A trip to the World famous Ufizzi gallery in Florence - an impressive renaissance collection of paintings and sculptures

While in Florence, Italy back in October we visited the world famous Ufizzi gallery. It was actually quite by mistake ! We had meant to go to the Accademia Gallery to see the statue of David, and just went to the wrong place !

But I have to say that we were in no way disappointed. The Ufizzi just was not what I expected. It was started with the private collection of the ruling Medici family after they died out (!). It has been a gallery since the 16th century !

Its in the beautiful building above, which is very central in Florence, next to the Piazza della Signoria, and also close to the Ponte Vecchio (Florence's world famous bridge).

The top floor was just out of this world, and it felt like you had stepped back in time. Its just this massive long corridor, in a very large U-shape, which you can see in the picture above, and also the first picture in this post. And its just stuffed full of art works ! The style of the corridor feels ye olde worldy, with its wooden panneling and beautiful ceiling paintings.

The pic above shows just a couple of the ceiling panels, noting that they are all painted like this, but by different artists ! Very impressive indeed. And also quite cool is the row of portraits of kings, queens and rulers from all over the world, just below the ceiling, which went all along the corridors as well - absolutely tons of them !

The pic above was taken from the bottom of the U shaped corridor, looking back up towards the Piazza della Signoria. You can see the dome of Florence cathedral in the background along with the clock tower of the Palazzo Vecchio.

There was so many artworks that it was just quite astonishing !

Just everywhere you looked !

And some of the rooms were very ornate - just look at the beautiful marble floor in the room above !

I really liked the statue above - I can imagine the feelings and the actions from it - quite hard to capture in marble, I'd say !

And another great painting above. Its worth remembering that Florence was at the heart of the renaissance art explosion - so they weren't just collected there, they were made there, and Florence also influenced their very making.

I'm actually glad we went to the Uffizi by mistake, because we'd never been before, and probably would not have gone, preferring to go the Accademia (which we have seen before). It really did feel like no other gallery I've been too.

The gallery also had quite a lot of Greek sculptures which were quite cool too !

And for me the gallery had one last great surprise up its sleeve - its cafe ! The cafe is right at the top of the building next to the Palazzo Vecchio. Its an open roof top cafe, and gives you this incredible view of the clock tower - you are just right beside it ! It was fantastic !

So I have to say, if you are ever in Florence, by all means, visit the Accademia Gallery and see David, its great - but also try the Uffizi, you wont be disappointed !!!!