The day after the Uffizi Museum I had a little more time to explore. A group of us went to the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral where there was a big dome. We paid eight euros to climb the duomo, which was over 400 steps and it was totally worth it to get to the top.....

On the way to Florence

Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore

Santa Maria del Fiore

 

On the way up to the duomo...haha!

The inner ceiling of the duomo. This was much more colorful in real life. 

From atop the inner duomo

View from the stairs up the duumo

From Duomo

Stairs of Duomo

The View of Florence from on top of the Duomo

The David statue on the left is an exact copy of Michelangelo's
David, but the real thing is much more impressive. Inside
this building is an art exhibition for a diamond skull, which is
the most expensive art piece that has EVER been made. 

Some statues in some Piazza

Medusa by Cellini

Italian Graffiti art

I don't know the meaning behind this, but it looks cool!

Sacra Famiglia by Michelangelo

This past weekend I went to Florence and Venice. It was a class trip so I had very little time to explore on my own. In Florence we went to the Uffizi Museum where I saw all the famous works by Botticelli, Carravagio, Titian, Parmigianino, DaVinci, Carravagio, Giotto, Michelangelo, and many many others. The day we spent in the Uffizi was mainly for everyone in the Renaissance/Baroque class to do their oral presentations. I did mine on Parmigianino's "Madonna of the Long Neck." Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take picture's, but I will post images from the internet of what I learned about specifically. I can now interpret these paintings pretty confidently as well!

Bacchus by Carravaggio

The Annunciation by DaVinci 

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

Ognissanti Madonna by Giotto

Madonna of the Long Neck by Parmigianino
This is what I gave my presentation on and will be the
focus of my final paper for my Renaissance class.

Adoration of the Magi by DaVinci

Medusa's head by Carravagio
This is so much more colorful in real life!
It was definitely one of my favorites!

Venus of Urbino by Titian

The Primavera by Botticelli

Bracciano and Ceramics class

This weekend I went to Bracciano, which is about an hour outside of Rome by train. It was a beautiful day and it was one of the first days all week that the sun made an appearance! Bracciano is small medeivalesque (not a word, I know) town. There was a massive castle that overlooked a lake that seemed more like an ocean. There were eight of us;  five of them were students that I just met from a different school. They were all American but they all knew Italian and they practiced their Italian with each other so it was nice to be able to catch on to what they were saying. I feel like I'm already getting better at understanding Italian. Speaking Italian is a different story! I'm just glad that I know how to order food and cappuccinos now! "Vorrei un cappucino e cornetto, per favore! Píu píu! Grazie!"

Bracciano

This is a group of kids who seemed to follow each other like wolf pack.  Every single one of them looked like they had something devious on their mind! Italian kids are funny to watch!


Oh yeah, Bracciano is also where I found the best and cheapest gelato so far!

Today, Monday, was my first ceramics class ever! So far it's just me, Bonnie and Alyssa taking this class. We went to a place that is in the countryside of Rome called Anguillara where we had to take a train and from there our instructor, Paolo,  picked us up and took us to his studio which is also his house. My art history professor, who is Paolo's wife, was there and she made us tea and cake! We worked for about four hours. I made a bowl and a strange abstract tree-like sculpture. I will take photos when they are finished. It was definitely the coolest thing I've done in a long time!

This coming Friday I will be going to Florence and Venice. It is a school trip so I will be going to a few museums and I will also be doing an oral presentation on "The Madonna with the Long Neck" by Parmigianino before the painting itself! I just hope that I can get through a 20 minute presentation without having a nervous breakdown. I hate public speaking! Although, I do love the painting! Here is a picture of what I will be presenting....

More Pics of Rome

Graffiti based on Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat
This made me happy to see since I learned about it in Modern Art last semester!

A Bridge at the Tiber River

This was when I went to Tivoli at Villa D'Este

This was at Dr. Touchette and her husbands house when they invited the group to have lunch at their house.
There were over eight different cheeses that we ate. The big one with the knife in it is ricotta; Dr. Touchette explained that what American's think is ricotta is way different from what it really is and she is sooo right! We ate really massive chunks of it with bread and it tasted very creamy and light! So GOOD!!!!

This is the ricotta on bread with pomodori (tomatoes). Delicious.

YUM!