Florence, Italy June 18

This was an exciting day. The Accademia, going to the Flea Market, and getting to see our friend Maddie from St. Louis (Who Craig had no clue would be there!).

We took our first bus trip into the city because we would be making 2 round trips to the city this day. I liked taking the bus, but was glad we didn’t make it a habit. It was just about the same length of time, but definitely saved our muscles. It was fun to also see some parts of the city we hadn’t seen, yet.

When we arrived at the Gallery the line was pretty long, but luckily we had reserved tickets so we would be sure to get in. There was a long line of people who didn’t reserve that had the chance of a long wait and no luck. We rounded the corner inside and saw the David (by Michelangelo) first. Many friends have seen this and talked about how amazing it was. Overall, I’m more of a contemporary/modern art person… so it takes something particular to get me excited. I was wondering if what they had said about the David was all hype. NOPE. Not at all, and I don’t think it’s something anyone could fully understand until they were to see it in person. First, it’s much bigger than pictures lead you to believe, and the way they have it displayed really is magical as cheesy as it sounds.

The view as you come around the corner. Something that makes this special is that several artists were brought this massive block of marble but they all (except for Michelangelo) said it was too large and flawed. Michelangelo took on the challenge and succeeded. It's said that he knocked out a knot in the marble in the spot where David's heart is.

David and I

Craig and David

It's said that looking at him further away he looks confident and ready to fight.

But then getting up close to his face you can sense his uneasiness.

This still doesn't really capture it, but I like this shot.

And... I like this shot.

Some say that his hand is too masculine and large. But apparently we were meant to view the David from higher above or below (can't remember which), so Michelangelo actually knew what he was doing with tweaking the proportions/perspective so everything would look right.

You could see a few people sitting around taking the time to draw the David. I would have loved to!

These were interesting to see because they were unfinished works of Michelangelo's. It was neat to see his process and how rough it could be in the middle of it all. Apparently, he worked differently than others because he didn't map out the figure on the block of marble ahead of time. He went at it freehand, and he also worked front to back with was different. I'm assuming others worked all sides evenly or top to bottom.

This room was interesting because it was full of plaster busts and sculptures that served as the "finals" for the students of the Accademia.

They would make these before carving the sculptures into marble.

I plan on showing these pictures to my students when they complain about doing sketches or doing small models before they start their actual projects, so they know "That's just the way it goes!"

 

After the Accademia, we headed to Mercato delle Pucci. Lucia, Laura’s daughter, had told us it was an outdoor flea market in the city. We tried to go on Sunday, but it was closed. I had a lot of fun looking through each booth and it was a great place to take pictures. We kind of split up at this point and reunited after we made it through all the booths. Craig said he thought it “was a bust,” but I think he’s used to thrift store prices. I told him that I saw a deer head with antler’s that was a hanger, and Craig said he’d picked up the same thing. So, we both agreed it was probably a sign we should buy it. It was 20 Euro, and we planned to try to talk her down. When we went back to the booth Craig also saw some doorknockers. I encouraged him to look through them because that was the one thing he said he was interested in finding when we first came to Italy. I vetoed a couple that were too elaborate for our front door, but he picked out one that I thought could work. It will be a nice reminder of our trip every time he comes home. Together, both items would have been $55, but it was obvious she wasn’t budging any lower than $50. So, we agreed.

We stopped by I Due Fratanelli again for lunch. Craig had two sandwiches this time! First one was salami, and second was tomato and mozzarella. I had the “Super Tacchino” (turkey), and we shared a sprite. We got gelato on our way back to the apartment, of course, and relaxed for a few hours.

Another yummy sandwich! This is the Super Tacchino (Turkey)!

I had been communicating with our friend, Maddie (who went to school with Craig), for the past 6 months. She and her boyfriend, Devin, were spending 2 months in France and taking short trips to other areas. She coordinated it so we were in Italy at the same time. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep it from Craig, but it helped a lot that he didn’t have Facebook. A few days into our trip I knew I needed to prepare him in some way. I decided to tell him I had something special planned for our last night in Florence and I was positive he would enjoy it, so I needed him to be cooperative and not challenge my requests! While I admit I would potentially be the same way, I was worried about him possibly not wanting to go along with my plans and things falling through.

So, we had planned to take the bus back into the city at 6:15 and meet Maddie and Devin at 7 at a restaurant we’d picked out. Craig pretty much thought it was all about the restaurant. At times, I thought he may be aware of what was going on because there were two different occasions this week he had said, “Man, I can’t believe we haven’t run into anyone we know.” It was a rush for me but also nerve racking. Our bus was more than 30 minutes late and I was trying to nonchalantly keep in touch with Maddie on my phone. When we got off the bus and started walking to the restaurant it was so crowded with people and Craig kept wanting to stop and look at things in the window! We were already 20 minutes late, but I was trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal because I didn’t want him to suspect that we were meeting someone.

We walked up to the restaurant and I saw Devin and Maddie sitting on a bench across the street from it. Craig didn’t notice it was them until we got about 10-15 feet from them. Here are pictures of the meeting:

Finally!!!! It was such a rush for me! I love surprising Craig!

How cool that we get to hang out with friends in Italy!

We had to find another restaurant (original choice was randomly closed for the night), which took some time and work! Finally, we found one by the Central Market. We ate some mediocre food, and talked and talked and talked! It was so refreshing to not only be able to talk to other people in English, but to have it be people we knew. What’s even better is we will get to see them again in Rome!

We got gelato with Maddie and Devin and parted ways. They had to get up early for the Uffizi. Craig and I did our final stroll through Florence at night. It was bittersweet.