Blogs from Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 331

October 30-31st The Festivities-a weekend filled with expectations and wishes-some of which were fulfilled as expected and others transformed in an experience not completely planned but ultimately loveable and memorable just the same. On Saturday I met my parents in Rome for the wedding of my cousin. The ceremony was held in a small but gorgeous chapel, the middle of three chapels. The walls were covered with frescoes, an ornate alter in front, the pews lined with crème colored cloth, roped off with gold, with flowers lining the sides and front of the chapel. The ceremony, about 35 minutes, was quite religious and ritualistic, accompanied by readings by the brother of the bride and the boyfriend of the bride’s sister, Gioia. All was detailed in a small booklet, from which the approximately 50 attendees read. ... read more

Come state tutti? i'm EXHAUSTED! so much has happened in the past few weeks. of course we have class every day, which is in and of itself exausting. there's not too much work, but i'm having the worst time remembering vocabulary. grammar is usually pretty easy with a little review, but vocab is the pits. we've had one test so far, which i did fairly well on, except that i couldn't remember the name of anything. i've been placed in the intermediate class, which i think i mentioned earlier, and our teacher Milena is a real kick in the pants. she's got so much energy! the biggest thing that's happened is our trip to Napoli (a.k.a. Naples). it was a weeklong trip, and we left early in the morning to get there. we stayed at a ... read more

Monday, October 11, 2004. * Let’s not believe that just because a week starts out badly, that the rest of the week will follow in the initiator’s footsteps...because if we do, fate has cast an interesting spell this time. Before I skip back to Monday’s events, let me switch time on you and tell you what I’m doing at 8:15 am Tuesday morning, as this is the direct effect of the previously mentioned event. I arrive home from Choir rehearsal at 12:20am. I go to bed, awake at 6:30 to turn on the boiler switch to heat water for the shower. I stumble back to bed, fumble with the alarm clock to set it to 7:30am, and doing all this without arising so much that my body is fully ready to great the day. After a ... read more

Monday, September 27th * I found another friend, and we spent a few tranquil hours getting to know one another at the Parco Cascine this afternoon. My friend, a good book, gives me an excuse to lounge on a bench, with the afternoon sun warming my back, and my mind flirting with another world. Any good book is good company, the kind of companionship that gives you permission to buy a piece of chocolate cake at the book store café while reading or browsing stories, or sit on a bench while passersby or groups of runners wonder what it is that so engrosses you, or snuggle in bed early, too early for such a young, cool woman such as myself, but early just the same because I’ve got other plans-my book. *The book store in Piazza ... read more

Saturday/Sunday September 18/19, 2004 * Boticelli, Gentileschi, Ruibens, Andrea del Sarto, Raphaello Sanzio, Filippo Lippi, hung in tremendous frames one hanging from the next, 3 rows high…some hanging in dimly lit corners, others high and bold, recognizable by the lovers of art history. The Galleria Palatina, in the Pitti Palace, held my attention for a full 2 hours, with room upon room, antechamber upon antechamber, stocked full of imagery-either wall to wall frescoe, rich fabric, gold and crystal, or walls filled floor to ceiling with various framed images. To see some of these paintings within inches brings them under critique, analysis, adoration. I looked at technique, the softness or vividness of color, the accuracy of anatomy and form, the realistic or idealistic rendition, the folds of cloth, stylized or not, the repetition of symbols, use of ... read more