February 21
The Medici class met at Santa Trinita, looked at some frescoes, and focused on the Sassetti Chapel, which was painted b Domenico Ghirlandaio, who just happened to be one of Michelangelo’s teachers. We then walked over to San Pancrazio, which has been renovated into a modern art museum. However, the Rucellai Chapel has been preserved and it is the home to Alberti’s Temple of the Holy Sepulchre, aka the tomb where Christ was laid after his death. Obviously, he’s not there, but upon squeezing in the tiny door, we encountered a life-size statue of his body sprawled out on a table. And it was dark. So I didn’t stay in there very long. The temple was constructed during Florence’s efforts to establish itself as the New Jerusalem. The afternoon consisted of attending an opera orientation and booking our tickets to go to Milan this weekend!
February 22
The Saints class started out at San Marco, visited Sant’ Appollonia (the fresco of Andrea del Castagno’s The Last Supper influenced da Vinci!), and then, after Italian, we stopped at the Galleria dell’Accademia (where I had to be physically guided away from Michelangelo’s David in order to study some more altarpieces…). We were all exhausted by the end of the double session, so Professor Solberg let us go half an hour early. I went home, rested, then met up with Lori, Amy, and Dawn at Nerone for dinner. Fettuccini alfredo—the best pasta I’ve ever eaten (it’s going to be difficult to go back to the Oak Room’s Pasta Bar next term). After dessert (apple cake), we hurried across town to see Tosca, a three act opera in which (SPOILER ALERT!) everybody dies. The sets were awesome and the conductor was hilarious. I did not fall asleep during the opera (only during the intermissions—25 minutes is a decent nap when you have been stressed about papers and midterms).
February 23
During my free morning, I started reading Alberti’s “On Painting,” specifically, Book Two. Basically, he sums up everything I’ve wanted to say about all the paintings I’ve been seeing. It’s awesome. Callie and I got gelato in-between classes, then afterwards I decided it was too nice to go back home and do homework (a reoccurring theme by now) and decided to go out wandering. I found my way to the river and went into Ognissanti. Tucked away in one of the chapels is Sandro Botticelli’s tomb. Finding that basically made my day. I continued on to the other side of the river, where I ended up just a teensy bit lost for no particular reason. On the way back through Piazza della Repubblica, I found a pink stretch limo.
February 24
I used Friday to tie up a few lose ends. I went back to San Lorenzo and used the second half of my ticket to view Cosimo the Elder’s simple but colossal tomb, pondering over why there weren’t any sculptures on Donatello’s tomb, and willingly spent twenty minutes looking a small bits of dead saints in elaborate reliquaries—when I could have been sleeping in, mind you. I also went back to the Bargello to explore some of the sculpture rooms I didn’t get to see on my first visit. The tourists are starting to emerge in masses. I ate lunch in the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella and soaked up the sun for an hour before I had enough energy to move again. Then I went back to San Pancrazio to the Marino Marini Museum. I don’t know what I was expecting, what I didn’t expect what I wasn’t expecting. Basically, the modern art just wasn’t my style.
After some window-shopping, I met up with Amy, Lauren, and Carmen to climb to the top of the Duomo (finally!). The entrance and exit led us just inches away from the frescoes. It’s difficult to understand just how enormous these figures have to be in order for the audience to understand the scene from the ground. I cannot imagine the work that went into painting that. Four hundred and sixty three stairs got a little claustrophobic after a while, but the view was worth it. We picked the perfect day to go, it wasn’t crowded or too cold and the sky was perfectly clear. I had fun pointing out all of the surrounding churches and landmarks. We were there at five, when all of the bells started going off around the city, which made the experience even more magical. Afterwards, we recuperated with gelato at Vivoli (peanut butter and hazelnut).
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