The World's A Book : Vatican Gardens and Firenze (Florence)

Buongiorno! Once again, so much has happened that I must rely more on pictures than descriptions of all that's been happening. Mom and Dad came last week, which was a lot of fun, but unfortunately I forgot to take almost any pictures, except a few in the Vatican Gardens. But we had many other adventures: we went to the Vatican Museums, attended Mass in St. Peter's with a priest who had "one foot in eternity," as the saying goes, had some awesome dinners, took Mom and Dad to the (marvelous) 24-hour bakery, and got soaked to the bone by a torrential, freezing autumn thunderstorm Monday night!

There was much to see in the Vatican gardens, but this Jubilee bell was particularly neat to me:

The gardens themselves were lovely:

And there was also this AWESOME view of St. Peter's from behind:

This is the only picture I got in the Vatican Museums. :-/ Photography is forbidden anyway, but at least I have a neat shot of the staircase.

After mom and dad left, the week was PACKED with some intense school time. Although we're only taking four classes, the course load here isn't exactly a cakewalk. This week was unusually crammed because of the school-planned trip to Florence, which began on Thursday: so the regular class week, plus a makeup class day, was crammed into Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. We had to juggle regular classes with presentations and studying for and Italian quiz and the Moral Theology midterm, which we took on Wednesday.

Once all that was through, we packed up our bags in a hurry and raced off to Firenze (Florence)!

Florence was a memorable city, although not my favorite of the ones I've been to so far . . . But I think that may be simply because I'm getting a little burnt out. Lots of travelling and studying and being sick (still can't shake this cough/cold thing I've got) and not much sleeping have kind of worn me down. But "sleep is for wimps," as dad says, so I now I'll dive into my presentation on St. Francis, reading Ovid's Metamorphoses (ick), more midterms, and then getting ready for Lourdes, the Amalfi Coast, and Munich, all of which are apparently in my future (unless I tell my friends I just don't have the energy to go with them to Amalfi or Munich. There's no way I'm missing out on Lourdes).

Nevertheless, Florence was certainly worth the trip, even if it was only a day and a half. It's the home of Michelangelo, Dante (who wrote The Divine Comedy), and also the author of the original Pinocchio, whose name I don't recall. The Duomo (the nickname, meaning "House of God," which they give to all the giant churches in these Italian towns), there was utterly incredible: I have never in my life seen so vast a church with such an amount of intricate detailed facade-work, 360 degrees around!

I had a hard time getting all of the church in the shot, it was just so gigantic!

The inside (which we didn't get to see til the next morning, for Mass) is surprisingly plain and undecorated compared to the exterior, with the exception of the inside of the Dome, which is painted with three-tiered depictions of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy.

Gelato, anyone? Perche no? (Why not?)

Oh, er, hi there, giant replica of Michelangelo's David. Apparently this is as accurate a copy as has ever been made . . . but it's about three or four times as big, and stands in the central piazza of Florence. It's actually really incredible: David looks confident and cocky from a distance, but when you get up close you can see a little bit of fear in his eyes. It's astounding to think Michelangelo could evoke such subtlety of human emotion from what is essentially a piece of rock.

The first afternoon we were there, we went across the famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge . . . dates to Medieval times).

The view in the other direction:

Then we hiked up a very steep hill just outside Florence to San Miniato, which is a church built in honor of an ancient hermit-martyr who used to live there. The view was breathtaking!

We stayed there for evening Mass and Vespers. Vespers was especially beautiful; the monks (of what order I'm not certain, but they had white habits) chanted the Divine Office, which was hauntingly beautiful to hear echoing through the medevial crypt:

When Vespers were over we stepped outside again and saw another incredible view: Firenze at night!

The Ponte Vecchio was also beautiful at night:

The next day we went to the Uffizi Gallery, which has some of the most famous artwork in the world. Photography was strictly forbidden, but this Madonna and Child was so sweet I couldn't resist.

Later we explored Florence a little. The city is easy to get around, but it was kind of dirty and smelly, and there seem to be mostly tons of fashion shops and touristy restaurants. However, I did find a lovely hole-in-the-wall stationary shop that had this adorable little miniature bookcase on the wall! I thought of Joe and Mom and had to take a picture: