Florence (part two)

Our second day in Florence started with great news - Jeremy and several friends in the Christian graduate student group at OSU had applied for a Templeton Foundation grant, and they won it! This means they will be able to invite some great Christian speakers to OSU over the next couple years.

After a celebratory breakfast, we visited the Uffizi gallery. It was a beautiful gallery, and we had a helpful audio-guide on my phone to tell us a bit more about the most significant works in the gallery. It has an amazing collection of art - from Michelangelo's Holy Family to Botticelli's Birth of Venus to Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation. After three and a half hours of exploring, we were quite hungry, so we found a place that our hotel had recommended for lunch.

After lunch, we meandered over to a nice park to do a bit of reading. From there, we saw a beautiful Synagogue. There are military everywhere in Italy, but in this particular neighbourhood, they stand inside small glass prism shapes that jut out from buildings into the sidewalk so that they can see both ways down the street.

While we were walking, we bumped into a nice family from Belgium who was looking for someone who spoke French to help them find their way to city centre. Fortunately, Jer remembered most of his high school French and we were able to walk with them until they could easily see the Duomo rising above the houses.

We returned to the fabulous mozzarella shop in the marketplace for a fresh mozzarella, grilled zucchini, and fresh cherry tomato shish kebab. This shop is amazing. They also have wraps, not filled with mozzarella, but made of mozzarella - what would normally be the bread is actually cheese.

We wandered a bit more to discover an incredible chalk artist creating excellent figures on the ground. We walked back past the Duomo to say goodbye. As we left, it was fun to see new people who had just arrived round the corner and be in awe of the magnificent church for their first time.

Florence

We arrived in Florence and found our accommodations at Hotel Savonarola to be much lovelier than we expected for a discount hotel! The room has tall ceilings, lovely yellow curtains that hang down the tall old fashioned windows, a little sitting area, super comfy bed, and... air conditioning! Thank goodness for air conditioning. It has been in the mid 30s every day, and our Canadian bodies have trouble adjusting! Interestingly, it is also a fully accessible room with a walk-in shower.

On our first evening in Florence, we wandered around downtown. We found the first orphanage in Europe, with lovely blue roundels depicting the orphaned children. In one church, we found a free concerto... which included an adorable clergyman conducting a little choir and a talented soloist. In the evening, we walked up to the top of Piazzale Michelangelo to see the view over Florence. It is a stunning view, especially as the sun was setting. It was also a nice way to get our bearings as it was easy to pick out all of the major landmarks from the hilltop.

We found the most excellent gelato shops - La Carraia. It has every flavour of delicious gelato, is affordable, and was a perfect way to cool down after a lot of walking! Yesterday's dark chocolate flavour is the richest chocolate I've ever tasted, and today's mix of lemon, cheesecake, and chocolate mousse flavours was the perfect blend of sweetness and freshness.

Waking up the next morning, we walked straight to the Accademia where we felt rather fortunate to have purchased tickets in advance as the line stretches far down the street. We sat near Michelangelo's David and listened to an interesting audioguide that I'd downloaded on my phone before we left. Michelangelo's Prisoners in the hall leading up to David were fascinating and really showed the virtuoso brilliance in his freehand artistic process. David was of course beautiful. In the adjacent room, we saw Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Woman - an incredible sculpture that Giambologna originally intended as merely an exercise demonstrating how three figures could be cut from a single marble stone. In another room of the gallery, we found the first upright piano!

We considered visiting the Duomo, but the line wrapped around the church and into the square, so we went to the Bargello museum instead. It is a lovely museum full of lovely sculptures. We decided we would visit the Duomo at 6pm for mass to both avoid the long lines and also appreciate the cathedral in the way in the context it was designed for. The guards outside were quite imposing and gave the suggestion that the church was closed. Fortunately, Jeremy knew how to say "posso entrare per messe" (Is it possible to enter for mass?) and we were allowed in. It struck me as sad that while thousands of people had visited the church during the day, there were only a handful of people attending the actual service. It was of course conducted in Italian, but we were able to recognize references to "I am the way, the truth, and the life" and a few other familiar parts of the service.

For dinner, we ate mozzarella. So much mozzarella. We found a great marketplace with lots of vendors, and one vendor wisely offered us samples. We bought a mozzarella and tomato shishkebab, and then we bought another one because it was amazing.

We ended the day reading by a lovely manmade lake with a large fountain. It was a great place to watch the last touches of colour from the sunset fade.

Jer endeavouring to take the Anneke pose

The original Anneke pose

Rome

Rome is an amazing city - old orange and yellow shuttered buildings line cobblestone streets with frequent fountains that are free to the public to refill water bottles (a life-saver in the mid-30s weather!)  Perhaps even better still, Rome has a gelato shop on nearly every corner!

We started our second day in Rome walking to the Colosseum. On our way, we passed Trajan's column. We marvelled both at the incredible detail work on the column and the fact that Rome is full of so many historic treasures that there were no other tourists there. This city is packed with archeological, artistic, and architectural wonders!

When we reached the Colosseum, the line to buy tickets was about an hour's wait, but fortunately I had read online that there was another place to buy tickets at Palatine hill which had no line at all! The ticket covered entrance to the Colosseum, Palatine hill, and the Roman Forum - where we decided to start. It was like stepping back in time to walk along the same streets that Caesar would have walked along and see the place he was brutally murdered (no pun intended). It is hard to imagine how such a powerful and technologically advanced society could fall - a real Ozymandias moment. The way the sunlight hit the white worn columns was stunning.

We left the Roman forum to grab a bit of lunch at a nice little pizza shop. It was a good chance to get out of the sun however briefly (despite wearing sunscreen, we both got a little sunburned in the Roman forum). We returned to check out the Colosseum, but discovered that - even though we already had our ticket - the line to go through security after buying a ticket was still very long. So we headed up to Palatine hill, laid out my scarf on the grass, and I read Pride and Prejudice to Jeremy.

When we returned to the Colosseum, the line was very short and it was a breeze to get inside. Also, it was literally a breeze as the high arches allowed for great air circulation. As opposed to the intricate art of San Pietro, the Colosseum was primarily a feat of engineering with travertine stone arches and brickwork. However, it was decorated with artistic elements - all three greek columns types surround the outside of the building: Doric on the bottom, Ionic on the next level, and Corinthian on the level above. Inside, most of the main floor is gone, but it is possible to imagine what it would have looked like filled with cheering or jeering fans watching terrible "sports".

I really wanted to see the church of St. Clement that I'd studied in my architecture class, and it was fairly close to the Colosseum, so we walked there next. It's a unique church because it contains four levels of architecture. The foundations are an ancient Roman house which was destroyed in a huge fire that burned Rome in 64AD. On that was built a 1st century church, and you can still see the arched brickwork from that church in a few places. On top of that was a 4th century basilica, and on top of that a 1100AD medieval church. From there, we walked up to Capitoline hill to see the Piazza del Campidoglio which I'd also studied in architecture class. The pattern on the ground is like the spirograph toys that were popular in the 90s.

At this point, Jeremy's tummy was growling and our feet were pretty sore, so we walked across Isola Tiberina to explore the Trastevere neighbourhood for food options. We found a place that made quite possibly the most delicious salad that I have ever eaten. It was the brie. Such glorious brie, slightly warmed, with blueberries, turkey, arugula, and walnuts. We shared this delicious salad along with a simple but tasty pasta, and it hit the spot. Our waiter was also a lot of fun.

As we walked home, we passed a lovely church where a large group of nuns were on their way to go out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I photographed the group as they walked past the military, of which there are many in every major public center. It represents one of the contrasts that we've seen in Italy - assault rifles and habits.

From Trastevere, we walked back along the river to St. Peter's. We found a quiet bench on the street that leads to St. Peter's and read Pride and Prejudice while the sun went down behind the beautiful church.

The Vatican

When we arrived in Rome, we spent our first evening exploring the tiny cobblestone streets, obtaining delicious pizza and gelato, and enjoying the fabulous old buildings that brought new surprises around every corner.

Our first morning, we got up early to go on a tour of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican museums before the museums were generally open to the public. This also let us skip the hours-long wait to get into the museum. It was incredible to walk through the gallery of maps, the longest gallery in the museum:

The Sistine chapel was just as amazing as you would expect. We spent over half an hour with our heads back, looking at Michelangelo's stunning colours and forms. The frescos seems to jump out of the ceiling. We were surprised too to learn that Michelangelo was the first to portray God as an older man with a beard - an image that has certainly stuck in our culture. 

After the tour of the Sistine chapel was over, Jer and I first made our way to Raphael's rooms. It was surreal to see such a famous and thoroughly analyzed piece in person. 

In the centre of Raphael's School of Athens walks Plato (painted with the face of Leonardo da Vinci) and Aristotle.

On the side, Euclid is teaching his students.

We spent the whole morning exploring the Vatican museums. There far were more spectacular and famous works than we could possibly count. We were very fortunate to learn that there is a special door in the back of the Sistine chapel which leads directly to San Pietro, allowing us to avoid waiting in a very long line under the hot sun in the main piazza. In 7 foot high letters all around the church are written all of Jesus' words to Peter in the Bible.

The lettering around Michelangelo's lovely dome is Jesus' declaration that Peter is the rock on whom Jesus will build His church. We learned that Michelangelo didn't accept any pay for his work on this beautiful dome.

The small statue of Peter felt almost insignificant in the context of the exceptionally grand basilica. His foot was indeed worn away by the millions of people who have touched it.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the old town again, finding more fabulous things before our feet could not walk any further. The Pantheon was lovely in its simplicity. Trevi's fountain was packed with people, but we rewarded ourselves for braving the crowds with delicious gelato!

Cologne

The train to Cologne was exceptionally fast, smooth, and easy to navigate. Once in Cologne, we bumped into a couple of Jeremy's conference friends on our way to the hotel and grabbed lunch near the cathedral. Jer had a meeting, so I explored the Cologne Cathedral.

Stepping inside the cathedral is an incredible experience. Arches crest above arches, and brilliant stained glass windows draw your eye to the ceiling far above. Both the outside and inside are filled with statues of biblical characters and bishops.

The cathedral is without a doubt an amazing work of art. It is hard not to wonder, however, if it exists with the intention to honour God or the people who built it. The tower was built 157m tall, specifically one foot taller than what was at the time the tallest cathedral in the world. In 1880, this made the cathedral the tallest building in the world. Today, the cathedral maintenance budget is over 6 million euros per year, 1 million of which is funded by a lottery. The church provides both incredible artistic beauty and inspiration to prayer for the approximately 20 000 people who visit every day. But do these ends justify the financial means of effectively taxing the poor with a lottery? 

In the evening, I explored the waterfront while Jer's conference started. In both Frankfurt and Cologne, I loved how many people were sitting by the waterfront simply spending time with family or friends. Given the recent shooting in Munich, it was encouraging to see how many people were not giving into fear and enjoying the public space. 

Over the next two days of the conference, I explored Cologne with Laura, the wife of Jer's supervisor. We rented bikes and cycled along the Rhine in the morning. After grabbing a quick lunch, we decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of the cathedral tower. We stood in the belfry while the bells called people to mass - the sound was beautiful and overwhelming. The view at the top was amazing.

After our long climb, Laura and I decided that it was time for the Chocolate museum! The museum was highly effective; by the time we exited, we were quite inclined to buy a delicious chocolate cake at their cafe...

On our second day, it was raining, so we spent the day in the Wallraf-Richartz museum. While a relatively small art gallery, it was once of the best curated art galleries that I have seen. There were beautiful pieces by Rembrandt, Renoir, Munch, and many others, all with excellent descriptions and historical background.

In the afternoon, I attended Jer's talk (which was definitely the best talk in my opinion). He made them laugh with puns, and he didn't make them cry with math. And everyone appreciated his comfortable approach. I was also able to join Jeremy for dinner at a restaurant near the hotel. With around 70 people at the conference, the restaurant was packed. The waiter was rather distressed that the group was so noisy, and we all got more practice saying "entschuldigen" (sorry!). 

Today, we have said goodbye to all of the good friends that we met or reconnected with at the conference. We will be flying to Rome tomorrow!

Frankfurt

We landed in Frankfurt just before lunch and followed the advise of a number of efficient fast-speaking communicators to figure out the subway.  It was a sweltering walk to the hotel, but along the way, we passed a memorial to the Jews deported from Frankfurt. We found Anne Frank's name in the middle of the long long rows of names. 

After stopping at our hotel, we did a little bit of exploring Frankfurt in the evening. There's a beautiful walkway that follows the river with soccer courts and outdoor free fitness locations.  We stopped at a fun restaurant for a refreshing strawberry-rhubard juice with a sprig of mint (delicious!) and dinner.  Jer ordered a full meal of course, but I thought I'd have a lighter option: "rucola brot salat" meaning "arugula bread salad". I assumed it would be an arugula salad with a bit of bread on the side, but it was in fact a salad made of bread with four or five leaves of arugula. So much for a healthy alternative. The "salad" was delicious however, and we explored a beautiful square downtown called Römerberg after dinner. 


On our second day in Frankfurt, we started at the grocery store where we discovered that cheese and croissants are both affordable and fabulous. We explored the Oper - a beautiful old opera house, and followed a park to find a lovely Chinese garden. Then, we returned downtown to visit the Frankfurt Cathedral and Römerberg square in the daylight. 

We walked back to our hotel on the opposite side of the river, and happened upon the Dreikönigskirche, a Lutheran church dedicated to the Three Kings. The church has lovely whimsical stained glass windows that take a modern approach to traditional themes. While we were exploring the church, an incredible organist came in and started to practice for what we think was an upcoming Bach concert. The music filled the space powerfully.