Firenze and Castelfiorentino

Buongiorno tutti!
Yesterday was a tremendous day filled with yet more sights and songs – when will it ever stop? I am David Brand, a junior classics major and music minor transforming our experiences of yesterday into words for you today.
After a relatively generous time for sleep we assembled in the lobby of the religious institute and set out for the Galleria dell’Acadamia on foot. We waited in line for several minutes upon arrival, tolerating and in some cases buying from the street vendors who were selling copies of paintings of magnificent views of the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno.
Finally we entered l’Acadamia and stepped into a gallery filled with century-old instruments: basses with three strings, ancient violins, a guitar/piano – a small lute-like instrument with 5 strings, mostly double-strung and with the same number of keys on its side where a modern electric guitar might have a volume and tone control dials – harpsichords with open soundboards with wide wooden bases and metal tuning prongs forming slight semi-circles like marble columns framing a huge piazza.
After we had our fill trying out the three-note harpsichord plucking action the museum had constructed for hands-on learning purposes, we made our way to a large hall lined on either side with half-finished statues carved from marble. At the other end of the hall loomed Michelangelo’s statue of David, a magnificent oeuvre which completely enraptured me to the point of forgetting the existence of the statues I was passing in my excitement to see the real David up close. After I took in the David, I went back to the half-carved statues. They were eerie human figures climbing out of a large piece of marble anthropomorphizing before the viewer’s astonished eyes.
Michelangelo’s true love was sculpting and his David shows unbelievable classical realism. From the poise and anticipation shown by the left half-bent knee and the right hand cocked against the thigh, to the small detail of the veins and tensing muscles, the David is worthy of having two copies (at least) in public places in Firenze.
One other sculpture is worth noting; in an adjacent room was exhibited (among other works) a statue, whose subject was a shoe. Much comment was made in reference to Paul’s arrangement of the Fats Waller tune we are singing, entitled “Your Feet’s Too Big”. The song contains the following lyrics: “carved out of stone there’ll be one great big shoe!” We were pretty excited about that shoe, even though it was cast of bronze.
After l’Academia we had free time. Most of us ate at one of Firenze’s many pizzerias and restaurants and then took naps. I managed to see Florence’s synagogue, a magnificent sight. After so many churches, it was a refreshing change (not that I was getting bored with so much going on!) to see a synagogue. However, if I had not been prepared for seeing a synagogue and hadn’t seen signs, I would have, at first glance mistaken the building for a church! The high dome with smaller spired domes flanking it gave the building an ornate feeling I was not expecting of a synagogue. The inside was patterned with colorful contoured designs on the walls that crawled up forty feet, and the floors were of colored marble with a Star of David pattern.
At 6, we traveled an hour by bus to the town of Castelfiorentino where we ate dinner in a large restaurant and changed after into our concert dress. We then walked one minute to the 11th century church where an ornate and golden “coffee grinder” of a shrine served as a background for our last concert of this tour. We were grateful for the Monteverdi choir of the town for performing three pieces before us, which were incredible – their small size (about 20) did not mean they gave a small performance – the pieces they sung were done so with tremendous agility and subtlety. The last piece they performed was composed by their own director and was astonishing. It was such an enjoyable piece for us all and – quite to our astonishment – Paul managed to successfully request the piece for our own chorale next year!
We performed most of our repertoire, and did not fail to send shivers down my spine, not least with the stunning ending of our finale, “Ezekiel Saw de Wheel”.
We exchanged gifts with the Monteverdi choir and upon opening their hefty present after the concert we found ourselves with a large quantity of instrumental and vocal performances of baroque, classical, and romantic music on CDs (I’m not sure there was any contemporary…)!
We traveled back to Florence and arrived around midnight at our rooms filled with the wonderful times we’ve had on this incredible trip and fell asleep with dreams of Lake Como in the morning.

Getting hungry and starving for more of Italy,
David