we have seen so much art and architecture in the past 5 days. We are a little tired of being tourists. It makes me appreciate being a student here and not feeling like we need to see so much in a short time. However, I have found some places I really like and others that just overwhelm me. In Firenze, there is an often overlooked church called San Lorenzo. It was the Medice family's church. It was designed by Filippo Bruneleschi and it is all based on geometry. The colors are gray and white marble. In it, people spoke softly and showed great respect for the buliding.
Here's what I don't like: the duomo (cathedral) in Siena. It is very gothic and covered in green and white marvel in a striped pattern. Siena is a hilltown, and they were competing with all the other cities to build the biggest church. So they started on the church and ran out of room. Most cathedrals and church's here in Europe are built on the pattern of the cross, but they only had room to build the long part of the cross on the top of the hill. Nonetheless, it is very ornate, too ornate one might say. It looks like it is wearing striped pajamas.