Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Statue Time











TOP: Statue of non-nude guy...somebody made a mistake I guess
2nd: Statue of nude guy
3rd:Statue of really famous nude guy
4th: Statue of 2 nude guys...somebody worked overtime on this one
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Firenze was the seat of the Renaissance in Italy, and nobody does the Renaissance like the Medici's! Incredible statues, palaces, and artwork. And one thing those Medici's knew...it was nude guys. Nude guy paintings and statues everywhere. In the palaces, on the streets, in the churches. It's enough to make a catholic priest go into overload!
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We began our Firenze tour by hitting the medici palace. It was an incredible sight to behold, with artwork in every corner of the building, including endless frescoes on the ceilings. It really has to be seen live to be appreciated...pictures just don't do it justice. We then made the "Tour de Churches", hitting numerous "small" ones (equivalent to a cathedral here in the US), and some "big" ones (equivalent to the Pentagon). The main domo was amongst the largest buildings I've ever seen, and easily the largest church by several orders of magnitude. And, outside every church, was old, one-legged, Italian women begging..or sometimes young, pregnant women holding 1 or 2 babies wrapped. Begging is very commonplace in Italy, and was a bit of a shock to our US sensibilities. Here were these incredibly wealthy churches, and yet they let people beg on their doorsteps rather than helping them. WWJD?
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Impressed, but saddened Lumpy out

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