L'arte italiana

When I had my five week orientation class in November, one of the classes was dedicated to signing up for classes. We didn't have a plethora of options, but regardless, we had several. Once class that instantly caught my attention of Italian Art. I've always enjoyed the topic, but I haven't taken any courses in art.

I am beyond thrilled that I decided to take this course. On Tuesdays we stay in the classroom and learn about different arts and what they mean and then Thursdays we go out into Florence and see "in real life" what we learned on Tuesdays.

This week we learned about Saint Francis of Assisi and how the Franciscan church came to be. Today we went to Santa Croce, which is actually right by my apartment. Since I went with the class, I was able to get in for free instead of paying the five euro admission fee. Now, I'm sure the money came from my tuition somehow, but I'm still happy I didn't have to use my spending money.

The paintings and sculptures were absolutely beautiful. The most fascinating fact I learned today was that this church holds the burial tombs for Michelangelo and Gallileo. To think two men who I have read about in textbooks in class are buried in what is basically my backyard, is mind boggling.

Here's some interesting facts I learned about this church:

-Santa Croce was built in 1294 and the architect is to be unknown.

-When this church was built in the 13th century there were two rich families who patron the church. In order to patron the church you would buy chapels where you would be buried. The second richest family of the 13th century actually owned the buildings where my apartment is.

-There are tombs in the ground of the church and you can see them outlined on the floors. Some of them are family tombs, meaning families have one grave. If you see an oval-like shape on the tomb, there are two hooks that turn to open the oval. Once the oval is open the bodies would be slid down through there. Two years after the deaths, someone would go down into the tomb through the oval and gather all of the bones and put them in one corner. This made room for more family bodies when other died.

-It is in the Catholic faith that on judgement day if your body is all in one place, you will be able to get to heaven faster. This is why the people would put all the bones in one corner of the tomb two years after death.