Today was a day that I had been waiting for since I stepped foot in Florence – we went to the magnificent Uffizi Gallery! I was really excited and waited so long to go; waiting was very hard but necessary because the line is usually really long (all the tourists trying to get in) and I wanted a guided tour (the guides usually have some really cool stories). It is the coolest museum I have ever been to.
The Uffizi used to be the offices for the Medici’s government way back when. The first floor was for the highest ranking officials (like the Minister of War) and the second floor is for less important people. Finally the third floor was empty for many years, until the Medici realized they had a problem. Their obsession with art was becoming a little ridiculous because they were running out of space in their 40 villas and palaces to put everything (they had a mere 40,000 pieces of art). So one of the Medici sons decided to use the top floor of the Uffizi as a storage warehouse for some of the family’s art collection. After a while, he decided to open it up to the public to come and view it (thus the creation of the very first museum!). Now the Uffizi is home to only about 30% of the original Medici collection, but let me tell you, they got the most amazing pieces!
The permanent collection still resides on the third floor of the Uffizi, so we walked up the 150 stairs to the third floor (I say it all the time – the Italians love their stairs!). As we got up to the top of the floor, we were asked to present our tickets. Most of the time, our program advisors just get one ticket for the whole group, but that was not the case today. So my roommate, a couple other people, and I took the elevator back downstairs to go get the tickets from one of our program advisors. When we got there, we saw her group walking up the stairs. Frantically, we ran up the stairs (again!) to get our tickets. We finally got our tickets (and a workout) and were ushered into the magical world of art.
The Uffizi Gallery is a work of art in-itself. The walls are lined with statues and painting of art patrons. The ceilings are all painted and gold-leafed. One can really tell the time and effort it took to create the frescos on the walls. You could take a good two or three hours and just explore the hallways.
We entered the first few rooms, predominately filled with religious art. It was really cool because you can see the transition from the Byzantine style of art to the more “modern” Renaissance style (2D to 3D). It was really cool. We wandered around with our guide until we came to the room that made the Uffizi famous. It is the Botticelli room. He is famous for his paintings, The Birth of Venus and La Primavera. These paintings are important because they are really a break in art at the time. During the Renaissance, really only religious art was commissioned, not art that was for “display” (aka something that you can hang on your wall in your villa, not in your chapel). A cardinal refused to eat dinner at a Medici chapel because The Birth of Venus was one of the first paintings with a naked woman in it – he told them the only way he would eat with them was if the Medici removed it. The Medici turned around and kicked him out. This controversial piece, in turn, has become one of the most famous pieces of art known to mankind.
We saw another controversial art piece but it was Michelangelo who created this one (who I learned was greedy, angry, arrogant, and mean – it made me so sad that a man who made such beautiful art could be such a horrible person). He was asked to paint a scene of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) for a wealthy merchant. Michelangelo did so, but he did it in a way that was very different. Mary is not covered up (her arms are bare and she does not have a veil on). Joseph looks like he is 100 years old. Baby Jesus is climbing all over his mother and looks like a baby (in religious art up to this point, Baby Jesus acts like a little adult, not the baby that he is). To top it all off, Michelangelo decided to add naked people to the background (why? Who knows?). Despite it being a break from the norms of religious art at the time, it is a breathtaking piece of work.
After our speedy tour of the Uffizi, we were whisked off to a cooking class at a cute little cooking school. It was very exciting because I did not know what we were going to make. As I donned my apron and washed my hands, I tried to figure out what we were going to make (what can you make with eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes and flour…). We were told when we met our teacher – tiramisu, spinach ravioli, pasta in red sauce, and an eggplant appetizer. I was really excited.
I was set to the task of separating eggs for the tiramisu. As one of my friends whipped the egg yolks with sugar, I beat the egg whites until they formed stiff peaks. My other friends combined flour and eggs to make pasta (yes we made fresh pasta!). After they finished the pasta, I got to fold the two egg mixtures together and we got to make the tiramisu. It was good because we got to decide how much coffee to put into the dessert (my group really didn’t like coffee, so we put as little as possible which actually made it taste a lot better).
After the tiramisu was done, we began to work on veggie prep. I sliced eggplant and my friends chopped zucchini, riced potatoes, and peeled tomatoes. The zucchini and potatoes were mixed and put in between layers of eggplant (veggie napoleons – the only thing I can think to call them). They were topped with olive oil and put into the oven to bake. Then we proceeded to make fresh pasta, which was HARD! I have full respect for our teacher who did it quickly and efficiently. There were a few tense moments between us (the teacher and us), when we were not working quickly enough or not doing something correctly, but overall it was a good experience. I really appreciated my food so much more because we put so much time and effort into it. I had so much fun.
Fully stuffed, I went home and rested until the evening when I went out to a movie theater to see the newest movie in a popular series. My friends and I were really excited to get popcorn, sit in big seats and watch a movie on a big screen. It was a great movie until halfway through, the movie cut off and the word “Intermission” flashed onto the screen. The audience, which was predominantly American, screamed in protest. Thankfully, a short five minutes later, the movie resumed. It was very interesting. I never would have thought that there would have been an intermission. Although it was frustrating, it was really neat to see how the Italians see their movies. I felt like a real Italian!
I had an awesome day… off to Orvieto tomorrow! Stay tuned for another blog post!
Ciao!
PS – Crazy week! Blog posts are coming, promise!
