{"id":1256,"date":"2016-03-14T14:52:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T14:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning201314\/?p=1256"},"modified":"2017-11-22T19:10:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T19:10:50","slug":"florence-experience-tough-to-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/2016\/03\/14\/florence-experience-tough-to-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Florence Experience Tough to Beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nathan Bode ’16 – Buonasera da Firenze<\/em>! My name is Nathan Bode, and I am one of the lucky senior Political Science majors visiting Florence over Spring Break. With Comprehensive Exams behind us, the seniors (and lone junior) on the trip have appreciated the chance to get off of campus and explore the Tuscan city and countryside. Don\u2019t let the gelato fool you though \u2013 it\u2019s not all play and no work! I researched and prepared a short presentation to introduce our class to one of Florence\u2019s most iconic pieces of architecture, the Florence Cathedral, or La Catedral de Santa Maria del Fiore. Like constructing the cathedral itself, giving a sufficient introduction to the gargantuan gothic church was no easy feat, and describing the austere power of such a space in a mere blog post will be all but impossible. You\u2019ll just have to take my word for it.<\/p>\n

\"BodeBlog\"<\/a>Santa Maria del Fiore, completed in 1436, contains art and architectural influences from many of the great Medieval Italian artists such as Brunelleschi, di Cambio, and Giotto. The cathedral is located directly across from St. John\u2019s Baptistery, and was one of the first construction projects in Florence designed in two distinct directions: not only anticipating how Santa Maria del Fiore would appear from the Baptistery, but also how the Baptistery would appear from the church. Because the church was funded publicly, rather than commissioned privately, it was to serve as a \u201cchurch of the state\u201d and a church of the people (aka \u201cPeople-Tested, Machiavelli-Approved\u201d). This dramatic change in architectural mentality is also reflected in the impressive fa\u00e7ade of the Cathedral, formed to be viewed at many different angles and approaches, quite literally from many different walks of life.<\/p>\n

Representative of the attempt at a public reclamation of the city\u2019s greatness, the Cathedral dominates the city, particularly \u201cla cupola\u201d or \u201cIl Duomo,\u201d the massive brick dome sitting on top of the church. Decorated on the inside by Vasari\u2019s Last Judgment<\/em> fresco, the dome rises 376 feet and offers a breathtaking view of the city. As Wallies, we were not content to see Florence from ground level, and climbed the 463 cramped, spiraling steps to the top, ducking through stone tunnels and shoulder-width passages. Considering an accompanying senior, Marcus Kammrath, measures 6-foot-8, this was actually a serious task. Whenever the foot traffic to the top would momentarily jam, we would entertain ourselves by reading the many languages of graffiti scrawled in Sharpie around the \u201cDo Not Write On the Wall\u201d signs. After what seemed like hours on an endless StairMaster from Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, we finally completed our hike; we were not disappointed. The panoramic view of the clay rooftops, the bells ringing in Giotto\u2019s bell tower, and the infernal squawking uccelli <\/em>were entirely worth it, and resulted in a high point of the trip (no pun intended) – although I think our legs will certainly be sore for the next month. With a few more days left in Italy, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily downhill from there \u2013 but the trip to the Duomo will be hard to beat.<\/p>\n

Happy travels, Wabash!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nathan Bode ’16 – Buonasera da Firenze! My name is Nathan Bode, and I am one of the lucky senior Political Science majors visiting Florence over Spring Break. With Comprehensive Exams behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-political-thought-in-italy"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/03\/BodeBlog.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}