City of the Ninja Turtles

With the conference out of the way it was time to get our mandatory Florentine education in the arts. For heathens like us, it had to be the obvious - The Uffizi and then La Accademia (to see some guy called Dave).
The most spectacular efforts by far where those put in by the twenty-something toursist who seemed only to go to these auspicious galleries as the ultimate Instagram back-drop. Foruntately, there was also some pretty admirable artwork older than 15 minutes. As is expected, we got to see the works of multiple ninja turtles and some ring-ins like Botticelli.
All this wasn’t enough, so we also signed up for a night walking tour of the highlights of the old part of town. Our guide Debbie skilfully illustrated the very conception of the Renaissance in this city in such a digestible way that even we could understand it.
Highlights included:

• What an underestimated (at least to us) figure Brunelleschi was. Turns out that he (& student Donatello) introduced the concept of perspective and depth in painting that characterised the Renaissance as distinct from the Medieval and everything else before it. Brunelleschi was also responsible for the (seemingly impossible) design of the Duomo dome. True, he had a little help from the Roman pantheon, but still - he basically trained himself as an engineer and then convinced those in power than he had a master plan to seal the roof on the (then) largest dome roof ever made. To date, it is still #3 in Europe after St Peters Basicalla & St Paul’s in London. Such was his influence on art & architecture that a rival (who spend over 50 years making the two doors for the adjacent Baptistery) had to change his artistic technique as a result - one door represents a Medieval perspective and the other a Renaissance one. 
• Further to old mate Brunelleschi, we learnt about another important figure in the history of Florence (and Italy) in Dante Allegheri. As a result of his liberal views and public challenging of the Church, he was exiled from Florence (to current-day shame) but eventually returned and wrote The Divine Comedy which is considered both the formative and informative secular bible of Italy. Not least interesting was the fact that he also fathered the modern Italian language by using Florentine slang in his book for “the people” (as opposed Latin, which was spoken by the 1% elite at the time, and for all whom knowledge was previously reserved.)
• We wrapped up the tour on some steps of an old palace, opposite and ancient but ordinary looking building with windows. Turns out one of those windows belonged to the bedroom of Leonardo Da Vinci. His fascination with human anatomy took hold whilst in residence here. As a result of the vista from his bedroom window, he could see the dead bodies of those executed and hung from a nearby bell tower, and he wanted to understand more. Notwithstanding the fact that he feared he would be hung himself for dissecting cadavers to study anatomy, he carried on in defiance of the Church.  His work accelerated the understanding of human anatomy as we know it today.

It was quite a late finish to the day, and so the next day we decided to act our age - we went on an old people bus tour to Siena and San Gimignano. Siena was seriously rained out, but we got to see the famous square where the Palio de Siena horse race is held twice each year.

San Gimignano was fantastic - very compact and obviously touristy, but it had a cool vibe and it was very easy to imagine this place hundreds or even a thousand years ago.

 

The surprise packet of the trip was a short stop off at Monteriggioni. Even smaller (few hundred residents today) but even more authentic as a hill-top medieval fortress. There even happened to be a wedding happening in the tiny old chapel in the only town square. One of us is getting married there next time. The other was not so interested in strangers weddings.

Lunch on the geriatric express topped our expectations. Small family vineyard/winery/restaurant that served a three course lunch with matched wines. One of us challenged the winemaker with some questions, the other just sampled. 

To wrap up our time in Florence, we climbed the Arnolfo tower which stands up from Palazzo Vecchio for some cool city views.

Of course, we treated ourselves to our 10th serving of the neighbourhood gelato (award winning and delicious) as a reward for climbing the 420+ steps and some lunch at the Mercato Centrale just in time for our reservation to demolish a kilogram of Florentine steak.

Arrivederci Firenze! You have truly delivered.