Fifth Week Updates: Books, Theatres and Picnics!

Either this week has been a pretty easy breezy week, or I’ve really gotten used to all the intense travelling that we cram into it. Perhaps a bit of both!

On Monday, the mayor (or as they call him in Italiano, sindaco) of castiglion fiorentino came to eat dinner with us. A couple friends and I got to meet him and present him with a gift! But that was pretty much the extent of it. He welcomed us to castig and then we just ate as if it were just any ol’ day.

For our Field Trip Wednesday, we went back to Florence and toured the Accademia museum. This is where the REAL David is. Of course when I refer to David, I’m referring to Michelangelo’s David. I’ve only seen the FAKE Davids and I had only assume (that since they were really good copies, as I’ve been told) the real one would be quite similar. Nope. The real David is massive compared to the fakes and just all around more visually appealing. You can really see the pensive expression/thought in David’s face and I don’t think I can exaggerate how gigantic his hands were. They. Were. Massive. And lets not forget his butt. It was nice, not gonna lie. David is supposed to represent the perfect proportions of the body and well, he definitely takes the gold for a nice sculpted body (ha! So punny).

Our professor Giovanni took us back to the Galileo museum and into their private library where we were introduced to many old important texts of various philosophers, astronomers and etc. 

A work by Cardan that is censored due to "dangerous information" that went against the teachings of the church.

It was pretty neat to be able to touch first edition original texts from Galileo that were secretly published by the Medici family after his death because owning any books by Galileo were forbidden/illegal. 

Thursday we went to Castiglion’s Teatro that is no longer in use because of the town’s financial problems, but it was a beautiful baroque style theater. We got to sit in the fancy box seats and I got to pretend I was rich and important for a couple minutes. Hey, a girl can dream!

Look how beautiful it is! Also, there is the amazing Kyla reciting Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream while Cece, Laura and I LUXURIOUSLY watched her performance.

One of my favorite things back in the States that I indulged in are Friday morning/afternoon errands (and feelgoodfriday, but you already know all about that!) after classes. In Castig, since I don’t have classes AND there is a Friday market place, Friday morning errands are my dream come true. There is nothing like the feeling of doing all my  errands by foot and not being dependent on a car. Although I’ve never had a car of my own to begin with and so never really needed to drive anyway, I’ve really enjoyed that luxury of being able to walk to nearly anything I need. Back at Cstat, if I need to go to HEB, I would need a car or I would have to take a bus. Here, I can literally walk to an alimentari in five minutes (or to the market on Fridays).

   

I know, Dez and I are super adorable.

On Saturday, Shenell, Alice, Tessa, Ivan, Dez and I took the early morning train to Arezzo for the day to shop, visit the Antique Market and have lunch. I wish I took an earlier train (we took the 940AM, which is pretty early honestly...) just so that I had more time to check out the antique fair (it nearly stretches through most of Arezzo) before lunch and Siesta started. But I got three vintage Italian postcards for my collection which I am very excited about! One of them actually was mailed TO Italy from Pittsburgh, PA by an Italian tourist, which I thought was super neat and I can't wait to translate all the letters on the back of each postcard.

We had lunch at a cute trattoria and then we shopped around town. I mostly bought stuff at Sephora (also a pair of matching socks with my lovelies Alice and Shenell) and did my traditional "grocery" shopping at the Arezzo Eurospar (because we are too lazy to walk fifteen minutes to the Castig Co-op), which is grocery store. The boys and I went to get drinks at a cafe and striked up an interesting conversation with the bartender about America, travelling, basketball and american football. I think I may be in love with him but I may be speaking too soon. I'm always so shocked at how incredibly well the Italians speak English  It's just flawless compared to my jumbling of words and thoughts. I feel so inadequate!

 

This explains our relationship very well. You don't really know what is going on but you know it's a bunch of weird silly people doing weird silly things.

This is me trying a "flaming absinthe" shot, in which they light the liquor on fire, melt sugar over it, stir, and then I proceed to drink it. As you can see I didn't enjoy the experience very much. But my face was priceless so I thought I would share it with you all.

Sunday was probably THE best weather we have had since we've been here. The sun was shining so bright, the temperature was perfect and so we decided to have a brunch picnic in the courtyard.

It was completely relaxing - a much needed break from the stress and the cold!
I'm hoping the weather will continue to stay this amazing for our Venice trip and Spring Break!

Until next time!

"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

Second Week Updates: Duomo, Galileo, and other Journeys

This Wednesday we took another trip to Firenze to see the duomo and the OPA museum that houses many of the duomo's artifacts and history and the Galileo Museum. I got to see Giorgio Vesari's fresco painting "The Last Judgement" on the dome of santa maria del fiore again and it is just as breathtaking as the first time I laid my eyes on it. Easily one of my favorite paintings in Florence (minus a couple in the Uffizi museum, which we will be going to soon!) and I am in love with the fake loggia that is painted at the top of the duomo to give it a realist view of the elders/prophets looking down at the levels of heaven and hell.

other cool things:

- The OPA preserved all of the models and sketches of the modeling competition for the duomo. It's so amazing to be able to experience what could have been the duomo vs. what already is constructed. There were so many amazing designs and to be able to look out the window to see the finished product really allows you to feel like you're a part of it all.

- Below is a picture of one of my professors Giovanni who works at the Galileo Museum. WE ALL NEED SCIENCE because it's so awesome and to see Galileo's inventions in the flesh and to figure out how they all worked made many of us (more so myself) feel so overwhelmed and for lack of better words, dumb. Giovanni explained to us how Galileo came up with the Law of Falling Bodies and to see that much hypothesis, failed experiments and realization was so pure to me. So in summary science is cool.

We also got to see Ghiberti's famous Gate of Paradise (as named by Michelangelo) which is now being displayed after many years of restoration

Bailie took us to a place her friend recommended her for lunch called "I Fratellini" or "the little brothers" which was this hole in the wall (literally) restaurant. I had a wonderful prosciutto crudo & mozzarella panino. Afterward I had my first crepe in Italy filled with fragola gelato. The best decision I made that day. It was so delicious!

Enough about Florence. On Friday (also known as feelgoodfriday for those of you who haven't experienced those with me), a group of girls and I decided to hike up to a residential castle in a neighboring town called Montecchio. It was a 6 mile walk to the castle and it was a beautiful day although it got chillier throughout the day. As we got higher up to the castle we got to gaze back down at castiglion and other towns around the mountain and it was all just so surreal. I've never gone "hiking" before and was a little worried about if I could walk that much and then back but I felt great (and exhausted) by the end of it! Beautiful way to work out considering all of the amazing scenery surrounding the journey.

View looking up the mountain and castle in Montecchio

(Group photo taken from Jessica)

Until next time!


"And yet it moves." Galileo Galilei 

Firenze

This was my second time in Firenze (Florence) but I was still as awestruck as I was my very first time! It's strange how familiar somethings seemed yet so very foreign! I tried to take less pictures and to just enjoy what I was walking into but I had this compulsion to document every aspect of the visit. Going to seriously try to work on that!

(The photo above is Michelangelo's tomb,and the statues are his three muses: painting, sculpting and architecture.)

Laura, our tour guide, showed us around the San Lorenzo Market, Santa Croce (where the most influential italians are buried, such as Galileo, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci)  and the Palazzo Vecchio (the palace belonged to the Medici family).  

After the tour, the school fed us lunch at Trattoria del Pennello via Dante and I was so happy to finally have pasta that was DRENCHED in sauce. The tortellini was deeeelish and the chicken in the second course was yummy as well. I need to start realizing that there are more than one course every time I eat now and that I have to take the second course pictures!

I told our waiter in Italian (or so I tried) that he looked like Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka Robert Downey Junior and he was so happy that when we were leaving the restaurant, he grabbed my wrist and directed me down to the kitchen area (I was kind of freaking out because I wasn't sure what exactly was happening) to have me tell the cook/owner what I said about him. It was a fun moment.

For the rest of the day, our group just decided to have a chill day and not shop in the market. We got gelato at Perche No and had cappuccinos (my first coffee art!) at La Cantinetta di Dante e Beatrice and relaxed.

It was a very overwhelming day in Florence. I didn't feel like I could enjoy it to its fullest potential because the whole day was completely planned for us and there wasn't a lot of leisure time. This was the day I learned about "museum fatigue." I also learned that I should always go to the restroom before I trek on a 2 hour train ride back to Castiglion because I will have to hold myself not only for the train ride but for the hike back up to Santa Chiara as well!

Until next time!


“And the voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence, in their ceaseless murmuring, of love - of love, eternal and illimitable, not bounded by the confines of this world, or by the end of time, but ranging still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible country far away!”
 - Charles Dickens