Florence

Buena sera,

Sorry it has been so long since I have last blogged. This past week I was in southern Italy for three days getting several large doses of Roman ruins, but I will save that for later. I figured it best to start from where I last left off which was Florence. I went to Florence for two consecutive Fridays a few weeks back. It was mostly rainy and to say the least no one really wanted to be wet all day, forchunately I was hoping to fall in love with Florence.

Our first stop was the Duomo of course. It is not too far from the train station but relatively speaking nothing it that far from the train station. The Duomo was grand with the baptestry directly across from it in the piazza. They both have the same style or zebra stiping layers but they were built in completly differnt time periods by different artists. Our guide and teacher Marco was certian to point it out the doors of the Baptesty which are famous in the architecture world, solid bronze doors with 8 Biblical stories depicted on it. Also the Baptestry had 8 sides and Marco was certian to point out that 8 was a very important number for Christains, which I always thought was reserved for the number 7, anyone know the real anwser? In side the church was rather empty but had some points of interest, the rose window, and of course the dome itself. The dome was designed by Brunellesci and was an engineering feat and took decades if not a century to fully complete. The dome has now been painted with frescos of the end times if I recall correctly. However, you have to pay a few euros to see the frescos and climb the Dome. There is also the option of the bell tower or Campinille for the Duomo that has only a few over 400 stairs for a cheaper price. I have yet to do either, but intend on it next time it is actually sunny in Florence.

After that stop we stoped by Donte's Chaple and residence. If you dont know who Donte is he was a writer who was very much against the politics of religion and wrote "The Divine Comedy". Following Dante we walked the Courso and arrived at the Piazza della Signoria which is the heart of the city and know as the piazza of the people. On the square is the Pallazo vechio which is the Town Hall and the Uffizi gallery.

The Uffizi gallery was visited the following Friday, also known as the COLDEST day of winter. The gallery was beautiful it had all kinds of wonderful paintings from different periods. The majority of the early paintings were of Mother Mary and Jesus. I do think I have ever seen so many Jesus's before. As the paintings progressed the improtance of the art or what was depicted changed to the improtance of the artist themselves as is with Michalengelo, Giotto, Raphael, or Leonardo da Vinci. It was very intersting non the less, but lots of naked people, lol.

In addition to the Uffizi gallery I have seen Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, unforchunately after awhile all the churches seem to blend together especially in Florence because all the churches are predominately Renaissance style and look alike in design. But someting interesting about Santa Croce is that it is the largest chruch in Florence and that many famous families are burried there becasue they could bribe the clergy to let them be burried there. Well I thought it was interesting at least, the "holy" men being bribed.

After that I wondered to Ponte Vechio which is a bridge with shops on it over the river, the concept was really cool but all the shops were jewelry so I found it a bit disappointing.

Overall, I still did not love Florence, mostly because of the weather. I will be going several more times I imagine over the semester to see all the sites and hope to like it the more I am there.

Ciao,
Renae