Last Day

Today is our last day in Montone.  I've had my morning pastry and cappacino.  I got stuck int he piazzo due to the rain, but I didn't mind a bit.  I think I'll go back in an hour or so and roam around till supper.  I'm going to miss this little town.

Tomorrow, we leave for Rome.  We'll go the Vatican and hopefully after I'll head over to the forum.

works completed

I'm a little bit (okay, a lot bit) upset.  I had four of the five pictures uploaded and my computer crashed.  That was about thirty minutes of waiting....  I'm going to try again... I guess.

Back of a church

View of Mount Bestia from Montone.

I'm not sure why that is showing up on it's side.  It's facing the right direction until I upload it.  Weird.

I'm on my third try uploading this photos.... Grr.

Map of Montone.  My favorite places will be highlighted.

Linotype cut of a poppy.  I will watercolor the center red.  Probably.

Assisi

We went to Assisi yesterday, saw where St. Francis is buried.  We also climbed to the tippy top of the highest tower in an old castle and found an awesome shop with chocolate, tarts and cookies.

Sunday at the beach

We went to Urbino Saturday.  There was a palace there with a lot of art in it.  Afterward, we went to the beach.  I ate a lot of firsts.  We went to a seafood restaurant and had muscles, grilled sardines, mung fish, sole, octopus and giant squid.  Then we went swimming in the Adriatic Sea.

I'll have to post some pictures later.

Florence

We took a bus, then a train to Florence.  This place is so hilly and I don’t think there is a straight street in the entire country, so several of us were a little sick when we got to Florence.  We got over it pretty sick, though. 

I should have taken a picture of the front of our hotel.  I forgot.  It wasn’t that miraculous, though.  The room was, however, quite different.  Notice the color scheme.  It was enough to make a girl a little bit loopy.

You need to keep in mind that this building is hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more, years old.  They didn’t have running water like we think of it and I imagine they were still bathing in the local bath houses… with everyone else.  Anyway, this is our bathroom.  The red complements the green in the hall so nicely.  Next to the toilet is a badet and that is the shower rod hanging in the middle of the room.  Just pull the certain and don’t worry about getting water on the floor.

Front of the Duomo

Side of the Duomo

North Baptistery Doors

South Baptistery Doors.

A contest was help to decide who would create most works of art for the Catholic church during the Renaissance.  Lorenzo Ghiberti won the commission for these doors.  Michelangelo later dubbed them the Gates of Paradise.

The first thing we did was go to the Duomo and the Baptistery, then on to the Acadamia.  I didn’t get any pictures of the Acadamia because we were supposed to and I was too chicken to try.  I wasn't trying to get kicked out.

The next morning we went to the Ufizzi (HUGE museum), which has art from before Christianity.  It also has a lot of important Christian art from the Medieval and Renaissance era.  Renaissance is when we kind of perfected drawing the human figure, light and shadow and when we figure out how space worked and how to portray it.

This is a view from the third floor of the Ufizzi.  Both of those walls that stretch out for about two blocks are also part of the Ufizzi.  I was in there for the better part of a day.

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We also had gelato

View from the River Arno.

Chain overloaded with bike locks?

Pizza!

Went to the Medici Palace.  The Medici's were a family of bankers and wool merchants.  Apparently, back then being rich was considered sinful and something to be ashamed of.  The Medici's weren't down with they and they decided that if they used their money to beautiful Florence and to educate people that being weather was okay.

At the museum that used to be their home we saw a Damien Hurst exhibit.  It was just won piece.  A skull covered in hundreds of diamonds.  He said the point is that you can't take money with you into the grave, but that a lot of people value it over life.  It's called "For the Love of God" because that's what his mother said when she saw it.

The last thing we did was going to the church of Santa Croce.  There are several famous people buried there and we got to see their... monuments.  Among them were Michelangelo, Dante and Galileo.  I'll have to post them later.  I'm pictured out.

Blacksmithing

The day before we went to Florence we visited a blacksmith’s shop.  It was very interesting and held many photo opportunities.

His name is Luca and his shop is build into the outside of the wall that surrounds the town.  Walking into it kind of feels like you are entering a dungeon.  He showed around and displayed the process for us. 

This is Luca putting a piece of iron into the forge.

This is part of his shop.  I love what he’s written on the cabinet.

Some of his tools.

When it’s hot enough he takes it out of the forge and hammers into shape.  When it starts to cool he has to put it back in the fire.  If he hits it while it’s too cold it can break. 

Some beautiful things in the shop.  I know it’s a little overwhelming to look at.  The whole place is like that, just packed with stuff.

He has to create his design here first.  This is half a fire place grate.   We got to see it almost done and it is beautiful.

I apologize for the lack of posts, but the internet is so slow here and it literally took me over 45 minutes just to upload these photos.  I don't have time to sit that long.  Not to mention, everyone else gets bent out of shape if I take up the internet that long.

the lack of posts

I've been super busy and not blogging.  I am leaving for Florence tomorrow morning and not taking my computer.  Therefore, I will continue to not blog.

fyi...