All at once, it seems, Florence is in full tourism mode. I’m not quite sure how the shift happened, but I was shocked at the difference in the city dynamic after I returned from spring break—so many more people and vendors have come out of nowhere while we were gone! So it was wonderful to escape the suddenly swarming city to relax, wander, and enjoy the Boboli Gardens. I found it a little funny that we were spending class time in the gardens to re-focus ourselves, since during the last couple days of my vacation that was exactly what I did. I especially loved the gardens at Versailles and would have gladly spent all day there if it had been just a bit warmer. It wasn’t hard to imagine how Louis XVI let his country spin out of control when he had these grounds to escape to. There is something about the mix of order and freedom in the gardens that really appealed to me, the larger man-made symmetry of the grounds interrupted by the nature’s uncontrollable organic qualities. The long, perfectly straight pathways lined with rows of evenly spaced, consistently sized trees were not only beautiful, but thoroughly calming. Especially after the craziness of traveling and worries about life back home, it was therapeutic to just take time to myself and enjoy the beautiful space I was in. So class this week really felt more like a continuation of vacation than school, which was fantastic. I made two drawings based on some sketches I made in the gardens, focusing on those spaces that grabbed my attention so thoroughly that their larger surroundings seemed to disappear. Such moments seemed to epitomize my larger experience of exploring the gardens.