The streets of Florence speak

If I thought Scandicci was cool... Florence is beyond words. Scandicci is nice because it's not touristy and more of a nice family town. Florence is so much bigger than imagined it and absolutely FILLED with history, culture, and art that is so foreign to me. I feel a million miles away from my last entry a week ago. We've been going, going, going so much. Between classes, onsite classes, tours, studying, and trying to take advantage of any large chuck of free time we have by going into town... by the time I get back to the villa I'm exhausted.

Our first trip into Florence mostly involved just walking around while Robbie gave us an overview of the things we were seeing and the city itself. One particular place we went was the San Miniato al Monte church. It was a pretty place on the hillside overlooking Florence. We went inside and sang a couple of hymns together. The acoustics gave me the chills. I closed my eyes and let our voices wash over me as I thanked the Lord for this amazing adventure he's given me. Later we saw the Ponte Vecchio for the first time. I think that's always been my first thought when it came to Italy because of the ridiculous amount of paintings of it. So it was marvelous to actually see it and then walk across it looking into all the shop windows.

The wind is insanely cold. It rolls across the hills and whips between the architectural wonders in the city. Especially around the Duomo... on the day we toured the Duomo I couldn't even hear the person next to me talk unless they're yelling. While it makes navigating through the city a bit miserable at times I'm still as happy as a clam.

Our first onsite class was the Duomo. It was worked on my a couple architects but the one who gets the most credit is Brunelleschi because of his feat of the largest free standing dome in the world (and still is to this day!). The whole religious center left us in awe. The inside of Duoma was painted by Giorgio Vasari and his company. It's huge and leaves your neck cramping from starring upward for so long. Painting of biblical figures are scattered on the walls of the cathedral. The Baptistry, an interesting octagonal shape, has a mosaic on it's dome of colored glass and gold foil. So much talent, history, and culture. I was completely overwhelmed.

I wish I could go into more detail about each day and it's events. We visited the Piggy Market which is an outdoor market that is really popular among tourists. Yesterday we had a scavenger hunt in smaller groups around the city of Florence. It really helped us get an idea of where things are and how to get around the city. The map is essential! Last Sunday we probably had some of the best pasta I've ever tasted.

Yesterday we had some Italian guest speakers, Costanza and Debora, come talk to us about an organization called OMA. To try and summarize it, they are working at preserving the culture and talents of artisans of the Florentine guilds. One of the guest speakers while talking about how the guild shields are still to this day around the city, hanging on street corners and imprinted in building. After a class on the history of guilds and how they fit into modern day now... especially how they struggle, we met up in Florence to visit some of the artisans. We passed by a shoe maker, paper maker, jewelers (which was actually an old convent where all the artisan jewelers try to stay together to survive). I thought of my Papa a lot during our class and tour. The organization sound like something he would be in support of it. You see, this organization wants to bring awareness to the significance of being able to buy quality items that are handmade in a traditional way. You can own something that is one of kind and made my someone who has artistic ability rather than by a machine in a factory. On our trip through town we got to meet with a mask and wig maker. He was amusing. His looks were unique, a mix of an actor face and pure Italian. He had a big nose, large wrinkles under is eyes, long hair that curled on the end, and wore a tight black turtleneck. He explained that his business had been in his family for 300 yrs! And is son is the 9th generation. We were shown how the wigs are made and what kind of masks he makes. The history of the business goes from making the white wigs like our American forefathers to the masks and wigs of modern day film industry. I haven't uploaded those pictures yet, but I'd like to put a picture of him up for you to see.

 Debora said, "The streets of Florence speak." We just have to pay attention. There is so much culture, history, and beauty... we have to take the time to learn so that we don't just end up passing through like the majority of tourists. The learning we're doing gives us the appreciation of what we have been blessed to see and experience.