Florence Unfiltered

The final trip that our class took as a group for Social History of Art in Italy was to Florence and it was different from the rest. This trip was different because we arrived in Florence on a Thursday and our group activities ended after Friday was over, so everyone only had to stay the Thursday and Friday night. This meant that if we wanted to we could stay an extra night in the city and spend the Sunday there as well. In the end just over half of us decided to stay the Saturday night and had a lot of fun together into the next day.

When we arrived in the city around 11am on Thursday, the first thing we did was walk to the hostel we had booked and dropped off our luggage, then we went on the discover what Florence has to offer. Our first building that we went to was the Hospital of Innocents by Filippo Brunelleschi, built around 1420. The structure of this building is light with carefully planned details to match classical architecture of the Romanesque period.

After seeing the Hospital of Innocents we walked towards the main duomo, and something strange happen as we did; the scale of buildings changed around us. The same buildings that we saw from the end of the street looked smaller and smaller and the dome got bigger and bigger. But, before we actually went inside we all went separate ways to eat lunch! After lunch, when we got inside the cathedral one thing was noticeable for sure and that was the simplicity of it. There is very little decoration because the interior was designed in the renaissance style which is more straightforward, and therefore the dome is actually quite underwhelming. We also were not able to go directly underneath the dome when we went inside the cathedral. The primary expression of the renaissance architecture style is seen with the dark grey structure and lighter coloured filler walls. The exterior of the building alternatively was started in the gothic style and completed during renaissance time.

Not only did we get to go inside the cathedral, but we also got to go up the tower and into the baptistry. The tower was worth 300 and something steps we had to walk up because there was a breathtaking view at the top. There was wind to cool us down and a panoramic sight of the entire city, the baptistry on the other hand was slightly disappointing. When we got inside, yes we could see the decorations on the walls and floor but the actual center of the baptistry and ceiling were covered by ugly scaffolding. But nevertheless we were still able to enjoy the gold decorations and mosaics that were visible. After that we were done all of our sightseeing for Thursday and parted ways for the evening.

Friday we only had one thing to do together and that was to go see the Uffizi gallery, which was very large and very busy. Once we got inside since there were so many rooms and artworks to see, everybody spread out and made sure to see the pieces that they wanted to with the time that we had in there. The only thing that everybody had to do at the Uffizi together was meet at the exit for noon. Which is when Wladek thanked us for a great trip and sent us on our way to spend our time however we wished. Now, one students birthday was on this weekend so we decided as a group to go our for dinner together on the Friday and spend the night altogether. Overall, Florence was an amazing way to end our group trips because we learned and experienced so much, and became closer as a whole.

Until the next adventure, ciao!!

– Scarlett Ambedian