Danie and the "No Good, Very Bad Day"

Do you remember the book we all read in elementary school about Alexander and the no good, very bad day? Journey with me as I take you on a memorable tale of this past day in Florence. We started early this morning in Florence. After walking down the busy streets and through the large market, I joined hundreds of other tourist at the Duomo. "Duomo" means the church and almost every church in Italy has a main church named as such. This one, however, is famous for its incredible dome that towers over the city. Brunalessci, a famous renaissance artist and architect, created this amazing dome, defeating all of the people's doubts and the incredible challenge. I have never felt so small or been so enthralled with the artwork. All of the dome was constructed by hand and there are still speculations on how the architectural construction was completed without machines. I can not describe how grand this thing was! About 150 years later, the town decided to paint the inside of the duomo with a scenery of the levels of the afterlife. A master painter, his assistant, and their apprentices worked daily on the curved piece. Above, there is a renaissance freize that appears entirely real and 3d even from hundreds of feet below. We also saw the baptistry next door and the original doors created in bronze and gold.

We split up from the group and exchanged money for bananas. We had fourty five minutes until I was supposed to meet our archeology group to go to Fiezela and see the Etruscan ruins that we've been studying. Well, after forty five minutes of walking around and asking the locals, there we were...lost in this huge city with no way to get to the group. We showed up, cold pizza in hand and realized that the bus had already left. So, as I began to panick and worry about everything...we got another ticket and boarded the bus. However, we found out that the bus system was going on strike that afternoon until the next morning...leaving us with no way to get back. We finally met up with our group, paid to get into the museum, and explained the story...only to find out that the site was closed and all of the ruins under construction. So, up to this point we were lost in Florence, trapped on a crowded bus with people's hands touching areas they were not supposed to, and abandoned in another town. Suprisingly, everyone had a great attitude and we just decided to hike 7 miles to the train station. We made it in perfect timing and had an incredible arial view of the entire city of Florence. God has a way of making the bad days good. I'm so thankful for our professor and his extreme understanding, patience, and humor.

Yesterday, we toured more of our hometown and learned about the Classical Period of art. Paolo took us up into the city museum/library. I held a 16th century Bible...it was indescrible. We were able to look at maps of America made before its discovery. It looked like the library off of "Beauty and the Beast" and I had the chance to pick up any book I wanted to to read. In America, we would never have the chance to read these works of art from the 1400's, but here I could thumb through my choice of works. These moments and the duomo experience were my favorite moments in Italy, so far. We will relax tomorrow before going to Florence again on Friday and then making our way to Cinque Terra, the "five lands" of beauty. Ciao!