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To everyone at home; THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the Christmas/お正月 presents! I will try to get out thank-you postcards as soon as I can...!!!
Last weekend we went on a Northern Italy field trip to Ferrara, Padova, Vincenza, Mantova, and Venice. We saw many beautiful buildings; a Palazzo Ducale which contained the Camera degli Sposi, and an amazing theater (in the photo on the right.) In Venice we went to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, where we got to see a lot of paintings by Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese, and Giorgione. Venetian painting is distinctly different from Florentine painting. It's darker because it's painted on dark canvas and wood. (I actually like it better). The weekend definitely helped inspire me, which is a good thing because I need to get a lot of painting and drawing done!
Something weird: When we went to the Hong Kong ristorante two Tuesdays ago, the waitress was talking to us for a bit, and mentioned that she had a 5 month old baby. And I realized, that baby has been alive as long as I've been here in Florence.
FIVE MONTHS has gone by fast...but there have been some "slow" times as well. However, It's been five months of rediscovery, normal discovery, and change. Already I can feel how it will be difficult for me to adjust to life back in the States. Now that I know that 5 months is not enough to fully know and understand a place, how can I ever settle in one place when there are so many places to explore?
This was the craziest New Years I've ever experienced. First we had a potluck for the people who were still in Florence (as opposed to traveling Europe or back home in California). The photo is our apartment decorated with artwork and ribbons!
Then we went to Piazza della Signoria to see how Florentines celebrate Capo d'Anno. It insane. There were fireworks - but not organized ones. These were fireworks that normal people were shooting up into the sky - fireworks that exploded and made sounds like bombs in your ears - and fireworks that shot horizontally at you. It sounded like the city was being bombed. Once the clock struck midnight, people started throwing their empty wine and prosecco GLASS bottles. It was scary!
The next morning I hopped on a train to Rome to meet Nate there at the airport. It was weird to see him after five months. We got extremely lost on the way to our hotel, but we finally found it. The next day after lunch in Piazza Navona, we returned to the airport (after getting lost yet again) to pick up Judy.
Exploring Rome was an amazing adventure - we went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Vatican Museums and into St. Peter's. And I saw Michelangelo's Pieta! (See photo) - and also the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and Raphael's School of Athens.
After Rome we returned to Florence - we got to go to all the markets - Sant'Ambrogio, San Cascine, and San Lorenzo - we went to the Galleria at the Accademia and the Uffizi, got gelato and good food (including Chinese for the first time in a long time for me). For a weekend we spent a night in Bologna where I found 50 euros on the ground and we blew it on an amazing dinner in a beautiful, cute restaurant that served traditional Bolognese food. We also visited Pisa and Lucca, and on our last night we went across the Arno to a small trattoria for a classic Tuscan meal. I will definitely miss them but believe it or not I've been here for five months next week. Half of my ten months in Italy has flown by and it won't be long until I see them and my family again.
I also got to see the Obama inauguration! It was amazing to see the ocean of people there, and even though I'm not in the USA for this historical election/change of power, at least I can always say, "The first time I got to vote, it was from Italy for the first black president - and I got to watch his inauguration on CNN.com!"
Go Obama!
