Florence, Italy (May 1-9, 2015)
I have never been very good at smiling with teeth. I don't know what it is, but every time I have tried it always felt forced. This isn't because I have never been happy, but rather because I never had a reason to. I could always get by with the closed-mouth smile that passed through the school photo days and professional head-shots. In the presence of the Duomo, however, that just wouldn't do. I don't know how, but this trip unlocked my toothy-smile potential and gave me a reason to grin. I was in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet!
What struck me about Florence to begin with was how little it has changed throughout the centuries. Most of the original facades are still on buildings like the Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, though they certainly show a little bit of age with pollution darkening their marble surfaces. Immediately after that, however, was how small the town was. I could walk across Florence in an hour. So much culture and so much history all in one concentrated location is something that I am used to taking in. There is history everywhere, but it is never so overtly expressed as it is in Florence.
Some historians argue that the Renaissance was not a true event. It doesn't have a date like the French Revolution or the attack on Pearl Harbor. I wouldn't go as far as denying the Renaissance, but I am inclined to say that to dub one period a "rebirth" is to downplay the progress and innovation of all others. The works of geniuses like Botticelli and Donatello obviously stand the test of time, but since returning from the country I couldn't help but appreciate the little marvels of my daily life more. My house, for instance, is a pre-civil war building. Who is to say that, on a small scale, an encyclopedia's worth of life-changing events have happened in this small locale? Rather than seeing Florence and becoming jaded to things less than Michaelangelo's David, I have constantly questioned why I don't feel the same sense of awe for the small marvels as well as the little ones.
During my trip, most of my time was spent in amazing galleries like the Uffizi and the Vatican Museum. The art will stay with me, but after three trips now of looking at art in one form or another, it is the human interactions that matter more to me. Just like every trip I have been on with University Honors, I feel like a mental image of one local defines it. There was a man in Rome, self-dubbed "Super-Mario", who was born in New Jersey to Italian parents. He flew back to the country of his ancestors after a couple years in the states and started a pizza store. He was loud and bizarre, but was so full of life that I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. He would make jokes about how I should be mortal enemies with the nice Russian couple sitting right next to me. He had crummy images of himself photo-shopped onto the Colosseum as a gladiator. He knew who he was, achieved a small dream, and loved existence. I have seen loneliness, anger, joy, and now pride on my trips across the globe during study abroad.
I can't think of a much better image to conclude my final honors experience than Super Mario.
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Below are three essays detailing my thoughts on how the modern world relates to the Renassiance. Specifically, how patronage has changed, how cults emerge, and how the Medici pioneered modern public relations!
What struck me about Florence to begin with was how little it has changed throughout the centuries. Most of the original facades are still on buildings like the Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, though they certainly show a little bit of age with pollution darkening their marble surfaces. Immediately after that, however, was how small the town was. I could walk across Florence in an hour. So much culture and so much history all in one concentrated location is something that I am used to taking in. There is history everywhere, but it is never so overtly expressed as it is in Florence.
Some historians argue that the Renaissance was not a true event. It doesn't have a date like the French Revolution or the attack on Pearl Harbor. I wouldn't go as far as denying the Renaissance, but I am inclined to say that to dub one period a "rebirth" is to downplay the progress and innovation of all others. The works of geniuses like Botticelli and Donatello obviously stand the test of time, but since returning from the country I couldn't help but appreciate the little marvels of my daily life more. My house, for instance, is a pre-civil war building. Who is to say that, on a small scale, an encyclopedia's worth of life-changing events have happened in this small locale? Rather than seeing Florence and becoming jaded to things less than Michaelangelo's David, I have constantly questioned why I don't feel the same sense of awe for the small marvels as well as the little ones.
During my trip, most of my time was spent in amazing galleries like the Uffizi and the Vatican Museum. The art will stay with me, but after three trips now of looking at art in one form or another, it is the human interactions that matter more to me. Just like every trip I have been on with University Honors, I feel like a mental image of one local defines it. There was a man in Rome, self-dubbed "Super-Mario", who was born in New Jersey to Italian parents. He flew back to the country of his ancestors after a couple years in the states and started a pizza store. He was loud and bizarre, but was so full of life that I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. He would make jokes about how I should be mortal enemies with the nice Russian couple sitting right next to me. He had crummy images of himself photo-shopped onto the Colosseum as a gladiator. He knew who he was, achieved a small dream, and loved existence. I have seen loneliness, anger, joy, and now pride on my trips across the globe during study abroad.
I can't think of a much better image to conclude my final honors experience than Super Mario.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Below are three essays detailing my thoughts on how the modern world relates to the Renassiance. Specifically, how patronage has changed, how cults emerge, and how the Medici pioneered modern public relations!
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