Last night I had dinner at the lovely Castel di Poggio near Fiesole, one of the few medieval castles left standing in Florence. How did I manage this? Well, my current housemate is a great girl named Elisabetta. She is a contract lawyer here in Florence and for the past year she has served as the president of her Rotary club. Last night was the end of the year dinner where Elisabetta officially passed her office to the incoming president, and she very kindly invited me to come. I was a little hesitant since I wouldn't know many people and really didn't have anything to wear, but in the end I decided to go. I did bring one dress with me after all, and even though I didn't think it was nice enough, Elisabetta assured me that it was just fine. She also lent me a pair of shoes and an evening bag (since I didn't bring either of those things with me- I wasn't planning on going to any fancy parties!) which made me feel a little more comfortable. I am so glad she talked me into it, because I had a wonderful time! I was able to meet many of her friends and practice my rusty Italian, the food was great (5 courses, including desert- I was stuffed!), and the setting was beautiful. It was a perfect way to spend an evening out! Unfortunately, as I often do, I forgot to bring my camera. (Sorry Mom!) However, don't despair! I did find a few pictures of the castle online (what did we do before Google?) so here they are:

The castle looked beautiful at night with candle lining the steps up to the entrance!

An aerial view of the castle; the dinner was held in the central courtyard.

This is Elisabetta on the right, wearing a necklace with the names of all the past presidents of the club on it, and on the left is her good friend Maria Giulia, who sat next to me at dinner.

A great shot of the courtyard and everyone at their tables.

This is a picture of Giovanna, one of Elisabetta's best friends, and myself during dinner. She sat on the other side of me and was a lot of fun to talk to. She also made me feel better about not being able to eat all the food because she couldn't either!

Today in Florence it was hot. And by hot I don't mean really warm and toasty, or even baking, I mean brutal, melting heat. Sure the high was only 97 degrees, but combine that with some humidity and being outside is almost unbearable. I can stand temperatures that high in a dry climate but the humidity kills me- I detest it! Maybe I am just a total wimp when it comes to heat (and I'll be the first to admit that I would rather be cold than hot) but when there is no air conditioning inside (or air conditioning that actually works well) and you go from a warm building out into the muggy heat it is hard to be anything less than miserable. So what do you when you are walking home in such heat? Get gelato! I stopped on my way home from the archives at a gelateria that a friend recommended to me and got a small cup of ciccolato fondente (dark chocolate) and crema (cream). Maybe it was just because it was so hot outside, or maybe it was because I was hungry, but I think this was the best gelato I have ever tasted. I have tried many different gelaterias in Italy and in other places, and I have had some great gelato. But this was just heavenly! The flavor of the dark chocolate was so rich and amazing . . . I don't even know how to describe it! It was the perfect treat to keep me cool on the way home. Here is the aftermath:


These high temperatures are set to continue all week, and I guarantee that it will take all my will power not to stop at this place every day. Wish me luck!

Today in Italy there was a Sciopero Generale, or a strike of all government and civil service employees. This meant that I could not go to the archives; they were closed because there were not enough people there to staff the reading room. It was a little frustrating since I just got here and got started, but it was also nice to have a guilt-free day off! I decided I would try and visit the Accademia where Michaelangelo's David is housed because I've only been there once and I promised my Mom last night that I would go visit him for her. Well, that plan was foiled by the sciopero- the gallery was closed. So I decided to content myself with visiting one of my favorite places in the city: the Baptistery of the Duomo. I know it sounds odd, but really there are a lot of things to love about this place. First there is the amazing ceiling, covered in mosaics of stories from the Bible. I took the time today to study each one (and had a massive crick in my neck afterward!) and was pleased with myself for being able to identify the story/scene portrayed in all of them. Another thing I love about the baptistery is the fact that many famous Florentines, including Dante, were baptized there. Then there are the famous doors by Ghiberti which depicts scenes from the Old Testament. Here are a few pictures:

A view of the ceiling.

Mosaic of the Resurrected Christ, situated above the alter. (Notice the people being resurrected and climbing out of their sarcophogai beneath him? I love that!)

The mosaic depicting Hell: a little gruesome but kind of awesome too!

I wish I could get a better shot of the top panels in this photo; they depict Noah loading the ark and then the ark floating on top of the flood waters while people drown underneath. I love the little details in these mosaics like the fish floating around with the drowning people in this one.

Remember that crick in my neck? This is how it came to be.

After my time in the baptistery I spent some time in the piazza in front of the Duomo:

A shot of the Duomo from outside the baptistery.

The Campanile, or bell tower, of the Duomo.

I was amused to notice this across the street from the Cathedral:

Aren't they beautiful?

Today was my first full day in Florence, which I expected to be bright, sunny, hot, and humid. Well, the heat and humidity pulled through but the sun itself was taking a bit of a break, shining from behind cloud cover most of the day, and disappearing entirely during the moisture-less thunderstorms that filled the afternoon. I took this picture of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, a place where I will be spending a lot of time these next few weeks, late in the afternoon, to show you that I am under the Tuscan sun, even if it is only peeking through the clouds. I am feeling good but still a little jet-lagged and groggy, so I worked on organizing myself this morning, took a rest in the afternoon, and then went out to wander around the city for awhile. I saw an interesting argument between (I am assuming here) two lovers, with the woman crying and throwing what I think was her husband?/boyfriend?'s "man purse" in a trash can and storming off to the car while he had to dig it out of the garbage and chase after her, shouting apologies. I also enjoyed walking through the Piazza della Signoria; I find that after all the research I have done on the Medici this past year I have a whole new perspective on them and their influence on Florence . . . but that's a tangent for another (boring to most people but me) post that I will probably never write!

One last note: my long trip yesterday helped me arrive at two conclusions. First, it is worth the money to fly into Florence and not have to take a train, another train, a bus and/or a taxi. It was such a relief for my weary mind to fly into Florence and take a taxi from the airport straight to my apartment, instead of having to navigate trains and buses. The second conclusion I came to was that I really want to see Amsterdam. I had a three hour layover there and the airport was really nice. There were huge planters made of the famous Dutch blue and white patterned china, and they were full of beautiful tulips. (The tulips were fake, but they still looked nice.) I am told that it only takes 15-20 minutes to get to the city center by train from the airport which is amazing; most airports are not that close to the city they service. Lucky for me, I have two flights through Amsterdam left to go, and on one of them I have a five and a half hour layover, so I think I can make my wish come true! If the train really is that fast it should be no problem for me to go into the city, wander around for a few hours (I really want to see Anne Frank's house!) and then head back to the airport with plenty of time. But that is two months away; right now I need to focus on Florence and, more specifically, what to eat for dinner! Off to the kitchen I go!

After a nearly seven month absence I am officially back in the blogosphere! Why? Well, I am headed back to Italy for July and August and thought it would be fun to start blogging about my experiences again. I leave Toronto on July 4th and arrive in Florence on July 5th, so you can expect to start seeing new posts after that. I'm not sure that there will be anything thrilling to tell since I will be spending the bulk of time in the state archives in Florence and then moving to Siena in August to work with the study abroad program again, but I'm sure I can scrounge up something to write about every now and then. Okay, back to packing my room! A presto!*

*In Italian, "a presto" means "see you later!"

I know it has been awhile since I last posted and I have no excuse other than the craziness that is my life right now. I am down to only 12 days left (eek!) and I am trying to cram as much in as possible, especially in terms of my research. Things have gone well but there it a lot left to do. So in the midst of my dwindling time what did I do? I took a little trip! Back in the summertime Nick and Diana informed me that they would be coming to Europe with Nick's grandparents in November and they invited me to join them for part of the time, so it has been planned for awhile and I knew that I had to work around it. Last Tuesday all the planning became a reality when I met up with Nick and Diana in Paris and spent two days there before heading to Leipzig, Germany. And while we stayed in Leipzig (where Nick's Oma and Opa come from) we went to Dresden on Friday and Berlin on Saturday. It was an amazing experience, and now more than ever I want to learn German. (I hated being in a country and not being able to understand more than a few words of the language- if I could even distinguish one word from another!) Here are several of my favorite parts of the trip:

1. Watching Diana in the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. I have been to both museums before and I was excited to go back, but what I was really looking forward to was watching my sister, an art history major, see them for the first time. She was so happy and just in heaven- it was great! She kept seeing paintings and crying out their names and hitting Nick in her excitement. Nick was such a good sport as we drug him around art musuems for about five or six hours. And he really liked Notre Dame (I convinced them that we had to go) much to his surprise.

2. Going to St. Denis. This church is not only important to the history of Gothic architecture but it is also basically the graveyard for French royalty, and since it was one of the places I didn't get to on my first trip to Paris so I had to go this time. It was so worth it! I was so excited walking around and seeing the graves of people like Dagobert, Fredegunde, Clovis, and Catherine de Medici. (Extra points if anyone but me knows who any of these people are!) As Nick would say, I am definitely a Dorcas Aurelius, but I don't care!

3. The Christmas markets in Germany. I swear, every city we went to had these markets that made you feel just like you were in a magical, wonderful, Christmas land. The smells of the pastries and baked goods (SUCH GOOD GINGERBREAD!!!), the lights, the real evergreen trees and boughs everywhere, and the decorations were amazing. The Germans definitely know how to do Christmas!

4. Going to the Marianfelde refugee camp with Nick's grandparents. In the early 1950s Opa and Oma escaped from East Germany to the west, and Marianfelde was the refugee camp where they stayed after their escape. It was incredible to visit this place with people who had stayed there and the hear their experiences. As they described their feelings and the process they had to go through to escape I was humbled and amazed. They were so brave! I am so grateful for the chance I had to go there with them.

Those are just some of the highlights from the trip; there are many others that I could share but I don't want this post to be too long!

Although I really enjoyed myself, I have to confess that it was extremely comforting and felt like a relief to come back to Italy again! Not only can I understand and speak the language here, but Italy is so familiar to me now. I will miss is it when I leave. I am glad that I did take a spur of the moment trip to Rome the Saturday before I left for Paris so that I could see it again. I went with my friend Hillary and her sister Miriam, neither of whom had been to Rome before so again, it was fun to walk around the city and watch them see things for the first time. As we came up out of the Metro to the Colosseum I was just waiting for the freakout I knew was coming and they didn't disappoint. And even though I had seen most of the places we went before, they still made my heart jump in my chest. Plus, I provided Hiliary and her sister with a good laugh of my own when I stood in front of a statue of Caesar, put my hand over my heart, and said "Hail Caesar!" (Yes, I am a nerd!) It was a fun day, and we even ended it by attending a Dada and Surrealism exhibit at the Museo del Resurgimento which was pretty amazing.

So that is what I have been up to lately . . . oh, yeah- and research too! I actually took some articles and a book pertaining to my research that I have been meaning to read for a long time on the trip with me and with all the time I spent on trains, planes, and buses I actually got a lot of good, helpful reading in. I didn't take any pictures to prove it, but I promise it happened! I did, however, take some other pictures of the trip, so here they are!

The Berlin Wall Memorial (it was only just after 5pm but it was already super dark outside!) This is one of the few pieces of the wall that is still standing in its original spot.

A piece of the Berlin Wall

Cute photographer Diana! (She and Nick took a lot of great pictures that I am sure they will post to their blog after they get back!)

The Reichstag in Berlin; the seat of German governemnt.

The Frauenkirche in Dresden with a statue of Martin Luther. This church was destroyed by bombing during WWII, but the residents of Dresden gathered together all the pieces they could find and reconstructed it. It is a famous symbol of hope and reconstruction for Germany after the war.

A rose window inside St. Denis near Paris.

An outside view of St. Denis.

Some of the royal graves inside St. Denis.

Diana ordered salmon for dinner one night in Paris - yum!

The view on the balcony of hotel room in Paris.

Me with a statue of Marcus Aurelius inside the Louvre. (This is where Nick decided it would be funny to call me a Dorcas Aurelius!)

Diana and Nick going up the stairs to see Nike (or "Winged Victory") in the Louvre. Nan was so excited to see this, and it is one of my favorites too!

The Trevi Fountain in Rome. (If you throw three coins in the legend says that you will come back to Rome, and I think it's true because last time I was here I threw three coins in and I came back!)

A hug for the Pantheon!

Looking up at the ceiling of the Pantheon.

Inside St. Peter's in Rome. There was so much light coming through the windows- it was breathtaking!

The dome in St. Peter's.

The dress code to enter St. Peter's - they take it super seriously too!

Outside view of St. Peter's.

The Colosseum!