STAIRS

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Florence

SO apparently we are all about stairs here in Florence. There is about 8 flights of stairs to get up to my apartment, plus 8 flights of stairs to get up to the school. Sooo thats a lot of stairs. And no one uses elevators here because they are small and sketchy. We had also been going to Forte Belvedere a lot at night because there is a bar up there. That involves lots of walking up hill and lots of stairs! And then on that Sunday, in Lucca, we climbed up the stairs of two towers. And in Pisa I climbed the leaning tower...

On Monday we hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo on the other side of the Arno. It was a steep hike uphill plus some stairs! CEA led this short hike, then they treated us to some gelato! You get gorgeous views up there of Florence. My roommates and I had planned to stay up there though for the sunset and so we brought a picnic dinner, and went in front of a church up there and watched the suset behind Florence. Soo beautiful!

Then on Tuesday we climbed up to the top of the Duomo in Florence. About 463 stairs I think. Also led up there by CEA. Gorgeous views of course, and so I popped a squat up there and hung out with some of the girls.

Then on Wednesday...just to keep with the whole stairs theme, two of my roommates and I climbed Giotto's tower, which is right next to the Duomo. Same view and whatnot, but less stairs. We just had to do it because it involved lots of stairs.

Thursday we took a little break from the hiking uphill, and we went instead for quite a long walk on flat ground. We went to dinner outside of the center at Nicoletta's house. Nicoletta works in CEA, and she is really nice and really cool, and so she and her friends invited us over and they cooked us dinner. Yummy! This day I also went to go see the San Lorenzo church, which is right across from my apartment.

In class this week we also went to the Bargello museum. We saw some of the sculptures of Michelangelo, such as Bacchus and got a pretty good tour by our art teacher. We also went to Palazzo Vecchio and got to go inside of it. We got a tour given to us by one of the guides. We got to see the studios of Lorenzo di Medici as well as Cosimo di Medici. These were really cool. They were through some secret passageways, and these are not open to the public so it was fun to see these! They had some awesome art in them, as well as hidden cabinets and doors behind the art. The art usually gave clues as to what objects were kept in the cabinets. For example, a painting with an ocean landscape might have shells in it...etc.

In Palazzo Vecchio we also saw a big room that had lots of paintings and some sculptures by Michelangelo. We also got to go above the ceiling, which was very interesting because the ceiling is actually a frame, and then the paintings are inserted in the frame, instead of actually painted on the wall. We got to see the whole wooden contraption that holds everything up.

Then Friday 3 of my roommates and I did a bike tour! It was run through Ibikeitaly.com. I've done wayyyyyy more bike riding here in Italy in the past 2 months than I have in the past 10 years! Kinda funny. But we biked from Florence up to Fiesole, which is a town up on a hill that overlooks Florence. More uphill! But it of course gave us gorgeous views. Then we continued our bike tour through the Chianti countryside through a part called *?Maggione. * We saw some churches and more gorgeous, green, rolling hills. We ended our bike tour at a small rural winery called Fattoria di *. We had a picnic lunch here and then had a tour of the winery and wine cellars. This was cool because it wasn't set up for tourists like the other one was. This one was also smaller. I think they made cheaper wine as well, but still the classic Chianti red and white wines. We also saw how they made their olive oil!!! This was soooo cool. We saw how they have it in these huge gourds and stuff and we got to try some right out of the pot! It was yummmmmmmmy.

We also got to roam through the olive groves on the property, and their little gardens. Then we did some wine tasting, just of their table wines. I learned that by spinning the wine in a glass, you can actually age it! This mixes the oxygen and the wine, and if you do this for a long time, say 10 minutes, you can actually taste a pretty big difference in the wine before the spinning and the wine after the spinning. Interesting!

Then the rest of our bike ride was all downhill......thank god!! It ended up being about 17 miles total I think. It was definitely fun and enjoyable!

Boboli Gardens

Saturday was my day to sleep in.......which was much needed! The rest of the group went to Venice on their own. Me and Angie stayed in Florence and went to Boboli Gardens. These are huge gardens behind the Pitti Palace. They were really pretty. Lots of greenery! We did some homework here and took a nap. Then that night we made dinner for ourselves and ate on top of my terrace, which if I didn't mention is HUGE! Its awesome, we have a really nice view of the Duomo and the Medici home. We watched the sunset from here which was beatiful.

Bologna

On Sunday the next day i went to Bologna by myself. Bologna is apparently nick-named 'fat city' because it is known for their food! It was okay...I think it wouldve been better with someone else. It was also kinda deserted and mostly tourists. Plus it was HOT and I was tired...so it wasnt that enjoyable. Plus it was jsut more of what I'd already seen. Went to a church, oratory, the Pinacoteca Nazionale Via Belle Arti, which was their painting/art museum. They also had an architecture/sculpture exhibit there on this artist. I also went to the Asinelli and Garisenda towers...MORE STAIRS!!! Haha. It was cool though to see Bologna from up high because the town is literally all brick red!

I really wanted to get a feel for the town, but it was a Sunday, plus late in July, so it was really deserted. It seems though like it would have more of a Berkeley feel, as there is a pretty big University there, and some of the younger people I saw looked like they would fit in perfectly at Berkeley. The train ride was cool though because bologna is in Emilia Romagna and so its different scenery than in Tuscany. I think I also felt a little lost because I didn't have RICK STEVES to guide me along!!!!! Haha he doesn't have anything on Bologna in his guidebooks, so my Bologna experience I think would have been different if I had had his help...

Impressionist Exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi

Last night went to an impressionist exhibit at the strozzi palace which was a nice change from renaissance art. No madonnas! It was lots of French artists. Then tonight we are going to the opera. We are going to see 'La Traviata.' Exciting! It is going to be outside at boboli gardens. It will be really pretty I think! My favorite picture was by Gustave Caillebotte and it was called 'Laundry drying on the banks of the Seine.'

Other Thoughts on Florence...

I found this little stand here that sells juice! Vegetable juice! I'm soooo happy I found it! It has been saving me I think. I also had mexican food last night, my first ethnic food in Florence...it wasnt too bad.

The other day I also went to the church of Santa Maria Novella. Brought my Rick Steves book along to give me a tour of it. It had some early works of Michelangelo and its interesting because the nave of the church and the colums along it are set up to give you an optical illusion that actually makes the inside of the church look longer. The colums get closer together and there are more of them as you look farther from you. Wonder why anyone would want to do that!

The other night I couldn't sleep so I was up at 5:30 am so I went up on my terrace to watch the sunrise and then went running along the Arno river...it was gorgeous! One of the best things that I've done here.

So Florence is actually a fairly dirty city. I mean with all the tourists I see how it could be hard to keep it clean all the time. But the trash that I've noticed the most are wine bottles, cigarettes, and........GELATO SPOONS!!! Gelato spoons EVERYWHERE!!!!!! Hahahahaha.

David

Today in class we went to the Accademia to see the David. It is SO COOL! And MASSIVE. Absolutely massive. I love it though. It gives you a whole new appreciation for the human body! I am definitely enjoying this art class. It is something completely different, a whole new subject, that I've never
learned about so it is very interesting. I'm also excited to go back to Rome and go to St. Peters, I didn't get to go into the basilica at the vatican last time because we didn't have time, but I really want to see
Michelangelo's Pieta, because I think that is my favorite piece of sculpture we have learned about so far. I think that will be awesome to see.

Tomorrow we have our midterm for Art History. It shouldn't be too bad though, our teacher told us exactly which stories/subjects to study.


Next Week

We are going back to rome this weekend and I am glad to be going back there! Florence is a little boring compared to Rome and Athens. It is nice cause it is small and easy to handle...you can walk anywhere, but its all the same! Rome is so diverse and crazy and all the monuments and buildings and ruins look different...Florence is all the same! And a lot of the art is the same too.

We are going on Friday to Rome with my class and staying overnight, then meeting the rest of the group saturday morning. On friday we are going to the Borghese Gallery, which I didn't get to see when I was in Rome so that will be good.

Besides that well be seeing all the same things...vatican, colosseum, roman forum, spanish steps, pantheon, trevi fountain...etc. Oh well I am just happy to go back to Rome! I never really thought I would say that!

Next week there is a soccer game! Barcelona v. Florence. A friendly match, preseason scrimmage type thing I think. I'm excited I get to see one while I am here though!

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