Vacanza in Italia

Italy was a vacation of awe with art, architecture, music and countryside, all rolled into one trip over spring break

First it was Florence - highlights-  Vasari's fresco on the ceiling of Brunelleschi's Duomo , Michelangelo's David, da Vinci interactive museum with his inventions, Uffizi museum (too many magnificent works of art) and the Medici chapel (Donatello sculptures). You can just stare for hours at the profound simplicity of the scenes and the thoughts the David statue evokes. And the exterior sculptures of many of the buildings were quite breathtaking as was the Neptune fountain. 

 As delightful as the Uffizi museum  was, the sheer volume of art became too overwhelming at some point (too much awe!!) so had to leave after 2 hours(i guess there is a limit to a person's ability for "accommodation" /cognitive shift aspect of awe, which made me think of what some autistics had written about in my awe study). But did manage to see a good part of the museum, Botticelli a definite favorite. 

Day in Tuscany- Siena (cathedral with black white striped Moorish influence architecture), the medieval town of San Gimignano (claims world's best gelato and tower houses - one room per floor, tall and narrow) and Pisa (climbed to top of leaning tower). 

Venice was delightfully unique indeed with its canals and quite different from Florence. But extremely crowded with tourists. Highlights were the gondola ride, the vaporetto rides, snacking by the waterfront,  the ceiling of St Mark's cathedral with its byzantine influence, frescos in the Doge's palace, and a Vivaldi 4 seasons concert.  I totally noticed my mouth open, jaw drop as I was listening to Vivaldi, quite mesmerizing, and it was like my body became still, and out of body feeling (the physiological sensations associated with awe).

We also took a day trip to islands in venetian lagoon- Murano ( glass making, somehow not so awed, over commercialized) , Burano (saw an old lady make lace as well as a whole bunch of pigeons trying to cleverly outwit each other over a piece of sandwich I accidentally dropped) and Torcello which had a lovely Roman chapel, only 10 residents but a few hundred tourists.

Planned to visit Verona (of Shakespeare fame) not happen as covid travel test arrangements took up good chunk of day. 

Have to wonder why Euro door knobs are in middle of door instead of to the side. Was it all about aesthetics of a symmetrical pleasing look. Turns out that the central placement of a door know provides greater leverage and ease of use, especially in the larger/heavier doors and it makes it more difficult for intruders to open the door as force must be applied directly to the center of the door rather than at the edge where the lock is located. 

I held up the Tower of Pisa

With a tilt and a twist, like Galileo's wrist

Galileo throwing objects from the top

Law of falling bodies nonstop.