Firenze: Art and Cobblers...and Lauren Brauer visits Italy!

The second weekend in March, we headed to Florence. Since our art history professor wasn't going to take our class to see the specific works of early Italian Renaissance art we've studied, we went with the professor who is teaching the other section of our class this semester. She was very nice and may even have given us more information than he would have....but who can really say? I was kind of happy that we aren't in her class, though, because it seemed awfully intense! We got a chance to kind of just take it all in instead of having to take copious notes, which I think was a really good thing. The other part of our trip to Florence was, of course, the presence of my wonderful cousin Lauren. This was, in fact, the best part of the trip! :) She arrived in Rome on the morning of the day we were leaving for Florence, sans luggage (as it had missed her connection in Philadelphia) but still perky and all ready to head off on a four hour train trip- especially after some gelato! We arrived in Florence that night and found our hostel, Archi Rossi. It ended up being a really wonderful place to stay- our friends had stayed there a few weekends earlier and recommended it, and I'm really glad we took them up on that recommendation! We had a private room for the three of us with its own bathroom and its own computer! AND breakfast and dinner was included. How can you go wrong? We had pizza/pasta and wine when we got there and then just hung out for a while before heading to bed- we had a semi-early start the next morning and wanted to make sure we could find the meeting place.

The next morning we got breakfast at the hostel and headed off to Santa Maria Novella, the Dominican church in Florence right next to the train station. We successfully met the professor and her students- it ended up being about eight of us in total, which seemed to be a good size for the group.

Santa Maria Novella is a pretty cool church- note all of the two-tone architecture. Inside is a fresco by Masaccio and a crucifix by Giotto...and probably some other significant works of art that I can't remember right now. Once we were done there, we went to the church of San Lorenzo (the traditional church of the Medici family) and saw the old sacristy and some works by Donatello there. On the way over there, we passed by the Duomo, which is really big and really cool- I wish we would have had time to go in there during our time in Florence...but I guess I'll just have to do that next time. ;)

After San Lorenzo, we got our orders to meet up after lunch at the church of Santa Croce (the Holy Cross). Where did we end up going for lunch? The most American place we could find, of course! Some of the girls from the other professor's class recommended a place called The Diner- and they were right. SO GOOD. Especially after not having American food for a couple of months!

Look how happy I am! :)

This milkshake was so chocolate-y. It was glorious!

I also had a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Go big or go home, right??

We paid and headed over to Santa Croce.

There's a pretty BA statue of Dante outside. 

...and inside we saw the tombs of Michelangelo....

...Machiavelli (whose tomb I couldn't pass up- old Niccolo and I got pretty close during that enormous seminar paper I wrote about  La Mandragola)....

...and Galileo. Pretty amazing!

In Santa Croce we also saw the Peruzzi and Bardi chapels, including frescoes by Giotto. It's so amazing to see all the art we've been studying up close! We also went to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (the museum of old artworks from the Duomo, or cathedral), where we saw a lot of statues.  Once we were done looking at art for the day, we went down to the Arno River and saw Ponte Vecchio.

Then we did some shopping (including a pretty intense stop at H&M and the purchase of leather jackets) and grabbed dinner back at the hostel, wherein we met a group of French cobblers. Yes. French shoemakers. They gave us some advice as to where we should go out for the night, and we eventually ended up running into them at a bar near Santa Croce. We headed home at a relatively reasonable hour (since we had to be up early to go see the David before we were supposed to meet our group) and in the morning ran into the cobblers again at breakfast....when they were just coming in from the night. Oy vey.

So we headed out to see the David- and it was amazing! The room it's in was specifically built to house it, and it really showcases Michelangelo's sculpture incredibly well- and, of course, the statue itself is breathtaking. It never ceases to amaze me what a man can do with a block of marble- although it probably helps if that man is Michelangelo. ;) The David is absolutely enormous and incredibly beautiful, and I really wouldn't have missed seeing it for the world. It was amazing.

We first went to the dormitory at the monastery of San Marco, where we saw all of the frescoes painted in the individual cells by Fra Angelico. We continued on to the Baptistery of the Duomo, where we saw the magnificent bronze doors by Ghiberti, and then to the Bargello, where we saw Donatello's David, his St. George, and Brunelleschi and Ghiberti's bronze panels made for the competition over who would be commissioned to create the Baptistery's doors. Then we grabbed lunch at a cafe and headed over to the Uffizi, Florence's major art gallery, where we saw many of the works we've studied (various Maesta' images, some Annunciation images, etc.) and also the Birth of Venus, which I thought was fantastic. We had to head out kind of early to catch our train back to Rome, but Florence was definitely a blast, and it was so cool to see all of the paintings and frescoes and statues we've been studying! Plus we got milkshakes, so it was totally worth it. ;)

That evening we got back to Rome a little after 9 p.m., and Lauren Brauer and I (differentiating between the two Laurens, of course) went out for a little while after that, but nothing too exciting happened and we ended up just chatting back at her hostel. It was so good to have her here! Something similar happened the following day, when we intended to go to both the Colosseum and the Pantheon and ended up shopping in my favorite store (la Feltrinelli, which is basically the Italian version of Barnes and Noble...which should surprise absolutely no one), eating in their little cafe, and chatting for several hours. It probably didn't help that it was pouring outside, but we eventually made it to the Pantheon and got to do some souvenir shopping, which I hadn't really had a chance to do since getting here anyway. The next day, Lauren Tomasek took Lauren Brauer around in the morning while I was in class, and we later had a team nap before LB and I headed out to actually see the Colosseum. We got some night pictures, which ended up being really cool!

Tuesday we did some window shopping in the morning and then (after another team nap...) went out to our local Irish pub, Scholars, for some fun and some serious bar food. We got two plates of wings and two plates of super deluxe nachos, and it was wonderful!

Poor Martin. :D

The pouring rain in which we walked home put a bit of a damper on the evening, but we got LB back to her hostel before its curfew and then proceeded to have a bit of a post-midnight food fest in my apartment...which may have explained the sleep-deprived state in which Katherine and I found ourselves when we had to be at our early classes on Wednesday morning! Wednesday was kind of a lazy day- LB ventured out to see the Angels and Demons churches in the rain in the morning, and that night we just laid low, but Thursday was a completely different story! We got up really early (7:30ish, which I think might actually count as "early" for regular people...not 10 or anything) and went to the old Jewish ghetto before trekking it up to Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica.

The weather was a little iffy, so it was nice to be inside. We went through the metal detectors and headed into the basilica, which is, of course, beautiful- but not exactly what I expected. It's huge, of course, but I thought it would be bigger or more impressive or something- not totally sure what it is. It's incredible and definitely worth seeing, though- especially when you factor in Michelangelo's amazing Pieta'!

Then we headed into the Vatican Museums. We had to wait in line for maybe half an hour, but it was definitely worth it- even if we had just been able to see Raphael's frescoes and the Sistine Chapel, that would have made it worthwhile, but we were able to see (and hopefully appreciate!) a lot of the other art too. The Sistine Chapel is, however, absolutely incredible, in every sense of the word. I wanted to sit down on the floor and stare at that ceiling for at least an hour. There's just so much to take in, and the sheer amount of people in the room (along with the guards yelling, "NO PHOTO!" and "SHHH!") kind of breaks any concentration you might have, but it's so...amazing. It wasn't really what I was expecting either, though. I pictured it being brighter and less...busy, I suppose. But again, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it or didn't think it was worthwhile- it was glorious! Just not exactly what I had in my head before actually seeing it.

On the way home we grabbed some gelato and Lauren got all packed up since she was leaving the next morning. Then we headed out to this adorable restaurant called Le Fate ("the fairies"). One of my friends took a cooking class at JCU from the chef whose family owns the restaurant, and they have a daily student menu for 10 euro that includes bruschetta, a main dish, a dessert, and wine. It's wonderful! LB, Katherine, Yerica, and I had a lovely meal, including artichoke bruschetta and penne arrabbiate. Yum!

After dinner we went out for a while (since it was St. Patrick's Day, of course), but Lauren and I hit the hay kind of early because we had to get up to go to the airport in the morning- she was heading back home to the States and my mom was coming in!

Overall, I think the trip to Florence and Lauren's visit were some of the highlights of my entire semester here. Florence was just such a fun city (and we had such an amazing time), and Lauren got here right when I really needed her to be here- it had been a heck of a couple of weeks, and it was good to have one of my wonderful cousins here to just talk everything out with. I'm so glad that she could come!

Next up: what is sure to be an incredibly overwhelmingly long post about my mother's visit to Europe and our trip to London, which was absolutely FANTASTIC!

Venezia: Canals and Carnevale

On with the travel reports! I was having internet problems with my laptop, but thankfully the tech people here are magical and fixed it in about 20 seconds. So much for being computer literate, eh? :)

On March 5th we took a Bus2Alps tour to Venice for Carnevale- basically the Italian form of Mardi Gras. There's a huge party and music in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), and everybody dresses up in costumes- kind of like American Halloween. Of course, it's quite a trek from Rome to Venice, so we got to the train station to catch our bus before 7 a.m. and commenced to spend just about eight hours on said coach bus. We stopped at a couple of rest stops for bathroom breaks and lunch, and they played movies, so it was definitely bearable, but eight hours on a bus still isn't the most fun thing in the entire world. When we got to Venice, we hopped on the water bus and headed off to Piazza San Marco!

The sun was shining, and the canals were so amazing.

People were just kind of hanging out wherever they could find a spot, waiting for the evening's festivities to begin.

The grand canal was full of gondolas- they look really cool, but it's supposed to be really expensive. We were content with the water bus, but maybe next time.....

Finally we got closer to Piazza San Marco. It was probably about a half hour's trip from where the bus left us to the piazza. The tower in the picture below is where we were headed!

When we got off the water bus, it was absolutely packed! 

Our first order of business, however, was to find some masks. Venetian masks are huge for Carnevale, so we wanted to be sure to get some cool ones! They were relatively inexpensive (I think mine was 8 or 10 euro?), but there were so many to choose from! Martin ended up getting one with a big nose, which is one type of traditional mask, but the rest of us just got plain half-face masks. They were pretty exciting!

We took in the atmosphere in Piazza San Marco for a while before attempting to find a restaurant for dinner. There were so many cool costumes- some people really go all out!

The piazza itself is really cool too- there's a cathedral, which was unfortunately under restoration while we were there, and of course the big tower we saw from the water.

The kids get dressed up for Carnevale too- this little one drew a HUGE crowd of picture-takers! So adorable!

Then we headed off to find food- always an adventure! The canals and little side streets were really cool- it's just such an interesting place to have a city.

We did some browsing in the shops and looked at all the Venetian glass, which was, of course, beautiful, and we finally found a suitable restaurant. I had the spinach and cheese tortellini- yum!!!

After dinner we headed back to Piazza San Marco, where the evening's party had started to get underway. There were a ton of people just hanging out- dancing and drinking, of course- and a video DJ, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. We took in the atmosphere and had a great time just soaking it all up!

And Martin perfected the art of drinking from a can while wearing a mask with an enormous nose. It's the little things in life.

Eventually we headed back to the bus via water taxi and commenced to spend the following 7-8 hours on said bus. We rolled into Rome around 6 a.m. and grabbed the H bus back to Trastevere. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and then slept all day! It was such a whirlwind trip, but it was definitely worth it.

Venice is such a cool city- especially for someone who loves water as much as I do, the canals are so beautiful and the idea of living via boats instead of cars is so fascinating. I wish we had had a little more time to visit some of the other islands in the city, but even just the little taste of Venice that we had was amazing. I would definitely go back given the chance! I'm glad we got to be there for Carnevale, too. The masks and costumes and party attitude really gave it such a fun atmosphere and made it an unforgettable experience!

Next up, a blog of our art-filled trip to Florence!