Firenze

Donatello's Mary Magdalene


12 April 2008: It was a rainy drive. And, even though we got a bit turned around trying to find the campground, we arrived in Firenze (called Florence in English) quickly. The campground is RIGHT outside the city wall and across the river, up on a hill, overlooking all the beautiful building tops of the city! It’s actually right next door to a scenic lookout point for tourists called the Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s absolutely stunning, especially at night!

I made chicken soup while Kailani was still napping. And after lunch, the rain subsided. So, we headed off for an afternoon of sightseeing. I didn’t know what to expect, so I left the agenda open for Sean to fill. He had three museums that he wanted to see. We read that opening times for museums are always changing and erratic, and lines can be long if you don’t make reservations (of course we didn’t have any!). But, we figured we’d take our chances and it would at least give us direction in which to walk around.

The first museum, the Bargello, which housed work done by Michelangelo and Donatello, was unfortunately closed in the afternoons. So, we headed off behind the Doumo to the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo (Duomo Museum). Sean really wanted to see Donatello’s wood carving, Mary Magdalene, all covered in her matted hair and Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture, which he carved when he was 80 years old. There were also many artifacts, displays and models of the Duomo as this was where they staged everything when building of the cathedral. Afterwards, we looked at the actual Duomo, Florence’s Gothic Santa Maria del Fiori. Like the others we’ve seen, it was definitely a piece of work. Roman cathedrals are really not my style, but it’s still fascinating to see such a HUGE building from the 1870’s that you know took a lot of money, a huge team of people hundreds of hours and all the ornate work done in pink, green and while marble. It was intentionally built with the dome missing, because they didn’t know how to build one yet, but knew that someone could figure it out later. The last stop was the Galleria dell’ Accademia (Accademia) for the grand finale, Michelangelo’s David, and it didn’t let us down. It was huge and exceptionally well-done to scale, except his large hands, which were done intentionally as a symbol of power. I could go on and on how realistic this marble sculpture was. But really, you have to go see it for yourself. And after you do, all the mini “David” souvenirs sold in every window on every street in Florence will not do it any justice.

The rest of the afternoon, we took it easy; window shopped and strolled around the center of town, watching Florence on a Sunday afternoon. Kailani did exceptionally well during all those museum visits and we found a carousel for her to ride. I rode with her the first half of the ride. But, she rode the second half all by herself, holding on tight as she went up, down and around. I am just amazed how fast she’s growing right now. Italians are not the least bit shy to give attention to children. And, as with Spanish and French, she’s been speaking Italian words to them. It’s really cute to hear her say “Ciao”, “Grazie” and “Boun Giorno” in her little, shy voice! (But of course, I’m a bit biased!)

On the way back, we hopped into this nice hole in the wall restaurant for some pasta, of course. I wish I could remember the name of the place and got the name of the cheerful waitress that served us. But, saw lots good looking places to eat walking from our campground into the center of town. So, I don’t think there is a shortage of good places to eat in the city. The walk back up the hill to the campground, up a couple hundred steps, was a grueling one. Especially at the end of the day when so full of dinner. But we made it. JUST as we took our shoes off, we heard the first drops of rain start again, and it rained all night. It was as if someone was really looking out for us!