Florence

The Bargello interior!

The Palazzo Vecchio - seat of the Florentine Communal Government

AAAAAAH <3 <3 <3

Such an amazing unbelievable museum

Michelangelo called these the "gates of Paradise". I can see it.

The Florentine Leather Market

Our Apartment!

The Florentine Duomo

The Florentine Crest with a Lion

The ceiling of the Uffizi. Whoops, no photos allowed... ^_^

The club!

Left to right: Casey, Holly, Moi.

Left to Right: Me, Casey, Alex, Busi (on the bottom), Holly, Aminata
 

Florence. Capital of the province of Tuscany. Center of the Italian Renaissance - and, therefore, the centre of what some historians have called the modern world.

This is going to be a long post...

Spending a weekend there was absolutely amazing. From Thursday at 9:15, when my specific class left Siena, to 11:10 this morning (Saturday), myself and a few friends and my sister were both seeing cultural Florence, and living modern-day Florence.

My art history class took me to go see the Bargello (where the Chief of Police lived, known as the capitano del popolo) and we were in the Logge right outside the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) in the Piazza della Signoria, which is pictured above. Between these two palaces, Dr. Wollesen pretty much described to the class the entire situation of Late (late late late) Medieval Tuscany, in terms of the politics and the experiment in Communal Government that each city-state tried (I'll spare all of you details). But fun note - the Bargello is now a state museum, and has some of the greatest art. It has Donatello's David - the first Bronze sculpture made since antiquity - as well as 2 original plates from the infamous Gates of Paradise competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi; they have the two panels depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac, from Genesis.

Class ended that day at 2 pm, and as my group was STAYING in Florence the weekend, I just chilled in Florence until my sister and her class finished at the Uffizi Art Gallery. Unfortunately, there was a HUUUUGE clusterfuck which involved the Hotel not letting us in because the group we had didnt bring their passports. Looking back on it now, we were stupid for NOT bringing them, but at the time, it was a really stupid situation. So after busing back and forth between Siena and Florence again - a good 3 hour trip - the four/six of us end up in a really nice apartment-style room in the Hotel, and after going out for dinner that night at like 10 pm, we just crashed afterwards.

The next morning, however, I woke up earlier than the people I was staying with - and being VERY quiet, I removed myself from the hotel, grabbed breakfast, and wandered around Florence until my Uffizi appointment at 12. Florence in the morning is absolutely beautiful. It was hot, there were too many tourists (whom I may or may not have had SOME altercations with ^_^), but Florence is absolutely stunning. So after meeting up with the friends I had made plans with to see the Uffizi Art Gallery, we went in.

I have to devote a singular paragraph to the Uffizi. What. A. Museum. Originally the offices of the Medici Magistrates (The Medici lived in the Palazzo Vecchio for a while, so just like Louis XIV and Versailles, they wanted to keep their offices near them, so they linked their palace to a beautifully designed office building by Giorgio Vasari) the Uffizi has been gloriously transformed into the home of Late Medieval to Dutch Renaissance art. There are also, y'know... 3 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings in there: The Annunciation; The Adoration of the Magi (unfinished); The Baptism of Christ. Other than the Leonardo's, there is also a beautiful Michelangelo (Tondo Doni), a bunch of Raphael's (Portrait of Julius II, Portrait of Leo X, Self Portrait), Titians galore (Specifically the Venus of Urbino), Botticelli's (Birth of Venus, Primavera, etc) and a bunch of Giotto's and Duccio's. It... It was absolutely unbelievable. There are literally no words - I went through that museum all but mute, just talking about minute details as I tried to cope with the glory of the art in front of me.

The Uffizi exterior (which you ARE allowed photos of) is almost as beautiful as the art inside it, depicting most of the greats of the Italian Renaissance. Giotto, Dante, Cimabue, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Boccaccio, Macchiavelli, as well as the two most infamous Medici's, Lorenzo and Cosimo - and many, MANY others. I chilled there for a while - and got photographs - before me and my two friends met up with my sister and 2 others at the infamous Florentine Leather Market, where we ALL did very well. I got a notebook cover (with the fleur-de-lis on the cover), and most importantly, a satchel! Huzzah!

That night, we bought wine, and went clubbing at "Central Park" - an outdoor club located past the Santa Maria Novella train station. It was actually quite a lot of fun, a bunch of dancing, and we got home at like, 3 am. Pretty good for me, anyways.

This morning was just coming back to Siena, and just... well, relaxing for the rest of the day. It took me that long - from 12 pm to ... well, 12 am to just go over my experiences in Florence. It's such an amazing city, and I'm going there at LEAST twice more on this trip. Wow.

Sorry for the insanely long and rambling post. Pictures (a lot of them) are above because something weird happened.

Arrivederci!

Barry