Progenitors of the Kool-Aid Man

Florence has a round bottom. If you're thinking, "What?!" then you are not a chemist (meaning chemist and not meaning pharmacist.) But chemists, you feel me, right? Pharmacists probably understand what I mean too. In chemisty, a lot of glassware is used: graduated cylinders, beakers, and flasks. There are many types of flask, the most commonly known being an Erlenmeyer flask which has a conical shape and a flat bottom. But there is also a Florence flask which has a spherical shape, and one way to remember which is which is the phrase "Florence has a round bottom."

The symbol of Florence isn't named Florence. He's named David.

This is probably insulting to people named Florence, discouraging anyone with that appellation from serious study of chemistry. That explains the dearth of Nobel Laureates in Chemistry named Florence. But the Florence flask wasn't named in an effort to make fun of Florences. It was named for the city of Florence, Italy.

That was a roundabout (and round bottomed) path for bringing up the subject of our visit to Florence. This is appropriate because of the interesting path that Alrica and I took to get there. We started in San Marino. We planned to take a bus to the train station in Rimini. From there, it was supposed to be a train to Bologna and then another train to Firenze (which is the Italian name of Florence.) The bus trip went exactly as planned. But when we got to the train station and bought tickets, we were given another option.

To get from Rimini, which is on the Adriatic coast, over to Florence, you have to cross the Appenino Tusco-Emiliano Mountains. The train from Bologna to Florence would do so. But our ticket kiosk suggested the fastest route was to take a train to a smaller town called Faenza. There we would board a bus which would go up into the mountains, following the passes along the Lamone River, and drop us at a town called Marradi. And there we would board a different train which would take us over and at times through (in tunnels) the mountains, arriving in Florence. We could also take the original route, but it would cost way more and get us in later. That didn't make a lot of sense to us, so we shrugged and said, let's do it.

Do not enter - artistically

The bus ride through the mountains was scenic. We were in the passes, but sometimes up on the mountains above you could see a castle or a large church looming over the villages.

And that was just getting to Florence! We had a lot of great fun in Florence. We also had a lot of great food in Florence. We had two different types of sandwiches, one more of a panini, the other on schiacciata. That's a flat bread made without salt that is like a thinner focaccia. And pasta? Well, yes, we had pasta. That we made ourselves!

Masterful Ravioli Chefs

We took a cooking class. It was very informative. One thing we learned: In Florence, they never use salt in any of their cooking. Why? Well, long ago, the government of Pisa imposed a huge tax on salt to the people of Florence. So the Florentines said, "Screw that. We just won't use salt from now on." And that's still their tradition today. (Though you can find salt in the grocery store.)

First, we made tiramisu, which is a lot easier than I would have ever thought it was. Because the class often draws children, this tiramisu was sans alcohol. But it was excellent nonetheless. We also made our own pasta, starting with flour and eggs. We then used a "machine" to roll the dough into thin sheets. You can see the machine in the picture above, just under the board holding our ravioli. Half our sheets became ravioli with a ricotta-spinach filling. The other half became tagliatelle. We used a different setting on the machine to cut the sheets into the ribbon-like tagliatelle strips. And of course we got to eat our own creations. The ravioli was served in a simple butter and sage sauce. The tagliatelle was served in a tomato sauce. The tiramisu was served without any additional sauces. I must say, we are amazing pasta makers!

We also took a night time "ghost" tour of the city. This wasn't so much about ghosts (though it had a couple of ghost stories) as much as who assassinated who in the history of Florence. The general rule of these stories is either the murderer or the murderee is a member of the Medici family. Sometimes, both. We saw a stone in the street where Dante Alighieri was born that has his profile in it. And that stone is always wet, even in the summer (or so we are told.) Why? Because of Dante's tears apparently.

That's Ferdinando de Medici, one of the murderers. (He murdered his brother.)

No trip to Florence would be complete without seeing some art. We saw some. We went to the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze. This is actually an art school that has a museum. The idea was to have works by the great masters that the students could learn from, try to copy, try to understand.

At Galleria dell'Accademia, we got to see something very uncommon. It was the clay model of a sculpture called The Rape of the Sabines. There are a couple of interesting aspects to this. First, a lot of artists make clay models before they sculpt. But rarely do those clay models survive. Having one that did survive is an incredibly rare instance. Even more rare, this one is the same size as the final sculpture. Often clay models are scaled down version of the work to be carved in stone. One interesting fact we learned about The Rape of the Sabine Women is that it isn't about the rape of the Sabine women. (If you don't know the story, the Roman soldiers were conquering lands and needed wives. So they went into the lands of the nearby Sabines and just carried off the women.) The sculpture shows three figures all twisted together. There is a crouching old man, over him is a leaning young man, and in the young man's arms is a young woman. The entire sculpture twists around like a helix. The artist, Giambologna, was trying something new, to make three figures that could be structurally sound on one base. But he did not have any story of Roman soldiers in his mind when creating the sculpture. He left it unnamed. He didn't care about the name of the sculpture at all. At various points in the process, he had different working titles like "Paris and Helen" or "Pluto and Proserpina". After the sculpture was finished and ready for display, it upset the elite of Florence that it didn't have a title. So a committee decided what to call it, not Giambologna.

David (and Alrica)

Now, the most famous work in the Galleria dell'Accademia is Michelangelo's David. It is deserving of its fame. The anatomy is incredibly real and precise. David looks so lifelike (except he is 17 feet tall.) We learned some interesting facts about David too. For example, he is anatomically correct in all things but one. There is one missing muscle on his back, just at the shoulder blade on his right side. This wasn't a mistake by Michelangelo. Rather, while carving it, there was a flaw in the marble at this point, so there was no way Michelangelo could make that muscle.

Unfinished Piece by Michelangelo

Michelangelo worked on David for three years and wouldn't let anyone see his work as he was in progress. While he was doing so, it was decided that David would go on the roof of a church in Florence. But when David was revealed there were three problems. First, the statue is 12,500 pounds. So they didn't have a good way to lift it. Second, though the priests agreed it was a masterpiece, David is particularly naked. The priests didn't really want an exposed marble penis on the top of their church. Third, the majesty of David is in the details. Putting it way up high would hide all of that from the viewer. Instead it was placed at the entrance to the Palazza della Signoire, the town hall of Florence. It was there for over three-hundred years, but got damaged. Eventually it was moved into the museum where it is now. In fact, the museum was built for the David.

Another unfinished piece

As you walk to the David in the museum, you walk past several other sculptures that Michelangelo started, but didn't finish. They were commissioned for the tomb of a Pope (by the Pope while he was still alive.) Michelangelo believed that the sculpture already exists inside the stone and it is the artist's task to free it, to let it out. These sculpture seem very modern, because Michelangelo didn't finish them. It looks like figures trying to emerge from the stone, trying to break through, but still captured in the block of marble. Alrica described them as "progenitors of the Kool-Aid Man." And all I can say to that is "Oh yeah!"

Florence is a city to which I would very much like to return. I feel there is a lot left to explore, more to see, more to learn. And maybe, just maybe, I will find out if Florence really does have a round bottom. Oh yeah!