Florence: a final word, about the police

There are lots of police about in Florence, in cars and on foot. As elsewhere, they show a character to be admired, a gentle strength. Helen noted with delight that the policewomen women have their hair down, not severely dragged back (click on photo to see enlarged). In Bolsena last Wednesday we parked in the middle of a square to duck in for a coffee. I looked out to see a police car alongside our car. I went in haste to ask the policewoman (maybe 50, glamorous, hair down, no mighty hat) if it was OK to park where we were parked. With a smile she said it was OK for a bit but not for too long. I said we were just having coffee. With a grin, she said that's fine then. I do not sense in the photo above any official anxiety about full frontal art.

Not that there isn't anybody concerned about decency in Italy, remember this?

Accademia, David

We gave our time to two major galleries in Florence, the Accademia and the Uffizi.

The Accademia di Belli Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) is a teaching institution, its exterior full of Florentine understated refinement.

Inside is perhaps the most extraordinary of sculptures, Michelangelo's David. Elsewhere in the blog we have photos of the copy of David in the Piazza della Signoria, we were astounded how much more beautiful the original was (no photos allowed). Furthermore, it is placed wonderfully. You enter a gallery, with unfinished figures, more than life size, intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II. These give a powerful impression of the business of carving marble, with the figures emerging - there is one photo here. A sense of the muscularity of the work and the product, both. Then at the end, David himself. The frontal view is so well known as to be tedious, and often exploited. Walking around the figure, seeing it from different angles, shows its majestic qualities.