June 13-Florence

Plazza della Repubblica

Today we saw "David" and I must say he was AMAZING...it gives a whole other meaning to chiseled abs! When I first turned the corner and saw "David" the light from the dome was shining on him. He is at the end of the hallway and stands about 15 feet tall; even from far away he was breathtaking. When I was up next to him I slowly walked around admiring the work. It is truly amazing how smooth he is considering he was sculpted. It is also exemplified due to the fact that as you walk up to "David" there are unfinished sculptures that are so rough. I also liked looking at his posture and face to try to figure out what he was thinking now that he had just killed Goliath. He really did not seem to be gloating at all...he definitely could not be an athlete of today. :)
I think I looked at "David" for at least 20 minutes!

I also liked the paintings of Apolliono de Giovanni. To me, they are early forms of comic strips. One of the paintings took the observer through many of Odysseus' travels. I stood there picking out all the different stops on Odysseus' trip and picking out the people. It would be great to have a picture like that in the classroom to have up as reference for students. I would like to look up more information on the artist because I truly loved his works since they were all of stories that I teach.

The weather has shifted from hot to cloudy and it has even rained a little today...after we got into our apartment. We are going out to dinner tonight and Sean is hoping to get the Florentine steak. Florence is famous for it. We will be off to Venice tomorrow.