What is True Beauty?

Mar 10th

Ok, so today was amazing. I feel like God was revealing to me what true beauty looked like throughout the day. The landscape was gorgeous and the few pictures that I took of it do not even come close to giving it justice. Rolling green hills, mountain peaks, white cliffs, orange cliffs, olive groves, vineyards, and much more made the landscape gorgeous today. I would not be surprised if I cried sometime while I’m here when looking at the breathtaking landscape. I felt like I was in a dreamland or a fantasy world. The sunset tonight was beautiful over the hills and valleys seeing mauves, peaches, navy’s, neon greens, and many more colors in God’s palette. We started out the morning in Arezzo and got the see the fresco cycle the Legend of the Holy Cross. Professor Skillen does a great job of explaining the meaning and mindset of the people of the day. He shows us what the people of the day would be thinking about as they viewed these frescoes. In space seeing how the panels relate to one another and how they are meant to ultimately point to the cross. Wow. Next we went to Siena, which was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. The landscape, houses roofs, and street scenes were right out book. There was a giant piazza we were in which was so picturesque. People were sprawled everywhere like on a beach eating gelato and just enjoying the sights and one another’s company. We went into the civic government building/museum right off of the piazza and got to see the fresco cycle called the Allegory of Good and Bad Government. It was neat to see how art was more functional back then. It was designed for the place where it was to be viewed. The 9 men sitting in that council room would see the paintings depicting towns that were ruled well and towns that were not ruled well. It would be convicting to them as they sat around making decisions pertaining to the community there in Siena. Anyway, it was cool and then we walked to the Duomo in Siena, which was made by the same architect as the Duomo in Orvieto and was actually done first and so there were a lot of similarities. While we were standing in front of the Duomo Prof. Doll walked up with a bag from the pastry shop. We got to try these cookies that are only made in Siena and they were scrumptious. They were covered in powdered sugar and had almonds, marzipan, butter, and other deliciousness inside. Then we drove from Siena to Monte Oliveto, which was less than an hour away in, southern Tuscany and the drive there was some of that gorgeousness that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog. The contours of the hills, valleys, and vineyards looked almost like God took a blanket and gave it a shake and was laying it down. I couldn’t believe the beauty that I was seeing. I know this sounds lame and doesn’t really do anything for you guys, but I was in utter awe…I felt like a little kid in a candy shop just saying wow over and over again not knowing which side of the car to look out. I would look one way and think for sure the other side could not possibly be prettier and then when I looked over to the other side I would be even more amazed. Monte Oliveto was a beautiful monastery located on top of this mountain looking out over the rolling hills and housed the fresco cycle of the life of Saint Benedict in the cloister walkway. I think it was my favorite fresco cycle that we have seen. It was a little later than several we have seen so the style of painting had shifted a little more to the naturalistic or more lifelike representations of people. I felt like I could just envision a life for some of the people in the scene. It portrayed true humanity. I love Italy and cannot get enough of it.