Florence

Ah the beauty of Florence...in the morning or the evening, but definitely not the middle of the day in September.

Two weekends ago (I know, I know, I'm behind again) our group went on our final excursion as a complete group. We stayed in a nicer hostel run by a group of evangelical churches, so we were able to leave our bags in our rooms and lock them, which made the trip so much easier! Although, had we had to carry our bags, I probably would have worn the same outfit all three days in order to only bring my purse :)

Florence is a beautiful city sitting on both sides of the Arno river. Our hostel was situated on the upper side of the Arno, which is the less touristy and less commercial than the main part of Florence (the part that everyone thinks about when they hear Florence - the Cathedral, Basilica, many churches, etc). However, we walked all over Florence, and by all over, I truly mean ALL OVER Florence. Friday we left Orvieto at 9:30 (it was supposed to be 8:45, but the train was in ritando, unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence) and arrived around noon and walked from the train station to the hostel. We stowed our bags and then ran out to purchase the essentials for an Italian picnic - pizza, bread, cheese, tomatoes, and fruit - well, everything, I suppose, except the wine (the lack of which I definitely did not complain about) because it was being paid for by Gordon College who does not condone drinking. After pranzo we gathered our strength for our first true walk through the city. We walked across the river and through the middle of town visiting Santa Felicita, Orsanmichele, Palazzo Vecchio, the Baptistery, and Santa Croce. (There are magnificent works of art housed at all of these, but I do not have the time to write about all of it, so if you care to see what exactly we saw, you can ask me or google it.) I was writing a paper on Donatello's St. Mark, a statue on the Orsanmichele, so I took quite a few pictures there. After all this we walked back across the river and hiked our way outside the old limits of Florence and almost to the end of the new city up the hill to Monatero San Miniato al Monte. Although we had to climb more stairs than I could count up quite an incline, the view and our experience at the church made it completely worth it. If any of you ever go to Florence and you want a view of the whole city (or just want to get away from crowds of people), I definitely recommend making this hike. We could see the entire city of Florence with a view that just screamed beauty (minus the part that was on fire...yes, I'm pretty sure fire does follow me everywhere, but it was put out by the time we left). However, that wasn't even the best part. Professor Skillen had arranged for us to be given a tour of the monastery by one of the monks who he knew. Yes, that's right, we had our own personal tour guide, dressed completely in white, who led us around the church and explained all the art work to us. Then, we walked into one of the side chapels and once it was lit, fra Bernardo did the most amazing thing: he began to sing. Now, he prefaced this by warning us that he wasn't much of a singer, but would be willing to sing a chant if we wanted. He had one of the most beautiful and reverential voices I have ever heard! His glorious chant echoed throughout the room and there was silence after he finished as we all stood in awe of the power of someone so dedicated singing to his Lord. After this, we walked back to our hotel and had dinner at a restaurant nearby and then Katy and I went and got tiramisu, which was wonderful.

Saturday was slightly a whirlwind day, but it was fun. After eating breakfast like true Italians in caffes, we walked to the Bargello (sculpture museum) and the Medici Palazzo chapel and house, which I thought was a lot of fun (I'm discovering that I really enjoy looking at buildings...so apparently I'm in the right place). Then we had almost 2 hours of free time, in which we could do anything we wanted as long as we were at Santa Maria Novella by 1:00. So, Katy and I decided to go to a bookstore (naturally) and visit the market where they sold really cheap scarves (wonderful) and then eat at yet another Italian caffe (no coffee this time) before walking leisurely and shopping on our way to the church. From their we walked to the Brancacci chapel and Santa Trinita before heading back to our hostel for our dinner picnic and another free evening. This time we decided to go sit on one of the bridges, where we sat while it rained intermittently for almost 3 hours talking about life and the way people walk. 


The next morning we awoke with high expectations of seeing our last two sites and then leaving for Arezzo, but our plans quickly changed when we discovered that Monastery San Marco was closed. Instead we sat outside the orphanage and listened to Dr. Skillen for about an hour and then went to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (the Cathedral Museum) from where we were set free to wander the streets of Florence and find our own way back to the hostel. Annie and I promptly walked back to the market so I could actually buy a scarf (it's beautiful!) and then, as we wanted to avoid the crowds, walked (unknowingly) in the complete opposite direction of our hostel. Basically, I thought we were in a different area and Annie is completely directionally challenged, so we ended up having to run by the banks of the Arno to back it back in time.


From there, we got back on the train and rode it to Arezzo, which is a small town that is apparently famous for its antique festival that it holds once a month and for the fact that it was used as the setting for the film It's a Beautiful Life. That being said, it's a lovely little town, where we were able to see the Piero della Francesco fresco cycle. While in the church we heard the ominous sounds of thunder and heavy rain and we pondered our options: do we wait for it to possibly get better, or do we just make a run for it right now? Well, most of us decided to just go for it, so we walked as quickly and as best we could (of course, I decided to wear my rainbows that day) all the way back down the street to the train station where we waited, dripping wet (all except for my backpack which came with its own poncho!) for our train to pick us up and take us back home. An hour and a half later we were safe and sound in our own dear monastery, starving, wet, tired, but home.