Cheers from Scotland: Day Two in Florence

Sorry to keep you in suspence for so long about what happened on day two of Florence. I have been busy working on two papers that are due on May 2nd and take up 100% of my grade. However, Kristen Tony and I had a presentation in that class and got 9% extra credit points. Our teacher said we gave the best presentation of the entire class so basically we did it baller status. Keep in mind that this is also the class that everyone reads directly off a sheet of paper for their presentation. I just got back from London and loved it! I wouldn't mind living there one bit. I will write about London eventually but I need to finish Italy which happened forever ago....

On Tuesday, we thought the buses were still on strike so we walked into town again. We soon reallized that the buses weren't on strike on our walk into town so boo that. We walked over an hour to Accademia which is where the sculpture of David is. The line was super long and another group of Americans said that they were in line for 20 minutes and only moved ten feet. We decided to go back later in the day to see if the line went down any. We walked to Musem of San Marco which is a 15th century monastery which housed the greatest collection of frescoes and paintings by early Renaissance master Fra Angelico. Upstairs in the monastery were cells where all the monks stayed. It was the home to the monk who threw out the Medicis, turned Florence into a theocracy, sponsored bonfires to burn books and paintings and was burned to death in a plaza. I think the monaster was the least impressive thing I saw in Florence. It was hard to fully understand and appreciate it because all the signs were in Italian. The frescoes were very somber and many of them were of Jesus hanging from the cross.

Walk into the city centre

Frescoes

After, Kristen and I met Ali Christenson for lunch. It was great to see someone else from TU and hear what is is like studying abroad in Florence. It sounded like she is having an amazing time and really likes Italy. Who wouldn't right? It is gorgeous and has so much history. We got pizza across the street from where she lives. It was pretty good but it had no tomato sauce! It only had cheese, brochetta and maybe some type of lettuce. I'm not sure what the green leaves were but it covered my entire pizza. Ali had to go back to class so we met back up with my parents. We went to the famous Gelateria Grom where they make real gelato with organic ingredients. Ali told us that the gelato that looked the best and was piled high was actually the worst and tastes more like ice cream and not gelato. She suggested that we go to Grom and it was pretty good! We walked back to Accademia and waited in line. It only took about 20 minutes before we were able to get in. There were other pieces of art in the museum but we really only went for the real David statute. You weren't allowed to take pictures of David so Kristen and I put my video recorder in my front pocket of my sweater. We turned it on and kept it in my pocket while I walked around the statute. We got a completely sketch video of David but it worked. I had to do it 2 times because the first time didn't record. In the room with David, were also other Michelangelo's works that were unfinished (included Prisoners, St. Matthew and a Pieta). David was magnificant! He is a 17 foot tall statute and is a symbol of the divine victory over evil. David represents a new century and a whole new Renaissance outlook. The statute has so much emotion and his face reflects his battle after defeating the gian. His body was so realistic even to his veins in his neck and arms. It was really amazing to see the statue that everyone around the world knows and visits all the time. And here is our completely sketch video. (attempt two)

After, we walked across the city. back over Ponte Vecchio and to Pitti Palace gardens. On our way, I bought an Italian flag for my collection right off of the Ponte Vecchio. The Bobli and Bardini Gardens were a great way to escape the tourists in Florence. It also gave us some amazing views of the city and country side. We stayed only for about an hour and a half and went back to the apartment. We were extremely exhausted from the 8 hours of walking with only a break for lunch. We did this two days in a row!