P.S. I Love This Place

Another week in Italia and, though I have proved unable to find my way perfectly around central Florence, I am starting to recognize landmarks to get me around. With Google Maps to help, of course. This Friday was my final exam, officially marking the end of my three-week intensive Italian course. We went out to “celebrate” with the people in our program, our Italian professors, and the program coordinators at a pizzeria. It was amazing pizza, but at the table of five that I sat at, we were expected to eat four large pizzas. It seemed like all of the food we’d been eating was in preparation of this day. Four monstrous pizzas for three girls (one didn’t eat) and one guy were almost too much, but I can proudly say we didn’t leave a piece! Not to say we didn’t have any problems afterwards (as one so affectionately called our “pizza brains”), but we had a lot of fun talking and eating and then talking about how much we’d eaten. I have really come to like the people in my program, although I know not everyone feels the same. It’s easy to keep an open mind when dealing with natives in a foreign country, but less so with the other American students you’re with. The best thing I’ve found, at least to get along with everyone, is to stay positive and open to whatever is going on.

Starting with the first exciting trip we went to was for class. It was an introduction to the Collaboration class I’m going to be taking. After going through boring classroom things, we went to the Florentine Baptistery and listened to Professor Solberg tell us all about it. At first I was a little doubtful of how I would like the class, but during our time in the freezing baptistery, I learned so much and got to look at so much. I now know a little of what to expect from on-site classes and I am really excited for more.

The view from the historical entrance.

A view of the stories and angelic hierarchy.

The view of the breath-taking ceiling.

The (former) Baptistery itself was so beautiful that I can’t even describe it with words. There was no real pool to baptize people in anymore, hence the “former,” but the marble designs on the floor and the walls were really interesting. It was fascinating to see how the Florentines thought so carefully when building their baptistery, with the octagonal shape and carefully decorated floor. The floor was mosaic as was the beautiful domed ceiling. I couldn’t believe that the ceiling, which depicted stories from the Old and New Testaments as well as the hierarchy of angels and heaven and hell, was a mosaic. So much time and effort had been put into it and it’s obvious that these builders were adamant not only to build a beautiful place for God, but to wow their competitors. It was definitely one of my favorite places just for the ceiling and I think one guy got it right when he just laid down on one of the pews to see the ceiling without bending his neck back for hours like I did.

Even the cinema has a dome in its ceiling.

The right side of the cinema from
where I was sitting.

On Friday night, my host mom, my roommate, and I went to the cinema to watch Quartet. It was an OK movie, but what really got me was the theater itself. I couldn’t stop staring at everything around me. I knew I probably looked like a tourist, but the inside of it was so beautiful. There are sculptures all around Florence, and this cinema was no exception. Even the pillars were carved with gorgeous designs. I could hardly pay attention to the film with all the décor around.

My host mom and roommate
looking intently at the
cinema program.

I really like my host mom and I want to do more things with her, but, being a little shy, I’m just starting to get more comfortable actually speaking to her in Italian. It’s not always very good, of course, and she corrects me a lot, but I’m starting to talk to her more and form a relationship. I hope we get to go out together again sometime soon!

We just got back from Fiesole today, a smaller town twenty minutes away from Florence by bus. It was in the middle of two hills and we did a lot of walking just to get around. The view, however, was beautiful, and you could really see so much of Florence from the top. It was and still is a popular place for the wealthy and royalty because of the amazing view and the nice weather if one faces south and avoids the northern wind. There was an excavation there of pre-Roman times, such as the Etruscan theater as well as baths that were just outside of the theater. There were also altars to cultish gods that were pretty impressive findings.

The museum very close to the excavation site held the artifacts from the digs, I'm assuming. There were vases with Greek-influences as well as decorated urns and partial statues that had been found. 

On the left is the water storage, on the right
is the larger pool/bath.

The back view of the pools. Where I'm standing
is where the latrines would have been.

Vases that predate the Romans.

The remains of the theater.

One of the several altars.

Another pretty vase.

The view from the top of Fiesole of both the outside and inside of Florence.

It’s really funny to me how much history can be found in Italy just by digging down. That sounds obvious, but digging down in the country is different than digging down right in the middle of a city. First there were the Etruscans, who may or may not have migrated there from Eastern Europe, and when their civilizations crumbled, the Romans built on top of it. And after the Romans, the earth eroded until it covered it all up, and then Fiesole was built on top of that. And then the Italians dug back down to find so much history and an archeologist’s dream. It's all just piled on top of each other. It is unfortunate, however, that so much of these findings are right under modern Fiesole itself. It would be hard to just stop the civilization we have now to discover and learn more about the civilization of the past.

I would take a bus back to Fiesole just to picnic there on a really nice day and enjoy the view. It was cold when we went, but that was to be expected in January. We found a nice little caffé and bar there that served decently priced lunch food. The group split up, but it’s nice to mingle with people we usually don’t hang out with or talk to. Finding little places to eat in Italy is fun, though comparing prices is always where the difficulty lies. If you’re not careful, you could be paying €4,00 for something that usually only costs €2,50. 

It’s really hard to choose a favorite place that I’ve gone so far, so I’m not even going to try. I bought books, though! The cozy English bookstore here is called Paperback Exchange and has become my favorite little haunt. I needed to buy one textbook for class and ended up buying Persuasion by Jane Austen too. I really had to keep my wallet in mind to keep from buying all of the books I wanted. If you love books as I do, it’s pretty much the best place ever. Besides, well, the rest of Italy. I am having so much fun here being in another country, living in an apartment that feels like home, and learning so much about the cultural differences between Italians and Americans. I can’t wait to see what next week will bring!