A break from Renaissance art

We started out the day by going to the British Institute of Florence to tour their library. It was pretty neat--a very beautiful space in an old palazzo on the river. Their librarians and archivists spoke to us for awhile about their jobs. I kept giggling to myself because Brits are so stuffy and have such funny accents, especially when trying to pronounce Italian words.
The library was great--apparently it's the biggest English language lending library on the Continent. Unfortunately they require a 20 euro membership fee and a 25 euro security deposit--and that's too bad, since I could really use some more reading material (I think I've read all my guidebooks cover to cover several times now.)


Then we went to Museo Marino Marini, which is a museum dedicated to a single artist (Marino Marini) who was a sculptor and painter active in the 1940s-70s. I was skeptical about this, but since the program is paying for the ticket, I went. It was actually a very nice visit--the modern art was a good break from all the Gothic and Renaissance. I liked the building as much as the art there. It was once a church and was mostly redesigned but still has some of its original structure. There are lots of platforms and mezzanine levels so you can view everything from multiple levels, which was neat. Also, there weren't 50 million people there.

On my way home I stopped at Orsanmichele, another Gothic/Early Renaissance church. This one is really weird though because it is square shaped (instead of cross-shaped) and has two altars, side by side.