Florence Friday: AmpitheatREs

Roman Amphitheatre in Volterra

Good morning!  It's a beautiful Florence Friday and I'm cheery not because of the weather, but because I just skipped an interview with a potential employer...on purpose.  (but that is a post for another time)

In truth, I'm still in my bed, so I can't see what Bellingham looks like today, but it's certainly not sunny. And I just checked the weather in Florence...

It's not so cheery there, either.  30degrees Fahrenheit and it's drizzling. (shouldn't it be snowing then?)

Regardless of the weather, I'm still terribly excited about Italy.  I haven't made much progress in planning my Italy trip since last Friday, and blogging has made me acutely aware of how quickly the weeks go by.  I'm still a little disgruntled about Mr. Franco's email to me.

But one of the reasons I've always been drawn to Italy (and Greece) is the ancient history built into the cities. I'm a huge fan of Greek myths (and, by similarity, Roman myths), and I'm also a fan of plays.

When I was in high school learning about Greek myths, we also learned that the original "play" was created by the Greeks, in an ampitheatre very similar to the one above.  

What draws me to this grown-over ruin is the fact that I've heard that if you whisper in the front, you can hear it at the back. And I desperately want to try out these acoustics myself.  =)

My sense of direction on an Italian map is still terrible, but I think Volterra is on the perimeter of Florence, just to the Southwest.  That's where those ruins above come from.  

It's hard to believe that those ruins once looked similar to these.

My favorite part about these ampitheatres is that they are ALL over Italy.  I mean, its architectural design is called the "roman ampitheatre", so it would make sense that they were/are quite common. I've found pictures of them in Volterra, Lucca, Pompeii, and probably most prominently, in Rome.

Because the roman ampitheatre is designed for acoustics in the same way that The Coliseum is. I'm just not sure which design came first...

***the Coliseum to the left.  I can't wait to capture those fiery sunsets for myself.***

The design itself was so effective, and so popular, that it's been adopted all over the world. There are ampitheatres after this design in Libya (the Leptis Magna), Spain, Portugal, and even in London (Shakespeare's Globe). It's not too far of a stretch to see that even Seattle's Benaroya hall and Paramount Theater are based on this concept as well.


***the Leptis Magna is to the right.  How beautiful to have it along the beach!***




What I'm realizing more and more is that by going to Florence, I don't get to just see Florence.  I get to visit areas like Volterra, Lucca, Rome, all of Tuscany, Pompeii, Vienna, Venice, Sicily...and extend as far into Europe as I can afford. The history and beauty of all those Italian cities is packed into a smaller total space than the state of Washington + Oregon.

Ciao mei amici!