Of all the places we went to in Italy, Florence was the one that really excited me. I knew I wanted to see things like the Gates of Paradise and the duomo, but I never expected to see the Brancacci Chapel. I loved Rome, but for Rome I had planed a bit more and figured out what I wanted to see ahead of time. Florence was full of surprises for me.
One of the first things we saw that we had not expected was the Ponte Vecchio. The term means old bridge and I figured it was just that: a bridge. Wrong. It was a bridge, but it was lined with little shops selling jewelry, which, at night, were closed by old-fashioned wooden doors.
The Gates of Paradise was something I had studied in art history class in high school. They are a set of gold doors, by Ghilberti, on the baptistery in Florence. Michelangelo, when he saw them, gave them that name. However, the real doors have been dismantled and are in a museum behind the cathedral (which we didn’t bother going to because we realized that the gates are in pieces). Even so, the doors are really interesting to see because they factor so prominently in the Renaissance movement. The cathedral and bell tower were also interesting because of the colors used in their exteriors.
Also in Florence, we saw the David. I knew we were going to see it, but that didn’t stop me for being surprised by it as we rounded the corner and there, at the end of the corridor, it stood. It’s huge: 15 feet from head to toe (plus it stand on a platform about eight feet off the ground).
Our tour group decided to go to the Uffizi gallery also. Here, we saw more things I had studied in my classes: Madonnas by Giotto and Fra Anglico, some works by Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, as well as the Botticelli room. An entire room dedicated to him. I saw Birth of Venus which has been one of my favorite paintings for a long time. Mom said she liked Springtime (Prentemps) more. The guide then took us downstairs to see some boring Caravaggio’s (honestly, the ones we found in Rome were 100 times better). She almost let us leave the room without mentioning Judith Slaying Holofernes (!!), but then she did, so it’s ok. I stayed at the museum for another hour and a half after the rest of the group left to go back to the hotel. Walking around, I found a bunch of Durer paintings and other really cool pieces. I wasn’t expecting to see Durer’s work there because I thought the stuff would be mostly Italian art.
On our free day in Florence, mom and I walked around quite a bit. Our tour guide had told us to check out a church called the Santa Maria del Carmine. I couldn’t find anything about it in the guidebook, but decided to search for it anyway. It wasn’t on the map, so we went to the area we thought it was in and I asked a garbage man (in Spanish) who told me where to go (in Italian). Our tour guide the previous day had told us that it was located two blocks from a palace. Well, we actually had to turn two blocks after the palace and then walk six more blocks before coming to a nondescript building with a bunch of cars parked right in front (practically on top of the building). It didn’t look at all suited for tourist visits. The inside of the church was nice, but not spectacular, although I really did like the perspective on the ceiling frescoes. When I approached the altar I could see half of it was roped off and dark. In the middle of the darkness, people were standing in the one tourist site I wanted to see: the Brancacci Chapel. I didn’t think we would be able to see it because you are supposed to make reservations (many of Italy’s sites function this way), but we were able to get tickets to enter because there weren’t many tourists there. It was incredible. The colors on the frescoes were absolutely amazing. I took a million pictures. I now love Masaccio.
The view from the main part of the church.
The chapel actually had a separate entrance.
After the chapel, mom and I had the best meal of the trip (at least up until this point). When we entered the restaurant, they looked nervous when we said that we did not have a reservation (we took this as a good sign). They found room for us in the back, under an alcove, next to a coat rack. We had grilled vegetables to start which included a warm tomato with cheese and bread crumbs. Then I ordered pear ravioli in a cream sauce with asparagus. I don’t like pears. I don’t really like cream sauces. However, what arrived to the table was absolutely amazing. The homemade ravioli were shaped like flowers almost. They were like little dumplings, filled with pear compote and then sealed with pieces of pasta which fell like flower petals from the cinched center. The cream and asparagus worked well with the pear flavor and the pasta was absolutely fresh. Mom ordered spinach and ricotta “lasagna.” It was finely chopped spinach with ricotta cheese inside tubes of fresh pasta. Like mine, the pasta melted in our mouths. It was unlike any lasagna we’d ever eaten before. We left the meal feeling completely satisfied.
Our hotel in Florence was located in an old convent, which could be seen in the entrance way and lobby (the rooms were complete crap).
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