First thing, Karin went off by herself to visit Michelangelo's "David", since Bob and I had been to that museum (Accademia), and there's not much else there except for some beautiful but unfinished sculptures by the master. Gary had Alberto do his laundry at a place down the block. Bob and I slept in and had a late breakfast.
Then, at the appointed hour of 10:30, we headed off together to see the Medici Chapel and tombs with five Michelangelo sculptures, and the Laurentian Library that Michaelangelo designed for the Medicis. The most striking feature of the latter is the entry hall and steps leading to the reading room. The stairs seem to flow down from the center with two tributaries branching off on either side about half way down. Dramatic but not all that practical.
Next stop was one of the highlights of our visit to Florence, the Museo del' Opera del Duomo. Formerly, it was the workship for architects and artisans building the cathedral; now it's a museum with two particularly powerful sculptures. Michelangelo's unfinished second pieta, carved when he was eighty, shows an anguished Nicodemus, who was himself reputed to have been a sculptor, helping lift Christ down from the cross. The haunted face, half hidden by a hood, is a self-portrait.
The other sculpture, carved in wood by Donatello around around 1455 when he was over sixty years old, shows Mary Magdalene, the former beauty, in rags, emaciated, waiting for her soul to shed its ruined physical body and take wing. On our first visit to Florence, Bob and I stumbled onto this work having never heard of it before. It stopped us dead in our tracks. It's a work of overwhelming power and pathos.
At lunch, Alberto, who would have been a splendid guide had he been able to spend more time with us before his bus left at 4:00 pm, explained that the Duomo, Florence's great cathedral, otherwise known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, does not mean "dome," as I'd always thought. It means "home," the place we all come to and feel welcome. It took the city over five hundred years to complete the huge building, and we here we complain about how slow carpenters and roofers in Tucson are.
Alas, late in the day we had to say "Ciao!" to Alberto. But we really enjoyed the time we had with him!
Then, at the appointed hour of 10:30, we headed off together to see the Medici Chapel and tombs with five Michelangelo sculptures, and the Laurentian Library that Michaelangelo designed for the Medicis. The most striking feature of the latter is the entry hall and steps leading to the reading room. The stairs seem to flow down from the center with two tributaries branching off on either side about half way down. Dramatic but not all that practical.
The other sculpture, carved in wood by Donatello around around 1455 when he was over sixty years old, shows Mary Magdalene, the former beauty, in rags, emaciated, waiting for her soul to shed its ruined physical body and take wing. On our first visit to Florence, Bob and I stumbled onto this work having never heard of it before. It stopped us dead in our tracks. It's a work of overwhelming power and pathos.
At lunch, Alberto, who would have been a splendid guide had he been able to spend more time with us before his bus left at 4:00 pm, explained that the Duomo, Florence's great cathedral, otherwise known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, does not mean "dome," as I'd always thought. It means "home," the place we all come to and feel welcome. It took the city over five hundred years to complete the huge building, and we here we complain about how slow carpenters and roofers in Tucson are.
Alas, late in the day we had to say "Ciao!" to Alberto. But we really enjoyed the time we had with him!
