This past weekend my entire class went on a trip to Florence, Venice and Assisi. All three of those cities probably deserve a blogpost of their own, but for brevity's sake, I'll try to cram them into this one.
Florence was one of the most, if not the most, beautiful cities in Italy that I've been to. The city was filled with magnificent statues and massive palaces, left behind from the ages. As we walked around the city, we learned about the interesting rivalry between the Medici and Strozzi families that over time, made the city one of the world's elite. The Medici would built a palace on one side of the city, and on the other side the Strozzi would try to build a bigger one. As the battle for control over Florence escalated, the city grew and became more prosperous as a result.
The river going through Florence was also pretty cool. Apparently at one point, violence between the two rivaling families of Florence was so great that the Medici family constructed their own private bridge over the river, in order to avoid street fights. Pretty intense stuff.
In Florence, at La Accademica, they had the David by Michaelangelo. I honestly spent 45 minutes to an hour looking at it ... it is easily the most perfect statue I have ever seen. Me and my good friend, John Bascom, were saying that we thought the statue was about to jump off the display stand it was on. (It didn't.)
Venice was incredible. From taking the watertaxi out to the island, to walking around, the entire time we spent there was an experience of a lifetime. I felt it was our class, and then just old, retired couples there. Stumbling across the random waterways filled with gondolas, hidden piazza's with beautiful violinists, and delicious gelato shops, Venice was a real treat.
The famous Piazza San Marco was probably the coolest part of Venice. We didn't get to see it flood, but it was cool nontheless. Saint Mark's is right there in the piazza, as is the Palazzo Ducale, the palace of the royalty of Venice. Inside there was the world's biggest painting, as well as rooms filled with gold, famous paintings, and weaponry. Venice's history is very interesting .. they stole the bones of St. Mark from Alexandria in order to gain legitimacy in Italy as a major power, as every other big city had a patron saint.
And finally, Assisi. Assisi was so beautiful and quiet. We saw the tomb of St. Francis, some of his belongings, where he died, the rose bush he jumped into (cool story behind that one), and the chapel he built with his own hands. Loads of really sweet stuff. We also hiked up to where he lived for awhile (a hermitage up in the mountains). I wish we could have stayed longer.
I don't know if you guys can tell, but I'm defintely running out of gas on this blog thing.
Jacimo.
Pictures: here.
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