Andiamo a Firenze!
We took our first (unorganized) weekend trip last weekend to
the beautiful city of Florence! So much Renaissance I could die.
The city, of course, is unfathomably beautiful. Though you
don’t have the ruins scattered all willy-nilly like we do in Rome, the city is
a mixture of beautiful Romanesque/Gothic/Renaissance glory.
Unfortunately, the place is so rampant with tourists that I
really had a hard time enjoying much of the outdoor sightseeing. Additionally,
I think I went the entire weekend without hearing more than three words of
Italian, which seems ridiculous.
I did, however, get to see a very welcome familiar face!
Jack met me in the city (a day before the rest of the group showed up) and we
feverishly knocked out a bunch of the sight seeing.
We walked around a bunch Friday evening to look at the
amazing view by the river and catch our first glimpse of the main churches, il
Duomo, and the rest of the area, but due to a very unfortunate train ride I
ended up having a horrendous headache and we spend most of the night, after
dinner, in our hostel room.
…Funny story, when we booked our hostel we had a double
room, but when we got there they had to move us to a single with a king sized
bed…Oh reliability… On the bright side the room was a lot cheaper and the
hostel owner, Leonardo, was kinda the bomb so everything seemed to even out.
The next day we hauled our butts outa bed and hiked straight
to the top of the dome, which I would like to point out, is a pretty impressive
feat. I only bumped my head once on the way up and despite my quivering legs
after getting back down the journey was tooootally worth it. The view of the
city is un-freaking-believable and I was so happy to see the amazing frescoes
up close. As you will see from the photos, the hell scenes were obviously my
favorite. Who doesn’t love a good demonic beast eating condemned sinners, am I right?!
After the dome we met up with John, a fellow Rome studier,
and went right to the Uffizi. I’m sure the boys were just thrilled to have gone
with one of the three of use that literally piddle ourselves with joy whilst in
the presence of art.
I can’t tell you how many times I gasped, sighed, or
sputtered in front of one of the works in this wonderful museum, but I can tell
you that it only took me until the first room to have my eyes well up with
tears. Nerdtasmic.
The first room we walked into was the one containing the
three glorious and immense altarpieces that pretty much symbolize the birth of
the Renaissance for painters; Cimabue, Duccio, and Giotto all in one room
towering over me…. And I died. (That was just from the first room ;) )
The other most momentous experience I had there was walking
into a room, slightly oblivious to the paintings on the other side of the room,
and turning around to see Botticelli’s masterpieces. Though he was never the
most interesting artist to study, I must say that after being able to
practically stick my nose in his most renowned works, he was an amazing artist.
Later Jack told me that he was glad that he got to go to
these museums with me and hear me ramble random facts about the art, which made
me a little proud. I’m glad at least a
little of my enthusiasm and love for this stuff is contagious.
Sunday was spent seeing Michelangelo’s David and wondering
through the markets on the street before heading back to Rome. I must say we
did meet some pretty interesting characters on our trip to Florence… I probably
won’t elaborate on this blog post since I seem to have rambled on and excessive
amount already, but I will say that I think we made some very hilarious
memories not the least of which involving crazy Italian street vendors that
like to give the American boys advice on how to pick up the ladies.
No comments:
Post a Comment