garyandpearl

My friend Jennifer told me that when I went to Europe I would become a cultured Pearl! 😉. Today was a day of culture.

Laura and I headed to the Uffizi. It is a 253 year old art gallery that is comprised of many of the personal artwork pieces from the Medici family, the ruling family in Venice in generations past. We saw The Annunciation by DaVinci and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli among hundreds of other pieces. Here are a few of my favourites:

What do you get your family for Christmas when you are a rich banker? Have them painted into the painting of the nativity that is hung in the local cathedral:

Tommaso Portinari

The nativity

His wife and three daughters

I also enjoyed seeing a portrait of Martin Luther and his wife, Katharina.

Meanwhile, Gary and Keanna went to see the Boboli Gardens and Porcelain Museum.

We all got to see the inside of the Santa Maria Novella church today and we climbed the 463 steps of the Dome. This is not an activity for those with claustrophobia issues! It gets pretty narrow near the top!

View from the inside bottom

Closer to the top

On to the Academia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s statue of David. The room that he is in was made especially for this statue, and the lighting and space does an incredible job of featuring this magnificent work. We will be heading to Rome next week to see this artist’s work in the Sistine chapel.

Supper time was a repeat of delicious Florentine sandwiches for 3 euros each, and then we headed to the All Saints church for a free performance. A youth orchestra from Switzerland was performing pieces from Beethoven and Bach along with a classical pianist. It was an incredible experience to hear it performed in this gorgeous church with excellent acoustics.

It was a long day of much culture, and we did end up making our own masterpieces at the Magnum shop: build your own ice cream bars.

With all of the talented work that I saw today, I was reminded that we are God’s masterpieces! I took time today to look at the people that were walking though the exhibits. We are all special and talented in many ways! Go out and use your gifts and thank God for them!