January 22
Why is it that any time I ask for directions in Italian, people respond to me in English? Let me practice! Anyway, after finding the right street, I met up with Lori and Carmen around noon to take a twenty-minute bus ride up into the hills to a small town called Fiesole. The sky was somewhat hazy, but even from the panoramic view we were able to pick out the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and the soccer stadium. We continued climbing up the hill and visited Sant’ Allesandro’s Church and the Convento di San Francesco. They were old, small, dark, and nowhere near as elaborate as the churches I’ve grown accustomed to, but it was a nice change.
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| Fiesole is beautiful |
It turns out that we took a little too long looking for a place to lunch, because the Archaeological Museum stopped selling tickets four minutes after we arrived. But Fiesole is so gorgeous that I wouldn’t mind taking another afternoon to come back to see the Roman baths and Etruscan temple (meaning: it’s gonna happen before I leave). I still needed my museum fix for the day, so after we got back to Florence, I took off towards to the Anthropology and Ethnology Museum. I was a little frustrated with the exhibits because very few of the display cases were labeled (not even in Italian. When that happens, I just take a picture and translate the information later). But nevertheless, it was still interesting, if not a bit creepy (preserved Peruvians…enough said).
January 23
After class, there was an optional visit to Cecil Studios, where some of the students will be taking a drawing class. The building was converted from a church into an art studio and when we arrived, the owner was working on his version of the Lamentation of Christ. Turns out, Cecil’s teacher was a pupil of John Singer Sargent (I may have gasped a little too loudly upon learning this). Those in the class will be learning the sight-size technique, which involves a lot of moving back and forth in front of the canvas in order to create correct proportions (I don’t remember much of the details about the technique because I was groggy from my cold).
January 24
Highlight of Italian class: watching Mr. Bean (and then writing sentences about what happened in past tense). After lunch, we finally had an official visit to the cathedral that I pass by almost every day: il Duomo. We me up with Professor Solberg, who explained to us that there can only be one cathedral per city and the Duomo is the only church in Florence to be completely wrapped in marble (the others only have marble façades). Usually, churches are built from the altar up to the façade, but Santa Maria del Fiore (basically, the Florentines invented a specific version of Mary to distinguish their cathedral from those being constructed in Siena and Pisa around the same time) was constructed over Santa Reparata. We visited the excavated portion of Santa Reparata, where you can see the remains of several layers of history (while looking nervously up at the ceiling two inches away from your head).
The Duomo has some mosaics, the main one being just above the main door and representing Mary’s Assumption into heaven. The rest of the artworks are frescoes, including the interior of Brunelleschi’s dome. I almost tripped and fell into a gate while admiring Vasari/Zuccari’s The Last Judgment (at this rate, someone’s going to have to hold me up when we go into the Sistine Chapel…). I have yet to climb up into the dome, but on the next clear day…I’m going.
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| Not as decorated as the cathedrals in Siena and Pisa, but still impressive |
For dinner, Daniella and Andrea had guests. We had a four course meal (we usually have two, plus fruit), which included bread with eggplant and tomatoes, soup with beans, chicken and salad, then the Italian version of ice cream cake. One thing I noticed: Italians eat fast, but talk even faster. Katie and I could barely follow the conversation, yet we were the last ones to finish eating each course.
January 25
After Italian, we met up with Jodie at Palazzo Pitti to visit the Galleria Palatina. Palazzo Pitti used to be a palace of a Spanish princess, but it is best known for being one of the residences of the Medici family. The galleria is set up like any nineteenth century gallery would be, which means that paintings are crowded on to each wall. There were over twenty paintings per room and there were so many rooms. I cannot begin to describe how enormous this palace is, we only spent two hours in the Palatina and we barely had time for more than just a quick walkthrough. My museum pass gets me into every gallery free, so I think I’m going to end up spending a few days exploring each gallery thoroughly.
January 26
Our second meeting with Professor Solberg was to view the Baptistery. This Baptistery is probably the most famous for the competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi to design the doors. Ghiberti won the contest and completed the first set of doors, depicting the life of Christ during the New Testament, in 1427. Later, he was commissioned to design a second set of doors, which he completed in 1452 (the originals are in a museum, and Solberg called the door currently in its place a cheap Japanese replica that does not do justice to the real thing). The third set of doors were designed by Andrea Pisano and subsequently completed in 1336. Ghiberti was expected to adhere to Pisano’s style for his first set of doors, but you can tell he felt limited by the quatrefoils. Just walking around the exterior and seeing the differences between artists, as well as the progression of Ghiberti’s work, is astounding. And I get to write a paper about it next week!
And then we went inside. It’s probably a good thing that the original baptismal fountain is no longer in the middle of the room, because I was so transfixed by the ceiling that I probably would have run right into it (I’m very graceful, can’t you tell?). The mosaic was completed by Venetian artisans and it depicts (what else?) The Last Judgment. There are at least four levels of stories around the curve of the dome, including the book of Genesis, the dreams of Joseph (…and his amazing technicolor coat…), the life of Christ, and then the life of John the Baptist. I wish there were a way to get a closer look at the mosaic, but I have an Italian test tomorrow that I really need to study for.
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| MOSAIC |
January 27
Considering that we learned two of the four tenses that were on the test just this week, I think I did okay. I still haven’t had what I would call a “successful” conversation in Italian because I keep tripping over the pronunciation of words (there’s a lot of tripping over things in this post). Instead of having class afterwards, we watched “Ti Amo in Tutte Le Lingue del Mondo” (I Love You in Every Language of the World), which is an Italian romantic comedy (the other class watched “La Vita é Bella” and emerged from the classroom in tears). About half of us went to a restaurant for lunch (the same one as last week), where I had some kind of penne with various vegetables in it.
Afterwards, we walked to the theatre across town and used our Maggio cards to purchase tickets for a ballet. We got tickets to see “Il Lago dei Cigni” (Swan Lake) for only TEN EURO. Plus, these Maggio cards are valid for all of 2012, so we could have a little reunion in December and see “Il Mago di Oz.” I think I need to go back and visit il Porcellino a few more times, just to be safe. The theatre is right by the River Arno, so we wandered along until we found a little path that took us down under the bridge and along the water (which is low right now). There was graffiti and litter, yet it was still gorgeous. How do you do it Firenze? How?
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| Florence from under one of its bridges |
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