I seem to have neglected my blog for a while...but I have a pretty good reason: I was in Italy for 10 days (I got back Tuesday night), and I didn't want to spend any more time than necessary on the computer when the David was waiting to be admired and gelato was waiting to be in my stomach.
So basically, I stayed in Florence (which is called "Firenze" in Italian-- a much better name if you ask me...why would we ever have changed the name to "Florence?!") for a week at my friend, Althea's host family's house (she's spending the whole year in Firenze). When the week was up, I took a train to Rome ("Roma" in Italian/Spanish) where I met up with the study abroad program and stayed in a hotel in the center for three nights.
Memorable moments in Florence:
-Traveling 15 hours to get there from Spain (don't even ask me why it took so long--I don't ever want to talk about it and I'm not sure why I'm even writing about it now).
-Eating. Every single meal there was superb, including not only Italian food, but also amazing Indian food, which I had in the neighboring town, Fiesole, and yummy Lebanese and Thai food. The good thing about traveling to a place where someone you know lives is that they already know where to go. Althea gave me excellent advice: if the waiters stand outside and haggle you into eating at their restaurants (which tend to have flashy pictures hanging in the windows), skip the restaurant. Go to ones that are good enough that they don't need to advertise.
-Seeing beautiful churches filled with Renaissance art, such as Il Duomo and Santa Maria Novella, as well as the Gothic church, Orsonmichele filled with statues (that are actually replicas, so as to preserve the real ones, but I never would have known). I walked up 400-something steps in Il Duomo while Althea was in class to see the view of Firenze (pretty awesome) but of course I took the wrong staircase down...and the staircases are winding and narrow so those ascending were not too pleased with me.
-Seeing some unbelievably spectacular palaces belonging to the Medicci family back in the day. The ornate, intricate, decorations on every ceiling, wall, and door of both Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Piti was eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and mind-bending. Not to mention all the famous Renaissance pieces on the walls, including works by Raphael, Filippino Lipi, Fra Bartolomeo, and Giorgio Vasari.
-Obviously seeing the David. Describing the sculpture is pointless. It's one of those "you need to see it to believe it" types of deals.
-Going to the Uffizi, home to the legacies of the Renaissance masters. The Botticeli room was my favorite. Seeing "The Birth of Venus" up close was incredible. I guess I got a little carried away with seeing Renaissance art. We didn't only go to art museums though...we did go to the Gucci Museum one day...but the purses displayed are just not really worth reporting on in comparison to the art I saw. (How could such mediocre-looking purses cost so much?!)
-Moving on to other non-art-related topics, we made pesto-tomato-cheese sandwiches one day and were walking along, wondering where to eat them, when I noticed hidden tables along the Arno River that Althea had never seen before. It was the perfect place to eat, and I was proud of myself because I'm usually not that observant and don't notice hidden potential picnic spots.
-Speaking to Althea's host mom in Spanish while she spoke to me in Italian...we could actually kind of communicate. It's interesting how similar the two languages are.
-Avoiding the pee pad next to the door to Althea's room where one of the three obese cats would always pee because, for some reason, she didn't know where her litter box was.
Memorable moments in Rome:
-Seeing ancient ruins all over the place, juxtaposed with elements of modern city, such as cars.
The most awesome of those ancient ruins was the Colosseum, despite its gruesome function. (I found out that people would drink the slaughtered gladiators' blood to cure epilepsy?!) The Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps were also beautiful spectacles. If you throw a coin into the fountain, apparently it means you are ensured another visit to Rome in the future. I threw in three, so I guess I get three more visits!
-Eating gelato twice in the same day...it's that good.
-Savoring a an absolutely scrumptious dinner of salmon risotto in a hidden-away restaurant with no nagging waiters outside (Althea was so right about restaurants).
-Seeing the Pope himself talk from his window to an enormous crowd gathered in Vatican City (which is apparently a completely separate country from Italy).
-Walking in on someone in the bathroom and then walking into someone's room in a random hotel, thinking it was a bathroom...both on the same day.
-Trying to avoid street vendors everywhere all trying to sell the same slimy toy that no one wanted to buy. These toys were everywhere, and they weren't great at all. I don't understand.
-The Sistine Chapel was the highlight of the whole trip for me. After hearing so much about it and painting a paper taped underneath my desk in 5th to see what it felt like to be Michelangelo, I was super psyched to see it in real life. We got there 15 minutes too late on Monday to be admitted, so we had to get up bright and early Tuesday morning to see it before our flight, but it was totally worth it. I don't think I've ever been more impressed by anything in my whole life. That one person could design the whole room and paint the majority of it is beyond my comprehension.
I think that's a good note to end on, so I'll leave it at that.
So basically, I stayed in Florence (which is called "Firenze" in Italian-- a much better name if you ask me...why would we ever have changed the name to "Florence?!") for a week at my friend, Althea's host family's house (she's spending the whole year in Firenze). When the week was up, I took a train to Rome ("Roma" in Italian/Spanish) where I met up with the study abroad program and stayed in a hotel in the center for three nights.
Memorable moments in Florence:
-Traveling 15 hours to get there from Spain (don't even ask me why it took so long--I don't ever want to talk about it and I'm not sure why I'm even writing about it now).
-Eating. Every single meal there was superb, including not only Italian food, but also amazing Indian food, which I had in the neighboring town, Fiesole, and yummy Lebanese and Thai food. The good thing about traveling to a place where someone you know lives is that they already know where to go. Althea gave me excellent advice: if the waiters stand outside and haggle you into eating at their restaurants (which tend to have flashy pictures hanging in the windows), skip the restaurant. Go to ones that are good enough that they don't need to advertise.
-Seeing beautiful churches filled with Renaissance art, such as Il Duomo and Santa Maria Novella, as well as the Gothic church, Orsonmichele filled with statues (that are actually replicas, so as to preserve the real ones, but I never would have known). I walked up 400-something steps in Il Duomo while Althea was in class to see the view of Firenze (pretty awesome) but of course I took the wrong staircase down...and the staircases are winding and narrow so those ascending were not too pleased with me.
 |
| View from Il Duomo |
-Seeing some unbelievably spectacular palaces belonging to the Medicci family back in the day. The ornate, intricate, decorations on every ceiling, wall, and door of both Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Piti was eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and mind-bending. Not to mention all the famous Renaissance pieces on the walls, including works by Raphael, Filippino Lipi, Fra Bartolomeo, and Giorgio Vasari.
-Obviously seeing the David. Describing the sculpture is pointless. It's one of those "you need to see it to believe it" types of deals.
-Going to the Uffizi, home to the legacies of the Renaissance masters. The Botticeli room was my favorite. Seeing "The Birth of Venus" up close was incredible. I guess I got a little carried away with seeing Renaissance art. We didn't only go to art museums though...we did go to the Gucci Museum one day...but the purses displayed are just not really worth reporting on in comparison to the art I saw. (How could such mediocre-looking purses cost so much?!)
-Moving on to other non-art-related topics, we made pesto-tomato-cheese sandwiches one day and were walking along, wondering where to eat them, when I noticed hidden tables along the Arno River that Althea had never seen before. It was the perfect place to eat, and I was proud of myself because I'm usually not that observant and don't notice hidden potential picnic spots.
-Speaking to Althea's host mom in Spanish while she spoke to me in Italian...we could actually kind of communicate. It's interesting how similar the two languages are.
-Avoiding the pee pad next to the door to Althea's room where one of the three obese cats would always pee because, for some reason, she didn't know where her litter box was.
Memorable moments in Rome:
-Seeing ancient ruins all over the place, juxtaposed with elements of modern city, such as cars.
-Eating gelato twice in the same day...it's that good.
-Savoring a an absolutely scrumptious dinner of salmon risotto in a hidden-away restaurant with no nagging waiters outside (Althea was so right about restaurants).
-Seeing the Pope himself talk from his window to an enormous crowd gathered in Vatican City (which is apparently a completely separate country from Italy).
-Walking in on someone in the bathroom and then walking into someone's room in a random hotel, thinking it was a bathroom...both on the same day.
-Trying to avoid street vendors everywhere all trying to sell the same slimy toy that no one wanted to buy. These toys were everywhere, and they weren't great at all. I don't understand.
-The Sistine Chapel was the highlight of the whole trip for me. After hearing so much about it and painting a paper taped underneath my desk in 5th to see what it felt like to be Michelangelo, I was super psyched to see it in real life. We got there 15 minutes too late on Monday to be admitted, so we had to get up bright and early Tuesday morning to see it before our flight, but it was totally worth it. I don't think I've ever been more impressed by anything in my whole life. That one person could design the whole room and paint the majority of it is beyond my comprehension.
I think that's a good note to end on, so I'll leave it at that.
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