Primavera Arrivata!

Spring is officially here in Firenze!  Flowers are coming up on campus in the olive orchard and for the past 4 days it has been above 60 degrees!  I am so happy, but nothing lasts forever- we are looking at a week full of rainy days starting Tuesday.  Wah wahhh. 

I wanted to do just a quick update on the past week and then a forecast for the upcoming week(s) because as you will see, there wont be much time to do so after tonight.  It is Sunday night and I have had a long, but not very eventful weekend.  On Friday, I didnt get to go to Prato because I was asked to work the front desk for a few hours in the afternoon up on campus.  After I got out, I decided to take the bus we use to go to school every day, the number 25 (numero venticinque) to the end of the line, which is Pratolino.  Pratolino is today a small town with an abnormally large cemetary.  However, in the past, it was the sight of one of the Medici Family’s large estates.  Only the garden remains today, with the actual villa having been destroyed over a century ago.  I didnt get the chance to visit the gardens however, because I didnt want to wait for the next bus.  Oh I almost forgot about the other part of Friday.  I woke up early to go volunteer at the English Cemetary.  The NYU Campus Gardener, Nicholas, donated hundreds of bulbs to plant in the cemetary, and it was NYU volunteer’s jobs to plant them all.  We went at 9 in the morning, and a British nun was really happy to see up.  The English Cemetary, Cimetario Inglese, is an oval of dirt, that is actually a rotary to most Florentine drivers as it is completely encompassed in lanes of traffic.  Risking our own lives, we raced in front of Fiats and BMWs to go plant the flowers.  Of course the joke is, do not dig TOO deep!  Right after all of that, I had to race over to the Bibliotecca Nazionale for a class trip for my Topics in Modern Culture class.  We were escorted to a classroom where we looked at rare, Futurist and Dadaist books from Europe and New York, around the time of WWI.  It wasnt the most exciting part of my day, however the teacher is really passionate about the topic of Futurism, so he had a lot of insight to share on the rare artifacts, that were in some cases literally falling apart. 

Saturday I woke up early again, but this time I went for a few hours to the Galleria Dell’academia.  This is the second most famous museum in Florence, the one housing the David Statue.  There are lots of other paintings and plaster statues within the museum, but in truth, the only reason for going is the David.  There is a long history to the statue, making it the most famous statue in the whole world, or so the museum claims.  The big story around Michaelangelo’s masterpiece today is that the city of Florence is thinking of moving the statue to a suburb of the city, so they can elliminate some of the congestion generated outside of the museum.  Locals are mad, but they are always mad it seems like.  After that, I went for 5 hours to help paint parts of the set for Betrayal with the technical director, the show is in about a month!  I also went on Sunday to do some more painting, we finished about 1/3 of the work this weekend.  Sunday morning, I went for a long walk, and got lost actually in the NorthWest quarter of the city, to waste a little time.  I wound up at my destination however, the Fortezza Basso, which at one time was a large walled in military forte that was sewn into the city’s walls.  However, today, its has been converted into a large indoor/outdoor park and convention center.  This weekend, the center was hosting Europe’s annual and largest dance festival?  I didnt go in, so I dont know anything more than that! 

Last week, not too many interesting things happened, it was a pretty normal week.  This week however kicks of an entire month of crazyness and travel.  On Monday night, I am going to one of NYU’s “Scambio Dinners” which is when 25 NYU students and 25 Florentine high school students all get together and have dinner together and talk in Italian and English.  Should be full of fun and awkwardness!  Tuesday, a meeting for the Betrayal Show.  Wednesday, Casa Fiorentina is going to see a soccer match at Florences Stadium!  It is Fiorentina in a playoff game, so I will dress up in violet (conviniently both NYU and Fiorentina’s colors) and cheer for the team (or else be beaten up by drunken Florentines, or so Ive heard).  Friday, I will be traveling to a small town called Modena, which is north of Florence by an hour or so, to spend the day exploring, and tasting Balsamic Vinegars, which is a specialty of that town.  My roommate will join up with me, and well spend the next two nights in Modena at a hostel.  Saturday, we plan to take a bus 5 minutes outside of town, to a suburb called Ferrara- home of the FERRARI Factory and Museum!!  Well tour both if possible, if not then just one, and then head back into town.  There is rumor of doing the Lambroghini Factory as well, which is in the same regione.  Sunday, some friends from Casa Fiorentina will join up with us after we take a short train ride to Bologna, one city over.  In Bologna, there is lots of shopping, and of COURSE, Lasagna Bolognese.  Cant Wait!  Hope the weather holds. 

The week after is midterms, then that Saturday, we take off for our extraordinary spring break trip!  More to come on that, next blog update.  The next two weeks will be crazy, and then spring break itself will be nuts, so I appologize if there isnt another one of these for a while.   I also appologize if the email responses are a little slow.   Well talk soon

Perche No?

So its been one week since writing one of these, Ive meant to for the past 3 nights now!  Its been another long week and weekend so let me get some of the stuff out here.  Last week was pretty eventful, on Tuesday the two people Im going on Spring Break with and I booked all of the items we needed for our week long trip!  We will be leaving on Saturday March 8th for a train to Milan, where we will catch a flight to Athens, Greece!  Were staying at a Best Western Hotel in downtown Athens for two nights.  After that, we take a bus to Delphi, the center of Greek religion back in the day (which was a Wednesday, by the way).  In the same day, well take another bus to a small town on the coast called Patras, which is the home to one of the longest bridges in the world, and a small fishing village which is close to Olympia, home of the Olympic games.  We spend two nights in downtown Patras, then take an overnight ferry from there to Bari, Italy which is on the heel of the Italian penisola boot.  We spend two nights in downtown Bari exploring the historical center which played a key role in WWII and its sister town to the south, Lecce, which was occupied over history by Romans, Greeks, and Byzantines at one time or another.  For the last two nights, well be moving slightly north to another Best Western outside of Bari, to spend the last two days on the beach. 

JEALOUS?!?!?!

Hahaha- the total cost per person is really reasonable and I am happy to be going with both Mark, my roommate, and Courtney, a friend we made the first week we were here. 

On Wednesday, my Italian class met in downtown Florence instead of the campus.  We went together into the Universita di Firenze and spent an hour talking with some of the students.  We learned a lot about the Italian school system and their lives as students.  Their work loads and classes are very similar to NYU actually, as at this university in particular they take classes all around the city, just like us.  Italian students also tend to live with their parents a lot longer than Americans, until at least 24 or so.  The cost of living is so high that it usually isnt possible even if they wanted to.  What a different lifestyle!  Missing out on the college experience of dorms, cafeterias, bars, parties, sleepovers, cars, classes, etc!  Their grading and degree programs are a lot different, for instance they can actually earn doctoral degrees in about 7 or 8 years rather than the 9 to 10 years it takes Americans. 

Thursday was another trip to the grocery store, Esselunga!!  I made roasted potatoes (which arent as great as I thought theyd be) and vegetables as one dish, five grain rice and vegetables as another dish, and cous-cous and green beans as another, all of the with chicken and cream of asperagus soup!  Cooking is one of my favorite things here because it is totally up to me, and then all of the people I live with are always wondering whats on the menu for the week.  Most people cook here per night however, which allows them to make many more options and usually use fresher ingredients.  I still intend to make it to the Mercato Centrale to buy lots of fresh locally grown things. 

Friday, I spontaneously decided to take a trip to a town to the south of Florence, Siena!  Hence the title, perche no, which means why not?  I went alone because everyone else was busy, but for 7 euros bus ride there and back, I spent the day on a self-guided walking tour with a map from the tourism office.  I saw around 2.5billion churches, tremendous views of the Tuscan countryside, the soccer stadium, the old city fort, Siena’s duomo, and lots of other things.  The best thing about Siena is the Piazza del Campo which is the center of town where lots of things happen like festivals etc.  Its the largest square Ive ever seen, and in the center, randomly there was this wooden shack selling “rice balls” which are not what they sound like, but pretty much food for the gods.  It was kind of like deep-fried balls of heaven?  Or a less viscus form of fried dough.  Historical parts of Siena were amazing, for instance I learned that Siena was the arch-rival of Medici-Florence, and they were always extremely worried and thus prepared for an attack from the north.  The city is walled in, and interestingly enough, some of the statues on one of the churches I saw, all of the heads were pointed towards the direction of Florence, telling the citizens to always be ready and alert! 

Saturday and Sunday were homework and Florence days, I went out on Sunday and tried to visit the English Cemetary where lots of famous British and even Americans who lived and died in Florence are burried, but it is only open on weekdays.  Wah wahhhh.  Ill try again later.  I wound up walking to the top of the Piazza Michelangelo where I watched the sunset and the lights come on in the city. 

Today, Monday, was boring, but after class was done at 715 I went downtown for the first meeting one of the plays Ill be working on this semester, Betrayal!  We heard about the set and the costumes etc.  I have volunteered to to set construction and painting, a little publicity, and a lot of lighting.  The show goes up first week of April!  The second show is an NYU only production of Lysistrata (Mr Casey!!  Humanities!!)  and will be performed in the gardens at La Pietra.  It will be very small, but it will still be fun to try and do an outdoor production, hopefully lots of people will come. 

The rest of this week looks pretty ordinary, I will try to post another one of these before the weekend gets out of control.  Check your emails!!

Oh What A Weekend

So last time I wrote, I mentioned that this was going to be a busy and action-packed weekend.  This was definately true.  Thursday Night, we tried a new bar over by Santa Croce called OBIO which does not mean anything in either Italian or English as far as we know.  The bars hear are very bizarre…most of them have Soccer Games playing although this one in particular did not, and most of them have wireless internet?  Hahaha I dont know.  It was a cold night so the walk home was a long 15 minutes along the Arno. 

On Friday, a bus full of NYU students, armed to the teeth with platinum credit cards with their parent’s names on them set off for the Barberino Outlets which are located approximately 40 minutes north of Florence.  We all spend the days trying on Dolce&Gabana, Prada, Calvin Klein, and many other western fashion modes.  It was a little bit chilly out but definately worth it for the experience of interacting with lots of shop keepers, desperate to cater to us.  I had a particularly interesting conversation with two italians who worked at Eredi Pisano about why, as Americans, we were visiting the outlets, Florence, and Italy.  They were asking lots of questions about America, and informed us that they have a store on Madison Avenue!  The conversation was in both languages.  Friday night we all went out again and it wound up being a very long night.  We met some Australian kids!  It is always surprising and pleasant to run into other english speakers. 

Saturday, I work up late but joined up with a group of NYU students to take the citybus up to Fiesole.  Fiesole was advertised as a small town with views of Florence and a chocolate festival.  However, they were drastically understating the views and overstating the festival.  The views of Florence were REMARKABLE and offically the best I have ever seen.  Fiesole is a small town centered around a small square with one city bus coming in and out every 20 minutes.  They have several restaurants, but leave the square and it quickly becomes purely residential with approximately 2.7 billion churches.  There are two streets that are “passagiata belvedere” meaning walks with beautiful views.  We spend all afternoon wondering the town and exploring the two tables under a tent with chocolate on them (lame).  We also saw the sunset over the mountains south of Florence while we looked over a panorama of the entire city.  It definately ranked in the top five sunsets I have ever seen…and sunsets are in my top five things of my life (other contenders are palm trees and dunkachinos).  To end the evening, we chose to defy the trend and eat dinner at an Irish Pub named JJ Hill….where I had the nachos….

Sunday, I woke up and did a truck load of homework, and then decided to go on a walk around our part of Florence.  I must have walked 20 miles, past my existing mental boarder of our grocery store (Esselunga) into parts of Florence I feel like most people dont get to see.  A winding road up a hill through parks to get to the top where a gated community (feeling a little bit like Rockport for those who are in the know) was.  Views over the river to look into Florence were again, very nice.  Then, I walked along the Arno and over a foot bridge that connects two parks on either side.  The north side was hosting a festival in honor of Carnivale!  Back to my side, I took the 16 bus way out of my area to another suburb called Sandici, which as it turns out is not nearly the ”belvedere” that Fiesole is.  The town was hosting a festival for Carnivale as well, but other than that it was pretty much a ghost town.  Keep in mind however that besides a Gelatendo (a massive gelateria), most everything else is closed on Sundays in Florence.  The people on the bus were all really friendly, and conversations were attempted. 

Monday has come and gone with not much to do.  Tonight, there was a lecture called “La Dolce Vita” on campus for the purpose of discussing stereotypes regarding Americans and Italians. 

Upcoming events include:  Tuesday, a bus strike from 915am-1145am.  What?!?  This weekend, I will remain in Florence and probably visit the two largest and most important museums in town, the Uffizi and the Academia.  Many museums are available to NYU Students through an agreement with the “Friends of the Uffizi” Group.  If there is time, I may also try to visit the IKEA by the airport for part of a day, just to see how Italians interact with the big-box store idea.  Talk with you all soon!   

DOVE BAGELS?!

I am writing this at the end of week 3 of classes, but as it is friday we have finally started the 4 day week again with all make up days taken care of.  This has been a very long and trying week as things slip into regualrity.  Lots of things have happened overall however so let me fill you in! 

First, I have started my 7-hour per week Work Study position, 3 hours per week I spend delivering mail between the 5 villas on campus.  For the remaining 4 hours on Thurday nights I hold the front desk down of the academic building, Villa Ulivi.  I read 50 pages for politics in 4 hours, so that gives you an idea for how little I do on a Thursday afternoon while everyone else is leaving town for the weekend, and also for how difficult politics homework is to digest! 

Second, I baked a lasagna and loaded mashed potatoes for the next weeks dinners.  The lasagna was gorgeous, with layers of sauce, vegetables, pasta, multi-cheese, and cream of mushroom soup.  Thats a large deal for me, I wish I had taken photos but I would be happy to make it for anyone when I get home. 

Third, today we went to the Barberino Outlets which are 30 minutes north of Florence.  A large group bus pulled up next to what could easily be American Outlets, you know the self-contained village type of “grow your own town center, just add water”.  Only this outlet center had Prada, Dolce & Gabana, Calvin Klein, and many more Italian and some non-italian brand stores.  Everything was so expensive with the euro to dollar conversion!  I didnt get anything, however other people went to town all day as we spend about 5 hours there.  It was a very nice day out so walking around between stores and trying things on was a good time.  My roommate, Mark, bought three pairs of pants that he really liked, and we both tried on suits and such.  Were home now however, waiting for dinner and to go out tonight perhaps. 

Fourth- It occured to me that I havent written on the blog all week so I should descrive Viareggio and Carnavale to everyone!  On last Sunday we went all the way to the west coast of Italy to visit one of the two largest Carnavale Celebrations in Italy.  For 15euros we got transportation and entrance into the fair grounds which were bascially a boulevard (here theyre called Viale) that was gated off on all sides for miles.  The road was right along the shore and a very nice beach.  Along the road were shops and bars to eat at, and hotels for people visiting.  Viareggio strikes me as a small beach town that would be great from April-October, but unfortunately the day we went, it was 49 degrees and raining! 

The primary focus of Carnavale (similar to Halloween and Mardi Gras mixed together that last for one month in America) is two part.  First, the floats.  People a long time ago were pissed at th Italian Tax system so they decided to have a parade where they built floats with poltician depicted on the sides, but not in nice ways, to make a political statement.  The tradition grew from there and every year it gets bigger and bigger.  Somewhere along the way of making fun of the politicians, there grew the second part which is the abondant use of multi-color conffetti and now, silly string and shaving cream to pelt at the floats passing by.  Then SOMEWHERE, some irrisponsible parents starting allowing their children (who are dressed up in costumes and masks, making them true monsters) to pelt stranger with silly string and conffetti.  Therefore, one does not wear good clothes to Carnavale, and for that matter, thinks twice about going at all.  I avoiding getting hit for the entire time however….right at the end a kid nailed me on the way back to the bus.  The floats were all amazing!  I would bet at least 500,000 dollars or more to build some of the floats they made.  Not just papermache, but steel, lighting and sound systems, each one pulled by a giant John Deere tractor!  We definately had a good time overall.

Lastly, things on the horizon: 

Upcoming things include a trip to Mercato Centrale tomorrow to see a century’s old tradition in Florence of local farmers and producers who gather in a large Quincy Market-type building downtown to sell anything from leather, cheese, meat, fruit and vegetables, to now furniture and other handcrafted things.  Should be interesting, maybe Ill buy some fresh parmageano!  Also tomorrow is a busride up to a suburb of Florence called Fiesole where there are many small stores selling what I have been told is some of the best chocolate I will ever taste.  I hope to spend less time eating chocolate and more time looking from the amazing hilltop view that is also available from Fiesole. 

Classes are going well and Spring Break and the Ski trip are still in the works.  Added to that, for our long Easter weekend (Thursday to Monday) we are going to plan a trip to Naples (Pompeii and Vesuvius) and Roma (maybe for Easter mass with the Pope/Papa!).  Hope to hear from many of you soon by the way, an email is always appreciated and I promise a personal response.