Florence, Italy

I started my day with the Church of Santa Maria Novella. I tried to pay with a 50 E but the church refused to give me change, so I had to get change and come back. The church’s claim to fame is Masaccio’s The Trinity (1425-1427). It is a huge fresco. I was so used to seeing it as a three inch picture in a book. Seeing the 3D image in actually size was pretty cool. The church also displays a Giotto Crucifixion, a Orcagna Brothers fresco, Brunelieschi’s Crucifixion, and Ghirlandaio’a fresco of Mary and John the Baptist (which 13 year old Michelangelo may have worked on), and Filippino Lippi’s St Philip at the Temple of Mars.
My next stop was the Bargello Museum which is a sculpture museum that holds several Donatello and Michelangelos. I met up with Sam and some of our friends from his MBA class and we ate together at a pizzeria. I had a pizza with ham, olives, and artichokes on it. It was very good, but they didn’t spread the toppings around. They just lumped them in sections.
We climbed the Duomo. It was pretty grueling to get to the top but the view was incredible. You get to walk around the bottom of the dome getting a close look at the fresco and seeing a grand view of the interior of the church. The stairs were steep and weren’t very wide, especially when people had to pass us on their way down.
We had reservations for the Uffizi gallery, which is a must unless you want to stand in line forever. It has the greatest overall collection anywhere of Italian painting. You start with Medieval alter pieces of the Madonna and Child. Then on to the Early Renaissance, featuring Botticell’s Allegory of Spring and The Birth of Venus. They have Leonardo’s Annunciation. From the High Renaissance we saw Michelangelo’s Holy Family, Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch, and Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Parmigianion’s Madonna with the Long Neck is from the time just after the Rennissance. The rest of the Uffizi is filled with Roman sculptures some Caravaggios and Rembrants.
That night we had dinner with the MBA group and had a five course meal with the best tiramisu I have ever had. It was a really nice night and so we strolled down to the Arno and back to the hotel.