Return to the Uffizi Galleries and wine tasting

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

This afternoon, we took advantage of our “Friends of the Uffizi” membership to return to the Uffizi for a third visit to see some of the other works that we’d missed on our highlights tour with Nicoletta earlier in the month. Cheryl was most interested in seeing more of the paintings in the gallery’s amazing collection of Botticellis. After a couple hours immersed in art, we then met up with our Road Scholar group for our weekly Friday happy hour–this one in the cellar of a lovely wine bar.

Madonna of the Rose Garden by Botticelli (1467):

Pallas and the Centaur by Botticelli (1485):

Annunciation by Botticelli (1481):

Another Annunciation by Botticelli (1490)–very different from his depiction of the same scene nine years earlier. The frame is original.

Madonna of the Pomegranate by Botticelli (1487). The frame is original:

From a patio on the top floor of the Uffizi, we got this great view of the Vasari Corridor as it runs along the Arno and atop the Ponte Vecchio.

Ceiling of a staircase in the Uffizi. The vaulted ceiling bears the mark of a window frame blown out of the wall and into the ceiling by a Mafia bomb in 1993.

Our Road Scholar program director Francesca chose another excellent venue, Enoteca Alessi, for our group’s weekly happy hour.

We began by tasting two wines. Surprisingly, even the red wine drinkers in our group liked the white.

Tasting the wines and comparing notes.

After the wine tasting, the restaurant brought out three of the longest charcuterie boards we’d ever seen, loaded with a variety of different antipasti.

By this time in our trip, we had enthusiastically embraced the Italian custom of lingering together over a table of fresh food and delicious wine!