Volterra

March 21, 2010

Day Trip to Volterra

Victoria, Sera, Ali and I decided to put our massive amounts of work aside for the day and head to the hill-top town of Volterra for the day. After a short hour-ish train ride, one large bus to a deserted lot, and one tiny bus up to the town we finally made it. Like all Italian cities, every street was cobble stoned and uphill. I’m always amazed by the amount of uphill streets you can find in one Italian town. Unknown to us before out arrival Volterra is known for its alabaster and is therefore sold in about every other store. I do not think I have ever seen so many stone products in one place, but if you are in the market for a stone sweater I know the perfect place for you. Also unknown to us was that there was a truffle festival in the main Piazza- which the smell of them could knock you over they were so strong - and another food festival in another part of the town which had very delicious cheeses and olives. Needless to say it was a very good day to come.

In the town itself, there is a old roman theatre ruins, which are amazingly intact. This was the first one that I have seen with the columns still standing on top of one another which I thought was really incredible that after all this time they are still perfectly balanced on one another. It makes you think about how amazing they must have been when fully intact. The Duomo in Volterra is about .0009 times the size of here in Florence but still very pretty, and so different. One of my favorite things in the town however was that in about every windowsill there were flowers. Each sill squeezed in between the shutters were potted flowers of every kind and color.

Two of the best things of the day had to have been at the end. While we were exploring a park that we found, and naturally swinging on the dinosaur shaped playground equipment we started to hear drumming. Normally this would seem weird, but we were in Italy so it just kinda seemed routine. While trying to find the source of the intensive drumming, we also found the seemingly only downhill street in town. Here we encountered an Italian family of a mom, dad, aunt and uncle also trying to place the drumming. While skipping down the hill (how little kids always manage to run, jump, skip and hop down very steep things without tripping and breaking every bone in their body is still beyond me) the little boy ahead of us started picking flowers from in between the cobble stones. First he turns to his mom and gives here one, then continues to pick some more flowers. He then turns to me and hands me a tinnnny little daisy like flower and says “here, for you” (but in Italian) and continues to skip away. He returns one minute later to tell me to make sure not the throw it away, to which I assure him that I will not. It is still in my wallet.

 

Finally the Italian family, and the four of us find the source of the drumming, a renaissance parade, of course! It was complete with a full orchestra, matching outfits and flag throwers. They continued to put on a show in the main piazza with synchronized flag throwing, flag juggling, and music to match. It was the perfect ending to a pretty wonderful day. 

Carnivale

February 13, 2010

      Venice – Carnivale

Stepping off the train into Venice during Carnivale was like stepping into a different world. With the number of people that were in the city that day, it very well could have been its own world. For all I knew the train from Florence had in fact transported me to a dream town, were dressing in costumes, face paint, and glitter were normal. I was immediately enthralled by it all. Everywhere we turned there was someone in a ridiculous costume, in another direction people in the classic Venetian masks in gowns with long trains, all of who were spectacular. The entire day was a eyesight overload of color, fantasy and creativity. We wandered through the city, passing thousands of glittering masks only to turn a corner to find some more. The canals of the city glistened with their costumed inhabitants as if they too were dressed up for the occasion. Everyone seemed to be in the spirit – what ever it was – but it was a good one. The whole city seemed to buzz. For once it wasn’t weird to take pictures of people you didn’t know, in fact it was encouraged.
 It was particularly interesting because it was acqua alta – or the high water season – which meant that basically everywhere you went, was flooded. Normally I am not one for dodging puddles, and get sick of the rain about 8 minutes after it starts, but it added to the magic of the day. When we got to Piazza San Marco (after several misleading signs – literally one pointed left and right on the same sign) it was heavily flooded and closed for the first part of the morning. Finally after a while, the water returned to its proper place, and it became flooded with people instead. The basilica was hardly visible over the sea of heads, but I will take my art history professors and friends words of advice that it is beautiful.  It was as if the city, like most of the people there, could not contain its excitement. I am positive that not one person was in a bad mood. I don’t think you could be. We adventured through the city, moving with the rest of the seemingly millions of people soaking up every thing we could. Street performers lined the confetti covered cobblestone streets and in order to really fit in we felt that face painting was a must. Another must was buying a mask – glitter, feathers, the whole shaw-bang. Dazed, colored, and in awe we made it back to Florence, but Carnivale is something that I will never forget.

Saying good-bye to the electric yellow flower-filled ruins.

February 6, 2010

We woke up to the sad realization that today was our last day in Sicily. Being so we had to pack a lot into one day. We left very early for Taormina. Taormina is a small city on top of a very curvy hill (it reminded me of home a lot - the curvy hill with a ocean view). The city looked over what seemed to be all of Sicily’s mountains and ocean (top), and you could actually see main-land Italy. We first went to the Greek theatre at the top of the town, which had spectacular views of everything below in the town, the ocean and the surrounding mountainside. Like the ruins in Segresta, electric yellow flowers overran the theatre growing out of the stone seats now cracked with time.


After taking in the views at the theatre for a long while, we went to adventure in the town for a little while. It seemed as if every other store was a ceramic store selling more or less the same things with different designs - huge vases, tiny espresso cups, every size plate you would ever need, turtle figurines, etc. It makes you wonder how much ceramics one person can have in their house. Apparently a lot. Sadly our day was cut short because we had to drive to the airport to catch our flight back to Florence. Exhausted later that night we arrived back at our host families, both happy to be home but sad to leave Sicily. 

Echo from the past

February 5, 2010

Today we had a visit to the archeological park in Siracusa. Like the many others the site was huge. At one point the entire site had a stone roof, which has since fallen down and the site had been taken over by trees and greenery. There is a huge cave-like alcove (right) that once entered only reverberates one strong echo, which is highly unusual, which might add to the strong acoustics to the theatre (left) that is situated directly above it. On the other side of the site there is an ampatheatre (below) that reflects somewhat like the inside of the Coliseum with its oval structure (it does not have the walls like the Coliseum but just the same basic ground level), and was perhaps used for some of the same purposes.

After exploring the archeological site we were free to wander around Siracusa for a few hours. We went into the duomo (right), which may be one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It was built on the site of a roman temple, which had been destroyed during a earthquake. When building the duomo, the architect used the columns of the ancient temple, which were the only things that reminded and incorporated them into the walls and structure of the building.

Later in the afternoon after exploring the city for a while, we departed again for another nearby barocco town called Noto. The town itself was very small and everything seemed to be on one main street. The main cathedral (left) had been rebuilt sometime back because the original had been destroyed in an earthquake (apparently there are a lot of those here, I had no idea).  While the cathedral itself was still beautiful you didn’t get that overwhelming sense that it had been there for centuries (granted it hadn’t) and it seemed a little out of place in a town that you knew that everything else had been there since its founding. We headed back to Siracusa and had our last dinner all together later that night. Everyone was in a bittersweet mood, everyone loving the week that we had had so far and sad that it would have to come to a close the following day. 

Valle dei Templi

February 4, 2010

We left bright and early this morning for the Valle dei Templi, or the Valley of Temples for a guided tour around one of the most well-preserved archeological ruin sites. The site has seven temples all together all of which are immaculately preserved. All dedicated to different ancient roman gods they vary in size but for the most part retain the same basic overall structure. While walking from temple to temple the road on one side was lined with almond trees which had just begun to bloom and on the other was lined with a type of necropolis were they would have buried people. Now these necropolis, which for the most part look like walls with giant holes in them are open and look out over the valley. The site seemed to go on forever with monumental building following the next. I was continually amazed by the magnitude of the buildings that people in ancient times were able to build without the use of any modern machinery, but simple tools and manpower.

After gawking at all the temples at the Valle dei Templi we went started our journey for Siracusa which would be the last city that would visit while in Sicily. On the way to Siracusa, we stopped at the beach for a few hours. Basking in the sun, hearing the crashing of the waves and the strong smell of the salt water, while walking on the sand made me think I was in California. Walking along the untouched beach, I collected way to many shells which I as convinced would make my luggage overweight on the way home – happy to report it did not- (and for all of you Ireland sea-shell collectors I quadruple checked all my shells so no “incidents” would occur. I can safely say that all of my shells made it back safely, and without any sea-stench). After a little while we headed out and finally arrived in Siracusa.

After arriving we wandered around the city for a while, stumbling upon beautiful cathedrals, fountains, churches, and ponds with ducks. Eventually we started searching for a open place for dinner, which proved harder than it originally seemed and after dinner headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. 

Sacred Sites Starting with S

February 3, 2010

Today we headed out from Palermo for a final destination of Argrigento. Before we made it there however we stopped first at Segesta. At Segresta we explored the roman theatre and temple ruins. The site was flooded with sunlight and electric yellow flowers. I was amazed at how well preserved everything was throughout the entire site after so many thousands of years, exposed to every sort of weather. Walking around places like always makes me amazed at the things people were able to accomplish so many thousands of years ago. It always makes me amazed that they are still around today, and for the most part well preserved. I always wonder what people throughout the centuries must have thought about them, and what possessed them to keep it around. (don’t get me wrong I’m pretty happy that they did).  At the site there two temple ruins and one theatre ruin spread out over what seemed like acres of land (first and smaller temple = top left hand photo, theatre = top right photo, larger, second temple bottom left photo). Surrounding each archeological ruin were green cascading mountains, and trees as far as the eye could see. We even encountered a large flock of sheep grazing right next to the larger of the two temples. When we got to the theatre, we decided to test out the flawless acoustics by singing Spice Girls “Wannabe” together. I have a feeling it was not like anything that used to be san or preformed when the theatre was originally built. 

 

After wandering around for a while we headed out for yet another ruin site at Selinunte.  Here too was an archeological ruin site with a large temple, which was being restored while we were there, surrounded by ruins of smaller buildings and homes. Plants and wildlife mostly overran the site but the overall plan of the site was still apparent and was interesting to see the design of the huge site. This site unlike the previous overlooked the beach, and with much effort and climbing we ventured down to the sand for a while. After frolicking in the sun at on the beach for a while we headed out from Selinute for out hotel in Agrigento, a tinny little beach town.

Mosaic Masters and Tiny Towns

February 2, 2010

Once again bright and early we wandered out into the Sicilian world, this time to explore the city of Palermo. We met up with the professor we had met yesterday who would be our tour guide for the day. Our first stop would be the Cappella Palatina in the Palazzo dei Normanni. If I thought that the Cathedral at Monreale was covered in gold mosaic, it was nothing compared to this. Gold reflected off of every surface while every vibrant color possible exploded in between. Even after almost 900 years after its construction the Cappella looks as if someone had come yesterday with the newest, most vibrant Bic dye and re-colored all the mosaic pieces. The wooden ceiling looked as if all the bee’s in Italy had just left because of the honeycomb patterns so intricately woven throughout.

Dragging me away, mouth still hanging open we wandered to the Palermo Cathedral. The Cathedral itself is a monster of a building highly decorated in baroque architecture (ie its has a lot goin on all over it). For as impressive as a façade as the Cathedral has, the inside was a little disappointing inside. Stark white with very little details, it looks like it was a house just built and the owners are still waiting for the painters to come. The contrast was almost startling.

We wandered throughout the city going in and out of a few more churches (non of which I ever say a name for…) all of which were beautiful. I was amazed that on every corner it seemed there could be yet another something to see. Like always in Italy I have come to realize. After a few churches, we ended up at one of the major art galleries in Palermo.

After meandering through the gallery for a while, we all decided that because it was such a nice day we would take a quick trip to a nearby seaside town called Cefalu. Once there we explored the tiny town, seeing the duomo, winding streets and buildings that seemed to blend into one another. The streets all seemed to go uphill no matter what direction you were walking in, and there never seemed to be one that led in a straight line. When wandering we saw many signs for supposed Roman ruins, but once follows you ended up at someones bright red front door. Since we got there late in the afternoon, around siesta, most everything was closed, and looked as if it was going to remain closed for the rest of the day, if not year. This lead us to aimlessly wander up and down the ever uphill streets until we stumbled upon an alleyway that led to the beach and took in the familiar smells and sounds that I miss so much.

cathedrals and crypts

February 1, 2010  

On our first day on this beautiful island of Sicily we headed out bright and early to city of Monreale. Hiking up the cobbled streets to the town center, we arrived at the Cathedral in the center. Once again I had arrived at one of the million monuments that I had seen in art history classes and books and finally was coming to life in front of me. I walked into the cathedral and all the walls glistened with gold mosaics. White marble and deep blue, green and reds surrounded ever inch of the cathedral.  There was not one surface left without at least one tiny detail. 

Over the altar, in a huge dome, sat all the saints and the trinity in perfect mosaic gold overlooking the entire cathedral. We went up onto a somewhat terrace that wrapped around the upper part of the cathedral. After walking up the narrow staircase we arrived at a point that overlooked not only the courtyard of the cathedral but what seemed like all of Sicily. After exiting the cathedral we wandered around the little town for a while finding beautiful mountain and ocean views and winding streets with colorful doors and mosaic house fronts.

After leaving Monreale, we all headed to the University of Palermo to meet up with some Italian students there. All the students were in a translation Italian/English course. While there Giovanna gave a talk and tips about translation work.

We left the university, we headed to the Capuchini Crypt of Palermo. The crypt’s have about 6000 bodies visible and over 8000 in its holdings. The walls are lined with row after row of bodies now decayed after centuries of time. Some still with hair and beards, teeth, all still in clothing, however ripped and disheveled. One little girl, about 3 years old was perfectly preserved, with all of her skin, hair, and perfectly dressed still after about 100 years, and looked as if she was sleeping. The crypt itself so silent you could hear every step you took, you were afraid to whisper to disturb everything around you, both out of respect and in fear that a louder voice might cause bodies to cascade down the hall. (understandably since it was a religious site there were no pictures allowed, and I felt weird at the idea of snapping illegal photos of copses, but I do encourage a google at lease..) 

That night the entire group, all 22 of us, went out to dinner together. Eating, laughing and reminiscing on a wonderful day we all looked forward to the following day. 

Sicilian Sunshine and Mafia Men

January 31, 2010

Today marked our first official day in Sicily. We left cold dreary cloudy Florence in afternoon and landed in bright sunny Sicily about two hours later (after most likely the bumpiest flight I have ever experienced- I do not think anyone thought we were going to make it to Sicily, but at least we were going to die happy.) Seeing sun, and having it stay in the sky for more that 10 minutes was so refreshing that within 10 minuets of being in Sicily I knew it was going to be a fabulous trip. I think everyone’s mood improved about 99.9% once getting off the plane and walking into the sunlight and realizing we would not have to open a school book, Word, or a dictionary for at least a week. We met up with our driver for the week, Gianni, who we would soon find out is completely crazy, and left the Catania airport to drive three-ish hours to Palermo, passing beautiful country sides of mountain (see picture), green hills, and orange tree groves,  where we would e staying for the next three nights. 

After checking into our hotel, Lenora, Olivia, Sera and I headed out to find some dinner. Being Sunday, and Italy naturally everything was closed. We stopped to ask a two (seemingly) policemen where there would be a place open to eat and after some deliberation, one of the men who we had thought was a policeman but we then noticed only one of them was in uniform, decided to walk us down the street to his favorite restaurant. Thinking this was only slightly shady, we walked down the block convinced that he was part of the Mafia. Once arriving at the restaurant, which was in fact only down the block, the man (who we found out was named Jonh – his spelling) ate at the table next to us interjecting things into our conversation in a weird mix of English and Italian, we were further convinced of his Mafia connection. But at least we have a friend inside now, and will be protected we figured. After a very strange dinner we stoled around Palermo for a little while ( picture above is the theatre across from our hotel) , and after a while we headed back to the hotel and passed out after a long day, to rest up for our next exciting day. 

ps - if you want to see more of my pictures you can go to my photobucket page at
http://s36.photobucket.com/home/breanal/allalbums
the password is florenceitaly

Old Italian bones and gemstones.

January 30, 2010

We had yet another day exploring the city. This time we headed to the Museum of Paleontology and Geology, after having a very difficult time finding it because apparently no one in Florence has heard of the museum or the street that it is located on, we finally found the museum and it was well worth the hour and a half (maybe more) that we searched fro it. Sera and I meandered through room after room of prehistoric dinosaur and mammoth bones and fossilized rocks and shells. It was amazing to see how well preserved all the bones were after so many thousands of years. It was also pretty cool to see that most of them were not in glass cases, yet wide open to the public, like most things in Italian museums, which is very different from most American museums. The only thing keeping people from reaching out and touching everything is general consciousness and respect. Even if it might be a little naive of me, for some reason I never pictured dinosaurs or mammoths roaming around Italy. Over in the geology part of the museum, there were rocks of ever color you could imagine and then some, including radioactive, and neon.

 

After the museum, we headed home to pack for our weeklong trip to Sicily that we would be leaving for the next day! 

Florentine Exploring

January 29, 2010

 After getting the exploring bug the day before, Sera and I headed out again to discover more of the city we call home yet know so little of on Friday and I think we did more “sight seeing” in one day than we have the whole semester.

First we headed to the Museum of the History of Science. Unfortunately we found out when we arrived that most of the museum is under restoration so only one floor was open. But we happily saw everything on that floor anyway and saw many sciency gadgets, most of which we had no idea what their use was for but looked cool.

Next, we headed to the Museum of the History of Photography. It was pretty neat to see so many photos from the start of photography, and see how little the outcome and the prints themselves have changed even thought the technology has changed so drastically. The exhibit of the range of cameras from the first to present day showed how amazing the technology has changed from not so long ago.

After, we wandered to the Medici Palace by San Lorenzo. In here we got to see the private quarters, including a private chapel, government quarters, some of which are still in use, and a marble museum. All of which were beautiful. Sera and I both agreed that we wouldn’t mind having one of the couple hundred chandeliers in our house one day.

After our full day of museums, we headed to a literary apparativo with some other girls from school that Giovanna had invited us to. The talk was about immigrant writers and other authors that have written about immigrant authors, and little did we know that Giovanna would be one of the authors that they would speak about. After listening to the discussion, some of us headed out to dinner all together and after out long day of Florentine exploring we headed home. 

And back to the facts and artifacts.

From the time I last wrote you to January 28, 2010

Where to begin… its seems like centuries since I have last written. I’m not so good at the upkeep on this I see. Since we last spoke a few things have happened I’d say. As the winter portion of our program wrapped up the work kept pilling up never ceasing fury. Finally the end was in sight and Friday, December 18 rolled around and I was booked on a flight home to sunny Malibu, California, leaving the work (yeah right – the four 10 page papers and 2 books all in Italian all came with me) and bad weather behind. Well actually that’s what I thought until it started snowing, yes snowing, in Florence the night before my flight in both Florence and Pairs and therefore canceling all flights leaving through Florence through Paris for the following morning. I would try again the next day so Saturday morning bright and early at 4am I started my travels yet again in the snow, only to find at 6:30 am at the Florence airport that it was once again closed due to weather and we would have to be bussed to Pisa and try from there. Too bad the storm heard that and came along for the ride. 9 hours later we took of from Pisa to Paris (if you ever need suggestions of where to eat or sit in the Pisa airport gimme a holla). Unfortunately all flights to Los Angeles had already departed for the day, so I would have to stay in Paris for the night. At 10 am the Sunday morning I finally was on a flight to Los Angeles, that actually left the ground and 12 hours later landed in Los Angeles. It might have taken me three days to get there but I finally got home. Being home was very nice and relaxing but there was a weird thing going on around me all the time – everyone spoke English all the time. Everywhere. Kinda weird …just saying. After three(ish) weeks of California I bitter sweetly came back here to Florence (I know too bad for me right?)

           

The first the weeks of being back launched us into end of the semester crunch time. There was hardly a moment where I was not on my computer where Word was not open, my fingers not furiously typing out Botticelli, Italian folk music, fashion advertising campaigns, or a popular Italian book. 40 written pages later, 3 written exams and 2 oral exams finally I made it to the end of the semester, and alive somehow.

 Last Thursday, following the end of exams, Sera, Claire and I decided to celebrate and go explore the “ Vintage Selection”, the vintage part of the fashion weeks that have been happening all over the city recently. It took place in an old abandoned station, and most likely every vintage clothing store in Italy had a booth set up showcasing everything from retro Chanel bags, to planters made from children’s books, to sunglasses Elton John wished he had. It was hard to know where to begin, where to look next and how to take it all in, yet somehow we managed.

Sera and I then bought a pick-nick for ourselves to eat in Piazza Maria Novella and were promptly attacked by all of the pigeons that call Florence home. After lunch I headed out for a giro (walk/stroll) to kill some time before heading home by myself and ended up accidentally finding the Archeological Museum.  It was always on my long list of museums and things to see in the city, and had come strongly recommended (thanks Matthew!) but like most things I had not gotten around to it yet like most other things thanks to the obscene amount of work that we have had this past semester. I entered the museum only to find a surplus of hidden treasures in a building that seemed as if it was about to fall in on you at any second. Luckily for me it did not, and instead it lead me through a maze Roman treasures and Egyptian artifacts (yes that is a real mummy to the right, and if the picture was better you could see the actual bones), for the most part perfectly preserved. Being the only person in the museum I might have sneaked a few illegal photos of about everything, but without flash so not hurting anyone or anything right? 

Italian Chaos

ok so I know I promised that I would not wait 800 years before I wrote again, and then promptly went and took forever to get this written. Im a terrible person I know. well at least a terrible blogger. This time though I have a very valid reason. My harddrive crashed. funny enough while I was writing a post. Thankfully autosaved happened before the crash. But only autosave on my post, not any of my other important documents or anything. yay! Living without a computer for a week is a really odd experiece. Especially here since it is my main mode of communication with the living world back on the other part of the world. I can just say I really didnt like it at all. And how am I writing this you wonder? Well I would like to tell you that I have figured out a way to communicate with the internet through my brain but Im still working on that one. Giovanna was so kind to give me her microscopic (seriously never seen a laptop this small - my hands barely fit on it. haha) laptop until mine gets fixed, which is a undertemined time in the somewhat future. Even though they said they would put a rush on it, that was over a week ago and I am still without Rex (aka laptop).  Anyway, technology trouble asside, I guess I have about 9 weeks to report about... sorry this might be long. I wont be offended/know if you get board.
Literally the day after I last wrote I came down with some sort of illness which was very not fun. I was happy that it did not turn into swine flu which is going around pretty heavily and rapidly here. Yet I was still home sick Thursday and Friday feeling very not good. Saturday rolled around however and I finally felt better, was able to do some work (horray!....) and later that night went out to dinner with Sera. We were really in the mood for mexican food, and tried the two places we knew and even for two people there as not a table available. After wandering for what seemed like hours - but in reality was most likely only a half an hour- we ended up at this American pub/restaurant, called (you ready?) House of Sizzle. Yes I can actually hear the gasps that you all just made when you read the word American. You are all thinking... you are in Italy, whyyyy would you want to go ear American food? Well for starters, it was the only place that could take us without a reservation. This was an important factor. Secondly, we were both craving things that were not pasta. If anyone can believe it I actually ordered a hamburger. Yes you did read that correctly. I had my first hamburger here in Italy that I have had in probably over 8 years. Mind boggling. And yes I did like it. And did finish it all. If no one believes me, I have documented proof. (well I did. grazie hard drive failure for taking away my pictures. aka pictures for this post will come once I get my computer back and can figure out what I actually still have.)

Sunday was filled with studying and homework for midterms that were rapidly approaching in the following week. The rest of the week actually followed in a similar fashion of studying and reading and working. Monday I took my Italian Literature exam, which I had missed when I was sick the previous Thursday. Wednesday was our History of Costume and Fashion midterm. And finally Thursday was Art History. A very intense week of test taking to say the least. By thursday afternoon my brain was just a little bit fried. But they all went well enough and they are over most importantly. I do however have our  Literature midterm (that one last week was just a test...) next week and our Stylistics midterm as well, so its not quiiitee over yet. But close. So close...

On Thursday after our exam, Sera and I successfully managed to go to another University of Florence class.  This is actually a big deal since the university system here is so wacky that the likelihood of there actually being a class when the schedule says is about 50%. Nevertheless we found the history of cinema class we had gone to once before and learned about italian film in the 1960s. Its really incredible to see how many people really pay attention, because for the great majority no one does. I think Sera and I were the only two people, in a class of about 50, that were actually trying to pay attention and not reading, texting, talking, drawing or sleeping.
Feeling like we needed to give our brains a night off from intense thinking we decided to go to the movies with some of our Italian friends. They all wanted to see 2012, which I dont think I would have seen in English but the fact that it was in Italian made it very hilarious. In the end everyone bailed out and it ended up only being Sera, Alessio, Dino and I that went to the movie, which was fun. It was very different to be in a small group for once as opposed to our normal group of 78. I was quite pleased that for the great majority of the movie this time I could understand what was going on and follow much more of the plot than the last Italian movie that I saw (then again Im not convinced I would have understood it in english..). I dont know really what to think about that really though, since it was about the end of the world , does that mean Im well versed in apocalyptic vocabulary to get myself ready? I really hope not...Or maybe I have just watched way too many world ending, fighter movies and tv shows that I know that vocabulary too well...

Friday I went back to my internship at the Uffizi bright and early. Arriving promptly at 9am several things occured. 1. Only the man at the front desk was there. 2. He had no idea who I was even though I see him every week and have been introduced to him several times 3. He called someone else over so I could explain to both of them why I was there and why I had a ID badge and neither of them had ever seen me before, 4. I finally co0nvinced them that I was not there to steal the library and they let me go to my usual computer post 5. The books that I usually work with were MIA - and there was no one to ask, since they obviously had no idea why I was there 6. I sat and swivled in my chair for a half and hour waiting for someone that I knew to come 6. The second man finally realized that he had infact seen me before and that he knew exactly where the books that I needed were and he would fetch them for me 7. A legit crazy italian lady whirls her way into the library bringing with her so much confusion and chaos. 8. I sit and listen to her mutter in Italian to herself about why the computer wont work 9. She asks me for help with the computer 10. I have no idea what is wrong with it (note how good I am with technology lately), and she notices through my not so hot italian that I am american and about shreaks her head off 11. She insists that she is from New York - untrue by the thick Italian accent and her jeans. 12. Inch my way back to my computer to find the program not working 13. Swivel in my chair for another half an hour waiting for it to work again 14. Realize its one o'clock and I can go.
I spent the rest of the day exploring and hunting around the city, not really doing much but enjoying my surroundings. That night it was another one of our Italian friends birthday's, Alessio (no not the same one as mentioned before, there are now two. - I have realized Italians seem to only name their childeren one of a handful of names which leads to much confusion). We all went out in the center to a little pub by Santa Croce called Kikuya. It ended up only being Sera and Me from the American group and almost every Italian that we know (Fillippo, Alex, Alessio 1, Alessio 2, Simone 1, Simone 2 and I am most likely forgetting someone) + three random girls (not random they were friends of someone I just never met any of them before). Sitting listeing to old school American 90s music in an English pub in Italy was just a little bit funny to me, but somehow it worked. We found Jenga on our table when we arrived and promptly started playing. Dont worry I did managed to topple everything over. After, the girls - who for some reason were verry annoyed that Sera and I were there, and kept on commenting about how we didnt know any Italian and it was annoying -because i didnt hear over the loud music what she said- very defensivly though Fillippo stood up for me about how I knew italian and spoke it and could understand her. She was quiet for a bit until they thought it would be a fun idea to play telephone in Italian. Clearly doing this only so we would look like idiots they passed around odd itaial phrases none of which when it was passed to me made any sense or sounded anything more that odd words. Needing to have a little bit of a revenge Sera and I started one in english which inevitably everyone messed up.

I sletp in a little on Saturday, and decided to blogg for a bit before I stated homework. Then my harddrive crashed. Disbelieving and hopeing it really wasnt my harddrive I took it to one of the only Mac stores in Florence (and prolly Italy for that matter). With one look the guy told me it was my harddrive and it would be about a week. Its been a week. I would like my computer back. (sorry Im bitter and miss my computer)
After computer fiascos I met up with Sera to poke around some stores and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around. After dinner that night I met up with Dino and we went for a walk in a park right by the Arno, and talked as best as we could with my 4th grade italian.

Sunday was spent studying for my upcoming week of more midterms and more work and more papers and more reading.. I did take a lunch break with Sera to hunt out some Chinese food, which was very good and very different than the usual pasta/ panino.The begining of the week was rather uneventful. Monday after class, not really wanting to go home just yet (not for any reason really - stay assured I really like my family here) I helped Giovanna look up recipies for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast she was preparing for us.
Tuesday I had my Literature midterm, and after classes that day I went to another University of Florence class. This time the methodologies of contemporary art. I have to admit even for me who really likes everything they were talking about, the class was a little boring. Maybe it was because four students were giving a presentation, and I found it really hard to hear them over the construction, and traffic noises let alone understand them. And the professor kept on inturrupting them after every sentance either correcting or telling them something they should have done better or asking them a ridiculous question. He seemed like the professor all the older students warn you against taking his class. However, throughout the room which sat about 100 people on some of the desks were incredible drawings of famous sculptures, painints, and buildings inevitably coppied from the slides. On Sera's desk there was a miniture verson of Michalangelo's Pieta perfectly drawn in pencil. The desk in front of me there was his David. A few rows back Santa Maria Novella was chilling a few seats away from La Guernica by Picasso. I really want to meet whoever did these. They are all absolutly amazing.
The highlight of the rest of the week was Thanksgiving at Giovanna's house. Giovanna, Monica, and Pam (cooking teacher from orientation) all slaved away for days to make sure that we all had a American Thanksgiving dinner even though we are in Italy. Giovanna said after that this was the first turkey she has ever made, and was worried that she would ruin it - well it was delishious. Complete with stuffing, corn bread, mashed potatoes, green beans + peanuts we literally had a feast (dont worry Mom, I was still missing your food with every bite.) It was a very lovely eveing, and everyone, Americans and Italians alike (yes all our professors were invited and came) had a very good time. Giovanna's husband played music for us on his fiddle, we sang Thanksgiving songs ( I didnt know there were such things), and I played with Cocco and Sparkey (Giovanna's dogs) since I am highly dog deprived.

I spent Friday morning at the Uffizi as usual, and without any issues I am happy to report. After I met up with Sera and we went to Cassa Buonarroti - a itiy bity museum of all things Michaelangelo. Natually I loved it, especially since Michaelangelo is my favorite sculptor. I really enjoyed seeing all the models and seeming miniature statues of his, many studies for much larger statues later. To me, i like seeing the that the steps that go into making such remarkable art work and seeing that they are just as amazing and impressive.
That night, wanting a mellow night, Sera, Chrysanthe, Steph and I headed out with Alessio 1&2, Simone 1&2, Alex, Fillippo, and Dino  to a german bar called Braumeister, How is a group that large mellow and relaxing you ask. well the alternative was to go to a discoteca,so large goup + german bar or large group + disco... hmm. Lots of confusion and Italian whirled around all night, leaving me overwhelmed sometimes but all in all a good night.

Saturday I spent the day re-organizing my room and doing some unwanted studying. That night after dinner I watched one of the Tim Allen Sant Clause movies (in italian) with Vieri, chuclking to myself about the bad dubbing of italian films and the over all ridiculousness of the movie (dont get me wrong I a big fan of the first one). After the movie, Dino picked me up and we attempted to go into the center but forgetting that the Florence Marathon was the next day and almost every steet was blocked off and about 90000000 more people were in the city to see it, parking was a little bit of an issue. Giving up after 35 mins of driving aroudn with no hope of ever finding a parking spot for anything other than a vespa, we ended up going up to Fiesole (about 10 mins ourside of Florence). Even there we had to wait 20 mins before parking was found - I was convinced that Florence had doubled in population over night. The town itself consists of on main piazza, a few stores and resturaunts and two pubs. I think most of the bars that I have seen here has been of another nationality other than Italian - there are countless Irish bars, a few Scottish, some German, and even an Australian one (even though I do know really know what that means). We went to one of the two, J.J. Hill, and talked over the crowd and eventualy ended up playing darts. It goes without saying I am not good. This requires hand eye corrdination, I have zero.

Sunday morning the craziness at home started early. Vieri's birthday is tomorrow and he was having 16 of his friends over for lunch + festivites in the afternoon. After he departed for his soccer game, and Lucia and Fillippo went out to watch the marathon for a little while, which I could literally see from my window which was pretty neat wo watch for a little bit, I started to get some work done before the 90 tweenagers arrived. at 12 sharp the doorbell rang and they started to come, even though Vieri was still at soccer. After everyone had arrived including the bithday boy, I ventured out of my room into chaos to help Lucia who I could hear yelling and beggin for people to do this and stop that. Arriving just in time to help get lunch on the table, Maria Chiara and I, as fast as we could, spooned kilos of pasta onto plates. When the last one was finnished we were both shocked that all the mounds of past were gone.We both then stood silently, not being able to hear our own thoughts let alone talk, and watched, and listened. If anyone thinks that American childeren are loud by themselves, let alonewhen they are all together, then you ovbiously have not been around a group of Italian children. I just observed and I am tired from all the energy that they expelled.
Now I think I should recharge this energy, for school tomorrow, but more importantly it is Vieri's actually birthday and if today was any indication for tomorrow I feel like I am going to need some rest...

lets do the time warp againnn...

I think I failed a little bit at my blog this week. Im very sorry. every day I was like ok - finish work then update your avid followers on life. Then the work just kept on coming. and coming. and coming. This past week was kind of a joke about how much work they decided to give us. Literally I dont really know how I got it all done. That time warp that Ive been talking about -Ii think it worked in my favor this time and created an extra hour or two and somehow let me finish everything. Granted I do know how much work we get at Smith - yet not in my... 2 years (it  sounded longer in my head).. have I had as much work as I did last week. anyyywhooo tutte bene. :)
I feel like instead of making you read about ever single one of my days that have passed since we last spoke Ill give you a general overview and some specific highlights. 'Cause lets face it no one wants to read something 897 pages long.

The first thing of note since last I wrote was my first day at the Uffizi library. To say the least I was a little nervous. I woke up at leas 9 times the night before paranoid that my alarm was not going to go off. Thankfully it did, and I made it there in plenty of time. Making it to the museum and then into the library presented a small problem. Since it was my first day, I did not have my official Uffizi card and therefore when I showed up at the door to get into the library ( which happenes to be a fire door but the alarm will not go off if you open it, they just apparently say that so people dont - note I do not recommend trying this with other doors...) Anyway. I got to the door that Giovanna and I had gone through the previous week, told the (unfriendly) security woman why I was there, and why I needed to go up to the library. She however would have non of it. Telling me the library was closed, that I would have to come back later, and when I did I would have to go thorough security through the main door (already a 2 hour wait and the museum was not open yet) to get it, she closed the door. By now its 8:54am and Im beginning to get a little worried about how Im actually going to get inside. One call to Giovanna solved everything. In the end the man at the front desk of the library came to fetch me, and let me in (yes through the same door that was just shut in my face) and brought me up to the so called closed library. The very open library is quite a sight. It is lined with bookshelves for books bigger than you could handle, and just incase the book self cant either there are rough iron caging on all the shelving. The library itself is two floors (sounds small for all the books but its only a small portion, I found out later that there are a few other locations). On both sides of the long hallway, there are large windows, and also is decorated with frescoed angles, and mythical characters. Down the center of the walkway of the room there are two sets of dark brown desks that run the entire length of the room. (see the very slypicture I took when everyone left the library)


For the first hour or so I had to do some official looking paper work with a woman that worked there, Silvia. Signing confidentiality agreements, giving contact information, being told how to use certain things - all pretty official and daunting. After that the woman that I had met with last week came out to explain to me what I would be doing. She brought with her a huge book - probably 15x9in - which held a list of all the books in their collection. What I would be doing would be reading the entries, entering the title on a particular program on the computer, and if it came up write down the system number. Sounds simple enough right? Well that means you have never tried to read Italian cursive. Very pretty to look at, but impossible to read - for an American at least. All the letters are perfectly curved and linked together in a perfectly formed line of letters all the same size. So really first decipher, then enter, then write is what Im more or less doing. So after a while I was getting used to the cursive - not so bad (some of them at lease), and at least I can understand the Italian ones I was thinking to myself. And then the German started. Talk about a oddly written language. Literally have no idea what any of those books could possibly be about - only that they relate in some way shape or form to art.



Next  - Halloween. Let me start of by saying that Halloween is probably on of my favorite holidays. Dressing up + receiving free candy = awesome day. Halloween in Italy is more of a new 'invention' really. In their quest to be more American (why I am still trying to figure out), they have adopted
Halloween. However, everyone seems to celebrate or not celebrate at different degrees. My family for example laughed when I brought up Halloween. Not going to be discouraged by the lack of celebration a big group of Smith and Italian friends alike headed out to celebrate in some sort of fashion. We went to a place called BeBop, a little music bar in the center. In a festive spirit, they had put up (minimal) decorations which were appreciated on my part. The cover band for the night also sported some attempts of costumage - boas, tall leather boots, bandanas, leather things were all sported (please note the band were all guys). The crowd ranged from fully decked out costumes, odd pieces (like eye patches - not not lying), to normal every day italian clothing. Not deterred by the mismatched Halloween spirit we continued to have a good night (as pictured both with Sera and Oliva to the right and Oliva to the left), listening to an eclectic assortment of music, laughing, and general merriment.

The beginning of last week was pretty uneventful. Class and school and homework and italian all ensued.  I did successfully finally get to a University of Florence class - which in my book was a big deal. Its really incredible how disorganized the Italian university system is. I finally found a class that worked with my schedule, and that was actually happening - for me a small miracle. Sera ended up coming with me and we sat in on a History of Cinema class. The room was filled with students who for the most part talked throughout the entire class, while others came in late and left early. The professor said nothing - just continued talking the entire class. Well that is after he got off his phone that he answered within the first 5 minutes of the class. It was interesting to see some of the big differences between the italian classes and students and Smith - lots to say the least.

Friday came another day at the Uffizi, which was a little bit easier this time since I was a little more used to the perfect cursive. During the afternoon I wandered the city with Alayna attempting to find a open shop to look at boots, but to no avail. We had the brilliant idea of going out at 230. Everything closes for lunch at 2:30 and does not open again until 3:30 or 4. Needless to say we did not find anything.
That night after dinner - despite the warnings from every person I met prior to my arrival in Italy - I went out to the movies with a boy, Dino (yes I know you immediately thought of a dinosaur)  I met through some of my Italian friends. To everyone who has told me to not trust italian boys and are now thinking to yourself how I could have possibly gone against your warnings - dont worry all advice is lodged in my brain. I was a little nervous because although my Italian is good enough to get by, its not top notch by any means, and the thought of having to hold a continuous  conversation in Italian was a little daunting, especially since he can only speak literally 2 sentences in English.  We ended up going to the movies, which meant not a night of continuous talking for me which was fine, but also meant watching a movie in Italian. The 30 minute car ride to the theatre when very well, not to many miss understandings, confusion, or miscommunications on my part and was able to keep a conversation flowing for the great part of it.  We ended up seeing 'The men who stare at goats', in Italian of course. Throughout the whole movie he would check in to make sure I got what was going on, and what they were talking about - cause lets face it they dont really teach you military terms in school. Only missing a smalllll part of  the content (at least I think...) I was still a bit confused about the story itself - meaning why they would actually make the movie. It was very strange to say the lest. I was somewhat happy to hear that Dino did not like the movie either and thought it was really strange, only because that meant I did  not totally misinterpret the entire film.

The rest of the weekend passed very uneventfully - filled with homework and reading. There seems like there is always something more I can be and should be reading for school. In fact I probably should get to that now....
(ps pinky promise not to wait another 9 weeks until I write again)

whirlwinds of medieval towns, birthday celebrations, purple, and soccer.

As im laying in bed long after I should be asleep listening to overly gushy Italian music, parts of how lucky I am are beginning to sink in. I have always been overly fortunate in my life, mainly in fact to the amazing family and friends that I am blessed to have in my life and the opportunities that have been presented to me. This experience of being here in Italy and showing me so many different ways of life, and people is continually reenforcing this fact. Little by little as the days rush past, and the more real this whole experience is becoming I am becoming more and more aware of how fortunate I am to be here and experiencing such a  life changing opportunity. Every day I try as hard as I can to take as much as I can in of the constantly busy city, the shuffle of people, and the complete emersion that we are going through. While sometimes overwhelming still, I am beginning to adjust to some parts of Italian life and wondering why they were not always like that. On the other had though there are some other things I still think I may never get used to. All in all however, the good the bad the somewhere in between is being logged somewhere in my subconscious. I dont think I have a full grasp on the entirety of this experience yet, and i might not until it is over but im trying to take it as it comes and make sure not to miss out on one minute of it.

After a very eventful weekend, Monday came with the thought that if I saw chocolate anywhere close to me I might indeed have to run fast the other direction. It also brought the third full week of classes, as hard as that is to believe. I really am beginning to believe that time is traveling at faster intervals over here, even though Italy seems to be on a slower time schedule all together. Granted I dont know how this can be the case, but when I figure it out I will give you a holla. The week itself spun past my eyes in a blur of classes, outings and a slew of other amazing things. Monday and Tuesday came and went more or less normally with classes and readings and misspoken italian (on my part).  For some reason I think both my english and my italian are getting much worse. I no longer can speak correct english and continually make grammatical mistakes that would make sense if it were translated into italian and the same with italian. Its as if my language wires got switched somehow... yet they desperately need to go back into place very soon because not being able to speak any language very well is getting a little frustrating.  So please excuse any grammatical incorrectness or awkwardness that might occur from now on. My brain is on overload and is not wanting to process correctly.

Wednesday however was a whole other story. While usually the day most hard to get through in a week because the weekend is in your sight and you can no longer say it is the beginning of the week, wednesdays tend to drag on. We however opted to not let this happen mainly in part by just starting our weekend Wednesday night. Before you go off thinking that Italy has turned me into a wild party animal who goes out in the middle of the week I must preface this by saying it was my friends birthday, and how often to you get to celebrate birthday's in Italy. Once a year to be exact - so something needed to be done in celebration. (see Ali and I psyched to birthday it up to the right) Wednesday apparently in Italy means that you can get into most places - ie movies, theaters, and discotecas - for a significantly lower price. This worked out well for the group of 25 we accumulated to celebrate Alessio's birthday. We went to a discoteca called YAB (short for You Are Beautiful - no I am not kidding).  It had just reopened for a various number of reasons all of which are still unclear because ever Italian I asked gave me a very vague different reason. But nevertheless it was packed so tight you could barely move through the disco-balled dance floor flooded with smoke from a smog machine ever 4 feet. The whole night a collection of popular American music, techno, and popular Italian music blasted through the speakers as the dj sang along and yelled things to the crowed in Italian that I could barely hear or understand over the defining crowd and music. All in all a incredibly fun night. even if I did have to wake up at 9:30 for my class the next morning...

Despite staying up way past my bedtime, Thursday was a very productive day starting with art history and followed up by a day filled with homework. Every new art history class I've taken throughout my college career so far, takes a while to adjust to the new environment of the class. I find this more true with art history classes than any other, mainly because I think of the drastically different approaches that every given professor can teach in, and the always extremely different points of views of the students in the classes. With other classes I have found that there is more of a regularity between the teaching of  courses and within the class the students have more of the same opinions because it is not usually a personal opinion based class. Here too I feel we are still in the weird adjustment period where we are trying to figure out our professor, each other and what the class is going to be like. A sorta of limbo if you will.

This limbo continued all throughout Friday. Most noticeably was I in some parallel universe when Giovanna and I went to the Uffizi library to have a meeting about a possible internship for me. Every step I took that morning was filled with excited energy and disbelief. As we entered the Uffizi - through a special, high priority door, while the extra long line of tourists gave us dirty looks- my stomach began to turn in excited and nervous knots. We entered the library and I tried with all my might to not stop in my tracks and stare with my eyes wide open. The huge stacks after stack of beautiful books in a room perfectly constructed. A domed, coffered ceiling with tall with columns and pilasters, a huge glass window at the end of the extensive room - everything was more perfect than I could have imagined. I could almost see the excitement radiating off of Giovanna as she announced we were here for an appointment for a possible internship. As we walked down the long important hall (well Giovanna more bounced than walked - she might have been more excited than I was - which mind you was pretty hard to do) the stacks of books continued and a important silence was infiltrated by our footsteps. We met with a man and a woman (I dont remember their names as horrible as that is... I was in a daze) who welcomed us eagerly and jumped right into the descriptions of what I would be doing with them. I dont think I spoke more than 7 words total the whole time,  and whereas I thought I would be entering an interview they sat me down and told me what I would be working on with them. Giovanna paused them to tell about my art history background and interest. They told me I could work on two projects. The first
helping go through and digitalize the book collection in the library. The second looking through hundreds of medieval manuscripts that were damaged during the flood and seeing what the collection contains. ummmm?? YES! I am still in disbelief that I will actually being to look at all these incredible things that normally I would only get to see in a picture, first hand! I am so excited. I start next Friday!!
 I attempted but failed miserably to do work at the Sede the rest of day with Sera, and Ali. Some how more important things kept getting in the way of very long one page papers and readings that were not understandable in the least. Finally giving up and giving into the unproductiveness we left the Sede late in the afternoon to go and accomplish more and exciting things.

Saturday we got off to a very early start (although I almost didn't thanks to my alarm not going off..) to take a mini trip to Pienza and San Gimignano, both
small cities in Tuscany. We arrived in Pienza and were given a few hours to explore the small cobble stoned city, seeing the one main piazza with the city hall building, the church and a fountain. The main street was lined with small shops selling everything from hand made linens to moth watering cheese. Pienza is known for its pecorino cheese and Im pretty sure the entire town smelled like it - it was fabulous.  (picture of me and sera on one of these said side streets- via dell'amore) The views of the Tuscan valley's from various points throughout the city were unbeatable and breathtaking. After exploring for a while, Sera, Ali and Alayna and I decided to find a place for lunch. We ended up in a restaurant of a side street through a tiny little doorway with no more than 5 tables and where the smell of strong cheese and truffles hit you like a brick. The food was amazing and hit the spot after wandering for so long in the slightly chilly air.
We then took off for San Gimignano, about an hour away from Pienza, which is a fortresses city known for the towers. Again, we aimlessly wandered through the city taking in the amazing architecture and when we found them the spectacular views. Here too the main street was lined with tiny little stores selling wine, food and random other things and most of which had wild boar heads in the windows.


Sunday was yet another day filled to the brim with activity. In the morning Sera, Lenora, Victoria, Chrysanthe and I went over to Alessio's house for a birthday brunch/lunch. We walked through
the door and were hit over the head with delicious smelling foods that filled up every inch of air space. In normal italian style people overflowed each room, and were talking loudly over one another while stuffing their faces with perfectly made home cooked traditional italian food. After filling ourselves literally until we were going to burst we had to leave early to make sure to get to the Fiorentina v. Napoli soccer game. Purple (Fiorentina's team color naturally) overflowed the stadium pouring out into the streets. As we rushed to find the right door, the cheers of hundreds of fans echoing throughout the stadium. We walked into the stadium the cheers got louder, the purple was even more intense, and the Fiorentina soccer pride was ever present. The entire stadium was cheering for Florence. Because of the intense rivalry between the two teams Napoli was only allowed to have one small section of the stadium (see side pic - the yellow is the row of police dividing the small Napoli fans from the rest of the stadium). The Florence soccer patrol banned Napoli fans from coming to prevent huge brawls. It was a good thing to because unfortunately after a very exciting game Fiorentina lost to Napoli 1-2.