Dennis Hollingsworth

Uffizi et al...

Our third day here in Florence, and here I am wrangling with two very important ftp file transfer have-to-do's. The hotel internet isn't working for me and so here I sit in an internet cafe below ground by the train station, summoning the great McGyver powers from PoMo heaven to help me out.

Meanwhile.... here are some pics from yesterday's tour action:

Waiting time at the Uffizi: over two hours...

I remember that at the Prado, everyone was snapping pictures. Here, not much at all.

Some freak of a tourist was flashing his camera, photons blasting electrons off the orbiting shells of the subatomic structures in Leonardo's painting.

I, however, clicked off my flash with the greatest of care, careful to only recieve reflected ambient light into the CCD chip of my camera (my eyes blilnk unctuouosly).

Even so, the guard freaked out and got into our faces about the no-camera rules.

Alright, alright.

My appreciation for the Prado grew all that much more.

I furvatively sneaked out the camera for a view out of the window (which, architecturally speaking, was an early use of reinforced concrete to reveal so much glazed area of window, so I understand).

I'm sure there's no problem in blasting electrons off from the window panes.

Everywhere, there are conservators in white overalls, gently removing the grime of experience and time from everything: art and building alike. What a job. It had a NASA feeling to it.

I'm pretty antagonistic about the tourist thing. And yet here I am, touring.

But even so, I cruised by the Duomo and hung out in front of the Ghiberti doors. I noticed that on one level, the tourists are more interesting than the normative objects of the tours. So many different cultures, so many different levels of acculturation. Cameras, ice creams, sunglasses, clothing, eyes, interpersonal relationships.

Now, flocks of Chinese are out, a sign of these 21st century times for sure.

The street urchins made thier passes... is it P.C. to call them Gypsies? I declined on the first pass from this one, noticing her braided hair -to the front and the ends linked around her neck. Very nice, even if the hair was greasy. I noticed that street people were especially well dressed, even though sometimes the details gave away their choice to be especially free and apart from "normal" society (dirty feet in new sandals, for example). it would be interesting to shoot pics of them all, a survey of those who live apart.

On her second pass, I made a deal to take her picture... we barter quickly, two euros. Ok, it's a deal. I reached into my pocket and three euros were in hand, so she upped her fee.

Sharp, that one.