La Chiesa

Churches and cathedrals are EVERYWHERE in Florence.  When giving directions, we all use the churches as landmarks, "go past the Duomo's Baptistery and you can find the best leather down the street to your right, towards San Lorenzo".  The city's layout is perfect for any lazy tourists because they only walk a few short blocks from one religious site to the next.  The church piazzzas seem to be the most crowded parts of town, similar to how they would be in the Middle Ages.  While many tourists get trigger happy with their cameras and disregard the sanctity of these sites, others seem similar to sixteenth century pilgrims who observe everything with wonder.

View from Duomo

I was able to tour the Duomo with Fairfield this weekend.  The facade and exterior are breathtaking.  I want to spend a whole afternoon just looking at it.  The interior surprised me, it was rather simple.  The Gothic arches and pillars were grand, but I expected more ornamentation.  I don't have any opinion on decorative versus plain churches yet because sometimes they are inspiring but othertimes they are distracting.  And then I walked under the dome where I saw frescos that still leave me speechless; these, I think, are inspiring.  After viewing the inside, we walked up more than 400 steps, feeling quite claustrophobic, to the top of the dome.  This gave us an incredible view of Florence and its surrounding towns and mountains.  The day before, we saw all of Florence from the other side of the river atop Piazzale Michaelangelo both during the day and at night.  It was nice to have another perspective, from the center of the city on the Duomo.  Shortly after the tour, I went to mass in English in a decorative chapel of the Duomo.  I was very disappointed that there is no music for mass in English, so I might explore other churches (which won't be hard to do).

Pisa

This weekend we also visited Pisa, home to the famous Leaning Tower, and a beautiful cathedral with a baptistry.  When I first saw the tower, I got a little emotional realizing that I was seeing one of the Wonders of the World, an Italian landmark, and a giant sized model of Prince Pizza on Route 1.  But after the initial awe, I got into tourist mode and took cheesy pictures.  I did not enjoy Pisa as much as I hoped to because it was so touristy.  The first major building that we walked by was McDonald's.  Not sure how fast food fits in with the whole Italian heritage theme.  I was also sad that we were visiting on a Sunday, but it seemed like it could have been a Monday with no signs of churchgoers (besides the fact that I did see a bride and groom taking pictures!).

The churches are not the only "religious" sites.  I was moved to tears by beauty in the Galleria degli Uffizi where I saw Botticelli and DaVinci paintings.  Their paintings of Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels were incredible.  It is hard for me to fathom how Botticelli created such beauty and I keep thinking about these works; he had a gift.  It's not the type of thing you can see and not be affected by.  Many Renaissance paintings are set in present times, almost like a Second Coming.  The beauty in Botticelli's works are inspirational and calming; people afraid of the end of the world would have peace if they saw his art.  I only had time to explore this one gallery of the Uffizi, so I'm a little afraid I will be overwhelmed exploring multiple galleries on my next visit.  I didn't know I loved art so much!