March 10 2010
Needless to say, visiting the art of Florence was an absolute dream. In my travels to the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Academia and the Convent of San Marco, I saw some of the biggest highlights of my historical education, and I couldn’t have filled more happiness into those two days.
Although the only drawback to Florence was the weather, I found that my most rewarding experiences happened on the inside of various museums and inside warm Italian cafés, so really, all was well.
On the morning my last day (Wednesday), I scurried to the Academia to see the Statue of David. Although I had obviously studied this piece since about seventh grade, I was truly taken aback at how HUGE the David is. Literally, the statue completely dominates an enormous corridor and the detail, expressiveness and weightiness that Michelangelo successfully executed for this gigantic work is worthy of its awesome presentation. I finally get why this masterpiece is such a “big” deal.
After the Academia (which, in truth, was slightly disappointing for the price), I headed over to the Convent of San Marco, where Fra Angelico’s fresco’s are painted in the old convent’s bedroom walls. With the little time I had left in Florence, I was hesitant to dedicate a chunk of time to find the church in the maze of squares just to see his famous Annunciation. Why couldn’t they just move it to the Uffizi so that art lovers can have all the glorious items in one spot?? Ah, no, silly girl. You wouldn’t have wanted that.
The Convent of San Marco is a small, circa14th century chapel which used to serve as a convent, and Fra Angelico depicted different important biblical scenes in each private room. There are probably 20 + scenes, each with different poignant moments, and even cooler, each old fresco still illuminates the tiny, simple stone space. Of course, the most rewarding part of the chapel (aside from the lovely, subtle courtyard) is walking up the steps from the ground floor and meeting the Annunciation at the top of the stairs. It’s unavoidable, but it’s also more beautiful than it was when I fell in love with it on a slide three years ago. This main fresco brought an American girl trapsing through the rain and cold with an image from a Boston powerpoint in her heart, and she was rewarded 10 fold. So worth the trip, and a huge, huge check on my “must-see-heart-swell” works of art.
Also, while I was exploring Fra Angelico’s experimental surrealism, the sun FINALLY broke through the solid grey Florentine sky. With this change in weather, I changed my direction, and ran down to the Duomo to explore the inside of the Cathedral. Obviously, it was gorgeous on the inside. I particularly loved the ceiling of the dome, but on this sunny day, just the interior didn’t cut it. I wanted to see it, and Florence, in all of her glory on this unexpectedly bright day.
So, I climbed to the top of the dome, with 465 stairs in between me and the top of the world. I can let the pictures speak for themselves, really. But the experience was exquisite, and the perfect way to say arrivederchi! to Firenze with a big smile, and a symbol of all the warmth I found there.
After that, I boarded a train to Padova to finally make my way to the last leg of the tour, and make it to the Italian home of Miss Christine.
As I travelled through the Italian countryside, there was snow everywhere, and once we passed Bologna, no other color or sight appeared out of the window but pure white. It was the first snow that Padova had ever seen in March, and it was coming with me from Florence.
Although I arrived with a bit of a heavy heart because of the terribly unusual weather in Padova, it didn’t last long. Upon exiting the train, I was immediately thawed by the immensely bright warm welcome from Christine at the station. She was there to meet me with a huge smile, and a powerful hug that had been waiting to be met since January. Despite the snowfall in Padova, there was only sunshine for us and our glasses of delicious wine and warmed us enough for some girltalk, great conversation and contagious laughter.
After a whirlwind travelling from city to city and lugging my suitcases up flights of stairs, I was ready to settle down into the real Italian lifestyle, and for the next three days, I did just that.
Happy Travels,
xx
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