Museum Hoppin'

One of my most favorite things about Europe is visiting all the museums. Having studied Art History for almost 3 years now, I have learned that a large portion of the world's greatest masterpieces are in Europe, and it has been so neat getting to see some of them in person. So far I have been to the Uffizi Gallery, Duomo Museum, Academia, Pitti Palace, and a few of the cathedrals in Florence; the Vatican Museum in Rome; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice; and Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre in Paris.



The Academia is a small museum in Florence with a big main attraction...Michelangelo's David. The sculpture is huge, standing at 17 feet tall. You're not allowed to take pictures, but let's get serious, I had to have one...or two. My favorite thing about this masterpiece is the story behind it. The block of marble David was carved from was quarried in a town in Tuscany called Carrara and was the material of two artists prior to Michelangelo, both neglecting their projects and leaving this block of marble exposed to the elements in Florence for 25 years. No sculptor wanted to touch this piece of marble, calling it unfit for use partly due to how easily it chipped. But guess what? My main man Michelangelo was able to carve one of the world's most beautiful pieces of art out of that "unfit" block of marble. I think that's pretty cool.



The statue was also originally supposed to be placed on the roof of the cathedral of the Duomo is Florence, but soon before it's completion it was understood this was too important a work of art to put it high up and barely visible. So it was decided to put the statue at the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio. This is why David's head looks so big in comparison to his body, Michelangelo wanted people to see it when looking up at the cathedral from the ground.

Most museums don't allow pictures. I definitely understand not allowing a flash around paintings, because this could cause the color to fade over time, but there are some works of art I would really like a picture in front of to remember my time spent there. Therefore, the Louvre in Paris was my kind of museum because it allowed you to take as many pictures as you wanted, without flash of course.

I had been to the Louvre with my parents when I was was younger, but it was a completely different experience having studied art history.



I chose to buy an audio guide, which ended up being a great decision. It looked like a mini GPS, complete with a screen that showed you a picture of the painting and gave you 3 choices of dialogue to listen to, usually about the artist, the painting in general, and certain details. All you had to do was type in the number of the painting on the screen. Really cool technology.



First we stopped in to say hello to Mona Lisa, see what she was up to.



The madness around her was crazy. People pushing to get up to the front, cameras ready. The bullet proof glass in front of her is very thick, and she stands alone on this wall. I kind of felt bad for the other paintings in the room. Wonder if Leonardo da Vinci knew how important this painting would become when he painted it. The audio guide started out by saying "This is the most famous painting in the world."



I also got to see one of my favorite and most studied paintings, The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault. I didn't even know it was in the Louvre so I was very excited when we found it. It's very big.





However, not as big as one of the largets paintings in the world, The Coronation of Napoleon by David, which stands at 20 feet x 30 feet. My favorite fact about this painting was how Napoleon manipulated it to seem like an event that everyone was in favor of. Turns out his mother didn't like the idea of him being crowned emperor or his soon to be wife, so she stayed in Rome on the day of the coronation to protest. Napoleon didn't want anyone to know this so he demanded she be put smack in the middle of this painting, looking on with a big smile as he crowns his new wife. Sneaky Napoleon.





I thought it was interesting that almost all of the most famous paintings in the Louvre caused some sort of scandal during their time. This is true of the Grand Odalisque by Ingres. She was seen as to sensual, but I think she's beautiful in person.





Also saw the Venus de Milo...



...the largest collection of Leonardo Da Vinci paintings in the world...



and a few others.





Florence has so many beautiful cathedrals, and each one of them serves as a sort of museum. So far my favorite is Santa Croce, only a few blocks from my apartment. Santa Croce is the sight of 267 graves, but two very famous men used Santa Croce as a final resting place...Michelangelo and Galileo. Their tombs are across from each other towards the front of the church.





Santa Croce also survived an intense flood in 1966 and this cross became a symbol of coming back after the destruction.



My favorite pieces of art I've seen that I was not able to take pictures of...

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli in the Uffizi



Alchemy by Jackson Pollock in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (I'm not usually a modern art girl but this one was really cool because he used string and aluminum foil as well as paint)



In Bed by Toulouse Lautrec...



...and Vase with Flowers by Van Gogh in the Musee D'Orsay, to name a few.



Only 12 days left in Italia and still so much on the To do list! Being the art history nerd that I am, I am so thankful that I was able to see all of these works of art in person and expand my knowledge of art in such a wonderful city FULL Of history.

Tasting Wine with Pino

Tuesday night 9 of us attended a wine tasting hosted by the owner of our neighborhood panini shop, Pino. Pino the panini maker holds these wine tastings in an 800 year old wine cellar only a few blocks from our apartment. You start by sampling and learning about cheese, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.



The first wine we sampled was a Chardonnay from Tuscany. Pino was very passionate about the fact that the Tuscan climate is "perfect for chardonnay," making ones made in Italy "much better" than those made in France. I ended up purchasing a bottle of this chardonnay to take back home with me because of how delicious it was. Pino taught us how to smell the wine and detect hints of pear, peach, and daisies. We also learned that you should be able to tell the time on your watch through a glass of white wine.







With the white wine we were given proscuitto, dried and salted ham, in order to clear our palette for tasting in between sips.



Next came the Chianti, a red wine from a small region in Tuscany. For a wine to be considered "Chianti Classico" it must be from the region and be approved by a board in charge of checking the wines produced. When a wine is given the "Chianti Classico" title, a little sticker with a black rooster is placed on the bottle's label.



Pino told us the reason they use a black rooster is due to the legend of the race between the roosters of Florence and Sienna. A long time ago Florence and Sienna were fighting over land, and to solve the issue they came up with a way to determine who would own what. Each city would put a rooster out at night, and in the morning whoever's rooster crowed first was allowed to set out on horseback and travel as far as they could before meeting the other city's horsemen somewhere along the way. However much land they had ridden through would become theirs.

It is said that Florence cheated, in a sense, by not feeding their rooster and not giving him a "hen to play with" while Sienna made their rooster comfortable and happy. Naturally, the hungry Florentine rooster crowed first thing in the morning, allowing the Florentine horsemen to set off. They say this is why Florence is so much bigger than Sienna!



We were then given an Italian blend of red wines and were taught how to compare wines. I still liked the Chianti the best.



I learned so much in a few short hours thanks to Pino. My Wine Appreciation class starts Monday, and I can't wait to learn even more. Off to Venice tomorrow! Ciao!

Verona, Italy

This past weekend our study abroad group went on a weekend trip to Verona and Lake Garda. We spent a day in each place, touring the area with the group and exploring it on our own. I have to say, so far no place we have been comes close to being as wonderful as Florence, but I was glad to see some different parts of Tuscany.









We arrived in Verona on Saturday and discovered a food festival was taking place in one of the central parts of the city. It was very neat to see the vendors handing out samples of fresh italian ingredients, and the variety that was present.





I used the food festival as an opportunity to eat my first Italian cannoli. It was DELICIOUS. Here's my friend Shepp taking a big ole bite.



We also found cookies that look like fruits and veggies.



One of the reasons I was most excited to visit Verona was Juliet's house. If you have ever seen the movie "Letters to Juliet" you know that Verona is the town in which Romeo and Juliet lived, and the balcony, where she supposedly shouted those famous words to Romeo, continues to be a major tourist attraction.





Well, long story short, the movie makes it seem like there is a wall full of letters written to Juliet by people from all around the world asking for her guidance in their love life, for her help in making sure things turn out the way they would like them to. My friends and I wrote letters during lunch, so excited to see the wall of letters and to tac ours up as well, in order to be a part of the story. If you haven't guessed it already, there was no said wall of letters, only one covered with graffiti and gum...bummer, right? There is also a statue of Juliet and our tour guide told us it is good luck to "touch her breast" while taking a picture. So wait a second...not only is there no romantic wall of letters, the tradition is to touch her boob? Chivalry is dead haha. However, I did find this one letter stuck to the wall. Some hopeful out there decided to give it a try anyway.



It was also a holiday in Verona when we were visiting. Locals bring flowers to the church for Saturday mass in order for the priest to bless the flowers. I didn't really understand the significance of this, but we saw flowers being sold all around the city, and groups of people walking towards mass with all kinds of beautiful arrangements.



We also saw a wedding taking place in one of the chapels in Verona. Part of the wedding party had stepped outside of the church for a quick cigarette break. I thought this was the ultimate portrait of Italian life.



On Sunday we said Ciao to Verona and headed to the lake. This weekend 9 of us will be going to Cinque Terre to hike through the 5 hill towns! I cannot wait.

Painting for Beginners

For the first 3 weeks Missy and I are taking Foundation Painting every day from 9:00-11:30. Our sweet professor is a woman named Alessandra Ragionieri, a native of Florence.



After the first day of class we went to an italian art store called Salvini's to get all of our supplies. I felt like a real artist picking out all of the oil paints, brushes, solvents, and other necessary tools.



At first I was very worried about my skill level, but after a few days I began to get the hang of it little by little. So far we have done 1 still life of three objects and 1 still life with fruit, working on shading, color composition, and mixing paints.







For most of our paintings we are required to begin with a pastel sketch of our objects.