Firenze
There is not a Starbucks in site anywhere in Italy. In fact, there are people in Italy who have never heard of Starbucks. For some reason I find this information comforting. Last year while traveling in the UK, Starbucks was nearly as ubiquitous as in the US, at least in the larger cities. The coffee in the cafes here is delicious, almost always served as a shot of espresso or cappuccino. You won’t find any 1100 calorie frappucinos.
We spent a couple of days in Florence, home of the Medici family. The Medici’s were fabulously wealthy and powerful. The Renaissance was a time when social status and appearances were extremely important (some things don’t change). One of the ways to display wealth was to build and decorate churches and this had the added advantage of currying favor with the Vatican. It also explains the preponderance of religious themed art during this time.
Not only did the Medici’s commission artwork for the city on a scale well beyond that of any other family, they also acquired an enormous personal collection. This collection was donated to the city of Florence in the 1700s and is now housed in the Uffizi Gallery. The Uffizi Gallery is full of paintings by Renaissance artists including Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian, Michelangelo and a roomful of works by Botticelli, including The Birth of Venus.
Florence is not only home to the largest collection of Renaissance art, but it the art itself includes many of the iconic pieces of the Renaissance. One such example is Michelangelo’s David. The original David is housed in a museum called the Accademia. He is 18 feet tall and weighs over 11000 pounds. We have all studied this statue in school, so I don’t need to offer a description. What is astonishing about the statue is its realism starting from the musculature to the veins in the hands. Quite simply, one has the feeling he is alive. We probably saw close to a hundred statues during our stay and none of the others had this quality. I got goose bumps.