More art today, in fact so much that we abandoned it for a ride on the tram to the suburbs and more time drinking & eating. The queues for the Duomo were ridiculous, so despite having tickets, we declined. Ditto for Uffizi Gallery. Instead went into St John's baptistry which had the art ceiling, great bronze doors & no crowds. The Duomo museum was lovely too, showing the construction & story of the Duomo over the years. It had the last Michaelangelo statue which he sculpted for his own tomb, didn't like it & smashed it up. Perhaps because he did the hands too big again, should have gone to Specsavers! Visited Santa Maria Novella which had interesting cloisters, the Spanish chapel built for Cosimo's missus had a wall of catholic glories, claiming it was responsibly for inventing everything, justice, maths, science - the lot. Above the inventors images, Ptolemy, Aristotle etc were young women in different poses, which is unusual for catholic churches, they don't usually like women who are not saints depicted. A bit of research revealed that they are not real women but simply allegories of the science or art depicted.
All that & we ay Colombia next week.
