Every first Sunday of the month, many public museums in Florence are free to the public, so my roommates and I took advantage of this opportunity to explore. We spent the whole weekend looking at dead animals, deceased people, and the things they left behind.
First we visited a zoology museum in Oltrarno, across the Arno. It was incredibly old, so the condition of the animals weren’t perfect, but it was sill cool to see starfish, butterflies, and game animals throughout the museum. My favorite part was the anatomy section. It is full of diagrams and models of the human body systems, from muscles, capillaries, and organs, to the development of a fetus!
I was so fascinated by the information, and could have spent all day in there! This museum made me so incredibly excited to study medicine, and it was a huge boost to my motivation to continue my studies.
Our next stop was the archeology museum at Palazzo Vecchio. It has a huge collection of Egyptian artifacts. It was amazing to see the pieces that had been bought and discovered by people and universities in Florence over the ages. The museum detailed the Roman Empire’s connection to Egyptian history, which I never knew about. The Roman influence on Egyptian art and culture was clearly visible by the changes in art and burial practices in Egypt before and after the Roman invasion.
The last historical trip for the weekend was an old government building. We toured apartments and governmental rooms of the famous Medici family of Florence. The family’s influence on the government and growth of Florence was incredibly apparent throughout the building. There were rooms with paintings and decorations dedicated to all of the family members, who were likened to gods. The Medici crest was all over the palace, as it is in many places around Florence as well. I am quite excited to learn more about this famous family in my History of Florence class!
Tristian Dorn