Okay guys… Starting now, this blog is going to be my art travel diary as I study abroad in Florence, Italy. Throughout the next two and a half months or so, I get the incredible opportunity to live and study in the heart of Firenze, or Florence, and let me tell you I am already savouring every last moment.
As someone with an extreme passion for the Renaissance, Art, and Architecture, I can’t think of a better place to learn and grow other than the heart of the Renaissance itself. Every single step here is such a weird combination of historic and modern. The western world’s first EVER art academy is here— and right next door? A Clark’s shoe store. The Duomo and St. John’s Baptistry are surrounded by everyday people and stores, completely open to the public.
To aid your sense of imagination, I can’t resist telling you about my apartment. At first glance, its not much. But our location couldn’t be better. The moment I walk out my door, I am greeted with a piazza with everything a college student needs: a gelato place, a coffee shop, and a fun Italian bar. But if I just turn my head a little to my left, the dome of The Duomo is perfectly framed by the rowhouse homes and stone streets of Florence. I can’t wait to write about all I get to visit and learn. I’ve already gotten to study the doors of Saint John’s Baptistry (already planned as my next piece, I don’t want to bore you with a whole novel here), statues of saints from Donatello, the 7 major guilds of Florence as it became a flourishing city, Diberti and his incredible full scale full body bronze sculpture of Saint John (the first of its kind, I might add), and so so much more. The hard part definitely won’t be the writing, it’ll be choosing what to write about. I only have so many posts while I’m here-I have to make them good ones!
For now, please enjoy some of my favorite photos I’ve taken so far, and trust that there are many, many more to come!
