Florence

Florence - Nov 9&10

I had been to Florence twice before, once in eight grade with my dad and sisters, and the summer of my senior year as part of my Eurotrip with five of my closest friends. Both times had been enjoyable, but more so because of the people I was with- even having gone to this city twice, I had yet to enter any of its art museums and most importantly I still had not seen Michaelangelo’s David.

We arrived early in the morning after a six hour bus ride (most enjoyable of course) and had our orientation tours. We were split into six our so groups of 15-20 people lead by a professor, and they showed us the main sights of Florence with their own collected knowledge.

After the trips we all met in front of the Uffizi. Since the past month of Art&Arch classes had been devoted to the Renaissance and to northern Italian artists, we had that awesome feeling we always get in class trips, recognizing pictures from the texts and slide shows in class. I spent a good two and a half hours in there, even going at a fast pace with just one friend. There was just so much to see, and the museum is built in a maze-like structure that kept us wandering from painting to sculpture to painting. Luckily we each had maps and names of specific art pieces to look for, or we could have spent even more time there.

After we left the museum we realized we had about four hours until dinner so we decided to wander through the streets and see where they would take us. Unfortunately, the streets would all lead us to the same piazza with the Baptistery and the Florence Cathedral. I suppose it cannot really be called unfortunately, since both those buildings are beautiful, but after a couple hours we gave up and walked to and through the leather market until it was dinner time.

The next day we started early with more tours. Everyone was once again split up with a different leader and this time I had Hans Tonkens, a Dutch art historian who took us around the Baptistery and Basilica and through the museum of the Basilica. He revealed the intricate facade of the Basilica and then thoroughly explained all the iconography on the outside the Baptistery of St. John, as well as its significance for the city: every “Florentinian” that is baptized must be baptized in this specific church, even if it’s for the second time and merely symbolical.

After this tour we had more hours to just walk around, so I decided to buy a kebab with two friends, and then go up the Florentine Duomo of Santa Maria dei Fiore. After climbing up the 463 steps, seeing the duomo at first from the inside with its depictions of Dante’s Divine Comedy... we were at the top of Florence, with a 360 view from the center, able to see the entire city at an amazing vantage point..

There were about 15 of us that met there at this time by chance, so we took plenty of pictures, and were able to hold good conversations, or just stare into the distance with each other. Definitely a highlight of Florence.

After some more hanging out we headed to the main attraction: The Accademia, home of David. I could talk about the lecture that Dr. Lisot gave just before we saw him, but truly I don’t remember too much of it because seeing the ginormous statue was so amazing.

I had seen a billion pictures of him of course, not just around the city but everywhere for years in textbooks and post cards, in different political cartoons and movies... but seriously nothing could compare. First of all, I had no idea it would be that big. Second of all, it was just overpoweringly perfect. From the muscles to the facial expression and the challenging brow, to the hands... it was the most exquisite statue I have ever seen (and trust me i've seen more than millions just this semester).

We all stared at it for at least five minutes, and then a lot of us stayed to linger even longer, for it was just an enchanting piece of stone.... captivating me as no other piece ever had. It's a timeless piece, a relatable, strong, humane piece.... representing of course David about to face Goliath, with so much evident emotion, passion and (perhaps I'm exaggerating) inner strength...

We left Florence the next day, off to beautiful Venice.

Northern Italy Trip

Florence, Venice, and Assisi.

I had been to these three places before. All three with different people.. and yet this time each place was immensely different from the other times.

This was the last trip. They warned us so many times that after Greece everything goes on fast motion, but I don’t think any of us were really prepared for it. Honestly, it seems like this whole semester has been a quick blur of amazing sights, new friendships, and magnificent experiences. It’s crazy to think that in just a month we will all be back in our homes, only being able to reminiscence, looking at pictures and whatever words we composed in the heat of the experiences.

Anyway... on to the trip.

Olympia

The last days of the Greece trip were spent in Olympia. It was crazy to think that we were already reaching the end, all we had left were a couple sites, one museum, and then a 24 hour trajectory to make our way back to campus....

Olympia was a very small, very clean little town. I had expected something more like Athens for some reason, and after Nafplion it seemed like a very dull place, nonetheless it held a treasure: the first Olympic stadium.

We made our way into the Olympian archeological site, extremely excited for the traditional races. Every single semester UD students, professors, and even accompanying priests, join together to run a race on the Olympic track. For some reason I got really nervous for it. I still don't understand why, but I was extremely jittery and felt as if I was about to undergo a serious athletic competition.

Dr. Lisot, Dr Osborn an Dr. Hatlie spent some time lecturing on site, but most of our minds were on the race. As we sat in what used to be the old locker rooms and walked through the gymnasium and saw the temples (or lack thereof, and saw the site where the column drums are laying) I don't think I can recall a moment when we were less focused on our professor's words. May have been because it was the 7th consecutive day of listening to lectures, may have been because all of our minds were elsewhere...

Drums of columns

I for one was busy picturing athletes from all over, stretching, worrying, being nervous about their competition. I was picturing visiting girls walking around giggling, as they made their way into the stadium to wait for the events, and the men as they flexed and focused... and waited to have glory added to their name.

So there we were, walking through the olympic arch and unto the track. For a bystander, I suppose the track really would not look like much. It is about 300 meters of dirt surrounded by grass that is not greatly kept... but to all of us it held history. It didn't hold only the old olympian athletes that ran there, it also held years of UD students running with the same thoughts, and similar experiences.

The guys ran first, and then the girls, and then a co-ed relay. Every single race contained energy, nerves, laughter, speed, slow runners, cheering... every race was just us.

Of course most of us ran just to say we had ran in the Olympic Track, but in the end I think it meant a lot more.

The Olympic Track

Since that was the last night of the trip, they gave us a special dinner followed by a presentation of traditional Greek dancers. That was a lot of fun, since after their dances they asked us all to go in the middle and dance with them. At least 70 of us were dancing on together in circles, repeating the same motion with our feet over and over again, laughing at the awkwardness and soaking in the music.

After this, most of us headed into town in search of a discoteca, and we found a place similar to the one that hosted us in Delphi. Another fun dance of UD dancing and running to get in time for curfew.

Traditional Greek Dancing

The very last day of the Greece trip (not including the second ferry which took 5 extra hours to "park" and the bus which hit traffic and was an extra two hours, added to the original 7... ) we visited the Olympian Archeological museum. It was great since there were so many pieces that we studied in Art and Arch.

Hermes and the Infant Dyonisus

I feel like I should write a conclusion to this trip, but I wont. I think I'll save the concluding remarks to next week. We're leaving for our Northern Italy trip tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be better about blogging about that.

Wish you were all coming with me!

Mycenae & Epidauros

The Lion's Gate

After studying the Lion's Gate in West Civ and in Art&Arch for two months, we finally got to see it in person. Mycenae was an archeological site, yet it had different architecture from the other Greek cities. There were amazing Tombs which look like giant honey combs raising from the ground, and have perfect acoustics: if you stand directly across from someone else and talk into the wall, they can hear you if they put an ear to their wall.

Entering a Tomb

We performed a scene from Agamemnon in the Tomb of Clytemenestra, and then a few groups and individuals took the spotlight for a bit as they sang and impressed us all with their talents. This was however not compared to what we would experience later that day in Epidauros.

Overall Mycenae is an ancient city in ruins, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, who unfortunately took many of the artifacts of his many site discoveries for his private collection, but who also opened up these ancient worlds for us.

In the afternoon we went to Epidauros. The most impressive theater I have ever seen.

The amphitheater was bigger than any I had seen, the bleachers were almost completely in tact, and there was a small circle in the middle of the stage. They told us that if you sang, spoke, yelled from this small circle, your voice would bounce into the stage and come back to you. And that is exactly what happened.

Our RA Joey went first and began to sing a piece from Les Miserables. It was the most beautiful sound I heard all trip. I climbed up all of the bleachers, and could hear Joey's voice as if he was standing right next to me. He captivated us all.

Joey Singing in the little white circle on stage

The best thing was that many people in our group then realized what a great experience this could be and took a chance at singing in front of everyone. I knew we had really talented singers, but I did not know we had that many. Over 20 UDers went to the circle and expelled their amazing voices for us to enjoy.

Beautiful Epidauros

The scenery surrounding the Epidauros Theater was also extremely beautiful, but I almost did not pay attention to the mountains for the first time, since I was so enchanted by the magic of that the place created with music.

Sitting on the bleachers

Both Mycenae and Epidauros were short visits and we headed back to Nafplion for the night, so it was another short and slow day in which we were all able to appreciate skills that some had been hiding, and enjoy our time in a different way.

Nafplion

We were supposed to go to Mycenae the morning of the fifth of October, but the riots prevented us from doing so. So instead Dr. Hatlie announced that we would have an entire day in Nafplion to ourselves!

We all settled into the hotel and then made our way to the beaches. Most of all found a rocky beach side and we all sat by the rocks, as we started jumping in one by one. Although it was October the weather was still amazing. It was really hot, and the water was warm, so it felt amazing to be in there, especially after such busy days. I felt like I was experiencing Greece as I had originally imagined : the Santorini images from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, swimming in the warm ocean.

We spent most of the day by the water, talking and jumping in, taking pictures and watching people fear the jelly fish that the professors had warned us about. After that I left with a friend and we walked around the small streets of Nafplion.

The beach where we hung out

Although I had already fallen in love with the waters of Nafplion, the small plaza and the shop-filled streets made me love the city even more. We walked around looking at all the souvenirs and talked to the street vendor. One really interesting vendor in a nice small store opened up to us in his broken English and told us about his frustrations. He was really annoyed with the government, annoyed with all the riots that came from the people that want money and do not work. He told us how foreigners had come into Nafplion and had tried to make business more efficient for them, how they had changed his cash register for a computer, and made his life more technological and faster. He did not like this, he liked the slow rhythm of life that comes with hard work, patience and dedication. He enjoyed making the worry beads that they sell over Greece.

Trying on weird souvenirs

Walking by the dock.

I kept walking around with my friend until we hit the dock and there we sat down to talk. We ended up talking till the sun started to set, which was extremely nice. I had already enjoyed the conversations in the busy street of Athens, but sitting in front of the sea with boats and islands in the distance, after a slow day was also a great memory to treasure.

The next day was slightly more hectic. We finally went to Mycenae, and from there to Epidauros.