I officially have one month left until I head back to the United States and get fully acquainted with my life. I am excited to spend the holidays with family and friends, eat my mother's delicious food, and be in the comfort of my own bed. Even though I am eager to go home, I will miss the tranquil lifestyle of Spain especially the beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea. As the semester is coming to a close “finals week” is slowly approaching and I have to study for my introduction to sociology final. Last day of classes for me were on the 1st and my final wasn't until the 14th, so I basically had a lot of free time on my hands. During my spare time, I watched various African movies on Youtube, discovered new shows on Netflix and most importantly caught up on sleep while boredom started to creep up again.
Luckily, I had an upcoming trip to Italy to visit one my cousin’s best friend (who’s work ethic I admire) who was studying abroad in Florence. The trip was very enlightening because it was interesting to see how similar Spanish and Italian were to each other. We caught up on old times and discussed our study abroad experiences in our respective countries. Throughout my stay in Italy, we visited the Duomo also known as the Florence Cathedral, the Uffizi Gallery, the Arno, the Ferragamo museum, and other historic and touristic sites.
Out of all the sites my favorite two were the Uffizi Gallery and the Ferragamo museum. The Uffizi Gallery is a three story mansion filled with the history of the Medici family, many artworks from notable artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Piero della Francesca. Two art pieces I was amazed by were the, “La Toscana Di Piero Della Francesca” which was by Piero Della Francesca and “Annunciation” by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting created by Piero Della Francesca is a portrait of Duke and Duchess of Urbino and when looking at it at first sight I thought it was a symbol of their love. However, in actuality this piece of the royal family has a story to it. For example the Duchess of Urbino’s skin was very pale because during the time of the creation of the artwork, she died from acute pneumonia that was caused by childbirth. In addition, the Duke of Urbino was a well known warrior and during a battle he lost his right eye and as it turns out he had a chunk of his nose removed. Due to his pridefulness in his image, the Duke made sure Piero Della Francesca painted his left side because he did not want people to think he was weak. Once I heard this, I was shocked because when viewing the painting I would have never expected this, but the Duke sure was a cunning guy.
As for the “Annunciation” painting by Leonardo da Vinci there is an angel Gabriel and Virgin Mary and it illustrates the night he informs Virgin Mary that she will conceive and give birth to baby Jesus. Here’s the catch to the image, when people first sighted it they did not believe it was one of Leonardo da Vinci’s art piece because of the “imbalance” of the people. However little did we know Leonardo da Vinci, knew what he was doing and we were viewing his artwork incorrectly. When observing the image from the left side, Virgin Mary’s arm seems small compared to her body. But when you look from the right side of the image, her arm looked proportion for her body (overall he was an artistic genius).
The Ferragamo museum it consisted of fashion shoes, dresses, and models created by Salvatore Ferragamo and his descendants. In the museum there were also styles from other Italian designers. I was really impressed by the various foot models of famous people from Marilyn Monroe, Jennifer Lopez, to Michael Jordan (let me tell you he has some huge feet). Lastly, there was a handmade dress with a design that was hand painted by the designer, whose name I cannot recollect at the moment. Overall, Florence is a very beautiful city with an array of fashion styles that I felt described the different time periods very distinctively.
I really enjoyed my time in Italy and it was a great study break.
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