February 18
Jodie had been mentioning the significance of Prato a lot during this week’s lectures, so I decided that touring the town would be a good day trip. I arrived in the midmorning and headed straight to the Duomo of San Stefano to escape from the rain. Right inside is the chapel that holds the Virgin’s belt. Of course it’s hidden away in a big elaborate altar behind a gate, but every once in a while, they take it out and display it on the pulpit on the outside, which was sculpted by Donatello.
The main reason that I wanted to go to Prato was for Lippi’s frescoes. It was totally worth three Euro to be the only person (beside the ticket people) to be in the church, back behind the altar, the chapels all lit up for me! I gawked at the scenes of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Stefano for about half an hour. The best part: Lippi doesn’t let the architecture define the scene. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve seen it—basically, a figure is standing on one wall, but his hand is reaching on to the next wall. It’s so cool!
After leaving, I visited the Duomo museum (and saw Donatello’s original pulpit right up close!) wandered into a few more churches before stumbling upon the Castello dell’Imperatore. I’m not entirely sure that I was supposed to be in there, but the doors were open and nobody yelled at me, so I enjoyed the view. My ticket from the Duomo also got me into the Mural Museum. If you’re interesting in Botticelli, Lippi, Donatello, Daddi or Raphael (!!!), you should go to this place. Tiny, but beautiful.
While waiting for my train, I wandered over to the other side of the tracks where I discovered a series of famous works of graffiti (well, famous in such a way that I’ve seen the images all over the internet, but didn’t realize that they were actually in Prato). So I walked along the entire wall several times, filming and taking pictures of the individual figures.
Upon arriving in Florence, I ran into Katie and we met up with Shayla for another trip to the chocolate festival (last time, I swear!). We went back to Pitti Palace and visited the Costume Gallery. I’ve never wanted to play dress up so badly in my life. Except in the room where they keep Cosimo and Eleonora’s burial clothes—what few scraps are left, that is. That was just a bit creepy—they dug ‘em up, stripped ‘em down, and then stuck what was left of ‘em back in their tombs (I’m assuming without any new clothes). We wandered around the Boboli Gardens until closing and I got to see the Grotto (there used to be a pool for goldfish in the ceiling!).
February 19
Another early morning that turned out to be awesome. Lori, Jules, and I met up in Fiesole where we finally got into the Archaeological Museum. Right inside the entrance is the Roman amphitheater—that we got to walk on (as long as you’re not climbing over the stones and being destructive, you can walk on the ruins). We had fun guessing what each of the ruins used to be, then attempted to translate the signs (the vomitorium is an exit, not a place to go be sick). The interior museum has a lot of pottery, marbles, bronzes, etc. Even though it was misting, we took the time to walk back up the hill to marvel over Florence’s beauty. I returned home and spent the rest of the rainy day working on my paper (Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes, one of my favorite subjects).
February 20
After a short in class session, the Saints class visited Santa Maria Novella. Although it’s right next to Linguaviva, it’s the only other main church of Florence that I hadn’t visited yet. I have to say that the façade is one of my favorites. And seeing Masaccio’s Trinity was a huge plus as well. Santa Maria Novella is a Dominican church, the opposite of the Franciscan Santa Croce. We visited the Strozzi Chapel and the Spanish Chapel. After finishing my Medici paper, I started on my Saints midterm. I’m still managing to balance homework and exploring…well, for the most part. I can sleep when I go back home.
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