Firenze

Michelangelo’s David. How do I even begin to describe the moment I saw it? It is so much bigger than I imagined. David’s foot is probably bigger than my head and neck. The Galleria dell’ Academia built a special room just to house it. It is like this: you turn a corner and on either side of you are Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures from the Medici tomb, and looking down the hall you see David, standing there. So you walk past forms just beginning to come out of the marble and by the time you reach David you understand what Michelangelo meant when he said that the sculpture is always inside the marble, it is the soul of it. It was amazing. And overwhelming really, to see such a work, one of pure genius, reaching a height of beauty and artistic achievement that I really cannot comprehend. To have seen what is maybe the most famous sculpture in the world…I feel so lucky.

Afterwards Becca, Kristyn, Elissa and I explored Florence. We saw the Duomo. Like with David, you turn a corner and there it is, this impressive, ornate building staring down at you. That is how I have found a lot of Italy, you turn a corner and stumble upon a masterpiece.

Florence is such a beautiful city. The streets are wide, and like in Siena pedestrians simply ignore cars and keep walking. The Arno tells you where you are, and if you do get lost just look up and you will see the top of the Duomo and find your way. We shopped in the market, and in a huge H&M. Everything is Italy is so colorful, from the flowers and fruit and pasta in the market, to the buildings and people on the street. And of course the gelato. Everywhere, no matter what time of day there is gelato.

Assisi e Perugia

 I thought Toscana was the most beautiful region in Italy, but Umbria is right up there with it. Today I went to Assisi and Perugia with the school's tour guide, Riccardo, and three other people I had never met before. One was a professor from New York named Connie, who is almost fluent in Italian. Then there were two guys in their thirties who just began studying Italian this week, one named Steven, from England, the other, Anthony from Australia. We met Riccardo at the Basilica Cateriniana Di San Domenico (the church in Siena housing St. Catherine's head,) piled into his car and headed to Assisi.

I thought that Siena was old, and it is, but Assisi is even older. Riccardo just kept saying molto vecchio molto vecchio. At least, that is the most important thing I caught as he explained the city to us in rapid Italian. It was built during the Etruscan time period. Before the Romans. That is old. Riccardo finished explaining how the city was layed out, then we were one our own, free to explore for a few hours. We had a cappucino then Steven, Anthony and I headed to The Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. It was amazing. We couldn't take pictures, but a picture really wouldn't do it justice. The walls were covered in Medieval frescos and all of the beams were ornately decorated. I just cannot fathom how old the paintings are. Many of them have been restored. The floor is beautiful with marble and quartz inlays, and there were wooden benches with other types of woods inlayed into the backs. Afterwards we got s little lunch and headed to the most adorable bakery I have ever seen where I got tiramisu flavored gelato.

Then it was back in the car and on to Perugia, which is famous for cioccolata! It is a beautiful town situated on a hill, surrounded by the wonderful Umbrian countryside. It started to rain, but we still walked around and explored yet another medieval city for a few hours. Perugia had wide cobblestone streets, and shorter stone buildings. It was lovely.

Finally we piled back in the car and headed back to Siena. I sat there between these people I had just met and spent a wonderful day with, looking at the hills of Italy, wrapping my mind around the amazing things I had seen.

Frutti di Bosco

Fruit of the woods. A.k.a mixed berry, the type of yogurt I eat for breakfast every morning here. I get up and go into out little kitchen and take my time eating and drinking a little (un po) espresso. My host family is so wonderful. They have all kinds of things left out for us for breakfast. And dinner is always delicious and fun, with everybody talking at once while I try to grasp a few words. Luigia and Franco often have silly arguments, neither one actually mad, about things like vitamins versus better shoes. I am not just mistranslating, that is what they were talking about the other night. Virginia often tries to explain what is going on, but there is a still a lot left out. I think my host family thinks I understand more Italian than I do. I tend to nod when they say something, and when I don't know the words I can usually figure out what they are saying. Sometimes I am able to form the right response in Italian. A lot of times Virginia helps me. Lucrezia just laughs at everything. She is your typical fifteen year old, sighing and making fun of everything. Some things are international like teenage behavior or fathers falling alseep while watching tv. Every night after dinner I hear Franco snoring on the couch, just like my dad at home.

Italian class is going well. We start the past tense next week! I will finally be able to tell Luigia what I did at school not what I am doing. I like pronouncing the words, and figuring out how to use prepositions even though it is hard. I just want to be able to communicate in this language. My literature class, aptly named by Heather Love and Betrayal in Tuscany is also going well. We finally finished Dante's Inferno (thankfully!) and have moved on to Boccaccio's Decameron which I like much more. The Inferno was just so disgusting and depressing. The Decameron keeps me a little more interested. But perhaps that is because I tend to prefer short stories over novels... or epics, as it were.

After a rainy morning to sun has come out and we are all crossing out fingers that this will be the beginning of warmer weather. Though, as soon as I leave for Prague in two weeks I will be freezing again. But I can warm up afterwards in Barcelona. I am feeling more at home here. I am confident in my ability to navigate the city and to speak enough Italian to get around, if I cannot yet have long conversations with people. Overall, life it Italy is good. I live in Italy, in a tiny medieval city in Italy. I still have trouble believing it.

Making Pasta In Toscana

Sorry for the horrible rhyme, I couldn't help myself, hehe.

Yesterday it snowed. I didn't know it snowed in Siena, and, apparently the Sienese didn't either. They don't really use salt or snow plow or anything like that. I mean, the streets are barely big enough for one car, let alone a giant snow plow, so I kind of understand. Plus these are thousand year old cobblestone streets so it would make sense that they wouldn't want to damage them.

Despite the snow, last night we ventured into the semi-countryside to learn how to make pasta frm out Italian teacher Sylvia's mother. After getting horribly lost we finally found the Porta Tuffe, one of the city gates, and met Sylvia and he dad who drove us to the house. Once we got inside I immediately felt better. Carla, Sylvia's mom, let us warm our socks and shoes by the fire and gave us other socks to wear while they dried. Once everyone was there the pasta making began.

First Carla showed us how to make a ragu sauce with meat, and a pepper sauce. Then she made the pasta dough. we kneaded it or what seemed like a forever. But I didn't mind so much because it was somewhat reminiscent of working with clay, which I have been missing here. We then put it through the pasta machine to flatten it, filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, then cut it into piece with a special tool that sealed it up. We also made tagliatelle We ate bruschetta and drank wine while we waited for it too cook.

It was delicious. And we had tiramisu for dessert. All in all it was a pretty perfect night.

Feeling Normal Again

This morning I finally woke up and knew I was in Italy. It was not a surprise like it often has been. I have settled in, gotten over jetlag, and found some regular things I like to do. There is a coffee shop, un caffe, that I started to go to in the afternoons to do homework and drink tea. I almost done with Dante (thankfully) and am able to spend more time reading what I want. Next in my lit class we move on to Baccacio's Decameron, which I cannot say I am excited about, but as I learn more Italian and more about the culture it all becomes more interesting.

I watched the second part of Pirates of the Carribean with my host sisters last night. They love Orlando Bloom. It reminds me of when I was in high school. They are just so adorable. I gave them some Burt's Bees lip balm and they loved it. They said is smelled so good, and kept putting it up to their noses.

I made my spring break plans this weekend. After booking so many things all I can say is I could never be a travel agent. I am meeting my friend Helen in Prague, then going to Paris for about six hours, then we go to Barcelona. For my birthday my parents gave me four nights in this beautiful hotel in Barcelona right on Las Rambas in the gothic quarter. I am so excited! it is going to be freezing in Prague, but warm in Barcelona. I think it will just be interesting to go to other European cities, especially such diverse places as Prague, Paris, and Barcelona.

Il Sole, I miss you, but I will deal with the rain for now...

I found a yarn store! Though I can’t say I found it all by myself. My mom’s friend Tracy looked up the address for me. I just had to navigate the streets which was not too hard. After breakfast I went and got an Americano, (which I ordered completely in Italian,) then went to the yarn store. It was very tiny, but had a good selection. The woman working there did not speak any English, but through the few words she knew and my tiny bit of Italian we were able to communicate. She was very friendly and helpful. I bought this beautiful thick purple yarn that I think I will use for a scarf. I also found a great little coffee shop. I think it is my favorite one so far, It is very small and has a tiny loft area with tables. The street it is on is very quiet, so I think it is probably less crowded than the place I have been going on Banchi di Sopra. It is nice to be able to walk everywhere, even with this rain we have been getting. But it is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and the weather should warm up soon. I am ready for that.

I think what is hardest for me here is that I am used to being able to talk to people on the street or have conversations with people working at restaurants and in cafes, whereas here I cannot do that. It just makes meeting people hard. But I am learning more Italian everyday, and I try to use it as much as I can (which is very little at the moment.) Expressing myself through words is something I am used to being good at, I mean I am an English writing major. I want to be able to speak eloquently to everyone I meet and here I cannot. But for now I will settle for studying Italian and evesdropping on conversations to try to pick up as many words as I can.

I am having kunch with my host family then I think I will go back to the café on Via Panteneto to do my Italian homework and get some reading done. My host sister Lucrezia has her French penpal visiting this week. It is so cute because they each only speak a little of the other’s language but they are such good friends. Dinner last night was very funny, with a mix of Italian, French, and English.

Mi Piace....

Everything. I love blood oranges.  They are maybe my favorite thing about Italy. No, actually, they are not, but they definitely rank up there with the eighty cent cappuccinos and eight hundred year old buildings. Did I mention that the house I live in was built in 1265? (the same year of Dante’s birth.) I don’t know what I will do when I return to America and cannot find them anymore. Not only are they delicious, but they are so beautiful. Last week when I began to peel my orange after dinner I had to act like I was not surprised to find that it was half purple. They look like pieces of art. Actually, as lot of the food here looks like art. While I am on the topic of food Siena has this dessert which I have yet to try called “Baci di Siena.” It is gelato with chocolate chips, hazelnuts, sometimes cookie pieces, and whipped cream, all dipped in a chocolate ganache and frozen. Really Siena? Do you really think I need more reasons to eat gelato. The other thing is that eating gelato in the morning is totally acceptable. As is drinking a glass of wine after lunch. Which, I guess is sort of acceptable in America…

Anyway, learning Italian is hard, but I love it so much. Italian is maybe the most beautiful language ever. I thought maybe it was just me that thought this, but no, it really is. Most latin based languages are, in their modern form, derived from the dialect of the dominant city, so modern French is from a Parisian dialect, Spanish from Madrid, etc. Well, in the middle ages Italy was not unified enough for this to happen. People in Venice could not communicate with people in Rome, unless they spoke Latin. So Italians decided to take the most beautiful words from all of their dialects to make the basis of modern Italian. So it is not just me being infatuated with this language. Italian is just that beautiful. Just like Italy itself. I love saying things in first person plural so I can used the “amo” verb ending. it just makes the word sound like a song. Even in first person, Io sono piena, I am full, it sounds so much lovely, such a mundane phrase.

Nel Sangue

My host mother told me I have Italian in my blood. Which is true since I am part Italian.

We had our first Italian lesson today and it was wonderful. I love this language. I am so excited to be able to communicate with people and with my host family better. Silvia, our Italian teacher is so nice, and so patient with us. She tries to speak to use mostly in Italian, but will explain things in English if we don't understand. I like her a lot.

I have Italian everyday, and Heather's class on Wednesday which I am really excited about. I am not so crazy about Dante's Inferno, which is what we are reading right now, but I miss talking about literature, since that is what I normally do at school.