This weekend

Alright folks, I may be going on hiatus again. I'm heading to France this weekend to stay with some family friends! 

Here are just a few recent pictures I have taken back here in London to tide you over. 

 A funny statue I saw in the British Museum last weekend.

 A little bit of London at night.

 The Globe Theatre 

Inside the Tate Modern. This is actually an exhibit. The floor is covered in thousands of ceramic, hand painted......... sunflower seeds. 

I don't get it either.

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Florence

Day 3

While in Italy I had a little mission for myself. See the three most famous sculptures of David. Friday morning I headed to the Bargello Galleria to complete my quest. So far I had accidentally come across Bernini's statue in Rome and just the day before I went to see Michaelangelo's. Friday morning I went to see Donatello's David.

Nick, Chase and I decided to go our separate ways on Friday since we had been around each other practically non stop for the last week, thus I was heading to the Bargello alone and it suited me just fine.

I found the museum easily since I had somehow made a fairly complete map of Florence in my head after only two days. I was a little disappointed to find that a third of the museum was closed but that was ok, I came for Donatello. 

The third David was a lot bigger than I was expecting. He is smaller than the other two but for some reason, the pictures I had seen of him made me think he was only a couple feet high, instead he was about double that. Again, I have no picture to share with you. Almost all museums throughout the world do not allow photography in order to protect the art from deterioration. 

After I left the museum I headed to the plaza outside the old Medici Palace to eat a solitary lunch and people watch. While I was enjoying the best pizza I experienced in Italy, a group of four American tourists sat next to me and struck up a conversation. They seemed concerned about the fact that I was eating alone. Although the group was very friendly, I was amazed at how little regard they had for the history that surrounded them. They were only in Florence for the afternoon and all they wanted to know was where the best shopping was. I told them about the Duomo and the Medici palaces and all the best things to see in their short time span but I'm pretty sure the only sight they visited per my recommendation was the old bridge, you know, the one lined with expensive jewelry shops.

I was happy to leave the tourists behind as I made my way across the river to explore more of Florence that I hadn't seen yet. I ended up climbing the stairs in the picture above and then taking a walk along a quiet road with Tuscan houses and beautiful views. 

Eventually I realized that instead of heading parallel to the center of Florence like I thought, I was walking due south, directly away from town. I headed back to the old Medici Palace square and bought myself some gelato. I discovered at this point that I looked like I had Florence all figured out. The day before I was stopped by a couple who needed directions to the train station, which I happily gave them. Now, a couple was watching me order gelato in order to understand how to order and what they would get. I noticed them watching me so I explained to them what they would get at the different prices, number of flavors and scoops and let them in on a little known fact: you can sample flavors. 

I sat with my gelato in the raised sculpture plaza in the square and settled in to listen to the guitarist playing nearby. According to Hayes, he has been playing in Florence for at least the past four years. I really enjoyed just being in Florence. I didn't feel the need to be seeing anything that afternoon, I was ready to relax and soak up my surroundings. 

That evening, my last in Florence, Nick and I went to a nicer restaurant, La Rotunda, that was recommended to me by my art history professor. As suggested, I ordered the balsamic steak. It was delicious but definitely not for anyone who doesn't like the taste of balsamic vinaigrette. 

Saturday was just a long day of making our way back to London. It involved a train, a bus, a plane, another bus, a ride on the underground, and finally a bit of walking, but we made it back eventually. We were all glad to be back but I know I'm missing Italy already.

Florence

Day 2

My second morning in Florence, John and I went to the Galleria Academia, the home of Michaelangelo's David. He, just like everything else I'd seen, was awesome. The veins in his hands and legs are perfectly visible, his muscles defined, every detail expertly executed. David seemed flawless. 

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so I have nothing to show you. The museum itself is really just a place to keep David. The other art inside is not important and I'm pretty sure everybody else skips it, heads straight for David, then leaves. John and I at least took a look around but we both agreed that the only reason to go was to see the famous sculpture.

After grabbing lunch with John we met up with the other guys outside the Duomo to all climb to the top together.

The climb really isn't that bad. Halfway up you get to walk around scaffolding near the ceiling of the Basilica. The paintings were beautiful. You may be noticing a trend here, everything in Italy is beautiful. 

 The view from the top was just like the lookout, we could see the whole city. Here I am with the guys.

L-R: Chase, Hayes, John, and Nick.

 After spending quite a bit of time at the top of the Duomo we started to walk across town towards the old Medici Palace. Hayes took us on a detour past Dante's old church and flat.

 We also passed this picture perfect market.

When we arrived at the Palace, we discovered that the prices were a bit steep for our shallow wallets. We ended up just sitting in the courtyard, enjoying the fact that we were in Florence.

That afternoon I wandered around a bit more on my own, the town is so small that I already knew where I was going and had seen all the major buildings. The Duomo definitely became my favorite structure of all the ones I had seen on my trip.

We met up at Zaza's, a well known restaurant in Florence, for John and Hayes last dinner in Florence. I had a delicious pizza and we called it a night.

I realized that night, after only being in Florence for two days that it felt much more like home than London ever will.

Florence

Day 1

Our first full day in Florence, we went to the Uffizi Galleria first thing. The line was a bit long, but nothing compared to the one we endured outside the Vatican. The Uffizi Galleria houses many early renaissance paintings. I hate to say this, but eventually I started to get sick of them, there were so many paintings that looked the same. The  Galleria's main attractions were Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera. Both are extremely beautiful and famous. Primavera is especially interesting because nobody knows for sure what all the symbolism in the painting means. On the first floor of the museum there was a special exhibition of Caravaggio's works, or so it seemed. When you first enter into the exhibition you see one of Caravaggio's most identifiable pieces, a Medusa head on a ceremonial shield. This was very exciting. What followed was not. The rest of the exhibit contained paintings done by artists impersonating Caravaggio, copying is style and sometimes his actual paintings. That was not what I was hoping for so I couldn't help but leave feeling a little disappointed. 

After leaving the Uffizi, we went out to lunch together. I must say, I prefer the food in Florence to the food in Rome. Next, I wandered off on my own.

 Florence is a very small city. I love it. I took a walk across the river and ended up at the Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine. It was in a much less touristy part of town which was nice. I felt like I was getting a more authentic taste of Italian culture. I went inside the Basilica but didn't stay long, although the frescos were beautiful, there was a service taking place just past the entrance and I didn't want to be intrusive. I plan to go back to the Basilica next time I'm in Florence. 

 Eventually we met back up outside of the Basilica di Santa Croce, resting place of many historical figures.

We saw Galileo's tomb.

 And Michaelangelo's tomb.

Also present were the tombs of Marconi, Leonardo DaVinci, and many others. You can find a complete list here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Croce,_Florence

After visiting the tombs and the museum at Santa Croce we headed back to the center of Florence and the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly known as the Duomo. It is impossible to stand any distance back from the Basilica to get a picture of the whole thing. All I could do was get little pieces of the enormous structure like the photo above.

 Right across from the Duomo, literally only 50 feet away are the famous Florence Baptistry doors, designed by Andrea Pisano. They are bronze cast and covered in gold.

 Here is a close up of one of the panels. The detailing blew me away.

 We wandered around the city a for the rest of the afternoon. These shots are just some examples of what I saw. 

 Beautiful architecture.

Incredible art through cracked open doors in alleyways.

 Here is a shot of the Arno river and the buildings along one side.

Here you can see the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge spaning the Arno. It is lined with high end jewelry shops and is the oldest bridge in Florence. 

We passed by the old Medici palace. The place is surrounded by replicas of the statues that used to sand there.

That evening, after a delicious Italian dinner, we climbed to the lookout point. I couldn't get any good shots of the city, but it was beautiful. This picture makes it look much darker than it was. The whole city was lit up and we could point out all of the major buildings. It was really an incredible view. I also discovered that Florence is surrounded by hills that were dotted with lights. That was the end of my first day in Florence and I had fallen in love already. The city is small and cozy with so much to offer.

I would move there in a heartbeat.  

Siena

Day 5

Tuesday morning, Laura left for Ireland and Nick, Chase and I headed to the train station and bought tickets to Siena.

We had no idea what we would find in Siena. The town had been recommended to me to visit so we figured there was no harm in going. The only thing was, we didn't really think it through. First off, our train tickets were actually taking us to another town from which we took an hour long bus ride to Siena. I was really glad that was the case, the train went through a lot of tunnels whereas the bus took us on a path that allowed us to really see the tuscan countryside. Plus, it was a coach bus, not a dirty city bus.

Once we arrived in Siena, we had no clue where to go. We were dropped off at the train station so we hopped on the first public transport bus we saw. It took us about 10 minutes one direction, and then reached the end of it's line. While the driver took his break I asked him if his bus would take us to the city center. Meraculusly, between my complete lack of Italian and his of English, we communicated enough for me to understand that if we stayed on long enough, we would reach the city center. So we stayed on. Then we got antsy at the first sight of what might be considered the city center and got off. Turns out we were still a few stops away but that was alright. I asked an elderly English gentleman where to go and he was able to give us directions. 

 So we finally made our way to the part of Siena that you go there to see. On the way we got to walk through lots of streets that looked like this.

Along the way I spotted this neat library.

 Eventually we made it to the center. This is the plaza at the heart of the city. Once a year the edges are covered in dirt and there is a horse race! I wish we had been there then, it seems to be a big deal. In fact, part of one of the Daniel Craig, James Bond movies was filmed here while it was set up for a race.

The best sight to see though was the city's cathedral. It was beautiful on the outside, which was enough of a reason for us not to pay to go inside. We were feeling a bit poor at that point.

That evening we ate dinner in Siena and then hopped on a train to go the last hour and a half to Florence. When we arrived in Florence we were greeted by Hayes and John, two other Hendrix guys. Hayes has been to Florence four times know so after showing us to our hostel, he gave us a nighttime tour of the city, which is now my absolute favorite way to get introduced. The gelato we were eating on the tour didn't hurt either.

Rome

Day 4

On our last day in Rome we headed to the Vatican, planning on touring the Vatican Museum. We knew the line would be long so we first walked through St. Peter's Square. Unfortunately, my camera decided that this would be the perfect time to die so I only got these pictures.

 This is the line to get into St. Peter's basilica, something that we missed out on.

So after we walked around the square we joined the longest line I have ever waited in. Then we stood. And waited. For 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Once we were finally inside the museum we only had a couple hours until the building closed so Laura and I rushed through many wonderful exhibits, straight to the Sistine Chapel.  Once inside we found ourselves in even bigger mobs than the ones populating the rest of the museum. Of course the ceiling was unbelievable, but I was a little let down! Because so many people ignore the no photography rule, the ceiling is very dimly lit to help protect it from the light of camera flashes. I could easily make out the beautiful paintings, but I couldn't see it as well as I would have liked. 

After about ten minutes, Laura and I headed out to see what else the museum had to offer. 

Fun fact: if you look at every item in the Vatican museum for 15 seconds, it will take you 3 months to see everything.

I realized that I had missed several very notable frescos done by Raphael that were along the path to the Sistine Chapel. This happened because throughout the museum there are signs directing you towards the Chapel and you can either take a long route or you can follow the shortcut signs.  Laura and I had taken most of the shortcuts to make sure we could see the ceiling which meant we had shortcutted right past the Raphael rooms, so we hurried back through a bunch of exhibits we had already hurried past once before. We practically ran past halls full of enormous painted maps, historical papal objects, egyptian artifacts, lots of art, and who knows what else for a second time but man, it was worth it.  Raphael's School of Athens is awesome. Of course it looks just like the pictures of it, but like with all art, seeing the painting in person is a completely different experience than peering at a photograph of the work in some textbook.

After going back for Raphael, we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel again. This time we found seats along the side and were able to relax and take in the ceiling for another 15 minutes or so before we were herded out by the guards trying to close up.

Overall, our last day in Rome was spent primarily waiting in a line, occasionally being spattered with rain, but I saw some of my favorite pieces and that made it all worth it.

The West Country

I have to admit, I'm pretty tired this evening so you will all have to rely on the pictures more than the words, but maybe that's better.

This past weekend started in Bath. The town is known for it's natural hot springs that the Romans discovered and turned into communal and religious pools.

 We got to have a tour of the town which started in front of this church. If you look closely, you can see that there are ladders on either side of the entrance with angels climbing up towards heaven.

 The town became the place for the rich to spend months at a time living away from London. Large complexes like this were built to encourage socializing and gossip. The building is actually in a crescent shape, it was really neat. 

We went inside the Baths themselves too. The water looks all murky because they don't filter the water to keep it as similar to how the Romans would have used them as possible.

Saturday morning we headed up into Dartmore. 

We first went on a walk along a back road with houses that looked organic like this one.

After our walk we headed out to the mores. They were beautiful. The epitome of English countryside.

Sunday we headed out to the town of Padstow. A quaint seaside village.

There were benches everywhere, all dedicated to someone's memory, for sitting and enjoying the views.

Claire and I walked along the water barefoot.

 I think I would be happy living in that development across the bay.

The English are very environmentally conscious.

 From Padstow we drove to Tintagel Castle, birthplace of King Arthur. Very little of the castle is left but it must have been amazing. It's set right on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic.

 The views were breathtaking.

We finished up our day by watching the sunset over the water.

This pretty much describes how I felt in that moment.

We headed back to London Monday morning in order to be back in time for a production of Hamlet but first we stopped in a little town called Bradford upon Avon. It was very picturesque but unfortunately at the time we were there, most of the stores were closed and it was very cold outside so we didn't stay long.

The weekend was wonderful. If anybody ever visits England, they must see the countryside. To me, it represents the country better than London does.