Renaissance Woman

Super packed, super fun week!

I'll skip over Monday and Tuesday because I can't really remember what I did on those days but I'm sure it included walking around and gelato.

On Wednesday, I closed the library early to attend the Welcome Day Celebration for American students studying in Florence at the Palazzo Vecchio. The celebration was held in a large room with an ornately gilded ceiling and huge frescoes on the walls flanked by statues. Definitely, a show stopper. Scholars believe that a Da Vinci fresco that hasn't been seen since the 1500's may be hidden beneath one the main frescoes at the back of the room. During the Welcome Ceremony, the President of the National Geographic Foundation stepped up to the podium and gave a short speech about it and showed a short movie. After many years, Nat Geo has finally raised the funding to explore behind the existing murals and hopefully remove and preserve the Da Vinci if, in fact, it is still behind the wall. Regardless, there were 8 or so VIP's present (including someone from the US Consulate) and they all spent some time welcoming us to Firenze and congratulating each other for all they do for the city, Tuscany in general, and US - Tuscan relations. I even met the Mayor of Firenze and shook his hand! After all the speeches there was a reception and a meet and greet complete with complimentary wine and champagne and Tuscan appetizers. I registered for my absentee ballot and paid the entrance fee for the huge cancer walk Firenze hosts annually called Corri La Vita. Look at me and my civic-mindedness. The best part about the whole thing was getting to see a part of the Palazzo Vecchio that most don't get to see. I stared up at the ceiling the whole time.

After that, Carolyn, Kimmie, and I decided to have a nice dinner at a restaurant right near the study center that I have been eyeing since I got here. It was awesome! I had pasta with truffles and pecorino, Kimmie had pici with a red pepper/goat cheese(?) sauce and Caro had pear and gorgonzola ravioli!!!!! Al fresco!!! with cheap wine!!!! Definitely going back to that place.

From there I introduced the girls to Grom -- hands down the BEST gelato in Firenze. Thankfully, the line was short and we took our cones over the the Duomo. As we sat and ate, we met a couple of Italian guys. They were about 20 years old and spoke impeccable English. We talked for a little while and they commented that for the most part Americans are rich, rude, and make fun of Italians when they try to speak English, which totally surprised me. Well, the third thing surprised me anyway. One of the guys will be heading to Chicago to study abroad this winter and spoke at length about how America is the world's destination -- that everyone is working to get to America. At that, all three of us exclaimed, "but we have all worked so hard to get to Italy!" He continued, "but coming here, is like stepping back 20 years for you. We [Italians/Europeans] don't have half the movies and products/technologies that you enjoy. Italy is nothing but quaint." Hmmmm.... didn't really know how to answer that. Yes, there are more "luxuries" in the US. However, I am more than willing to give up those 300 television channels to sit in a piazza any day. We left the boys and headed home.

On Thursday, had my usual day a work with includes eating yogurt, processing serials, putting out fires, printer problems, having lunch, making playlists on my ipod, phone problems, chugging water, and gossiping with my assistants. In that order. It also may or may not include skype-ing with someone or sending texts to Kristen way too early in the morning. Later, walked around for 3 hours looking at stuff. Had family dinner with the girls at home.

Friday -- my day off -- Had to go into work to let Kate and Alyssa in. This one set of keys thing is getting kinda old. Oh well, got me out of the house early. Read a little of my book (called Bella Figura -- its about Italians/Italian culture written by an Italian. It really captures the feeling of the culture here. Read it and understand Italy). Later, met Kimmie at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Duomo Museum) where I accidentally set off the alarm guarding the Michelangelo Pieta. I leaned too close while looking at the tool marks in the marble. Oopsy. Thankfully, I wasn't tackled or anything. Browsed the collection for a while -- it's small but has a whole little room filled with reliquaries. One had a whole jaw bone! The signs were only in Italian so I'm not really sure who/what they are and I'm having a hard time finding info on the web. Everything in the room was really poorly lit and I really couldn't get any decent pictures. Oh well. It was still cool.

Later we met up with Carolyn, had some more Grom, hit H&M for some shopping and then had dinner at Trattoria Anita. I had Pici alla Fiorentina which turned out to be pici and creamy tomato panchetta sauce with mushrooms and peas. Damn good. Got home late, finished my sleepy time book and hit the sheets. Almost forgot!!! I got my mattress topper and it is AMAZING. Not only is it far more comfortable that my crappy mattress but it holds the two twin beds together so now I have a big girl bed!! Yeah! Now I'm sleeping like a baby -- except for the coughing. Even though I haven't been sick in about 4 years, I managed to catch some virus. I feel fine, I just developed a crappy cough that keeps me up at night. Hoping that it will be gone this week. The next 3 weeks are going to be crazy. More about that later.

Back to the weekend -- Saturday -- All state-run museums in the EU were free to the public for the entire weekend. It's a cultural initiative held yearly. Had plans with Miss Kimmie to head to one or more of the larger museums but in Italy phones also choose when they feel like working. I tried to call her from both my land line and my cell and the line kept disconnecting. Later, when I finally got a hold of her she said he had the same problem when trying to call me. I swear the phones are all hit or miss. Today the phone in the library has decided to stop working. It's just dead. I don't know. Anyway, despite the fact that I couldn't get a hold of her, I wanted to take advantage of the free entrance so I headed to the Uffizzi for a Botticelli and Caravaggio fix. I had to wait in line for an hour but it gave me a chance to study some Italian on my Ipod while I was waiting in line. The wait was totally worth it! I walked through room after room of masterworks I have only ever seen in books. Really enjoyed the Caravaggio exhibit especially the Medusa shield (yeah Kristen!). Unfortunately, you can't take pictures so no shots of me in front of the Birth of Venus. The other disappointing part was that both the miniatures room and the objets d'arte room were closed! No fair -- they are usually the things I like looking at the most. Well, there is always another day.

Later, Went to check out the beer festival and the thing I noticed first was how classy it was. In the States, beer festivals are over-the-top drunken ragers. Usually there is partial nudity on behalf of both of the sexes and garbage everywhere. Italian beer festivals are more like wine and cheese parties -- with special pasta. How refreshing.

I didn't really feel like a beer so I just went up to my place to make some calls. Finally got a hold of Kimmie after attempting to call 5 more times and decided to meet the girls for dinner at Gusta Osteria in the Piazza di Santo Spirito near the Pitti Palace. I have trained the girls to never order the same thing as anyone else at the table and to also share all their food with me (alla La Mama Weimer). Finally. So for dinner I had gnocchi ragu, grilled chicken, salad, and lasagna. Also, wine. For dessert I had flourless chocolate cake, panna cotta with 2 different sauces (choc and strawberry), and dessert wine and biscotti (cantucci di Prato). It was great! Duh. Headed home around 10. Had to be up early for the cancer walk.

Sunday -- Corri La Vita!! -- Met the FSU kids -- and about 20,000 other people (literally) -- all wearing purple shirts in the the Piazza Signoria for the start of the walk. We stood around for a while waiting for it to begin, then as a giant horde of purple the walk oozed through the streets of Firenze. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio first which acted like a bottleneck and made for a little standing around. We headed up the street where the race-route turned into the Boboli Gardens surrounding the Pitti Palace. My little group of six (Kate, Justyn, Ryan, Jenny, and Sam) broke off from the race to explore the Medici grottos and some other parts of the grounds. The Boboli Gardens usually cost about 10 euro to get in and I got it all for free! I love free! It was a super clear day so we hiked up the hill at the back of the Garden to see the view out over the back wall of the palace as well as the view down to the Arno and beyond to the Duomo then up to Fiesole. Off to the side of the terrace was a small exhibit of Medici Porcelain. Totally awesome!

Back down the hill we joined back up with the race, which detoured here and there where locals had opened their palazzi for public viewing. The Specola (the taxidermy and wax anatomical model museum) was open for free but the line was really long so we skipped it. Then we stopped and got a gelato - duh - it's what you do here. I had marscapone and panna cotta flavored gelati! So Italian!

From there it was just a short walk to the Palazzo Strozzi where the new Branzino exhibit had just opened. Usually there would be a 10 euro entrance fee but it was free to Corri La Vita participants! Branzino spent a large chunk of his life serving and the portrait painter/poet of the the Medici. We all went inside and browsed the collection which included protraits of Medici young and old as well as many religious paintings. There was even a two-sided portrait of a court dwarf! This may be blasphemous, but I think I liked the Branzino exhibit more than the entire Uffizzi. It really was amazing.

After that the group broke up for lunch and we never rejoined the race. We spent over an hour in the museum and the race was all but over by the time we got out of there. Kate and I headed to pick up lunch at Natalino (the place I eat everyday with the good salami) and sat down to eat it on the steps of Santa Croce where the beer festival was still in full swing. We ate and talked and people watched for about 2 hours. It was an incredibly clear beautiful day, perfect temperature, perfect sun. We got more gelato (#2 that day) then went back to the Piazza di Santa Croce to eat it. At 4pm I had to be at work so we headed over there, still in our Corri La Vita attire. Work was uneventful except for a coughing fit and the fact that mysteriously the bathroom door will no longer lock.

Kate and I decided to have dinner at Gusta Pizza (!!!) and I met her there after I got off work at 8pm. It was packed so we got our pies and sat on the steps of Santo Spirito to eat. It was perfect.
Then I headed home to battle with my cough and try to sleep. Thanks to my new mattress topper and a tiny 4 euro bottle of listerine everything worked out and here I am today, Monday afternoon.

What a great weekend! The next three weeks are going to be equally crazy. Next weekend, I'm headed to Venice with FSU for two days. The following weekend I'm going on a long weekend to Paris and Versailles and the weekend after that i'm heading to London for 5 days and then to Ireland for another 5! I promise to sleep and work somewhere in the middle of all of that. I forgot my camera thingy so no pictures with this post. I will probably add some tomorrow -- make sure to take a look.

Montepulciano, Sant'Antimo, Pienza and the Natural History Museum

Had the best weekend! On Friday the entire class headed to Montepulciano, Sant'Antimo, and Pienza to check out some churches and see a little bit of the Tuscan countryside. The bus ride there was so beautiful. We winded our way through the little hill towns and farms. It really is THAT beautiful here. First stop was Sant'Antimo, a beautiful church in the middle of nowhere. The site itself is set in a little valley surrounded by fields and vineyards not far from Montalcino (not to be confused with Montepulciano). The church itself is rather plain and mostly white but scholars believe that it was once covered in frescos. The church also houses a 13th century wooden crucifix carved by a Catalan artisan passing through the area. Wooden sculptures rarely survive and this example is especially beautiful.

From there we headed to Pienza to look at the famous square and have lunch. The church had beautiful ceilings. The outer walls are riddled with bullet holes from WWII. Peinza is famous for its pecorino cheese and the entire town positively reeks of it -- but in a good way. Lunch was amazing. We started with pici (pronounced pee-chee). It's handrolled thick pasta -- each strand is about the width of a pencil. It had some sort of tomato sauce on it that was wonderful. Second course was roasted chicken and potatoes with rosemary and fresh green salad. Super good!

Next, we headed to Montepulciano a town that is now growing in popularity because they filmed some small portion of one of the twilight movies there. It is a captivating little place on the top of a hill will lovely views of the Tuscan countryside all around. About half way up the hill upon which Montepulciano sits is the beautiful Chiesa di San Biagio.

On Saturday, Emily and I headed to the Natural History Museum, which totally knocked my socks off. The very last picture is just a sampling. This museum holds room after room of wax anatomical models from the 18th century and an amazing array of taxidermy. All of the wax models are simultaneously alluring and repulsive. Some are so beautiful and lifelike that you just want to stare but when you do you realize what you are looking at and recoil. Anyway, it was amazing.

After the museum, Emily and I headed back to Via Romana (the student housing) where the students had organized a party in honor of the Oktoberfest we are all missing. None of us were able to get train tickets to Germany for any of the Oktoberfest weekends. We hung out there for a while then headed to aperitivo at Golden View again which is amazing. For the price of a drink you get a full meal including pasta, pizza, and various cold dishes. It is a really good meal, including drink, for only 10 euro. The best part is that you get to try a whole bunch of different things on the buffet, plus this place is classy and overlooks the Arno.

It rained most of the night but it was nice to walk around and see the streets all shiny. We hit a few more bars and clubs before finally calling it a night around 3 am. The bar scene here is startlingly American. All American music all the time. Will have to continue trying more places.

Again, the pictures are all out of order. Sorry guys.

Santa Croce and weekend

Another wonderful week in Firenze! On Thursday, Carolyn and Kimmie and I had our first night on the town after a lovely dinner of 5 Euro pasta this time at Trattoria Anita. Our appetizer was this amazing molten bowl of pecorino and proscuitto with truffle sauce that we slathered on bread. So good!

We went to an English pub (of all places). It was crammed with American girls (mostly students ranging in age from 18 to 21 probably) and smarmy Italian guys trying to make time with the tourists. We did see a couple of American guys who ordered budweiser - totally lame. It was incredibly crowed but in Europe you can drink openly in the streets so we headed outside to finish our drinks in the piazza. A few Italians tried in vain to talk to Carolyn and Kimmie in broken English. They are 18, so needless to say they are new to the bar scene and I look like their chaperone or something. Later a guy slapped me on the butt. I was definitely ready to go.

We headed back towards Santa Croce (my neighborhood) which is heavily populated by bars and clubs and found another pub that was much more low key and populated by locals. It was another English pub (go figure - there are tons here) and I had a Pimm's. Yeah! Overall, the night wasn't a total bust but I am just getting my feet wet here so I'm a little apprehensive and feeling out the nightlife. Carolyn and Kimmie slept over because their place is about a 25 minute walk and I didn't want them walking home by themselves at 2 in the morning. Momma Alexis strikes again.


The next day, Friday, I worked for most of the day then off to dinner with the girls. I headed home after that for me time and ended up cleaning my house for 3 hours. I rearranged some more and ended up finding some things left by the previous tennant tucked away in drawers that will definitely come in handy, like extra soap and lightbulbs. I also found a little set of speakers that I can hook up to my ipod so I can use it like a stereo. Yeah! By the way, the $300 bucks I spent on my Ipod has turned out to be the best money I've ever spent. I use it constantly and have downloaded apps for skype and free texting so I can keep in touch with every one back home. Not to mention the hours I spend listening to the 12 G's of music I put on it before I left. It's practically paying for itself.

On Saturday I got up early and headed out to look around town for a while. I ended up in the leather store at the end of my street and fell in love with a purse and bought it. It was pricey but well worth it. I love it and will probably carry it everyday. I got a sandwich and sat down to eat it in piazza Santa Croce and ended up having a conversation with a really nice American retiree visiting from Ohio with his wife on a tour. He was very excited because he had just found a cafe that served American style coffee and we talked while his wife was looking for jewelry. It was really nice to have a conversation with a fellow American because when I'm by myself I usually don't speak to anyone for hours.

I finished my sandwich and decided to head into Santa Croce Basilica to finally have a look around. It is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy and contains the tombs and mortal remains of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli to just name a few. It also has a small museum and leather factory. I walked around for a couple of hours. It was so beautiful. One of the small chapels inside the church held the relics of Umiliana, a first female franciscan monk in Firenze. I took a picture of the sign for all of you and because I am nerd. It was totally creepy but also amazing -- the relics not the sign.

This is one of the large works housed in the museum at the back of the basilica. Unfortunately, I don't remember who it's by but I sat and stared at it for a while because it was unbelievably beautiful and the colors were so vibrant. Favorite painting so far.

I left the church, took a nap and tried to cook myself dinner which turned out to be a total fiasco and failure. I finally figured out how to work the gas range but kept accidentally snuffing out the flame by having the window open or turning the heat too low. I made boring spaghetti which cost twice as much and tasted half as good as any pasta I can find at any trattoria in Firenze. I think I may just snuff grocery shopping all together. It turns out to be so much more expensive and troublesome. Anyway, I ended up eating gelato and pizza like I do almost everyday. And it was excellent. Oh and I found my favorite pizza place finally. Gusta Pizza! It's about a 25 minute walk away but so worth it. Wood fired oven pizza, bubbly and crunchy. So good!

On Sunday, after yet another failed attempt to get to Ikea (I NEED a mattress topper and more pillows -- I wake up every morning in pain and I almost never sleep through the night) Carolyn and I headed for the leather market around Mercado Centrale. Later, had amazing chicken Cacciatore and tuscan white beans at Za Za's which I have heard is kind of famous. Definitely going back there! Then high-tailed it to work after which I headed home to eat the rest of my cacciatore and to bed early.

And here I am today. I tried to return some foam padding I bought for my bed that didn't work out for about the 50th time today but the store is never open when the posted hours says it will be. That is something that is sooooo common here. Stores open and close as they please which is aggravating. Really though, I like the pace of life here where nothing is really THAT big of a deal that you can't put it off until later. I think everyone can benefit from a little less stress and Italy is teaching me that.

This weekend I am heading to Pienza, Montepulciano and Sant'Antimo with the students and then hopefully to Munich on Saturday for the kickoff of Oktoberfest if we can get train tickets. Yeah!!!

Sorry the order of the pictures is totally messed up. They are impossible to wrangle.

Ravenna photos!!!

My front door.


I did manage to get a couple of photos of Ravenna off my camera after all! The other two are of the Mercado Centrale. We visited there last week to get some things for dinner.

Ravenna

On Friday, we headed to Ravenna. We visited some beautiful historic sites: the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Arian Baptistry, the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Basilica of San Vitale, and the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. All of these shared one common characteristic: astoundingly detailed and beautiful byzantine-era mosaics. Good news -- it was totally amazing. Bad news -- my camera died about 15 feet in the first church, so I didn't get to take any pictures that day. I took a bunch of photos with a friends camera but those somehow got erased. Ah, life.

That day we had a beautiful lunch which I also don't have pictures of. We started with "misti" sort of like antipasto. Beautiful cured meats and parmigiana with fig jam and piadina (which are the Italian version of flatbread -- sort of like a pita) served with grilled peppers, zucchini, and roasted San Marzano tomatoes. 2nd course was a pasta course with a creamy meat sauce. Sounds weird but was totally delicious. Dessert was yogurt panna cotta with wild berry sauce and espresso. The coffee was so good. Everything was really good. Best meal yet, for sure.


The next day a few of us went to the Mercado Centrale to go food shopping. Along the way we did some shopping at the leather/tourist stuff market that surrounds the Mercado. Inside, we made our way to the food stalls. The produce here is so beautiful and astoundingly cheap. We bought 3 San Marzano tomatoes and a giant red pepper for only $0.67! Total. I couldn't believe it. I thought I misunderstood her Italian so I had her write down the total. You can't even buy a red pepper for less than 2 bucks in the states, let alone the tomatoes. Plus the quality here is FAR superior. Everything just tastes brighter. Anyway, we picked up some other things from the butcher and a bakery stall. We also managed to find fresh pasta, also unbelievably cheap.

Later that night, Carolyn, Kimmie, and Rae came over and we cooked some pasta and tossed it with olive oil and veggies. I think the whole meal for 4, including bread and wine, cost about 10 euros. Crazy. After dinner, we went for a stroll around the piazza Santa Croce and had gelato. A pretty good day to say the least.

This week marks the first week for my student assistants. Hiring is finalized - 5 total assistants (Betsi, Alyssa, Kate, Carolyn and Kimmie) - now I just have to train them so I can get a whole 2 days off and cut down my hours a little so that I'm not technically working overtime and not getting paid for it.

In other news, most of the businesses that were closed for the summer are officially re-opening today. I definitely noticed a sizable difference in the traffic volume on my way to work today. The good news is that the mattress store that is near my house will re-open so I can finally buy the eggcrate and pillows I have been dying for. I don't want to be a diva but I need four pillows to be happy.

Also, today is Kristen's birthday and I miss her. This is the kind of thing that makes it hard to be away. Anyway, Kristen I hope you have a great day today and I'll be thinking of you. I have a present for you but you have to come to Italy to pick it up!

This weekend I may go horseback riding. We shall see.

San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangleo

I wanted to post some of the pictures from last Sunday that didn't make it into the last post. This basilica was truly beautiful and the views were amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. Perched up on the hill, Firenze in the valley below seems so close that you could reach out and touch the duomo.

This week I am finalizing the selection of 4 more student assistants and running some updates on the computers. Once I get the student assistants up and running next week, I will be able to focus more on creating a new book display and do some other marketing via facebook. Really, I would also like to see the the leisure fiction section weeded and updated. I have some books that I plan to sell to a local anglo bookstore for store credit which I then can translate into new purchases. I'm not sure how much these kids plan to read while they are here but I want make sure they have some of the classics at their fingertips instead of the weird donated books that are currently available.

This week I also started Italian classes. Four days a week I head to the New Wing of the study center for an hour and half of intense Italiano. Of course, my previous years of Espanol are helping but they also keep getting in the way as I keep pronouncing everything in Spanish. Ah well. At least I'm learning.

Last night I left work for my evening stroll around the duomo. To change it up, I decided to find Mercado Nuovo before heading home. I walked a few blocks, rounded the corner and there he was -il Porcellino. Tradition says that a rub on the nose will ensure that you will someday return to Firenze. Leaving the mercado I f0und a busy shopping street and was window shopping my way up the street until I realized I was standing on il Ponte Vecchio. One of the most amazing parts of Firenze is how truly small it is. No matter which way you turn you end up stopped in front of some world famous historical sight.

Leaving the Ponte Vecchio, I headed home and stumbled upon a grocery store that is about 5 times closer to my house than the one I had been going to. It's also much cleaner and less crowded! God, I'm so relieved. Anyway, picked up some stuff for dinner and a 3 euro bottle of chianti (which, by the way, is pretty tasty). I also found some beautiful little strawberries and - get this - the international foods section of the store! They have soy sauce, ketchup, taco sauce and tabasco sauce!!! At least I know I can get some form of hot sauce if need be.

Looking forward to Ravenna and its mosaics on Friday and a relaxing Saturday off. Hope to finally get inside Santa Croce at some point this weekend. A domani!