Our first Friday in Florence started off with class at 9:00am. The topic of class was the Renaissance and its impact on architecture and engineering. Levi, Malaki, and Tommy had their presentation today where they spoke about the Renaissance time period and some of the various contributors of the time such as Leonardo da Vinci. They also had a very interesting activity that helped the class bring out our artistic sides. The activity pushed us all to use our creative abilities when coming up with a new invention. While making our “next greatest invention”, they asked the class to also use their non-dominant hand in order for us all to think like da Vinci! Here is a photo of us holding our drawings in our new classroom here in Florence.

We then analyzed two pieces of art: The Fortune Teller and The Pantheon. This was done in six different perspectives: historical, theoretical, analytical, contextual, stylistic, and experiential perspective. Each perspective offers a different lens into the artwork along with the significance of influential elements that were present at the time it was made. Here are the two pictures that we analyzed as a class:

After class the group split up to embark on their own adventures of the city! All of our tickets from yesterday were still valid to use today (our Brunelleschi Pass or the ticket from the dome) so we were able to visit other sites such as the Bell Tower, Baptistery, Museum, and Santa Reparata. Others also ventured to explore the leather shops and other outdoor shops in the city!

-Rabia, Olivia, & Tommy