12/3 - 12/9: Final Papers, an Opera, and a Trip to "Fair Verona"

Monday, December 3:
Class with Gail this morning was at the Bargello, an old barracks and prison close to Palazzo Vecchio that has been turned into a museum. There are a ton of famous works housed there (mostly sculptural and ceramic), including Michelangelo's Bacchus and Donatello's David (both pictured below). Sadly, the other two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were not present.

Bacchus

David

As Gail led us around the museum, she told us a really fun story about arguing with a Hungarian colleague about the last piece of a polyptych she had worked on in Siena... that is now up for auction at Christie's. None of us could believe that last bit at first, but apparently it's for real. Gail showed us pictures. After class, we had a quick lunch at Linguaviva, where Megan and I began to freak out about our Italian final on Thursday. Neither of us feel at all prepared. I didn't have class in the afternoon, so I went back to the apartment determined to work on my final papers. I ended up being rather productive and made a good dent in the workload! Tomorrow we're headed to the opera, so dinner (lentil soup, frittatas, stewed cauliflower with red pepper flakes that Nonna complained were too hot, pears, hazelnuts, and almonds) was taken up with a lot of conversation about that. We'll be seeing Turandot! I'm excited. After dinner, I discovered that there is some disagreement about deadlines between some of my classmates and one of our professors. In my mind, a paper deadline is pretty set in stone, so I continue to work on it.

Tuesday, December 4:
Today's music class with Sarah K starts with talk about the invention of the pianoforte (we'll be seeing a model of the original on Thursday) and then devolved in a lively discussion of modern arts funding (which we were able to connect to renaissance patronage). I enjoy classes like that :) Jodie's class was at the Accademia, where we spent a long time looking at Michelangelo's David. Because it's such a huge piece, David's kind of hard to miss. While it's fun to stand up close, I think you get a better view from a little farther back in the gallery. We ended class by playing "Name that Artist (or his contemporary, if we haven't studied him)," and I did relatively well! I'm proud of myself for going from almost no knowledge of Art History to being able to hold my own in a group of people who are majoring in the field. It shows how much I've learned this semester (and how much it helps to be able to see these works in person, rather than on slides or in a textbook). After lunch, I grabbed some gelato and went back to the apartment to finish up my paper for Gail (which is due tomorrow morning) and then have an early dinner of sandwiches and fruit with Sarah before heading to the opera! Because of budget cuts, the company has had to get creative with their operas, so instead of a tradition set, there's a projection screen in front of the chorus where images and clips from past performances of Turandot were shown. It was kind of like a really active staged reading, where there were beautiful, elaborate costumes, and only the main characters moved around. Thankfully, there were supertitles in English! All in all, a good night. We dressed up, we went to the opera, it was a good time.

Photo from the Opera Britannia review of Turandot.

Wednesday, December 5:
I spent much of the morning studying for the Italian final tomorrow (and still feel unprepared!), before heading to Palazzo Vecchio for class with Gail. Class was short today, since a number of people still weren't done with their final papers. I walked with Gretchen toward Cecil Studios, and while she went to art class, I visited Luisa, the friendly neighborhood travel agent to pick up tickets for Ian and my trip to Verona! We decided another quick weekend trip was necessary :) One the way back to the apartment, I stopped by Gelateria de Medici so that I'd have something to fuel my paper-writing. I ended up writing most of my patronage paper (on those female poets... yay literary analysis!) before and after dinner ("salty rice" with cheese, liver, chicken hot dogs, salad, oranges and pears).

Thursday, December 6:
I think I found my favorite chapel today. Jodie brought our class to the Medici chapel and oh my goodness, is it beautiful.

Chapel of the Princes Mausoleum in the Medici Chapel.

 Next, it was back to the Academia, for class with Sarah K, where we got to try out (and even play!) replica instruments from the 15th and 16th centuries. Cool! On the way back to Linguaviva, Isa, Merissa, and I stopped by McDonald's (shame) to get some french fries.... they smelled too irresistible. The afternoon consisted of the Italian final (which I think went ok?), finishing up my paper for Sarah K (which turned out well), and discovering that I'm on the same flight home as some of the other people in the group. Kara and I are hoping we get to sit together :) Traveling buddies! When I got back to the apartment, I did some research for my final project for Jodie and then had a skype interview for an internship back at Coe this spring! I should find out in a week or so if I get it or not.

Friday, December 7:
It was an early morning (leaving the house around 6:30), but it's off to Verona we go! Ian and I took the train from Florence to Bologna and then from Bologna to Verona. Fun fact: Verona's sister city is Munich, Germany, and is close enough to the border that the second language spoken on the trains is no longer English, but German. We were a little thrown off, but more thrown by the fact that we didn't realize things had switched from English to German.... I was still listening intently to the loudspeakers, focused on getting arrival times. Once we got to Verona, we took a bus to the city center and grabbed some hot chocolate at a cafe to warm up a little bit. After that, it was off to the third largest colosseum in the world! Verona's arena is huge and, because of the local geology, pink. That's right. Pink. The marble quarried near Verona comes out this odd light pink color. We took a bunch of pictures (which you can see below!) and then tried out the Rick Steves' walking tour of the city. We didn't spend money on the larger, more famous churches in Verona, but we enjoyed the outsides and then popped into the smaller, free ones. They were, in our opinion, just as nice.

Gesticulating outside the baby-collesium. 

In ancient Rome, a thumbs up from the emperor during a gladiator
fight meant that someone was going to bite the dust.

The arena was huge! In the summer, they perform outdoor operas here.

The ancient wall of the city.

It was pretty big.

One of my favorite mosaics from the churches we visited.

Of COURSE we visited the home of Juliet Capulet, took pictures with the Juliet statue, looked up (and down) at the famous balcony of Shakespearean lore, and wrote our own letters to Juliet.

My good buddy, Juliet.

Looking down (slightly) at THE balcony.

The Bard himself.

We also visited the German Christmas market that was set up in the town square!

Our first glimpse of all the tents!

Looking down on striped marble, Christmas trees, and more vendors.

Verona is also home to a pretty impressive set of Roman ruins -- including another small theater! We visited those too, of course.

Ian and I performed Shakespearean monologues for each other.
It was only fitting.

We climbed a hill to see more ruins and were treated to a lovely view of the city!

One of the mosaic fragments from the small museum we visited.

Columns! 

After all our sight-seeing, we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant (recommended by Rick Steves, endorsed by Anna Hegland) called Osteria Vecetere. I had bigoli con crema di gorgonzola (Italian for "fancy pasta and gorgonzola cream sauce) and a glass of the local white wine. And, surprise surprise, while we were eating it started to snow! We walked around the city for a little while (stopping at a bakery known for its cheesecake, which we sampled), admiring the snow, before catching the bus back to the train station.

Obligatory food shot.

Obligatory dessert shot.

Our return trip to Florence was pretty much a fiasco. First off, we almost missed the train station stop on the bus, because it was so crowded and we couldn't see out the window. As the bus was pulling away from the train station, I managed to push my way up to the driver and beg him (in Italian) to open the doors and let us off! He was very nice and stopped right away. The train to Bologna was delayed, because of the snow, so we had to wait 10 minutes at the station and another half hour at one of the stations on the way. This meant that we missed the scheduled departure for our train to Florence. As soon as we got to Bologna, we ran over to the departures board, to see when the next train to Florence was expected to leave -- and found out that OUR train to Florence was delayed as well and hadn't even arrived in Bologna yet. We spend the hour and a half trip in the train station, visiting the souvenir shop, the pharmacy, a cafe (where we have a lovely candy bar dinner), and the waiting room of the station. It got progressively colder and snowed progressively harder. This is, apparently, what we get for venturing up north in December. The moment our train is assigned a platform, we ran out to meet it (hoping to get good seats), but it still hadn't actually arrived. The moment it does get there, we get on board, in the hopes of staying warm. We're delayed a little while longer, then finally leave, and on the trip back to Florence, Ian and I amuse ourselves by playing hangman and then "writing" fake letters to Juliet for each other to answer. Once we finally got back to Florence (much later then anticipated), I head straight to bed.

Saturday, December 8:
My host mom is apparently having an early Christmas family get together at the house, because there are tons of cousins over. I excused myself from the festivities and walked into town, where I met Gretchen, Isa, and Ian for lunch at Gusta Pizza. Gusta Pizza is the best little hole-in-the-wall pizza shop in Florence. I am convinced. It's wonderful. After eating our fill, Gretchen went back to her host family's house for a nap (since she's coming down with a bad cold), while Isa, Ian, and I went on a quest. A few years ago, my mom went on a trip to London, where she found the best lotion ever. She bought it at the British Museum and has managed to keep up her supply by having a friend who travels to Britain fairly often pick up another bottle every time she's there. However, the British Museum no longer carries this lotion. This caused some drama in our household. However, their flagship store just so happens to be in Florence, very near to Ponte Vecchio, which meant that I was in the wonderful position of being able to pick some up. When my parents found this out, I was told that I was bringing some back as a Christmas present. And that was the nature of our quest. After picking up said lotion, the three of us walked back to the train station via the San Lorenzo market and caught the bus to Gelateria de Medici (one of our favorites), where I had a triple scoop -- chocolate, amarena (cherry), and crema di Medici (my favorite). Back at the apartment, I did some more research for my final paper for Jodie (I think I'll be able to write it tomorrow) and then skype with a friend from back home! There are six of us at dinner tonight, three of whom are Anna. Sarah is on a trip of her own, so it's me, host mom-Anna, nonna, Anna's daughter and her boyfriend, and cousin-Anna. Boyfriend and I have apparently gained a reputation as having hearty appetites, so we get tons of the first course (pasta with red sauce, cauliflower, and riso with squash). Cousin-Anna has made meatballs and peas (with something else in them) for a main course, and then we have delicious, juicy kiwi for dessert. After dinner, I caught the bus downtown with Gretchen where we met up with Isa and spent the night walking around the Duomo district, looking at the Christmas lights. The Duomo's Christmas tree has been put up! We took plenty of pictures.

What a massive tree!

They had an empty manager in their nativity scene, which
will be filled on Christmas morning. I stepped in for a few seconds.

The whole central city was decked out!

Even the shop windows were getting festive.

And there were sheets of lights on some buildings.

And stars all over :)

Sunday, December 9:
The apartment is still full of people, which meant that the process of eating breakfast and getting ready for the day did not go quite as smoothly as usual. I did some more work on my final paper for Jodie (you remember, that paper that's eaten my life this past week?) and then went out with Gretchen for a gelato-break. We sat and talked for a while before splitting up to work on our respective papers again. Sarah, who had been away for the weekend, got back, so I filled her in on the visiting-relatives-situation before dinner. Cousin-Anna wanted to get to know us, now that she's caught up on family news, and she ended up telling us a really entertaining story about "one time in Yogoslavia when she wanted to smoke," but I think some of the details got lost in translation. Dinner is chicken, lamb sausage, polenta, fennel, salad, and kiwi for dessert. After dinner, I skyped with my parents and then one of my friends back at Coe, before working on that darn paper yet again.