Florence
ITALY
Birthplace of Michaelangelo
By AARON
Friday, February 18, 2011
Half-forced, half-coaxed into reading Irving Stone’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, I hesitantly picked up the 758 page book and started reading about the troubled life of Michelangelo, one of history’s greatest artists/architects/sculptors/etc. Little did I know how much this book would shed so much light on so many places we visited in Italy and bring about so much more joy in the sights that we saw.
From Venice, Lyndi and I pulled into Firenze Santa Maria Novella, or more commonly known as Florence, and ended up finding Hotel Ester, a clean, one-star hotel about 2 blocks from the train station. Being the birthplace of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florence houses many pieces of his artwork and sculptures, but none as important as the “David”, arguably the finest marble carving ever to be made.
Our first touristy stop though was the Uffizi, which is one of the largest art galleries, housing some of the best art the world has ever known. Quickly snatching a gelato from a nearby gelatteria, we headed inside to once again enjoy one of the world’s great artistic treasures… along with, yep, you guessed it, a bunch of junior high kids on a field trip. Thankfully, Lyndi had picked up an Italy guide from our hotel which took you room-to-room in the Uffizi, and highlighted as well as described major works of art by various artists.
The gallery itself houses works of art as early as the Byzantine era, and chronologically takes you through thousands of years of the evolution of painting and sculpting. So after a couple of hours, we left feeling a little bit smarter about art, so we held our heads high and headed back to our section of town and treated ourselves to a nice, cheap meal and a bottle of some good Italian wine.
The next morning was to be my highlight of Florence – the visiting of the Galleria d’Accademia which houses marble sculptures and artwork, but is most famous for being the home of Michelangelo’s “David”. The first thing that hit me was the sheer size of the sculpture. It stands at almost 15 feet tall, and yet every muscle and bone seems to be sculpted in a perfectly proportional state. The second thing that put me in awe was the sheer detail that Michelangelo put into David. Known for (illegally) dissecting human corpses in order to better understand just how the human body works, Michelangelo makes every muscle and bone exist in perfect harmony, and every detail – right down to the veins running through his hands that appear uniquely lifelike, as if this giant David would suddenly step off his pedestal and walk away.
Not being a art “connoisseur” by any stretch of the imagination, the ability for a man who lived over 500 years ago to render today’s modern man speechless is an art in itself. To be able to captivate an audience as they stare up in utter awe, even if, for that short 10 second span, to be able to transport them back 5 centuries and not have them think about who just tweeted them, whether or not they should update their Facebook status, or check their e-mail on their new smart phone – that, my friends, is talent.
After visiting the Galleria, we made the short walk over to the Duomo, which is the largest and tallest building in Florence. Originally built to be the Cathedral of Florence, it can house up to 20,000 patrons and after walking inside, it could probably house more than that.
Adorned in every square inch with murals, mosaics, artwork and sculptures, the church itself is a dedication to the celebration of the arts in Florence. After the Duomo, it was around 2pm, so we headed to the central market and had pulled-pork sandwiches at the ever famous “Nerbone”. This place has to be in the Lonely Planet (we heard of it online) because the line was a mile long, and you can’t help but feel bad for all the other lunch places in the market as they look longingly onwards to the only line in the market, filled to the brim with locals and tourists alike. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I must say, although the price was great for the sandwiches (about 3 Euro), there was definitely more fat than pork – I would try another place if you find yourself there one day.
The end of our full day, Lyndi and I decided to walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a large plaza/park that has a beautiful view of all of Florence. After snapping some sunset pictures and sitting on the main steps with everyone else there, we had a leisurely stroll back to our hotel where we enjoyed a picnic in the hotel room and a rare night without any wine.
