Well I really did get my culture on big time today and also snuck in some religion as well. First for the culture... I went for the trifecta and started the day out early and hit the big three museums. In sports, this would be like going to the Super Bowl, World Series and Stanley Cup all in one day. I started out with the Galleria dell'Accademia, which it's most famous work is Michelangelo's David. You weren't supposed to take pictures but I snapped a quick one of the big guy. It's a really powerful piece in person with his eyes looking so intense and the hand holding the stone he used to slay the giant seems overly pronounced. There were also these unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo called "Prisoners" that were really cool and made it look like the bodies in the marble were sort of coming up out of water. I also included a picture of a bust of Michelangelo. OK, he was a great artist, sculptor and architect but a lady's man he was not! Rumor has it that he got his nose busted in a fight with Leonardo DaVinci but I ain't buying it! LOL. I then went to the Uffizi Gallery which probably has the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere in the world. The paintings start with the Florentine Middle Ages thru to the Renaissance and beyond. I didn't take any pictures of the paintings but I did take two pictures of views from the top of the building. One is of the Ponte Vecchio bridge and the other is of the top of the Palazzo Vecchio with it's turret and shields on the walls. That's a cool building. I then ventured over to to the Bargello Museum which is pretty much a sculpture museum. Lots of great work by Donatello and Michelangelo as well as treasures from the Medici family who were the power barons of Florence. So I not only got my culture fix, I got a new found appreciation for my Italian heritage. I mean really... back then, all these Italians were doing great things... Michelangelo, Leonardo, Galileo, Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus, heck even Machiavelli! So what were all you non-Italians doing??? Geez! LOL. After a little break, I headed out to the "suburbs" a little and went up to the Piazza Michelangelo, where I included a view down into the city, and I also went up to the cute little church called San Mineato. Right when I got there they were starting a mass and it included a group of Gregorian monks chanting in Latin! So I stayed for it. I mean if you don't get moved by that you don't have a spiritual bone in your body. It was actually kind of eerie sounding with the chanting in Latin. So again, watch out for a major lightning storm with me being in the holy house for that long!! 🙂 Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!
The Wandering Italian 