My Toes are Froze(n)

When I decided to go to Italy, I thought I would be escaping the crazy winter weather of the Midwest. Mother Nature had other plans. But to make up for the freezing wind and numb limbs: art history classes finally began this week. From now on, I’ll attempt to sum up the main points or else I’ll get carried away and end up posting all of my notes from class.

January 30

Jodie, the program director and one of my awesome professors, has written a book confirming the identity of the Mona Lisa. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s only available in Italian, but I was already planning on buying a book in Italian. And I will take the time to translate it!

The fifteen-week students have finally arrived, which means that we can start taking actual classes! The classes that I am officially taking are “Saints in the Art of Medieval and Early Renaissance Florence” with Professor Solberg and “The Medici as Patrons of the Arts” with Professor Jodie Mariotti (this was after some add/drop confusion, but it all worked out in the end). For our first Saints class, we went back to the Duomo and back behind the main altar to the rear chapel where Saint Zenobius’ relics are stored. Just to give you an idea of how old this guy is, he was the first bishop of Florence and died in 417 AD. So there’s not that much left of him. But what’s left is tucked away in this chapel, in a bronze box, under another altar, in another gold box and a silver bust (his head and body are separated, which is not uncommon. Saints have their body parts spread out all over the place). And just to give you an idea of how rarely this happens, even the professors were taking pictures of the relics.

Saint Zenobius' bust where his head and some leaves are stored. There's even a little viewing window in the back of his head

January 31

The Medici course began with us picking artists’ names out of a bag for our reports. And—thanks to Callie for switching with me—guess who gets to talk about Michelangelo! This may be my favorite class of all time and it’s only the first day. We visited San Lorenzo, which was the main church of Florence before Santa Reparata and is where most of the Medici family (except for the popes) is buried (along with Donatello). It was interesting to see how the artist interpreted the personalities of the individual family members through the style of their final resting place.

San Lorenzo (this is what most of the basilicas looked like until they got their marble façades

In the afternoon, all twenty-four students met up for Rome Orientation. All I can say is this: if I’m getting chills just at the mention of all of the places we’ll be going this weekend, I don’t know if I’ll be able to survive actually being in Rome.

February 1

I woke up to snow. One of the reasons I came to Florence was to escape crazy Midwestern weather, and it follows me. Perché? But I still made the thirty-five minute walk from my house to Santa Croce (stopping to take pictures of the Duomo covered in snow, of course).

Snow Duomo

The altar of Santa Croce was completely covered in scaffolding because they are trying to restore Giotto’s frescoes. Centuries ago, the Florentines decided that his work was out of style and whitewashed the entire interior. The church suffered even more damage in 1966 during the flood. Cimabue’s Crucifix, which was almost ruined during this flood, is now attached to a pulley system—if the Arno ever floods that badly again, the cross will be hoisted up to the ceiling and away from further harm. Santa Croce is famous for being the resting place of several famous Italians. There is a huge statue of Dante out front, but he is actually buried in Ravenna. However, Galileo and Michelangelo are both buried within its walls. But Michelangelo’s tomb does not do him justice.

Michelangelo's tomb

In the afternoon, Prof. Solberg took us to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore. The museum is home to statues off the façades of the Duomo and Baptistery. The façade seen now is not the original design and the statues that were originally created for the front are now housed in the museum. There are also pieces of the baptismal fountain as well as the original panels from the bell tower, all stored away and protected from further weathering.

I’ve selected my classes for next term when I’m back at Knox. I’m almost to the halfway point of this program and just now we’re getting to the good stuff!

February 2

I didn’t have class this morning, so I went shopping. Meaning, I needed warmer socks so that I don’t get frostbite in Rome this weekend. The saleslady understood that I wanted to practice my Italian, but also saw that I am, in fact, American and took advantage of this to try to sell me everything in the shop. So I ended up getting a pair of legwarmers as well. Now that I’ve finally broken down and got some warmer clothes, it’ll probably be eighty degrees next week. But it’s supposed to be cold and snowy in Rome this weekend and I want to be able to enjoy everything even if the weather is miserable.

My elective class was rescheduled for next week, so I had the afternoon after Italian free. Lori and I ended up taking the bus back to Fiesole, which may be my new favorite place. We hiked up to the panoramic view and admired Florence in the snow. Okay, so I may have missed the snow just a little bit.

Looking down on Florence from Fiesole

Have I mentioned that we’re going to Rome tomorrow?