Santa Croce and The Most Beautiful Jogging Path in the World

I've been bad about posting things lately because I've been so tired and wasn't up for trying to string a few somewhat-witty words together. But the last few days have been insane. Not bad insane, but good insane. So insane that I'm going to pump out two whole blog posts today. 

The morning after the basketball game (three days ago), we all woke up sleepy eyed to head to class. Fortunately for me, I only had one class that day and instead of a classroom with powerpoint, we got to have a tour around Santa Croce. This was one of the church/museums I had been wanting to go to, so it was nice to finally get to look around with our teacher, Cecilia, explaining the different art and murals we saw on the wall.  

We also learned that the facade of green and white marble was not as old as the building. It used to be covered in brick and was definitely not at all as colorful as what we see today. Inside there were whole new discoveries. Works of Giotto, one of Florence's most fames artists, were displayed all over the interior of the church. Donatello's (another Florentine artist as well as sculptor) Annunciation was also hanging there. 


Here was when I was blown away (if I could have been any more blown away): Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo (as well as many others) all had burial monuments in Santa Croce. I was surprised that both Dante and Galileo were both buried in a church as Dante was exiled and Galileo was a scientist (considering the whole science vs. religion debate-- won't into those waters today...). But Danta is actually buried in Ravenna, Italy and only has a monument for him, as Florence was his home city. As time went on, and people, including the Church discovered that Galileo's findings were true, some of his remains including his middle finger (hmm... is this saying something?) and his spine were placed in Santa Croce. 

Two realizations came from the Santa Croce Visit. Not knowing every single detail about a place before you go makes the discoveries that much more special. There is still A LOT more I need to see in Florence, a place full of incredible history and character. I am so ready for it to get warm so I can step outside with out being blown backwards by the wind or have icicles in my hair.



 Two days ago, I decided to change up my normal running pattern and sort of "explore run" (I guess you could call it.) Instead of turning right I decided to to take a left and just keep on going... After a while I realized I was starting to incline and the city was being washed away by a canopy of trees. By this point I decided to walk around and explore a bit and found a map of the "Most Beautiful Jogging Path in the World". Hah, okay I'm sure it's pretty but every city thinks they could contain such a title. Well, guys I believe Florence has won it. By no means am I a big runner, fast runner, long distance runner, but with a new year and new place, I am trying to be much more of a committed runner. And I have never seen a trail more grand than this one. Every time  I looked to my right there was a different, more beautiful view of the city; keep going, you have it the countryside with olive and cyprus trees to your left and right. Every turn from the main road looked like a new adventure and I am very excited to go back and discover a new road. I even found a place I had been google mapping for the last week trying to figure out where it was. I took a few photos on my way around the city with my iphone-- I guess you could consider me apart of Zooey Deschanel's photography running club in Yes Man... or, ya know...not..