Michael's Journey

Well Florence has been awesome, i'm staying at a camping site which is ok, i'm sharing a room with and Isreali guy who is pretty cool.
the best part and probably the cause for huge bias is that it's sunny, everywhere else it ahs been raining and just plain ugly weather and now it sunny and clear skies, i'm sooooo happy.
well I arrived two nights ago, so i didn't see that much that day, but yesterday i saw a LOT, well it felt like a lota anyway.
I went to the main church in Florence, (santa maria di fiore) i think, anyway that was closed (on a sunday) so I headed to the baptistery where I was expecting to see Magdalene by Donatello (turns out the wooden statue was washed out in a flood) and was then moved. anyway the mosaics and ceiling were really impressive, next I went to the doumo museum (houses all the art that was in the baptistery and the chapel ) And a lot of other stuff.

Inside were ancient roman carvings and statues, the Pieta by Michaelangelo (the one he started carving for his own tomb but never finished, for reasons unknown) [REALLY amazing (self portrait in Nicodemus) beautiful lines and expressions uncompleted as it is]
Also there was a lot of Gothic pieces, and Magdalene by Donatello, that statue was amazing, beautifula nd scary and mournful and full of fear all at the same time, Donatello sure knew his stuff. I really regret not spending more time looking at those two, but I didn't want to loose the whole day.

Anyway I also went to the Academia Galleria, which house none other than the da da da DAVID, it is INCREDIBLE it is awesome, even when yo know that the hands are huge (compared to the body) it looks perfect. It is absolutely massive it is truley magnificent, overwhelming and beautiful and yeah just awesome.
There was also Michaelangelos prisoners, St. Mark, and a pieta originally accredited to him (not really up to his standard, Christ's chest is on several bottles of steriods and his legs are too short) anayway all of these are uncompleted.

Also there is the annuciation by Fillipo Lippi, which I quite like.
Anywya I have to go, i'm going to try and see the Medici Chapel, and some other stuff, the galleries are closed today so i've gotta e in line early tomorrow for those.

Pasta La pizza

Hey all i arrived in rome yesterday didn't take me that long to find a place to stay, only 20euro (40 NZD don't want to know how much that is in Rand) So I got to see some sights yesterday, I took the metro and went to see the Colosseum, which was WAY more impressive than I'd anticipated. It is SOOOO huge and well made, I spent a while walking around trying to imagine the sounds and smells of a working Colosseum (complete with hawkers, animals, slaves, ect.)
THen I headed up past the archiological sites which I would have liked to spent more time looking at, but it was raining quite heavily and I had none of the history of them that I would be really interested in. Next I made my way to the grave of the unknown soldier, an absolutely massive building, with lots of statues. I also found the Trevi fountain which was very impressive.

Today I organised my second night's stay (the original place was fully booked) so I got a place down the road [cheaper and less people to share with]

Next I tried to do some of the angels and demons spots, I manages to hit St. Peters (I spent 30 minutes waiting to go inside and 35 minutes inside) It was actually quite dissapointing, almost nothing was well lit and there were so many dumb tourists and no signage telling you what was what. I went to The Popolo Piazzle but the church from the book was closed until 16:00 so I looked around the area and found a da Vinci expo, which had reconstructions of a lot of his inventions, the only dissapointments were that once agin, not enough explanation, and that the inventions weren't made really nicely, most of the time they only used one type of plank for all of the construction, even the flying machines, but it was quite interesting to see some of his more obscure stuff. I was very tempted to buy a book on his designs but I'll wait till I find one where the price isn't inflated by it's location.

I also saw the Castle and the fountain (water) the fountain was really cool but not how I imagined it at all. Anyway my time is running low. I head to florence tomorrow after I spent the moring seeing the Vatican. Asta La Vista

Well I went sight seeing today (nice and sunny compared to yesterday where I spent most of the day trying to find accomodation and then sleeping) We only got off to a late start, one of the girls who was sharing my room wanted to see some of the same stuff, so we went together (booking tickets to Roma on the way there) First of all was breakfast, always very important. At about 11 we made our way to the Peggy Guegenhiem house, where she lived and collected art (modern) now it is a gallery open to the public, 5Euro for a student entry, Anyway i got to see Picasso's, Dali's, a room full of Jackson Pollocks and a lot of other Really good artist that I hadn't heard of. That was really cool, I didn't get a lot of the art there but I saw it and liked a LOT of what I saw.
After that she changed her plans so we spilt up, I headed to the Academia Galleria, which is full of renaisance and baroque art, I was feeling pretty ill after only a while in, so i did not spend all the time I could have appreciating the works, there was a fair bit by Titian and some others that I recently read about in my Aunt's 'history of art' this time I got set back 6.5 Euro. By the time I left I was feelign wretched, I think a fun combination of caffine withdrawl (hadn't had tea yet) and Dehyration (couldn't bear to finish the small bottle of sparkling mineral i got with my breakfast) So I tried to find a reasonably priced cafe so I had to walk a while so i was far from any big sites. Eventually i was able to purchase a pot of tea (which I got four cups from, mmmmmmm) now feeling considerably better but still not 100% I left for the Church of Santa Maria something something ( a franciscan church) I bought a ticket and an audio guide this time which set me back 4.10 Euro. Inside the church are two HUGE paintings by Titian a Tryptich? by Bellini and Donatello's St John, Also there is the tomb of Titian, which is very impressive and the tomb of Carlo?? i think which he'd orinally designed for Titian's tomb but was never carried out, so this Carlo's students amde it for him, across from titians and is also very impressive.

I've heard from some kiwis over here that the railways are striking on monday and sunday so I'm not sure i'l either only stay over-night in Rome and get a traint o florence on saturday or stay till tuesday or get a bus, hopefully it's just the vencice rome route but I doubt that. Anyway it'll work out somehow.

I must say I was really impressed by Donatello's St John, It is a painted wood and shows John Really realistically, he looks like he's been eating locusts and honey. anyway I gotta go there are some people waitng to use the free internet provided by my hotel.

Hope you are all well and my sickness goes away, i think i'm either getting a lashing of tonsilitis (would be for the second time on this trip) or the flu.

Live long and prosper.