the stage floor was gone (it would have been wood, natural fibres decay quicker, particularly wood and textiles) underneath the stage was a complex system of small spaces and slots used for a pulley system for flooding and letting out the animals, small cramped hard heavy conditions needing tens of men to work together in these small underground spaces to pull together to move the door. The sheer size, complexity, age and remains of this arena is outstanding! Our decision to go after the forum was a good one, less people were there and we sailed in having already got our tickets at the forum, no queue for us!

Cold and tired with dusk in the horizon we headed to Spagna for some shopping and dinner. We entered the old Greek coffee shop (the oldest in Rome and a must see) it was lavishly decorated inside, full of antique paintings and rich furnishings, however we quickly left having discovered the ridiculously expensive price of coffee, near 9 euro!  We ended up having a take away coffee at the Trevi fountain when dusk finally reached us.We had dinner in a home made spagetti restaurant,  We bought some wine, browsed the shops and heading for the train arranging to get colleted by the shuttle bus, we were tired and tomorrow would be another long day. unfortunately, we got off a stop too early. There was nothing at this stop.I Panicked. The shuttle bus took pity on us and agreed to collect us. We waited at the side of the road, got several stares, particualrly from driving men, not good! they could have crashed! I really dont have much transport luck!

Napoli and Firenze!

Il conto, per favore - the bill please!
Mi chiamo Kelly - my name is kelly

VENERDI 24
 Saturday 24th January 

What a disastrous day! Rebecca and I both woke up to lightning, very surreal! Then, because my phone was still set on GMT of the UK, we slept in, getting up at 9 =/  We ran, in the rain, to await a late bus, which took its time going around a village area before we ran yet again for the metro,somehow managing to get to the termini just before 11 to discover that the Naples train we had wanted to get at 10.30 had been delayed and therefore jumped on it before it began to leave. It was packed. there were no seats, we sat on the floor. but at least we had made it.
we eventually, after an hour or two managed to get seats together and ate our packed lunch. A long journey on the slow train, we didn't arrive into the station until 2pm, in which Rebecca and I argued as she was playing with the bag I had lent her, between us, and our cramming in of items, we managed to break the zip, causing yet another fight as she tried to fix it and I told her it wasn't possible (I do study fashion, I've had the same experience with zips before) We eventually got moving, followed the directions on my Pompeii printout to the other part of the station and purchased tickets (direct cheap at less that 2 euro for return) he mentioned something about soon and we presumed he meant the train for Sorrento which we were meant to get. But it didn't arrive. for ages. In the mean time we randomly got looked at hungrily by some Italian lads, who, since we couldn't speak Italian and they couldn't speak much English, decided to talk to us in French..as you do. A woman also tried to speak to us about something when we told her we were going to Pompeii, the only English she said was 20 and pointed to her watch..we soon learnt what she meant.

The train ride was a slow one, after 45 minutes we arrived at "Pompeii scavi" the place seemed empty. It was raining again. We were excited, Pompeii, finally, the home of Grumio, Matella and Caecelius of our first to third year Latin texts. it was 3.50. No one was at the ticket desk. we walked down. we got turned away. Last entry 3.30...I m not going to lie about the situation. I was overtired and stressed. I may have cried.

Once calm, we bounded aboard our train, a shorter journey to the station (TYPICAL) On our way I used my phone and took idea from our travel book in which we decided to go to Museo archeligio Nazionale the former Neapolitan home to the Farnese family. It was so vast, huge sophisticated architecture. The floor height seemed 3 stories tall, full of artifacts, antiquities and sculptures collected from over the centuries, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, many of which were used in the popular Renaissance pleasure gardens; Hortos. Lots of Apollos , Aphrodite's, Roman gems, Marble busts of Emperors such as Nero, all in beautiful marbled floored rooms. The grand spiral staircase to the second floor featured a huge lion statue at the bottom and a Roman God, 5 times the height of me on the second tier landing of the staircase. It was the second floor that held all the artifacts, frescoes, mosaics and statues recovered  and now protected, from Pompeii and Herculaneum.

These mosaics  were very well preserved, could still see the structure, shade and form in them, particularly some of the frescoes that hadn't darkened too much, hard to believe these were made in the 1st century Ad!
The best, most hilarious section however, had to be "Pompeii Erotica" as its been dubbed. The collection mainly gathered from the Pompeii Brothels, frescoes and mosaics of the various sex acts that could be performed, aroused statues, flying penis' with bells attached (apparently a good luck thing) down in the souvenir shop you could actually buy a miniature calender based on Pompeii erotica, oh my!

The mid section on the 2nd floor was again about 3 stories in height and marbled, the ceiling had a fantastic fresco from the Renaissance with lots more statues recovered from the famous areas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Cant image in living in such a glorious Villa. There were more outside, a converted bank like area was spectacular looking, no designated for i sort of indoor shopping area. It was around here, the Piazza Cavour area that we browsed some great shops, not too dear and even managed to get ourselves some nice clothes (I got a lovely leather studded green jacket)We then devoured our cheapest meals yet, pizza for around 6 euro! back on the metro (which may I add is all brand new and beautifully decorated, much nicer than Rome's) We got the slow train back to Rome, only to discover it was quicker and took only 2 1/2 hours! unfortunately for us, we were laughing and joking too much and didn't notice. the conductor banged on the window. The metro had a delay strike, we missed the last bus from Anagnina and had to pay 30euro for the taxi...so yes. quite a disastrous and very wet, cold day!

 

SABATO 25
SATURDAY 25TH JANUARY

como si va a... uffizi galleria?    how do I get to Uffizi gallery?
per gli studenti?                         for a student?
riduzioni?                                   reduction?
Firenze                                       Florence

Well what do you know...another disastrous morning for transport!
We got up at 5.45 and got the bus and even the metro okay,arriving at 7am, half an hour until our train. However, the slow train was from platform 2est.....we presumed this was just the normal platform 2 and chilled at the waiting room. WE WERE WRONG.
You have to walk, ages, on the far left side, for 10 minutes to an outside platform area. THIS is 1 and 2est! disaster.The next was not until 8.58 as the rest were reserved fast trains. SO annoying!
We made sure we were early for this, which was a pretty empty train. The countryside of Tuscany is lovely, we read, daydreamed out the window and had our lunch, arriving 4 hours later in Firenze SMN. It was finally sunny and I could peel off some of my many layers (I came prepared after being cold and wet the day before!)

We passed the beautifully tiled Santa Maria Novella Church on towards the breathtaking centre Duomo, a marbled church, huge and so very unexpected. All in marble, I felt more compelled towards its beauty than the Sistine chapel, especially with the interior dome, started by Vasari and finished by Zuccaro in 1579 is breathtaking and outstanding in its beauty, with its illusions to heaven, hell and purgatory with its angels, the saints, the living and the dead and of course the devil and his minions in hell. Underneath this gothic Dome, they have excavated just below the floor to reveal the original 13th century church foundations along with the crypt of Chiesa di Santa Reparata. This UNESCO site is free into as it's a church, however the Baptistery and the crypts have an admission fee.

We continued on towards The Basilica of San Lorenzo, one of the largest churches of Florence situated in the market area, originally a church and burial area of the Medici family, in particular the famous Cosmino il Vecchio to Cosmino III. It is here that there are famous works by Donatello. Unfortunately, even though this is a Church, they wanted you to pay an admission unless you go via the side for prayer. The interior was also getting refurbished so we decided to go via the prayer area. Due to the refurbishment we were unable to see much, but what we did see was vast. From here we browsed the markets, getting several cat calls from men, all able to recognise we were sisters, that we were "beautiful" that I resembled "Lady Gaga" and at eh same time "Hannah Montana" white different styles but okay....upon ignoring one black vendor he started saying "white people are shit" charming. It was funny to be honest. We purchased some Venetian masks and browsed happily, admiring the beauty and charm of Florence, a place deeply steeped in Renaissance history, particularly with with the large pedestrian only area of the older town, everything was easy to find, the buildings were beautiful and in great condition, and there was NO graffiti! Brilliant. In ways it was like stepping back into the past, and I really felt like it in my long cathedral stained glass inspired skirt.

We visited Palazzo Riccardi a previous Medici villa (Student I.D is necessary for a reduced price for this, as Rebecca found out the hard way having left hers back home) The interior courtyard was fantastic, 3 stories in height, marble of black and white, with columns and arches leading to the side garden with let in rays of sunlight (with the high surrounding stories not much light was let in from above, however it felt reclusive and secretive in an exciting powerful way, a personification of architecture to the Medici's) Some of the windows were designed by Michelangelo (he was based in Florence and on the other side of the river on can visit his home)

Up the marbled steps of the courtyard we entered a beautifully frescoed room designed by GOZZOLI based on the journey of the Magi set in a contemporary renaissance design with members of the papacy such as Cardinals along with prominent members of society, in particular, the Medici family. The most stunning room was not the famous room were Charles VII and Medici basically declared war (it did have a HUGE sparkling chandelier!) was the "Mirror room" by Bartolommeo. Fantastic full ceiling fresco, again, like the Duomo we see a clear correlation to heaven and hell with the devils, demons, angels, cupids and God. but was made it truly stunning was the mirrored walls all along the room with gilded edges, making it seem like a dream like golden room of royalty. each mirror then, was frescoed on top of, around the edges, beautiful flowers, animals and vines with cupids. Stunning. A perfect place for a marriage ceremony!

After this we had a much needed coffee! We took a wrong turn missing the sign (Florence is much better with directions and signs than Naples and Rome!)  we ended up at Palazza Della S.S Annuziata which had a beautiful Church and an interesting museum, "Museum of the Innocents" There is so much beauty, knowledge, history and art in this city, I NEED to live here!

We didnt have time to stop, and when we got to the Galleria dell'Acamedia I realised we were at the wrong place, our 4pm ticket was for the Uffizi Galleria. we had time to spare and on our walk down past the Duomo square to the gallery (everything is pretty quick and easy to get too) We did some present shopping. Some beautiful and soft things, particularly the scarves! The area of the Uffizi Galleria at the PALAZZO VECCHIO is stunning. A large David stands outside the Signoria Palace (Now a museum and Gallery) along with statues of Hercules and Cacus. The area was full of life and people. A beautiful artistic area full of statues, historic buildings and vibrancy. We got our tickets and entered the very busy Uffizi Gallery.

The top floor 2was a huge gallery, frescoed ceilings throughout. The main hallway also had portraits of the leading male and female Florentines, Particularly Cardinals and the Medici family.Although you aren't allowed to take photos (like most of these places) I took some sneaky ones as my camera doesn't have an exterior zoom and isn't noisy) There were room upon rooms of art; Madonnas, the Apostles and Saints, Christs and Popes. Works by Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Vivaldi, Lippi, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, to name a few. So many masterpieces to take in, utterly amazing. Gold paint, frescoes, azures, marbles, some hundreds of years old, many having been refurbished to save the beauty and the masterpiece for future generations. Saw2 of the most famous Venus',  Venus of Urbino by Titan & The birth of Venus by Botticelli. FANTASTIC!
I was really impressed seeing Titian's Venus because i had studied and written about it in my last Disertation, about the new female nude, Provocative and not demure, sensual and sexual, teasing to the eye with her directness and nudity, the idea of nearly touching herself, a provcative form, stylized in the traditional female form but more alluring and interesting to the eye. I was able to see a painting of Catherine De Medici who became the Queen of France,the beautiful Duchess of Lorraine and the famous Cosmino II Medici, along with the renowned ancient sculpture known as "The hermophrodite" 
On the upper corner of the gallery hall one can look over the river and see the famous "Ponte vecchio" all the more stunning in the declining sunlight of sunset. onwards, at the rooftop cafe we gazed at the beautiful Tuscan sky in the sunset, the beautiful pinks, purples, blues and oranges highlighting the historic architecture skyline such as the Duomo, Bargello and Adia, a beautiful image to remember of our time here.
On the ground floor we admired more beautiful works, Borini, Botticelli, Griotto, Piero della Francesa etc. could easily spend my life in this gallery, there's just so much! So fascinating, so beautiful.
We grabbed some iced coffees to perk us up, and headed back towards the Galleria. The first European art college established in the Renaissance period. Again, like in Naples, the ground floor is about 2/3 stories in height.The central entrance held lots of religious arts, as did the upstairs, including amazing woven textiles (amazing because textiles decay so easy!) The central statue the "Rape" was amazing. From each position you look at it something different is happen, each angle is perfectly sculpted to entice the viewer, I loved it! to the left was a music room showing Renaissance instruments along with letting you try some of your own and listening to music from different eras, quite fun, Then, to the left, after several half completed Michelangelo statues was the famous and amazing "David"

 He is so huge, a giant of a man created to the ideal of perfection in the hardest marble to carve (old marble, like the Pieta at the Vatican) viewed from any angle, he looks amazing.The self flagellation is something i had never noticed before in the piece, is this perhaps a symbol of self power and control? of not being good enough even in this humanist ideal of perfection to God, hence the self punishment, it is only obtainable through god? perfection is a flawed and sinful ideal or an impossible dream? (The penis is small in Ratio to the rest of him) Its a beautiful striking piece, which makes you wonder the reasons of design, appearance and statement, something I love to ponder while admiring a masterpiece. I let out a squeal of delight upon seeing him and we spent quite a while sitting studying the famous icon.
To the left was a partially closed gallery area stuffed full of marble statues from the Roman era along with paintings. Upstairs continueing more of the first room, with religious art, some beautiful, others strange in the structure and form (ie. odd shaped heads to the point were i felt Jesus looked like quite an unnatural child, then again, he's almost always depicted as white, very strange for any child from the Middle East eh?)  Another startling piece was a crucifixion of Jesus were the blood from his wounds was pouring out so strongly in a flow upon Mary's head that she looked like she needed an umbrella. A bit over the top and unrealistic i think.

Hilarious bathroom graffiti in the toilets of the Galleria

We did some quick shopping on our way back, admiring the night time elegance of the old city lit up with the street lamps and show window glow. we returned to the station, paying for the reserve high speed train, doing up to 250km an hour and arriving back in Rome in an hour and a half! never gone so fast in my life!