It was hard to believe that after all of the things that we had done that our time was coming to a close. It was our last trip to Florence before heading away from Italy. I was really looking forward to it.

Our first mission was to head to San Miniato. It is a church above the hill in Florence, and it is fabulous. It has a really good view of the city. The church is one of the best that I had been in. It was also one of Michelangelo’s favorites, and I can see why. The church was right along the defense walls that Michelangelo helped to put together when Florence was under siege.

The time we spent in the church was amazing because it was all covered inside and out with perfect white marble. It was a really good church to end our tour of Florence on.

After that, the group walked down the hill to Florence and had lunch.

After lunch, we met up at the Medici Chapel. The goal was to go in and see the Medici tombs as well as the work that Michelangelo did. It was a really fabulous visit, and the works are by far some of my favorite works that Michelangelo did. We then went around and went into the church of San Lorenzo. It is one of my other favorite churches. The entire thing was designed my Brunelleschi, and it has a very fabulous feel. It was one of my favorite spaces to spend time in.

We were all tired, but because it was our last trip in Florence, I headed off with a couple of people to see some other churches. The church of Santo Spirito that was wanted to see was closed, so Jeffrey recommended that we go to the Church of SS. Annunziata. It was nothing like the other churches we had been in, so we did not stay long. The cloister was amazing, but that was because Brunelleschi had a say in it’s design, and it was not ruined too much by later people.

On the way home, I stopped off on the train to Prato. The city is a beautiful little city that I had wanted to see. The only thing that Jeffrey told me would be of interest during a quick trip would be the Duomo. I loved it. I was so surprised by its simple beauty. It is legend that the girdle that Mary was wearing when she ascended to Heaven was thrown down on her way up, and it is supposed to rest in the Duomo in Prato. I was able to see it.

It was nice to take the side road off alone to Prato to see all the wonderful things there were to see.

Not much to say about this day. We didn’t have anything scheduled for the day, so I decided to take a nice hike up to the hill above the villa and visit the old monastery there. Christy and Matt decided to come with me.

At first, we started right up through the olive groves, and it was a beautiful hike. We eventually came upon a house where a farmer was working. He asked us where we were going and then opened all the gates on the property for us to be able to go through. He was nice, and it was a “cultural” experience, as my friend would say.

The monastery was very wonderful, and the view was fabulous.

After the hike, Matt and I headed to Pistoia where he bought me some lunch, which was very nice.

The rest of the day was spent doing little else but getting ready to head to Greece.

Lucca was our last day trip out to a new city, and I was really looking forward to it. I had not heard about the glories of Lucca, but I was sure that it was going to be fabulous.

We got there and found out first thing that the church that we were first going to look at was closed. While the professors regrouped and got some coffee, my friends and I discovered that it was an important day in the town and that there was a good market going on. We found a stand that was making fresh donuts, and I had one. It was really amazing.

We then walked on through the town to see the glories that Lucca has to offer.

I am writing this a little bit after the trip. The experience of Lucca is the city itself. There wasn’t a lot of great masterpieces that we saw while we were there. The city is a well-arranged city that has many medieval palaces in it. The streets are lined with the feeling of being old in a modern time.

The churches that we visited were very amazing. I got some post cards of the facades of them because I really enjoyed the time I spent in them.

Of course, as in all churches in Italy, I saw many relics.

We made our way slowly home after a long day of looking at the beautiful city of Lucca.

Dinner was steak, and it was fabulous.

We had such a small amount of time left in Pistoia, so we decided to again go down into the city and explore the things that it has in store.

We headed in to the Commune building to explore the Commune Museum. It is a museum with a lot of important works done in Pistoia all through history. We spent a lot of time in the Renaissance section. There weren’t a lot of great masterpieces that are well known, but it was very educational to look at the art that was being done. A lot of it was every bit as good as some of the stuff we were seeing in Florence. It’s hard to imagine that Pistoia was also a VERY important city in the Renaissance—unlike it’s role today.

After the Commune Museum, the group headed off to a museum of work by a famous sculptor named Marino Marini. It was interesting to look at his work. He is a modern art sculptor, and I did not like his work at all. I felt that he had never learned how to draw correctly and traditionally and was thus unable to transfer any quality into his work. I did not stay long, and I vowed to never let my art quality get to the point that I thought his had gone to.

I went home and spent the afternoon photographing one of my friends in the fountain of the villa. She has a wonderful personality, and I’m sure that if you see my portfolio that you will see the photos I took of her.

Dinner was Calamari, soup, turkey with spinach, fish, fruit, cheese and bread.

We were going to have another day in Florence. I have really gotten to know the city well, and it was a joy to be able to spend another day in it looking at the amazing works of art that are available.

We all traveled in to Florence together and went directly to the Bargello. The Bargello is the most important sculpture museum in Florence and quite possibly the world. It has some of the most important pieces from some of the most important sculptors in the world. When we got there, we were able to get in for free because we were technically a “European school group.” We then also found out that the top floor was completely closed down for “unknown reasons.” We later found out that “unknown reasons” meant that there had been some minor thefts done as inside jobs and that they were being investigated. (Was I supposed to publish that information or not?)

The sculptures in the museum were very wonderful. I’m sure that on my blog that I have used many different adjectives over and over again in a very tiring manner, but the truth is that they are all completely accurate.

The Bargello had quite a few works that I have been studying for my entire Art History career. The ability to see Donatello’s David was very incredible.

I was also able to see lots of works by Michelangelo. The only ones that I have not seen now are the ones that are in the Casa Buronotti and the two works in Milan and Bruge.

After a long lunch, the group headed off to Santa Croce. The church has a lot of importantance as far as the history of Florence is concerned. Michelangelo is buried in it, and he spent time during his life studying in it. There are some very important frescoes by Giotto and the cloister (which is amazing) was designed by Brunelleschi. I really enjoyed the area.

We went home and made it home just in time for dinner.

After dinner, we listened to music with Jeffrey again.

Jeffrey had us all headed down to the city very early. To get to Pistoia, it is necessary to take two buses. If the buses meet up with each other, it is called “coincidence.” If they don’t meet up, it is only necessary to walk about 10 minutes down to the place where the second bus connects. Of course because we were relying on the bus system, it dictated our schedule, and most mornings we had to be on the 8:17 bus fed and ready for a day of exploring.

We stopped off at the old hospital to take a look at a frieze that has been done by Della Robbia’s sons. Della Robbia is well known for inventing a way to carve and glaze terra cotta so that it looked like marble. He became rich during the Renaissance using his technique because he was able to make sculpture/reliefs much faster and much cheaper than a traditional marble sculptor. His son inherited his workshop and then was able to change the technique to include many more colors. The old hospital (it is actually still part of the hospital), has a really amazing frieze in terra cotta with many different colors. We evaluated it for quite a while after a nice break in the coffee shop.

I had some hot chocolate that was like drinking hot pudding. It was very amazing.

We then headed off to another church to look at the Renaissance architecture. It was a really amazing church. I have come to really love and appreciate Renaissance architecture.

I had many doubts about going to Siena. Not because I didn’t think it would be beautiful, but I was sure that I was going to be as ill on the bus as I was when we took the bus into Florence on the way to Venice. In fact, I was looking forward to going to Siena so much. I had read a lot about it recently in a book that my Mother-In-Law had passed along to me before my trip, and the images I got from just reading that book made me very excited to spend time in Siena.

The bus ride was not a problem for me. In fact, I spent most of the way asleep. Apparently, Gabriel was not feeling very well behind me, and all of the effort I had put into having things that kept me well and clean on the bus were transferred to him as he vomited in the seat behind me. It was sad, but it worked out well. I had him come sit next to me, and I took care of him for the rest of the trip there.

When we got there, we took a nice little walk around the perfectly kept walls of the city. I was impressed at the fact that they were so well built that they still stood to be admired 600 years later.

We stopped next to a church with a public bathroom. I didn’t have to use the bathroom, so Jeffrey told us that the church we were standing next to was a church that held the head of St. Catherine of Siena. It was an intriguing story. We have seen many, many relics on our trip so far, so I was excited to add it to the list of the ones that I had seen. It was actually very odd looking, and not very nice. The church it was in was a nice church. The modern stained glass windows made it very ugly and hard to look at because the colors were very bright and intense.

After the church, we walked around Siena a bit more and went to have some coffee at a famous café called Nanini. It is famous for it’s pastries, which it exports all over Europe. I decided that it was a good time to have a pastry and some coffee (my coffee intake has been very limited lately). The pastry was OK, but I can honestly say that the ones I eat on Paros are much better in my book. I’m glad that I was able to try it though.

After coffee, we walked into the main square. The square is where the big commune building is. It is also the place where the famous Palio horse races take place. There was actually something special going on while we were there, and all of the flags were up around the city indicating what contrada we were in at all times. It was a lot of fun to see the sprit of Siena. It seems to be a lot more present than in many of the other towns I have been in. If I were to take Jared or anyone else in my family to a city in Italy, Siena would definitely be at the top of my list.

We went in and spent time looking at the treasures of the museum inside the commune. There were many interesting things to see including an incredible fresco in the room where the counselors meet that depicts the world under good government and then under bad government. I really enjoyed the fresco. Everything else we saw in the museum was just stuff that was interesting as far as the puzzle of the Renaissance is concerned and not anything that anyone else would really be interested in or intrigued about.

There was a wedding going on in the middle of our tour, so we ended up splitting up ion the museum to go and see the things we didn’t get to see as a group.

There was a stairwell that led up to a balcony of the building, and we were able to see a really incredible view of Siena from that vantage point.

We then walked as a group to the Duomo in Siena. The walk was really amazing because we passed by a lot of old palaces with the flags of the contrada hanging about. It was a really beautiful walk. It started to rain a little bit on us as we walked along.

Getting into the church was easy, but I saw the counter when we walked in that indicated that there were over 600 people in the church. Part of the problem is that the floor of the church is considered a great masterpiece, so there are only very narrow parts that you are able to walk on. Going through such a large crowd in such a narrow space is a very hard thing to do. We did the best we could possibly do in the given situation.

I was able to see some of the smaller sculptures that were made my Michelangelo to go in a tomb in the church. The sculptures were really nice, but they weren’t highlighted in any way at all.

There is a library in the church that was built for Illuminated Manuscripts that is fabulous. The manuscripts are very amazing, and the room that they are in is full of very bright and shiny frescoes. The time that we spent in the Duomo was really very nice.

We had quite a bit of time available for lunch so Christy and I walked around a lot. It was raining, and I was able to take advantage of people out walking around with umbrellas to protect them, which is a theme that I have been recently using in my photographs. I found a grocery store, and bought food for lunch. Christy and I sat in front of the Commune and ate. Then, we went shopping and I bought a pashmina that is very beautiful. I took photos for a while and we headed back up to the Duomo to meet with Jeffrey.

After lunch, we looked at the façade of the church and then headed over to the Museum of the Works of the Duomo. I like it when there are museums with the original things from a church because it allows you to get a lot closer to the things than you may have been able to do under other circumstances. The main highlight was the Duccio altarpieces, which we spent quite a bit of time in front.

At the end of the tour, we were told that there was access to a very high balcony above the church. Even though it was raining, I ran up to that point with several other people. I even managed to have my photo taken up there. The view was just amazing, and I really enjoyed seeing what has become my favorite city from that wonderful angle.

At 5:00 we went to the bus and headed for home. I was not feeling well, and I had to sort out some things with John regarding foods that were available at the villa, and he agreed to set up having the cooks make food that I would be able to eat. I felt a lot better.

We got back to the villa just before dinner. Dinner was lasagna without tomato sauce, zucchini omelet, sausage, bread, cheese and fruit.

After dinner we finished Dante with Jeffrey.

We were going to head into Pistoia, but it turned out that there was a bus strike in Pistoia, so it was very difficult to pull off moving a group around odd bus schedules. Everything that was planned in Pistoia for the day was cancelled, and we had classes at the villa in the afternoon instead.

We had the morning off, and I decided that it would be a very good time to catch up on things I needed to do like get my journal up to date. I wasn’t quite there, but I got a lot closer.

I was not feeling very good, so I ended up spending the morning and part of the afternoon making potato soup that I would be able to eat. I had not been feeling well, and I was not able to eat anything that we were having for dinner. John started working on the soup, and I took over.

I missed writing class because I was making soup, but I went to Drawing, Photography and Painting after. It is nice to get back in the groove, but we are reviewing things that I have heard twice already. It will be nice to be in Paros with the ability to work soon.

We had a lovely dinner, but I wasn’t able to eat very much of it, so I ended up eating apples.

Jeffrey talked about the things that we would need to do the next day in Siena after dinner.

A student that was here when Nicole Alba and Savana Kretchmar were here came with her portfolio that she had used to complete college with. The photos were all photos that had been taken while in Pistoia and in Greece, and it was really nice to get an idea of the quality of work that had been done in the past. It was very educational.

We again decided to trek off to Florence. It feels like we have been at the villa for a long time, and it feels like the days are moving very slowly, but it is just the fact that we have fit so much activity into the days. We have been only together for 12 days, but it feels like it has been much longer.

The big days that we have in Florence have been amazing. My whole life I just keep running into the fact that the things that I want to see are all to be seen in Florence. Boticelli spent most of his life there, and as an avid follower of his life and his work, it has been amazing to walk the same streets that he was able to walk.

The first thing we did was going to the church of Santa Maria Novella. The church is right next to the train station, so it was an easy walk to get to when we got there. Of course, we stopped for the morning coffee with Jeffrey.

When we got to the church, the façade, was completely covered up and being restored, so rather than be able to lecture in front of the façade, we had to buy a postcard of it and get what details we possibly could from what we could see in the post card. The church has a graveyard around it as well as cloisters that the nuns lived in when it was an active convent.

The first thing we did was walk around the cemeteries where the noblemen of Florence are buried. When we walked in, we took a look at the space of the church. It is fabulous. It is really well decorated inside, and it is the most inviting church we had been in to. The space was so inviting and the Pisan Romanesque stripes were stylized in a method that really appealed to me. I really liked the church.

We spent time in the church looking at the architecture itself. I was very impressed with it. Above the main door in the back is a painting that is in the Boticelli style, and has been attributed to him. I was happy to see it. His work is more abundant than I originally thought, and that has made me very happy and filled me with surprise.

We then walked up to the front of the church and looked at some rater odd frescos by Filpo Lippi. We also got to look at some amazing Ghirlandio frescos that are painted in the area of the church where the main altar is. He is an incredible master, and the frescoes made me understand his work and come to respect him almost as much as I respect Boticelli. One of the other very neat things was that Michelangelo learned how to make and paint frescoes working on those exact paintings. They were a really wonderful experience.

Santa Maria Novella has a lot of other incredible things like a painting by Massachio that was one of the first to illustrate perspective and a wooden cross by Brunelleshi that was also very fabulous.
Santa Maria Novella was by far my favorite church in a lot of ways that I never would have expected.

We then walked across Florence to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Inside a chapel are some amazing frescoes done on a collaborative effort by Massachio and Masalino. The frescoes were some of the most influential of the Renaissance, and were the first to illustrate perspective. Every artist after that time (including Michelangelo) learned to draw from those frescoes. I enjoyed the time we got to evaluate them.

It was then lunchtime. We had quite a bit of time, so I decided that I would go to the Medici Palace and check out that area. I have read a lot about the Medici, and the palace was mentioned quite a bit in my book about Michelangelo. It was one of the most influential palaces because of its architecture, which all later palaces in Florence copied. Additionally, it housed the family that acted as the guardians of the Republic of Florence and the Fathers of the Renaissance.

Most of the Medici Palace is now used as office space, but enough of it is open to get a good idea of the way that it was set up in earlier times. The courtyard is full of the crests of the family, and the garden is very nice. The garden is the one where Donatello’s David was commissioned to stand, and it was the place that Michelangelo saw it standing. The Medici Palace is also the place where Michelangelo got his start as a sculptor. I’m sure it has changed a lot, but it was nice to get a feel for the way that it used to be.

The one room that has not been changed is the chapel. There are some frescoes on the wall of the chapel that were commissioned by Cosimo (father of Lorenzo). They are very beautiful by Fra Angelico, who is the teacher of Boticelli. There are some portraits of people in the family in the frescos that were very amazing to see.

In the garden there was a sculpture museum with some sculptures from ancient Rome that I was able to look at. I enjoyed them quite a bit.

After the Medici chapel, I walked around the San Lorenzo market and bought some shirts and a tie for Jared for his birthday. It was nice to get something for him that was going to be useful, and he will really like them.

I was also finally able to find some post cards that show important buildings in Florence that I didn’t get good photos of, and that I wanted to show to others. I was very happy.

I met Jane and the rest of the group on the steps of the Duomo and we went to the art store to get some art supplies.

Of course I got home with little time to spare for dinner. Dinner was gnocchi, chicken, potatoes and vegetables, salad, fruit, cheese, fig cake.

We almost finished Dante after dinner, but Jeffrey decided to put it off for a little bit longer.

It was our last day in Venice, and we had the morning to ourselves. On the long ferry ride we took the first day to Burano, we ran into a photographer/architect that was taking photos on the ferry. He pointed out a place to us that didn’t have any tourists but was very pretty. We decided to spend the morning in that area taking a lot of photos.

It took a little while to get there, and we were happy to be on the ferry early in the morning. It is very surprising how wonderful Venice can be in the middle of the morning with the lovely golden light shining on everything. We were surprised by the incredible authenticity of the place. There were no tourists to be found, and we saw lots of streets with Italian people and markets. There was also a lot of laundry hanging on lines between houses.

We decided to walk slowly back toward the main church and then take the ferry to the hotel to get ready to go home. We walked along the waterfront looking for things to buy at tourist’s shops, and we finally just settled on eating gelato and getting on the ferry.

Unfortunately, we ended up on the line that goes the opposite direction than what we were looking for, so it took us about an hour to get back. It was nice to tour the outside of Venice, and we got to look at a lot of the facades of the churches and other buildings. It was definitely worth it even though we did it by mistake.

The rest of the day was spent on the train on the way to Pistoia.

Dinner was again at the villa. We had vegetable soup, chicken, baked zucchini, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit, cheese.