Shwolf Pack 2011!

Day 33: Tuesday

We woke up and headed over to David in front of Palazzo Vecchio to meet with Rocky for another tour. We sat outside in the Loggia della Signoria for about a half hour while he explained to us the history of Palazzo Vecchio and the Piazza della Signoria. Then we walked over to the sculptures and he told us the history of those. At first the Signoria did not put out sculptures because they were worried about vandalism and the political message it sends. Finally, they put out a lion with a shield with the symbol of Florence on it. A while later, they put out a sculpture done by Donatello of Judith. After, the beloved symbol of republicanism, David, went in the square, but shortly after the Medicis took over and the sculptures became more political and more hated. There is one of Hercules which was given by one of the Medici popes as a message to obey the Medici ruler of Florence. Then, the Neptune fountain appeared. People disrespected it so much they washed their clothes, watered their horses, and pissed in it. After getting a history lesson of the political regimes of Florence through the sculptures outside Palazzo Vecchio, we walked over to the Bargello to see more sculptures. Rocky told us the sculptures we saw in there are the greatest ones ever created in his opinion, but I was not struck by them, even after he explained the stories behind them. We saw two bronze panels created by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti in a contest, from which Ghiberti created a door for the bapistry, which they liked so much they commissioned another, from which came the Gates of Paradise. There were also some Donatello sculptures of David, and Rocky pointed out the strangeness of one in which David is nude and looks very effeminate, and it shows discontinuities in the story of David because Goliath is already dead, but David has the rock in his hand still. Then we went downstairs and saw an early Michelangelo sculpture of Bacchus. We learned the Michelangelo used to sculpt in the style of Roman antiquity, then bury the sculptures for a couple months to age it, then sell them passing them off as Roman originals. One of these ended up in the hands of the Pope, and he found out somehow, and told Michelangelo to make another. The Bacchus was the result of this, but it was rejected because it depicts Bacchus as drunk, which was controversial because Roman Gods are supposed to be above human imperfections, but what do you expect from the God of wine?! After that we were free to go, so Elli and I went home, napped, read, and ate. We had class at 3pm, but it only lasted an hour and a half because everyone, including Petrie, was exhausted. After class we bought stamps, dropped our stuff off at home, then walked to the train station to buy our tickets for Cinque Terre this weekend. We had to wait in line for forever, but we finally got our tickets for €18 round trip. Then we picked up some juice and soy bean oil (because it was cheaper than olive oil), then went home and started making dinner. I made scrambled eggs, and Elli made some mozzarella sticks-type things that we bought, and they were delicious. After dinner we hung around for a bit, then started getting ready to go out with Kari for a shwolf pack night, since we don’t have class until 1pm tomorrow. When we finally got ready we decided to go back to the Karoke place, and on our way we ran into them filming Jersey Shore. It was annoying because they were blocking the road and we had to walk all the way around. After a while we got bored of that place and went back to our regular place, the Old Stove. We weren't there long before we decided to go home.