I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately; I've been in Firenze and Pisa and the internet at our hotel was not very conducive to blogging as the internet periodically worked for about two minutes and then didn't work seemingly randomly. So, here is my account of what happened in the last few days:
On Thursday (30 June) after a full day of classes the day before, we set out as a group for Firenze (Florence) until Sunday. We left the apartment about 8am, took the bus to Termini (the train station in Rome), and took a 9:30am train from Rome to Florence. The train ride across Tuscany was amazing -- partly because of the scenery, and partly because of my love for trains (especially high speed ones). We arrived in Florence about 11am and walked from the station in Florence to our hotel near the Duomo (basically the center of Florence). We all got some water, dropped our bags off, and then set out for a little mini-tour of the city before our first activity at 2pm. We were introduced to the general layout of the city: the main Piazzas, where the river was, where the grocery store was, and the most important sites. Our first visit in Florence was actually to Galeria Academmia. This gallery was impressive, but it was even more impressive because this is the home of Michelangelo's "David." Now, pictures are strictly forbidden (because they want you to buy the postcards), but I managed to get a couple by having a couple of my tall friends stand between my and the guards, hiding my camera in my bag, and standing behind a column. The statue was much bigger than I expected and it was amazing to see. After that visit, we had the rest of the day for ourselves so we spent it wandering around Florence, getting gelato, and getting dinner.
Tuscany
Cathedral of Firenze
Michelangelo's "David"
Friday was a tiring, but great day in Florence. We started the day by getting a walking tour where we passed the house and church of Dante while walking to Galeria degli Uffizi (a very old art gallery in the building which housed the offices of the Medici family). At Uffizi, I saw so many famous art works that I had known before and that we had studied in class. It was sort of mind-boggling. We spent about four hours there and we had only covered a fraction of the museum. The most famous works we saw were probably "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera" by Botticelli. After Uffizi and a short lunch break, it was time for an optional visit with Ricardo to Chiesa Santa Maria del Carmine across the river with some frescoes by Massachio that we had studied in class. It was so interesting to hear about the powerful Medici family and their impact on Florence, Italy, and Europe when walking around Florence with Ricardo. The last stop for the day was Basilica Santa Croce. This church contains the memorials for many well known Italians such as Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo, and Rossini. Besides the memorials, this church had amazing frescoes and art everywhere! After our busy day of seeing so much, it was time for a three-course group dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. After dinner, we ventured over to Piazza della Signoria in front of the the city hall and Uffizi where a few month long music festival takes place every year in Florence. There was a rehearsal happening for the concert going on the next night, which I will tell you about later. By now, it was about 11pm and time to head back to the hotel and time for bed.
Dante's House
Ponte Vecchio
Ponte Vecchio
Memorial of Michelangelo
Memorial of Dante
Saturday was an absolutely fantastic day! We all took a day trip from Florence to Pisa. We took an hour long train leaving Florence at about 9:30am. We arrived in Pisa and walked from the train station to the main area of sites in Pisa with stops in Piazza dei Cavaleri (where the Knights of Malta were headquartered in Pisa) and Piazza dei Miracoli. After these Piazzas, we reached the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" of course! Every major Italian town has a Cathedral, a Bell Tower, and a Baptistry. These were certainly impressive sites in Pisa. It was fun to climb the tower, take the classic touristy photos of holding up the tower, and getting a tour a la Ricardo of the cathedral and baptistry. After returning to Florence, we were able to have some time to ourselves to shop or do what we would. Now, Florence is basically the leather capital of Italy and it is so cheap there! There are stalls set up along all the major streets and you can bargain down almost anything! So I found a new messenger bag and wallet for a very good price that would have cost several times as much in the United States. Guess what came next? My favourite part of the day -- another three-course group dinner! After dinner, it was time for the concert. Now, this concert may have been my favourite orchestral concert that I ever attended. It was a joint chorus/orchestra concert under the direction of Zumen Mehta (the conductor of the Israeli Philharmonic). They played pieces by Tchaikovsky: "Violin Concerto in D" and the "1812 Overture". The violinist was absolutely amazing and his performance was engaging and flawless. His technique and what he was able to play was amazing! The "1812 Overture" was of course grandiose and an excellent end to the concert. It was now time to return to the hotel to get some sleep for our last day in Florence and the trip back to Rome.
Tower of Pisa
Mona Guarding the Bags
Cathedral of Pisa
Pisa
Teatro Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
On Sunday, we visited Galeria Bargello where we saw several statues by Michelangelo and Donatello. After that, it was time for lunch and then a quick visit to Chiesa Santa Maria Novella where we saw Massachio's "Trinity" -- a work that we had studied for some time in class. It was so amazing to see something that we had spent so much time talking about in person. At about 3:30pm, it was time to take the hour and a half long trip back to Rome.
It was a pretty calm day after getting back to Rome where I just went through pictures and caught up on my internet time.
Today (Monday, 4 July) was time for class again! We had class from 10am to 2pm and we will be watching the movie "Babette's Feast" for that course this evening. I'm excited for that as I've heard that it's in Danish and I need to keep up on my Scandinavian language skills so that I'll be ready when I get to Norway.
These are only a fraction of my pictures, to see all of them:
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