Tutto è in italiano

Sorry to not have posted in a while, it's been a busy few days!
I left you off Wednesday evening, a free day where we ate dinner and meandered around Firenze, and now onto more tours!

On Thursday, we visited the Church of San Marco, an old monastery which houses frescoes by Fra Angelico, including one of his more famous ones of the Annunciation (When the Angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she is to bear the son of God). We were allowed to take pictures up to that point, but I didn't get the memo that we weren't allowed afterwards and managed to snap a couple of blurry photos of the Annunciation before being yelled at in Italian. I still think it was worth it. The fresco was one of my favorite religious works of the time period back when I learned about it in high school art history, and seeing it in person is much more impressive. The colors are brighter and richer, the faces dynamic, he even painted in some sort of glitter into the wings of Gabriel. You can almost feel the emotion radiating from the fresco, it's obvious that Fra Angelico cared deeply about his pieces and, more importantly, their religious significance. Our tour guide, though I have no idea whether or not he's religious, very outwardly cared for this piece, and it was apparent that he was on some level emotionally affected; there seemed to be some sort of light in his eyes when he was telling us about the piece that isn't there for many others. It was truly an exceptional work. We also got to peek in at the frescoes in what used to be the small rooms of the monks. There was a statue in the garden that caught my attention as well, of a young, toned, saint-like man casting down a ragged, old, witch-like woman; it was representative of Christianity "triumphing" over the Pagan religions.

The next day, we were scheduled to climb to the top of the Duomo. Unfortunately, I am incredibly claustrophobic, and would have panicked to no end in those tiny Medieval staircases. Instead, my professor walked to the Ponte Vecchio, and had a small discussion about its history. Afterwards, we met back up with the people who did climb up the Duomo, exchanged stories and pictures and then all headed over to the Baptistry next to the Duomo. This was my first big speechless, awestruck moment of the trip. The entire ceiling is covered in Gold, with mosaics and paintings of significant Biblical moments, including a twenty foot high Christ as Pantocrator. I looked up, and just stopped dead in my tracks. I was dizzy by the time I left from trying to see every little detail, from the more traditional descent from the cross, to an image of Satan consuming the souls of the damned. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to see it back when it was first built, it must have been overwhelming. The floors too were tiled in patterns, but strangely enough of the zodiac. A small group of us talked to our tour guide about it afterwards. He talked about the zodiac being the oldest and most consistently accurate means of telling about one's self, to which I said something to the effect of "well, I think a lot of it is in people's heads, don't you?" To this, he gave me a wide eyed look with a resounding "Noooooooo". We spoke about the zodiac for a while, with him saying he could tell what people were by observing them, to which I asked what I was, and he said he didn't know me well enough. I'll asked again in a week or so, and maybe if he guesses correctly, I'll look into the zodiac a little bit more.

That night, the IUP group all went out to a not too memorable dinner (at least food-wise, conversation was good as always). Then, four went to a bar, the professor and one other back to the apartments, and me and two others to roam the streets of Florence. There's so much to see in such a small space, you walk everywhere without even realizing what you're walking through. It was nice to just walk for a couple of hours without a destination, in order to see where we were walking, not just where we were walking to. We got back home at a little past midnight, and I slept like a rock.

We went to the Duomo museum the next day, which was one of the more impressive collections we've seen. We saw an uncountable number of statues, as well as paintings and mosaics. My favorite was a statue of Mary Magdalene by Donatello. It represented her after the death of Christ, as a starved, ragged, yet serene and sacred hermit. There was a tangible energy around the statue, as if it were a person.

Some pictures to sum it up:

Fra Angelico's Annunciation

Me and the Ponte Vecchio

The Baptistry ceiling

Donatello's Mary Magdalene

Today, we visit the Academia, and hopefully I can report back soon.

Ciao!