Ok, the title in no way portrays the right picture about this birth place of Italian Renaissance, but it does hold an important relation with the concept of humanism.
This is an interesting story about my day trip to Florence, the land of Leonardo (Da Vinci not Di Caprio), Michelangelo, Dante etc, where the medieval cultural revolution of Europe took its shape and reverberated across the seven seas of world. I have been living in Italy for last 2 years and this cultural capital of art and architecture, always eluded me. Hence on Friday night, when one of my friend "Betul" from Turkey proposed a plan to travel there, the next day, I thought, why not!
This is an interesting story about my day trip to Florence, the land of Leonardo (Da Vinci not Di Caprio), Michelangelo, Dante etc, where the medieval cultural revolution of Europe took its shape and reverberated across the seven seas of world. I have been living in Italy for last 2 years and this cultural capital of art and architecture, always eluded me. Hence on Friday night, when one of my friend "Betul" from Turkey proposed a plan to travel there, the next day, I thought, why not!
After debating on which time to meet in the station and which train to board, we arrived at the Tuscan capital at 9 am. I must also update that, in November the weather, in general is horrible, in whole Italy, except the southern regions where even Mr. Rain is afraid to visit, for the fear of mafia. So when we reached there, it was raining like cats and dogs. "Brutta Giornata", as they say in Italian.
Like any tourist destination, the first objective was to locate the tourist info desk. Against the better wisdom of making the tourist information desk easy to locate, the wise people of Florence put theirs in a place, such that one needs a map and knowledge of the city to locate it. Nonetheless, as an expert navigator we found our way to the info desk located across the station in a dingy place, well hidden from unsuspecting tourist. I acquired a map of the city and was ready to explore across the streets of this "Athens of the Middle Ages".
I started my day with Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) and Michelangelo's David(original moved to indoors, replaced by replica). My friend had an interesting story on David although highly debatable. She told me, apparently Michelangelo was a gay and was in love with his room mate David who is a straight, and since such a relationship is not possible hence he sculptured him. By the end of day we also came to conclusion, how most great artist, designers are gays, since they have the perspective of both Man and Woman combined in one head.
My friend had come mainly to attend a workshop on Industrial Architecture and she promptly left there after. I started my own discoveries in the city and after 4 hours I was exhausted. An interesting incident happened when I took a climb towards Giotto's bell tower near the Duomo (the main church, every Italian town has a church in the center of the city) to catch the bird's eye view. When I reached at the summit of the tower after climbing around 500 stairs, I found myself alone over there, and all tourist standing on the Dome of the Duomo in front of me. I really felt stupid for not taking the Duomo as choosing the tower, although the view is similar but I missed a closer view of the painting of "The Last Judgement" under the dome.
None the less, after exhausting myself, I returned to meet my friend, who also finished her seminar. But this time I found her with another friend of hers from Turkey and I resigned myself to next 4 hours of Turkish. We then visited the Florence museum where I made this observation as mentioned in the title of the blog. What I found interesting was that, even the sculptures of soldiers with shield and full armament, were all naked. No wonder the mighty Roman civilization came crashing down, the reason was clothing crisis. Even the soldiers were left to defend their country without clothes. I can only imagine their plight in front of an well clothed army.
Next day I shared my experience with another Iranian friend. She gave me a unique perspective of my startling discovery. Around the medieval ages, the artisans and scholars, wanted to rebel against strict social structure, by show casing the best creation of all nature, the Human body.
What Florence teaches me is "We have always fought against authoritarian and subjugation by others". Soldiers fight with swords, artist with brush and writers with pen. This biggest cultural movement of European history leaves a lasting influence on literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.
Overall I enjoyed the trip and company a lot.
My friend had come mainly to attend a workshop on Industrial Architecture and she promptly left there after. I started my own discoveries in the city and after 4 hours I was exhausted. An interesting incident happened when I took a climb towards Giotto's bell tower near the Duomo (the main church, every Italian town has a church in the center of the city) to catch the bird's eye view. When I reached at the summit of the tower after climbing around 500 stairs, I found myself alone over there, and all tourist standing on the Dome of the Duomo in front of me. I really felt stupid for not taking the Duomo as choosing the tower, although the view is similar but I missed a closer view of the painting of "The Last Judgement" under the dome.
None the less, after exhausting myself, I returned to meet my friend, who also finished her seminar. But this time I found her with another friend of hers from Turkey and I resigned myself to next 4 hours of Turkish. We then visited the Florence museum where I made this observation as mentioned in the title of the blog. What I found interesting was that, even the sculptures of soldiers with shield and full armament, were all naked. No wonder the mighty Roman civilization came crashing down, the reason was clothing crisis. Even the soldiers were left to defend their country without clothes. I can only imagine their plight in front of an well clothed army.
Next day I shared my experience with another Iranian friend. She gave me a unique perspective of my startling discovery. Around the medieval ages, the artisans and scholars, wanted to rebel against strict social structure, by show casing the best creation of all nature, the Human body.
What Florence teaches me is "We have always fought against authoritarian and subjugation by others". Soldiers fight with swords, artist with brush and writers with pen. This biggest cultural movement of European history leaves a lasting influence on literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.
Overall I enjoyed the trip and company a lot.
