Italy, part three

There’s going to be five parts to this. I’ll try to bring out the next two parts quickly. This is the part of the trip where I started to get camera fatigue. Which is a real shame, since the Tuscan countryside was lovely. You’ll just have to take my word for it. While driving to Pisa, we stopped at a roadside cafe where I had the best tiramisu of my life. I can still taste it.

That whole day — I think it was a Tuesday? — we were driving to Florence. We spent a lot of time in the bus, which worked out well because it rained. This was the only time rain ever interfered with our trip, with the exception of the Colosseum. So that was good. It was a good day to rain.

This is not my picture, obviously. But this is of Pisa. The Piazza de Miracoli. I show you this because I was not aware there were four buildings in Pisa. I mean, obviously there were other buildings… but four very old and cool buildings.

It was raining in Pisa and it was a horrible and disgusting place, honestly. There was a McDonald’s there. It was so touristy. There were dozens upon dozens of trashy little stalls where you could buy tourist junk. Not a fan of Pisa. Also the pay restrooms were nasty and warm and smelly. I went into a stall to discover pee all over the seat. I didn’t bother cleaning it off but squatted, added my own pee to the seat and moved on. After me, a little girl and her mom went to the stall. The girl literally started crying. She flinched back from the stall. “No, mom, please! Please!” I felt horrible. I could feel the girl thinking how disgusting I was. “It wasn’t me!” I wanted to yell as the mom insisted she go in. (God, what if I wrote a whole novel in that tense? Awkward.) This is not my picture but it shows you the awful touristy stalls. Why yes, I’ve come to Italy to buy a baseball cap.

The only good thing about Pisa was seeing how incredibly detailed the tower was. Tragic really. Although I’m sure they could realign the building if they wanted to, but then where would the tourists go? I really dig the stripes.

And then we left Pisa and arrived in Florence. This is a shot of a building near our hotel. Wednesday morning.

We went to see The David first thing in the morning. That was amazing. I was impressed by how big the statue was. I imagined it to be much smaller, probably because I had never seen pictures of people standing next to it. The following isn’t my picture, since we weren’t allowed to take pictures. But it shows you the perspective. The hands and head were a little bigger than they’d be in real life, but otherwise The David was a masterpiece. Words cannot describe it. Also he had a very nice butt.

Afterwards our tour guide walked us to the church where The David was originally commissioned to be displayed. Do you see the smaller dome in the center of the picture? At the base of the dome, is a hexagonal shape and two partitions angle down from it. At the base of the right partition there is a short column/platform thing. That is where The David would have gone had the church not decided it was too nude to display. As you can see The David doesn’t really work with that building anyway. It’s too real. The building, too stylized. This is a possible explanation for why The David’s hands and  head were bigger, since it was originally supposed to be viewed from far away.

It was a gorgeous building in its own right though. I can’t remember what it’s called.

Do you see the twelve faces just under God the father? Those are not the twelve apostles but artists, scholars and scientists of the day. They were placed above other Biblical figures in hierarchy. I think Copernicus and Galileo are among them. Interesting, no?

Another shot.

I really loved this statue. This is the original, just hanging out outside. You could walk up and touch it, if you were tall enough.

Perseus and the gorgon, I believe.

This is an old coin with Julius Caesar, dated pre-AD. I have a character named David who collects old coins. (Hi David!)

The Uffizi Gallery was easily the most chills-inducing part of the trip. It’s the Louvre of Italy. Our guide was this tall, thin, greying man with intense blue eyes. Essentially: my character David. Minus the Italian accent. This man knew everything about everything, but then one time he didn’t know the answer to a probably bizarre question and he simply said, “I don’t know.” Held it for five seconds. Went on with the talk. I don’t know… and clearly it isn’t worth knowing because I’m not even going to look it up later. The pearl of the museum was Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, which you see below. (Not my picture.) You could stand right up next to it. Incredible.

Her eyes were my favorite part. This picture does not capture it. The eyes had a lifelike twinkle because of the paint. Before we left the room I had to go back and look at them again.

I also saw Titian’s Venus of Urbino, which was funny because I had just been having a conversation with someone about the slimmed-down version of that painting and wasn’t aware the original was at the Uffizi Gallery. Then there it was. Honestly, there were many paintings I recognized. It was awesome.

The other significant painting we saw was Rafael’s Pope Leo X. Try to imagine the painting as it was before some other guys came along and added the two men on either side of the pope. Rafael only painted the pope, the chair, the table. The cool thing about this painting is how realistic it is. It might be a photograph. All the detail in the book. The reflection of a window in the brass knob. The hint of stubble on his cheek and chin.

Even the most boring Madonna’s, this guide was able to go on and on about how they were significant. I never really took an art class in school, so all of this was simply transcendental. I had been standing for days at this point, and if I thought about it my legs were killing me. But mostly I wasn’t thinking about it. It was a very out-of-body experience. I had a weird night to myself that night since everyone else had gone on and done other things — they skipped the Uffizi Gallery. (Only 4 of us in the 40 person tour went.) I wish I could tell you I had an amazing pasta meal, but I’d already had other amazing pasta meals so I got a junk mozzarella and salami sandwich, a banana and water from a convenience store and ate in my hotel room. I didn’t take a picture of this hotel room, but it was the size of a cruise boat room. The bathroom was a joke. Everyone else had bigger rooms. Because the hotel was a renovated palace, sometimes you got stuck with a small room. I believe this room was meant for one person, but I was sharing it with my grandma. Florence: least favorite hotel. The next post will detail Verona and Venice. After that, Pompeii. ::edit:: I forgot these! Here are some good shots I got of the Arno river and Florence from the upper floor of the Uffizi gallery.