Alice's Renaissance study

It wasn't planned but it happened that we arrived in Florence a few days before Alice's class began a 3-week study of the Rennaisance. Their focus was Florence, the Duomo, and the work and art of the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and others. We were very fortunate, through my colleagues at the University of Florence, to get reservations for visits to the Uffizi and Acadamia Galleries. The latter was built specifically to house Michaelangelo's 'David'. So we had one very full day going to these two galleries and climbing to the top of the Duomo dome. Alice was totally absorbed, awake to it's significance to her education and also very aware that she was in a living classroom while her classmates back in New Zealand were studying what she was experiencing and seeing. This was a very exciting time for her class teacher, Johnny, who was able to bring the subject to life much more by sharing some of what Alice was seeing and experiencing. These photos capture some of this.

Following our intensive cultural day we also managed a trip to Pisa to see the tower and then, on our way back to Florence, visiting the small village of Vinci. The home of Leonardo (his name literally means 'Leonardo from Vinci'. There is a small museum there with models of many of his designs. It was a real privilege to share all of this with Alice. Later in our journey through Switzerland and France we came across other places of relevance ... the old city of Basel has Renaissance period buildings, Chenonceaux in the Loire Valley is a wonderful example of French Renaissance architecture, landscape design and with period furniture inside, and at Le Louvre of course we saw a number of da Vinci's paintings including his most famous, Mona Lisa.

Alice's Renaissance slide show