Florence - Renaissance Life

Wednesday we had a quiet morning and caught up on some school and logistics.  That afternoon our youngest stayed back to keep working while the rest of us headed to Museo del Bargello.  This was a small museum with some of Michelangelo's early works.  We enjoyed seeing the different statues of David and how various artists depicted him in regards to his age, the attitude they desired to imply by the stance they sculpted him in, and at what point in his battle with Goliath they represented him.

More gelato? Yes!

Every now and then we can get the teenager to pose - here with a self-portrait by Michelangelo

To determine who would design the bronze doors to the Florence Baptistry (Duomo), artists submitted a tile depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac.  Competition was primarily between these 2 tiles (left tile by Ghiberti and right tile by Brunelleschi). Ghiberti won and the gates would be referred to by Michelangelo as "The Gates of Paradise," a name that would stick.

Mom's always drooling over the idea that these kids have field trips as part of
their regular school experience and are able to learn about this art firsthand.

We arrived at the Basilica di Santa Croce, where the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Ghiberti are, only to learn that it had closed 10 minutes earlier. We then ran into a fun leather shop where we spent some time while our oldest continued to practice his card tricks on the clerks and their friends. That evening we hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a beautiful sunset and lookout over the city of Florence, it truly took our breath away and was good exercise getting up there!

A new hat can bring such joy

Son doing card tricks in a store

Florence Panorama

Amazing view of Florence from Michelangelo's Plaza

Thursday we started the morning we visited the Uffizi Gallery, housing the world's greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art, gifted to the city of Florence by the Medici family. We took part in a tour that visited many of the highlights of this large art gallery, and provided some interesting insight. For example, The Duke and Duchess of Urbino shows the Duke from the left as he lost his right eye in a battle, while the Duchess died prematurely and this is the reason she is so pale as it was painted after her passing, also her hairline was fashionable at the time and if one didn't have a high hairline naturally, she would shave the hair on her forehead!  The Baptism of Christ pinging by Verrocchio (who was Leonardo da Vinci's teacher) was actually painted by both Verrocchio and Da Vinci who added the angel.  Overall, our tour was interesting and we were happy to have a guide, but we were all getting a bit "museum-ed" out. When the tour ended mom and some of the kids wandered the streets a bit while Dad and our oldest stayed at the Uffizi to visit a few areas that we'd rushed through. We met up for lunch and then Dad and the kids let Mom have an hour to wander by herself as we were all needing a change in dynamics. In case you are curious, taking four kids through two museums in a single day may not be recommended.

Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca.  

Boys in front of The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

G in front of Botticelli's Allegory of Spring, where there's a secret admiration between several of the figures that cupid is helping along.

Baptist of Christ by Verrocchio (and Da Vinci), where this son curiously observed that many paintings of John the Baptist have a cross in them when the cross hadn't occurred yet.

We reconnected outside of La Academia where, our oldest son pulled our daughter's first tooth before we headed in to see The David by Michelangelo - yep life just keeps on happening! The kids were in awe at how large this statue is in person, and we all enjoyed walking around and observing this magnificent piece of art and learning the story behind it. Fascinatingly, two other artists had rejected the piece of marble that Michelangelo used for this statue, while Michelangelo saw David in the marble from the beginning and just chipped away to reveal him. (In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it - Michelangelo.)

We returned to Trattoria Cesar, where we were so impressed with our dinner we had our first night in Florence, that we wanted to eat there one more time. We'd been told that in Italy children put their teeth that have fallen out under a cup in the kitchen and that a mouse will come during the night and fill the cup with coins. Obviously because we are in Italy, we wanted to follow along so the mouse would come, so our daughter's first experience with the "tooth fairy" was a "tooth mouse," and she woke up the next morning and ran to the kitchen to find her glass of coins.

She lost her first tooth!

Michelangelo's David

Complimentary limoncello jug from Trattoria Cesar