San Marco Monastery

Last night I went with my English class to the San Marco Monastery museum. There are only five of us in the class so it was a small group. My english teacher, Dr. Horvath, is a really nice and interesting woman from Transylvania. She is planning on taking our class on different outings a few times a month to make sure we are seeing all the interesting and cool museums and sights around the city. The course is called Italy, the Journey and the Self. It's my favorite class here in Florence. Throughout the semester we will be reading and discussing literature that has to do do with journeyers and explorers and their experiences, and applying their voyages to our experiences as journeyers abroad. We just finished reading part of the Odyssey, which I really enjoyed.

Anyway, the San Marco Monastery was really beautiful and so full of historical paintings and happenings. It's literally the building next to the Gonzaga school building, but I never would have guessed that this beautiful and large monastery was inside the tall, rough walls that surround the outside. Upon walking inside, the first thing to see was the giant garden in the center of the building, meant to be a small replica of the Garden of Paradise. The flowers made the shape of a cross that you could see from going upstairs and looking down at the garden. A huge tree was in the center of the cross and was supposed to represent the 'tree of life'. It was all very symbolic of religious references. All the paintings and artwork on display were beautiful. We also toured the library of the monastery, and saw the actual cells of specific monks who lived there so long ago. A small concert was going on while we were touring the building, and since it was 8:30 pm on a Tuesday, we were pretty much the only guests there. It was really an experience. I am so glad I went! I have found that whenever there is an optional activity and I am tempted to opt out of it, I always have such a great time when I force myself to participate instead. On our opening tour a lot of my friends would take a nap during the optional activities, but I learned quickly that that is no way to spend my time in Europe. I have to take advantage of every moment possible! And I am. And it's amazing.