Hey!
Sorry its taken me so long to write anything, we’ve been rather busy and Florence is a city that doesn’t lend itself to staying cooped up!
We flew from Athens to Rome and immediately took a bus North to Florence. Everyone in the class is spread out all over the medieval town, our (Ole, Henry, Henning, and I) are a half block from the back side of the Duomo and can see everything from the bedroom windows. Our schedule has been significantly more relaxed than when we were in Greece. Generally we meet at a museum around noontime and take our time going through it, we then have the afternoon off. As a class we’ve been to San Marco, the Duomo Museum, the Museum of Science (not to be missed), and a handful of churches. We went to the Church of San Marco where Savonarola preached his fiery sermons and Cosimo Medici was once a monk. Angelico’s paintings in the cells ranged from superb to fairly average. On the hall towards Savonarola’s cell the scenes were fairly repetitive and I’m sure if you ran down the hallway looking into each cell it would have an effect similar to that of a flipbook. Afterwards I walked across the Arno and up to the Belvedere Fortress. Along the way it decided to rain half an ocean and I was stranded under a small six inch overhang over a gate on the side of the road. I made it up there and alas, it was closed! I walked around and tried to get into the Boboli Gardens, but it was ten Euros and I wasn’t about to pay that much to wander around in the sequel to Noah’s flood.
I walked down the hill and headed East up the Arno until I reached the bottom of another hill, from which I could see a medieval castle on the far hill. I naturally had to see if I could get to this castle and so I set off on a bit of a mad goose chase which ended in the gates being locked. On my way out I passed the Church of San Minato, so I naturally had to pay a visit to the nearly millennia old church. I think I can say without any kind of trepidation that San Minato is far and above the most gorgeous church I have ever been in. The woodwork of the roof and the stonework of the walls a phenomenal and the acoustics are beyond comprehension.
The second day was spent at the Duomo museum, home of the eerie statue of Mary Magdalene and Brunaleschi’s model of the dome. Afterwards I took a nap and headed back up to San Minato to catch Vespers. You cannot, cannot, cannot, visit Florence without attending vespers or mass at San Minato. The service was conducted with liberal amounts of Gregorian chanting emanating from the crypt. Henry and I went down into the crypt to watch. It was one of the most powerful things I have ever witnessed. Four monks were singing but it sounded like the heavens were alive with the sound of muuuussiiiiiccc.
Yesterday we went to the science museum and the Academia. The science museum in Florence is beyond bizarre. It was is if all of these animals used to be a part of an amazing zoo, and the zoo keepers got lazy and decided to stuff them all. There were huge crabs nearly 3 feet from leg to leg, 4 huge rooms of every bird ever thought of, and the famous wax anatomical models of humans. Whoever made these models was awfully sadistic as they were often bursting intestines, veins, and arteries in ways one would like to not write about. Their stomachs were slashed open revealing the mutilated remains of their innards and their faces betrayed nary a trace of sorrow at said action. As one cannot visit Florence without visiting the Academia, we naturally had to make our way there. The centerpiece of the collection there is Michelangelo's David; the bizarrely proportioned, slightly apprehensive David contemplating whether he actually wants to throw this tiny rock at Goliath. He looks like the jury is still out on it. The proportions are skewed because he was to be placed on top of the town hall, but naturally, as with most of Michelangelo's work it was found to be in poor taste to send the statue to the birds.
Anyways, I must go, we have a day off today and I bought Farenheit 451 and am intent on getting back into my book. Hopefully if the weather permits I can browse under the gaze of the Duomo with a nice glass of Florentine vino in hand!
No comments:
Post a Comment