Sunday, 3/2/03
What a day, what an eventful day, what a stressful day! I got up at 7am to catch the 8:38 train to Arezzo. It's been raining all day, but it's not cold so it's kind of nice. I went down to breakfast at 8, but here at Santa Chiara breakfast is at 8:30 on Sundays. Luckily Jesus (Hey-Zeus) had already set out the cereal (cereal!) and milk (milk!) so I got some, my first of either since I've been in Italy.
While I was waiting for the train an Italian man introduced himself to me. His name was Guiseppe, and he's been to Massachusetts and New York. When we got on the train I sat by an older couple and their daughter, who were American tourists on their way from Cortona, to Firenze, to Pisa. But something happened. The train didn't go anywhere. People started hanging out the windows trying to figure out what was going on, and suddenly there were two ambulances and a slew of police cars. We thought someone had gotten hit by the train at first, then we heard there was a fight (there were a few Italians who spoke a little English and filled us in best they could). People were getting off the train, getting on again, not knowing what to do. The conductors didn't even come by to let anyone know what was happening.
Finally, we saw the police bring out an Italian woman, a larger woman with dyed red hair, in hand cuffs off the train. It came out--she had taken a policeman's gun and shot two policemen. How the situation started, I haven't a clue. Next we saw the body bags coming from the train to the ambulances. The American man automatically jumped to the conclusion that she must be a terrorist. I think that is B.S. Needless to say, that train wasn't going anywhere. We had to wait for the next Firenze-bound, which was over a hour later.
Anna cheered me up after church with fun questions like what my favorite animal was, and we talked about food. Paola, a sister in the branch, asked me over to her house next Sunday which I am excited about, but also nervous, because she understands English but doesn't speak it as well.
Monday, 3/3/03
When I got home there was no way I was going to go to the Carnivale in Val di Chiana with everyone else. I went to sleep. It turned out however, that it was canceled anyway, because of the rain. So much for the puppet factory, and so much for the actual carnival.
After dinner Peter showed tow 15 min videos by the super studio group from the '60s and '70s, which were weird and a little over my head. He lectured after that, but I wasn't about to stay when I had work to do. I went to Morgan's room and sketched her camcorder plug. She asked me what my goals and dreams were, and I told her about wanting to be a writer. She said, "I think you will be a better writer for majoring in architecture." I nearly jumped for joy. She is the first person I've told that to, whose first reaction wasn't "Why are you majoring in architecture?" I was happy she understood the general concept of how design can apply to anything and that more than anything, this degree stimulates my creativity in a way not found in, say, an English degree.
I forgot to mention that I talked to Britt after dinner about what happened this morning. She heard about it on the radio and apparently just one policeman died. The woman probably had drugs or something guilty on her, so when the man asked for her identification she pulled a gun and shot him. And we think it happened while the train was in progress before Castiglion so it wasn't a local person.
That doesn't change the tragedy of the occurrence, though. When I went to Morgan's room I told them (Morgan, Kate, Omar, and Marie) what happened. Kate and Omar said that at Cafe Ignorante this morning they saw it on the news, that everyone in the cafe stopped what they were doing and watched it. They, of course, didn't know what was going on because it was in Italian. Peter was there and they asked him to translate, but he was on his cell phone so he just said, "Oh, somebody got shot. It's nowhere near here."
So, back in Morgan's room the conversation took a twist. Morgan and Dixie decided to draw her boobies. They were making fun of what flat chests they have. Then Kate came in and drew hers, with a very exaggerated hourglass figure. They came up with the idea for everyone to add to it, but laughed at what the cleaning ladies would think if they saw elementary pornography on their wardrobe doors (we've seen many more explicit things in the art museums). Idalia joined us and drew a ridiculous picture of herself. I figured I might as well do it too, so I drew a one line profile of my body, including my stomach pudge, and labeled it "Mountainous Horizon". Kate was "Mt. Vesuvius" and Dixie was "Mosquito Bites". When I came upstairs I told Cady and Karin that if they went to Dixie, Morgan, and Kate's room, to be prepared to draw their boobies. They decided that now was a good time, so we all went back down. Cady labeled hers "Swamp Thing".
What an activity for a Sunday night!
Showing posts with label Dixie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dixie. Show all posts
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Roma!
Wednesday, 2/19/03
I am pooped! This is the reason I didn't write last night, and it'll be a struggle now. To finish up pre-Rome: I regret to say that I hardly remember Monday. Oh yes, I had my first mixed media class and it was frustrating. I guess I'm just not very good at abstract design. It went okay, though. After lunch I finally started compiling my magazine cutouts in studio, but still don't have a lot of substantial work done.
I had only about 15 pages of I Capture the Castle left before dinner, and I was in agony. I told Karin that if I hadn't read the book before, I wouldn't have come down for dinner. After dinner Kate came into out room wanting to use the secret door and she grabbed my book and ran off! Before I could put my shoes on and run out after her she was back in, had circled out the secret door to the fourth floor, then back down the regular stairs. I ran out with her and we explored the entirety of secret passageways. Then I walked on the catwalk from Sean & Eric's window to Andrea & Rory's balcony. It was a little scary, but I did it because the boys said that Dixie had stolen all their food from their outside windowsill (we call them refrigerators) via the catwalk as a joke.
I finally finished I Capture the Castle an hour after I was supposed to and the ending still broke my heart, even though it was my third time reading it. I can't express how wonderful that book is.
I actually fit everything I needed for Rome and Pompeii in my normal backpack. Good thing too, for I haven't any other. So when we got to Rome we walked by the Colosseum but didn't go in, then through the Roman Forum which was awesome. Morgan and I stopped for a few seconds to take pictures and when we looked up the group had vanished! We ran up two exits at the other side, up to the Wedding Cake [Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II], and back to the Arch for about 20 minutes. Then Morgan called Omar's cell phone, and the group was still in the same place they'd been before! They had just moved into a corner for a few minutes. We felt pretty stupid, but it was funny.
We walked through the square of the Capitoline Museums [Campidoglio] with the statue of Marcus Aurelius (not destroyed, because the Christians had mistaken him for Constantine) then to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is always our landmark to get back to the hotel.
In our free time in the afternoon a lot of us planned on going out to the catacombs but we were slow in getting our plans together to get a taxi, so by the time we would've gotten there it would be closed (it turned out that it was closed on Tuesdays anyway). So then we were going to see the Colosseum inside (this whole time we were losing people from our group, and gaining some. It was confusing). But apparently we couldn't read maps, because by the time we figured out where we were, we were on the other side of the forum and it was getting dark. We went to the museums instead. They were really neat, with paintings, frescoes, and sculptures. I am desperately in love with sculpture, particularly Bernini and Michelangelo. Cady got a beautiful Bernini book at the museum. I am going to have to search for it on e-bay some time. Bernini: the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, by Rudolf Wittkower.
When we got home in the evening Valerie and I watched Ghost in French. I didn't have the energy for anything else.
I am pooped! This is the reason I didn't write last night, and it'll be a struggle now. To finish up pre-Rome: I regret to say that I hardly remember Monday. Oh yes, I had my first mixed media class and it was frustrating. I guess I'm just not very good at abstract design. It went okay, though. After lunch I finally started compiling my magazine cutouts in studio, but still don't have a lot of substantial work done.
I had only about 15 pages of I Capture the Castle left before dinner, and I was in agony. I told Karin that if I hadn't read the book before, I wouldn't have come down for dinner. After dinner Kate came into out room wanting to use the secret door and she grabbed my book and ran off! Before I could put my shoes on and run out after her she was back in, had circled out the secret door to the fourth floor, then back down the regular stairs. I ran out with her and we explored the entirety of secret passageways. Then I walked on the catwalk from Sean & Eric's window to Andrea & Rory's balcony. It was a little scary, but I did it because the boys said that Dixie had stolen all their food from their outside windowsill (we call them refrigerators) via the catwalk as a joke.
I finally finished I Capture the Castle an hour after I was supposed to and the ending still broke my heart, even though it was my third time reading it. I can't express how wonderful that book is.
I actually fit everything I needed for Rome and Pompeii in my normal backpack. Good thing too, for I haven't any other. So when we got to Rome we walked by the Colosseum but didn't go in, then through the Roman Forum which was awesome. Morgan and I stopped for a few seconds to take pictures and when we looked up the group had vanished! We ran up two exits at the other side, up to the Wedding Cake [Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II], and back to the Arch for about 20 minutes. Then Morgan called Omar's cell phone, and the group was still in the same place they'd been before! They had just moved into a corner for a few minutes. We felt pretty stupid, but it was funny.
We walked through the square of the Capitoline Museums [Campidoglio] with the statue of Marcus Aurelius (not destroyed, because the Christians had mistaken him for Constantine) then to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is always our landmark to get back to the hotel.
In our free time in the afternoon a lot of us planned on going out to the catacombs but we were slow in getting our plans together to get a taxi, so by the time we would've gotten there it would be closed (it turned out that it was closed on Tuesdays anyway). So then we were going to see the Colosseum inside (this whole time we were losing people from our group, and gaining some. It was confusing). But apparently we couldn't read maps, because by the time we figured out where we were, we were on the other side of the forum and it was getting dark. We went to the museums instead. They were really neat, with paintings, frescoes, and sculptures. I am desperately in love with sculpture, particularly Bernini and Michelangelo. Cady got a beautiful Bernini book at the museum. I am going to have to search for it on e-bay some time. Bernini: the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, by Rudolf Wittkower.
When we got home in the evening Valerie and I watched Ghost in French. I didn't have the energy for anything else.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Life in Castiglion Fio, a trip to Pisa, and a Pride & Prejudice Party
Thursday 2/6/03
I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night but nevertheless, I still went back to bed after breakfast. Then we met Paolo at the town hall at 11 and toured the local art gallery. I sketched, but didn't take pictures. We came back for lunch which, for a change, was tuna salad instead of meat and potatoes. After a course of pasta, of course.
We had a meeting after lunch to discuss the Santa Chiara situation and we are now scheduled to move in the last day of February. We took a tour of it today, and it is gorgeous. The courtyard has a breathtaking view. Then we had studio and Peter demonstrated to us how to watercolor. I am going to try tomorrow. We then met officially with the Mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino in the town hall. I ate all my junk food while reading Persuasion in the 30 minutes we had between that and dinner. Tomorrow I am going to the Co-op to get some major grape juice because seeing wine makes me crave it. We had good chicken for dinner. I have also become very grateful for the fruit afterward.
A lot of people went out tonight, and several played a crazy card game and got drunk downstairs in the bar.
Sunday, 2/9/03
I am in a very somber mood at the moment. I just went up to the roof to get away and it was very nice but a breeze was blowing just too cool for comfort, and there was no where to sit outside the path of the wind. I don't mind being here, but I don't want my roommates to think I just sit in bed all day when I don't have anything else to do. I still haven't found out where church is, so I just have to make the most of the Sabbath on my own.
Now, to catch up on the rest of the weekend. What did I do on Friday? I slept in, for one. After lunch Karin and I attempted to get our train tickets to Pisa from the ticket machine, but it didn't work. Then we wen to the Co-op and I got apple juice, because I guess Italians use all their grapes for wine. I also got a cake thing for breakfast on Saturday, and some chocolate. They are both gone now.
Friday afternoon I couldn't find anything as a watercolor subject in my room and I didn't want to go outside so I was going to do a storyboard type thing for a scene in my story. I couldn't draw anything remotely to be identified with fire in pencil though, so Karin and I went to the Tobacci and I got some cheap colored pencils. She got markers. My storyboard didn't turn out too well because I just can't draw things worth anything that I'm not looking at. It's a beginning, though. I even wrote a little bit. It's terrible, but at least I got my ideas on paper in two mediums. Visualizing my stories helps me to think more creatively about them and will, I think, improve my writing.
The next morning Karin and I got up for the 6:54 train to Pisa. We ran to the station worrying that we wouldn't be able to get our tickets (we had talked to someone and straightened out the problem with the machine) but it worked fine and we had five minutes to spare. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there, with changing trains in Florence. We took the early train because we thought there would be more to do in Pisa than there really was. We planned on meeting someone in front of the tower at noon and so we just wasted the morning in the drab, uninteresting town. But she didn't show up. So, using Karin's "Let's Go" book we hunted for a little sandwich place to eat. It wasn't there. There was only a broken down plant shop. So much for travel guides.
We crossed the Arno again (which, being near the mouth, was very dirty and un-beautiful) for the third time to make our way back to the restaurants that we knew were near the chapel/tower/baptistery complex. After grabbing a sandwich we got our tickets to the Piazza del Duomo. It was €8,50 for everything but the tower. We went to a museum first where we saw models of the buildings, statues from them, and all kinds of other artifacts. Then we went to the Baptistery because the Duomo was closed for lunch. The Battistero was absolutely beautiful, round with two stacks of arches around the inside, but I won't attempt to describe it further. We climbed to the third level inside the roof, which I didn't know you could do, and realized that we were as high as the leaning tower. My legs were shaking with fatigue by the time we got down, so we decided not to pay the extra €15 for the tower. It sure is amazing from the outside, though. It looks so much more unsettling in real life than in pictures. No matter how long I stared at it, every time I came out of another building, it struck me again. It just looks so wrong. It really looks like it's going to fall over.
After the baptistery we went into the Camposanto (cemetery), a beautiful rectangular building with a courtyard in the center. The frescoes on the walls were burned in WWII so the walls were just blank, but the statues and marble grave tiles were gorgeous, as well as the marble walls that divided the hall from the courtyard. The walls were intricate, looked like they should have stained glass windows in them, but they didn't. The interior, if you could call it interior, was very much linked with the inner courtyard.
The Duomo itself was more beautiful than either the Duomo at Florence, or Santa Croce. The walls were all painted, there was a double row of arches in the side isles with vaults, and the ceiling, though flat, had a gold square pattern on it. We went to one more museum after that but all it was was an attempt to reconstruct the ruined frescoes. It would have been interesting if there was enough left of them to able to tell what they were depicting. After that museum we were out of Pisa. So, let it be known that there is only one site worth visiting in Pisa and it only takes half a day.
So the question after Pisa was, "Where to now?" We didn't want to go back to Castiglion early so we could either hang out in Firenze or stop in a town called Lucca. Lucca won because we won't have another chance to go there, even though the way the trains worked out, we could only spend an hour there.
The cool thing about Lucca was that, unlike many Tuscan towns, it isn't on a hill, but has a thick wall and a moat around it. The wall is 4km in perimeter and is wide enough for a small road and jogging paths on either side of it. The inner side just has a steep slope of grass going down where the wall itself is visible from the outer rim. Karin and I walked up the wall, down on the inside, and went into the town. We saw hardly anyone until, suddenly, the streets were packed with people shopping. What the heck was going on? We had no idea the town even had that many people, and why were they all shopping at once? So we made our way to the center of town, the Piazza Amfiteatro, which really was dead. It was a square that really wasn't square, but oval, with all the surrounding buildings touching, except for the four arches which accessed the piazza.
So Lucca has an oval center, with a ring of buildings surrounding it, then circular streets and plan, a moat around that, with a wall around that, then the newer part of the city surrounding, and on top of that, the beautiful night silhouette of mountains all the way around. We walked to the opposite side of town and then circled back on top of the wall We went by the garden district which was very pretty, though we could hardly see because it was dark. All this in one hour!
I forgot to mention that in Pisa we saw a nun riding a bicycle! I wanted to take a picture but I thought it would be rude.
Monday, 2/10/03
To finish up yesterday, I sketched a key for my studio project then attempted to watercolor it. Ate dinner and was going to finish my painting, but I found out that Kate was having a Pride & Prejudice party. So we pulled all three of their beds together and me, Kate, Morgan, Dixie, and Cady started watching P&P on Morgan's laptop. We only meant to watch the first half but part 4 was on the first DVD and I thought that would be a better stopping place than right after she rejects him. But the ending of part 4 is so wonderful that Morgan insisted on watching the rest. Kate and I practically have the movie memorized but the others hadn't seen it. So I didn't get to bed until after 3. I slept in, went to lunch, and went to studio to build a model of my key. After dinner I was going to improve my project but Morgan wanted to watch P&P again so much that we did, this time with Marie. We were sensible though, and only watched parts 1 and 2. Morgan is in love with Colin Firth now. It is quite hilarious. Buona notte.
I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night but nevertheless, I still went back to bed after breakfast. Then we met Paolo at the town hall at 11 and toured the local art gallery. I sketched, but didn't take pictures. We came back for lunch which, for a change, was tuna salad instead of meat and potatoes. After a course of pasta, of course.
We had a meeting after lunch to discuss the Santa Chiara situation and we are now scheduled to move in the last day of February. We took a tour of it today, and it is gorgeous. The courtyard has a breathtaking view. Then we had studio and Peter demonstrated to us how to watercolor. I am going to try tomorrow. We then met officially with the Mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino in the town hall. I ate all my junk food while reading Persuasion in the 30 minutes we had between that and dinner. Tomorrow I am going to the Co-op to get some major grape juice because seeing wine makes me crave it. We had good chicken for dinner. I have also become very grateful for the fruit afterward.
A lot of people went out tonight, and several played a crazy card game and got drunk downstairs in the bar.
Sunday, 2/9/03
I am in a very somber mood at the moment. I just went up to the roof to get away and it was very nice but a breeze was blowing just too cool for comfort, and there was no where to sit outside the path of the wind. I don't mind being here, but I don't want my roommates to think I just sit in bed all day when I don't have anything else to do. I still haven't found out where church is, so I just have to make the most of the Sabbath on my own.
Now, to catch up on the rest of the weekend. What did I do on Friday? I slept in, for one. After lunch Karin and I attempted to get our train tickets to Pisa from the ticket machine, but it didn't work. Then we wen to the Co-op and I got apple juice, because I guess Italians use all their grapes for wine. I also got a cake thing for breakfast on Saturday, and some chocolate. They are both gone now.
Friday afternoon I couldn't find anything as a watercolor subject in my room and I didn't want to go outside so I was going to do a storyboard type thing for a scene in my story. I couldn't draw anything remotely to be identified with fire in pencil though, so Karin and I went to the Tobacci and I got some cheap colored pencils. She got markers. My storyboard didn't turn out too well because I just can't draw things worth anything that I'm not looking at. It's a beginning, though. I even wrote a little bit. It's terrible, but at least I got my ideas on paper in two mediums. Visualizing my stories helps me to think more creatively about them and will, I think, improve my writing.
The next morning Karin and I got up for the 6:54 train to Pisa. We ran to the station worrying that we wouldn't be able to get our tickets (we had talked to someone and straightened out the problem with the machine) but it worked fine and we had five minutes to spare. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there, with changing trains in Florence. We took the early train because we thought there would be more to do in Pisa than there really was. We planned on meeting someone in front of the tower at noon and so we just wasted the morning in the drab, uninteresting town. But she didn't show up. So, using Karin's "Let's Go" book we hunted for a little sandwich place to eat. It wasn't there. There was only a broken down plant shop. So much for travel guides.
We crossed the Arno again (which, being near the mouth, was very dirty and un-beautiful) for the third time to make our way back to the restaurants that we knew were near the chapel/tower/baptistery complex. After grabbing a sandwich we got our tickets to the Piazza del Duomo. It was €8,50 for everything but the tower. We went to a museum first where we saw models of the buildings, statues from them, and all kinds of other artifacts. Then we went to the Baptistery because the Duomo was closed for lunch. The Battistero was absolutely beautiful, round with two stacks of arches around the inside, but I won't attempt to describe it further. We climbed to the third level inside the roof, which I didn't know you could do, and realized that we were as high as the leaning tower. My legs were shaking with fatigue by the time we got down, so we decided not to pay the extra €15 for the tower. It sure is amazing from the outside, though. It looks so much more unsettling in real life than in pictures. No matter how long I stared at it, every time I came out of another building, it struck me again. It just looks so wrong. It really looks like it's going to fall over.
After the baptistery we went into the Camposanto (cemetery), a beautiful rectangular building with a courtyard in the center. The frescoes on the walls were burned in WWII so the walls were just blank, but the statues and marble grave tiles were gorgeous, as well as the marble walls that divided the hall from the courtyard. The walls were intricate, looked like they should have stained glass windows in them, but they didn't. The interior, if you could call it interior, was very much linked with the inner courtyard.
The Duomo itself was more beautiful than either the Duomo at Florence, or Santa Croce. The walls were all painted, there was a double row of arches in the side isles with vaults, and the ceiling, though flat, had a gold square pattern on it. We went to one more museum after that but all it was was an attempt to reconstruct the ruined frescoes. It would have been interesting if there was enough left of them to able to tell what they were depicting. After that museum we were out of Pisa. So, let it be known that there is only one site worth visiting in Pisa and it only takes half a day.
So the question after Pisa was, "Where to now?" We didn't want to go back to Castiglion early so we could either hang out in Firenze or stop in a town called Lucca. Lucca won because we won't have another chance to go there, even though the way the trains worked out, we could only spend an hour there.
The cool thing about Lucca was that, unlike many Tuscan towns, it isn't on a hill, but has a thick wall and a moat around it. The wall is 4km in perimeter and is wide enough for a small road and jogging paths on either side of it. The inner side just has a steep slope of grass going down where the wall itself is visible from the outer rim. Karin and I walked up the wall, down on the inside, and went into the town. We saw hardly anyone until, suddenly, the streets were packed with people shopping. What the heck was going on? We had no idea the town even had that many people, and why were they all shopping at once? So we made our way to the center of town, the Piazza Amfiteatro, which really was dead. It was a square that really wasn't square, but oval, with all the surrounding buildings touching, except for the four arches which accessed the piazza.
So Lucca has an oval center, with a ring of buildings surrounding it, then circular streets and plan, a moat around that, with a wall around that, then the newer part of the city surrounding, and on top of that, the beautiful night silhouette of mountains all the way around. We walked to the opposite side of town and then circled back on top of the wall We went by the garden district which was very pretty, though we could hardly see because it was dark. All this in one hour!
I forgot to mention that in Pisa we saw a nun riding a bicycle! I wanted to take a picture but I thought it would be rude.
Monday, 2/10/03
To finish up yesterday, I sketched a key for my studio project then attempted to watercolor it. Ate dinner and was going to finish my painting, but I found out that Kate was having a Pride & Prejudice party. So we pulled all three of their beds together and me, Kate, Morgan, Dixie, and Cady started watching P&P on Morgan's laptop. We only meant to watch the first half but part 4 was on the first DVD and I thought that would be a better stopping place than right after she rejects him. But the ending of part 4 is so wonderful that Morgan insisted on watching the rest. Kate and I practically have the movie memorized but the others hadn't seen it. So I didn't get to bed until after 3. I slept in, went to lunch, and went to studio to build a model of my key. After dinner I was going to improve my project but Morgan wanted to watch P&P again so much that we did, this time with Marie. We were sensible though, and only watched parts 1 and 2. Morgan is in love with Colin Firth now. It is quite hilarious. Buona notte.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Intro to Firenze
Saturday, 2/1/03
I'm going to try to never miss a day again. If I can stay awake, this will be an extremely long entry. Yesterday we went to Florence and today we went to Arezzo. And it is so important to get everything out because every day here is going to be so jam packed with memories that I won't be able to remember them for long.
Thursday night people came in at 2 in the morning and woke me up. I couldn't get to sleep for another four hours. That might have been because I took an allergy pill, not realizing that it was non-drowsy, and it had the hyper effect on me. Cady came in and said that when they got back Dixie jumped up and got in the shower thinking it was 6:30 in the morning! Then Kate came out and said something like, "What is going on? My hair is still wet!" because she had washed it before she went to bed. She told me the story again at breakfast and it was even funnier the second time.
While I was awake in bed I started thinking about the story I developed over the summer. Everything about it became so much more vivid and detailed after seeing with real eyes these glorious Italian buildings and landscapes.
So I went to Florence on four hours of sleep and for the first time in my life, sleep deprivation didn't destroy my day. It was an hour long bus ride to Firenze. First we went to a Benedictine church [San Miniato al Monte] on the hill away from the city, where we could see the whole cityscape. We toured the church and Marco gave us a lecture on the history of Firenze. Modern architecture in Florence means less than 500 years old. And Firenze is actually a relatively new city. It was founded by the Romans, not the Tuscans. The Roman wall is still around part of the city. The Arno is beautiful. We next went by the Santa Croce squere where that pivotal scene in A Room With a View was filmed. We saw the Bargello, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Loggia de Lanzi, and the financial district where the Peruzzi family house is. We ate lunch (pasta, pork, salad again), only we had ice cream for dessert. After lunch Peter took the architecture students to Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents, then back to Santa Croce where we actually went inside. We walked by the Duomo, but only got to see the back. I really really really want to go inside next week. It was so big. More tomorrow.
Sunday, 2/2/03
On the way back from Firenze, I still didn't sleep on the train. I took an hour long nap after we got back before dinner and I wanted to sleep through dinner too, but I knew if I didn't eat I would be too hungry at the concert and I was not going to miss the concert. So was a little but of a zombie during dinner. The concert was divine. It was an orchestra from all over Tuscany and they were amazing. First they played a really fun Schubert piece, then a Mozart violin concerto with a guest violinist. She was Asian and only 19 or 20 and she was wonderful. Then they ended with Beethoven's 8th symphony, which was really good too, but I can understand why it isn't one of the most famous. It isn't as singable, or memorable. The concert hall is beautiful, too. Red velvet curtains, white walls, painted to look like they have carvings. The shadow work is perfect. All right, it is already time for bed so I'll have to write about Arezzo tomorrow.
I'm going to try to never miss a day again. If I can stay awake, this will be an extremely long entry. Yesterday we went to Florence and today we went to Arezzo. And it is so important to get everything out because every day here is going to be so jam packed with memories that I won't be able to remember them for long.
Thursday night people came in at 2 in the morning and woke me up. I couldn't get to sleep for another four hours. That might have been because I took an allergy pill, not realizing that it was non-drowsy, and it had the hyper effect on me. Cady came in and said that when they got back Dixie jumped up and got in the shower thinking it was 6:30 in the morning! Then Kate came out and said something like, "What is going on? My hair is still wet!" because she had washed it before she went to bed. She told me the story again at breakfast and it was even funnier the second time.
While I was awake in bed I started thinking about the story I developed over the summer. Everything about it became so much more vivid and detailed after seeing with real eyes these glorious Italian buildings and landscapes.
So I went to Florence on four hours of sleep and for the first time in my life, sleep deprivation didn't destroy my day. It was an hour long bus ride to Firenze. First we went to a Benedictine church [San Miniato al Monte] on the hill away from the city, where we could see the whole cityscape. We toured the church and Marco gave us a lecture on the history of Firenze. Modern architecture in Florence means less than 500 years old. And Firenze is actually a relatively new city. It was founded by the Romans, not the Tuscans. The Roman wall is still around part of the city. The Arno is beautiful. We next went by the Santa Croce squere where that pivotal scene in A Room With a View was filmed. We saw the Bargello, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Loggia de Lanzi, and the financial district where the Peruzzi family house is. We ate lunch (pasta, pork, salad again), only we had ice cream for dessert. After lunch Peter took the architecture students to Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents, then back to Santa Croce where we actually went inside. We walked by the Duomo, but only got to see the back. I really really really want to go inside next week. It was so big. More tomorrow.
Sunday, 2/2/03
On the way back from Firenze, I still didn't sleep on the train. I took an hour long nap after we got back before dinner and I wanted to sleep through dinner too, but I knew if I didn't eat I would be too hungry at the concert and I was not going to miss the concert. So was a little but of a zombie during dinner. The concert was divine. It was an orchestra from all over Tuscany and they were amazing. First they played a really fun Schubert piece, then a Mozart violin concerto with a guest violinist. She was Asian and only 19 or 20 and she was wonderful. Then they ended with Beethoven's 8th symphony, which was really good too, but I can understand why it isn't one of the most famous. It isn't as singable, or memorable. The concert hall is beautiful, too. Red velvet curtains, white walls, painted to look like they have carvings. The shadow work is perfect. All right, it is already time for bed so I'll have to write about Arezzo tomorrow.
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