Feeling a little glum this morning, consumed with thoughts of death.
It’s not just the passing of my uncle that’s put me in this morbid frame of mind, nor the death of my brother’s dog, nor that of one of the lead characters in my book. It’s Europe itself. It’s full of history, and history is full of dead people. Honestly, I think much less of death at home, even though I work in a hospital and I live across the road from a cemetery. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands at present.
My Pritti Palace pass expires tomorrow and it’s closed on a Monday anyway, so this morning I went back to have a look at the rest of the museums. They were magnificent. The Medicis have been looting the world’s treasures since the Renaissance, they make the British Museum look like Johnny Come Latelys. But there’s only so much gaudy excess you can take in one day. Here are a couple of ceilings for you to enjoy.
There was a whole room in the Ducal Treasures museum dedicated to ivory. These carvings would have taken years out of the lives of the artisans involved, not to mention the elephants.
Not sure why there was a plate of babies on this table, it seems completely mad, necessitating a photo.
After racing through the museums, I went outside into the sunshine to have a look around the Boboli gardens. Very nice, apart from the mosquitoes which are thriving after all the rain. It is so much warmer here than I expected, the high was 23 degrees today. The best part of the gardens was the view IMHO.
It was early afternoon by now, I had slice of spinach calzone at a little restaurant and was planning on visiting one more museum on my way home. However, I got lost en route, and when I got there, I heard the lady selling tickets explain to the man in front of me how many of the rooms are currently closed for renovations, and I suddenly felt too tired and dispirited (and cheap) to go in. So, back home for a quiet afternoon before my last concert.
This was once again an opera singer with a pianist accompaniment. Again, the musicianship was excellent, but I knew hardly anything that they performed. The highlight was “Variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by Mozart. Finally at the encore they did “O sole moi” which is a crowd pleaser because Elvis sang it as “It’s now or never”. It was the same encore they did at the show a couple of nights ago. Leave the punters happy I guess.