Day 14 - Firenze

May 07, 2010

Packed up this morning and left our wonderful apartment. I really liked it, but we must move on and experience more wonderful things. Anyway, we headed to Florence, which is actually Firenze in Italian. I mostly slept on the train. I tried to update my blog a little bit on word, but I got motion sick. Oh well. Sleep is good too :)

When we arrived in Florence, we went to a very small hotel to drop off our stuff. I think we took up half the rooms. Everyone had very small and cramped rooms, but Mckell, Claire, and I got this huge room.

View from the front door of the hotel.

After giving us time to grab some quick food, Mark guided us to the Uffizi gallery, which is part of one of the main piazzas in Florence.

This is where David originally stood. Whether to preserve him from the weather or to make a bunch of money from tourists, he now in the Accademia.

Then we headed in. No pictures were allowed, of course. But just for your information, we saw Botticelli (his most famous ones: Birth of Venus and Primavera), the Portinari Altarpiece, some Raphael and so much more. I did take one picture, but it was at the very end, after a huge empty hallway. They are currently putting up a Caravaggio/Caravaggisti exhibit and they had this painting up for a taste for what is to come.

AH! I really love it. It is Judith Slaying Holofernes by Gentileschi. I wish you could see all of the detail because it really is incredible. Seems morbid, but it really isn't. I like it.

After that, we were set free, so we decided to wander a bit around Florence. I took tons of pictures, mostly of Duomo.

Baptistry doors by Ghiberti!

I love them!

We continued our wandering. As we approached a particular church, we thought it would be cool to go into it. As we approached it, we saw that it was closed but that a very old man was approaching the door. He took out his skeleton keys and creaked open the doors. We walked in immediately after him and it was very dark. All the chapels were shrouded in darkness. I looked over and saw a body lying in one of the chapels. Pretty freaky in the dark, even though I knew it was a sculpture of Christ. As I was looking into this chapel, the lights slowly flickered on. Then, without warning, a chord from the organ ripped through the silence. Very Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque. Needless to say, we stifled screams and got out of there as quickly as possible. Good times ;)

After getting food, we strolled back to the hotel. When a carousel was spotted, Tabitha couldn't resist. Shamra, Ali, and Hilary joined in while Elisabeth and I stood by and laughed :)