The Stairs to Purgatorio (and monks and learning and the like)

First off, thank you for all your lovely comments =)


Second off, prepare for a long post. 


Okay, today was DEFINITELY the hottest day so far. I definitely have a ton of new freckles to show for it too! Of course, being the hottest day so far, it was only natural that I would walk up 600 steps today. That's right, 600! I can literally feel my legs tightening. But let's start at the beginning, shall we?


So my roommate discovered the trick to not waking up at sun up and tossing and turning until our alarms go off  -- the trick is to pull down the blinds so the sun doesn't come in and shut the window so we can't hear the carts. Therefore, I ended up sleeping much later (but much happier) than I was supposed to and rushed to go get my latte (always at the same place!). We then met our professor at the Baptistry. Instead of having sit down class today, we had two field trips! She has connections or is just all around spectacular, because we got to go in before anyone -- so we essentially had a private tour. It was glorious. The baptistry is medieval (and we learned about how to distinguish between medieval and renaissance architecture a little) and it was where every Florentine would have been baptized. It's famous for it's doors, but we mainly focused on the inside.
The baptistry looks like this on the outside: 

And  has a ceiling that looks like this on the inside:

The pictures really don't do it justice. Basically it's this HUGE ceiling and this is entirely in mosaic.

I'm truly running out of adjectives to describe things, so for lack of better words I'll just say it was amazing.  Professor Schildgen also explained the entire mosaic to us, which was really cool, because each line tells a story and you read it from left to right, but also from top to bottom. Left to right tells the story and top to bottom draws parallels.  The center represents the eye of God (it's windows). It was incredibly interesting.  We were also able to go up above into the two upper stalls of the baptistry, which was SO AWESOME! 


After that, we made the long trek over to San Miniato, which is on the other side of the river. I feel like if college has taught me one thing, it's how to climb stairs.  I do climb Jan Steps every morning at school, and the spiral staircase in one of our theaters is at least 70 feet up.  Thus, continuing my "education" we hiked up 300 stairs to San Miniato. In the heat of the day. It was hot. Sweating is just a way of life here, I've discovered.  Anyway, San Miniato is a beautiful church with a beautiful view over the city -- it's higher up than piazza Michelangelo.  Apparently Michelangelo actually said that San Miniato was the most beautiful church in Florence.

It's a nice, cool (in terms of heat) church and I learned even more about medieval architecture and design. I also learned the symbols of the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) which is vastly helpful because they show up everywhere! Matthew is the human/angel, Mark the lion, Luke the bull/ox and John the Eagle. I then found out that they do mass every night in Latin. Not only that, but Benedictan Monks live there and they do Gregorian Chants. We had nothing to do that night, so after climbing the 300 steps down, chilling at the apartment for two hours, I climbed the 300 steps back up again.


Let's just say I understand why Dante envisioned these steps as similar to the steps of purgatory. By the time I got to the top I was glistening with sweat and breathing hard, but I only got there with two minutes to spare, so I had to hurry and put on my sweater (to cover my shoulders) which was not really pleasant as it stuck to my arms, and find a seat in the back. Okay, first I thought it was in the main church, but it was really on the lower level (I REALLY wish I spoke Italian) and then I tried my best to be polite and respectful. The chants were beautiful  --- there were six or monks and they all had wonderful voices.  It's funny just because I'm in musical theatre, I guess, but they had a small keyboard to give them their notes! It was a true mix of times.  Also, I got to wondering what their "rehearsals" are like and if they naturally are talented singers.  Anyways, my peace was constantly interrupted by the stress of myself not wanting to be a stupid American/tourist.  This increased tenfold, when many people came in, were loud, sat down, left noisily, and took pictures (when it clearly said "no foto"). One of the monks clenched his jaw every time this happened and seemed to look up to God to grant him patience.  I didn't want to be grouped into that group, even though I am clearly a tourist and not Catholic. . and I hope I succeeded!  The service was mostly chanting, (which was very peaceful when I wasn't stressing out) then some readings in Latin and in Italian.  For the Latin, I could pick up a few words, "something something something good, something something something life, something something something love, something something to be able to, something something thus" but it was still a good experience, although I didn't understand any of it. My favorite part was greeting the people around me and shaking their hands. I didn't know what they said (because it was in Italian), but I just smiled and inclined my head, so I hope it sufficed! I then went and in true Aunt Annie style bought some jam made by the monks there, although I had to guess at what kind it was, which was surprisingly hard! (they also sell honey, which is much more difficult to figure out the kind) I ended up with more, which is blackberry, so I'm quite satisfied! I can't wait to take it back home and try it. 


Another interesting day in Florence =) I feel like I'm learning so much! I love it! Oh! and to apologize for the lack of pictures, here is one of the view of the Duomo framed in the doors of San Miniato.

After another wonderful (but long) day of class, tired and sore footed, Chelsea, Kelsey and I walked over to the Supermercato to get some cheese.  So, I don't really know how to order the correct amounts of cheese in Italian, so I asked my professor (who has been vastly helpful) and she said that mezzokilo is a good amount. Great! Okay, I get mezzokilo of gorgonzola, and brie. . . and it's HUGE. I mean, I don't mind for the brie, but I more wanted a taste of gorgonzola rather than a GIANT thing of it! I tucked it aside as a learning experience, turned the corner and realized that there was already cut and packaged cheese there. I didn't even need to try to make myself understood by the lady behind the counter! oh well, I guess I'm going to have a lot of gorgonzola on my sandwiches! We went back and had a mini feast for lunch

I relaxed the rest of the afternoon and figured out the train schedule for the weekends -- we're planning on Siena this weekend, Rome the next, then Venice/Verona and Naples/Pompeii. At a quarter to eight, I dragged them to the Palazzo Michelangelo to watch the sunset (it was far away, and we're all exhausted from so much walking and heat).  Unfortunately no sunset tonight, but still, the view of Florence was amazing.

It doesn't even look real in pictures. . .  I can't believe I'm even in this place! It was nice being across the river (We're staying a few streets beyond the Duomo -- i.e. the GIANT church) because it seems like people actually live there and it's a little less touristy.  We went to a random restaurant that was in a little map book of Florence my aunt and uncle gave me, which was a lot less touristy. . . but the waiter was a little disdainful of 3 American girls who speak very little Italian. The food was good though. I had a risotto that tasted like glorified spaghetti o's (in a good way). . . but I felt so guilty about asking to take a bag out last time, this time I tried to clear my plate, which is the proper thing, which resulted in me eating entirely too much food. blah! Exhausted and full, we walked back over the Ponte Vecchio home, looking at the river

 

I am so exhausted, but a few parting observations thus far before I go to bed

1. I drink at least 2 liters of water a day, and I'm pretty sure it's because I sweat so much because of walking in the sun for long periods of time. 

2. I feel like I'm actually getting ever so slightly tan, which might be nice!

3. I was surprised, but Italian bread isn't that great. They like a really crunchy crust and bland bread. I need to find some ciabatta and focaccia bread. Although their rolls can be quite good. 

4. The kinds of observations I am making may be an indication that I need to sleep. . . 

good night!

The sounds of Florence:


Carts that bang on the cobble stone from 4AM-7AM
Churchbells that either sound beautiful or like pots and pans
Constant snippets of Italian conversation and laughter
Nightly Music


It is Tuesday afternoon and I am taking a break from wandering, as my feet are sore, and my body is tired. Yesterday was a good day =)


I started off the day getting up early to go to Mercato Centrale, which is right around the corner in our home piazza.  Basically, it's a big building full of vendors -- kind of like pike's place, but in a building like a train station.  They sell fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, bread, pasta, and all of the fixings for very cheap. There is also a place to get a latte and a pastry for 2.30 euro, which is the perfect beginning to days when we have class. This is what my latte looked like: 

My lovely and delicious coffee set the tone for the day. We stood at the bar (sitting costs) sipping our lattes and listening to the meet vendor in back of us passionately sing to American songs on the radio (a tad off key, but definitely brought a smile to my face) My roommate and I then walked around perusing food and we made friends with a fruit and vegetable vendor, who couldn't speak much English, and thought we were cute for struggling to convey how many cherries we wanted.  He was this jolly older Italian man and he was incredibly nice, and would smile and pinch our cheeks with affection.  He also threw in  two extra apples for free! It was a fun experience and we'll probably go back a few times during the week. Here was our haul for our first trip

After walking up three flights of stairs (and another two for the kitchen) to drop off our groceries, we headed off to our first day of class! We are taking class at the University of Florence with a professor from UC Davis.  The class is absolutely phenomenal.  Our professor knows the material inside and out -- and after giving us a background on Renaissance Florence, proceeded to tease apart the first three cantos of Dante's Inferno.  I learned so much and she had my full attention for two hours straight. I am so glad that I chose this trip. Then, as a class we walked over to the Palazzo Vechio (basically the town hall/civic center -- and has been for hundreds of years) and had a tour of the part of it that used to be home to Cosimo Medicci I.  The amount of art EVERYWHERE was unbelievable.  Everything was covered in art. It's almost impossible to capture what it was like in a picture, but this can give you some sort of an idea

This is the hall of 500 built for Cosimo's son's wedding. The painting on the left is enormous and depicts Florence's conquering of Pisa. To the right, a similar painting of the conquering of Siena. I loved the bright, vibrant colors -- which, in my limited experience, seems to be uncommon with older paintings. Sculptures line the room, including an original of Michelangelo's. And the ceiling is an entire work of art in itself, being several paintings framed with gold. The rest of the rooms followed in a lavish suit, with everything from gold leaf on the walls to a map of California from the 16th century! I also learned about the stone of Florence (a soft grey stone) and Florence's symbols: the fleur de lis, lion and red cross on white flag. 

We broke for lunch (which was a delicious and truly amazing proscuitto sandwich) -- after which, we headed back to the Palazzo Vechio for the secret passageways tour. This is a hard tour to book, so having a teacher who has done this trip for ten years really pays off.  However, no English or Italian tourguides were available, so we ended up with a French one, who spoke a little Italian and even less English. So my professor translated the whole tour for us. It was AMAZING to watch them try to communicate with mostly French combined with Italian and English. Oh, and did I mention that he was incredibly handsome, well built and adorable? He was nice too! This tour was fascinating. He took us through a few secret passageways of the palazzo vechio and to Francesco Medicci's secret laboratory, and Cosimo's secret study.  The most interesting part was that Francesco's lab/study was covered in paintings -- some of which were cabinets -- that were all a code for what was in the cabinets. It combined the four elements (Earth, Air, Water and Fire), the seasons and mythology.  oh, and of course the paintings were beautifully detailed. We also got to go up above the roof of the room of 500, which was apparently raised (I missed the story), which was really interesting too! 


After saying goodbye and merci to our wonderful tourguide, we walked along the river and then headed home to make dinner. It was a beautiful day.

I cooked dinner which didn't turn out half bad! The pasta from the market was incredibly good. Our last adventure of the night was finding one of the "top five gelato places" from our guide book. It's called Vestri and known for it's white chocolate gelato. Unfortunately they were out of that when we got there, but that just means we have an excuse to go again! I had white peach and florentine vanilla and it basically had the creamy taste of homemade ice cream, which was a pleasure =)

I passed the rest of the night reading about Florence in my guidebooks, and trying to stay cool. I'm adapting to the weather, but last night was the hottest yet! Now I'm off to plan our weekend trips and read Dante. Till next time! 

Wandering with Intention

So it's begun. . . It's 9:30pm the night before class starts and I'm at my computer eating m&ms and writing my blog instead of doing my reading for tomorrow. . .oops! I'll have time. . . later. . . 

Today marked my first full day of exploring! We got out of the apartment by 9:30 AM and headed out to find breakfast. We passed the Duomo again. . . and honestly, it never gets old (we passed it a million times today too. . . it's astonishing)

We finally found a place to get coffee and a pastry.  The latte was delicious (probably because they use whole milk) and the pastry had nutella in it =) perfect breakfast. We then headed over to this fortress thing on our map. . . I can't remember the name, but it was massive and we couldn't get in, so we just walked around it (which took a good 20 minutes)


Part of the front

 Cool Statue by it

There was a nice sized park on the side of it, with lots of ducks

Close up on one of the walls of the fortress 

Then we just decided to follow one of the main streets that crossed a bunch of piazzas and I think we were in the more wealthy part of Florence. . .it reminded me a little bit of New York by Central Park, but with much bigger doors.

We stumbled upon a Piazza della Liberta, which was pretty cool. It was perfect weather too and we were in a part of town without many tourists (which is the best). Avoid tourists, avoid paying an arm and a leg for things.

I also found this theatre sign, which I thought was cool =) 

We wandered a little more, but had to turn back and retrace our steps because one of the girls lost her sweater. I didn't mind though, it's nice to walk leisurely, especially since we'll be here a while. Unfortunately we didn't find her sweater, and we decided to head back to eat and rest.  We walked through Piazza della Independenza, which was nice-- looked like a great place to sit and read -- and then ate at a restaurant in our home piazza. We had bruschetta for an appetizer and some of their house wine -- which I could barely make a dent in. I still have no taste for alcohol. 

For a meal, I had the most delicious spaghetti and meat sauce of my life and then learned that you don't ask for a box for your food in Italy. Italians prefer to take long meals and eat everything, or else you are considered to be rude. However, they wrapped up our food anyways, and it made a great dinner too! 


We took a break after lunch to figure out where we want to go on weekend trips and then made made a trip to essentially the 99 cent store to pick up some essentials (paper towels, sponges etc.) Then we headed to the Piazza della Signoria, which I really wanted to see. IT WAS SO COOL! ahhh! I want to go back early in the morning when no one is there. . . but it is such an awesome place. The statues. . . the buildings. . .so amazing. My favorite part is the spiral staircase on the clock tower. 

Neptune

Coolest statue 

Awesome view from where the statues were

I'm probably going to go back and spend more time there.  I feel very comfortable walking around Italy.  We've gotten about two catcalls, but they were perfectly harmless.  I definitely have gotten a feel for it, and i feel like my sense of direction is getting better (it's so confusing here!) 


The other two girls were tired after our day, so we came back -- I reheated my lunch for dinner and basically tried to get the internet to work!!! Now it's almost 10:30 and Dante is calling me to read. Well, first day of class tomorrow!!! I'm also getting up early to go to the giant outside (ish) market around the corner to get food for the week.  I'm excited. Shopping at the market is apparently pretty cheap, which is nice. Anyways, more adventures tomorrow!!! Buena Sera! 

First taste of Italia

Day 3

After waking up from a glorious 12 hour sleep, I decided to just take the day to relax and do some reading, so I could recover from jet lag. 

Around six we all went to the professor's apartment for our on-site orientation. We sat on her terrace, which was beautiful (see pictures below).  In back of her apartment is a music school, so we constantly heard music as we sat there in the Italian sunlight =)

After eating some delicious pizza, my roommate, her friend and I headed toward the river, and stopped by the Duomo. Oh my goodness gracious. . . the Duomo is amazing. It is absolutely indescribable.  The dome is so big that the architect who designed it also had to invent the machinery to be able to build it.  The sheer size is just breathtaking and everything from the doors to the the stone are gorgeously crafted. 

The Duomo from far away 

The back of the Duomo

The side of the Duomo (see how the people are dwarfed), and part of the bell tower

Close up on a panel of a side door

The top of the front of the church

A view of the front, the baptistry, the dome and the bell tower

I can’t even image how much labor, money, and collaboration of artists and architects that went into creating such a magnificent building.  I think seeing the Duomo was the thing that really made me the most excited about being in Florence. The city is such an interesting place -- such a mix of old buildings, giant structures and a modern urban city.  It’s crazy, but awesome. 

We wandered down to the river, which I really liked -- I love pieces of nature in the middle of urban areas.  Here was our view from the Arno:

I don’t understand the traffic rules here. . . if there are any . . . but I found it really strange that there were cars parked on the bridges. Anyway, it was a nice day and I finished it off with my first real Italian Gelato!!! Nutella and chocolate chip (which has an Italian name that I can’t remember). 

Here is very tired Jen eating Gelato:

Getting to Firenze!

PREFACE:

Okay, so  1. Prepare for a few posts, because I have been writing, they just haven’t gone up due to the terribly uncooperative internet in my apartment.

2. If you’ve ever heard me tell a story before, I generally tell way too many details just end up taking forever, so my writing stories may not be too much better -- I apologize in advance.

Day 1 and 2(ish?) 

After going to bed late, waking up early, running to CVS, finishing packing, driving to Dad’s office and getting my (just fixed) computer from Costa Mesa -- I finally got to the airport and was on my way to Florence. The ten-ish hour flight actually wasn’t too bad! I had a window seat, and read The Scarlet Pimpernel (which, if you were wondering, is an awesome book. . . and awesome movie with Leslie Howard too), watched “It’s Complicated,” read the Italy materials I had been given and then tried (unsuccessfully) to read one of my school books -- but by that point I was too tired to focus.  I have an extremely hard time sleeping on planes, and because Florence is nine hours ahead, I basically lost a nights worth of sleep.  By the time we got to Frankfurt, all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep.  Also -- it was the weirdest thing, but it never got dark outside when we were on the plane -- it was like we were running away from the night or chasing the day or something.  Anyways, I then took the plane to Florence, got my bag (luckily not lost!) and shared a taxi with a couple of girls from the program.  At that point it was around 3:30pm Florence time, so around 6:30 AM United States time.  Exhaustion doesn’t even begin to cover how I felt at that moment -- but we got to the apartments, which are actually fairly nice (although up three flights of stone stairs. . . I am going to have legs of steel by the end of this trip) 

Here’s my street.  There is a surprising amount of graffiti everywhere, but it’s a nice block. To one side is the Mercato Centrale and the other is San Lorenzo (which is a fairly big church...well, compared to churches at home)

The living room:

The Kitchen -- don’t let it fool you, it looks nice, but the drawers are mostly broken.

The other side of the kitchen with the washing machine and table

My Room -- desk and such

My side of the room -- I’m in a double

I love the bright colors. It’s rather funny, because all of the furniture and such are all from Ikea.  My bedside lamp is the same as my desk lamp at school.  I am in a double, and luckily my room mate karma has held strong and I got a very good roommate.  After dropping stuff off, we went with the professor to the cell phone store and then to the supermercato to get some groceries (I definitely wasn’t up to going out for dinner or breakfast).  Then I came home and made my first Italian meal, which was pasta and carrots with pesto and a roll, which was easy and pretty delicious.  The roll especially was AMAZING. Italians definitely know their food! 

After that I finished unpacking and slept for about 12ish hours. =)