Florence 2

I was in Florence for seven nights, and as I've said previously the bulk of this time was taken up with the conference.

Luckily before the conference began I booked tickets to visit the Uffizi Gallery and the Duomo Cathedral which included the Bapistry and the Duomo Museum.
 

                   

There are many other such galleries and museums in Flororence but these, I thought were the fundamentals. On my day walking I came, by chance, to the museum for the International Centre for Performing Arts. This was a treat. The display was dedicated to the work of Franco Zeffirelli. He predominantly designed costumes and the stage settings for opera. There were many examples of his work with costumes, posters and a couple of dioramas. There was also a full room display of video, art and music depicting the inferno. A google search on his name will bring up the huge range of Operas and other productions that he worked on.

I had one day before the conference and two afterwards, Saturday and Sunday, so on the Saturday I visited Uffizi and Sunday Duomo. I feel it was worth visiting simply to see what it was like but must say, again I found each of these, except the Duomo museum, disappointing.

The square which leads into the Uffizi was chocker block with people when I arrived. The square was grand, with imposing statues, and numerous and large tour groups. There was also a band playing classical music - nice in itself. I found out later that the entrance to the Medici's sprawling residence led onto the square as well.

The booking system worked well and there was value in booking early. I've found on each occasion that they don't allow more than a certain number to enter and so once you are in there is generally good space - that is unless you're in a room with a tour group, something I avoided.

After the disappointing commentaries I was keen to hear this one, which turned out to be disappointing in a different way. It was factual and clinical with no context. I could have equally just read the discriptions and been just as well informed. I noticed quite a few people using their guide books, which may well have been much better. I also found out later it is possible to view a guide to the gallery on youtube by Rick Stein.

I wasn't keen to go on one of the tours. An added value would have been the opportunity to ask questions but then with so many people I don't think there would be much opportunity for that.

I was left with quite a few questions like, did the Romans and the Greeks produce art - paintings? There may have been something of this there but if so not much. There were loads of marble statues, which the audio guide had little, if anything to say something about.

When I think about the art, there were few, if any, that impressed me. Nothing like Picasso's Gurnica.

Many of the rooms were filled with religious art, early depictions of Jesus, Mary - the Madonna - the holy family, John the Baptist, the priests and the Christian story. If there were so many Christians -who was being killed during the Spanish Inquisition?

This, to me, exemplifies the point - history is written by the victor.

There is so much more to be said of these years and this was totally missing. The black plague, the Spanish Inquisition, the burning of witches, the rural poor and the expanding bourgeoisie. I expected so much more.

I wondered if the presentation was moving, or held significance for many people? Lots of people were taking children through and seemed to be retelling the story, simple and uncomplicated - this is the truth - but were they - I don't know - not speaking the language is such a disadvantage.

We were led through rooms which featured artists such as Raphael, Correggio, Leonardo, Tiziano, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens these were mostly images of saints, rich people and a sprinkling of varied characters. I tended to take pictures of the women, being on my matricentric tour.

The commentary mentioned this era being the birth of humanism - something that interests me and something to learn more about.

The Duomo is incredibly grand on the outside but relatively simple inside. The Bapistry is something different with gold paint highlighting the christian story and features a large depiction of Jesus.

I'd love to know what the locals are thinking about all this religion but then the fact that there are small numbers who attend church these days might say it all. I've got to remember this is confronting to me but they've grown up with it - the stories that underlie their culture.

I had an interesting conversation with a young French woman while waiting in one of the lines, she made a distinction between the French and Italian's attitude to religion, and then there are the Spanish, the English, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Russians and the Eastern Block.

I became friendly with a couple of fellow presenters from the conference, Katie and Myra. Funnily enough when Myra and I met and she said she was working at Binghamton University, there was an immediate basis for conversation, we had been to the city in 2008 on our Rod Serling tour.

Anyhow, over the next days Myra and I got to know each other and over the weekend shared dinners and a long walk looking for Belloguardo - which turned out to be just too far away. Myra, who teaches psychology, loved the conference and is excited to pursue work on the experience of women as mothers. We've shared our details and plan to stay in touch. It's wonderful how organisations such as MIRCI can bring together like minds.

My travel to South America has served me well. I am confident and prepared and am moving through the transions smoothly. I've heard about the dangers and am taking precautions but so far so good.

I was 1 1/2 hours early at the station going down to Rome but once I got writing I soon discovered that time had slipped by and there was only 15 minutes to spare.