First trip to Florence

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Today we traveled by bus to Florence and walked…oh…I’d say… about five thousand miles. We visited the Piazza del Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore (where the famed architect Brunelleschi is entombed), the Baptistery of San Giavanni, the Museo Dell’ Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, and more. My personal favorite was the Baptistery believed to have been converted from a pagan temple (thought to be for Mars - god of war) to its Christian use. Ghiberti’s bronze-gilded doors on the south were once called “the Gates of Paradise” by Michealangelo and Dante referred to the structure as his “fair San Giavanni”.

The Duomo was impressive in its size, and that they still can’t figure out how Brunelleschi did it.
In the Museo, I was most impressed with the “Pieta” that was Michelangelo’s last work (unfinished and at one point he went into a rage and broke it apart with a hammer, luckily for us, his students at the time repaired the damage) and Donatello’s repentant Magdalene in wood.

In the Piazza Vecchio, two amazing works: “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” and Giambalogna’s “Rape of the Sabine Women”. The latter, sculpted in a unique way that prohibits you from seeing it comfortably from anywhere you stand, so that you are compelled to keep moving around it (sculpture in the round).

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