5/8/10 and 5/9/10

5/8/10
We stayed very busy this weekend! On Saturday we toured the Medici Chapel first in the morning. It was good that Elizabeth gave us our tour the day before because the history she told us about the family was great information to help us understand more of what we saw. The chapel was filled with dark greens, black, and white, complete with statues of some of the important family members with large crowns. Michelangelo had designed much of the room containing the tombs of other Medicis. There were marble sculptures inside the room along with an altar. The monuments were very beautiful, and we all wanted to stay and sketch, but we weren’t allowed to. Next we toured San Lorenzo, which had some more modern paintings than the other places we have visited. Along with that, the walls were a more plain color. It was a nice change of pace and easier on our eyes! There were We had some free time to get lunch, shop, and sketch. Many of us liked using the garden next to San Lorenzo for our subject. When we met back up that afternoon a few of our group were sporting new leather jackets. We got in line and climbed up the tiny, winding staircases to the top of the Duomo. It was amazing to see the fresco of the dome up close on our way. After squeezing a path through the groups coming down, we made it! The view was definitely worth the trip! We could see for miles and took lots of pictures. Once we made our way back down, it was almost time for our potluck. Barbara and Maggie worked together to make us a feast of pesto, spaghetti, spinach ravioli, pumpkin ravioli, bread, and salad. We even had gelato for dessert! After we finished we had our first sketchbook turn in.

5/9/10
Today was our first free day of the trip. We can’t believe we’ve only been gone a week after all that we have seen in that short time! We all braved the train on without Barbara and made it to Pisa to see the leaning tower and take the corny picture of us holding it up. We took another train from there to the beach town of Viareggio. Everyone loved relaxing for awhile on our first day without rain since we got here. The water was cold, but that didn’t stop us! We all left together on another train and came back to Florence for a night of recouping after our tiring day of travel.