Well a rainy two days was well spent in Florence for my first weekend here in a long time. On Saturday morning most of my flatmates left on a school trip so I was able to catch up on a few important things, such as sleep and cleaning. I didn't say this would be a thoroughly entertaining blog post!
Besides the mundane, I did manage to get out of the house despite the pretty constant rain. On Saturday morning I went to the Museo Bargello, which I have been meaning to go to for a while. It's basically a museum full of shiny things, how perfect! They have tons of old things you don't see a lot of, such as jewelry, porcelain dishes, and little bronze statues and such. My most exciting find though were some famous works of Donatello's, including his David, and one of his earliest sculptures of St. George. Then, in an unassuming corner were the panels submitted in competition by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi to win the commission for the North door of the Duomo's Baptistry. They both had submit pieces depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac and Ghiberti won the competition... and Brunelleschi was not to happy about it! I was SO excited to see them in person. Rats, I'm becoming a Renaissance dork.
Sunday morning Kenan and I decided to go try to find St. James church, the english Episcopal church in Florence. On our way, we ran into a running race blocked off through the streets of Florence! We missed our chance to run in a road race through the city... oh bummer. (If you know me, this would have never happened). It was fun to cheer people on though as running transcends the language barrier!
We then proceeded to try to find the church. Emphasis should be placed on the word "try". My directions were not very detailed and we didn't realize how far it was which created a lot of confusion. We showed up damp from the rain and 15 minutes late but we were still welcomed and slid in a back pew. The preacher was actually from Mobile, Alabama, so it was a little reminder of home hearing his Southern accent! We really enjoyed the service and wish that we'd had more Sundays in Florence to appreciate this precious Church.
I've been thinking lately about some things I will miss about my time in Florence, as we only have a few weeks left! One thing I think I'll miss a lot is sitting by our open kitchen window and hearing the noise of the streets. We oftentimes are able to hear organ music from nearby churches, accordion street musicians, or loud teenage Italians singing who knows what. However last night for a long time I kept hearing voices singing songs from the Duomo plaza. My curiosity got the best of me and I ran downstairs to see what was up. We don't really know for sure exactly what it was, but there were many people of all ages singing and dancing in a circle. We think it may have had something to do with the Greek Orthodox Easter, which was yesterday, but whatever it was it was so lovely to watch! This city really is alive!
It was such a nice weekend and now that my paper for the week has been turned in I am hoping this week won't be too busy!
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