Experiencing my life through words

Pictures are of me in the Baboli gardens, the Monastery and me infront of the best leather store in Firenze
Dear Blog,
When one is in Italy one must travel by train; it is the best way to see Tuscany and the seats are nice and comfortable. Florence trip #2 was today and although the train takes longer than the bus, the ride is much more smooth and has better views of Tuscany. The weather was a little overcast and slightly chilly but as we all started speed walking to keep up with our speed demon director, we all quickly warmed up. The watercolor group went with Peter to some museums and the drawing group (my group) was on their own till we were to meet at one and switch.

A couple girls and I went to the Bargello, which is a great sculpture museum. It was nice to have a break from the Byzantine art that I have seen constantly for the past couple weeks. I will tell you a little secret and admit that I am a little tired with the Byzantine style. I am truly not the biggest fan. I feel like it all looks the same after awhile maybe because every scene depicted is a Mary enthroned, or coronation of Mary. Or perhaps I am somewhat museum fatigued, that could be my problem?!?
The best sculpture in the museum is the [effeminate] David by Donatello. Ever since my humanities class I have wanted to see it and today I finally fulfilled this dream. It is being worked on but you could still see it all. Someone was at the base doing some cleaning and x-rays of some sort. I enjoyed contrasting Michaelangelo’s ‘David’ and Bernini’s ‘David’ to this one. If I were to choose one I like best it would be Bernini’s though.


Another amazing place we went to was the Pitti Palace. One of my favorite things there was the Baboli gardens (gardino di baboli). So beautiful! I could have stayed all day long walking around and sketching. If any of you have seen the movie, ‘Much ado about nothing’ just picture all the garden scenes from that movie and you can get a small glimpse of how picturesque it is.
For lunch I had a panino sandwich that was divine! Dessert was crema and cioccolato gelato. By the way have I mentioned that the food here has been successful in getting me to pack on some pounds? The best part is that I don’t mind! Somehow you can eat the food here and never feel guilty. It is wonderful!
Later my group met up and we went to Santa Maria Novella. This church holds the Holy Trinity by Mosaccio. I had no idea it was so large and a fresco no less! It was so neat to think that Leonardo di Vinci once stood where I was standing looking up at the same work of art admiring the genius of the linear perspective that painters were then incorporating in their artwork. We saw this painting today because we are learning about linear perspective. I have to do a linear perspective drawing this week. I finished my line drawings and maybe if I get a good grade on them I will take a picture and post them. Then you can all see what I spend hours and hours doing everyday! Tomorrow is another fieldtrip to Monte Oliveto and Buonconvento!

Friday Fieldtrip:
Another long day of sightseeing! We headed out at 8:30 am in a big pink paisley bus. We definitely stuck out on the road like a large pink flower. The bus ride was a blast as we sang to a bunch of 80s songs such as girls’ just want to have fun, and footloose to name a few.
Our humanities teacher Alessandro came with us to talk about some historical facts that we would be seeing. We stopped a Buonconvento a small and quaint village. Not much happened there except for the larger than life grasshopper that had hopped onto the back of my leg. It was gross!
I got a video of Alessandro so you guys can all see him fidgeting and doing the ‘teaching dance’. He moves constantly when he talks and always seems so nervous. It is quite entertaining.
Next up: Monte Oliveto. This place is a gorgeous monastery with lots of frescoes of Saint Francis and his ministry. It is beautiful up there! Lots of uphill walking but worth seeing. Inside we had to be very quiet and were silenced a few times. We were supposed to be respectful to the monks still living in the monastery. Weirdly enough when we got out of the monastery a friend and me saw a monk laughing and talking on his cell phone. We had a prepaid lunch up on the hill with everyone. The lunch was really good and lasted for 2 hours! Our bus got back to Siena by 4 and I literally ran 15 minutes- bag and all- to my bus stop just in time.
Now I am sitting in my room writing this instead of doing my homework. I should be studying for my midterms but this is more fun to do.
Here are a few small things I have written throughout the week that I am including in this post.

How to Steal a Million
Seeing so many museums lately has made me want to watch the movie How to steal a million, starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’toole. I keep thinking of ways I could somehow plan to steal something and quietly enjoy it in my own home. I would really love to steal all of Bernini sculptures… or some of Monets artwork. Who knows maybe even an old relic or two would be nice. Or I could start buying old paintings at all the antique markets in hopes that they are some long lost masterpiece of some kind. I heard recently that in the sixties two paintings were sold for 100 euros each. Turns out this year people found out that the paintings were really the last two missing paintings of Fra Angelico’s eight piece altar! Lucky granddaughter who recently inherited the paintings! She could sell them for millions!

A fish Tale
I dislike fish. The smell, the look, the texture: ALL of it. The day of ‘fish for dinner’ finally came; I reluctantly went to the table. I tried everything to get my mind off of the fish but I felt like I could already taste the salty, unpleasant flavor of this slimy creature. First course was a great pasta dish that I ate as slow as possible to delay as long as possible the biggest challenge I had yet to face. I could not stall any longer though and as she put the fish bits on my plate I tried to quickly think of different reasons why I could tell her why I wasn’t able to eat fish. My mind was blank and I suddenly found myself putting the fish on my fork. My head was screaming ‘NO, Cailey! Don’t do it,’ but my fork kept going closer and closer to my mouth. (This whole struggle went unnoticed of course). The first bite I immediately wanted to spit out… till I realized I had not even tried to chew it. As soon as I relaxed a little I found that it was rather tasty. Soon I had eaten the whole spoonful Caterina had given me and then there I was asking for more. How could this be? I despise fish in the states but here I like it. I detested fresh tomatoes in the states too but here I cannot get enough of them. This must mean my food palette is growing and that is a good sign! Hopefully she will make more fish and I can then test myself and see if I like it a second time as well.

I made a list of some my favorite things/places here in Italy. (not in order)
1.Pastries 2.Trevi Fountain 3. Amalfi coast
4. Ponte vecchio 5. Lucca 6. Baboli Gardens
7. park in Siena 8. Aranciata gelato 9. Tuscan Grapes
10. Leather 11. Bernini sculptures 12. Villa Borghese park
13. Small town outside of Roma 14. Del Campo


P.s. Aunt Sandy- I looked for the ribbon store but could not find it. I am now on a quest to locate the store next time I go to Florence!
Auntie Joyce- I walked by the site that you got your wallet stolen and had a moment of silence for you.