All The Way Up, Nothing Can Stop Us

Another day, another set of 500 steps that feel like 5000 steps. This week consisted of multiple trips to Florence, a detailed museum, a  building with a view like no other and a triumphant treasure hunt where X definitely marked the spot. Strap in. Its going to be a long storytime.

Photo 1 - The initial wall

The first place that we went to for our field trip on Friday was to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Museum of the Florence Duomo). Silvia joined us as our tour guide through the history of the Duomo and just how much of a historical imprint it has left on the city and the people that have been influenced by it. The initial wall (Photo 1) as you walk into the museum is engraved with all of the artists, architects, and innovators that were a part of creating the baptistery, the church and the bell tower. As you enter there is an open space filled with the original and preserved pieces of artworks that have been recreated and the copies replaced the originals on the exterior. Part of the floor was glass and you could look down and see into the original design of how Brunelleschi used the herringbone pattern in his construction methods.

Photo 2 - East Doors

 The center of the room is dedicated to the three doors of the baptistery. The oldest door of the baptistery was not in the museum. It was represented with a full scale image of the door (Photo 4). The other doors are bronze with the appearance of gold accents(Photos 2 & 3). The details in the doors include extensive relief sculptures and busts of the most important people of Florence at that time. 

Photo 3 - North Doors (1422)

Photo 4 - South Doors (First Door: 1336)

Photo 5 - Virgin with glass eyes 

Photo 6 - Mary Magdalene Donatello

One of the statues that intrigued us the most was the Virgin with glass eyes (Photo 5). Her eyes reflect like marbles with a white haze over them, which was done in order to achieve a more realistic look to her expression. 
This wooden statue carved by Donatello (Photo 6) in the mid-1450s depicts Mary Magdalene (emaciated and old), whom Jesus freed of seven demons and who was believed to be a sinful person. After Christ's ascension to heaven, she became a hermit and devoted her life to spreading the faith via the ascetic lifestyle.

Photo 7 - Michelangelo sculpture

The next room featured a Michelangelo sculpture (Photo 7) that was done for his own tomb stone in the 1440s to 1450s. The face of Nicodemus is actually a self portrait of Michelangelo. He hated this work. The legs are not the right proportion. Obviously unfinished he smashed it with hit own hammer. A student finished it for him and added Mary Magdalene afterwards.
There was a long hallway with all of the original decorations (Photo 8) and statuettes of the building. On one side the hexagonal artworks are the chronological evolution of man and their creations. The diamonds are the moral virtues that man should live by. 

Photo 8 - Decorations of the outer church facade

On the other side were larger statues of important people. 

Fun Fact: the church is still unfinished to this day despite all of the work that has been put into it. The final room of the museum was full of all of the architectural models (Photos 9-11, 13 & 14) that were entered into the contest to chose the final facade of the unfinished part of the church. 

9 10 11 

12 13 14 

There were also historic building tools and instruments (Photo 12) that were invented to create the church. The room had a video playing telling the story about how Brunelleschi asked a room full of architects how to make an egg stand up on its own. Dumbfounded, they all gave up. Brunelleschi then broke the bottom of the egg and set the stable top half of the egg down. There was an outrage as the architects yelled, "We could've done that!!" Brunelleschi's response was, "Ah! But I did it first." Thus sparking the method for how the dome was created. It was all based on the strength of an egg and how you can't crush an egg if you hold it with your thumb and index finger from the top and bottom. It was the first of its kind. 

Photo 15 - View from the top

We ended up taking a lunch break for an hour and then meeting in line for the Duomo. It was very daunting. Once you start there's no going back. The staircase is a constant spiral of 463 steps to the top with some steep straightaways. We both took videos while we walked up. My video was a time-lapse of the entire staircase and Jeunesse's was a "just in case I don't make it" type of video. Going up, my main concern was my asthma but I made it without much problems. The view was breathtaking (Photos 15 & 16). It was also the perfect place to take squad photos (Photo 17).

Photo 16 - panoramic shot of the view from the dome

Photo 17 - SQUAD (Joey, Lianne, Bull (Henry), Garrett, Jeunesse, Nadeem)

We met a really cool French couple at the top of the dome that asked us to take their picture. They took Lianne and I's photo too. After we parted ways, we missed the chance for all four of us to take a picture with each other. On the way down we both had panic situations but Lianne was incapable of standing up when we got to the bottom because her legs were shaking so bad (Photo 18 - LS). She was silent the whole way down, nodding when anyone asked her if she was okay. It was a great experience though. 

Photo 18 - Drawn by Lianne Smith

Friday night and Saturday night were both night life adventures as the squad (pictured above) went clubbing (to celebrate Joey's birthday weekend) and met some lasting friendships. Lianne and I met this girl named Diana and her best friend who gave us their numbers so that we could go for coffee in Prato one day. Our favorite club here in Prato is Naif Discoteque. They play all different kinds of music and have good deals when you're paying as a group. Nights like these with friends like these make great memories for the long run. 

Sunday and Monday were much needed rest days as well as a homework days. We were supposed to go to Florence on Monday but ended up going on Tuesday in search of a beauty supply store. We only had an hour before we had to get back in time for Zumba class. We hopped on the train and began our adventure. With broken hearts, we walked up to the store we had Google Mapped and realized it was closed. After a 10 minute depression mood, Jeunesse happened to look across the street and there was a store with braiding hair in the window. As soon as we walked in the African woman spoke to us in English. We explained we were looking for a needle and thread and she had that as well as any other African American hair care product. A big triumph in our books. 

Now our hearts are happy, hair is healthy, and bodies are staying in shape. That's all we could hope for while we live as local Prato citizens and you wouldn't even know we were Americans the way that we have been speaking Italian. Ciao bellas!