Saturday, November 27, 2021: Florence and Its Museums
By Maria Dwyer
At the end of November, I had the chance to go to Florence with the school I attend, CCI. I remember it was a long trip but worth it for all the beautiful things I saw. Florence is the capital of Tuscany in the North West of Italy. It has beautiful landscapes with gentle hills, villas, farms, vineyards, orchards but most of all art. In Florence we saw incredible works of art, statues, paintings, churches. We visited some wonderful museums such as the Uffizi which has the world’s biggest collection of renaissance art. The Duomo which has a lot of stairs to climb, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza Della Signoria and the river Arno, important for the economic development of Florence. All these sights and art treasures were created mostly during the Renaissance between 1400 and 1700. One of the museums we saw in Florence is called la Galleria dell’ Accademia where the magnificent original statue of David is kept. The Statue of David was created by Michelangelo Buonarotti.
The material used to create this impressive statue is Carrera marble. Initially the statue was meant to be kept in the cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore but then it was decided by city officials that it needed to be placed in the Piazza Della Signoria in a place of prominence.
My first impression of the Accademia and the statue of David was a bit chaotic. Along the corridor I remember there were marble heads of Roman women with different hair styles which I did not think much of, but past the heads I saw right in front of me the statue of David. I was very surprised how big the statue is because in my mind I thought it was much smaller or at least human size, I also thought about the strength needed to move it, but most of all it was amazing to see the care and attention Michelangelo gave to the details. He must have taken a lot of time to carve all these details into the marble.
After visiting the Accademia my friends and I went to eat. We had pizza which was delicious, then for dessert we had a very nice chocolate cake in a local eatery.
The trip was tiring but nice and especially memorable for the fun I had with my friends. One of the funniest moments came when one night we had a little accident at the ice-cream shop. In fact, one of the waiters accidently dropped an ice-cream all over the counter which splattered all over my friend who shall remain nameless and I laughed and felt very sorry for her but also for the ice-cream that went to waste!