Ciao! I got back yesterday from my Thanksgiving vacation to Florence, Italy, where my best friend Anita is studying art for the semester at SACI. I left on Wednesday morning, arriving at her apartment shortly after 5 pm after a layover in Munich. All my flights went smoothly and it was so fantastic to see her! We haven't seen each other since I left in the beginning of August, and I dont think I realized how much I'd missed her until I was in her (very nice) apartment about a 5 minute walk from the Duomo- Florence's famous cathedral and the center of the old city.
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View from Anita's apartment! |
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Il Duomo! |
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Anita and I :) |
We spent the evening catching up while she got things ready for a dinner at her apartment. Some of her friends from the program and her parents Ana & Jack, who were visiting for the week, came over around 7 and we had a fantastic dinner with bruschetta and caprese salad, pasta with a tomato & sausage sauce, and desserts from a nearby pastry shop. After Anita's parents left we all went down to a nearby bar a block away and hung out together for the evening.
The next day, we got up to meet her parents and spend the morning at the Medici Chapels, built by the famous and extremely powerful Medici family of Renaissance Florence. The building is gorgeous, with a side chapel designed and decorated by Michelangelo and a main chapel that was truly stunning in both its size and opulence (and its collection of more-than-slightly creepy relics). Anita is also taking an art history class this semester, so she was able to explain so much about the Chapel I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
After the Chapel, we headed back a few blocks to the Galleria degli Uffizi, one of the greatest collections of Renaissance art in the world. We saw works by Botticelli, Raphaello, Bellini, Michelangelo, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippo Lippi, Piero, and Rembrandt, among many others. Anita joked that she was going to "slap me in the face with culture" that day, and she really wasn't kidding. I saw an overwhelming number of true masterpieces, and it was only made more incredible by being with somebody who actually knew about them. I enjoy art and I like to think I have a very basic knowledge of some painters and styles, but being with Anita was an education in itself. Her dad is also incredibly involved in art, being the curator of American University's Katzen Arts Center. Being around them this long weekend made me feel both very lucky to be learning so much and hearing about famous paintings from people who truly appreciate them, and at the same time very, very uncultured and ignorant...
After the Uffizi, we had a little time to recover before our 3rd museum of the day. So Anita and I set off to The Diner, an American cafe around the corner from her apartment. I had a bacon cheeseburger, french fries, and a vanilla milkshake, which may sound like a heart attack waiting to happen, but since I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten any of those, it was heavenly. Those are definitely topping the list of foods to eat once I'm home...
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Burger, milkshake, and fries yum! |
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Me in front of the Ponte Vecchio |
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A daytime view from Anita's apartment |
When we'd finally finished eating our body weight in American greasiness, we headed across town to the Accademia, another incredible art museum in Florence. We saw many works by more incredible Renaissance painters, a small exhibit on musical instruments, and... an entire hallway of Michelangelo's sculptures, with the stunning and indescribable David at the hallway's end. I think we spent about 45 minutes just wandering around the David and looking at it from different angles. It was truly amazing.
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Michelangelo's David! |
That evening, Anita and I went out to dinner with her parents, before coming back to her apartment for some relaxing tv and heading to bed early. I woke up the next morning and head breakfast by the Duomo, before walking inside the cathedral for a few minutes. It has the third longest nave in Christendom, and is as beautiful on the inside as the outside. I then met Anita's parents at their hotel, and the three of us went across the Arno River to the Palazzo Pitti, the predecessor to Versailles and the grandest palace of its time. We didn't have much time ourselves, so we decided just to go to the Palace's Boboli Gardens, offering gorgeous views of Florence and charming hidden fountains, sculptures, and even grottoes!
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inside the Duomo |
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the Duomo's dome! |
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Boboli Garden's Neptune Fountain |
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Pitti Palace from the top of the Gardens |
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Florence from the Boboli Gardens |
After the Boboli Gardens, we picked Anita up and headed out of town, to the city of Assisi. Jack and Ana had artist friends (Lani Irwin and Alan Feltus) living a few minutes outside Assisi, and we drove to their house to spend the night. The conversation largely revolved around artists and paintings (wayyyy over my head!) but was fascinating nonetheless. We had arrived at their house in the dark, so waking up Saturday morning Anita and I found ourselves faced with an unbelievable view of Assisi's surrounding valley.
After a delicious breakfast, Anita, her parents and I headed to Assisi, where we saw the incredible Basilica de San Francesco, where St. Francis is buried. The basilica actually consists of a lower and upper basilica built simultaneously on top of each other, and both are incredible. The upper basilica is covered with frescoes by the Renaissance master painter Giotto, one of the main reasons we went to the Basilica. After an hour there, we wandered around Assisi a little bit (stopping for paninis) before heading out again to Sansepolcro, a small town between Assisi and Florence.
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Assisi! |
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Approaching the Basilica |
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Valley around Assisi |
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Basilica de San Francesco |
Sansepolcro is home to a museum containing the iconic works of one of Jack's favorite painters (Piero della Francesca), and it was great to see them and hear from him what he appreciated about the artists' work. We didn't spend long in Sansepolcro (small was a bit of an understatement) before heading back into Florence. We all had dinner together and then Anita and I settled in for an evening of tv and relaxing, much like we do at home.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed around the corner, back to The Diner, where I had real american pancakes, something else I have sorely missed. And they were truly fantastic. Again, something that's topping my list of foods to eat when I'm home... I then had to head to the airport and get back to Copenhagen, where I found over 6 inches of snow awaiting me! I was a little shocked but it's beautiful and I'm warm now. It was a wonderful mini-vacation and I'm happy to be back with the host fam too :)
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Sansepolcro |
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American Pancakes!! |
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