Today we took a trip to Florence. We arrived at 9am and started a full day of tours. Our tour guide was from the outside of the river, in a part of Florence he says is home to the most native Florentines. His name was most likely Giavonni, or Paolo, though I don’t remember. We began at the Church of San Miniato or something. The view of Florence from this church is breath taking, and unlike Kansas it was a beautiful 50 degree sunny day.
The church is named after an Armenian priest that was persecuted for his faith and put to death. As the story goes, he was sent to the lions, but the lions did not attack. They tried many other ways, but all of them failed. They finally beheaded him, but they say his head was still alive, and he became a hermit in this church for some time. He requested to be buried there, and his body is in a crypt under the altar. The hill is also named after this priest, San Miniato Hill. The church was built in 1018 AD, and the mosaic on the front was restored in the early 1200s. The eagle on the top is a reference to the guild of Florence.
The inside was very pretty and old and very dark. There were a lot of restorations happening. There was an entire room (the sacristy) that had been restored, and it was amazing how vibrant the colors were. The floor in this church was one of the oldest floors in Florence. It is made of crushed brick.
After this little tour we headed to Santa Croce. It is a lovely Catholic church, designed by a Jew, so of course it has a giant star of David on the front. We got to tour the inside, and I was amazed at all the sculptures and paintings. Since I have a bit (way too much) of Catholic schooling, I found myself explaining paintings to people and answering questions, since our tour guide was excessively repetitive and boring.
Also in Santa Croce is Galileo’s body. Below are pictures showing that lovely tomb/grave/hole in floor of the church. I felt smarter just standing by it, like I understood the whole universe. There were more little graves scattered all over the church. People just pick a spot and get buried there with a pretty design in the flooring. Some have ropes around them and others just get walked all over.
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There was also a statue of liberty here, at least from my perspective that’s what it was. Santa Croce has a lovely garden and loggia, where the Pazzi Chapel is located. There is a dome with a frescoe of all the astrological signs that has been restored. The garden is wonderful, I wish I could have just sat and listened, but our tour guide was a mile ahead of me so I had to run along! I did film a panoramic view of it, and I will upload it to Facebook, eventually...
After Santa Croce we headed to the big kahuna. The Duomo. We walked and walked and went past a Disney store and a Chanel store and Italian leather stores and Gelaterias and scarf shops and Ben & Jerry's…anyways, it was very difficult to keep walking. Eventually we came around the corner and there it was – the boss of all domes (except my favorites, the Pantheon and Hagia Sophia, of course). There is still scaffolding up after thousands of years, but it was amazing to finally see it in person. Our tour guide told us his mother used to joke with him when he was being lazy or taking a long time to do something, "What are you doing today, building the Duomo?" We also saw the Baptistery that faces the church. The front of the Baptistery has the “Gateway to Heaven,” plated with gold. Very nice. We didn’t get to go inside the church, but the detail on the exterior is ridiculous.
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| "DauvEED," as my mom says. |
We finally stopped for lunch at a place they had already set up for us, Trattoria del Pannello. It was DELICIOUS. We had tortellini and penne pasta and I think some kind of beef/pork/chicken, we’re not sure but it was good. Aaaand we had gelato for dessert! Delish! I don’t know what they were thinking, but there was also a giant bottle of wine on each table. What other school would give college-aged students wine for lunch before history class? Good news is I got my second entry in my wine journal! OH, and spill of the day was a piece of the meat into my lap, knicked my scarf a bit but landed right on my napkin – yay for good manners! Anyways, we headed to the Museo Galileo after lunch, and on the way I found my name in graffiti! Someone in Florence loves me!
The Museo Galileo could have been really cool, but we were given a super-fast tour by our history teacher, Giavonni, so I didn’t get to really look at all the stuff. I remember a bunch of really big telescopes and some models of babies being born…including one with four legs and one head. We weren’t allowed to take pictures today, but hopefully I’ll have another chance. We headed to the basement of the museum, where we had our history class. We will be coming back three more times for history class in the museum. I tried to take notes on what we saw, so here is a list for all the nerds reading this blog:
Map of Danube, Astrolap, quadrant, folding rule, armillary sphere, sundials, moondials (interesting – nocturnal night clocks), a giant globe of all the rotations of planets and stars and stuff, maps, encyclopedias, 1st lense in a telescope (1610) that Galileo used to find the four moons of Jupiter, pendulum clock, wingnuts, wedge, Galileo’s finger (literally, the bone, they dug it up 100 years after his death, a little sketchy to me…), alcohol thermometers, electricity machine (glass, brass and wood), levers, and lots and lots of other shiny mechanical things with numbers and stuff on them.
That concludes my day of learning, we got some delicious gelato and then got on a bus and headed back to Castiglion Fiorentino. It was an exhausting day and tomorrow we have studio bright and early again, lunch and seminar. Then it is the weekend for me! Friday I think we have a studio trip to Orvieto (unfortunately the other K-Stater’s won’t even be there), and on Saturday we have a change of plans – FLORENCE for the CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!!!!!!! We will go to Arezzo for the antique fair another time, but I am pumped for some chocolate. They will have free samples and word (from Natalie) has it that one of the restaurants has free wine all day! Hoorah!
Cara Marie
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