Today, Scott totally ditched the conference. It was fun – we had the whole day to sightsee together and walk around, a little preview for what the rest of the trip will be like. We started off with the Uffizi Gallery, which is widely reputed as one of the best art galleries in the world (and if you don’t believe me, ask the hundreds of ppl who were in line who didn’t book a ticket online like we did!) Once again, we listened to the Rick Steve’s mp3 audio guide on our iPods and learned a lot and saw the important things. (These audio guides are new this year, and he has them out for Italy and Paris, I highly recommend them if you’re traveling there. We’re totally psyched that we downloaded them for a bunch of sights in Venice and Rome for later on in our trip. They’re free too, another fave of ours.)
We learned a lot about Renaissance art as compared to that of the Middle Ages. It’s a lot different – 3-dimensional, lifelike and not embossed in gold all the time. The MA was lame! ;) My favorite was Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (where she’s standing in a ½ clam shell). It’s so beautiful. Scott’s favorite was one by da Vinci where it depicts the angel telling Mary she’s about to have a baby. He liked it bc you can see how LDV used math and lines and angles to make the painting balanced and easy to look at. Even though he was primarily an engineer and a thinker, he painted “on the side”. And he was really good too… It was especially nice to see the Renaissance art as coming out of the Middle Ages art – much more “enlightened”.
Oh, funny story. I was telling Scott about how there were was this room at L’Accademia gallery where it was all these busts – like 100’s of them and it was neat and he looks at me and is like…”you mean…boobs?” Hahaha, no sweetie, though that would be awesome too I guess. I just had to laugh. In his defense, there are a lot of naked statues in Florence. A lot.
After about 2 hours in the gallery we headed outside. Again today it was overcast and not sunny & gorgeous. Don’t they know we’re on our vacation??! We headed to see the inside of the Duomo together. We then had a quick lunch in the café that’s attached to our hotel and regrouped a little. That’s something that’s a little surprising and challenging with this trip… I forgot how Euro-tripping tires you out so much! All the walking and taking in ridiculously old art really wears on you (I know, don’t you feel sorry for me??), and we’re trying to space it all out enough to still be in decent moods and be excited about what we’re seeing and do enough to feel like we’re not wasting our trip over here.
We walked around the market area a little today too. It’s nice here – lots of ppl have little stands with local goods – leather, cashmere and t-shirts, etc but I must say, they don’t pressure you and stuff (ahem, take notes, Mexico). Though multiple guys at leather stands have said to Scott “You come here, I have your size.” LOL… I purchased a cashmere scarf and a pashmina and I’m in LOVE with them already. So super soft and really, ridiculously cheap even with the sad euro/dollar exchange rate.
This afternoon, we hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo together. We almost didn’t do it bc the day was so nasty and cloudy, and we were like “the pictures are gonna be lame”. Then we wisely decided we’re not doing stuff on the vacation to take the picture and go home, we’re doing it to DO IT! To see it and take it all in, etc. So we went. Andiamo! And it was fabulous, though not quite as lovely as the first day when I ran up to the same lookout and it was sunny and warm. Eh well.
We just got done with our cheap dinner at the hotel bar. They have “Happy Hours” from 5-8 where you get a glass of wine and a buffet of TONS of pizza and pasta. So we just loaded up and called it dinner and 2 glasses of wine! Works for me! I helped Scott hone his presentation and his 30-second “schpeal” for the first session preview of all the day’s talks where everyone gets to present a preview of his or her presentation in 30 seconds. It’s probably about as nerdy as it sounds…
Tomorrow we leave for Venice via the train! Scott has his presentation tomorrow morning before we go and I’m gonna be in the cheering section. Tonight we’re preparing for that and re-rolling our clothes and packing them up in our packs. Fun stuff. We’ll hit the road (er…tracks) around lunchtime after Scott’s talk and hopefully get to do a little sightseeing and walking around in Venice. I’ve been posting blog entries from the conference building where we have access to free wireless, and we’re not sure what we’ll have access to in Venice and Rome (Saturday – Tuesday).
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