Rome via Brooklyn

My day trip to Florence was one of the most hectic, exciting and stressful days of my entire trip in Italy so far. Me and Fannie got up bright and early, still not knowing if we were gonna go. We decided that Saturday was the best day as many of the activities we wanted to go to might be closed on Sunday for religious reasons. We made our way to the Roma termini on the bus to catch our high speed train at 10:10.  We left more than enough time to get there and figure out where to go but little did we know there was a massive parade of bikers would be right in the way of our route to the train terminal. We got off the bus completely stressed trying to figure out what to do. Fannie made the decision to take a uber even though it would cost 50 euros! Even with the uber we still would make it in time but luckily i was able to switch our train ticket to a train at 10:35.

When we finally arrived in Florence we decided to head to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The exterior of the church was beautiful, it was immensely detailed with fresco paintings depicting various events in the bible and statues depicting Jesus and saints from the bible.

We had to stand in a long line to enter the church for free but luckily it moved pretty fast so we didn’t have to wait too long. Entering the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore we entered a large open room with even more incredible statues and fresco. There were also some incredible stained glass windows throughout the cathedral. Personally I’ve always loved stained glass for its collage-like design and its ability to use light to emphasize certain elements of the art piece. Towards the back of the cathedral was arguably the best piece of art in the whole cathedral. Right on the underside of the dome at the highest point of the church was a fresco titled “The Last Judgment.” It was created by artist Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari.

Here is quote by the Cathedral of Santa Maria website describing what is being shown in the last judgment fresco:  “the angelic hierarchies stand out, each bearing one of the instruments of the Passion. (It was in this ring that Vasari stopped his work, making way for Zuccari.) Below this there are several families of Saints and the Elect (martyrs, apostles, virgins, others); proceeding downward, these stand above triads of personifications, each presenting a Christian Virtue flanked on one side by a Gift of the Holy Spirit and the other by a Beatitude”

After the cathedral me and Fannie decide to stop for gelato before heading to the uffizi gallery. We weren’t able to secure tickets beforehand as they were sold out online so we had to wait in another line just to buy our tickets. This line was a lot slower but it was untimely worth it to see all the amazing art pieces in the art gallery. Both me and Fannie were immensely tired after walking around Florence and being in the sun all day but we knew we had . Sadly we were not able to see the room dedicated to the hermaphroditus as it was currently closed to the public. Still we got to see a lot of other amazing pieces. Notably we saw the birth of Venus by Botticelli, Medusa by Caravaggio, Judith slaying holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, along with many other incredible paintings and sculptures from the renaissance period. Personally, the piece by Artemisia Gentileschi was my favorite, having first learned about its story in my art history class. It depicts Artemisia Gentileschi as Judith slitting the throat of the man who sexually assaulted her, as holofernus. Here is a quote from Wikipedia describing the biblical event the painting was based on: “The subject takes an episode from the deuterocanonical Book of Judith in the Old Testament, which recounts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite heroine Judith. The painting shows the moment when Judith, helped by her maidservant Abra, beheads the general after he has fallen asleep in a drunken stupor.”

After the art gallery we decided to walk across the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The view from the bridge was beautiful and it was really cool to see all the jewelry shops with medieval esthetics. 

After exiting the bridge we started hearing a loud music that you’d could feel in your chest. We decided to follow the source of the music and discovered a parade/protest playing EDM music. We weren’t sure what they were protesting but it seemed to be related to antifascism and possibly pro palatine. There were a lot of punk and queer people at the parade so we decided to follow them and walk along with the parade. There was a trans flag attached to one of the vans in the parade which made me feel welcome amongst strangers even though we didn’t speak the same language. We walk for a good mile at least, getting sprayed with water to cool us down, listening to the music blasting out the back of each one of the trucks in the parade and hearing people scream on megaphone in protest.