10/7 - 10/13: Mosaics and Duomos and Class Trips - oh my!

Sunday, October 7:
Sunday was our last day in Venice and included checking out of the hotel pretty early before heading over to the Gallerie dell'Accademia for a tour with Gail. Since our group is so large (29 students!), we were split into two groups for the tours of both the ducal palace and the Accademia. I was with Gail on both days, since she used the time to sneak in a couple class-focused lectures. Fine by me! A little learning never hurt anyone. We saw some pretty incredible renaissance art -- a lot of Tintoretto and Titian. The estate that houses the Accademia used to be the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita (a renaissance confraternity or lay order of brothers), made up of the church of Santa Maria della Carita and the attached monastery. You can read a little more about the Accademia here. Afterwards, we had a couple hours of free time. Isa, Gretchen, Kara, Megan, and I decided to split off from the group and grab some lunch at a place Jodie had recommended. I had spaghetti with pesto and pinenuts -- very green! Afterwards, Isa, Gretchen, and I decided to live the life and have a gondola ride. We'd been warned in our Venice orientation session that the gondola rides, while fun, were pretty pricey. This is true. However, it's a flat rate, so you can fit up to 6 people in the gondola for that one price. While we were only splitting the cost three ways, we figured it would be worth it for the full "Venice experience." We were right. Our gondolier took us through some of the more quiet canals, where the wasn't as much traffic, and showed us the opera house and the house Mozart stayed in when he lived in Venice for two months! We also made it out onto the Grand Canal for a little while. Below are some pictures from our excursion.

(L to R) Isa, Gretchen, and me on the gondola!

Our view coming down one of the canals.

One of the super quiet canals.

A lovely bunch of gondolas, all lined up in a row.

After our gondola ride, it was time to grab a quick gelato and head back to the hotel to pick up our bags (which they had kindly held for us) and get back on the boat that would drop us off at the train station. The train back to Florence was uneventful. Whereas on the way to Venice I had talked with people (and found out some interesting, but very complicated, things about the Italian government from Gail and Jodie) and looked out the windows, Gretchen and I spent this train ride alternately sleeping and reading. Venice was exhausting. Totally worth it and the best whirlwind trip ever, but exhausting. When we got back to Florence, Sarah and I opted to walk back to the apartment rather than wait for the bus, so we got our exercise for the day. We got to meet our new housemate that night too! Lena, who's from Germany, is studying at Linguaviva for the next two weeks and staying with Anna. That means there'll be three of us awkward non-native speakers at the dinner table. Sarah and I actually ended up playing translator for a little while since Lena speaks more English than Italian. Talk about a "blind leading the blind" experience. To our credit, Sarah and I managed to turn it into a "legally blind but can still see a little bit leading the blind" kind of night.

Monday, October 8:
We had class bright and early at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo with Gail. This museum is essentially a collection of all the work that's been put into the Duomo over the years. "Opera" actually literally translates to "works" and, in this case, refers to the board of directors in charge of the construction and maintenance of the cathedral. The Opera del Duomo still exists today and is now in charge of maintenance and restoration of the Duomo and Baptistery. When they notice that a statue (for example) is falling into disrepair, they'll make a really good replica of the piece, replace the original with the replica, and then repair as much as they can of the original before putting it into the museum. This means we can still see original pieces by Donatello, della Robbia, and Ghiberti and also manage to keep them safe so that plenty of other people can enjoy them too. It's a win-win situation. Right now, the big ticket item at the Museo is the newly restored Doors of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti that were made for the Baptistery. You know, those really big doors that are really famous.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's Doors of Paradise.

This article has some really cool before and after pictures. Long story short, the doors have been in restoration for the past 30 years and were finally finished and put on display in the Museo on September 8. This is huge news and we are super lucky to be here this year and to see them -- the real doors -- right in front of us, since no one's gotten to do that for three decades. Yep, we're cool. I think, in my very uninformed opinion (since I am so knowledgeable of the art world), it's safe to say the restoration worked. The only downside is that now I walk past the replica doors on the Baptistery and they look really lame now. And I mean really, really lame. The originals are breathtaking. After drooling over the doors for a while with Gail (and seeing some pretty sweet reliquaries), Maggie, Gretchen, Sarah, and I stopped and got döner kebab (aka shwarma) for lunch. Delicious. I got the spicy sauce on mine and it was amazing, but by the end of lunch I couldn't feel my mouth. Döner kebab is a little like a gyro and consists of shaved roast meat with lettuce, tomato, onion, tzatziki sauce (like the gyro yogurt sauce), and, in my case, hot chili sauce, all rolled up in a thick tortilla. It also can come sandwich style, in a pita, or open-face on a plate. In Italian today, we learned even more about the imperfect tense and started to casually prep for our quiz on Wednesday (I feel woefully unprepared). Afterwards, I whipped through my Italian homework, answered emails from my adoring fans, and found out that the airline changed the times for my flight to London for fall break. Yippee! So I got that figured out. Back at the apartment (after a stop for gelato, of course), I typed up a summary of the oral report I'm doing in Jodie's class and did some reading for my music class (but let's be honest, I also spent a lot of time on Pinterest). Dinner tonight was that weird meal soup again, but the second course made up for it with our favorite egg, prosciutto, and cheese open-face sandwiches, followed by salad and apples. I've also discovered that my productivity is shot after dinner. Since dinner starts at 8pm (or later, some nights), Sarah and I have both noticed that all we want to do after dinner is curl up and go to sleep. This is not conducive to doing homework. The struggles of life in Italy.

Tuesday, October 9:

This morning was the perfect day to stay in bed and either read or cat-nap the day away: rainy, gray, and slightly cool. (Cuddle weather and NO CAT TO SHARE IT WITH. Upset.) But I got myself out of bed anyway and took the bus to school for the gender/music class. We moved from laude to motets today, which was fun, since we got to listen to a few in class. Afterwards, I ate lunch and attempted (and halfway succeeded?) in doing some more reading. I did my oral report in Jodie's class today, on an artist named Nanni di Banco (who may or may not have been a student of Donatello, it depends on what timeline you use) and then we went to, guess what, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo! The doors are still impressive. We also saw a few of the same things that we looked at with Gail, however the nice thing about having different professors is that they focus on different aspects of the same works. You're always learning something different. I walked straight from the Museo to my good friend Louisa at the travel agency (ok, not straight there. I stopped for gelato.) to buy train tickets for some day trips Isa, Gretchen, Ian, and I want to take. Should be fun! Once that was done, I took the bus back to the apartment with Gretchen. Dinner was a party tonight -- Anna, Nonna, Lena, Sarah, me, and Anna's friend Vittoria. Whew! My day is made the moment I find out we're having pasta. Our penne noodles are followed by chicken burgers, salad, and a new vegetable called "bietola" (which I researched and found out was chard). It was stewed and delicious. I then spent most of my evening looking up things to see in London over break and discovered that I have too many options. Now would be a good time to have all the money in the world.

Wednesday, October 10:

Again, I really like Wednesday mornings in that I don't have to do ANYTHING. This morning I spent my free time talking with one of my brothers, who was pulling an all-nighter to finish a presentation for class the next day. So... I helped keep him awake? I guess? After my leisurely morning of all play and no work, I walked to school to eat lunch and do some group study for our Italian quiz. I must have understood the imperfect better than I thought I did, because the quiz went surprisingly well. We started learning physical description words today, which meant that we played "guess the celebrity" in class. We divided into groups, wrote down vague descriptions of a celebrity, and then made the other groups guess who it was. Our limited vocabulary made this a little difficult, but we stumbled through and managed to say that Cole thought President Obama would look better with a mustache. Then the most awesome thing ever happened. Stefano started to assign us homework and we all (miraculously) banded together and said, "Noooo!" in this good-naturedly whiny sort of way. And, even more miraculously, he agreed. We got an "ok. But more tomorrow!" (which is fair, since we'll have all weekend to complete that stuff). So that was pretty awesome. Class with Gail was back at the Duomo, where we focused on the decorative program of the cathedral (hint: it's all about the Virgin Mary). Now a note to anyone considering the Florence program: if you haven't already, do yourself a huge favor,  grab a Bible storybook and read it. You don't need to read the whole Bible, just hit the big stories and be familiar with the major prophets and important people. Seriously. The majority of the art here is centered on biblical figures or stories, so it's very nice to already know those stories (especially since, unless you remind them every class period, the professors will assume that you have some basic knowledge of the Bible). There are a few people on the trip this year who are continually frustrated in class because they aren't familiar with the Bible stories we're seeing and so are having to play "catch up" in order to understand them. So honestly, read the Bible. (end note) Gail let us out a little early, which was nice, and so I went to get some gelato before catching the bus back to the apartment. Dinner (for those of you who have said you're living vicariously through my descriptions of food) was cheesy rice, meatballs, stewed carrots, bread, and apples. I managed to fight off the sleepiness long enough to do some reading in preparation for class tomorrow before hitting the hay. 

Thursday, October 11:

My gender and music class went to (drumroll, please) the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo this morning. It's kind of a big deal, as evidenced by the fact that I have been there almost every day this week, with every single class I'm taking. Thankfully we also looked at a new section of the museum, which included the old scale models of the Duomo, built during construction. Pretty cool stuff. After lunch and Italian (where "more homework tomorrow" apparently meant two exercises), Megan and I walked to Santa Maria del Carmine only to see we had a text from Jodie telling us to meet at a certain street corner so that the group (which had apparently been really apprehensive about walking to a new church all together) could walk over all together. Whoops. I texted Jodie to let her know we were already at the church (and when the group got there, Ian's immediately reaction was "of COURSE you two are already here!"). We toured the Brancacci Chapel and saw Masaccio's frescoes before heading over to Santo Spirito for a quick look at another Burnelleschian structure. Afterwards, Megan and I got gelato from La Carraia, where I became a big fan of their strawberry cheesecake flavor.

In case you were wondering, this is what 3 euros worth of gelato looks like...
when half of the top has already been eaten by yours truly.

Since Sarah and I aren't in the drawing class, we got to walk back to Linguaviva and/or the apartment while everyone else went to the art studio. I spent the rest of the afternoon beginning work on a paper due next week and making a basic list of things to do on our day trip to Ravenna tomorrow (not a group trip!). Dinner was gnocchi in tomato sauce, tofu and peas, salad, bread, and plums. Any and all vegetarians out there, please answer me this: how can you eat tofu? It is not enough protein for me and this stuff tasted weirdly like hot dogs. If I want to eat a hot dog, I am going to go all out and eat all of that processed meat and enjoy it. I'm not going to waste my time eating things that taste vaguely like hot dogs but aren't. The night ended with a torrential downpour of rain and Sarah and me, sitting there wishing/hoping/praying desperately that the rain wouldn't continue in the morning, as we would both be traveling (me to Ravenna and Sarah to Milan). Fingers crossed for that one.

Friday, October 12:

Isa, Gretchen, Kara, Ian, and I were on the train by 7:30 this morning for a two hour ride to the city of Ravenna. Ravenna may sound familiar because it's where this guy named Dante is buried. Apparently he's a big deal. (The classicist in me may have wanted to pay homage at his tomb.) Note to any and all travelers, not just students: the Rick Steves' Italy book is a good buy. I bought it in preparation for this semester abroad and it more than paid for itself in Ravenna. Holy crap. He's put a walking tour in there that gets you to all the major sites and takes you (rather efficiently) through the majority of the city too. Buy it. We started our day in Ravenna by stopping at a café for cappuccino and a pastry to refresh ourselves. Then, with Rick Steves as our guide and me as our navigator, we travelled the city. Our first stop was the Arian Baptistery (named after Arius, a rather interesting character in the history of Christianity, who taught that Jesus was created by God but was also distinct from God and therefore a subordinate entity to God the Father. If you want to learn more, here's a basic overview.) The mosaics here were fabulous -- so bright and colorful, even after centuries! 

The ceiling of the Arian Baptistry.

Next, we wandered over to the Piazza del Popolo, which was the Roman center of town and happened, on the day we were there, to be hosting an international bread festival! Serendipitous. After that we headed to the Basilica di San Francesco, a 5th century Franciscan church and monastery, known mostly for its crypt, which is underwater and plays host to a number of goldfish! The mosaics here were also quite beautiful, plus there were some fresco fragments that we stopped to view as well. From there, we moved on to the tomb of Dante. That was, you know, pretty cool. We took plenty of pictures. 

Dante's tomb.

As we were walking to our next tour stop, we noticed a tiny mosaic store and decided to pop in for a bit. This might have been one of my favorite parts of the day: we ended up talking to the lady that owned the shop (though she didn't have much English and our Italian is, well, lacking) and she brought us back into her workshop for a mini-tour! So cool. She demonstrated how she cut the glass for her mosaics and showed us a work in progress too. She seemed thrilled that we were all so interested. Once we left her shop, we walked to the Mercato Coperto (a covered market, similar to the one in Florence). We didn't stay long in the market, mostly because it was pretty dead (surprising for a Friday at 11:30am). We ended up going straight to the Basilica di San Vitale, which happens to be one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen. It's around 1,400 years old and the only way to describe the mosaics inside is "HOLY CRAP ajsdkw." Jaw dropping, seriously. Many people refer to San Vitale as an example of the last ancient Roman art and the first example of art in the early Christian era. It's been cited as the prototype of some of the oldest churches in Constantinople and the inspiration for Charlemagne's church in Aachen. In fact, Charlemagne admired San Vitale so much that he even took some of the marble facing of the walls for the floors of his palace. Like you do. 

The apse of San Vitale.

Outside San Vitale! (L to R: Ian, Kara, me, and Gretchen)

From there, we went across the Basilica complex to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which is filled with early Christian symbols and more super impressive mosaics. (My jaw was hanging open for a good part of the day. It was that awe-inspiring.)

The mosaics inside the Mausoleum.

More mosaics from the Mausoleum.

After leaving the Mausoleum, we ran into this really pretentious lady from upstate New York who told us she was on a spiritual pilgrimage. From the sites she told us she had visited, Ian and I got the impression that in this case "pilgrimage" was code for "vacation." Much eye-rolling was to be had. We walked up the street a little ways to grab lunch at a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves, which was quite tasty. I had spinach and ricotta filled ravioli -- yum! After lunch, we walked to the Neonian Baptistery, the orthodox response to the Arian Baptistery. It was converted from an old Roman bath house by Bishop Neone (after whom it is named) in the late 5th century and was decorated by mosaics (which is just kind of the thing to do here).

We followed up with a visit to the Archiepiscopal Museum, filled with mosaic and statuary fragments from the Roman period and beyond. Cool stuff. We also visited the Duomo of Ravenna (making this my 5th visit to a Duomo this week), which was restored in 1734, making it a baby in relation to all the other religious buildings in Ravenna. Last, we walked to the Church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (named for Ravenna's first bishop). This church has mosaics from c.500 (under Theodoric, the Arian king) and from c.560 (when Ravenna was under Catholic control again). Again, my jaw dropped pretty much the moment we walked inside. We spent our time in the church saying "why aren't we coming here with class?!" because, really, it should happen. The church (and also the Neonian Baptistery) are UNESCO world heritage sites, since they "illustrate the fusion between the Western and Eastern styles characteristic of the late 5th - early 6th century" (more here).

The ceiling of the Neonian Baptistry.

The three kings, in mosaic form, inside the Church of Sant'Apollinare.

With that, our tour was over and it was time for gelato (chocolate and raspberry for me) and the train ride back to Florence. We were pretty tired, but we'd seen all the big historic sites in the city, so I call the day a success. I'd warned Anna that I would be late for dinner, because of the train schedule, and she had, very nicely, kept some dinner warm for me -- penne pasta (never enough pasta for me!), stewed zucchini, and mozzarella-tomato salad. Delicious. 

Saturday, October 13:
I slept in because perche no (why not)? After a lazy morning, I headed into town to meet up with Gretchen, Isa, and Kara for lunch and homework. We had pizza at this cafeteria-style place that Luigi had recommended and I also got my favorite peach tea. Happy day. After lunch, we walked to the Uffizi, where we met up with Ian. Since they're all in the drawing class, Isa, Kara, and Gretchen went inside to sketch some of the statues on exhibition, but Ian (who had already done his drawing) and I stayed outside in the loggia to do some reading and write up part of our article report. Of course, we also people-watched because tourists are funny. I am actually super productive and get most of my report written up. We stayed outside for a number of hours (and saw some Italian guys who looked like they'd stepped straight out of Jersey Shore -- we were embarrassed for them), but eventually I headed back to the apartment to finish typing up my paper and get ready for dinner (chunky vegetable soup, fried chicken, twice baked potatoes, bread, and grapes). After that, I headed back into town to meet up with some of the other girls on the trip. The plan was to go out to a jazz club and just talk and enjoy the music, but that didn't work out, so we went to another place for a little while. Gretchen, Sammy, and I went back early though, so that we could take the bus instead of paying for a taxi. I ended up watching YouTube videos and reading, which made for a pretty exciting night (you know, if you're an old person, like me).

So yeah. That was my week.