Florence

Florence
Hotel: Crocedi Malta
Dinner: TrePini



We woke up at a later time in the morning, we set the alarm for I think 7:30 (it was so wonderful) and as soon as we had all gathered in the lobby we started our walk to the Galleria dell’ Academia where there was a smaller collection of statues and paintings, including the prize of the collection, Michelangelo’s David. The impressive statue, of the nude David who triumph’s over the giant Goliath is a full 17ft tall and is carved out of a single piece of marble. Up close the work was very impressive, it was so detailed even down to the veins and creases of his hands. Plus its huge, which from pictures it is hard to conceptualize, you can’t really “see” the work until you are looking at the original face to face.


(David Replica)


(Florence Duomo)

After David we walked to Florence’s large and impressive Duomo, the Santa Maria del Fiore (Santa Maria of the Flower), which was highly decorated from the outside in detailed colors of whites, greys, pinks and shades of pale green. All the colors blended boldly with the arcs and curves of the cathedral’s design, and made the outside rather remarkable compared to other Duomo’s I had seen. We went inside and had a guided tour into what actually went into designing the large Duomo (I know I keep saying large but the word doesn’t do it justice, I cannot impress upon you how magnificently huge these churches where, they were unreal). Actually a lot of the churches back then we found out had revisions before they were completed to make them bigger. The Santa Maria was one such church that was revised to become larger so that it could compete in having one of the largest churches. After touring the church we went to see how long the line was for the Uffizi art gallery, Italy’s greatest collection of masterpieces. This was the one place in Florence I wanted to see ridiculously bad, and it would take an hour to an hour and half just to get into the museum we found out. Because of this, I looked for a loop whole and found that after asking a guard we could get a timed reservation to see the museum. So taking this advice we bought a ticket for an entrance at 1:30 and it was perfect! We went back to go to Santa Croce (where Michelangelo’s tomb is) and viewed yet another magnificent church. Every church I see, I can’t help thinking the amount of man power and time and tons of money must have been used to build these houses of God. It amazes me the amount of influence and power religion held over the Italian people! Well while we were in the piazza in front of the church we went touring about the shops including a leather shop that sold the most beautiful jackets. They put me in a cranberry colored one and had me walk back and forth to show everyone what a good leather jacket could look like. Too bad it was over 300 Euro’s. That means probably close to 400-500 dollars US. We kind of left in a hurry after that.


(Rape of the Sabine Women)

Oh yes we also got to see the Piazza della Signoria, which was next to the Uffizzi art gallery. There was a copy of Michelangelo’s David in the original’s old spot, so I got a picture of myself with that. Also in the same square was a couple of originals including the famous Rape of the Sabine Women and the statue Perseus by Cellini in which Perseus holds in his hand the conquered head of Medusa.
Alright then, let’s get to talking about the highlight of the day, the Uffizi (by the way this was my absolute favorite part of Italy/ I write this after the completion of the trip). The gallery’s contents were more breathtaking then words can describe. Works by Botticelli including the famous Birth of Venus, works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, and my new favorite Carvaggio littered the entire museum. I cannot describe in words how absorbed and fascinated I was by each painting, but I will tell you I bought an art book of Carvaggio’s and a few single pictures of favorite works.



Last night we also had an awesome Italian dinner on the hills of the outskirts of Florence. It was a real feast and everyone had a great time. We’ve had a lot of laughs thus far in the trip, and at the dinner we sat next to a son and father from California. I leave off with a picture of the 4 of us at our table.



Ciao, Leslie.