Buongiorno!
Today is our last day in Florence and I want to cry. Why is it so hard to leave such wonderful cities? However, I am VERY excited because we get to see Michaelangelo’s David today!!
Actually most of our day was dedicated to this wildly talented man. We started off the morning visiting his chapel not too far away. There was a whole room built for the tombs of the dukes of the time. And each of them had commissioned a tombstone pretty much as high as the cathedral wall for themselves to be built by Michelangelo.
It’s not really much to look at from the outside. And you’d think with 300+ years of construction they would have triple checked their blueprints. Seems like someone screwed up because the stones near the keystone arch were beginning to fall. Hence the huge scaffolding and restoration attempts.
Apparently the first Medici duke, Cosimo, who basically helped make the Medicis the figures they’re known as today, was obsessed with holy relics, which is a big euphemism for dead bones of alleged holy people. It’s creepy to see them adorned with gold and packaged in the mode of a Faberge egg.
I’d take the catacombs and bone piles in Peru any day over the hundred boxes like these throughout the church. Some had fingers, others had femurs and even this skull. It was gross. The Duke, Cosimo,even used to wear them!!! He thought the holiness of these people was preserved and that their bones would give him the holy aura and powers they held? To each their own I guess. I’d like yesterday’s tiara instead, please.
The marble work was exquisite and Mom and I were freaking out over these semi precious inlays.
We finally got to some of the tombs Michelangelo was commissioned for. He seemed to have left a lot of unfinished work if you ask me. We know that he got called away by the Pope to make the Sistine Chapel but we can’t seem to figure out how he could have left so many pieces undone. Especially when he was probably paid at least in part!!
See what I mean about each of the graves being the whole wall? This is ONE tombstone. It’s got the dude on it, then an interpretation of Dawn and Dusk. Guess who’s death? The sleeping woman of course...if you know me, you know I’m majorly eye rolling right now.
Mom and I wanted to take an easy day just really soaking in everything that Florence had to offer us. Which is how we happened upon the Galileo Museum. And you thought our neediness was reserved for art. Nope. We totally geeked out on all these ancient tools!! Look at this thing!
Basically the Medici’s commissioned plenty of scientific endeavors as well. This here is what they thought the universe looked like. The top that I had to cut off was a cross to represent God and Heaven. We have earth in the center of the universe, 7 planets rotating around it, the sun and moon, etc. All these gears actually turned and I was so, so tempted to touch it. But I was good, because we had three other floors to explore.
Following along with other wildly inaccurate truths of the time, here we have Marco Polo’s map!! I’m pointing at Persia. Which apparently is below India and above “Asia” hmmmm. Being the world traveler I am, I’m reaaaalllyyy glad we've now got this whole countries, continents, water thing figured out. Thank you Marco Polo for being a guinea pig and Wright brothers for teaching me how to fly.
As if the maps weren’t great enough, they had rooms dedicated to PHYSICS. I got waaayyy too excited to be normal. Do I remember a lot? Not at all, but once I started reading the descriptions it all started coming back and man, is it nice to see a subject without the added stresses of grades and graduating.
I remembered how much I love the subject and had fun explaining it all to Mom. Looks like I know a thing or two after all. Thank you, Karl, for demoting yourself to teach me basic mechanics when you literally have a PhD in the subject. Were it not for you, I probably wouldn’t have gone around the machines going “wow that’s beautiful.” And to the cousins who had Karl as a teacher and are reading this, you know exactly what I mean. Every time we solved a problem correctly, he would look at our work for a moment, and as if it were the first time seeing this equation solved would pause and say “wow that’s beautiful.”
Our admission to the Academy Gallery wasn’t until 7 pm. So what do we faux Europeans do? Siesta of course! Mom and I returned to the hotel to freshen up and watched Julie & Julia. If you’ve never seen this film you should, it’s amazing and makes you want to become a chef. As a warning though, you shouldn’t watch the film if you’re hungry.
Which leads me to our walk over to the Galleria Academia. Coming to Italy, I had a list. Not of things I wanted to see, but food I wanted to eat. Here it is:
Spaghetti, Ravioli, Bruschetta, Bread, Gelato (every day and a new flavor every time), Tiramisu, Espresso, Pizza, Calzone...and last but not least Cannolis. But here’s the dilemma, Cannolis are Sicilian, and well, we were in Northern Italy and they were nowhere to be found. And I mean nowhere, did you see that list? I’m only on day 4 in Italy and I have eaten every single thing except the cannolis. But seek and you shall find. We got to the Academy early and decided to walk around to kill time. We are literally passing construction and bus crowds and out of the corner of my eye I see a little pastry shop. When I’ve already looked in 50, what’s one more try? Well lo and behold, CANNOLI and the very last one too. Damn was it good. Thanks Big G.
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for! My beloved David. These pictures don’t do it justice. And as a whole Michelangelo has been rather disappointing. I mean I went to three galleries where he was featured and not one finished piece of sculpture. I was so angry, I didn’t understand why he got his name. Mom and I may fight over Da Vinci’s worthiness or Caravaggio versus a Ruben. But even after a full day of disappointing, half-finished pieces, when we saw the David, we realized that it’s true, this man was MAGICAL. This statue was the size of three men tall and don’t even get me started on width. It was huge. Something you don’t really see in the pictures. The stone was flawless and polished and beautiful. And, well, the artist more than redeemed himself that night. Mom and I just sat and stared for a really long time. And that is how I met David.
Off to Venice! We have just over 24 hours total in the city so it’s going to be quite a whirlwind, but I’m ready! One last adventure before I head home!
Xx, Carolyn
Today is our last day in Florence and I want to cry. Why is it so hard to leave such wonderful cities? However, I am VERY excited because we get to see Michaelangelo’s David today!!
Actually most of our day was dedicated to this wildly talented man. We started off the morning visiting his chapel not too far away. There was a whole room built for the tombs of the dukes of the time. And each of them had commissioned a tombstone pretty much as high as the cathedral wall for themselves to be built by Michelangelo.
It’s not really much to look at from the outside. And you’d think with 300+ years of construction they would have triple checked their blueprints. Seems like someone screwed up because the stones near the keystone arch were beginning to fall. Hence the huge scaffolding and restoration attempts.
Apparently the first Medici duke, Cosimo, who basically helped make the Medicis the figures they’re known as today, was obsessed with holy relics, which is a big euphemism for dead bones of alleged holy people. It’s creepy to see them adorned with gold and packaged in the mode of a Faberge egg.
I’d take the catacombs and bone piles in Peru any day over the hundred boxes like these throughout the church. Some had fingers, others had femurs and even this skull. It was gross. The Duke, Cosimo,even used to wear them!!! He thought the holiness of these people was preserved and that their bones would give him the holy aura and powers they held? To each their own I guess. I’d like yesterday’s tiara instead, please.
The marble work was exquisite and Mom and I were freaking out over these semi precious inlays.
We finally got to some of the tombs Michelangelo was commissioned for. He seemed to have left a lot of unfinished work if you ask me. We know that he got called away by the Pope to make the Sistine Chapel but we can’t seem to figure out how he could have left so many pieces undone. Especially when he was probably paid at least in part!!
See what I mean about each of the graves being the whole wall? This is ONE tombstone. It’s got the dude on it, then an interpretation of Dawn and Dusk. Guess who’s death? The sleeping woman of course...if you know me, you know I’m majorly eye rolling right now.
Mom and I wanted to take an easy day just really soaking in everything that Florence had to offer us. Which is how we happened upon the Galileo Museum. And you thought our neediness was reserved for art. Nope. We totally geeked out on all these ancient tools!! Look at this thing!
Basically the Medici’s commissioned plenty of scientific endeavors as well. This here is what they thought the universe looked like. The top that I had to cut off was a cross to represent God and Heaven. We have earth in the center of the universe, 7 planets rotating around it, the sun and moon, etc. All these gears actually turned and I was so, so tempted to touch it. But I was good, because we had three other floors to explore.
As if the maps weren’t great enough, they had rooms dedicated to PHYSICS. I got waaayyy too excited to be normal. Do I remember a lot? Not at all, but once I started reading the descriptions it all started coming back and man, is it nice to see a subject without the added stresses of grades and graduating.
I remembered how much I love the subject and had fun explaining it all to Mom. Looks like I know a thing or two after all. Thank you, Karl, for demoting yourself to teach me basic mechanics when you literally have a PhD in the subject. Were it not for you, I probably wouldn’t have gone around the machines going “wow that’s beautiful.” And to the cousins who had Karl as a teacher and are reading this, you know exactly what I mean. Every time we solved a problem correctly, he would look at our work for a moment, and as if it were the first time seeing this equation solved would pause and say “wow that’s beautiful.”
Our admission to the Academy Gallery wasn’t until 7 pm. So what do we faux Europeans do? Siesta of course! Mom and I returned to the hotel to freshen up and watched Julie & Julia. If you’ve never seen this film you should, it’s amazing and makes you want to become a chef. As a warning though, you shouldn’t watch the film if you’re hungry.
Which leads me to our walk over to the Galleria Academia. Coming to Italy, I had a list. Not of things I wanted to see, but food I wanted to eat. Here it is:
Spaghetti, Ravioli, Bruschetta, Bread, Gelato (every day and a new flavor every time), Tiramisu, Espresso, Pizza, Calzone...and last but not least Cannolis. But here’s the dilemma, Cannolis are Sicilian, and well, we were in Northern Italy and they were nowhere to be found. And I mean nowhere, did you see that list? I’m only on day 4 in Italy and I have eaten every single thing except the cannolis. But seek and you shall find. We got to the Academy early and decided to walk around to kill time. We are literally passing construction and bus crowds and out of the corner of my eye I see a little pastry shop. When I’ve already looked in 50, what’s one more try? Well lo and behold, CANNOLI and the very last one too. Damn was it good. Thanks Big G.
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for! My beloved David. These pictures don’t do it justice. And as a whole Michelangelo has been rather disappointing. I mean I went to three galleries where he was featured and not one finished piece of sculpture. I was so angry, I didn’t understand why he got his name. Mom and I may fight over Da Vinci’s worthiness or Caravaggio versus a Ruben. But even after a full day of disappointing, half-finished pieces, when we saw the David, we realized that it’s true, this man was MAGICAL. This statue was the size of three men tall and don’t even get me started on width. It was huge. Something you don’t really see in the pictures. The stone was flawless and polished and beautiful. And, well, the artist more than redeemed himself that night. Mom and I just sat and stared for a really long time. And that is how I met David.
Xx, Carolyn
