Day 4: Missed Pisa - Loved Florence

So....today was supposed to begin with a half day sightseeing tour of Pisa, plus a climb of the tower itself. But my phone's alarm didn't go off and when I woke up I lay around for a bit (cause no alarm you see.) When I finally wondered what time it was, it was 9am. The tour LEFT at 9am. So I threw on the nearest clothes (my shirt was on inside out), grabbed the voucher and my camera and RAN out the door. I made it to where the meeting spot was supposed to be in about 2 minutes. No one was there. (Although they claimed later that they had waited till 9:05am.)

In all honesty, I was devastated. Also really angry at myself and my phone. I was probably most excited in this trip to go see the Leaning Tower and I had missed it. So instead, I went back to my room, fixed my clothes (yeh - that was a little embarassing) and decided to wander the city. I did a little bit of shopping for some touristy things, including visiting one of the leather factories. I wasn't that fussed on it. Everything was very expensive (which I expected) and nothing really grabbed me. But it was good to see.

I also saw some pretty sweet statues in the town square (Florence is big on statues - they have David you see.) then grabbed some lunch, hung out with Will for a bit, before taking my tour of the Uffuzi Gallery.

One of the statues in the main square

The fancy fountain in the main square

I'm going to be honest and say I know very little about art. Whenever you visit a place like the Uffuzi, they rattle off these names I know nothing about. Then they say "here is the masterpiece" and for the most part, I can't see what the fuss is all about. However, what was particularly good about this tour was we had a development of art through time. So the tour guide took us to the medieval section where we could giggle over the flat features and the baby Jesus looking like a grown man but very very tiny. Then we saw how Renaissance art developed a sense of depth, proportion, realism. We saw the way Botticelli depicted pagan gods with movement and expression. (Obviously, we saw his masterpieces Birth of Venus and La Primavera.)

Birth of Venus

La Primavera

Actually, my personal favourite, was Doni Tondo by Michelangelo. Sure, Leondaro's Annunciation was cool with the way it played on the perspective at which you viewed the painting (if you stood right in front, Mary's arm seemed strangely long, but from the right hand side it was perfect) but Doni Tondo was so bright and detailed, with a carved frame. Plus, we were able to have a good laugh at the notion that Michelangelo thought painting was for children and women and that the only perfect form was the male form (which is why some scholars believe he was homosexual.)

Doni Tondo

The last stop for this day was a Pizza Making and Gelato cooking class across town. But I was having such a fantastic day that my phone, which hadn't charged properly overnight, decided to go completely flat by this stage. I managed to go around in circles five times, even after buying a map and had to run across town, getting confused by all the different street names that WEREN'T EVEN ON THE MAP. However, I made it just in time. 

And it was awesome. We made our own pizza dough from scratch, mixed it, kneaded it, smoothed it out into a circle. We then topped it (I made a Marinara pizza which is literally just tomato puree and herbs on a base.) and used pizza paddles to move them into an oven. At the same time, we mixed together some chocolate gelato. Gelato is like icecream, except instead of a 1:1 ratio of milk to cream, it's more like 3:1. That means, less fat (yay!). Also, a fruit based 'gelato' is actually not a gelato, it's a sorbet. Fruit doesn't work with the milk/cream mixture, so they just use water, sugar and fruit. They may also use egg whites to make it "creamy."

Anyway. Check out my pizza! It was delicious.

Yum yum!

One more day in Florence, then it is off to the island city of Venice, where hopefully I will meet a merchant.