Fall Break cont....

I can't remember if I have written about how terrible my internet connection is here. But if I already have, then I repeat, it is terrible, and oh so frustrating! I am dedicating the next hour to blogging...

The problem with procrastination and putting stuff off is that it eventually turns into a huge monster that one has to conquer, almost impossibly. I am very familiar with this monster. Unfortunately, we've become somewhat close over the years. I must like putting myself in these crunch situations. So here I am, with a very important decision to make... do I write as many mini entries as I can and try to fill in the days/events that have passed? Or do I start from this past weekend and leave the rest behind... I'm thinking the prior. So here I go...

Starting where I left off with fall break...

I live right next to Piazza San Marco and hadn't been inside the church yet, so Linda and I did that on Monday. It was gorgeous! This church was built by Cosimo de' Medici who was worried about getting into heaven so he asked the pope what he should do. The pope told him to build a church, so that's what he did! And he put a LOT of money into it, so its very intricate and beautiful.

 

 

Tuesday I went to the market at Cascine park with Linda. Talk about overwhelming!! There was SOO much stuff, you really have to dig to find what you want, but eventually I walked out with some goodies :) 

I do like all the open air markets here, but they definitely overwhelm me. I like to look at everything to make sure I am getting what I want, but when there is so much stuff how do you know for sure?? Good shopping buddies are pretty essential to keep me in line.

Me at the market...

Even though I was pretty tired from all the walking/shopping, I fought the desire to go home and lay down and instead walked to the other side of the river. We walked all the way up to the Basilica of San Miniato, and man am I glad we did. I was whining to Linda the whole way up, haha, but this church is SO worth the walk. The church itself is nothing less than stunning, and as unbelievable as it sounds, the view of Florence from there is even more spectacular. A picture is worth a thousand words...

 

Then we walked down to Piazza Michelangelo and took some fab pics. While we were doing so, an old Florentine man walked up and offered to take a picture of us:

We then had a very nice, super choppy, Italian conversation with our new friend about Tuscan food, haha. It was quite lovely :)

K I thought I could do this but it just takes me waaay too long, so I'm sorry I will have to pick up where I am leaving off later... But I love and miss everyone SOOO much!!

Il Giorno Due!

Alright, on to day two! Saturday Linda and I went to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here we are davanti alla facade...

For the first couple of weeks I was living here I walked by this church multiple times every day, not knowing what it was, let alone that it is one of the largest, most beautiful churches in Florence! As you can see from the outside, it looks pretty unimpressive, but when I walked inside I was shocked to see how incredible it really is. Goes to show, you can't judge a book by its cover. Many of the important buildings here in Florence are the same way, the outside bland, but the inside totally stunning. The Basilica of San Lorenzo is also the burial place of 40some members of the Medici Family, so it is pretty important because of the connection with the family. It is arguably the oldest church in Florence, having been consecrated in 393. We saw the burial place of Cosimo de' Medici (suuuper important guy) and Donatello (very influential artist of the Renaissance, and yeah, one of the ninja turtles.) Brunelleschi, who was the leading Renaissance architect of the first half of the fifteenth century, (he did TONS of other stuff, most importantly the dome of the Duomo which is still a total phenomenon) was commissioned to design the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Michelangelo also did a lot of work on it. I won't go into any more detail because I know most of you are like, this is so boring who caresssss, but seriously, when you come here and study it, you just start to care. Its pretty awesome actually :) So anyway, that was that.

Then we went and saw the inside of the Duomo which is pretty cool. I had been inside before, but like most of the stuff here, I could go back again and again and again and still find it interesting. I've posted pictures of the outside before, it's still the most impressive building to me here. At least visually, from the outside. Every time I walk by it, which is multiple times a day, I am just in complete awe. It is impossible to describe in words. The inside is different. While the outside is so intensely intricate and colorful and almost mesmerizing with all its patterns and details, the inside is quite, well, plain. I have to say, when I first stepped inside I was actually disappointed. But the second time I started to appreciate it more. It is HUGE first of all. Everything is huge. The columns and Gothic arches make me feel so small and insignificant. I think that's the whole point of it though. At the time God was seen as the all powerful important one, and people were just little blobs who were supposed to do whatever he said. So the architecture is meant to make you feel like that. My pictures aren't great, but I'll put one up anyway so you can at least have a little idea about what I'm talking about.

Then we went underneath the church where the remains of the ancient Roman cathedral of Santa Reparata are. It was pretty interesting. We were tired after all that so we got some gelato and went grocery shopping, made some dinner and then baked the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVERRR! I made it in my cooking class, but making it in my own kitchen was quite satisfying.

And that was my day! :)

Fall Break Day 1 :)

Ciao tutti! So even though I am writing all of these posts today, (or hopefully today, I may finish them later this week depending how long it takes) I want to write about my days in separate blog entries. So lets start from the very beginning, what a very good place to start...

Break technically began Thursday evening when I finished my last midterm! I know it is silly that I was stressed out about midterms considering the classes I'm taking are totally awesome, but I was, so it felt good to be done. I cooked dinner with my roommate Hillary and had a little sparkling wine to celebrate :) Then I went out to this bar, the Lion's Pub, or something, with my friend Linda and some of her friends. I sang karaoke (Spice Girls, Wannabe...pretty awesome song) IN PUBLIC, it was quite... special, haha. Unfortunately Linda got a recording of it...but I don't want to blow your ear drums away with all of that beautifulness, so here is a picture... :)

Fun Fact: guy behind me is AWESOME at singing and dancing Beyonce's Single Ladies. No joke.

So I'm going to include Friday in day 1 of break because Thursday and Friday were both kinda half days. So Friday I woke up and cleaned the apartment for a large portion of the day and then Linda came over again and we made dinner and went to her friends' apartment for dessert. There are two girls who live there, one from Denmark and the other actually is from Boulder, which is cool. They are 25 and 26 years old so it was nice because everyone there was older and more mature and just fun and interesting to talk with. They had 4 other friends over, 2 others from Sweden, 1 from Japan, and 1 from Italy. And I think I mentioned before, Linda is also from Sweden. So it was a very interesting and eclectic group of people. We had some really good cooked pairs with vanilla ice cream for dessert and then went to a local bar/mini brewery and had a beer and chatted. It was a lovely evening. Then Linda and I went home to sleep. She was my roommate for the week since all my roommates were out of town. It was really fun! :)