Week 1

Wow! And this is only the first week. We visited so many places and I took so many pictures. From now on, I will be posting my pictures on Photobucket. You all should have received an email for the link from me (I will NOT be posting it here, as this site is public). If you didn't get the email let me know and give me yours and I'll get it to you

10 July:
Ponte Vecchio is a little less than half a mile from the Duomo and it looks out onto the Arno River. Lining your way to this point are jewelry shops, one after another-and they all look the same.

San Miniato al Monte Church overlooks Florence. From the Duomo, you walk straight up toward the Arno River, across Pointe Vecchio, and along the river. You walk up via del Monte alle Croci which means "alley of the cross". This up hill stair case takes you to Piazzale Michelangelo. You continue to walk up the hill until you cross the street to go up more steps. Zoe-- you would not like all the steps everywhere! This was the longest and hardest walk so far.

Piazza Michelangelo: We stopped here briefly to capture the view of the Synagog (which will be the building with the blue-green domes on photobucket), and another church (not pictured). There are lots of kiosks selling scarves and tourist 'toys' as well as ice cream or gelato.

11 July:
Today we went to San Marco (Dominican Convent of St. Mark) which includes a museum and church. The church is the Hospital of the Innocents. It was put in place when the Govert. decided orphans should be taken care of. Being unmarried and with children was unacceptable, so mothers who could not care for their babies would take them to this church (the children would go through a kind of revolving door-like at the zoo-so they couldn't come back out). In the 16th century, a grating was put across the door to prevent older children from being pushed in.
Inside the church there are two courtyards. The first was for male children and the male hospital workers, and the second for female children and workers. The first is much more ornate than the latter.

Church of Santissima Annunziata (church & museum) is beautiful and quite grand. The rooms along side the isle way are highly decorated with sculpted marble. The ceiling with its gold moldings look gaudy-but in a good way. It has a courtyard like entrance (like many of the buildings here) with frescoes or murals, which were made first and then set into the wall to look like one piece. The architecture is considered Baroque (early 17th century European; and extravagantly ornamented).

The (Duomo's) Baptistery doors were originally made of wood and later financed in Bronze after the cupola was finished. Patterns from the outside mirror those on the inside. The patterns on the outside also correspond to the patterns of the Duomo. This baptistery is the oldest of its kind from the 16th century.

Duomo Museum:Just a bunch of sculpture that wasn't that interesting.

12 July:
Bargello Sculpture museum: On the first floor, there is a courtyard with a well in the center. There are shields on the walls, but not any frescoes (murals). There are however, fleur de lis are painted on the vault ceilings on the second floor overlooking the courtyard.

San Lorenzo Church: This includes the library with the famous triple stair well, which has rounded black marble steps. The entrance is made to look like the outside is on the inside, with false (filled in) windows on the inside. It basically looks like the outside of a building-only on the inside. This was done purely for decoration. Inside the library, the terra-cotta and white marble floor mimic images found on the ceiling.

The home of Casa Siviera was our last stop for today. Siviera acted as a spy for Italy when Germans were stealing Italian artworks. Today, we had the opportunity to look at his private collection of sculpture, furniture, paintings, etc. Even though most of the rooms' flooring had been converted to hard wood (like our living room in Portland), there was one room where you could see the original mosaic marble floor.
(No pictures for this house)

13 July:
Uffizi Gallery ( Venus, etc.): There are no words to describe how grand this gallery is. A little history: In 1765, it was the first galley to open with requested entry. It became open to the public in 1800. I saw many works here that I recalled from previous art history class and also from class here.

Accademia (Made especially to house David): This museum was built especially to house David and so there isn't much else in the way of famous art. I think one of the most striking things about David is the veins in his hands and the way the artist was so precise in his proportions.
(cameras were not allowed)

Vivo le Gelato: One of our program leaders brought us here tonite as a special treat. She says its the BEST in town and I agree! It's Just the way it is supposed to taste-and not far from the Duomo.