The Stairs to Purgatorio (and monks and learning and the like)

First off, thank you for all your lovely comments =)


Second off, prepare for a long post. 


Okay, today was DEFINITELY the hottest day so far. I definitely have a ton of new freckles to show for it too! Of course, being the hottest day so far, it was only natural that I would walk up 600 steps today. That's right, 600! I can literally feel my legs tightening. But let's start at the beginning, shall we?


So my roommate discovered the trick to not waking up at sun up and tossing and turning until our alarms go off  -- the trick is to pull down the blinds so the sun doesn't come in and shut the window so we can't hear the carts. Therefore, I ended up sleeping much later (but much happier) than I was supposed to and rushed to go get my latte (always at the same place!). We then met our professor at the Baptistry. Instead of having sit down class today, we had two field trips! She has connections or is just all around spectacular, because we got to go in before anyone -- so we essentially had a private tour. It was glorious. The baptistry is medieval (and we learned about how to distinguish between medieval and renaissance architecture a little) and it was where every Florentine would have been baptized. It's famous for it's doors, but we mainly focused on the inside.
The baptistry looks like this on the outside: 

And  has a ceiling that looks like this on the inside:

The pictures really don't do it justice. Basically it's this HUGE ceiling and this is entirely in mosaic.

I'm truly running out of adjectives to describe things, so for lack of better words I'll just say it was amazing.  Professor Schildgen also explained the entire mosaic to us, which was really cool, because each line tells a story and you read it from left to right, but also from top to bottom. Left to right tells the story and top to bottom draws parallels.  The center represents the eye of God (it's windows). It was incredibly interesting.  We were also able to go up above into the two upper stalls of the baptistry, which was SO AWESOME! 


After that, we made the long trek over to San Miniato, which is on the other side of the river. I feel like if college has taught me one thing, it's how to climb stairs.  I do climb Jan Steps every morning at school, and the spiral staircase in one of our theaters is at least 70 feet up.  Thus, continuing my "education" we hiked up 300 stairs to San Miniato. In the heat of the day. It was hot. Sweating is just a way of life here, I've discovered.  Anyway, San Miniato is a beautiful church with a beautiful view over the city -- it's higher up than piazza Michelangelo.  Apparently Michelangelo actually said that San Miniato was the most beautiful church in Florence.

It's a nice, cool (in terms of heat) church and I learned even more about medieval architecture and design. I also learned the symbols of the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) which is vastly helpful because they show up everywhere! Matthew is the human/angel, Mark the lion, Luke the bull/ox and John the Eagle. I then found out that they do mass every night in Latin. Not only that, but Benedictan Monks live there and they do Gregorian Chants. We had nothing to do that night, so after climbing the 300 steps down, chilling at the apartment for two hours, I climbed the 300 steps back up again.


Let's just say I understand why Dante envisioned these steps as similar to the steps of purgatory. By the time I got to the top I was glistening with sweat and breathing hard, but I only got there with two minutes to spare, so I had to hurry and put on my sweater (to cover my shoulders) which was not really pleasant as it stuck to my arms, and find a seat in the back. Okay, first I thought it was in the main church, but it was really on the lower level (I REALLY wish I spoke Italian) and then I tried my best to be polite and respectful. The chants were beautiful  --- there were six or monks and they all had wonderful voices.  It's funny just because I'm in musical theatre, I guess, but they had a small keyboard to give them their notes! It was a true mix of times.  Also, I got to wondering what their "rehearsals" are like and if they naturally are talented singers.  Anyways, my peace was constantly interrupted by the stress of myself not wanting to be a stupid American/tourist.  This increased tenfold, when many people came in, were loud, sat down, left noisily, and took pictures (when it clearly said "no foto"). One of the monks clenched his jaw every time this happened and seemed to look up to God to grant him patience.  I didn't want to be grouped into that group, even though I am clearly a tourist and not Catholic. . and I hope I succeeded!  The service was mostly chanting, (which was very peaceful when I wasn't stressing out) then some readings in Latin and in Italian.  For the Latin, I could pick up a few words, "something something something good, something something something life, something something something love, something something to be able to, something something thus" but it was still a good experience, although I didn't understand any of it. My favorite part was greeting the people around me and shaking their hands. I didn't know what they said (because it was in Italian), but I just smiled and inclined my head, so I hope it sufficed! I then went and in true Aunt Annie style bought some jam made by the monks there, although I had to guess at what kind it was, which was surprisingly hard! (they also sell honey, which is much more difficult to figure out the kind) I ended up with more, which is blackberry, so I'm quite satisfied! I can't wait to take it back home and try it. 


Another interesting day in Florence =) I feel like I'm learning so much! I love it! Oh! and to apologize for the lack of pictures, here is one of the view of the Duomo framed in the doors of San Miniato.