When you think of Michelangelo, you probably instantly think of the Sistine Chapel and the proud, flaccid penis-bearing sculpture of David.
If you grew up in Melbourne, you might also immediately think about the lasagna at Michelangelo’s in Aspendale Gardens. (No judgement.)
But Michelangelo was a busy bloke, and as it turns out, some of his work isn’t even on display. Yet.
A ‘secret’ chamber, hidden under Florence‘s deeply historic Medici Chapels, is believed to be covered wall-to-wall with Michelangelo’s sketches:
And in what is brilliant news for lovers of Mike and/or chambers containing secrets, Bargello Museum, which manages the Medici Chapels in Basilica di San Lorenzo, will be opening the room to the public in 2020.
The story of how they discovered this deeply historically-significant site is a spicy one.
It’s been dubbed the Michelangelo Room, and it was first discovered by accident in 1975.
Paolo Dal Poggetto, the then-director of the museum, was canvassing the area looking for a new exit route for visitors. He found a trapdoor underneath a wardrobe on the site, leading to what looked like storage space.
After a few weeks of plaster removal and delicate, painstaking cleaning, something incredible was revealed; scores and scores of charcoal and chalk scribbles covered the walls.
All of them were unsigned, but they all show the hallmarks of classic Michelangelo style. One of them even appears to be a detail of ya boy David.
To be fair, experts are undecided about whether or not they’re genuine Michelangelos. But Dal Pogetto believes the chamber was his hideaway during an uprising against the Medici, which would make a fair bit of sense, considering it was hidden under a got dang trap door.
At the moment, admission into the museum is around $11AUD, but it’s not known if trips into the special cellar will come at a higher premium when it opens at the turn of the decade.
Either way, we wanna go there.
Does Italy sound like somewhere you’d like to be right now? Of course it does, you’re only human. Contiki‘s Simply Italy trip will see you spend 12 days in spell-bounding southern Europe. You’ll learn how to make authentic pizza, witness proper leather goods being crafted and wash the finest antipasto down with 16th century Tuscan wine. Now that’s amore.
