Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Today was jam-packed with sight-seeing. …Haha, I say that like it’s any different from every other day! Who am I kidding? Every day is jam-packed with sight-seeing! So, I guess you could say it was an average day.
We started off at Michelangelo’s house seeing some of his beginning works and also paintings and sculptures dedicated to him after his death.
We spent some time in the Piazza Signoria which is the large square in front of the city hall. It is filled with countless amazing sculptures. They are all so large, immaculate, and detailed that I can’t help but feel intimidated and infatuated in their presence! There was another rape (abduction) sculpture in the square that told the story of two men fighting over the same woman. It is a tower of struggle with all 3 figures intertwined in this smooth, dramatic piece. The Sabine Woman’s current husband is on the bottom, the new guy is in the middle attempting to pull her from her husband, and the woman is at the top gracefully trying to escape the brawl. I love the movement and passion that is portrayed in it. It’s so lifelike! Not to mention, I loved the story behind it. It’s always much more enticing when the sculpture tells a story you care to hear. I was hanging on to every word!
I laid eyes on the David today! I died and went to heaven. He is one big HUNK of marble, if I may say so myself. I couldn’t peel my eyes off of him. I was waiting for all 15 feet of him to come to life any minute. He is absolutely ginormous and every last corner of his body is dripping with detail. He is so lifelike! I was nothing short of amazed. The veins in his hand, his toenails, the tendons in his feet, the dimple on his belly-button, his ribs, the pinch in his stomach from his shifted weight, his chiseled jaw line, his flared nostrils, every line and curve in his legs, and the sculpting of the muscles in his arm… Okay, okay, and his tight butt… It all made me weak in the knees. I couldn’t believe how realistic he is. Other than the fact that I would probably only measure up to his upper thigh, this guy was totally believable. I swear I could see him breathing.
He is absolutely beautiful and I am so totally smitten by him. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and butterflies rising in my throat. He is one of the most famous works in the entire world and I can’t believe I had the opportunity to stand within feet of him! I saw him with my very own eyes… My very own sticky eyes that I could hardly pull away from him! He is so much better in real life. There’s no way to even imagine how mind-blowing and awe-inspiring he is without seeing him in person. He’s a total heart throb! I can’t decide who I have a bigger crush on… David or Michelangelo. Michelangelo’s talent is out of this world. I was completely captivated by the incredible detail he put into every inch of David’s body. To this day, he is one of the most anatomically correct figures in all the world. Not only was Michelangelo’s understanding of the body so impressive, but his ability to convey it in a single block of marble is enough to knock a person off their feet. My mind was officially blown this afternoon. I could’ve stood in his presence forever. He’s absolutely brilliant!
If things with Jersey Shore don’t work out, I’m going to try my luck at TV fame with Ripley’s Believe It or Not. They’ve got to have some sort of special for unbelievable encounters with birds. Yep, that’s right, I got creamed again!! Another bird pooped on me!!!!! That’s 3 times in 3 weeks... Lucky me! Some people don’t even have that opportunity once in their life… And I’ve been spoiled to have it enough that I don’t even have to ask what hit me. I knew the instant I felt a plop in my hair that a little birdie dropped me something nice and steamy! What a wonderful thing to be so familiar with, wouldn’t you say?
Yesterday, Lindsay, Carly, and I had to wear cloaks provided by the Church of St. Lawrence before they would allow us to enter. Apparently our shorts were too short and we wouldn’t be granted entrance until we covered up. Lucky for us, they had these huge sheets of sheer baby blue fabric with a hole cut out for the head that they let us borrow. We were literally wearing a cape… Or something that closely resembled an oversized Ghost costume. It was absolutely hilarious. Everyone in the church was staring at us as our cloaks caught air and floated behind our backs. We were all laughing so hard. We looked like smurfs and were all drowning in our blue oversized dryer-sheets! If anything, it was more distracting than the 3 inches of thigh we were showing would have been. We were being punished for being immodest and I seriously felt like I was wearing “the scarlet letter!” It was one of those moments when all you want to do is laugh but it is absolutely forbidden, so you’re laughing even harder trying to fight it! I felt like 3rd graders again as we were muffled giggles with our heads in our notebooks as the tears streamed down our cheeks. It was probably the hardest I’ve laughed on this trip. (Partly due to heat exhaustion and delirium, I’m sure!) If only we were allowed to take pictures so you could fully understand how ridiculous we looked. It was priceless!
Carly, Jessica, Lindsay, Amy, and I went for a run tonight after dinner. We usually go in the mornings when nobody is out and about, so it was a whole new experience running at the height of the Florentine night-life! We were dodging people left and right! I about got ran over by 3 different people on bikes and I may or may not have played some “red rover” by running through the arms of couples holding hands. It was mass chaos! There was a concert playing in one of the piazzas (the huge Piazza Signoria, that I mentioned earlier) with crowds of people lining the entire block listening. It wasn’t ‘til we were running right through the middle of the open square, noticed the performer to our left, and heard everyone start laughing, clapping, and hollering that we realized we had interrupted something! Just imagine 5 American girls obliviously bopping through a street concert in a huge open piazza in Italy. It was hilarious! Laughing so hard and running so fast gave us all some serious sideaches!
Tomorrow is going to be a loooooong day! We’re gone from 9 to 6… That’s 9 hours strong and steady in the stuffy world of art history! 3 hours of which will be spent in one museum! Wish me luck! Then we have to pack up for our weekend in Pisa and Cinque Terre!
My body has been longing for a RockStar Energy Drink since I got here. I have no idea how I’m still alive! It’s probably little moments like being forced to wear a floor-length cloak or being pooped on by a bird that keep us going!
Te voglio bene!
Ciao!
Wit
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