Why Florence? Because then I'll finally have a stamp in my passport and it'll say ITALY on it!!
Okay, I'm still moshing quotes from the movie.
Our hotel in Florence can be called nothing except perhaps "quaint." But it had the benefits of 8 beds in 2 rooms, free breakfast, being very close to the city center, parking, and - best of all - cheap. Which will give you a picture of what we mean when we call it "quaint."
But since all we needed was a place to hang our bags and lay our heads, it suited our purposes.
Sunday morning, we headed into town.
We went to Mass at the Cathedral of Santa Croce, which is (some important-y fact) Franciscan parish in (some geographical area).
It does boast the tombs of Galileo, Dante, and Machiavelli.
After Mass, we wandered through the streets and piazzas of the city, enjoying the sounds of the buskers and the lack of agressive hawkers. (There were hawkers there, of course. But in a "it was like this before" kind of way.)
There were a lot of creative buskers, but one of our favorites was the puppeteer with his marionettes.
We had originally intended to go straight to the Accademie Gallery where The David is kept to see if there was a line (often the queue can go for hours), but since we were hungry, we decided to go to the Piazza Duomo to get lunch and see the Cathedral Maria del Fiori.
We got lunch at little pizza shop where the proprietress cut the pizzas in such a way as to put Robespierre to shame.
You almost felt bad for the poor, innocent pizzas having the ax drop upon them with such merciless force.
The Duomo is as amazing as all things you read about it, so I won't bother repeating it.
It was particularly interesting to see so concretely how churches used to be the Forums of their day with the civic area of the church melding into religious.
We then walked to the Accademie. All the tour guides said to be ready for a long line and we had prepared the kids for the idea that we might have to content ourselves with seeing the full sized marble model in one of the piazzas across town. As we got closer to the museum, I was annoyed at the number of tacky, vulgar David "souvenirs." I didn't bother taking any pictures.
But we were shockingly and pleasantly surprised by the museum. There was no line at all and we discovered it would be open for another 3 hours. Having just done the Vatican Museums the day before yesterday, we knew that the kids wouldn't be up for much longer than that. The museum itself was interesting with quite a lot of paintings and sculptures.
One of its primary focuses is showing the differences between the plaster models of sculptures and the final marble statue. There was the first draft of Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines, as well as a group of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures.
The David is also as impressive as they say. The biggest disappointment is the coarse potty humor outside the museum, but inside, the room was filled with fellow enthusiasts who appreciated the artistic talent that Michelangelo showed here.
Florence was a good antidote to Rome.
Our hotel in Florence can be called nothing except perhaps "quaint." But it had the benefits of 8 beds in 2 rooms, free breakfast, being very close to the city center, parking, and - best of all - cheap. Which will give you a picture of what we mean when we call it "quaint."
We could also call it Roswellian.
But since all we needed was a place to hang our bags and lay our heads, it suited our purposes.
Sunday morning, we headed into town.
Florence was a picture of the small yet big Italian town.
We went to Mass at the Cathedral of Santa Croce, which is (some important-y fact) Franciscan parish in (some geographical area).
Strange bedfellows.
By the way, Andrew, here's how to do non-derpy lions.
After Mass, we wandered through the streets and piazzas of the city, enjoying the sounds of the buskers and the lack of agressive hawkers. (There were hawkers there, of course. But in a "it was like this before" kind of way.)
There were a lot of creative buskers, but one of our favorites was the puppeteer with his marionettes.
The pigeons were ecstatic when Irene dropped her crust.
The Duomo is as amazing as all things you read about it, so I won't bother repeating it.
It was particularly interesting to see so concretely how churches used to be the Forums of their day with the civic area of the church melding into religious.
We then walked to the Accademie. All the tour guides said to be ready for a long line and we had prepared the kids for the idea that we might have to content ourselves with seeing the full sized marble model in one of the piazzas across town. As we got closer to the museum, I was annoyed at the number of tacky, vulgar David "souvenirs." I didn't bother taking any pictures.
But we were shockingly and pleasantly surprised by the museum. There was no line at all and we discovered it would be open for another 3 hours. Having just done the Vatican Museums the day before yesterday, we knew that the kids wouldn't be up for much longer than that. The museum itself was interesting with quite a lot of paintings and sculptures.
One of its primary focuses is showing the differences between the plaster models of sculptures and the final marble statue. There was the first draft of Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines, as well as a group of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures.
Honestly, I found seeing the slow progression from rock to form almost more awesome than the finished product.
Prior to our trip, we did a unit study on Michelangelo and the (perhaps apocraphal) quote of "Trifles make perfections and perfection is no trifle" was mentioned by each of them as they looked at the different stages of body, texture, and personhood.
(St. Matthew, originally commissioned as part of a 12 statue group for St. Peter's Basilica)
There is debate among art scholars whether Michelangelo had intended to finish these or if it was an intentional choice to leave the figures locked in stone.
The David is also as impressive as they say. The biggest disappointment is the coarse potty humor outside the museum, but inside, the room was filled with fellow enthusiasts who appreciated the artistic talent that Michelangelo showed here.
(It was such a stark change from the crowd mobbing around the Pieta - it was like night and day) And I love the fact that I can have actual conversations about the form and figure and work of scultpure with my kids.
Florence was a good antidote to Rome.
Comments