Thursday: I was really brave this morning and actually managed to wake up at 8a. While this was an excellent idea in practice (we could have been out in Florence by 8:45a) I was the only one able to get up at this time. Oh well. I had a very quiet half an hour all to myself as I got ready. It took a good hour or so but we were eventually all up and ready to go by 9:30a. The first thing we did was find a place to get some breakfast in lovely Florence. I got a panini-type of sandwich that had ham and cheese on it, a creamy coffee, and a sweet, flaky pastry. An excellent way to start the day!
After breakfast we started walking towards the Accademia: a small-ish museum but which is the home of.... *wait for it*.... Michelangelo's "DAVID." Can you believe the things I am getting to see in my life right now?? Neither can I...
We paid the cheap charge to go in and see this masterpiece but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of him. Oh not to worry, that doesn't mean that we didn't! ;)
A picture of "David" taken by the wonderfully, subtly-strategic Joseph
It is one of those awe-inspiring pieces of art that makes you feel like you need to sit down when you look at it. Probably the biggest reason for this is that the statue is purposefully larger-than-life. If you were to look at David's face at eye-level, you would find him strikingly unattractive: his facial features, in particular, are dramatic and unrealistic. He has deep lines in his face and his eyebrows jut out farther than they should. But all of this is done on purpose because when you look at him correctly (from below), he looks majestic and terrifying and terrified and glorious all at the same time. How cool is that?! Michelangelo constructed "David" so large and so high up so that people would have to admire him with their heads tipped back and mouths wide open. I just LOVE little artist-secrets like this- they make art so much more profound and intriguing. The "David" statue is also really interesting not just because it is one of the most famous statues in the world, nor because it was created by one of the most famous artists in history, but it's interesting because- like most great art- it is telling a story as you look at it. Of course, you have to know a little bit about the story of David and Goliath beforehand but if you do, you can pick up on the fact that this statue is of David right before he kills the beast. You can see the rock in his hand, not yet thrown, his eyes staring in intensity (and maybe a little fear?) at his foe, and you can see the mal-proportioned size of his feet and hands to the rest of his body (signifying his physically-awkward, young age). I'm not sure if I've told you yet, but I really love art and I am developing an honest passion for it. I am starting to feel like being inside of a museum is quite possibly one of my favorite things to do, and this is why: for me, I am astounded by this story-telling characteristic to great art. For instance, I thought about all of the characteristics I just mentioned while I was looking at "David" and then I took a step back and went, "woah, wait a second. I am looking at a solid, unmoving statue, of a person who is simply standing there, and it just incited all of those thoughts in my head? How?!" This is incredible to me and I think it takes such profound skill and talent to do this! Perhaps this is why people are often described as "marveling" at art rather than "looking" at it?
We spent a good 20 minutes absorbing this masterpiece of marble and then it was time to move onto the next dazzling constructions: the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, its duomo, the bell tower, and the "Gates of Paradise" on the adjoining Baptistery. The dome of the cathedral is the largest brick dome ever constructed and the entire building is simply gorgeous. I don't have much more to say about it except that it is something that should be admired forever.
Wow- true beauty right before our eyes! We stood enraptured for a few minutes and then we headed on in to see the inside of the dome: a massive visual display of where you get to go when you're good and where you end up when you're bad... yikes!
Touching the door on my way inside... I had to make sure it was real.
Are you serious?????
*Once again, the things that human beings are capable of creating are really astonishing to me.* We definitely allowed ourselves to truly spend some time in here. The dome tells a story just like the "David" but honestly, this is a much more complex story and to absorb it correctly you should stand under the center of it with your head tipped back for at least an hour. I don't know if it's possible, but I would like to come back here one day when it isn't very crowded, with a blanket and lay on my back under the dome just staring for as long as I feel like it. That sounds like a beautiful way to pass some time...
When we headed back outside, I got to see yet another artwork that we studied in my art history class: "The Gates of Paradise" by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The doors stand on the north side of the baptistery and they took 21 years to complete. Actually, they were created for a door-making competition. Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi (the man who constructed the dome we just saw the inside of) tied for first and were supposed to create the doors together, but Brunelleschi's pride got in the way and he left Ghiberti to create what Michelangelo eventually dubbed "The Gates of Paradise."
"The Gates of Paradise," 1422; Lorenzo Ghiberti
We decided, once again, not to pay to go inside of the baptistery but Joe and I did pay 6 euros to hike all the way to the top of the bell tower for the best view of Florence (the others didn't want to tackle the stairs). It was exhausting and my legs shut down by the time we reached the top, but it was well worth it: I got to marvel at the entire city of Florence with the wind in my hair and the sun in my eyes.
Hello Florence, I think you are gorgeous :)
The three people at the bottom, center of the picture are (left to right) Roshanna, Selene, and Chantalle. Roshanna is taking a picture of me at the top of the tower taking a picture of her on the ground. Cool no? :)
Now THIS was a great way to get a good look at Florence, Italy. After we had soaked up enough of the view, Joe and I shook out our legs and made the climb down. By the time we reached the bottom, I had decided that the next thing I was going to do was a tie between ordering lunch and sitting down, and I didn't care if anyone came with me or not. Fortunately, everyone else was hungry and in need of a rest too so we walked for a couple minutes and found a cute café where we had lunch. I went simple and ordered a pre-made bowl of meat raviolis that was sitting in the window. I was hungry enough that I really just wanted something that could be heated up and served right away. With this I had another coffee, and also replenished my well-diminished carb and endorphin supplies with a sugar doughnut topped with Nutella. :)
Once we felt like we could get back on our feet (the vacation is starting to wear on us by now), we headed to the Galleria degli Uffizi which has one of the most important art collections in Italy. There we saw a ton of art that I studied in my class- including works by DaVinci, Cimabue, Caravaggio, Duccio, Rembrandt, and Titian- and it was just overall a very impressive place to be. I can tell you that I had an amazing time slowly strolling through each room and trying to find the story in everything that caught my eye but I did feel a little like I was with younger siblings (not specifically Spencer and Sabrina, mind you)- the others just couldn't quite appreciate everything we were seeing. They hurried through the gallery a little bit, and unfortunately, that was the pace I needed to match. We had to get ourselves back to the hostel in time to make our train to Verona.
Some pics Joe also stole at the Uffizi:
"The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli (sorry for the glare)
"Madonna of the Goldfinch" by Rahaël
"Madonna With the Long Neck" by Parmigianino
We had a tiny bit of complication with leaving the museum: for one, Selene never actually came in (she didn't want to pay for it), Chantalle left Joe and I to go out and meet her when she was tired of being in the museum, and Roshanna went somewhere to sit down... but none of us knew where that was. Joe hung back with me while I enjoyed the art we had paid to see cause he has this rule about not leaving anyone in the group alone. So when Joe and I were done, we walked out of the exit and all the way back around to the front to look for Chantalle and Selene. We found them after a few minutes but Roshanna hadn't come out to meet them. Unfortunately, Joe and Roshanna were the only two in the group who still had minutes left on their phones and we all wanted to guard those for as long as possible. So Joe and I walked back to the exit and I attempted to get back in; I told the security guard there that I had lost my friend and asked if I could look for her by the bathroom. She wasn't happy about it but she let me in and I went to look for Rosie. After about 10 minutes, I hadn't found her so I came out. Thankfully, Joe had just received a call from her that she was on her way out. Eventually, we had our whole group back together. Phew! We celebrated by going to see the Ponte Vecchio in the daylight (sans Rosie because she wasn't feeling well). It would be the last true site we would see in Florence on this vacation.
Me, Chantalle, and Selene on the Ponte Vecchio!
Finally, we made it back to the hostel to get our bags and head to the train station. Unfortunately, the guy who runs the front desk was not there to let anyone in, and I don't know what the heck he was thinking when he left because there was another group there with us that was waiting to check into their room. At least Joe was able to get in touch with him on his cell and the guy said he would be there in 20 minutes. Chantalle, Selene, and I were all hungry and tired so we went across the street to a café called Caffé Michelangiolo to get something to eat and to sit while we waited. I got a sandwich with ham, cheese, and lettuce and another coffee. Hey, it had already been a long day and we still had a train to catch!
The guy finally showed up, apologized profusely, and let us in to get our bags. We said buy after that and then hauled all of our things and our tired selves to the nearest bus stop so we could get to the train station. THAT was an experience! The buses in Italy are way smaller than you would expect: they're more like large vans where the seats in the back have all been ripped out so you can cram people inside. And they fly through the insanely bumpy cobblestoned streets. I nearly fell over my luggage when the driver turned a corner. Basically, we were thankful to get off at the train station and be standing on solid ground again. The only problem when we got to the train station? We didn't have tickets yet, nor did we know which train we wanted to take. Obviously we wanted to take the soonest and most direct line but that can be hard to figure out when you don't speak Italian. Joe offered to run across the street to figure out what we should do so the four of us went in and sat at McDonald's. We all decided to just buy dinner there and bring it on the train because we had no clue what time we would be getting into Verona. Joe got back saying that there was a train leaving in half an hour from another train station or there was one leaving in four hours from the main one across the street. Well I absolutely refused to sit at a Florence McDonald's with nothing to do for the next four hours so we tried to figure out where that other train station was. I'll make another long story short: we never found the other train station and had to wait four hours for the second train. We spent it all at McDonald's and it worked out fine: each of us did our own thing for distraction/stress relief. Joe spent it reading, Rosie worked on postcards, I wrote in my journal and I don't even remember what Chantalle and Selene did. When we finally got on the train, we were feeling better- we had a car to ourselves and we had fun for the first half our joking around and playing games. Eventually the ticket lady came by and of course, she told us we were in the wrong car. We had to move all the way to the last car and naturally, we didn't have a car to ourselves. Oh well, we got to rest for a couple hours. We finally got off in Verona (late) and realized we had to take a taxi to get to our hotel. Rosie had gotten really sick at this point- she had a fever and was coughing up a storm- so there was no way we could make her walk any farther in the cold. We just sucked it up and paid for the taxi. When we made it to the hotel, it was like 12:30a or something like that but the guy at the front desk was really understanding and gave us no issues. He also let us pay for our rooms later, rather than having to do that whole thing right then. Allie met us downstairs, and we were all happy to see her... it had been days since she was a part of our group! Basically, we got things all situated at the desk and then Rosie went up to the two person room with Allie and the four rest of us crashed in our own room. We all agreed that there wasn't much left to do on this vacation and we were too exhausted to feel motivated to do anything anyways. The vacation wasn't done yet but we felt plenty full of experiences by now. We agreed to not even set an alarm for the morning but just sleep until we woke up. Yes!
