Buonasera!
We got an early start today, Day Four, as the group grabbed croissants and cappuccinos on the way to the train station. Some quick naps on the train brought us back to life, just in time to arrive in the former capital of Italy, Firenze. We met our tour guide, Luisa, in front of the Gothic-style Santa Maria Novella church. We were all impressed by the church’s marble-ous Renaissance façade, but our tour only got more exciting from there. Luisa was able to not only guide us through the labyrinthine city, but connect the diverse sights into a cohesive portrait of the city’s unique history and culture. Wide-eyed, our group drank in Il Duomo’s soaring tower, the Ponte Vecchio’s venerable arches, and the countless statues lining the Uffizi. We were even able to make a pop culture connection, identifying the Palazzo Vecchio from the movie Hannibal. After being served our slice of, as Sharon Jones wisely puts it, humble pie by the enduring masterworks of centuries of Florentine artists, our group was ready for a well-deserved lunch. As is the standard in Italy, the service was fantastic, and our group was thoroughly entertained by a callback to the games of the Romans, a sporting arm-wrestling contest between a member of our group and a waiter. To our shame, the waiter won. After lunch, we split into small groups to explore the city. Some groups chose to sip coffee under the Tuscan sun, while others, including ourselves, chose to brave the open air markets, scoring some great deals on Italian leather. We regrouped for our appointment at the Galleria dell’ Accademia, a world-renowned museum and home of Michelangelo’s David. We were fascinated by the development of artistic styles embodied in the Museum’s pieces, which ranged from the early thirteenth-century to the nineteenth-century, and inspired by Michelangelo’s thoughts on “freeing” figures from marble, rather than creating them with a human hand. And, of course, the entire group was awestruck by the museum’s signature piece, Michelangelo’s David; even those of us with high expectations were blown away. After our tour, we once again split into groups, meeting at (more or less) 5:50 for the train back to Castiglion Fiorentino. We closed out the day with yet another delicious dinner, and the traditional gelato stop.
Arrivederci!
Logan Baker ’22 and Laura Roots ‘22
