18 Blog Posts about My Adventures in Italy

“Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life.”
--Anna Akhmatov

April 2023 I traveled to Italy for the first time in my life. For reasons I can only guess I’ve always felt an inward desire to one day visit this magical place. How marvelous it was when on my 70th birthday I received an all expenses paid trip to Italy from my daughter.

While there I scrawled 40 pages of notes and took what seems like a thousand photos. Upon my return I began processing my experience by writing about it on my Ennyman’s Territory blog. Assembling them here in one place enables me to share them with a single link.

1. Initial Thoughts after my first trip to Italy

2. A Brief Overview of My Italy Adventure

3. 850 Years Old and Still Looking Good: The Battistero di Parma
4. The Galileo Museum in Florence Is Worthwhile Destination

5. Liberation Day: Italy Celebrates Victory Over Fascism, With Expressions of Gratitude to the U.S.

6. 1000 Rooms of Splendor: The Palazzo Pitti
7. Bob Dylan in Italy

8. The Death of Galileo

9. The Scarpelli Mosaici

10. Michelangelo’s David… A Showstopper

11. Daniela Meza Sigala: Florence Artist’s Seriously Whimsical Paintings

12. The Teatro Farnese in Parma

13. The Duomo in Florence: A History, plus Photos

14. One of the Most Famous Paintings in Florence: Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), by Antonio Ciseri

15. The Bargello: Another “Must See” Museum In Florence

16. L’Ippogrifo Stampe d’Arte: Mastery of a Grand Tradition

17. Snapshots from Parma, 2023--A Catalog of Memories
18. The Enigmatic Whisper: Da Vinci’s La Scapigliata

If you've never been, add it to your bucket list.

The Bargello: Another "Must See" Museum in Florence

As I prepared for my trip to Florence, I made a short list of "must see" places. I also left a lot of free time for simply exploring and following the whims of each day. This proved to be a highly profitable strategy, giving me the opportunity to see an impressive M.C Escher retrospective and attend some Liberation Day events. 

The Bargello, however, was definitely on my short list of places I fully aimed to see. It did not disappoint. 

For those unfamiliar, the Bargello is a sculpture museum. It houses a stunning collection of sculptures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, including works by Donatello, Michelangelo, and Cellini. The museum is also housed in a beautiful building, the Palazzo del Bargello, which was once a prison and fortress.

As I entered the first room I was confronted by the statue of Mercury (above) and my first thought: "So this is where the idea for the Mercury dime came from." Indeed much of what we see in our own Capitol was inspired or influenced by Renaissance art and architecture. Here are some of the photos I took from my visit there.

Michelangelo's "Bacchus"--wine goblet in hand, a crown of grapes.

Another Michelangelo piece: Brutus  

I took this photo to show the thread patterns in his robe.

Verrocchio's bronze interpretation of David slaying Goliath. Some say
David here was modeled after the artist's pupil, Leonardo da Vinci.

In addition to Verrocchio's David, there is a bronze David by Donatello

which you can read about here. 

Related: Check out these links to my
other stories from my Italy adventure.