We're still new here, haven't met a lot of people and our shipment of household items won't be arriving until January so it didn't make sense to attempt a traditional Thanksgiving. Instead we decided to head off to Florence, the home of the Renaissance. We spent 2 days walking through this old city, viewing numerous paintings and sculptures by the greats and of course eating. What is Thanksgiving without food?
We feasted on pasta and more pasta. Various meats, potatoes, bread, olive oil, these lovely little waffles from corner stands and of course gelato. Not too bad! I think it was a good American showing.
Food aside, the art was truly amazing. Whether or not you are into Renaissance art, one can appreciate people behind the pieces and their significance in history. Their influence continues today. Seeing the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo caused me to realize that these men weren't just figures from old stories but were real people. In addition, Michelangelo's famous 'David' is housed in a museum in Florence plus there are 2 replicas located in the city. We took a long walk up a hill to see one of these and were given some beautiful views of the city.
The Uffizi Gallery is located in Florence and houses paintings by Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Works containing the Holy Virgin and the Christ Child are in abundance but so are many mythological pieces. It struck me how religion and mythology were so closely intertwined during this period.
There is an extremely large church (Duomo) in the center of town. It dwarfs all other buildings and there's pictures below to get a sense for how big this thing is. But inside, the dome is decorated with one of the largest paintings of the Renaissance. The Last Judgement by Vasari and Zuccari. It made my head spin. Literally. When I looked up into the dome for too long I felt dizzy and had to take a break!
While Nick and I had a great time over the long weekend and enjoyed Italy to the fullest, I still missed my family and the traditions I've come to love. So I couldn't resist making a pumpkin pie when we got home. I had to settle for Mrs. Smith's since Italy is all out of canned pumpkin but it tasted wonderful.
Something else missing from this holiday was the Black Friday mayhem. There were no ads to pour through the night before or alarm clocks set for 2am. In fact, many stores didn't even have their Christmas decorations up yet. Unheard of in the US! The first Christmas song we heard over the weekend was in the Hard Rock Cafe (sorry...I really needed a salad after all that pasta). It was Twisted Sister's rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful. It was quite pleasant actually.
Pictures from Florence include the replica of David, the Duomo, our quaint little B&B and various statues throughout the city:
No comments:
Post a Comment