Goin' Explorin'

I need to blog more often. I am sorry about how long these get!

I am currently recovering from a cold that has been driving me crazy the last week. Every time I lie down or look down (which I never ever have to do for hours on end when working on projects) my nose starts causing all sorts of trouble. I’ve decided I actually enjoy sneezing - either you completely understand this statement or are currently scratching your head with confusion. Strangely enough, everyone else in my classes also seems to have chosen this week to be sick as well. Classes are full of sneezing, coughing, and raw throated voices. However, with the worse behind me, things are only looking up health-wise. I give full credit not to time, but to my excessive consumption of tea, blood oranges, and chocolate!

As briefly mentioned in my last posting, there is a Chocolate festival going on in Florence. It is a beautiful thing. This week there will be new vendors with new free samples. After an hour and a couple Euros is enough to have me holding me belly and laughing with all the lovely chocolate endorphins swimming through my body. And then take a nap.

This week has been extremely long. However, I now have a full understanding of the time commitment that each class will expect from me and now know how to gauge that time accordingly (no more 12 straight hours on a single drawing that didn’t even matter that much). I still love my classes, my professors, and even my homework. Some such homework assignments require museum and/or church visits. Last weekend I went to the Uffizi, one of the top museums in Florence, and experienced Medieval and Renaissance art to the extreme. I absolutely adore walking into a room and spotting a work that I have studied in class, and then having every notion of what that piece looked like in reality thrown out the window. It really is quite different seeing pieces in person. For example, Giotto’s Madonna and Child, Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus, and Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck were all much larger and overpowering than I had expected. I can understand why they are so famous when I stand basking in their power.

I have done a lot more of exploring Florence now, have my bearings, and now have ventured out of Florence for the first time! This last Friday three of my roommates, two girls from Truman, and I went to Pisa and Lucca for the day. It was the most adorable and relaxing (and cheap!) outing ever! We first went by train to Pisa and were given a leisurely hour tour by Rick Steves, via roommate Katie, which led us to the Square of Miracles! We, of course, took super corny Leaning Tower photographs to document our time there. After seeing the tower, cathedral, baptistery, super green lawn, and all the other exciting sites on our hour tour we realized there was little else we really wanted to do in Pisa, so we boarded a bus to nearby Lucca (which is now my favorite boy baby name).

It turns out buses are a lot more fun to ride because the entire countryside is an extra bonus denied to plane and train travelers. Interestingly, the bus also served as the school bus for students living in the outskirts of Pisa. Once in Lucca, we rushed around the entire historical part of the city in search of a small restaurant with fire-roasted pizzas, recommended by Rick Steves. The rush was caused by our sudden realization that Lucca, as a small town, took siesta time much more seriously than Florence; after 2:30, there would likely be no lunch places open. Fortunately we found the pizzeria, tired and hungry, and ate the most delicious over-roasted pizzas our bellies had ever had the pleasure of holding. We continued to explore the quiet town and soon realized we were likely the only tourists in Lucca, quite a difference from Florence! My favorite place was a 134-year-old bakery with the most delicious bread, called buccellato. We just barely missed the train home and unfortunately had to wait fifty minutes for the next one. This lovely day spent in small towns has probably been my favorite in Italy thus far!

Now it is Sunday, which means I must buckle down on my homework that I have been ignoring all weekend. Currently, there is a protest going on, quite literally a block away (Piazza della Repubblica). It is absolutely crazy!! I don’t know if I have ever seen so many people in one place before; people dancing, people chanting, people with signs, people with costumes, young people, old people, men, and women. After a bit of confusion, due to the language barrier, we learned they were protesting the both the president’s sex-scandal with a minor and Italy’s lack of equality for women (more info HERE). This women-led protest is happening in cities all over Italy. I feel like I am a part of Italian history!

Songs of the post: “Revolution” by the Beatles, and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith