Florence- Day 3: Shopping, Church, and Art Museums

"All Art Has Been Contemporary"

Sign outside Uffizi

On our second day full day in Florence Stacy was feeling a little worse for the wear, so the Wolf Pack was down to two for the market that morning. Stacy also spent most the day with her roommate because they wanted to catch up considering they have not seen each other since summer.

On the way to San Lorenzo market that morning I once again stopped for some pastries to fuel my shopping. And I did a lot of shopping. I got a leather journal for myself, as well as a myriad of things for other people back in the US. I almost splurged to the extreme and got myself a leather jacket but I could not justify it. Had I had an enabler there who knows how many leather jackets I would be arriving home with.

Church of Santa Croce- final resting place of Michelangelo and Galileo

After spending too much time and money in the market Brittany and I headed over to Church of Santa Croce. It was five euro to go and Brittany wasn’t feeling it so I flew solo. The church itself was nice and had many tombs and people buried there, including Michelangelo and Galileo. I enjoyed seeing these as well as the people buried within the floor of the church (I don’t know what the proper term for those are). These were extremely old, dating back to the fifteenth century. Can’t find stuff that old in the US which is one of the reasons I love Europe. After walking through the church I walked in the courtyard which was so beautiful too, just what you would expect. I just loved it!

Galileo

Michelangelo's Tomb

The three women represent (from left) painting, sculpture and architecture with his bust on the top.

Various other people buried in the floor

As I mentioned before, I had a reservation at the Uffizi Art Museum at 1 o’clock so I had to get there. I have been thoroughly spoiled with art museums, considering the last one that I went to was the Louvre and I grew up going to the Art Institute of Chicago. The Uffizi was good and I enjoyed it, but after a while to the untrained eye (my eye) all Renaissance paintings with Biblical subjects start to look the same. I did see Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera, which were nice, although I think that you can get the idea just buy seeing the prints of Birth of Venus that everyone has seen everywhere since birth. I glad a spent part of my time in Florence at the Uffizi though.

I got out of the museum and got myself some lunch which consisted of a kebab and a diet coke. I met up with Brittany on the shore of the Arno River in a little piece of sand. We stayed there a couple of minutes and then took a walk back into the centre of town. Britt got a panini and then we walked to the Galleria dell Accademia, where I had another reservation to see Michelangelo’s David. In the US you make reservations for dinner, in Italy you make reservations for art museums.

I was very on the fence about going to see David; there were two replicas in Florence that I could go to without paying and so far works like The Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, and The Birth of Venus did not live up to the hype. I called my father and he said that he had gone to see David while in Florence decades ago and encouraged me to go. He also talked about the four unfinished Michelangelo’s that are there that he remembered and had stuck with him.

Turns out it was absolutely amazing! The replicas and pictures don’t exude anything like the original. First of all, it was very tall (24 feet), as you can see in the illegal photo I took of it (I’m such a rebel when it comes to art museums). Also, there are skylights above David which shed natural light on him and make him glow. And if those weren’t amazing enough, he is just so beautiful. Not only do you have the perfectly sculpted body, but his facial expression is so emotional. Unlike the triumphant expression that you usually see with David after he kills Goliath, this David is more pensive. After days of trying to put into words what I think the face shows I have decided to interpret it as this: David has just killed Goliath, but he is almost remorseful, contemplating if it is ever right to kill another person and debating if what he did was right.

David himself

"I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free."

-Michelangelo

In the museum there were also four unfinished statues by Michelangelo, called the Four Prisoners, and an unfinished Pieta, meant to be Mary cradling a dying Jesus. The first unfinished Prisoner I saw was my favourite; it honestly looked like someone was trying to escape from the block of marble. It’s also interesting to see how a block of marble is transformed to a masterpiece like David.

Photo Source: Life 2.0, life2point0.com