This is a good time of year to visit Florence. There are not the crowds of tourists that we have seen at other times. It is rather cold and windy in the city so we bundle up while walking around. We have eaten at several mediocre restaurants but two good ones, one of which is relatively cheap. Our apartment is not completely satisfactory as it consists of only one room with no easy chairs and a primitive kitchenette, and is rather cold. On the other hand it is very well placed in the city and has good internet. 

Although we have been to Florence before, we never have had the time to really see its treasures thoroughly, as is our plan for this visit. If only to remind myself, I  list here what we have seen. During this week we have been to the following.

Santa Marie Novella: a large, recently restored, fresco of Masaccio from 1425 that is a marvel of light and tromp l'oeile 3 dimensional illusion. This seemed to set the stage for further frescos in the church.

Accademia: The magnificent David statue by Michelangelo, plus an interesting display of old musical instruments. 

Palazzo Vecchio:  Here there is an exhibition consisting of one item: For the love of God  by Damien Hirst, which is a human skull with hundreds (thousands?) of diamonds implanted in a regular pattern. it is heavily guarded and, we have read, on sale for millions of dollars. 

Bargello: An old building, formerly a prison, that contains many statures of Donatello and some and della Robbia ceramic pieces. 

Carnevale "happening": We noticed a poster announcement, and went to this event which consisted of masques made by a number of local artists and a short act presented by 2 women, probably sisters. The room darkened, they came out in black robes with white masks. covering their faces. There was mildly threatening music, and they handed out some paper horns labelled (in Italian) with words meaning 'hate', sorrow', etc. Then the took off their masks, laughed, and blew their horns. Everyone else blew the horns they were handed and the mildly threatening spell was broken in merriment. A charming event. No doubt we were the only non-Italians there, and did not understand everything that was said, but we were made welcome.

On Friday and Saturday we took a trip by train and bus to Urbino, a charming old hill town in the Marches which has a fine ducal palace and the Flagellation of Piero della Francesca, one of the great pictures of all time. (IMHO) We saw a lot of snow from the train, and the streets of Urbino had piles of melting snow but it stayed above freezing while we were there. The old town is very hilly with cobblestone streets, not so many tourists, and quite a few students at the university that is in Urbino.

View of the surrounding countryside from Urbino

Stone pillar in Urbino