Uffizi Gallery - Boboli Gardens

Boboli Grotto
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Our  visit to the Uffizi was fun and very educational.  Here you learn a lot about not only the art work but the artist and the people who funded the artist  The main features at the Uffizi are works by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Botticelli.  There is also a section of the museum called the Vasari Corridor - it is a very long walkway leading from the museum across the Arno River to the Palazzo de Pitti.  The Pitti, which is now a museum, used to be a residence of the ruling family of Florence, the Medicis.  The Uffizi museum was previously the seat of government for Florence.  The corridor allowed the family to walk to and from their offices without mixing with the common people.  Now the corridor is filled with artwork, most impressive is a collection of artist self-portraits commissioned by a man named Giorgio Vasari who is a famous biographer of artists.  Our guide informed us that his book "Lives of Artists" is at the top of the list for anyone studying art history.  We also learned that Hitler had walked this corridor with Mussolini who had enlarged the windows to improve Hitler's view of the river.  Several paintings were stolen from the Uffizi during World War II - some have been returned but many have never been found.

Boboli Grotto
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The corridor exits into the Boboli Gardens where there is a very interesting grotto.  Despite the fact that it is currently undergoing restoration work, the Large Grotto's statues continue to be remarkable examples of Mannerist architecture and culture. Decorated internally and externally with stalactites and originally equipped with waterworks and luxuriant vegetation, the fountain is divided into three main sections. The first one was frescoed to create the illusion of a natural grotto, that is a natural refuge to allow shepherds to protect themselves from wild animals; it originally housed The Prisoners of Michelangelo (now replaced by copies), statues that were first intended for the tomb of the Pope Julius II. Other rooms in the Grotto contain Giambologna's famous Bathing Venus and an 18th-century group of Paris and Helen by Vincenzo de Rossi.