The peak of Florence

Buongiorno!

I am sitting at the hostel after a GREAT day. We woke up very early today to get to the Galleria dell'Accademia before the line formed. It was really hard for me to sleep this morning because Mami was loud and got up at 4 something and the road was super loud after that. But we got up at 7 and packed up and stored our bags under our beds and remembered to wear sunscreen and got out early. We stopped on the way to the museum at a little corner shop that sold lottery tickets and booze and had pastries. The nice man didn't speak much English, but he made us Cappuccinos and we ate our breakfast at one of the little tables there. We got our cappuccinos to go because I was worried about the line, but it turns out we were really close to the museum. We got in line around 8 and it opens at 815 and we didn't have to wait at all. There was an exhibit showcasing photos by Robert Mapplethorpe that we decided to check out.

The exhibit was really cool. It was all about how Mapplethorpe's work is similar to Michaelangelo and other renaissance sculpting. There were three sections (well four but we skipped the video one about motion): Fragments as form, geometric form, and multiple forms. Basically, the photos capture the human form much the way sculpture does, with shadows and dimension. Mapplethorpe's photos often are of fragments of the body but they don't seem fragmented, they seem intentional like the busts and torsos of sculpting. In fact, there were photos of sculptures too, and a few of Michaleangelo's sketches along side the photos. The geometric forms complemented the bodies beautifully and the multiples were vey interesting - opposites and duplicates of people and parts and objects too. Then we exited the the exhibit and BAM! there was David. It was spectacular. We were in a really good place to see him. We were happy and well rested and had talked about the photo exhibit and really got a lot out of it. The David was incredible. The detail and realism is just unfathomable. His veins are subtle and real, his eyes more real than any other sculpture. He has not only pupils reflecting light, but irises as well. We learned from my book that the right hand is enlarged to convey the hand of God that helped him beat the giant. The statue was commissioned when Michaelangelo was just 26 and it was for the cathedral, but it was so good that everyone voted for where it would go and they chose right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the government building. There is now a fake David there that we also saw (later). The pure scope of the David is awesome. He is HUGE. I wondered how much he weighed and how they moved him to the Accademia. Its crazy to think of that big block of marble. And I cant imagine moving it. I would be so scared I'd break it. The statue conveys a humble confidence, the slingshot very minimized, David looking straight out. There is controversy as to whether it is a depiction of him before or after fighting Goliath. I read both ways. Either way, its impressive. The more I looked at it the harder it was to look away. I could definitely see it again and again. It truly is the best sculpture in the world. They weren't lying.

We also really enjoyed the other sculptures by Michaelangelo, the unfinished Prisoners and a few others. The Prisoners, I believe, are representative of being imprisoned in the human form. Because they are unfinished, you can really see how a sculpture happens and how the process of carving is like sketching, rough at first and then refined as you go. We were impressed by the feeling the unfinished sculptures were able to convey, Almost like they were emerging from the blocks of stone. It made me want to try chiselling something. I wonder how often marble cracks apart and you have to start over. We also really loved the Giambologna by Jean de Boulogne (especially Jane) it is the "Rape of the Sabines" and is a very powerful image of a soldier trying to save a woman while an older man cowers under him. The one at the accademia is plaster, but we saw the real one in the Piazza della Signoria (later). We jotted a little in our notebooks before heading out in the rain. Our other scheduled event was to go to the Duomo, but it was raining so we decided to wait for it to clear up. We looked around for lunch but realized it was really early, which is why it was taking us so long to find something. We were dying so we ate some cookies out of my bag under an overhang at the theatre and decided we would check out the Bargello museum. We went in but decided against it when we saw Donatello's Bronze David from the lobby (from behind but still) and realized we were too Museumed out and it cost €8 each. Back into the rain we went, and getting hungry again, and decided to make our way toward the Piazza della Signoria and maybe check out the Palazzo Vecchio and look for lunch on the way. Soon, though the sky started clearing and we decided to get to the Duomo QUICKLY before a line formed. Lo and behold, we happened on the Piazza anyway. This was the very same Piazza that we went through when we first got to Florence and were creeped out and scared. We hadn't even noticed the fake David! Today, though we really appreciated it. It was very busy with people and I eavesdropped on a tour while Jane ran around taking pictures. I learned about Cosimo Medici and his arrogance. He had a statue of Neptune carved in his likeness and put in the political center of the city. He is also the subject for another big sculpture of him mounted on a horse. We saw the fake David and heard the story of voting to put him there, and saw the piece opposite him, a Hercules I think, done by someone else who got a lot of flack for it and no one liked after ward. We saw the marble Rape of the Sabine Women, and I learned the Roman myth behind that (basic ethnic cleansing, look it up), and I also learned about the Bronze Medusa Statue (apparently by Cellini). It was one of the very early uses of of the "Lost Wax" method, where the piece is sculpted in wax and then covered in clay and let to dry, then bronze is poured in and the wax leaves through a little hole and then you chip away the clay and ta-da! You have Perseus standing on her body while holding her head. Its really kinda gross, there are entrails coming out of her neck, but a very powerful piece. There were lots of other sculptures too, on some sort of balcony thing on one of the other fancy buildings.

On to the Duomo (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore). It was much more beautiful from the front. It is covered in very ornate marble of white, pink, and green. It is very Gothic and the outside was done in the 19th century as a revival. The square in front of the Cathedral was very busy with people taking pictures and we couldn't figure out how to get up in the dome. The entrance was closed, so Jane waited in the line to go into the church while I ran around and found the entrance to the Bell Tower. The Dome was closed, but I blackberry chatted Jane to come to the other side and bought 2 tickets to climb to the top. No elevator like for the Dome. We went to the top and took some pictures, and I wasn't scared! Then I noticed a small staircase that kept going up. We went up to the next level and took more pictures, and could see down to where we had been. I was so proud of myself for not being scared, but then we found more staircases. We went up and up and up and kept finding staircases and then I was getting really nervous. We went all the way to the tippy top, and boy was it a workout. The winding narrow stone stairway was hard to pass people on. We caught our breath and I got up some nerve on a bench under the little wooden roof and then we went out. Luckily there was a cage over us, which helps me a lot. I hung onto the gutter (yes we were as high as the freaking gutter) at first but it got better after a while. We could see the dome, which was neat, and everything around us. I am looking in my book now, and Apparently it is called Giotto's Tower or Campanile and is 270 feet tall and only 50 steps fewer than the dome). We stayed up there for a while and looked all around and found all the things we had seen and saw lots of hillsides dotted with villages. Eventually I wasn't scared at all and went around with out Jane (don't worry she was taking pictures nearby, its small) We saw a huge black storm coming from the hills and thought we'd better go down and get to a lunch place before it poured. And this is what we did! We tried to get as far from the Duomo as we could and took a recommendation for a pizza shop from a souvenier girl and found a place just before the sky opened up.

We sat at a big table and near by was a young couple from New York. He had just proposed to her in Venice and we had a nice time chatting with them. He was a classic New York Italian Yankee fan, and told us where they were staying if we got into trouble, so he could beat anyone up that we needed. I got Margherita Pizza and Jane got Prosciutto and Funghi (that's ham and mushrooms) and we treated ourselves to iced tea (mine was peach, hers wasn't) we jotted more in our notebooks. After the rain stopped we went back to our hostel, which was kind of close, by way of a skype internet cafe. Now we are back and I have been writing forever and we just booked tomorrow night's hostel.

The plan as of now is to take a train to Siena tomorrow morning and spend the morning looking around there. Its a small city that was recommended to me and they have a beautiful cathedral. Then we will spend the afternoon in Assissi, a medieval (?) fortress town home of St. Francis. Dr. Tom said we have to go there, so we are. We just booked a hostel a train stop away from Assissi in Foligno. I think then we will head to Rome, but not sure yet.

Today we felt on top of the world, literally and figuratively. We are comfortable and know our way around some, and we accomplished everything on our list and early enough to mess around this afternoon. We are trying not to pressure ourselves to see too much art, it all blurs together and gets overwhelming. I hope we can handle Rome and Paris. Jane is looking up hostels in Rome and saying they are booked and we should get on this. Good thing we aren't going in peak season! Florence has been a blast and we feel very empowered by our first city. I think this trip will be great. We are really thinking we will get to Greece! So exciting. We just have to do the southern things early on so poor Janie doesn't melt .

Sorry these blogs are so long, I just don't want to forget anything!

Much Love,

Graham and Jane