We walked onto our next destination, the Galleria dell'Accademia! The gallery is known for containing one of the greatest sculptures in the world, Michelangelo's David! Everything in the gallery was fantastic but the statue David was the one artwork I spent the most time admiring. We were not allowed to take photographs (but I managed to sneak a picture of the back of David!) so I sat down and sketched parts of David in my sketchbook for about an hour. The statue was much larger than I expected! I figured the statue would stand maybe ten feet at max but in actuality he was about seventeen feet tall! Michelangelo's style was Realism and to better understand the human anatomy he dissected bodies. I found out his oversized right hand symbolizes the hand of God which powered David to kill Goliath. Once I was back to reality I remembered I had a limited amount of time so I tore myself from David to check out the rest of the scenery.
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We strolled to the Uffizi gallery that had halls and halls of artwork from a variety of media. Again I had to remind myself to look up at the ceilings to not miss out on anything. Uffizi was so large that I would have to backtrack because there would be a room I passed. Like I said in a previous blog, I'm quite interested in Greek mythology so I was on a mission to find the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, combing beauty of nature and the human body. I was able to find it! The art piece was a much larger scale than I anticipated! It was so lovely despite the Birth of Venus having a more dull like appearance but that didn't take away much from the Renaissance ideal sense of beauty.
Another piece that caught my attention is the copy of the sculpture Laocoon by Baccio Bandinelli. Laocoon portrays a Trojan priest and his sons being attacked by serpents that have been sent by Neptune. The reason Laocoon was attacked because Neptune was on the side of the Greeks and Laocoon was going to warn not to bring forth the Trojan horse. The serpents intertwined throughout the bodies incorporates movement to keep the eye moving.
Once we had freetime, I figured I'd take up on that offer to go eat at Illtini where they serve you a five course meal. Let me tell you it was difficult to keep up, I was so full by the end and so so exhausted. I could literally fall asleep right then and there. Yet, I'm proud I was adventurous to try different food like yoki, rabbit, and a vast amount of desserts (that wasn't difficult to try ;) ). I can't remember too well but there was a cookie like substance that you would dip in a orange alcoholic drink. Very delicious, wish I could substitute it with something I can find here. Once I was back at my hotel, I chatted with Lindsay, Caitlin, Bailey, Oscar, and Ceasar then passed out.
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