First of Two Long Updates - Florence and Arezzo
Well, again I've not been as good at keeping up with my blog as I'd like, but I have managed to take a hell of a lot of photos. More on that later. I'm still in San Giovanni, and yesterday we went to Arrezzo, the day before Florence. So there's been quite a bit to see. It's a little frustrating for us because are days are so specifically planned that we do not get much time to do things like keeping our blog or going to shops here or swimming. Each day around 2:30pm they've had us go on some trip or the other. First the winery in Chianti, then Florence, Arezzo, and tonight finally we stay here. But tonight we'll be having a cooking class, which should be a lot of fun. Only problem is that it occupies all the time the shops are open and we only have a couple hours in between our Italian class and the cooking class.
I'll start with Florence. Florence is of course beautiful. Tuscany is quite mountainous, so every city here has stunning vistas full of beautiful Classical red-roofed houses. Florence is far bigger than San Giovanni, and still again quite a bit bigger than Arrezzo. I don't know its population but the streets are narrow and the buildings tall, and everything is pressed closely together. This gives it the effect of seeming like the larger cities we have in America, like New York, or downtown Chicago, even though I'm sure its population is smaller. There is, near as I can tell, little or no sprawl or suburbs here, which is pretty impressive in my eyes. They have plenty of greenspace - little parks are here and there, and little shops are everywhere, the apartments being above.
First we went to Ponte Vecchio, or 'old point,' a place up in the hills of the city where you can look over the rest of the city. There is a replica of Michaelangelo's David here but we never got to see the original. The view is gorgeous. Unlike the American cities I'm used to, Florence has few 'skyscrapers.' Rather, it is mostly buildings of the same height pretty much everywhere. Exceptions, such as the Duomo here, can be seen easily. From Ponte Vecchio we travelled to two very old churches and toured them. They were nice but not as exciting as the Duomo would have been, which for some reason we never got to see. I recognized bits of the architecture from the classes I've had in art history, but neither of these were as exciting as the cathedrals I studied.
We stopped for a bite, and I went back to a touristy food stand I'd seen and had a hot dog, which everyone had to try a bite of and was excellent. The only difference between it and an American dog was that they split it in half and put it on more of a hoagie roll. And the toppings of course - ketchup or mayonnaise. I had my hot dog commando-style. Then we descended into the city.
Orazio, one of the teachers at Il Sillabo, our school, walked us through the windy streets and pointed out the Pavillion (I think this is the name) which was once where the Medici clan lived, amazingly. We crossed a covered bridge headed for a downtown piazza. Orazio recommended we all get gelato at one stand we passed, which he claimed the best gelato in all of Italy. At first I wasn't going to get any but I tried a friend's peanut butter gelato and I was sold. It was like eating chilled creamy peanut butter cookie dough. Delicious.
Gelatos in hand, we went to the piazza around the Duomo but not in it. There was some band playing covers of standard American rock songs in Italian and people milling round. I don't know why we never went into the Duomo, as we were right there, but then we were allowed either to leave or to go shopping. I chose to go to the internet cafe, where you read my last entry. Then we ran back to make sure to catch the train back in time and stayed up a bit and then went to sleep.
Yesterday, being Wednesday, I think a lot of people would have rather gone to the pool or shopping, but in the end I think everyone loved Arrezzo. During class I tried to get my cellphone converted to a European service, which didn't work because it is evidently locked. I don't know how or why or what I could have done to get it unlocked, but it looks like I'll just rent a phone or buy a cheap one. I think I'll just wait until I get to Milan all the same, where if I rent it I'll be able to come back easily.
Arrezzo was once the center of the Etruscan people, an ancient civilization predating the Romans who existed alongside the Greeks. Not a whole lot is known about them, as Rome subsumed them and all other Italian cultures as it grew, but we got to find out a little and see some of their beautiful sculpture. In Arrezzo, we again toured some churches, although I think I enjoyed these more than the ones at Ponte Vecchio. Can't put my finger on why to be honest, but it was pretty cool. I think all of us were tired mostly.
Following that we went shopping in lieu of leaving. I checked out a music store which was bizarre, and saw a few interesting things but held off buying anything. It was organized, near as I can tell, into two kinds of music. 'Strangiere' or strange, and heavy metal. Evidently I missed something. I also looked at some clothes stores. There are lots of interesting designs but the prices are not always stated, which is pretty annoying. The ones I did see were pretty high, so I decided just to wait until Milan, where there would be plenty of interesting stores, and until Switzerland, where they will have plenty of watches. Swatches!
We looked about and found a reasonable looking Italian restaurant and got seats. It was actually run by an Indian man who spoke good English, so it helped us quite a bit. I ended up ordering both a calzone and gnocchi (a kind of pasta made with potatoes - mine had a tomato and pancetta, or bacon sauce) because I had heard Italians usually eat several small dishes and they were cheap. In the end I could only eat some of the calzone, but I had lots of help from my tablemates. The gnocchi was good but I really wish I'd got Lindsey's choice, Penne Arribiatta, which is a hot, spicy sauce on penne pasta.
We hurried back to the train station and came back. No one really felt like going out so we just went to someone's apartment and shot the breeze until we got sleepy and went to bed. I got home and put my pictures in order, then went to bed. This morning we had our last day of class, which is sad. Our teacher, Signora Nicoletta, is so funny and nice. She won't speak but a word of Italian, and usually we have to figure out the words by here Pictionary-like gesticulations, which takes a while but is fun. We also have dictionaries which we use in a pinch.
I've only had 4 days of Italian, mostly in 4 hour blocks, but I do feel like I can communicate to people in some manner. It's amazing how much you can pick up in four days! I have a small vocabulary but I know how to conjugate three classes of verbs, use nouns and adjectives properly and say all sorts of things. I wish we could keep taking the class honestly, because in another week or two I could fairly well carry on a conversation in Italian. Some of the people in the class are less enthusiastic and learn less but I think it has done us all a lot of good. Our classes in Milan are taught in English, but it's still incredibly useful to speak some rudimentary Italian. I just hope my French isn't so rusty when I go to Paris that I wish I was back in Italy.
I'd really love to take the time to describe some thoughts I have on Italy in general and tell you about some of the more mundane aspects of life here that are very different, but I want to take a quick nap before our cooking class, and I won't be able to use the internet today anyway. Perhaps tomorrow, or Saturday if not. That is the biggest frustration I have - not being able to access the internet more conveniently. Hopefully in Milan it will be much easier. Until then.
I'll start with Florence. Florence is of course beautiful. Tuscany is quite mountainous, so every city here has stunning vistas full of beautiful Classical red-roofed houses. Florence is far bigger than San Giovanni, and still again quite a bit bigger than Arrezzo. I don't know its population but the streets are narrow and the buildings tall, and everything is pressed closely together. This gives it the effect of seeming like the larger cities we have in America, like New York, or downtown Chicago, even though I'm sure its population is smaller. There is, near as I can tell, little or no sprawl or suburbs here, which is pretty impressive in my eyes. They have plenty of greenspace - little parks are here and there, and little shops are everywhere, the apartments being above.
First we went to Ponte Vecchio, or 'old point,' a place up in the hills of the city where you can look over the rest of the city. There is a replica of Michaelangelo's David here but we never got to see the original. The view is gorgeous. Unlike the American cities I'm used to, Florence has few 'skyscrapers.' Rather, it is mostly buildings of the same height pretty much everywhere. Exceptions, such as the Duomo here, can be seen easily. From Ponte Vecchio we travelled to two very old churches and toured them. They were nice but not as exciting as the Duomo would have been, which for some reason we never got to see. I recognized bits of the architecture from the classes I've had in art history, but neither of these were as exciting as the cathedrals I studied.
We stopped for a bite, and I went back to a touristy food stand I'd seen and had a hot dog, which everyone had to try a bite of and was excellent. The only difference between it and an American dog was that they split it in half and put it on more of a hoagie roll. And the toppings of course - ketchup or mayonnaise. I had my hot dog commando-style. Then we descended into the city.
Orazio, one of the teachers at Il Sillabo, our school, walked us through the windy streets and pointed out the Pavillion (I think this is the name) which was once where the Medici clan lived, amazingly. We crossed a covered bridge headed for a downtown piazza. Orazio recommended we all get gelato at one stand we passed, which he claimed the best gelato in all of Italy. At first I wasn't going to get any but I tried a friend's peanut butter gelato and I was sold. It was like eating chilled creamy peanut butter cookie dough. Delicious.
Gelatos in hand, we went to the piazza around the Duomo but not in it. There was some band playing covers of standard American rock songs in Italian and people milling round. I don't know why we never went into the Duomo, as we were right there, but then we were allowed either to leave or to go shopping. I chose to go to the internet cafe, where you read my last entry. Then we ran back to make sure to catch the train back in time and stayed up a bit and then went to sleep.
Yesterday, being Wednesday, I think a lot of people would have rather gone to the pool or shopping, but in the end I think everyone loved Arrezzo. During class I tried to get my cellphone converted to a European service, which didn't work because it is evidently locked. I don't know how or why or what I could have done to get it unlocked, but it looks like I'll just rent a phone or buy a cheap one. I think I'll just wait until I get to Milan all the same, where if I rent it I'll be able to come back easily.
Arrezzo was once the center of the Etruscan people, an ancient civilization predating the Romans who existed alongside the Greeks. Not a whole lot is known about them, as Rome subsumed them and all other Italian cultures as it grew, but we got to find out a little and see some of their beautiful sculpture. In Arrezzo, we again toured some churches, although I think I enjoyed these more than the ones at Ponte Vecchio. Can't put my finger on why to be honest, but it was pretty cool. I think all of us were tired mostly.
Following that we went shopping in lieu of leaving. I checked out a music store which was bizarre, and saw a few interesting things but held off buying anything. It was organized, near as I can tell, into two kinds of music. 'Strangiere' or strange, and heavy metal. Evidently I missed something. I also looked at some clothes stores. There are lots of interesting designs but the prices are not always stated, which is pretty annoying. The ones I did see were pretty high, so I decided just to wait until Milan, where there would be plenty of interesting stores, and until Switzerland, where they will have plenty of watches. Swatches!
We looked about and found a reasonable looking Italian restaurant and got seats. It was actually run by an Indian man who spoke good English, so it helped us quite a bit. I ended up ordering both a calzone and gnocchi (a kind of pasta made with potatoes - mine had a tomato and pancetta, or bacon sauce) because I had heard Italians usually eat several small dishes and they were cheap. In the end I could only eat some of the calzone, but I had lots of help from my tablemates. The gnocchi was good but I really wish I'd got Lindsey's choice, Penne Arribiatta, which is a hot, spicy sauce on penne pasta.
We hurried back to the train station and came back. No one really felt like going out so we just went to someone's apartment and shot the breeze until we got sleepy and went to bed. I got home and put my pictures in order, then went to bed. This morning we had our last day of class, which is sad. Our teacher, Signora Nicoletta, is so funny and nice. She won't speak but a word of Italian, and usually we have to figure out the words by here Pictionary-like gesticulations, which takes a while but is fun. We also have dictionaries which we use in a pinch.
I've only had 4 days of Italian, mostly in 4 hour blocks, but I do feel like I can communicate to people in some manner. It's amazing how much you can pick up in four days! I have a small vocabulary but I know how to conjugate three classes of verbs, use nouns and adjectives properly and say all sorts of things. I wish we could keep taking the class honestly, because in another week or two I could fairly well carry on a conversation in Italian. Some of the people in the class are less enthusiastic and learn less but I think it has done us all a lot of good. Our classes in Milan are taught in English, but it's still incredibly useful to speak some rudimentary Italian. I just hope my French isn't so rusty when I go to Paris that I wish I was back in Italy.
I'd really love to take the time to describe some thoughts I have on Italy in general and tell you about some of the more mundane aspects of life here that are very different, but I want to take a quick nap before our cooking class, and I won't be able to use the internet today anyway. Perhaps tomorrow, or Saturday if not. That is the biggest frustration I have - not being able to access the internet more conveniently. Hopefully in Milan it will be much easier. Until then.
posted by Brian at 2:21 PM
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