Escapisms

We wree woken up at 7am by the Belgiuns making a hell of a lot of noise. I got up at 8.30am and had breakfast at 9am. We all met downstairs at 9.30am and we were left as group B. We started off by working out the dates for Michaelangelo and Tom tried to tell us that he (Mike) was 110 when he died ie 1464 – 1575 where as in fact the end two are switched around. So we headed off again to San Lorenzo. We sat on the steps outside as we were told a little more about the history with the following roles; Lindsay – Fuckwit, Sue- Charles V, Me – Michaelangelo, Toby – Saveronolia, Bettina – Poggio, Katrina – Clement VII, Claire – Louis 9th. We then went in and had a look at the New Sacristy by Michaelangelo. These have the two tombs in with nihgt, day, twilight and dusk on with people being Lorenzo d’Medici and Guliano d’Medici. We were all able to go down even further to see where Michaelangelo hid during one of the wars and doodled on the walls. I took photos but they may not come out. After that we went for a quick coffee break. After that we went to the Laurentine Library which was just above the cloisters of San Lorenzo. It too was by Michaelangelo. The lava like staircase is incredible and the compact architectural devices were incredible. We had a quick look in the library and at the far end saw some manuscript books which were from the time that we were studying – an ansoloutly incredible sight.

From there we went to the Academia where we had to queue for roughly 20 mins which wasnt too bad, and it wasand it was the time when I really badly needed the loo and was running around everywhere asking for one. In the Academia we saw the huge David and the unfinished slaves which I managed to get photos of, an incredible sight – some magnificent pieces of work were going to coe out of those blocks of marble. We then headed back to the hotel. Katrina went to bed becuase she wasnt feeling great and stayed there for the rest of the day and night. Toby, Bettina, Tom and I all had lunch in the cafe next door to the hotel which was delicious, I had mashed potato and lamb chop which unfortunatly there was not much of and I had a tiramisu for pudding. Just as we had finished lunch it was time for us to move again. This time we were with Charlie and we headed off to the Duomo. It was absoloutly packed with people – mainly Japanese. Inside I found the building actually quite ugly. We saw a Ucello fesco and an Andrea del Castiagno fresco of the condottiore’s. I managed to take photos. We looked at the perspective and found it wasnt grreat on Viello’s but slightly better on the other one. We then decided that that was enough in there and went to the Campanile where we went up to the top. After a hell of a lot of huffing and puffing and ‘long way to go yet love’. We all finally made it and my word was it worth it. The view was fantastic. Toby and I busily happy snapped and I managed to get one of the group on top ie just group B minus me & Katrina which was quite fun. We came back down and went in search of a football which Toby wanted. We came back, brought a botte of wine on the way and played a bit of football on the balcony with Toby winning 4-3 when some stuffy idiots asked us to stop. He was determined to be unbeaten. We went down to the bar and came back again as I decided that I needed to write about some of this. We went out for supper again at the place around the corner and I had delicious tomato and mozerella salad, we then went to the bar on the square with the large arch and diagonally opposite the square with the duomo in it. I had 2 amirettos and managed to get no cappuccinos this evening – result! I brought myself an Easter Egg as well as I noticed that I had managed to leave my Kinder Egg in the sun and we also got got given one by the barman at the bar which was very sweet of him. We met up with Jessica once again briefly on the way back to the hotel. I asked Tom if he knew Charles and Arabella and it turned out that he went to Charles’s 21st that Mum and Dad went to – how strange! When we came back I wrote some of my diary and went straight to sleep. The clocks went forwarad an hour int he night and you could hear the bells ringing – being Easter Sunday – quite a beautiful sound I just hope that it wont go on all night long!