“The Last Judgement”–Inside the Duomo
Here is the secret surprise I promised! Inspired by the Inferno, I wrote the story of my trip to Italy as a poem in terza rima form. Dante actually invented the terza rima’s interlocking rhyme scheme of ababcbcdc etc., though most English translations (including the one I read) don’t keep the rhymes of the original Italian. I apologize in advance for the wordy lines and forced near rhymes; I make no claims of poetic ability even close to Dante’s skill. But I had some fun with this and I hope you enjoy it!
The Daily Commentary
DAY ONE
When twenty years of life had come to pass,
I found myself on a plane across the sea
reading the Inferno for a college English class,
to spend two weeks in Dante’s home of Florence, Italy.
We flew for miles, we flew for hours
the traveling day stretched on and on, unfortunately,
due to delays that were not within our powers
and so it was by bus we saw the sights of Rome,
snapping pictures at the Colosseum and of ancient crumbling towers.
Eventually we arrived in Florence, the city of our new home,
so tired that as I hit the pillow, I did not wait long for sleep to come.
DAY TWO
No sooner it seemed had we arrived, we left Florence once more
to tour a vineyard nestled up in the Tuscan hills
and attend a cooking class that was no chore.
But first we saw how wine and oil were made, also the barrels and jars each fills
then to another room to test the olive goods
while entertained by music so beautiful it left us all with chills.
For lunch there was a feast of such delicious foods
as pizza, ravioli, tagliatelli pasta; we finished with tira misu.
Oh, Reader I can’t adequately convey to you
what fun we had but trust that what I say is true.
DAY THREE
Where on Day Two we ascended the hills of Tuscany,
on Day Three we climbed a mountain of a different sort
to the top of the Duomo, whose stairs number 463,
but for some, fear cut their journey short.
I persevered and saw up close a ceiling fresco, often used in place of preachers,
a scene of Judgement Day with Dante’s Satan and all his consorts
punishing many sinners–oh, Reader, they were such fearsome creatures!
yet it was another hundred steps in darkness before I stepped out into the light.
From the Duomo’s top I could see all Florence’s features:
Santa Croce, San Lorenzo market, the Arno River each in perfect sight.
As close to Heaven as ever before was I there at that height.
DAY FOUR
The next morning we went to the Bargello, a building whose history is not so pretty;
once a prison with torture chambers but also where Dante held offices as Prior.
In politics, he was always faithful to his city
but the Baptistry, with its ancient art and holy services, did inspire
Dante to write his Comedy to cleanse his reputation’s taint
though only after death, came the literary renown that Dante did acquire.
At the Cathedral, Dante next to martyrs hangs in paint
and in that holy place were we told not to make a sound
while outside Santa Croce his stone figure stands silent without complaint.
In Florence, here, Dante’s cultural influence abounds.
It seems I see his name, his face every time I turn around.
DAY FIVE
On Friday, we saw the Accademia, whose claim to fame
is Michelangelo’s David, the museum’s main attraction.
There were also several of his other statues left unfinished, without names,
and a special exhibit that, to Andrew’s great satisfaction,
had on display a manuscript of the entire Comedy, one of its kind,
with illustrations and critical analysis; in the evening a fraction
of us went for a walk (some stayed behind)
up to the Piazzela for a breathtaking view that stuns.
We took a detour through steep hills but I did not mind.
I posed for pictures against the setting sun;
as it grew dark, we walked back and thus the day was done.
DAY SIX
Once again, throughout Florence we criss-crossed
but now to visit places we’d researched: First, a graveyard for
the unbaptized babes in Dante’s limbo, not to Hell are there poor souls lost;
then to Dante’s family home, I presented outside his door;
then to the place of Dante’s stone where he liked to sit and write
and watch construction of the Dome, not complete for many decades more;
and on to Santa Maria Novella where a fresco painter takes outright
from Dante’s pages scenes of Purgatory and of Hell
but not before we treated our taste buds to the delight
of the gelato festival where we stopped to sit a spell.
Of this day, oh Reader, that’s all I have to tell.
DAY SEVEN
Andrew, Mah, and I rose early, while others stayed in bed
to attend Mass at the Cathedral where priestly
servants of The Lord offered holy wine and bread.
Then the afternoon was spent at the Uffizi,
an art gallery of worldwide fame and worth,
located just a few streets away so getting there was easy.
There hangs the portrait of Venus’ birth
and Da Vinci’s Annunciation of angel Gabriel to Mary, never a sinner
and many, many images of the King of Heaven and Earth.
The foreign painters, though, in my book are winners.
We stayed there all day long until it was time for dinner.
DAY EIGHT
Monday brought a change to our locale;
we boarded a train to Venice, a canceled-then-rescheduled trip.
By waterbus we toured the Grand Canal
and at the San Marco stop we disembarked the ship
to go into St. Mark’s Basilica, a church both beautiful and old
where mosaics cover ceilings and wall with glittering golden chips.
And to the bell tower’s top most point we went (by elevator this time) to behold
the islands all spread out below, it was an impressive sight.
I would have stayed there longer, but it was so awfully cold.
To travel back to Florence, we were almost on time, but. alas, not quite
so we missed the train and had to stay in Venice for the night.
DAY NINE
Finally on the ninth day did we see the Palazzo Vecchio interior
though we’d passed by it several times.
Once the seat of government, then home to Cosimo I Medici, superior
(or so he thought) to all before; for him was strength and power prime
and so he commissioned Varsari to paint valiant scenes on every wall,
even over Da Vinci’s work, considered by many now a crime.
Through private rooms and government offices, we toured the hall
decorated in art, all opulence and splendor.
Then afterwards we split apart and I went to the market stalls
to buy some gifts from a street-side vendor,
for love and memories did I my euros surrender.
DAY TEN
Day Ten began at dawn, well 8 am but close enough!
We traveled southward to Siena by train,
a city ensconced in hills not unlike Winona’s bluffs.
Thee day spent there was one of the best; I would return again
to see once more the cavernous Baptistry,
the Cathedral, striped green and white, with it’s competitive campaign
to best those of Florence, faking height through illusive artistry,
to tour again the Palazzo Publica, the governmental base
and sit out upon El Campo’s paved plain in the center of the city
where twice a year they hold a neighborhood horse race.
Oh Reader, when I think of Siena now, a smile contorts my face.
DAY ELEVEN
At the Museo de San Marco, once a monastery
but now a museum, I gave my presentation
on the stairwell painting of angel Gabriel and Mary,
a painting known as Fra Angelico’s Annunciation.
We saw there too the cell where Savinarola did stay,
that short-lived ruler, he eschewed all ostentation;
Florentines had to burn their books or there’d have been Hell to pay.
After lunches bought and an hour or two relaxed, Dante we discussed
on the Piazzela’s steps, though the sky was looking gray.
Upon the hill, the picturesque view to our cameras we entrust.
Such beauty could we live without? But leave Florence we must.
DAY TWELVE
The twelfth and final Friday was one of traveling
to Pisa, of Leaning Tower fame and cathedral lawns so green,
but this time it went smoothly, without Andrew’s nerves unraveling.
We discussed Canto 32 and what it all could mean
at Camposanto where to cruel Death Ugolino lost the ultimate bet.
We toured the Cathedral, the plainest I’d ever seen,
and also a Baptistry with the best acoustics yet.
The bell tower’s days of sinking are long past,
though still leaning, it’s foundations now are set.
Hurried along by wind to the train that’s just as fast,
we returned to Florence with pictures to make the memories last.
DAY THIRTEEN
On the morning of our last full day we awoke without a plan;
to shop, or see more sights, or simply wander was left to us to decide
whatever it was we wished to do in that final time span.
I had thought to walk along the river, but alas! I sighed,
the rain poured down all day with windy frigid bite.
Because of this, I elected to stay inside:
I packed up all my things and with the spare time, this poem I began to write.
Then as one big group we went out to spend
a few hours together at a last meal that night.
We talked and laughed and ate; good food, good fun, good friends;
the memories of these two weeks will last long beyond trip’s end.
DAY FOURTEEN
The day of our departure came upon us swiftly,
with bags all packed and bleary eyes
our journey home began unsettlingly with taxi drivers shifty,
but no worries thereafter; right on time we took to the skies.
On leaving Dante’s beloved city, oh Reader, I am torn:
Florence and the experiences there have touched my heart, the goodbyes
bittersweet will be, for all the same my spirit is worn.
I long to hear familiar English sounds and to see my mother’s smiling face
waiting for me upon my return to the land where I was born.
The Minneapolis airport gate is the finish line to this race;
with first breath of fresh air, I look up toward the stars: this is my rightful place.
Goodbye Florence!
To Italy, that is. Today was our last full day in Florence as tomorrow we leave at 4:45 am for the airport and our flight to Rome leaves around 7am. Though I have loved my time here in Italy, I am really looking forward to seeing my loved ones again. And certainly the weather is not making it difficult to say arrividercchi; it has been raining all day and so cold (though I have been told that this is unusual weather for May)!
We had the entire day to do whatever we wanted in Florence: shop, visit historical sites, wander…and also pack and clean up the apartments. Since I had no last minute presents to buy and the weather was so dismal, I spent most of my day at the apartment, except for a lunchtime excursion to a nearby cafe. It was nice to just relax and get all my things in order for tomorrow, but I was also working on something that I think is pretty clever. It isn’t finished yet–I plan to do more on the 9 hour transatlantic flight–so I won’t say anymore now. I’ll post it tomorrow night when I can access wifi again. 🙂
Though we spent the day broken into smaller groups, everyone met back at the apartment and went to dinner together. Our group of 14 nearly filled the small restaurant but the food was good and we had enjoyable meal in each others’ company. It is strange to think that these people whom I have seen pretty much all day every day for the last two weeks won’t be just in the other room or downstairs when I wake up on Monday morning. And while I may see some people around campus next year, others have already graduated and moved away from Winona. I guess that is what Facebook is for after all. This travel study was a really great experience and I am so happy that I did it. It is so much more than another stamp in my passport; it has given me knowledge, memories and experiences that I couldn’t have received anywhere else.
Cathedral and Tower of Pisa
Today we took a train to a little city called Pisa; I believe you may have heard of it–you know, the place with that tower that leans? Yeah, that is pretty much all I knew about Pisa too before today but actually the so-called Leaning Tower is one of four buildings in the Piazza dei Miracoli, or “Square of Miracles.” There is also the Duomo cathedral, Baptistry, and a monumental cemetery called the Camposanto. After taking the requisite tourist photos (though I declined the perspective photo of me propping up the tower) we toured the cemetery and had us a little Dante discussion. Though Dante loved Florence and was involved in Florentine politics, the Pisan Camposanto is relevant because Ugolino, who was once a governor of Pisa, is buried there. In the Inferno, Dante finds Ugolino in the 9th circle of Hell, encased in ice but in a way that allows Ugolino to gnaw on the neck and skull of Ruggieri, the Pisan Archbishop who, to make a complicated story of political backstabbing short, bricked up the door to the prison and left Ugolino and four of his male descendants to starve to death (though with the implication of cannibalism) for their participation in the coup that put Ruggieri in power. That’s messed up, I know.
Miraculously, the rather gruesome discussion did not destroy our appetites and after a break for lunch, we went to the Baptistry and the Duomo, which are very similar to those in Florence, though less decorated with statuary and frescoes. Apparently the Pisan architectural tastes ran toward bare white marble rather than elaborate paintings of Biblical scenes: in fact, the dome in the Baptistry is the only unpainted dome I’ve seen on this whole trip. Then we went back outside to get a closer look at the LeaningTower which was actually meant to serve a bell tower, not just a quirky tourist attraction. It is actually pretty cool; up close you can really see the slant and how deeply the base has sunk into the ground. If you stand at the base and look straight up, the tower seems like it’s going to fall on top of you. We also went through one of the museums associated with Cathedral Square but it was rather uninspiring, exhibiting only preparatory sketches used in the restoration of frescoes we had already seen in the Camposanto. However, there was an interesting video about how they saved the tower from collapsing through a process of excavating the shifting clay underneath and replacing it with a concrete and steel foundation that should keep the tower at it’s current 5 degree tilt for the next hundred to two hundred years.
The Leaning Tower is probably the coolest thing in the city so it’s lucky they saved it. Otherwise, it’s just a crowded city but without the attractiveness of Florence or charm of Siena, though maybe my negative opinion was somewhat swayed by the unseasonably cold weather and tourist atmosphere of the piazza area. If I had to sum up my impression with a pithy phrase it would be: I came, I saw, I was like “yeah, it’s all right.” I mean, I’m glad I went but I don’t know that I really need to see it again. After all the historical and cultural locations I’ve already experienced, Pisa just seems better left to those beginning their tours of Italy.
Me at the Piazella Michelangelo
This morning we went to the Museo de San Marco, which was once a Dominican monastery but was converted into a museum featuring art by Fra Angelico from the 15th century including the Annunciation. This is probably one of Fra Angelico’s most well-known paintings and it is unique because of it uses simple colors rather than the ostentatious gold leaf, azure and vermillion ubiquitous to most other depictions of the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary done during that time. Fra Angelico’s Annunciation also differs because he sets the visitation in a very plain room similar to the monastery cells and the interaction between the angle and Mary seems to more like an intimate conversation than a divine declaration. Rather than displaying opulence and awesome glory, Fra Angelico was intent on depicting humility and submissiveness in his painting, just as he did in his religious life.
Humility and submissiveness was apparently not on Dante’s mind, however. This topic was brought up in our discussion of the Inferno later this afternoon on the Piazzela Michelangelo. Dante/the narrator seems pretty confident of his own greatness: in Canto 4, he counts himself among the six greatest literary figures in history with Homer, Horace, Ovid, Virgil , and Lucan. And later on in Canto 25, before relaying the grotesque transformation of men into snakes and vice versa he says “Be silent Lucan…Be silent Ovid” (lines 94-97), seemingly to imply that he Dante is better at describing metamorphosis than either ancient writer. Despite his apparent sense of superiority, Dante also questions his worthiness to take this journey in Canto 2: “No one–/ not I myself– could think me worthy..[of] this quest” (32-34). Also the fact that Dante wrote the Inferno in the Italian vernacular rather than Latin, the language in which literature and scripture were classically written, shows perhaps that he didn’t want to assume too much of his epic poem.
For me, Latin has never really carried such honorific weight, a perception that was unchallenged we went to Mass and vespers at a another monastery up on a hill. The services were entirely in Latin (except for the reading and Gospel which were in Italian) but it didn’t seem high or lofty as I sat in that spare, stone room in near darkness. The brothers wore only simple robes and stoles and the altar was not bedecked with gold or numerous paintings. Even though I couldn’t understand very much, I still enjoyed the Latin mass for it’s sincere faithfulness.
At El Campo in Siena
Well, this morning was the first time I’ve seen 6am since school ended because today, we traveled to Siena, which is a 1.5 hour journey by train from Florence. Siena looks and feels completely different from Florence, especially the city center where we spent most of the day. Unlike Florence, Siena never went through the Renaissance; it’s development was arrested in the medieval styles because a plague killed a third of the population and building and construction halted for awhile. Also, Siena is located on a hillside so while the streets are narrow and cobblestones as they are in Florence, they are also fairly steep at times, unlike the level landscape in the latter city. In fact, we went to a street-side cafe for lunch (which was delicious!) and sat outside at tables with legs cut to accommodate the slant of the hill.
As much as I enjoy Florence, I love Siena even more. It is so pretty in a simple way; tall houses made of plain red bricks with bright shutters plus the view of rolling green hills in the distance. Florence is rather lacking in the greenery department. I also just really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. It’s not as crazy busy like Florence–as a perpetual pedestrian, I felt safer without taxis and buses constantly whizzing past–but it is still a thriving city, especially the city center known as El Campo. El Campo is a circular, paved palazzo in front of their Palazzo Vecchio (city hall) and it’s a popular place to just sit and relax with friends. It is also the place where the Sienese hold their traditional horse races in July and August. All 17 neighborhoods enter one horse and jockey to compete for, essentially, bragging rights. The Sienese are incredibly loyal to their neighborhoods, each of which has it’s own crest and flag. As someone who doesn’t feel such ardent civic pride, this fascinates me.
As much pride they possess for their individual neighborhoods, the medieval Sienese, at least, bonded together against the Florentines, one of their ancient rivals. This is apparent in their competition to build one of the tallest medieval towers in Italy when they began construction of the Siena Cathedral. The entire church exterior is made of marble in striped green and white pattern but on the tower, they made some of the stripes closer together as the tower reaches higher to make it look even taller than it’s 300 ft. The striped marble pattern continued on the walls and the columns in the nave while the floor was covered with geometric patterns and mosaics depicting allegories, bible scenes and portraits of influential people. I thought that the inside was really quite beautiful and the recorded chanting playing was a nice touch. Trompe l’oeil techniques were used in the paintings on the inside of the dome to fake height as well. While the medieval architects may have been able compensate for something by making their cathedral seem taller, they simply did not have enough land available to build a separate baptistry out in front like at the Duomo in Florence. What they could do, was go down, so the baptistry is actually located beneath the church along with several crypts featuring religious frescoes from the 11th century.
So there you have it. I really enjoyed my visit to Siena and would love to go back there again someday. In the battle for my favorite Italian city, Siena wins first prize though Florence is a close second. If I ever get the chance to come back to Italy, I would split my time, spending a few days in Florence and a few in Siena. Dante, like a good Florentine, utterly despised the Sienese and would likely cast me into Hell as a traitor but frankly, dear Dante, I don’t give a damn.
Judith and Holfernas in the Hall of Lilies
Once we got back to Florence, we went straight to the apartments to clean up and eat some lunch. The plan for the afternoon was to visit the Palazzo Vecchio and as we approached the square, I was like “Hey! We’ve walked past this building many many times!” But we’ve never seen the inside of it– until today, that is. To give you a little history, the Palazzo Vecchio was the seat of the Florentine government throughout the Middle Ages and where Priors, including Dante, would stay during their two month terms of office. However, the interior is reflective of the tastes of it’s longest residents, Cosimo Medici the self-proclaimed ruler of Florence, and his family. The Medicis lived there for about 20 years or so until they moved into the even larger Pitti Palace across the Arno River. All of the Palazzo Vecchio’s rooms and hallways are sumptuously decorated with frescoes, paintings and sculptures, since the Medicis were great patrons of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo and Donatello among others.
However, most of the wall/ceiling art was completed by Vasari who, to quote Andrew, “was just an average painter” and the subject matter was meant to remind viewers of the power, strength, and virtues of Medicis and Florence in general. For instance, in the Salone de Cinquecento, or Room of the 500, named such for it’s capacity, there are expansive frescoes depicting Florence’s victories in battle over rival cities Siena and Pisa while from the very center of the ceiling, a portrait of Cosimo 1 looks down on all the politician guests at the party or conference. Even in the family’s private rooms, paintings were used as representations of desirable values and ideals such as the ceilings in Cosimo’s wife Eleonora’s rooms, where the Roman Sabines, Biblical Esther and Greek Penelope are depicted as ideals for female peacemakers, courageous political influences and faithful wives.
All of the various rooms in the Palazzo Vecchio were unique and interesting but my favorite was the Hall of Lilies. The ceiling is all golden, carved curlicues and designs while the dark blue walls are patterned with shimmering gold fleur d’lis. I admire it simply for it’s beauty; it’s ornate but not as gaudy and busy as many of the other rooms are to me. There is also a statue of the biblical Judith and Holfernas, characters that many artists have rendered but whose story I was unaware of before this trip. So the story goes that during the time of Babylonian occupation, a Jewish woman named Judith walked into the enemy camp, seduced Holfernas, the leader, to get close enough to cut off his head and thus, the Babylonians were defeated and the Jews were free. This statue in the Hall of Lilies served as yet another reminder of the strength of women and the defeat of one’s enemies in general.
And that was my day. Tune in again tomorrow for “Siena: A Day Trip, for Real This Time.”
Is there any mistaking this for a city other than Venice?
Yesterday, we went to Venice in the afternoon. Dante mentioned Venice once in the Inferno which is a good enough reason for us to take trip there. After two hours on the Trenitalia, we arrived at the Santa Lucce station and upon exiting the train station, we walked right out onto the Grand Canal.The Grand Canal was an impressive sight: the stately facades with columns and flags hanging from wrought iron balconies faced us. Off to the left, a wide, stone bridge spanned the canal and people walked over it to another part of the island while other tourist were ferried this way and that in a variety of boats on the busy canal itself.
We boarded a vaporetto, which is essentially a water-bus, in order to tour the city quickly and cheaply since we only had a few hours. I really enjoyed the boat ride past even more grand houses, government buildings, and an open market, while also catching glimpses down narrow side canals criss-crossed by foot bridges. When we reached San Marco, we got off the vaporetto and went to visit St. Mark’s Basilica. St. Mark’s Basilica, built in the 11th century, serves as an Roman Catholic Church but it’s architecture and art by the Byzantine style of the Middle East because Venice’s location made it an important port on trade route of the Adriatic Sea.The inside of the church was literally all mosaics, from geometric patterns in the marble floor to Biblical scenes glittering with chips of golden tile Covering the ceilings and walls. After the Basilica, we went to the top of the St. Mark’s Bell Tower, though this time no harrowing climb was necessary as there was an elevator. From the top of the tower, I could see all of Venice spread out below; the vaporetto stop, the many islands and even some cruise ships and yachts in the distance. We took many pictures, but they cannot do justice to the beautiful scene.
Ok, so the plan was that after taking in the view from the Bell Tower we would head back to Santa Lucce and catch a train back to Florence at 7:30pm. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, we were late to the platform and missed the train and because that was the very last train, we were stuck here in Venice for the night. Thanks to the creative efforts of Andrew and Mah, we ended up at the Hotel Minerva for the night and headed out on the first train this morning. Though it was an unanticipated stay, I guess there are worse places to be stuck and Venice is as beautiful in the dark as it is in daylight.
Sunset on the Arno River.
Today we toured the Uffizi Gallery, a sprawling art museum located just a few streets away from our apartments. F.U.N. Fact: Uffizi, which means “official,” once served as the seat of government before being transformed into an museum. It houses many collections ranging from early Roman sculptures, to medieval altar paintings, to 17th century Dutch paintings from the 17th century, and, of course, renowned Italian artists such as Botticelli, Raphael, and Caravaggio. F.U.N. Fact: The Uffizi has Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera and Da Vinci’s The Annunciation on display.
All of the classical paintings and sculptures were lovely but my favorite pieces were in the collection of Dutch painters. I liked these paintings because of the way the artists played with light and darkness; Undergrowth with Flowers, Insects, and Snakes by Otto Marseus van Schrieck is a great example. From a distance, the white moths seem to fly above the dark background and then as you get closer you can see the subtler details of the snake and grasshoppers. I also enjoyed these paintings more because by the 17th century, the subject matter had veered away from religious iconography to depictions of everyday life or portraits. Don’t get me wrong, religious themes like the Annunciation and Crucifixion are great but if after this trip I never see another A Madonna and Child I will be just fine.
Later on in the 17th century exhibit rooms, I came across the Portrait of Vittorio Alfieri by Francois-Xavier Fabre and F.U.N. Fact: Alfieri is wearing a ring inscribed with a portrait of Dante! This piqued my interest so when I got back to the apartment I googled the painting and discovered that Alfieri was an Italian playwright. Alfieri, who is known mainly for his tragedies, was inspired by Dante’s Commedia to write in the Italian vernacular and to generally liven up the language of theater prose. Before we entered the Uffizi, Andrew asked to find something we hadn’t known about and share it with the class. I will definitely be sharing the Alfieri/Dante F.U.N. Fact with all my traveling mates, just as I have with all of you!
Enjoying some gelato–and hey, you can see Santa Maria Novella in the top right corner!
So the other day I mentioned that strolling through Florence is like playing “Where’s Waldo?” Dante-style and today was a continuation, a sequel if you will. The original plan was to go to Venice today but there was an issue with getting train tickets so we opted for a Dante-themed walking tour of Florence. instead. Andrew assigned us partners and a particular location associated with Dante and after an hour or so of Internet researching, the whole group set off into the city.
Our first stop was an old church, the Piazetta del Limbo, that once included a graveyard where all unbaptized babies were buried, the ones whom Dante places in Limbo in the Inferno. The graveyard has long been covered over by cobblestones but it is, according to Nikki and Tegan, still known as one of the scariest places in Florence. My partner, Hanna, and I were assigned the second location: Cassa di Dante. This is a reconstruction of what the Alighieri family home may have looked like back in the 13th-14th century. Though we visited his childhood home, in our research we discovered that Dante didn’t really write much about that house or his immediate family. Instead, Dante considered the entire city of Florence as his home, a sentiment woven throughout the Inferno as he seems to take the political and religious corruption as a personal affront and fictitiously punishes those perpetrators in Hell.
The third place, known as “Sasso di Dante,” was the stone where Dante often sat to think and write poetry while watching the beginning construction of the Duomo. Though we couldn’t find the actual stone itself, we did find a restaurant called Sasso di Dante so we must have been close to it. Then we went to the Santa Maria Noevlla, the oldest church in Florence and home to an religious order of Dominican brothers. Inside the Santa Maria Novella, there were two enormous frescoes spanning entire walls of a side altar that depicted scenes of Purgatory and Hell straight out of Dante’s writings. The painting of Hell was fascinating; it was almost like a map of the underworld and I could clearly pick out the river Styx, the whirlwinds of lust, the lake of tar, the fiery tombs of the heretics and the brittle branches of the suicides turned into trees. And lastly, we stopped at the Chiesa di San Pier de Scheraggio, what was once a public government building where Dante often went to give speeches and read his poetry and prose aloud to crowds of Florentine citizens. The building that Dante would have walked through was mostly torn down centuries ago when the Medicis decided that a new, larger building was necessary for the seat of government but one wall of arches remains, having been directly into the wall of the Uffizi. Finally we made it back to our apartments, where Dante is present only on the pages of our textbooks. But then, again who knows? We are not that far from those other locations, so perhaps Dante wandered this way to reach the banks of “the sweet Arno” that runs through the city he knew and loved (XIV, 95).
PS. Ok, so we did take a little detour through the gelato festival on our way to Santa Maria Novella. This festival apparently happens every year around this time and, thanks to Andrew’s excellent timing, we are here right at the beginning of this week-long event where gelato-makers from all over Italy set up booths in a piazza and offer samples of their new, artisan flavors. Today I tried two flavors: one with chocolate and caramel, but the other one with Brazilian coffee with a hint of lime was my favorite. So far, that is–I still have three vouchers left and several days to use them!
The Ponte Vecchio as seen from the Piazella Michelangelo
Today we went to the Accademia, a small gallery that houses a surprising collection of statues and paintings. Billed as the “Home of the David,” Michelangelo’s David is the biggest attraction–14 ft to be exact (sorry for the pun!). However, the Accademia offers much more including, luckily for us, a special exhibit that featured Dante related pieces such as a record book that documented Dante’s term as a prior and an illustrated manuscript of his entire Commedia. The manuscript was really cool: an immense book with intricate drawings bordering the text of both Dante’ poetry and later commentary on the work as well, an addition usually reserved only for classic literature (Way to go Dante!). I also spent a lot of time in the room of plaster models and found a plaster model for a statue of Beatrice from Paradiso, the fictionalized character of Dante’s beloved. I don’t know much about Beatrice herself, other than that both she and Dante were already married to other people, or what drew them together but her statue was classically beautiful, graceful, and elegant.
Then in the evening, some of us took a long walk to the Piazzela Michelangelo and I understand why perhaps Dante fell so hard for Beatrice– Florence is such a romantic city. Just outside the ancient city walls, our walk took us past flowers sprouting from cracks in the stone, ivy hanging from balconies, quaint little shops and restaurants no bigger than a my dorm room back in East Lake. Then we reached the piazza with it’s breathtaking view of the city; the sun was just peaking through the low clouds and illuminating the hills in the far distance as the city itself spread out before us. Many photos were taken but we were not the only ones snapping shots under the perfect light. Some were clearly tourists but others were couples out for a simple evening together to see their city from above. Though to get to the piazza, the streets meander this way and that, but what better way to spend a few hours than wandering hand in hand with your significant other? I think that you’d always be finding quiet little places for coffee or gelato that could become your special place. There are also stone-walled bridges over the Arno River where you could sit and watch the sun slowly sink behind the towers and sloped tile roofs. It is beautiful, just beautiful; I have fallen for this city. I only wish the ones I love were here to share it with me.
Hello---wherever you are! 