I kind of am beginning to love this time at night when I get a snack or a cup of tea and write down what happened during the day...just thought I'd throw that out there. ;)
So anyways, this morning began with some yummy french toast - I think I've created a monster out of Sabrina, she loves it now as much as I do....
But then we had lecture in the morning and learned alot about Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, a bit about Michelangelo, and we touched on Raphael as well - basically the High Renaissance artists.
Afterwards we got a break for lunch, but then met back up shortly after to go visit the Uffizi Gallery - basically one of the most amazing museums in the world!!
Although we moved through pretty quick and no pictures were allowed, we saw such famous works like Cimabue's Madonna and Child Enthroned, Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, Simone Martini's Annunciation, numerous portraits including Raphael's self portrait, Martin Luther's portrait along with his wife, Eleanora & Cosimo de'Medici, etc. And we also saw works by Botticelli like his stunning Birth of Venus and Primavera. We also saw Leonardo da Vinci's version of the annunciation, Titian's Venus of Urbino, Carravagio's Medusa and Bacco (Bacchus), Artemesia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes, and oh the list goes on and on and on....
Here are some Google images of my faves:
Giotto's madonna
Botticelli's Birth of Venus
Eleanora de'Medici...her dress was sooooooooo detailed!
Caravaggio's Medusa on an actual shield
Leonardo's Annunciation
So it's obvious how overwhelmingly enthralled I was and I am so glad we received an Uffizi card that will let us into the museum for free because I will definitely be coming back at some point! There's just so much to see - it was impossible in the few hours we had.
But it was a nice taste of High Renaissance art especially and to round out the theme of the day, we then went to Casa Buonarroti - the familial home of Michelangelo!
Although the artist himself never really lived here, many of his sketches and studies, as well as two of his earliest works are kept here in the museum the house was turned into.
....and turns out that this place was just a few streets over from our apartment! Who knew!
...and again, Google is my friend:
One of his earliest pieces - Madonna of the Stairs - perhaps not the most creative title, but the guy did this when he was 13!!!! ...it's a real self-confidence-builder, isn't it?
So, after feeling like I've done nothing with my life we went back to our apartment and chilled until it hit around 7. At that time, we met up with some of the other gals and, like I mentioned in my previous post, we all hiked back up that delicious hill in order to see the Florentine sunset in Piazzale Michelangelo....go figure.
...copy of his David in the Piazzale
But it was so lovely...we all got many more pics of the city and chatted over a light dinner at a restaurant with a great view and fabulous music to set the mood.
The sunset was just as wonderful as we had imagined too...such rich hues of orange and pink and the way it settled over the city and hillsides just stole the words right out of your mouth.
Later, as we were climbing down the hill, we all got a little crazy and Disney song renditions may have been involved...but eventually we made it to a local bar - again right around the corner from our house! - where some of the other girls had said there were hot twin bartenders. Unfortunately, only one was there tonight - his name was Paolo (but he told us to call him Sly cuz his middle name was Silvestri - hilarious!) - but I will attest to his good looks....and to think there's another one...
Oh you Florentine men....how I will miss your daily provisions of eye-candy....
And I knew ya'll would want a pic so here's one this girls took the other night of the other twin - Marco:
yum.
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