UFFIZI, Conclusion

Your tour of the Uffizi Gallery can take many hours. The new rooms on the first floor have less paintings and sculptures than the main corridors, but are still full of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Italian and European masterpieces. You can also appreciate how well the colors of these rooms have been chosen: the candid ancient marble stands out against the red background, while a bright blue welcomes the canvases of the Flemish and Dutch masters.

I suggest paying special attention to the three canvases by Caravaggio, which alone make the trip here worth it. The painter's early work Bacchus shows his extraordinary ability in replicating still lifes, such as the overflowing fruit bowl or the large cup of wine.

Next is the awesome Medusa, with its decapitated head full of horrible serpents; this was painted as a parade shield, and is an ornament forming part of luxurious and exotic armor.

Lastly, go to Sacrifice of Isaac, one of Caravaggio's few works set within a landscape. In all three works, you can sense his desire to demonstrate things directly, almost violently, bringing you live into the action....