Bargello

Before I begin to talk about the trip Sarah and I took to the Bargello, I would like to share a couple of photos I took while walking around town one weekend.

First, I was fortunate enough to have found Santa Claus, or whatever name he goes by here. Apparently he does not spend the month of October in the North Pole. Instead he struts his long legs around the streets of Florence.

I also thought that people should get to see what our police force looks like. They are quite well dressed and always have purses and tall pith helmets. These are the polizia di stato, not to be confused with the carabinieri, who drive nicer cars and are actually like a branch of the military and police both the military and civilian populations. There's also the guardia di finanza, which are like a customs police force. I've also seen some polizia municipale, though perhaps not in Florence. With all these officers policing the city, it's kind of funny how much people get away with, especially on the roads. You can do pretty much whatever you want and the millions of police officers don't seem to mind. People speed, pass illegally (if anything is illegal), and park wherever they want to. Every morning when I go to work my bus passes two schools right before my stop. The parents who have dropped off their kids park along the street. Then there forms another line of cars in the actual eastbound lane on a road that is barely two lanes wide. And the parents don't do this quickly. They get out and chat for ten minutes or so.
In the US cars usually are allowed to park up to a certain point before an intersection. Not here. People park completely around the corners. There are also a few places I have seen where a road deadends into a larger road. The smaller road widens to allow cars to turn or whatever. Then cars park in the middle of this widened area, leaving a tiny lane going one way and a tiny lane going the other way. If you can picture that from my great description. Things are quite different here. That's just how they do it.
Okay. Enough of that. On with the Bargello...

The Bargello was originally built as a palace for what was like a police chief and then for the Podesta, which was the highest magistrate on the city council. It is supposed to be the oldest public building in Florence, according to one unreliable source, being built around 1261.

When the Medici got rid of the Podesta, they housed the police chief here. It was used as a prison and hosted many executions before Leopold II (Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany) banned executions in 1780. It then became a museum.

I admire Sarah while she admires the construction.

This just in...it became a museum in 1865 and has the largest collection of Gothic and Renaissance sculptures in Italy. Too bad you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

So I'll take some pictures outside.

Still outside, so pictures are okay.

Just barely still outside. I guess the third floor is open sometimes, but it was not when we went there. But it doesn't matter because there are no pictures allowed.

Here I try to make Brad proud by stealing his cannon pose.

See how much fun you can have in the courtyard of a museum? Don't worry about the priceless works of art inside. All you need are some well-coreographed pictures on the outside.
Well okay. Here are some pictures I stole from the Inernet of some of the works of art inside.


Here is Giambologna's statue of Mercury and Benvenuto Cellini's bust of Cosimo I.

And here is the feminine David and St. George, both by Donatello. I have never been crazy about this David. I think it's the hat.