Sunday, June 10
Wow, what an incredible 4 days I had traveling through Italy! I saw so many iconic works of art, visited so many landmarks, and even had an unfortunate run-in with Rome's police force, which I'll get to later. Seeing as today is Sunday, I'll begin my story fifteen days ago on Wednesday, June 6 (how can it possibly be that long?!) at 6:30am when Julia and I woke up in Verona.
We had showered and packed our suitcases the day before, which allowed us to leave the apartment quicker than usual, so we got to the bus stop at 7am. Before getting on the train at Verona Porta Nuova, I grabbed two creme-filled croissants in a train-station cafe. However, they were a sad disappointment compared to those of my little corner cafe. I shouldn't have been surprised.
Since we all had suitcases for Florence and our extended trips, we were weighted down and moved rather slowly. I'm sure we were quite a sight! On the train, we struggled to find room for our luggage in the overhead racks, and struggled even more to find our assigned seats. Neither Peter, nor my professor Jessica, could decode the seat numbering system. Italian trains are so hard to navigate! After we were moving, my professor handed back our first test, on which I got a 98! Woot!
To get to Florence, we had to transfer from a high-speed to a local train, and when we finally arrived at the station I was astounded by the mobs of people! Looking back from across the street, a steady flow of bodies oozed out of the station doors like molasses. It was somewhat gross.
As we made our way through the streets of Florence, trying to get to our hotel, we passed many, many shop windows until BAM!--we rounded a corner and were hit in the face with a view of Florence's famous cathedral, the Duomo, complete with it's unique dome by Brunellesci, tower by Giotto, and Romanesque baptistry with famous doors by Ghiberti. It was so beautiful. Red, white and green marble.
Here are some pictures:
The Duomo! This cathedral has the same name as the one in Verona, but Florence's is much more famous.
Fun Facts: The dome on top was built by Filippo Brunelesci, and its construction consumed most of his life. He worked on it from 1419-1436. Brunelesci won the commission over several other prominent artists including his life-long rival, Lorenzo Ghiberti. When presenting his idea, Brunelesci refused to share the entire plan so that no one *coughGhiberticough* could copy him. Surprise surprise, good old Ghiberti complained loudly after loosing the comission, and claimed that he had easily figured out Brunelesci's plan, which was really quite simple. So Brunelesci then faked sick and retreated to the countryside, asking his dear friend Ghiberti to take charge of the project until he was recovered. Not surprisingly, Ghiberti was forced to admit that he had no idea what he was doing, and begged Brunelesci to come back so the dome could be built.
This tower, located right next to the Duomo, was designed by Giotto, the same man who painted the Arena Chapel that I visited in Padua! How cool is that? People could climb to the top of the tower, but it cost an exorbitant amount of money, which I wasn't willing to pay.
This is the baptistry, right in front of the Duomo. It's an entire building dedicated to baptising babies! It's in the same style as the Duomo, and displays (behind bars) the famous "Doors of Paradise" that were designed by . . . drum roll . . . Lorenzo Ghiberti. Just kidding, these are copies. Ghiberti's original doors are kept safe in the Duomo's museum.
The baptistry is an octagon with three sets of doors that point East, North and South. In 1404, before the competition over the dome, Ghiberti entered another competition to design the baptistry's North doors. He was awarded the commission over--guess who--his life-long rival Brunelesci (and several lesser-known artists who's names have been lost to history). The North doors and the South doors (designed by a different artist), all feature biblical scenes in quadrofoil shapes. A quadrofoil kind of like a diamond with circles on the corners. The people in charge of the baptistry loved Ghiberti's North doors so much, they asked him to design the East doors, which would become even more famous and earn the title (possibly from Michelangelo) "The Doors of Paradise." These doors are remarkable for their perspective! Halfway up, the scenes appear at eye-level. The scenes near the ground appear like you are looking down into them, and the scenes near the top appear as if they are high up on a hill.
The East doors or "Doors of Paradise."
My tour guide :) So Italian.
This imposing fortress-like building is actually a palace! It belonged to the Medici family of Florence, and was intentionally made to look like a fort to deter the city folk from attempting to raid it or kill the family. It also concealed the Medici's opulent belongings and lifestyle. Eventually, however, they were run out of town not once, but several times, and the last woman in the family died unmarried and childless. She donated her last home to the city and that became the world-renowned Uffizi Gallery. It seems fitting that this palace is also an art gallery (I think).
The "supposed" house of Dante Alighieri, of the Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio). Dante was banned from the city of Florence (I forget exactly why), but now that he's famous (and dead), the city tries to honor him and commercialize him.
This sculpture "The Rape of the Sabine Women" is one of several that were being preserved during my visit. Behind it, you can see the center of the Florence government, where Michelangelo's David was originally set.
It's DAVID! He looks so at home in this big courtyard, but in reality, he is HUGE. Larger than life. And behind him is the Uffizi Gallery :)
Cool street artist drawing a detail of Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," which is housed in the Uffizi Gallery a few streets away! He worked on this drawing all day long and he was just finishing when I took this picture close to 11 at night.
And I haven't even gotten to tell you about the Florence Academia yet, where I saw the REAL Michelangelo's David! I'll have to make a separate post for that. For now, I'm just so happy I got another blog post up, even if my comments did start getting fewer and far between. You're welcome :)
