Sunday, October 19, 2008

10/15/08 Second Day in Florence, not so fun discoveries

Una segunda dia en Florence me dirijo problemas de mi madre en una email. Me no gusta escribir la email para mi madre. Deseo mi madre aprende en la email yo creo bueno de Iain y yo quiero Iain.

I got more spots from the mosquitos.

This was not the worst discovery I would have for that morning however. After the mosquito bite discovery I hopped on the computer to jokingly tell Sara that I was going to walk through Italy looking like I'd caught chicken pox.

We took the tram downtown again and went to the Galleria de Academia, where the largest collection of Michelangelo's work is housed (including the David).




It was here that we were given a tour by a very energetic and passionate woman who called herself Alex ("not Alexandria, that's only if I'm in trouble" she said). She informed us that the Galleria de Academia was given that name because the building was the school of the artists and that many of the works we saw in there (including a wonderful collection of plaster models) were the work of students in the Academy. She condensed her tour into about half an hour, focusing mainly on works by the great (and terrible-personality wise) Michelangelo. In the grand hall there were his slaves-men who appear to be trapped within the stone ever moving it (this was done much later in Michelangelo's life and the tools he used to carve were obvious-it looked like Van Goghs obvious show of the layering of paint to emphasize), and then at the end was the huge statue of David, a sculpture that took Michelangelo 4 years to complete (this was when he was 20 something). A stunning fact was that Michelangelo never used plaster models (like other sculptures). He picked out his own marble, and carved away at it "releasing the statue within". This David was incredible to look at. To see stone look so life-like (even showed the veins in the hand) was incredible.

After the tour we stayed around the Gallery looking closer at things we didn't get to see much of. Most of the art in the gallery was dedicated to biblical scenes (since this was often the subject of the masters of the old days this didn't surprise me-did get tired of looking at crucifixes though). After I got tired of looking at these I went into the plaster model room where tons of primi sculptures were on display. I walked around that room 4 times looking from one sculpture to the next and pondering what on earth I should tell my Momma. I enjoyed the would-be sculptures, but I didn't enjoy the thoughts too much. I was happy to leave the Galleria after that.

We then headed over to the Uffizi Gallery. This was the art collection of the Medici family that's now housed next to the old Medici family house. This house was next to a square known as la Piazza della Signoria. Within this piazza there were many sculptures (including a mimic of the David and a Hercules- Hercules symbolized the power of the Medici family over the people while David was used as a symbol of the peoples potential power over the Medici family). There was also a fantastic fountain in this square, which I enjoyed taking pictures of. Within this piazza many many tourists gathered and thus many venders and horse-drawn carriage rides.

We didn't take any of these though, we simply walked over to the river Arno so we could cross the famous Ponte Vecchio, the bridge that originally had leather makers and craftsmen on it (smell was bad) but later got changed by the Duke (Medici) into goldsmith shops. To this day this bridge is a jewelers district. We got to pear through all of the windows at the "shiny's" and enjoy gellato on the way back across the bridge. As I ate my gellato I slowly started noticing a few double-takes I was getting. This surprised me because I wasn't in the greatest of moods (was still pondering what on earth to say to my Momma because I had a feeling she wanted me to stop talking to Iain), I had bugbites all over my face, and it wasn't one of my more glamorous days. I saved my questions for later to ask Iain.

After we got off the Ponte Vecchio we ate out on the street and watched the people and the cars whiz by as we ate and drank our lunch. Once finished we headed over to our tour of the Uffizi Gallery. This time we got an older man who enjoyed giving us as much information about each piece of artwork he stopped us at as possible.

We got to see the "Duke and Duchess of Urbino",









"The Birth of Venus",













Michelangelo's painting: "The Holy Family" (done in a round frame),












"The Venus of Urbino", and the












"Ognissanti Madonna".
















None of that was in order, and I most certainly missed quite a few important paintings and their stories. There was just so much in that tour it'd be impossible to write it all. There was only one spot on the tour that was slightly damaged. It seemed that our tourguide went on a power trip when he got into a huge argument that just about went to blows whenever he told a man he needed to keep his kid quiet. Most of us in the tour backed up and watched, but one woman immersed herself in the argument (speaking in Italian). This woman however was repelled when she was insulted by the man when he said she was stupid. Haven't seen something like that happen in an art gallery before.

Afterwards we had a good time getting out, eating dinner, and then getting back to the hotel (had to take a bus and then I had to use my skills at recognizing where we were and which direction we needed to go-they got us back to the hotel because of one LARGE boulder). Once inside we went up to the room where I got on the computer to send Momma that email and to talk to Iain.

What relaxed me before I went to bed (at 11:30) was the email I sent to Iain asking why so many guys were turning their heads because I definitely didn't look my best or feel my best. He said: because you're just THAT beautiful. I'd been talking to him about all the stressful things that were going on.

I never knew that that email Iain sent me at the end of the night would be the last one I'd see for a long time.

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