Siena

2:00AM - the perfect time for small tasks such as blogging.

I thought I'd take a few minutes to catch everyone up with my life in Firenze, and since it is so late, I'll make it quick.

I visited Siena, a smaller town near Florence, still in the Tuscany region, on Sunday, September 20th with three of my roommates - Allie, Pearl, and Tracy. It was a cloudier day, but it was perfect weather for sitting around in the gigantic square in the middle of the town. It's called the Piazza del Campo. Every year they have a bareback horse race around the perimeter of the square called "Il Palio"... People pack themselves in the middle of the piazza to watch the race, as well as on the balconies of the buildings. Unfortunately, we visited a little late in the season to observe the spectacular event, but you know, it just gives me more of an excuse to come back to Italy. Margo keeps telling us that this trip has doomed us, and we will forever be looking for a way to come back to Italy. I believe her.

Getting to Siena was quite an experience. We looked up train times online the night before and planned to leave on the 8:10am train. Well of course, being girls, we typically left for the train station too late and ended up missing the train. After purchasing tickets for the 9:37am train we walked back home to load up on caffiene and ventured back to the station, only to get there four minutes before the train left and not knowing which platform the train was leaving from. Tracy quickly jumped on the train we were guessing might be the right one, and the doors shut right behind her before any of us got on. Of course, being girls again, Tracy and Allie both screamed, Tracy inside the train and Allie outside. The station master guy ended up waving the rest of us on, and we ended up taking the train halfway to Siena and then a coach bus the rest of the way. A strange, but interesting travel experience.

We sat up on a balcony for an hour and a half overlooking Piazza del Campo, drinking coffee and people watching. I tried to do a German couple a favor by taking their picture for them, but accidentally stepped on their pastries they just bought. oops. Maybe they'll remember their time in Siena better because of the clumsy American girl who ruined their breakfast...

Lunch was fun. We stopped in this little shop to grab a sandwich, and the guys behind the counter looked exactly like the mental image your mind conjures up when you think of an Italian chef. Curled mustaches, white chef hats, aprons... It was great. They didn't allow pictures inside the shop, and for good reason. I wouldn't want a bright light flashed in my eyes 200 times a day. One lady attempted to take a picture, and as soon as she pulled out her camera a guy behind the counter whipped out one of those a billion candlelight flashlights and blinded her. He rambled something in Italian that I could only make out to mean, "How do you like it?" It was great.

Where we ate lunch ("pranzo")

After dilly-dallying the rest of the afternoon away and stopping to talk to a fellow Minnesotan who grew up on a farm somewhere in central Minnesota (whom I neglected to ask where...) we had dinner at a canopied spot looking out toward the piazza. Perfect timing because it finally started to rain. I talked with our waiter about visiting southern Italy, and told him my great-grandfather was from Reggio di Calabria. He was from Calabria, so he gave me some good spots to visit before we left for the train station to head home. I'm very excited to explore. Hopefully I'll make it down there during my fall break in mid-October...

Siena is a great little town, and of course, like everyone else, I highly recommend visiting it if you're ever staying in Florence.

Dinner ("cena")

Next to come: my trip to the Cinque Terre and how to get a natural tan at the end of September!

Rain, Santa Croce, & Casentino Visit

Today it rained in Florence.

Tracy and I were walking to Santa Croce to meet the rest of our Art History class for a tour when it suddenly started to downpour. Luckily, Tracy and I had our umbrellas with so we didn't get soaked. However, wearing flip flops while it's pouring rain and walking on lumpy stone streets isn't the easiest thing to do.

Tracy in the rain

Smart tourists with umbrellas!

Santa Croce (one of those cool old churches - but this one is especially cool because Galileo and Michelangelo are buried there) is the first church I've actually gone into since I've been in Florence. I was surprised at how big it was inside. These churches look enormous from the outside, but I never quite expect it to look as huge and spacious on the inside for some reason. It was gorgeous. Walking through the church and seeing the monks passby makes me think about things greater than myself. It reminded me of how the Israelites built the tabernacle to worship God, and how specific everything had to be... I wonder if people thought of it like that when they were building these beautiful churches here...

"Regular" people would sit toward the back of the church behind this pulplit on the right hand side. The front of the church was sectioned off so that monks could sit there and see the priest. No one else would be able to see him. They just went to "listen' to the service from way back here.

Tomb of Galileo Galilei

Tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti

On Wednesday of last week we walked up to San Miniato, a church that's up on a hill overlooking Florence, and watched the sunset. It was wonderful. I tried to take some pictures to make a panoramic view and edit them together, but it didn't work out the greatest. I don't have the patience to fix it, but I'll put it up here for you to get an idea of how beautiful the scene was.

Saturday our whole school (there are only 48 of us) was invited out to the director's country home in Casentino to relax and help make a big lunch. I helped make "fettunta". The guys made a fire in the big open fireplace inside, slid a grate over it, and I put slices of course bread over the coals. I took a clove of garlic and rubbed it on the toasted bread, drizzled olive oil over it, and sprinkled salt on top. yum. We had salads, cheese with fruit, penne with pesto, homemade ravioli with spinach and riocotta, rabbit, pheasant, sausage, and a peach pudding dessert. Oh...my...gosh...was I full. I loved it.

Me making "fettunta"

Fresh ravioli!

It was so nice to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air. The landscape was beautiful. It kind of reminded me of Colorado, except...with more haybales. Check out the view they have on their "porch"...

Isn't it a fantastic view?? This is all in attempt to get my entire extended family to move over to Italy with me some day...is it working guys?

Pearl, Alyssa, Sam, Allie, and I decided to walk into the town (San Martino) to check it out. We ended up talking(?) with a couple of older Italian gentlemen who were just sitting on a bench in the middle of town. We had no idea what they were saying but as long as we smiled they were happy to talk. Thankfully, a lady named Titta (I believe) came to our rescue with her knowledge of the Enlish language she aquired while she studied in Oxford. She said she didn't like it there because she liked to eat. haha Overall, it was a beautiful day full of incredible food and wonderful people. Can't wait for more!

Walking into town...

Grapes!

Walking into San Martino...

Chatting with the locals

Walking home from town

The view of San Martino from the country home

Pictures!!!

I thought I should put up some pictures on here so that everyone who doesn't have Facebook can see what I'm up to. Here's just a sampling of my adventure...

My Contact Info in Italy

Here is my current contact information in Italy until December 16th. If you want to send me mail, please don't send me STUFF, just letters, because I will have to pay some type of customs charge even if you wanna send me Jello or something. (It's expensive to send packages anyways...) I should also let you know that mail service in Italy is pretty slow... If you sent me a letter, it could honestly show up a month later in some cases. I guess it's just not very dependable. I've been suggested to use things like FedEx or UPS if it's something important. Otherwise, you can try the regular ol' mail and see what happens. :)

Mail:

Santa Reparata International School of Art

Attn: Kristina Notaro

Piazza Stozzi 2

50123 Florence, Italy

Landline Phone: 055-012-3166

Cell Phone: 349-116-5952

Both of these phone numbers will roll over to my cell phone if you feel like calling me, but please don't text me! :)

Skype: kristina.notaro

Art, Food, Travel, Friends

Tomorrow is my first day of class. I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays - Art History: Gothic and Renaissance - and it's at 11:15am. I really can't complain. Even after taking Principles of Art twice at Northwestern College I've come to appreciate art history. I've come to find it interesting...and what better place to study the history of Gothic & Renaissance art than in Florence? Maybe I'll check out the David by Michelangelo tomorrow...

Yesterday 5 other girls and I took a train to Monterosso, one of the 5 towns that are in the Cinque Terre, to lay on the beach. We went swimming in the Lingurian Sea and got tossed around by some waves. After getting a bunch of rocks stuck in my swimsuit from getting pulled under the waves I realized how Minnesotan I looked; the biggest waves I see are made from speedboats and cannonballs. We met a few Italians who were right next to us on the beach, and when a girl from our group got a cut on her foot from a gigantic rock they helped her out by speaking some magical Italian words to the lifeguard to get some disinfectant. Oh, and bought her gelato after we left the beach. OH Italian men... I must avoid them.

According to an Italian cop who came into our orientation session at the beginning of the week to talk to us about safety the #1 sport in Italy is not soccer...it's women. Great.

Last night I decided to get some much needed sleep and didn't set my alarm clock. I woke up at 1:00pm. It was fantastic. I've been exhausted trying to get used to living here and running around and walking everywhere and never sleeping. I'm don't know how to feed myself here. I don't eat very much if I don't eat at a restaurant because grocery shopping here is just weird to me still. Where's my Dole Orange Pineapple Bannana juice, my sliced Honey Oat bread, and cereal?! No. Italians get groeries practically every day. Bread is always made fresh, so you're weird if you buy the pre-sliced bagged bread. Milk isn't kept in a refridgerator, and breakfast isn't eaten much. I broke down and bought a couple litres of Coca-cola today to get a taste of home. Now, I'm not bashing the Italians' eating habits or style; I'm just not used to them yet. I love preservatives. They're easy. :) I mean, c'mon...I shouldn't be starving in ITALY of all places! ...I just need to find a nice old Italian woman who wants to cook for me!

Here's our group minus one guy at the other girls' apartment. They were lucky enough to get an apartment on the 3rd floor with a terrace looking toward the Duomo (Florence's most recognizeable landmark). We all had dinner together and played Catch Phrase outside afterwards.

I'll wrap this blog up with some pictures of our apartment for your viewing pleasure. I live with 4 other girls. We have a 3 bedroom apartment with 3 full baths, a dinning/living room, and an outdoor patio. We're on the ground floor.