Day 15

Hi!

Today we woke up and hit the road early to get to the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine on the other side of the river to see the Brancacci Chapel. As it turns out, the Brancacci Chapel isn't open on Tuesdays. It's open every other day of the week, though. So we went into the church itself and a very nice old man let us enter the chapel and stand in there for about 20 minutes, discussing the frescoes. The Brancacci Chapel was decorated by Masolino, Masaccio, and a young Fillipino Lippi and the subject is scenes from St. Peter's life. It was incredible to be standing in there in the natural light flooding in through the one window of the chapel.

After that we walked over to Santo Spirito to check out the inside. It is a pure Brunelleschi church, meaning he designed and built it from the ground up. Inside is a crucifix built by Michelangelo; honestly, I wasn't very impressed. I don't know, maybe I'm jaded now or maybe I thought he could do better. But it just didn't stir anything inside me. A funny story behind it, though, is that he cut up cadavers at the church while working on this crucifix. He would work through the night (because it was illegal to disrupt dead bodies) and reek of blood and guts by the morning. His solution to this problem was to splash wine all over his clothes; when he would come home in the morning his dad would berate him, calling him a drunk. Michelangelo couldn't tell his dad what he was really doing, and apparently he could never win with his father. Funny story, right? Once we had our fill of that crucifix, we walked to the back of the church to look at their variety of small chapels, most of which contained an altarpiece and a pallioti, which is a wooden plank typically painted with a fabric design and a religious scene to go below the altarpiece. There is little known about these things, but Dr. Zaho is working on researching them.

Once we left Santo Spirito, Katia and I walked through some clothes stands then got paninos at Gusta Panino. I got the same thing as last time (tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella on wheat bread) and it was delicious yet again. Then Katia, Chelsea, Zoe, and I walked around that side of the river and ended up at La Carraira for some perfect gelato (I got a lemon cookie flavor with strawberry), where we happened to run into Sarah, Emily, and Krista. At that point Katia and I crossed to our side of the river and returned to a cool leather shop for Katia to get a backpack she's been obsessing over. After that we came home, relaxed a little bit, and I threw some clothes into the washer (including my jeans, which I wanted to wear to Siena tomorrow, but I doubt they'll be dry by then, ugh).

After that we walked over to Il Duomo to go to Museo il Opera del Duomo, AKA the Museum of the Cathedral. It was very cool. They just recently redid the museum, so it was a very modern setting housing a lot of very old things. My favorite thing we saw was this stunning and colorful mosaic of a pope with a beautifully detailed background. Another cool thing we saw was a room full of alternative designs for the facade of the Duomo. My least favorite thing we saw was a wooden sculpture of the Magdalene by Donatello because it terrifies me. We studied it in my Italian Renaissance class with Dr. Zaho last semester and even then it gave me the creeps. Here's a link to the Google image search of her: (http://www.google.com/search?q=donatello+magdalene&safe=off&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-9mbUfX_MNOz0QWj2ICIAw&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1086&bih=597#imgrc=_) Enjoy your nightmares! It's supposed to be her after spending years alone in the wild; she's naked, that's all her hair wrapped around her. And she's emaciated because she didn't eat or something. It's just really creepy. It's supposed to show that while she's horrifying now, she was once beautiful.

After the Duomo museum we sped over to the Academia to look at nothing but Michelangelo's David. And by nothing, I mean nothing. I couldn't take my eyes off him the whole time. I circled that statue at least 5 times, trying to see every perfect detail from every angle. He's 17' tall and has the most intense gaze you'll ever see in a sculpture. I mean, I've passed the copy of David in the Palazzo Vecchio multiple times, but he's so shrunken in front of that large building and tower. In this space, though, he is massive and everything else is dwarfed. Everything about him is simply stunning. He is so different from the Davids we saw yesterday: he's 3 times their size, doesn't look pre-pubescent, and is depicted at the moment he first sees Goliath. I just love everything about it, and I didn't realize it until I was standing in front of it. It's just so impressive and awe-inspiring. It was incredible. Have you noticed that his hands and head and feet are disproportional to his body? That was intentional; it shows that he has a lot of potential, a lot to grow into in his life. Dr. Zaho uses three words to explain this: golden retriever puppy. Get it? Big paws? Anyway, I now love Michelangelo's David statue more than most things.

When we left the Academia, a bunch of us began walking in the direction of home. Katia and I ran into a shop to look at figurines and when we turned around everyone was gone. So we took our time walking home, stopping in a library so I could use the bathroom. We didn't explore a lot in there but it looked awesome and it's definitely a hang out for local people our age. We then walked to Conad's to pick up a few groceries for the next few days and headed home. Once we got back, we didn't feel like making dinner in so we went out. Emily, Katia, and I wandered the streets as three very hungry girls, so we stumbled into the first promising place we saw. I don't know the name of it, but I grabbed a card and I can add it later if I remember. Anyway, I got linguini with a pesto sauce and a side of "fried potatoes". When I ordered these I kind of pictured roasted potatoes; they were french fries. They were delicious though and I was being stupid so whatever. Emily had a pizza that looked good and Katia had ribollita that was just okay. Dinner was nice though!

Afterward we walked home, cleaned the kitchen, and just generally hung out like most nights. It's time for me to get a quick shower in before I go to bed. We have to wake up super early tomorrow in order to catch a bus to Siena. I'm so excited!

Good night!