Benvenuti a Italia!
It's been a long train ride and I missed the snow-filled Switzerland stop, but we've arrived in Florence and like always, there's no time to waste and immediately start roaming the cobblestone roads. There's beautiful statues on every road, amazing architecture, and I can actually see and feel the sun!
We start our walk towards the Palazzo Vecchio and soon find ourselves amidst a replica of the statue of David as well as the gallery of statues. Having saved the best foods for last, we took a lunch break at a restaurant in the plaza where our party of 10 quickly learned that Italians do not make separate checks. Anyway, we enjoyed our free time walking the crowded shopping strips and eating some savory gelato!
It was not long until we realized that Florence isn't so big and there wasn't much to do outside of the museums, so we did just that, we went to museums. There was no way we could leave Florence without seeing Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, Titian's Venus of Urbino, Giotto's Ognissanti Maddona, and Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes to name a few paintings in the Uffizi Gallery. Such a small town filled with so much art! A lovely reminder of why I signed up for this trip. The next museum we visited was the Accademia Gallery where we saw the star of the show, Michelangelo's David. A stunning 14 feet tall, Michelangelo's David is possibly the world's most recognizable masterpiece, depicting David as the perfect man both inside and out. Being able to see David up close and walk around him was so incredible. I've never seen such a craft, such perfection, such beauty. Michelangelo, teach me your ways! Something that really struck me was seeing an art class occupying benches at the gallery as they sketched Michelangelo's David on a sheet of paper. There have been many times that my own assignments have called for the study of an artwork at a museum in Houston. I couldn't even begin to imagine how amazing it would be to have David in my hometown, being able to walk into the gallery and sketch him whenever I'd like, analyze him for a limitless amount of time and write a paper on what I see. Oh how I wish I would've had time to sit and sketch!
Comments
Post a Comment