Firenze, Da Una Parte

Well, we are still stuck in freezing weather.  It is Saturday here in Orvieto, and yesterday Mother Nature again dealt us a chilling blow.  We received another 6 inches of snow, just when the last batch had finally melted.

But, This is a happy blog! For yesterday was our first trip to Florence! And luckily, it was snowing everywhere except there.  But it was still very very chilly.  We arrived at about 9:45 at Firenze Santa Maria Nouvella Station. We were expected to meet Marco, our professor, at 10:30 outside the bell tower of the Duomo.  We walked along Via Panzani in anticipation of getting our first glimpse of the Duomo.

We moved past the baptistery, and into the piazza. Our eyes astounded at the amazing site before us.

We moved out of the cold and into the interior. To be honest, I did not find the interior as adorned as I thought. Most of the ornamentation has been moved to the Museum.  The Main thing that they could not move was of course the Dome.  The paintings on the Dome are exquisite! They are truly worth seeing.  The depictions of the Last Judgement are quite different than the wall of the Sistine Chapel, but still amazing.

After the Duomo, we walked toward Santa Croce.  On the way we passed one of the best art supply shops in Florence, Zecchi.  We also passed the chapel and former home of Dante Alighieri, a famous Italian Poet.
By the time we reached Santa Croce, not a one of us could feel our toes. The wind was unrelenting.  When we hit the open Piazza in front of the beautiful church, it hit us full blast, and we all thought "Can we get inside now?"

If I could sum up Santa Croce in a few words, I would use Marco's Words, "A Really Expensive Cemetery." The Church itself is very old. The facade does not match the rest of the building.  The inside is filled with many  tombs and funeral monuments to honor the rich and famous of Florence.  They include Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, just to name a few.  I was very excited to see the frescoes on the inside behind the altar, but they were covered in scaffolding for renovations.

 This is the Pazzi Chapel, done by Brunelleschi, the same man who designed the Dome for the Duomo.

After finishing at Santa Croce, We were dismissed and Berta and I wandered to find someplace warm to eat. We found a small pizzeria and had some warm pasta.  She had lasagna and I had Ravioli with black cabbage.  We mapped out what we wanted to see, given it was freezing we put preference on something inside.  We settled on the Galleria Dell'Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David.  We planned our route and headed on our way.

We decided to take a touristy detour and try and find the door to the Jersey Shore house.  On the way we came across the Fountain of Neptune, Palazzo Vecchio, and the Loggia dei Lanzi.  The Piazza also has a large replica of David in it. I was very excited because I knew we would soon be seeing the real thing!

Oh, we did find the door by the way. :-)

We walked past the Duomo once more, and headed down Via Ricasoli towards the Accademia.  Once inside we knew immediately where we wanted to go.  The other paintings were cool and all, but we knew what we were really there to see.  We came around the corner and there he was.  We both were in awe. He was way bigger than we thought he was, at least 3 times bigger. He is truly amazing though. The detail put into him! It is astonishing to imagine that the same person who carved this massive piece of stone also painted the Sistine Chapel and designed the Dome of St. Peter's.  I now understand why my Mom is so obsessed with him. You have to see these things with your own two eyes to understand.  No pictures could do any of them justice.

P.S. Pictures of David are not allowed. But I'm Sneaky Sneaky... ;-)

Next week starting Wednesday we are visiting Paestum, Pompeii, Naples and the Almafi Coast! Hopefully it will be warmer there than it is here!

-M