Firenze Day 4!

We began our last day in Florence by splitting into two groups for our morning activities: a balsamic vinegar/olive oil tasting and a tour of the secret passsageways in the Palazzo Vecchio. 

No better way to start the morning than tasting balsamic vinegar!  We went to Stefano Conti's stand in Florence's covered farmers' market where we were warmly greeted and our tasting began.  We tried 4 different types of balsamic vinegar by tasting a small drop placed in a little spoon.  The taste of balsamic vinegar changes as it ages in wooden barrels, similar to wine.  The older the vinegar, the more distinctive the taste becomes and the thicker it is.  The very last balsamic vinegar we tried was about as thick as molasses.  Our tasting of balsamics ended with vinegar that was mixed with coffee- a cream that tasted perfect for ice cream!

We also tried two different types of olive oil.  Tuscan olive oil is known for its peppery flavor and we got to sample some oil that had been voted the best in Italy.

Our tasting ended with a variety of cooking items and spreads.  Pure truffles were to be found in many products including honey and cooking salt.  To taste the truffle honey we were given pieces of parmesan cheese to dip in it... the taste is indescribable!  Among the other products we tasted were dried cherry tomatoes, plum chutney and pate.

The tour of the Palazzo Vecchio was incredible!  Originally built to be Florence's city hall, parliaments and the Lord Priors of the city met here and it is still used for politics today.  It originally appeared to be just like any other building from medieval Florence, but in fact the Palazzo is full of secret passageways, put in place by various Florentine rulers who were nervous about the stability of their reign.  In 1573, Cosimo I de Medici was elected Duke of Florence and he moved his family into the Palazzo Vecchio.  This move initiated multiple renovations and apartment additions, as the building had not been intended as a home.  Francesco, one of Cosimo's sons, was a collector of precious things and many of the secret passageways in the Palazzo led to his storage rooms.  These rooms felt more like a treasure box though, with beautifully painted walls that actually hid cabinets for all of Francesco's collections.  His interested varied from alchemy to seashells.  Anything that was beautiful to him was housed in his private rooms.

After our tours through Francesco's treasure box, we went to the Great Hall, a huge meeting room on the main floor of the Palazzo with an incredibly high ceiling and frescos painted on the walls  The room is large enough to hold 1,500 politicians.  The impressive frescos lining the room were done by Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo and they depict Florence's battles with Siena and Pisa.  The ceiling depicts the crowning of Cosimo.  Also housed in this room is Michelangelo's sculpture "Genius of Victory" which represents Florence's victory over Siena.  The ceiling was very high and a new type of architecture was used to build it known as casatoni.  All in all, our tour of the Palazzo Vecchio was very impressive.

With that our activities in Florence ended and our program dispersed, just in time for the rain to unleash.  We trudged to the train station later that afternoon- some of us off to Venice, some to Cinque Terre and some home to Rome!

Firenze - The David and So Much More...

Our trip to Florence so far as been spectacular. To walk such historical grounds has been mind-boggling to say the least. We have ventured into the Renaissance and hit the ground running by seeing incredible works of art by Donatello, Verrocchio, Ghiberti, Botticelli, Da Vinci and of course Michelangelo. Yesterday, my classmate Heather had the joy of reporting on our excursion to the Uffizi where art abounds. I have to say that I was almost jealous that her Roma Reporta day was full of one famous painting after another. Today marked a high point for me with our visit to the Accademia in the afternoon. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Today, we all refueled with breakfast at the hotel. Coffee, cornetti, and the Italian version of cocoa crisps were consumed with fervor before we all met up to start our third day in Florence. Our first stop was the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (The Medici Palace) which at one point had been the site of the Medici Bank. The Palazzo houses the Cappella dei Magi which contains beautiful frescos by Benozzo Gozzilo painted around 1460. The frescos themselves primarily depict members of the Medici family, demonstrating their power and wealth and Cosimo Di'Medici's projection of the Medici's continued fortune into the future. This chapel was also used as a political tool when the Medici were entertaining dignitaries; the frescos also depicted close friends of the Medici which would not only demonstrate loyalties, but also strong alliances.

After the Palazzo Medici Riccardi the group headed over to San Marco Church where we ran into a cute little nonna who talked our Professor's ear off in Italian. Nonna shared with us that her husband was supposedly somehow related to Dante, and that she married said husband in that very church at the age of 18. Who would of thought that we'd run into such a chatty Italian in Florence? Shortly after our encounter with the little Italian, we went next door to the Museo Di San Marco which contained the living quarters of the Florentine Dominican Monks including Girolamo Savonarola's cell. Each cell contained frescos painted by artist Fra Angelico; the paintings differed from cell to cell but all portrayed various biblical scenes such as the annunciation, resurrection, crucifixion or the crowning of Mary. One of the most impressive cells was that of Savonarola's, where contained in glass was the hair shirt he would have worn as a means of mortifying the flesh.

After such a long morning, we all broke for lunch. Some of the group ran for paninis while a handful of us stole away to a little trattoria that Lisa, our Art History instructor, shared with us on our first day in Florence. I have to say, this might have been the best eating I have done in Italy so far. When Lisa first told us about Trattoria Mario, she shared with us that she eats lunch there every day. I was a little concerned that perhaps she was not branching out, but after one bite of my roasted chicken I could see why. I too ate there every day and I am not ashamed to say that I ordered the same dish two days in a row... arista al forno, molto deliciouso!!

Lunch was a nice reprieve from all the pavement we had been pounding. With full bellies and rested feet, we all met up in front of the Accademia for our afternoon meeting with David. David is a handsome fellow standing at about 17 ft.; he is beautifully carved from marble by the master sculptor Michelangelo. As we entered the Accademia, we were surrounded by various works. I was blind to everything in front of me, my mind preoccupied with what I was about to see. We entered the corridor and to the right, another corridor lined with Michelangelo's Slaves led us to his masterpiece the David. In pictures his grandeur is dwarfed, to truly appreciate his size you must stand at his feet. It is impossible to communicate here, what it was to see the original work. To know that Michelangelo carved such smooth contours from a block of marble with such a small tool as the chisel is to be left awe inspired to say the least.

Firenze - Heather Kraft

Second Day in Florence



Today was our second day in Florence. After a torrential downpour during our initial tour of the city even today’s gray weather was lovely in contrast. Our first stop today was a building that had once been a great mansion. The inside was left decorated as it had been and was filled with many common household trinkets of the time.

Luckily, we had a reservation which allowed us to go a floor above those with the regular tour passes. Here we observed a bedroom that was decorated with scenes of courtly love. Items varied in the other rooms. There was a grand fire place in one room. Another held a great dining table. A third showed examples of lace and the instruments with which fabric was made.

Amy, myself, Lisa, Lia, Richelle and Kelly pose in one of the rooms

After this we moved on towards Piazza Vecchio. There we briefly discussed the bronze version of David we were about to see, created by Donatello. It was an odd sensation to receive a lecture standing in the middle of Florence, surrounded by famous statues with the tower of the Signoria above our heads. It was also in this place that Savonarola was burned.

The last thing Savonarola may have seen

After this lecture we moved on towards the Bargello. Tucked away in this building are many pieces of amazing art. Earlier in the week we discussed the competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi for the baptistery doors. In the Bargello we were allowed to closely examine these competition panels, which featured the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Finally we moved on towards Donatello’s David. Behind the statue towered a replica. The contrast was helpful because the replica was gilded as the original piece would have been.


Example of the guilded replica behind the original

After the Bargello we took a quick lunch break. Marco took a group of us to a panini place which he, our resident panino expert, claimed was the best panino he had had in Italy. I can’t disagree with him. One of the best parts of the sandwich was not their taste or warmth but their names! I chose the Savonarola, while Richelle chose the Brunelleschi and Jess, the Botticelli. All of the sandwiches were named after people who had been influential in Florentine history and who we had studied over the past week.

The lunch break was a nice chance to recoup but from there we went to the Uffizi, an art museum comparable to the Louvre. Here we took an epic walk through the museum. We began by analyzing religious art, especially some altar pieces by Giatto. Lisa wanted us to note their size, which was much larger than most of us assumed. Then we moved on to the Botticelli room. Here we stood in awe in front of many Botticelli pieces including two of his famous pieces, The Birth of Venus and Primavera. From there, we moved on to a move of Leonardo Da Vinci. One of the pieces we saw was a collaboration in which his master let Da Vinci draw an angel. It is said that Da Vinci’s angel was so beautiful, the master put down his own brush for the rest of his life. Then we were dismissed but highly encouraged to check out the rest of the first floor, in which every wall held at least 4 pieces of art. Many were covered in jewels of paintings, surrounding lovely statues. On our way towards the exit, we discovered the Caravaggio exhibit and saw the famous picture of Judith. Then, we exited the museum into a lovely Florence day.

This is much larger in person

Marco and I decided to work on our quests and ventured over to the nearby Orsamichele church in an effort to distinguish the gothic and renaissance touches on two statues put into the niches. Finding all we could, we discovered Perche No? and Grom on our way back but only tried the first. Then we made our way back to the hotel. From there, we all labored on our Quests, explored the city and had wonderful dinners, excited for the next day. Some others ended their day with a riveting venture to go purse shopping!

Julia debates which purse to get

But carly scored!

Florence (Firenze) Day ONE

By Richelle Mehlhaff

We arrived at the train station early, only to see our train get delayed by 1 hour! After a long wait and a 2 hour journey, we finally arrived in Florence, exhausted, and dragged our bags to the hotel.

Our hotel was located in a street used for the leather market of Florence, where venders sell leather purses, belts, and journals (etc.) in all shapes and colors.

The leather stands in front of our hotel!

After a lunch break we visited the Duomo of Florence, which has an incredible dome built by Brunelleschi and a separate octagonal Baptistry that display a copy of the bronze doors by Ghiberti.

DUOMO: The dome, cathedral, and Batistry of Florence

The interior of the baptistery was covered in gold mosaics, with a famous Last Judgement scene of the the damned which inspired Dante’s depiction of the devil in The Divine Comedy.

Last Judgment from the interior of the Baptisty. The damned are on the right hand side.

From the Baptistry we walked to the Santa Croce church, patroned by Pazzi family (rivals to the Medici family). The church was beautiful, and has several famous funerary monuments. The tomb of Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Ghiberti, Machievelli, and an empty tomb for Dante, whose body is actually buried in Ravenna since his family was exiled from Florence when he was a boy.

Interior of the Santa Croce

We had a group dinner on Tuesday night, which was delicious! At the Trattoria ZaZa, a really fun, but cramped restaurant that had specialties like wild boar. YUM!

CIAO!

February 2, 2009

Today was spent in our classroom at the Rome Center getting ready for our trip to Florence tomorrow. Our 10:30 lecture was with Lisa who went over the famous names in Florentine art. We looked at slides of Ghiberti's Baptistery doors, Donatello's David, and the Michelangelo version. We discusses Florence's status as a wealthy city and how that played a role in the development of art in the city. We also learned that humanism played a role in the architecture and statuary of the city since the Renaissance Humanists were attempting to recreate what they were seeing in Rome.

After a break for lunch, we had class with Mary where we finished up our previous discussion about Cosimo de' Medici and began talking about Lauro Martines' book April Blood about the Pazzi Conspiracy to kill Lorenzo and Guiliano de' Medici. This book is full of Renaissance gore and is quite a page turner. We finished with some slides of artwork featuring the Medici. Afterwards we all rushed home to pack for our trip tomorrow and to get some sleep.

Un persone molto misteriosa!

Il tempo è bello e soleggiato! It was refreshing to wake up on Thursday morning and see that the weather was finally going to be pleasant! No piove, thank god! All of our church excursions this week must have finally earned us some points with the man (or who ever you think controls the weather). Taking full advantage of the beautiful weather, I got up and out of bed for a run. I ran up to the Villa Borghese, which is phenomenal in comparison to the somewhat dangerous streets of Rome and a nice break from the monotony of running along the post-apocalyptic looking Tiber pathway. The run was beautiful and I wished I could have stayed at Villa Borghese longer, but, alas, it was time for Italiano class, and who doesn’t love seeing Paola? Uh huh huhhh!

Simply put, Italian class today was amazing. It all started with a role-playing-twenty-questions-like game. Paola made us flash cards with names of famous people from all around the world, alive and dead. The rest of the class had to guess which person we were by asking simple yes/no questions in Italian. For example, I was given the card of Madonna. My classmates would ask questions, such as “É una donna? Lei è americano? Lei è un'attrice? Se si hanno i capelli biondi? Ecc..” My person was fairly easy, as Lia guessed it within the first five questions. However, Julia and Cami had un persone molto misteriosa. After several rounds of questions, Bryan astutely figured it out: the girls were Maximus, Russell Crowe’s character from the movie Gladiator.

After the game, it was time for us to venture out into the real world and practice our Italian with Italians. Gasp! Our class broke up into groups: The first group went to un bar; the second group went to il Forno; and the third group went to the mercato in the Ciampo di Fiori. In each of the respective places, we had to order items in Italiano. For example, “Posso avere un cornetto, per favore.” In the bar, we ordered the usual: caffe latte, cappuccino, etc. The foam designs were quite elaborate, almost making you not want to drink your latte in fear that you would ruin the barista’s artwork.

In the Forno, a popular item was the castagnole. Castagnole, a Venetian Carnivale tradition, are little fried pieces of heaven dipped in sugar. Hands down, they are much better than any donut hole I’ve ever tried back in the States. Although, supposedly Castagnole are made from a simple sweet bread dough recipe, I think crack must be one of the primary ingredients. They’re damn addicting! I might have to enroll in Castanole Anonymous upon my return to the States. Is anyone up for sponsoring me?
In the market, students ordered fruits and vegetables. Upon return to class, we buckled down and learned more about –ere, -ire, and –are verbs. During a listening comprehension exercise, a friendly squabble broke out among Bryan and Carly, which resulted in a head rub from Paola. And, I’ve never seen anyone’s face quite as red as Bryan’s was afterwards. Later that afternoon, we attended Mary’s class. In preparation for our departure to Florence, we continued to learn about Italian city states and the rise of the Medici.

After class, Nicolette, Julia and I set out to experience saldi shopping. We walked along the Via del Corso and many of the side streets. Saldi shopping was intimidating, exhausting and fun all at the same time. The people shopping were definitely a different crowd than the ones I normally encounter in my morning runs and during my walk from my apartment to the Rome center. In the midst of our shopping, we stopped at the Spanish Steps. With the backdrop of the moon and the stars, the Roman vista we saw was absolutely breathtaking. Although, Nicolette was the only member of our party to actually buy something, I felt like I experienced the Saldi scene. After resting up a bit, the three of us ventured out to a bar vicino a Coliseum. Paola would be proud: we tried our best at conversing with our neighbors in Italian.

Street Shrines, Talking Statues, and the Vatican Scavi

The weather today was beautiful, which was surely a nice change of pace for all of us. The day began with Heather's presentation on street shrines or, more specifically, Madonella. Street shrines had various functions, which, oddly enough, included deterring crime and providing the lighting for Rome's streets until the 19th century. First and foremost, however, the street shrines acted as a form of propaganda for the Catholic Church. Heather’s presentation took us to a handful of different street shrines, including the two pictured here. The last street shrine, where the picture below was taken, was mounted on the wall opposite of the Church of Santa Maria della Pace.

Santa Maria della Pace, which is located a short walk away from Piazza Navona, is rarely open to the public, so when we saw that it was, in fact, open, we had no choice but to go in and explore. Built in the late 15^th century, Santa Maria della Pace is a hidden gem. It is likely best known for its cloister, but it also boasts a beautiful interior which, when open, is worthy of exploration. The interior is covered with frescoes, including some done by Raphael in the early 16^th century.

After we left Santa Maria della Pace, we walked a few blocks to one of Rome’s infamous “talking statues.” These talking statues were used in imperial times as anonymous forums where citizens could post their praise, critiques, or thoughts about the emperor without the worry of persecution. Even today, the talking statue was still covered with tattered pieces of paper—a good indication that these talking statues are still very much in use.

From this point in time, the group split into two smaller groups for exclusive tours of the Vatican Scavi. The tour took us through the necropolis underneath Saint Peter’s Basilica, where we were able to peer through a small slit into the grave site thought to be that of Saint Peter. The tour then continued on to the original Saint Peter’s Basilica—an ornately gilded and very beautiful chapel. We finished our tour at the tomb of Pope John Paul II, where a dozen or more visitors were praying. From there, we ascended a staircase into the strikingly beautiful and enormous interior of Saint Peter’s Basilica. After exploring the various sights inside the basilica, including Michelangelo’s Pieta, we then set off for home.