It's Sunday! And did I go to church? Yes I did! ...well ok it wasn't church - it was mass. But it was held at the Duomo and at the 10:30 service, parts were performed in Gregorian chant! So while Sabrina headed off again - this time to Pisa and then the beach to sunbathe - I got my skirt on and trekked over with at least 200 of my closest friends to worship in one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe! ...not too shabby.
It was a big deal too - not just for me. The archbishop of Florence himself (Giuseppe Betori) presided and so there were around 10 or so 'secret-service' guys in special suits with ear-headsets who walked around during the service ensuring no one was doing anything suspicious. Thus, I only managed to snap a blurry pic near the end when they weren't looking.
But the service itself was pretty neat. It was about an hour long and even though everything was in Italian and Latin, the parts where there was singing gave me goosebumps. Everything echoed so beautifully throughout the cathedral...I even counted and every word that was uttered lasted for at least 10 seconds. Even the words not sung were lovely to listen to and I truly appreciated the reverence with which everything was done....even if I think it was slightly overkill. Thank goodness for Red Rocks Church back home!
After mass, the secret service guys allowed everyone to take pictures of the cathedral before hustling us out through the main entrance doors. Looking around, it wasn't quite as stunning at say, the Siena Cathedral, but because it's free admission, many of the precious artworks and treasures are locked away in museums. Nonetheless, it had the frescoes inside Brunelleschi's dome, some gorgeous stained-glass windows, wall sculptures, and cool floor designs.
...and then as we left, we were greeted with this beautiful shot!
It was definitely an experience I'll never forget.
After mass, I went home, ate some leftovers, and caught up on homework. But later in the day I decided to take a break and go visit the Museum of Galileo which is on the river next to the Uffizi Museum. It was really cool - even if the ticket was a pretty penny. But it housed hundreds of beautifully-crafted globes, clocks, and all manner of 15th-19th century scientific instrumentation, so I'd say it was worth it.
Although named after Galileo, he was just a small part of the exhibition and the place was set up really more to show the evolution of scientific development in Italy and around the world. And they even had little excerpts and labels in English so it was really easy to follow along.
That thing in the back was labeled as a battery! Only slightly different from our duracells today, right?
...early microscope...so cool.
The big man himself
...and here lay two of his fingers and a tooth. Yummy.
those long glass tubes were old thermometers
...telescope anyone?
...this pair was labeled as 'magnetic ducks'. Yeah, I don't know either.
HUGE telescope at the top there - like tree-sized...it was crazy.
old scale
and this was an old fan!
So yeah, some really neat stuff, and then at the very end they had this whole interactive area where you could look through virtual telescopes, see the patterns of planets, try out some of the machines (replicas of course!), etc.
Then I took the long way back home and made more leftovers (big surprise!) before Sabrina finally came back. And poor thing got a bit too friendly with the sun...she was red as a tomato! But she's currently finishing off the wine and she took some drugs a little while ago so she should be ok. :)
I guess we'll find out tomorrow!
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