Today we went to Urbino's Ducale Palace, its most famous landmark. The palace is huge, towring high above the neigboring buildings. Built in the 16h Century by the Dukes of Urbino, the Palace was built to impress. Urbino is odd, in that it's main entrance faces South, while most of the other entrances of that time were towards the sea. The architects of Urbino however, wanted to make sure that the best view was offered to the Popes who would travel up from Rome, through Urbino on their expeditions.
The main courtyard is visually pleasing. At first glance it looks like a perfect square. However, after counting the equidistant supporting columns I realized that their was one more column for the width than the length. The Renaissance artists were masters of perspective and did a very good job of fooling me. Their is another room in the interior which is visually tricky. The tiny room is painted with cabinets that appear to be jutting out at you, although the walls are flat. On the "ledges" there were a number of interesting items: books, pens, and even a magical flute. No matter where you stand in the room the flute always points at you! I'm dead serious. And if you move along the wall while tracking the flute you're sure it's following you.
The rest of the Palace was grand and had a lot of fine, historically famous artworks, including Raphael's mute. But, if you ask me, the reason why her lips were pursed so tight were to keep from screaming from the cold. We went on a cold day and I swear it was colder inside that building than out.
And than at night I went Tango Dancing at a Dance studio in town. The head of the studio picked me up from the center of town and brought me over for free. He was really nice, as was the instructor, although I was in a bit over my head. It was a intermediate/advanced lesson and that would test me, even if it were in English!
I think I'll go back next week!
