my special dance

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okay, so these next blogs are going to be out of order, i have about 6 to write today, and i have ADD when i do these things, so that's just how it is. yesterday (friday) was a rest day, you'll hear about thursday soon. nicole's flat is wonderful - old old old place, from the 1500's or so, probably earlier. she lives close to where michaelangelo lived - kind of blows your mind to think about things like that. so, rest day...sleeping in until i woke up, hot shower and laundry, it's kind of amazing how much clothes can smell when they're stuffed in a pack and always slightly damp with never enough time to air them out. nicole is studying for final exam in a few days, but she's been super generous with showing us around and making us goo italian food. so a breakfast of wonderfully buttery pastries, then visit, take a nap, do more laundry, eat lunch...you get the idea 😊 marc and i finally got out of the house in the afternoon to let nicole study in peace. we wandered over to one of the super famous piazzas that i can't remember the name to - it's the square where all of the important gatherings would take place like a millenia ago....literally. so there's a bunch of statues, which in the US would all be reproductions because who in their right mind would leave originals out for people to potentially damage? right, so the italians tahnkfully have a different take on things. the only repro is michaelangelo's david, everything else is the original by the great masters, and there's maybe 20 of these that you see in textbooks in the US. really kind of blows your mind. so there's one that i'm just taken with - i'll have to look up who did it, but it's the rape of somebody, yeah, sorry no more details. but the sculpture is of a guy kidnapping a woman - he has her lifted up by the waist and she's distressed. anyway, the amazing part is how absolutely life-like the statue is - the way that the man's fingers are pressing into the woman's thigh is unreal, because it is absolutely perfectly done - just paint the statue a flesh color and you'd swear it was people, okay besides that fact that they're 10 feet tall, but truly these sculptors were savants. oh, and michaelangelo did this all freehand, no little models for him. so after admiring the statues for a while, over to the ponte vecchio, the only remaining bridge from before WWII. the governor of florence was given the option of having either the bridges or the buildings destroyed, and he decided to save this one bridge - it was worth it - watched the sunset from there. marc and i took a long walk outside the walls of the city - tuscan countryside is gorgeous. so back down to the city to wander some more, back over the ponte vecchio, listened to some outdoor music, and then back to get dinner with nicole. we had real italian pizza at 10:30, the sense of time is a bit different here. so then back to her flat to change and go out dancing - so it's 1 or so, we walk to the club, get in because there's a serious lack of females so the bouncers let up in right away - never actually experienced obvious preferential treatment like that. and the dancing was a blast - hot is an understatement of the century, but it was good to let llose with nicole - we have a history of dancing when we lived together back at the university of delaware. and marc enjoyed watching the guys try to hit on us and dance with us. so my special dance, which a select few know about, i don't know, my bottom half and top half have two completely different rhythms and beats, so no guy can ever sneak up behind me, that's not on purpose, just how i dance. marc likes it so it's all good. he said it's more african, hopefully i'll get some practice in zambia. but it ends up that i have a huge area to dance on a very crowded dance floor because everyone's just like - how the heck is she moving - i just hope that i don't look like elaine from seinfeld 😉 so a half hour of dancing turned into 2 1/2 hours, it was great watching the guys watch us and be frustrated, interesting dynamics going on. anyway, then we left around 3:30, walked to a pastry shop to indulge, got back home around 4 and talked for awhile. actually crawled into bed as the sun was coming up. so not so much sightseeing today - lots of relaxing, i made risotto, granted nicole gave me step by step instructions, but i was fairly proud of myself. i still need to try lots of good gelato, so that and then actually seeing the sights are on the agenda for tomorrow. i'm sitting writing this, and there's wonderful classical music playing - what else would it be? of course, i'm in florence, it's like a movie - i have to keep reminding myself that i'm in florence and traveling and it's just unreal sometimes. so it's been great catching up with nicole, pretty much the exact same as in delaware, just now we're in florence together. i've been completely content just hanging out with her at her place, making food and napping, but i am in florence and apparently there are a few things to see here, so i guess i'll be motivated to get up tomorrow and go be a tourist. it has been super nice to feel a little like i live here - having a place to really settle for a few days, and having someone who knows all of the authentic, non touristy places to go, and someone who can tell-off a guy in perfect italian, it's fantastic! okay, it's gelato time for me, ciao!

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Comments

[Jean]

Hi Kristin! It sounds like your time there has been great. Thanks for keeping us updated. We miss you here!