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...