Tempio dell'Itale Glorie

Let me just start by saying that I may start drinking coffee on a regular basis. So far I have not had any other than that one cappuccino from the first weekend, but I could definitely use a pick me up. And since my tastes for other foods are changing, perhaps that will as well. I might just need to find the right balance of milk and sugar.

Which is exactly how my day started off. I woke up and got ready for the day and went to have breakfast. Having finished all of the berry yogurt, the time finally came for me to eat the naturale (natural) yogurt. Now, for those of you that don't know, this does not mean plain as in vanilla. This means natural, as in NO FLAVOR/SUGAR/YUMMINESS! This I did know before hand. Perhaps it was that my previous trip to Italy was a few years ago that I forgot exactly how it tasted. (I did remember that I did not like l'aqcua fizzante - basically seltzer water. I did however try it again just for the sake of giving it a second chance. My dislike for that has not changed.) Back to the yogurt. I finished my wonderful Nestle cereal (who doesn't love chocolate for breakfast?) and proceeded onto my yogurt. I took a great big spoonful, which I immediately wanted to spit out. It is very bitter! However, I was in front of my host mother, so I forced myself to swallow it. I sat there thinking about what I was going to do. There were more in the fridge for the rest of the week! I looked around the kitchen and contemplated what to add to it. I took a long hard look at the nutella, but could not bring myself to put the nutella through such a suffering! Instead I took the sugar container. For those of you who ever come upon this problem- 3 teaspoons of sugar in your yogurt naturale, and it will be delicious!! I happily finished the rest and was licking my spoon!

After breakfast I packed my bag for school and headed out!
Today was my Literature class. First we discussed the readings we had done for the week which focused on Italy, Florence, and Santa Croce (a church in Florence). After our discussion we headed out to spend the rest of class in Santa Croce. After about a ten minute walk we were standing in the church we had been reading about all week! Both of our readings made the church seem very plain (calling it a barn) and boring. I however thought that it was very beautiful, even if it wasn't as ornate as some other churches. But I will let you decide for yourself.

Basicila di Santa Croce- Basicilica of the Holy Cross is the largest Franciscan church in the world. There's 16 chapels. I only saw a few.

This is one of the chapels painted by Giotto. (The Bardi Chapel) Giotto painted four of the chapels for four different families. This one has the famous frescoes that depict St. Francis and his life.

At the bottom of the picture you can see that the walls are bare. This is because the frescoes were ruined during the flood in 1966. (Remember the picture from the other day that showed the height of the water?) The empty spots above, (in the middle of the picture) are parts of the frescoes that were ruined from the humidity.

This is Santa Croce from the outside.  (It was rainy today, so this isn't my picture.)

The façade was not originally apart of the church. It was added later, by Jewish builders/architects. (Which is why you see the Star of David at the top.)

This was Santa Croce after the flood.

 

There are MANY graves throughout the entire church. If your family or yourself was not rich enough to pay for a chapel to be built/painted in your honor, you paid for a tomb in the floor, which was cheaper. Many of them had raised surfaces, which have been worn down. (This is why some now have ropes around them to prevent people from walking on them.)

So you may be interested in the title of today's blog.

Tempio dell'Itale Glorie. This is what Santa Croce can sometimes be referred to.

It means Temple of the Italian Glories.

It is called this because many great Italians are buried in Santa Croce. Many people will go to the church in the hopes of being inspired by the greats.

 

I only took photos of the ones who I knew.

This is Machiavelli's tomb.

There were many beautiful paintings throughout the church.

This is Dante's memorial. He is not actually buried in Florence, despite being from Florence. He was exiled to Ravena, because he supported the Roman Empire, not the Pope. He died in Ravena, and is now buried there. Currently Florence is trying to fight to have his body returned to Florence. (Obviously Ravena does not want to do this, because his tomb is a tourist attraction for them.)

There is also a very large statue of Dante outside of the church. I will have to go back when it's sunny for better pictures of the outside.

This is Michaelangelo's tomb. It was absolutely beautiful.

This is Galileo's tomb.

 

 

This is the view from the back of the church.

Currently the front of the church is undergoing a lot of restorations, so you can't see what it really looks like.

This was a poster hanging on the side of the scaffolding talking about the work being done.

This is what the church would normally look like up by the altar.

Very detailed!

You can see why the chuch might have been refered to as a barn. But if you stare at the beams long enough you could see they were actually very detailed with patterns and colors. (I would assume they were painted.)

After class I returned home and worked on my homework. This evening I had my whole family helping me with my Italian homework! It was quite funny! Dinner was delicious! We had a minestrone soup. (Not the kind you would think of. It had more of a creamy consistency, not like a usual broth.) Then my host brother cooked some salmon. I tried a tiny bite! Then we had a delicious something. I was told what it was, but I have no idea how to spell it. It was some kind of torta. There was a very flaky and buttery crust on the top and bottom and the filling was spinach and cheese. They said that it is usually a food that you have around Easter time. It was wonderful.

Well that is all for tonight! A domani!