About 2 am Wednesday morning we made it home safely from our long journey. (3 flights over 24 hours, to get home from Florence)
I am going to be processing this trip for a long, long time. Thanks to Mason's semester of art history classes in Italy (see the last midweek Creative Nudge newsletter) we had a tour of Italian art history with Mason as the lecturer, that really altered my perspective of reality as a creative person.
On our last day there, we visited San Marco church and monastery, which is now a museum. It features the life work of a famous Dominican painter, Fra Angelico. He painted frescoes in every monk's cell in the convent, plus more frescoes throughout the complex, including the magnificent Chapter House fresco.
We also visited works by Michelangelo all around the city, which are not on the usual tourist stops when zipping through the city in a daytrip. Having previously seen the great works by Michelangelo (such as the Sistine Chapel, and The David), I enjoyed seeing works like the Pieta (in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo) and the Night/Day and Dawn/Dusk marble figures of the New Sacristy at the Medici Chapel.
I had to go stand in front of his Holy Family (Tondo Doni) painting in the Uffizi again, just because it is one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen up close and personal. Last time I saw it there was no protection – you could lean in and inspect it closely – which was kind of scary. Now there is a plexiglass covering for which I am grateful.
This trip was my 3rd time in Florence, but my first in Venice, and I can hardly put words down about the experience. So I am posting photos from Venezia this weekend and perhaps I can say with images, what can't be expressed with words. To talk about the Light, the colors, the water… would just be cliche. It was great to go in the winter (less tourists), and for New Years Eve (to celebrate with the locals). Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I will try to distill the essence of what inspired me on this trip, and you can see it on my photo page over the next few days or week.
We wish you a New Year full of creative inspiration and visual joy, that takes your breath away and puts a fire in your belly!
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