Florence, Day 13

First off, let's just all appreciate the view I get while walking around this city.

Overlooking the Arno.

Now that we've taken care of that....

We discussed our library worksheets in Italian class today. One of the questions dealt with talking about our favorite book(s); I, of course, talked about Lord of the Rings, but found out that there are apparently some more negative connotations associated with the series here in Italy, since some radical underground political groups use some of the symbolism in the book to represent their organizations. Well. Color me surprised. However, once Luigi explained this to us he told me that I "didn't look like one of those people." Glad to hear it. It's always interesting (if not surprising) to hear about the different meanings of books in a different culture.

Isa and I used our break to go get more of that magical food: gelato sticks. I know I've said it before, but I need to reiterate: those little things are amazing. I can't get over the fact that they're from McDonald's. They're just so good!

After lunch the whole group followed Jodi down to the Galileo Museum (I took the first picture on the way there) for a big group tour. It was incredible. I've included a picture or two from our tour, but I can't believe I actually some of the artifacts I saw today.

A geo-centric armillary sphere

Two of Galileo's own telescopes!

There were so many things to see. I can't even really put it into writing. But it was amazing and if anyone is going to Florence at any point in the future, I would definitely recommend going to the Galileo Museum. (Click on the link: there's a virtual tour!)

Sarah, Isa, and I went back to Linguaviva by way of some souvenir shops. We hunted down some postcards to mail off to the States and then went on a quest for gelato. We ended up finding the gelateria that my host mom thinks is the best in Florence and I tried apricot gelato for the first time.

Back at the apartment, we had rice, cheese, fish, salad, and plums and grapes for dinner. I still have not mastered the art of completely deboning my fish. It was not entirely pleasant. After dinner Sarah and I settled down in our room for homework and some jams. Time to get back to work on my Italian adverbs!

Florence, Day 12

Today during the second half of our Italian class, we took a field trip to the Oblate Biblioteca (the Florentine public library). That's right, the library. And I am now officially a card-holding member. It's pretty sweet. We were given a worksheet (similar to the one we had to fill out on our last field trip to the market) that involved finding an Italian book of poetry and a children's story that we knew. I spent a lot of time in the children's section of the library, mostly because I could actually read the books that were in there. It's a strange feeling to suddenly not be able to read anything but the simplest kids books. I know I've only been taking Italian for about a week, but part of me feels very frustrated when I pick up a book on English literature (or something else that I would normally pick up in the library on campus) and can't read a word of it. However kids books are a great way to learn more of the language - they're written using the easiest sentence structure and utilize a lot of sight words. And I can read them. Thank God.

Rewind a little ways to the first half of class today: Luigi shared the names of his top 6 gelaterias in Florence. I have been to three of them. Luigi was rather impressed when he kept giving us names and I would say, "oh that one's good!" He finally just shrugged and told my classmates "you listen to Anna. She knows her gelato."

Back at Linguaviva, Isa and I headed down to our spot in the courtyard (affectionally named "our table") for lunch and homework. Time to be impressed: I finished all of my homework before 2pm (or 14:00, if you go by the European clock).

This afternoon we had "course presentations" where the four professors we're working with (Jodi, Gail, Sarah, and George, the representative from the Cecil Studios) stood up and explained what their classes will be about. We were given the add/drop form (just in case) and then talked about our weekly and semester calendars (for some reason people found them confusing? I don't know. I thought they made sense.)

Afterwards, Gretchen, Isa, and I went to the WIND store to reload/purchase SIM cards for our phones. Yay for running errands. We treated ourselves to gelato afterwards, where I had Mars Bar (holy cow, it was amazing. Plus there were pieces of Mars Bar in it.) and Chocolate Chip Cookie - so good. I've also decided to make my on top 5 (or 10, who knows) list of gelaterias. Why not? I'm certainly eating enough of the stuff to make an informed decision on which are the best ones.

Dinner was squash-minestrone soup again (don't care, it's good), with chicken burgers and salad, and grapes for dessert. I also think Anna has figured out that Sarah and I will eat whatever she puts in front of us (even if we're not sure about it), because she keeps pressing more food on us. We end up eating second or even third helpings of dinner because she tells us there can't be leftovers and that we must finish it. It's good food, but we leave the table absolutely fit to burst. First world problems. 

Florence, Day 11

I am quite sunburned. Good thing I brought Aloe!

Today in Italian class, we worked on prepositions. At this point, none of my class understands exactly what's going on with Italian prepositions and every time we asked for clarification or realized that we had really messed one up, Luigi merely said "Is ok. Even Italians get confused by the prepositions." Well, at least it's not just us.

Isa and I had lunch in the Linguaviva courtyard (and were soon joined by one of the other boys on the trip, Michael) and spent an hour or so doing our homework before heading out to the Church of Orsanmichele with Jodi and the whole group. The church (which used to be a medieval open-air market, or loggia, and granary) was really pretty and had some amazing sculptures in it (pictures below), but a lot of people weren't really paying attention which was a bummer for those of us who actually wanted to be there.

The medieval stonework at Orsanmichele.

The elaborately decorated altar inside.

One of the statuary niches.

Things to know about Jodi: she rocks. They were getting ready to close the museum on the second floor of Orsanmichele (which is where they now keep the original statues from the building, for conservation purposes) for a dinner party that was happening that night and she managed to talk the volunteer in charge of admission into letting us all in for a half hour or so. Holy crap. We saw some amazing stuff, like the original of the four statues in the last picture above. Jodi knows an incredible amount of information too, so the entire time we were up there I was just trying to drink it all in. Talk about a wealth of knowledge.

After we were dismissed from Orsanmichele, Gretchen, Isa, Ian, Sarah, and I went to Grom since Sarah hadn't been able to experience their gelato the first night we met as a group. I tried chocolate and blueberry. I'm kind of convinced Grom doesn't have a bad flavor in their entire shop.

Once we had successfully had our daily gelato time, we headed back to Linguaviva to pick up our Italian books (which we hadn't wanted to carry with us) and then grabbed our bus back to the apartment. Gretchen was going to come over to Sarah and my room (since we live about a block and a half apart), so I memorized a long sentence to tell Signora Anna, asking if she minded if Gretchen studied with us and telling her how long she would be over. I was super pumped to be able to use my carefully crafted sentence but then ended up only using about half of it on Nonna (who is a little bit deaf) because Anna wasn't home yet.

Dinner was amazing, to the point where Sarah and I felt it necessary to get a picture (which is below).

Probably Sarah and my favorite dinner yet.

Toast topped with prosciutto, cheese, and fried eggs, plus potatoes and bean salad on the side. Oh my. Family, be warned: I will be making this when I get home. I will hunt down the good prosciutto and cheese it requires. Good Lord, it was good. Sarah and I pulled out our dictionaries just to be able to shower Anna with compliments for this specific dish. She brushed us off a bit, but I think she was secretly very flattered. Score.

Florence, Day 10

My day can be summed up in 3 words: beach, sunburn, gelato.

A group of us left the station in Florence at 8:57 this morning, on a train headed to the seaside town of Cecina. Cecina is on the west coast of Italy, about two hours south of Florence. Personally, I enjoyed the train ride - there were some very pretty views of the countryside and, once we got a little closer to Cecina, the Mediterranean.

So I can officially say that I have swum in the Mediterranean. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Once we got off the train, we had a half hour walk from the train station to the beachfront - but again, I thought it was pleasant, we were on a tree-lined avenue (pictured below) the whole time.

Stock photo of Viale della Repubblica

While on the way, the rest of the girls wanted to stop and grab a few snacks and some cheap towels at supermercato, so Ian and I (being the intrepid adventurers that we are) blazed the trail ahead and snagged the group a pretty prime spot on the beach. The others final joined us and all seven of us set up our towels in a little circle. Sunbathing, pictures, swimming, eating, chatting, and relaxing ensued.

Look! I'm at the Mediterranean!

(L to R) Isa, Ian, and me

The paying section of the beach; colorful, but not as fun
as the free section we went to!

Awkwardly awesome statue near our spot.

After a lunch of sandwiches (which we packed and brought from Florence), Ian and I were still hungry, so we took a walk down the boardwalk in search of more cheap food. We ended up getting gelato (that's right, it was daily gelato time) at this little open-air café. We both tried a flavor that we didn't recognize: for me, chocolate and "cookie," which did actually turn out to be cookie flavored, and chocolate and "bounty" for Ian. We still don't know what "bounty" was, but it tasted phenomenal. We also found a pizza by the slice shop that gave us a piece of margherita pizza that was, no joke, as big as my head for € 1.30. Pretty sweet deal.

I got myself a pretty brutal sunburn while in Cecina, but I also scored a watch-tan, so I figure it evens out.

The train-ride back to Florence was an experience for all of us. I'd also like to take this opportunity to tell you all that everything I heard about the Italian train system was a total lie for the Florence-Cecina line. The train was A. on time, B. clean, C. air-conditioned, and D. had pretty comfy seats. Once we made it back to Florence, Isa, Ian, Gretchen, and I grabbed more gelato (because, hello, daily gelato time is all the time). I had mixed berry (or frutti di Bosco), but it was pretty icy, so that was disappointing.

Back at the apartment, we were treated to a dinner of pasta, prosciutto and cheese with crusty bread, and fruit. My host mom saw my sunburn and immediately was all over me, feeling the temperature of my skin and telling me (all in Italian) about a sun cream she has that I had to use after dinner. That's the nice thing about the host families so far. They have, pretty much across the board, gone out of their way  to make sure we're all taken care of. The food that I'm being given every night is really good, my bedroom is actually pretty large, and I have a really nice lady looking out for me (seriously, she forced this bottle of sol crema into my hands).

After dinner, I sat down and did my Italian homework and then skyped with my parents, which was really nice. It was really good to see them and hear their voices. Emailing is great and all, but there's something about actually talking to your parents that feels really, really good. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Florence, Day 9

Sarah and I are up super early for a Saturday... catching the bus downtown at 7:34. We take a big bus that's been reserved for just us ACM folks to the Chianti region (yes, that's where the wine comes from), stopping in Siena to spend the morning and early afternoon touring the Cathedral and the museum that's connected to it.

First of all, Siena is gorgeous. That's all that really needs to be said about that. However since a picture's worth a thousand words, take a look and decide for yourself.

Siena from the sky! Actually from a tower.

We started out at the Basilica di San Domenico, which is dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena and Madonna (you'll soon see that just about everything in this city is somehow dedicated to Mary... she's the patron saint of the city). St. Catherine is a huge deal in Siena, mostly because it's her home city, but she died while still young during a visit to Rome. The diocese in Rome decided to bury her in Rome and not return her body to her homeland, however the Italians are (like me) a stubborn people. The Sienese people found out about Rome's decision and went to claim Catherine's head (and, mysteriously, a finger...) as relics and brought them back to Siena, where they are housed in the basilica to this day.

After the basilica, we walked to Siena's Duomo and entered the Crypt (SO COOL). The second room of the crypt was only discovered and excavated in 1990s, so this is still a pretty new thing. Since this room of the crypt was sealed with dirt, the frescoes are still magnificent and the colors still rich and vibrant. No pictures allowed though. Bummer.

Once we left the crypt, we headed up a flight of marble stairs to enter the Duomo itself. Holy cow. I'll let these next few pictures speak for themselves.

The Music Room... look at that ceiling!

The height of this cathedral was amazing.

The pulpit, sculpted by Nicolo Pisano.

Pretty amazing, right?

After the Duomo, Jodi took us into the Museum next door to the Duomo, where we took a look at some of the original statues (which have been removed and replaced by copies for preservation purposes). We were then free to break for lunch, but some of decided to climb up to the top of the unfinished façade next to the museum (it was originally going to be a new "arm" of the cathedral) and see Siena spread out below us. It was so worth the wait. The first picture in this post is one I took from the rooftop, but here a couple more.

Jodie, with the unfinished facade behind her.

Siena :)

I'm on the roof!

We hurried on downstairs after this and headed off to find Piazzo del Campo (the piazza in front of the 1300s town hall). We got an amazing tour of Palazzo Pubblico (the town hall itself) from Jodi and Gail, where I saw so much gold and marble that I thought my eyeballs would fall out. I have never been so wide-eyed for so long. There's some truly incredible stuff in there and Jodi and Gail both know so much!

We didn't get to spend terribly long inside Palazzo Pubblico, we had another town to hit up! On our way back to the bus, we stopped and got to try these powdered sugar cookies that Siena is famous for. I have no idea what they were, but they were delicious. I also had gelato (the streak goes on!), chocolate and vanilla-chocolate chip today. We got back on our bus and headed over to Greve in Chianti for the Greve Wine Festival. It was just as good as it sounds. I now have a commemorative wine glass, a new favorite wine, and a pamphlet for the villa that one of the (very cute) vendors invited me to come visit. All in all, a pretty great day.

Tomorrow is a free day and a few of us are going to the beach! Should be a lot of fun. I'm excited to see the Mediterranean! 

Florence, Day 8

Good news: the quiz went well! Isa and I actually got nervous afterwards because it was a little too easy. Luigi did manage to freak us out though, by waiting until we had all finished and put down our pencils to tell us that he had "forgotten to tell us about the most important part of the quiz" - drawing a small picture on the first page. I ended up drawing a city skyline and a little stick figure guy lighting up the Batman symbol. Luigi actually thought it was pretty good and told us all that he liked the Batman movies.

After our coffee break (between class sessions), two of the Italian classes (all ACM students) met up to go to the open market that we've been frequenting to do a language scavenger hunt. We had to talk to people and look or ask for certain prices and products. Isa and I finished relatively quickly, so we hit up one of the dried fruit stands, which, it turned out, was run by a Japanese woman who had attended Linguaviva when she first moved to Florence!  I bought a bag of dried apricots (albiocche) and apples (mele). The vendor was funny - when she found out Isa and I went to Linguaviva, she gave us other fruit to try and didn't charge us for it. So I paid for my apples and apricots, but also got dried mandarin oranges and some cherries, which were both quite tasty. Unfortunately, I have a weakness for dried apricots and apples, so I finished my bag much too quickly.

Back at Linguaviva, we got our homework assignments for the next class and then were dismissed for the day. Lunch was more bread, salami, and mozzarella (still tastes just as good). Afterwards we explored more of the city and ended up going shopping at H&M.

Then it was daily gelato time (peach and mixed berry this time) and a nice long talk with Isa. Once I got back to the apartment, Sarah and I went down the street to the neighborhood supermarket to buy some food for lunches.

We could smell dinner almost before we opened the front door after grocery shopping. Anna made homemade pizza (individual sized, for our convenience), roast rabbit (which was a total surprise to us - we thought it was chicken!), steamed zucchini (which I again tried to get the recipe for. It still hasn't worked.), and apples. We had another guest at dinner tonight: Anna's friend Vittoria. The two of them have apparently biked all over Europe together, which Sarah and I thought was pretty awesome. It was also cool to hear Anna and Vittoria converse - such fast conversation! We were totally lost. Thankfully, when they wanted to talk to us, things slowed down. Vittoria also speaks a little bit of English, which was helpful.

But now it's time for bed. We're headed to Siena and Greve tomorrow morning, so I'll be up bright and early!

Florence, Day 7

Today was spent nervously reviewing Italian nouns and verbs, conjugating "to be" and "to have," and freaking out over those pesky articles. Tomorrow is our first quiz and my entire class is worried about it. During class we reviewed things with Luigi (and I may finally understand the rules for our articolo [articles]). At break Isa, Stacy, and I went to the supermarket that's down the block from Linguaviva and bought lunch - fresh, warm bread, salami, mozzarella, a smoothie, and tiramisu for dessert.

Our afternoon ACM trip today was to San Miniato - you know, the church that I went up to last Saturday? Guess what, it's still just as beautiful. Jodi and Gail know an incredible amount about the church itself and the artwork inside. It was amazing to go inside today and see the mosaics, the frescoes, and the sculptures. Once we're finished at San Miniato, we walk as group down the hill to the Uffizi. During our walk, Jodi told us a story about a mafia bombing that occurred in the rear of the Uffizi gallery in 1993... when she was in a building not even a block away. Holy crap. Every single one of us had wide eyes after that story. Once we got to the Loggia dei Lanzi gallery (which is an open-air statue gallery), we pulled numbers out of an envelope to divide into teams for a scavenger hunt of sorts. Each team was given a location in the city, an item at that location to photograph, and a gelateria to find afterwards as a reward. My team went to Santa Croce (Holy Cross church) and was told to photograph the statue of Dante that's set up in one of the courtyards. Afterwards we went over to Gelateria Vivoli for some super good gelato (chocolate and raspberry for me).

(L to R) Chainky, me, Marie

After gelato it was time to head back to Santa Maria Novella and pick up my Italian books from Isa's host house. I ended up sticking around for a while, talking to the girls and sitting outside in the sun. Once I finally caught the bus back to my host house, it was already almost time for dinner. Anna had made minestrone soup (which, before anyone asks, is super different than the stuff Olive Garden serves), a salad of egg, tomato, and mozzarella, and grapes. We talked about food a little at dinner and I was scolded for my love of gelato. Apparently my host mom says there's too much milk in gelato for me to be having it every day. In twitter terms: YOLO. I am in Florence and I will have gelato every day. Sorry I'm stubborn. Sarah and I also managed to tell Anna what sports we did in high school. It's only been a few days, but we can already piece together a little more Italian than we could at the beginning. It's still rough, but we can stumble through dinner pretty well now. Go us.

Now to study and go to bed. Wish me luck on tomorrow's quiz!