Field Trip III: Urbino

Urbino is one of the northernmost cities in the Marche, and one of the birthplaces of the Renaissance. The main man there was Duke Frederico. He made lots of money as a mercenary general, fighting for whomever paid the most that particular day. On his coat of arms there was a jellyfish, because his tactics were to sting and run away.

Frederico built a huge palazzo, mostly for advertizing his abilities as a general. Every room had a statue of him or coats of arms or little relief figures of the various awards given to him. Notice the hooked nose? Apparently he lost an eye during a joust with some of his folks at home, and had the nose altered so that his vision would not be so obstructed on the bad eye's side. As macho as they come.

In addition to visiting the palazzo we visited two modern buildings by an Italian architect Giancarlo de Carlo. These were interesting because they used historical buildings but put modern university buildings inside of them

What was extra fun about visiting yesterday was that the Mille Migglia, or 1000 Miles car rally was going through town as well. All day long these beautiful racing cars from the 20s through... I don't know, the 70s? Newer? Anyhow the most amazing to me were the cars from the 20s. Beautiful old cars with amazing engines... these did not sound like Model Ts.