Day 3 - Day 5

Now off to our second city of the trip, Florence! On our first day in Florence, we checked into our hotel and took a 5-minute walk to Santa Maria Novella. That was my site presentation, and I got very excited to discuss some history, the way it was designed by Alberti, and the main Gothic-Renaissance marble façade with Byzantine patterned arches. Through the hike to San Minato, we passed through Piazzale Michelangelo, and the rose garden. I got to view the cityscape of Florence, and the majority of the architecture consists of the same warm material palette. From that, we went hiking up to San Minato, and unfortunately, it was covered in scaffolding, but I could go inside the church to pray. It was my first time going to a Catholic church to pray; I didn’t understand what the priests said because it was all in Italian. But, I started to ponder the difference between Catholicism and Christianity. I was wrestling with how different the Catholic basilicas and cathedrals are from the Christian church. There is so much symbolism, ornamentation, and consideration to articulating biblical stories in Catholic basilicas. I am just wondering what is happening to our churches nowadays.

Overall, walking the steps of Michelangelo, visiting all these different basilicas, and seeing the cross-shape plans and the Renaissance proportionality demonstrated how much the artists and architects emphasized and cared for beauty and order. Throughout sketching many iconic buildings, I have come to understand that they all started with simple geometry and the details. From the Italy leg of our trip, I can choose Florence as my favorite because of how large the city is. It simultaneously gave me a feeling of being in a small town with its lively people and culture!