Sarahnissima
Italy and such as

So here’s what you missed…

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Yesterday morning provided me with one of those little moments that I find so enjoyable in that happy little place called the inner workings of my mind. As I walked down Borgo Pinti on my way to work my mind, or rather my stomach, was consumed with one desire: Milk. All I could think was, “I want ice cold milk in my belly.” “Give me some milk.” “Milk—now!” “Milk, milk, milk, delicious milk, MILK!!!” The past 6 months of walking down Borgo Pinti almost everyday had taught me that a small café along my route, I Cugini, had a formidable selection of milk products so my milk-focused mind concentrated on my milk-rich destination. As I turned the corner to enter the store, my eyes fixed on the milk bounty, I heard music playing over the speakers. I smiled to myself at the irony as K.D. Lang’s “Constant Craving” blared through the tiny café and knew that destiny had led my footsteps.

Of course, that was just about 15 minutes of my time yesterday and you all have missed way too much for me to linger on all the little details. So, I’ve decided to backtrack a little to catch you all up on what you missed since my last regular entry way back in November when my blood pressure was up, my heart was working over time and academic success seemed little more than a dream.

I guess I should start by telling you all that contrary to what seemed possible at the time, I somehow managed to make it through to the symposium, but not before I got there, I had some trips to go on… since my life here is so rough after all. In November, after the Maltese adventure, I went to Urbino (ridiculously beautiful), and Chris and I went to Lucca (ditto), Fiesole (nice, close-to-home destination), and lovely Paris.

Ciambella and I tagged along with the Masterpieces class to Urbino, since we were after all the understudies to the TAs, the Quiet One and the Quieter One. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. And it wasn’t just Urbino that we saw. We also went to Arezzo, Monterchi, San Sepolcro, and Rimini. This trip is called the “Piero Pilgrimage” in honor of 15^th century artist, Piero della Francesca. Highlights for me, however, included seeing Rosso Fiorentino’s Deposition in San Sepolcro and the never-ending meal provided as a perk of the trip. The weather was gorgeous and the sites were even better. It was a wonderful trip.

Though Chris wasn’t able to tag along to Urbino, don’t feel sorry for him. He got his share of traveling. We took a day trip to Lucca, which is a town not too far from Pisa. There’s not a whole lot there except a couple medieval towers (one with trees growing from the top of it), ramparts surrounding the city where people, aka us, can rent bikes and ride around for hours, and sheer beauty.

Lucca sits right in the middle of a valley and the views are stunning. We really hit the jackpot when it came to the weather that day. It was absolutely perfect. We spent about an hour riding bikes and playing at one of the many playgrounds on the ramparts before heading off to explore the city some more.

By the time the sun was low in the sky we found ourselves on top of one of the city’s towers enjoying the view as the sun slowly dipped behind the mountains. Ahhh… Lucca will also be perfect in my mind.

On a lazy Saturday, Chris and I hopped on the bus and headed 20 minutes out of Florence to the little town of Fiesole. Fiesole is known as being the location of the original Etruscan settlement here in the area and they have a really nice archeology museum and an amphitheater to show for it. It also has a great Romanesque church. I can see the church’s bell tower when I walk down Borgo Pinti on my way to school, assuming, of course, that the weather isn’t too rainy or too hazy. Perhaps what Fiesole is best know for is the view it offers of the Florence. For an only mostly painful climb, visitors can gaze out over the city in all its glory. Chris and I enjoyed our few hours up there for yet another well-worth-it excursion.

Our major trip of November, other than Malta obviously, was to Paris. We left late on a Thursday night on the overnight train and arrived behind schedule the next morning in a whole new country. Like all of the school trips we went on, it was a whirlwind adventure. Our trip was off to a rocky start when we first arrived at our hotel to find that none of the rooms were ready. Oh, no, there weren’t people still sleeping. No, ladies and gentlemen, there were no beds. At least, not yet. The hotel had chosen that weekend to replace every bed in the hotel (nice by the time nightfall came around—I mean, when can you sleep in full confidence that your hotel bed isn’t full of gross strangers’ germs?). Keep in mind that this was not a small group of people. There were about 50 of us.

So we waited as long as we could before we all headed off to our first stop of the trip: the Louvre. The Louvre never fails to impress. I am not one of those people who says, “skip the Louvre, go to the Musee d’Orsay!” Oh, no. I say, “Do both!” On this trip, however, the Musee d’Orsay was a sacrifice that had to be made for it was the Louvre all the way. And it was incredible as always. Not the least of which because I got to lecture. That’s right, my friends, little ole’ Sarah got to lecture in the Louvre like a big girl. It was great.

Now the Louvre I’d seen, but the trip was full of plenty of new things for me. We went to Sainte-Chapelle (OH MY GOSH! SO BEAUTIFUL!) where we were blown away by stain glass windows at their finest and greeted by fresh snowfall as we exited. We went to Notre Dame—okay, I’d been there before, but when we went there was a mass going on so it was new in a way. The second day of our trip was spent out at Chartres Cathedral where we all froze as we marveled at the beauty before hopping back on the train and making our way to the Palace of Versailles. While at Versailles we were treated to a Jeff Koons exhibit featuring the more famous Michael Jackson and Bubbles sculpture, but the more inventive and delightful Giant Balloon Dog sculpture.

While others dawdled at the Palace, Chris and I, being familiar of the fate of the palaces’ last residents, high-tailed it out of there as the sun began to fall. We weren’t running away from a crown of angry peasants with pikes, we had a date with Jim Tressel and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

For the big OSU-stupid Michigan showdown, Chris and I made our way to The Great Canadian for some beer and football (after a frantic call to my mom in the States to look up the address for us). Upon our arrival we found a table for two right in front of a beautiful flat screen TV and surrounded by a bunch of sorry looking turds wearing maize and blue. (Hold on… Ok. I’m back. I just got sick for a moment at the thought of it.) You all doubtless remember the glorious outcome: OSU 42, Michigan 7.

Chris and I celebrated by taking a stroll through lovely, though cold, Paris and I got to do something I’d always wanted to do: see Christmas lights on the Champs Elysees. The Paris revelry couldn’t last forever and by Sunday evening we were back on the overnight train zipping across the countryside to Florence and reality.

Needless to say, November was a bit hectic for me.

Symposium

The fun wasn’t all I did at the end of the year. You all may remember that I had that pesky thing called a thesis hanging over my head and making me crazy. In fact, my train ride back from Paris was not a good time, but who wants to hear about me having an emotional breakdown in the midst of motion sickness in the dining car of a dirty train at 1am? Let me just say that despite what I thought was going to happen, I made it through and on December 12 I presented my paper, “The Gesture of Silence: A Transformation in Form and Meaning in Late Medieval Italian Art.”

It was the culmination of a year’s worth of research, translation, thinking, writing, and stress. Admittedly it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for in the end, but none of that really mattered by the time 2:45pm rolled around on the 12^th of December. The elation of finishing overshadowed any reservations I had about my research itself, if only for the day. The symposium went well, without any major drama. Our “class photo” shows off not only our gestures, but also our personalities perfectly.

Aside from being able to check three things off my “Things to do before I die” list (live in Italy, learn a foreign language, earn a Masters degree) the symposium was made extra special by the presence of my parents, who had flown over for the event.

Chris and I had been showing them around town since they had arrived, but the end of the symposium meant the end of my obligations to school and my freedom to travel. I continued my Italy boot camp with my parents with a trip to Rome, stopping in Orvieto on the way down and Assisi on the way back. It was so wonderful being able to share this amazing place that I’ve been greedily enjoying for the past year with people so special to me.

We had hoped for a quick trip up to Venice, but the acqua alta, the high water, had flooded the city. It was just as well, I think. We were all completely drained by the end of it all. By the time we got back to Florence there were just a few days left before my parents said goodbye and Chris and I finished packing up La Scala for our big move.

The big move…

Ok. So maybe “the big move” is a little melodramatic. We really just moved a few blocks away, but you have to remember that it was down 14 miles from the dizzying heights of La Scala to street level and then a couple blocks over. We moved to the house formerly know in this blog as Casa di Festa, now affectionately named Casa di Carciofi, or House of Artichokes (there’s an artichoke consumption problem in the house). And that is how Ciambella, Chris and I came to live with Vanessa Avery.

Our new digs were a big change from our old ones. For starters, there’s only one level, about half the steps to reach the door, there are two bathrooms, we can hear the river from our room, and the rooms are more spacious, except—and this is a big except—the kitchen. Our refrigerator, which serves 4 people, is approximately 3 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide. We are absolutely unable to make ice in our “freezer” and stuffing our groceries in has really proven to be one of life’s mysteries. In fact, fitting more than 2 people in the kitchen is one of life’s mysteries.

Anyway, we didn’t have much time to settle in. After all our bags were lugged over there, Chris and I enjoyed our last meal at La Scala of one chocolate covered pretzel, about one glass of orange juice, one piece of jam with toast, a little bit of milk, and about half a bag of weird potato chips. Not my most impressive culinary creation, but it worked out just fine.

Before we knew it, the time had come to say goodbye to La Scala. Goodbye to the rooftops, our cat friends, the brilliant sunrises in the kitchen, the sweet smells of pastries wafting into the windows, the Sunday afternoon Mexican fiestas, the bongo drums, the slippery stairs, and all those other little things that made La Scala La Scala. We hopped in our cab and headed off to the airport, never to climb the dreaded steps again.

What we were leaving was a year full of memories, good and bad. What we were headed to was home, comfort, friends, family, real American food, and Christmas.

To be continued…

Ok. So I know I said that there were going to be updates–and there will!–but not yet. I’m having some more technical difficulties (it’s what I do) and I can’t post any pictures right now so… you’ll have to wait a little longer. I’m beginning to think that me and this website thing and not meant to be.

Hopefully this will be only a short delay.

Ok. So I know it’s been…uh…ages since I wrote last. Like many of you already know I’ve had some computer problems. It all began back in February when my computer, Mp3 player, and Chris’ camera all died within about a week of each other. (Actually the Mp3 player and the camera broke on the same day. Weird.) Anyway, because of that I was in a bit of a pickle when it came to writing my blog. This is super unfortunate since my first four months back here in Italy provided me with lots of great material. Again, like most of the world knows by now, Chris and I are expecting a little bundle of poo sometime around the end of October. That in and of itself would have provided enough fodder to fill volumes of daily life anecdotes, but I also spent my time back here working as a teaching assistant, an experience endlessly rich in quirky stories and silly mishaps.

But alas… it just wasn’t meant to be.

Now I find myself in my new apartment (since January)—no more La Scala—with a new roommate—Ciambella remains, but we’ve added Vanessa Avery—a growing belly, a future that looks dramatically different than it did this time last year, and just under 8 weeks before I head out and leave my beautiful home away from home, Italy.

So much for a “silly little girl’s year in Italy.” Now it’s become “a year and then some, well, at least the last 8 weeks of it.” So here we go again…

Sorry it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted anything last.  I’m sad to say it will be a while longer.  Things have picked up here and I’m spending most of my time trying to stay sane…and not doing a very good job of that!  So, hang in there.  I have been writing a bit and one of these days I’ll let you know what I’ve been doing.  Only 16 days to the symposium.  Ugh.

Day 1—Saturday, November 1, 2008

Once upon a time in a country far, far away…

four princess grad students and one handsome prince librarian set off on an amazing journey. They left the comfort of their everyday lives to trek off into the unknown, without any real sense of direction or purpose, driven only by the call of the wild and the desire for adventure. The words of the great American poet Jimmy Buffet rang in their ears like a mantra on a loop, “changes of latitude, changes of attitude, changes of latitude, changes of attitude…” A magic train took them with relative speed and grace to the Kingdom of the Leaning Tower, called Pisa in the vernacular, from whence they boarded a magic flying machine made of Lego blocks and sponsored by IKEA. Legend has it that this Lego mechanical bird is believed to be one of the illusive Ryan Air planes, but legends, as we all know, should be approached with caution.

With the closing of the door the four princess grad students and the one handsome prince librarian knew that there was no turning back. The mechanical bird reached up into the sky with its Lego wings. It soared over the east coast of the country of pizza, pasta, and dog poop-covered sidewalks, Italy they say, as it flew with majesty brought to you by the good people of IKEA. The strange creatures that lived inside the mechanical bird offered snacks, drinks, and lottery tickets, all at a bargain basement price, as the foreign land approached.

An old pirate with the wisdom of the seas in his eyes and the smell of whiskey in his breath sat like a moss-covered rock next to the handsome prince. Led by his aquiline nose, he slowly turned his wrinkled face, grinned a four-toothed smile and hissed with spit-laden words, “I—am—Jimmy!! Drunk Scotsman and Malta man!” His words cut through the oxygen-depleted air with laser-like precision. The princess next to the handsome prince pretended to be asleep—it was her only defense. The handsome prince was thus left to face the pirate alone. He clutched his book in his hands and didn’t dare to remove his magic music-playing ear buds. Jimmy the Drunk Scotsman Pirate was undeterred.

“Aye! I can tell ya ‘bout Malta! Argh! Today be but a feast day—yar!—and tomorrow is but a Sunday! Don’t be expectin’ to find yee fun these tryin’ days!”

Spit flew with every word.

“I would but drive yee in mee pirate jeep, but alas!… I can only store four more stowaways. So I be givin’ ya some advice—listen to mee words! Tharr be these creatures, the mystical taxis of Malta, but they be but common thieves, they be! Don’t be givin’ them more then 25€ for da bunch of ya. Take mee advice! They will cheat ya! So don’t be givin’ them more then 40€ for da lot ‘a ya. Like I be saying, don’t give ‘em a penny over 50 or 60€ for da whole of ya. This be da truth! Listen to Jimmy!”

Jimmy rose from his seat and stretched his leathery neck over the heads of the three other princesses. Like one of those scary raptors in Jurassic Park, Jimmy’s dinosaur head swiveled as his inspected the oblivious princesses. “Aarrrr!” He hissed. Looking at Princess Lara he astutely observed, “Yee be but a slight laddi! I could stow yee in me trunk!” The threat of kidnapping concerned the handsome prince, but he remained frozen in the confusion left in the wake of Jimmy the Drunk Scotsman Pirate.

The mechanical bird began its decent. Out the window the princess could see the blue of the great Mediterranean Sea give way to jagged limestone cliffs, green fields, and clusters of villages. The land grew closer and closer until—WHA-BAM!—the mechanical IKEA bird smacked into the ground with force. (Jimmy was shocked and commented on the landing to everyone around him.)

Suddenly and without warning violence broke out in the rear of the bird as another adventurer challenged one of the mechanical bird’s inhabitants to a dual. She stepped away from her snack cart and rolled up her blue and yellow Lego sleeves, readying herself for a fight. (To this day the standoff is known in Maltese folklore as the Great IKEA/Lego standoff of 2008. Grandfathers shudder when telling the tale to children and mothers hide their babies at the slightest hint that the story will be recounted.)

After freeing themselves from the carnival of the Lego bird the four princesses and the handsome prince found themselves in the land of their destiny—Malta. Jimmy the Drunk Scotsman Pirate had vanished, for the better, the adventurers agreed. One step onto the foreign land brought on the mystical creatures called taxi drivers. Against their will, the four princesses and the one prince were forced to divide their forces into two mystical taxis and just like that it was off to the exotic, I mean, semi-exotic, well, not really exotic at all actually, Alexandra Castle, their home for the next three nights.

Driven by the need for sustenance, the four princesses and one prince were soon off in search of food. Unfamiliar with the customs of this strange land of Malta, they wondered, “Will we be able to find food? Will we be forced to kill our own food? Can we drink the water?” There questions were answered in the form of a restaurant called Huggies or Hammies or something like that… anyway, there was food. They split Fish and Chips and Mexican food—like you do—and washed it all down with a grog called Cisk.

Mustering what feeble strength they had, the band of adventurers set off to explore the storied mall of the Bay Street Complex in search of knick knacks and skinny pants. The lure of foreign fruits like gummy bears and chocolate-covered peanuts wooed them into submission. Princess Lara and Princess Sarah faced off in a brutal battle to the death—er, I mean battle to 7—of air hockey, a typical Maltese pastime. Years spent at the land of Chuck-e-Cheese had prepared Princess Sarah for her moment of glory as she won a convincing victory, scoring 7 to 4 over the previously-establish slight laddie, Princess Lara. After the day’s exertions, the band of adventurers retired to the Castle for the night.

Day 2—Sunday, November 2, 2008

The adventures met in the banquet hall at 8:30am for their morning feast of weird egg thing, not-exactly sausage sausage, oranges, odd cereal, horrifying coffee, and super-sweet honey. It was almost appetizing.

A fairy working at the front desk guided the adventures to the magic transportational vehicle with the perplexing directions, “go to the Temple of the Burger King and turn left.” It was the storied autobus number 68 that took the adventurers to the fabled harbor where another ferry, this one spelled differently than the one working at the front desk, took them to the far away land of Gozo and the infamous Pirate harrrbor of Mgarrrr. The four princesses and one prince knew the trip would be trying. They followed in the tradition of many an adventurer before them like St. Paul and Caravaggio. The marks of previous adventurers could be seen all around them: watchtowers and souvenir shops and exotic restaurants like the Scottish chain McDonalds, the subterranean Subway, and the Hut of Pizza.

Danger lurked at every turn as the adventurers were ambushed by more mystical taxi drivers. They fought off all advances until they were approached by a learned wizard named Joey. Princess Steph put up the bravest fight, screaming “NO!” to the wilily cabbie, but even the powerful Princess Steph found herself, like Eve in the garden of Eden, submitting to the silver-tongued lure of temptation disguised as the charming and short Gozitano cabbie, Joey.

And just like that the adventurers were kidnapped by Joey who shoved them into his mechanical steed. He spoke with the confounding mystery first encountered in the elusive words of Jimmy the Drunk Scotsman Pirate.

“I will take you to the temples.” (Notice: this was not a request. This was an order.) “You will see it and then I will take you to other places.” (More commands. What is one to do when one has been absconded, but to agree?)

The adventurers were swept off to Calypso’s Cave, which according to clever Joey was just a dark hole in the ground not worth seeing. On a clear day you can see Sicily from the hilltop, however. It was not a clear day. Thus, the adventurers did not see Sicily. Joey than ordered the captives back to the mechanical steed.

“I have this thing to do,” Joey said. “So I take you to the temples and you will see them and the windmill. Then I come back at half one. If I am 5 minutes late, you wait me. Ok? I must do this thing. I come back 15 minutes late you wait me.”

Princess Mary foolishly asked what the rest of the adventurers wanted to do with our time at the temple and the windmill, provoking Joey. “Look! Please let me do this thing! I come back for you!”

So the adventurers went to the temples and the windmill as ordered. Joey was on time, but they wait him nonetheless. The adventure continued.

First order of business was a horse thing. “I found a thing for a horse,” Joey announced after we all piled into the mechanical steed. He then zoomed away with magical Joey powder billowing out behind him. Joey and the adventurers flew through the streets of Gozo in search of a horse, perhaps a unicorn, so that Joey could unburden himself of the thing for a horse that he found. When a deserving horse presented itself Joey slammed on the breaks and skidded to the side of the street before shooting out of the mechanical steed. He bolted around to the other side where the handsome prince was sitting and reached into the window, grabbing a saddle-like thing from the area just behind his head. It was saddle-thing number 6, apparently, since a bold “6” was stretched across its side. With a frenzy of excitement, the horse thing was given to the man with the horse and just like that the adventurers were off again, into the unknown.

Joey ordered the captive adventures that the next stop would be the far off land of the Azure Window, a kingdom of the sea. He took them at almost incomprehensible speeds through the neighboring countryside, careful to avoid any pesky bird watchers (they’re such a nuisance), until arriving at a small fishing town populated by men with boats. The king of the town had a very peculiar fashion sense.

“You take this boat, take pictures, and I wait you,” were the instructions from the cabbie wizard.

So that’s what the adventurers did.

At the end of a long plank they were ushered onto a small green, yellow and white boat, each taking their seat in turn as ordered. What awaited them was a delight of a lifetime. The small boat moved toward a fissure in the rock cliff ahead. The dark navy blue of the rock contrasted the glimmering blue-green of the water below. Small puffs of white sprayed at the sides of the boat with every bounce. The boat entered the rock, bringing the travelers into a dark cave world where the water seemed to produce a light all its own. At the other end of the cave was a blinding bright white window. It was the gateway to another world altogether.

Passing into the whiteness, the world transformed into the sea with an endless horizon stretched straight ahead. The travelers frantically snapped pictures in order to document the unknown environment. Shades of translucent greens gave way to unearthly blues in the water below them. The clarity of the sea floor shocked them and the surreal beauty of it all overwhelmed. The old sea captain, we’ll call him Mr. Riggles for no reason at all, pointed out the highlights in the already stunning beauty around them: The Azure Window, the Fungus Rock (Really. I didn’t make that up.), the face in the Cliffside. Each delighted the enraptured travelers. They gawked and giggled with every turn of their heads. Mr. Riggles was bored with the whole thing, but did manage to show moments of personality.

The small adventure lasted no more than 20 minutes, but was rewarding in more ways than the travelers could have ever anticipated. After disembarking from the boat they were soon back in the clutches of Crazy Joey and were off and on their way.

Joey next deposited the adventurers in a small fishing village where they were left to pillage for food. Well, actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Joey left the hungry travelers in a small restaurant most likely owned and operated by Joey’s kin where they proceeded to eat fish (chicken for the seafood sensitive princess). They watched the life of the village pass by them until the time came when Joey ordered them back into the mechanical steed. More adventures awaited.

The adventures were then entrusted with their most dangerous task: storming the citadel of Victoria. They broke through the citadel walls where they ran amok through a church before fighting their way through a thicket of cacti and finally surmounting the citadel walls. From this vista they could see their conquered territory. They frolicked in the citadel, flaunting their victory, and made a mockery of the weaponry. It was very windy.

Soon the time came for the adventurers to say goodbye to the exotic land of Gozo. They rode the elusive 25 bus to Mgarrrr where the water ferry carted them across the treacherous waters to the land of Malta. It was windy there too.

That night, after three of the princesses retired for the evening, the handsome prince and his bride enjoyed a lovely dinner and then fell asleep during a terrible film. Things are crazy on Malta.

Day 3—Monday, November 3, 2008

The next morning the adventures went to the Burger King and turned left, making a quick stop at the Adult Meeting Point. You know, like you do. The magic bus took them across the island to the far off capital of Valetta. The bus arrived in a square full of other odd buses and men wearing waaaay too much gold jewelry. Leaving the bustling city square the travelers took refuge in the Church of Whatever it was called, once sanctuary to the fabled Knights of Malta. They gazed in wonder at marvelous works of art by Caravaggio as a voice spoke to them in the magic auditory tour-aid device.

Next it was off to the confounding Paul’s Shipwreck Church. Once a place of holy introspection, now a church/Daytona Beach-style carnival red drapery extravaganza. To escape the madness of the tacky church the adventurers ran away to eat Maltese hamburgers, which are really just like regular hamburgers except that they are made in Malta. Then they went back in time to the land of the Romans. (Everyone with me so far? This is all true.) Before they knew it, it was time to leave and return to the land of St. Julian and the Alexandra Castle.

On the way back, three princesses and the one prince freed themselves from the clutches of the bus to frolic along the water’s edge. The handsome prince, vowing to fight the evil sea monster, leapt into the water. Princess Lara found a comfortable spot on the rocks next to a trash can and contemplated the intelligence of this plan. Princess Steph giggled. Princess Sarah rode a pig. It was all very exciting and dangerous… really. The prince emerged from the water after slaying the sea dragon and it was time to retire to the castle.

Sea monsters lurked in the rooftop pool prompting the princesses to don their swimsuits and climb to the top of the castle. Once there the danger of the situation became apparent. The room was dark—the lights too frightened to turn on. Random passers-by saw the sight and ran away. The princesses simply jumped in like idiots, giggling and splashing around like fools. You know, gallows humor and all that. Turn out the most dangerous thing was Princess Lara’s triple sal-cal which she performed with daring and executed with perfection.

The water battle brought on hunger. After enjoying a lazy dinner in the company of greedy cats and bratty children at the world-renowned Raffaello restaurant on the water’s edge, the adventures said their last goodnight to the island of Malta. My, that food was good, but it was filling!

Day 4—Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Realizing that there were still dangerous sea monsters lurking in the water, the four princesses set off for the infamous St. George’s Bay first thing in the morning. Well, maybe not the first thing, but it was no later than the fifth thing in the morning.

The sun applauded their courage as it shined brightly down on their backs. Good thing, too, since the water was not exactly warm. Princess Lara attacked the water like a spider monkey and continued performing dangerous water acrobatics while the other princesses wondered if she had gone mad. Since the Lego/IKEA mechanical bird was leaving the island at noon, the princesses cut their sea monster fighting to little more than 20 minutes before returning to the castle.

The four princesses and one prince said adieu to the island of Malta and made the treacherous journey across the island, clawing their way by bus, by donkey, by pogo stick to the mechanical bird’s nest known to locals as the Malta International Airport. The Lego/IKEA bird was late and the travelers grew quarrelsome and bored. The sun had long-since retreated, taking their energy and good spirits. Princess Mary showed impressive resilience when she paraded through the mechanical bird’s nest wearing her new Octopus Stew Recipe apron.

Before too long, perhaps unfortunately, the Lego/IDEA bird arrived and the adventurers were on their way back to the hum drum of grey Florence. Poor adventurers. To have to return to Italy. Ew. How horrible.

And so concludes the Maltese adventure. What do they say?

“And they all lived happily ever after.”

Our Anniversary (October 26): I know I covered this in my last posting, but I had some pics to share. Before Chris and I went out for our anniversary dinner we hiked up to Piazza Michelangelo to enjoy the view of beautiful Florence laid out before us. The city, like so many cities, is so beautiful at night and from a little bit of a distance. It twinkles with the street lights and car lights, the sounds are muffled, and you can’t see all the dog poop on the sidewalks. The night of our anniversary, the bells rang continuously for about 10 minutes. It may not have been in celebration of our anniversary, but I suspect it was. Around Florence, Chris and I are big stars. After dinner we took a picture of ourselves since we are such ego maniacs. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is our 6^th anniversary commemorative photo.

Catgate 2008: Not to be outdone by last week’s feline fireworks, Big Jim stopped by for a few minutes of kitty lovin’ Monday night. He is such a big, cuddly purr machine. I wish he would stop by more often. He even offered to help me do the dishes. What a pal.

Chris’ Birthday (October 28): Chris celebrated the day of his birth by being sick and at work—woo-hoo! (For more information on rip-roaring Tangeman festivities please send comments and questions to the writer of this blog.) It rained all day without stop, preventing me, or rather dissuading me, from venturing out into the world for cake mix and candles. Chris went to bed, full of medicine at 8:30 and I treated myself to a movie. And the fun don’t quit…

My thesis: I am proud to announce that my Masters thesis has been submitted to the evaluation committee for review. Now I can’t be sure because I haven’t gotten my feedback yet, but I think it’s not terrible or embarrassing. Barring any surprises I expect to graduate as planned. My submitted title? Reading, Devotion, and the Gesture of Silence. Ciambella took a moment from her brilliant writing rampage to pose for the camera. Notice how she mimics the pose of the Libyan Sibyl pictured on the cover of the book she’s holding. That’s crazy Ciambella… always up to something.

Party Time Italy: Ciambella and I were elated at having turned in our papers. We couldn’t keep our happiness to ourselves, though our colleagues were still working. On the way to lunch on Thursday, Tom poetically captured the sentiments of the rest of the group with he said to Ciambella, “You’re pretty enthusiastic today. I find it @$!#$ annoying, actually.” (Please pardon his French. We’ve all been under quite a bit of stress lately.) Once back on good ole’ Via dei Neri, we stopped by Daniele’s wine shop for a bottle of celebratory wine.

Food: Since I know you all just loooove hearing about what I eat, I can’t help myself from telling you about one of my delicious breakfasts this week. I cut up a pear, poured some niccola (hazelnut) yogurt over it, then a little bit of granola cereal, topped off with a honey drizzle. It was delicious. And pretty, which is something I look for in my food.

Time wasted playing Mahjong: Infinite. That’s right. Like Coolio, I live my life by the code of the funk.

Crazy weather: Italy is at the end of the world right now. We’ve had some exciting weather here in Florence, but they’re getting rocked down in Calabria. There’s been flooding and a lot of damage. I’m hoping the Mediterranean can get its stuff together before we head off to Malta on Saturday. Here in Florence we’ve had some impressive skies. On Thursday, Mary, Tom, Ciambella and I were forced to shield ourselves from the hard, pelting rain as we walked to lunch. This wouldn’t have been particularly noteworthy except that the sky was bright blue with about two clouds and we didn’t know where the rain was coming from. It was so bright we needed sunglasses. Must be global warming…

Tropic Thunder: Since Ciambella and I were such good little grad students and finished our papers a day early we were able to treat ourselves to a viewing of the politically incorrect Ben Stiller flick, Tropic Thunder. We were joined by Chris, Sebastian, Sean, and Vanessa Avery. It was a good time had by all. I laughed so hard I almost barfed. I think my favorite line was, “that smelled like bologna for some reason.” Afterwards we stopped by the Scottish Pub for a pint. Ahhh… sweet release.

Olive News: It’s olive harvesting time again here in Italy. On Thursday I caught Sergio, the man who runs the bar at SUF with his wife Elia, picking olives from the olive tree in the garden. I couldn’t pass up the chance to take a photo. He was so enraged by my request that he started cursing at me screaming “Paparazzi no!” and throwing olives at me. I caught them in my mouth then spit the olive seeds back out at him Bugs Bunny machine gun-style. Sergio was furious. I mean, look at him. He’s got the face of a killer. Ok. That’s not true. Sergio was very sweet, as he always is, and smiled nicely for the camera. The olives were beautiful.

Halloween: Though I wanted to venture out to Devil’s Bridge, a scary, some would say haunted bridge about 20km from Lucca, I opted to stay put in Florence for the day. This year I’m disguising myself as an American grad student living in Italy. My costume’s totally sweet. I wore last week actually. Uh… Ok. I don’t actually have a Halloween costume. We toyed with the idea of having an I Tatti themed Halloween party, but we just didn’t have the time to get it together. Too bad. I was going to be Chris for Halloween this year.

Ok.  So this isn’t a real post.  I haven’t been keeping up with my journal so… well, there it is.  This past week has been pretty busy for me–my thesis is due on Friday!  So, I’ve spent my days stressing out and being really, really sleepy.  Since I’m too lazy to go back in time I figured I would just give you some highlights–in no particular order at all.

My best friend, Erin, had a bouncing baby boy this week!  This tops the weeks news for sure.  Little Matthew Walter “Knuckle Cruncher 3000″ Teeples joined the world on the 23rd.  Mom and baby are recovering nicely from the excitement.  While I was expecting him to weigh something in the ballpark of 4 trillion pounds and come out smoking a stogie and taking a shot of whiskey, I am assured that he was not much over 5lbs and judging from the photo he’s going to be a sweetie.  My most heartfelt congratulations to Mark, Erin, Sasha Dog, Frankie Beans, and the rest of the Teeples/Beaty clan.  I can’t wait to meet the little man in December.

Operation Stop Being a Piggy is going well.  I haven’t indulged my gelato cravings since I decided to try and fight them.  I’ve even gone running a couple of times.  As it turns out running is not a ton of fun, but I’m usually at least sort of happy I went after it’s all over.  This morning I ran up to San Miniato and almost died.  Seriously.  It was really hard.  I don’t think I’m exaggerating at all.

Catgate Update: It’s getting a little crowded up on the rooftops.  Earlier this week Chris and I came home to a girl we didn’t know walking around on the roof looking for her “yellow and brown cat with a red cast.”  At least I was fairly sure that was what she was saying, my Italian isn’t the greatest.  I was concerned that she was talking about Mike the Beast.  Then I became convinced that Mike was dead and got very sad.  Then I realized that she was talking about Little Cat.  (Little Cat who now has a red cast on.)  Little Cat is fine, but a little cabin crazy.  The I saw Mike and found out that he’s alive–yeah!  Then–I hope you’re sitting down–I realized that the cat across the street with John Robie the Cat is not Little Cat at all, but an entirely different cat (no name has yet been given, but I’m thinking “Poser Little Cat”).  Big Jim did not put in an appearance this week, wisely I think.

My 6th anniversary:  Today, Sunday, Chris and I are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary.  We are celebrating by sitting in the library while I work on my thesis… or take a break to write on my blog.  We are planning to have a nice dinner later on, but for now it is less then exciting.  Hurray us!

Bev’s birthday: Bev, my favorite mother-in-law, celebrated a birthday this week, on the 22nd.  I spoke to her only briefly and realized just about 3.4 seconds ago that I didn’t even say “happy birthday.”  So… ahem… Happy Birthday, Bev!  It may not need to be said that when I spoke to her I was so tired I was a zombie.

Well, that’s a pathetic attempt at doing my week in review, but that’s all I can think of… baby, piggy, cats, birthday, anniversary… yep.  That’s it.  Hope you all had a good week.  I’ll probably be bad again this upcoming week, but just bear with me, after my thesis is turned in my workload should (hopefully) be a little lighter.  Until then, ciao ciao, y’all.

(Oh, do you like my stock photos?)

Life in Italy is not life in Ohio. Inspired by yet another loud, whistle-blowing, chanting, screaming rally, here are some things which I’ve become fairly accustomed to:

Bus and train strikes

Bad service in restaurants

The glorious smell of pastries saturating the air

Boisterous political rallies (especially the commies)

The sound of church bells ringing

Over-priced everything

Having very sore feet

Being surrounded by tourists

Being surrounded by famous artwork

Dog poop all over the sidewalks

Regularly sweeping up pigeon feathers in the apartment, though I’m not entirely sure how they get in there

Eating dinner at 8pm

Having everyday turn out to be a new experience, both scary and delightfully wonderful

Monday, October 13, 2008

This morning as I lazily moved around the apartment full of grand ambition and little motivation, I somehow managed to kill most of the day without accomplishing a thing. I had my breakfast and bucket of espresso, made myself somewhat presentable for the world, looked at the pretty clouds, made myself lunch, wandered aimlessly from room to room, thought about doing some work then discarded that silly idea… Suddenly it was 1:30 and well past time for me to leave for school. Humph.

The day was beautiful and for some reason I was a little giddy (“Don’t get giddy now.”) I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was in a great mood, I felt rested (which never happens), and everything I saw was making me smile. I was a happy little girl.

Once at school I found Ciambella, Tom, and Clark setting up in room 13 for their spill session. My good mood continued. Then, suddenly and without warning, a lamp flew off the mantle on which it was positioned and attacked me. I jumped out of my skin and almost passed out, but my good mood was maintained. After my near-death experience I was still giddy, but now also jumpy, which made me totally neurotic.

The presentations went really well. I have a picture here of Ciambella and the Captain having a tense moment after Ciambella’s presentation. Look how scary it is! Even when things go well the air is really thick on presentation days. So much stress, so little time. I was really impressed by everyone and reminded for the umpteenth time that I’m in this program with some pretty exceptional people. Even though things went well we were all thrilled to be freed from our presentation prison. The plan was to rendezvous at 7:30 at Mary and Vanessa Avery’s apartment, aka Casa di Festa, with ka-tom in hand.

Before that, however, Dan, Clark, Chris and I decided to make a quick stop at The Lion’s Fountain for a pint. We were soon joined by Lara and Steph and before we knew it 7:00 had arrived and it was time to go ka-tom gathering. We split, each of us going in to our preferred ka-tom location (There are tons of kepab restaurants in Florence. On Via dei Neri alone there are 2 within a half a block of each other. It’s kind of like Starbucks in the States… only completely different.). Once we had ka-tom in hand it was off to Casa di Festa.

Our big plan was to eat ka-toms, drink beer, and watch Super Bad (not my pick), but the DVD player wasn’t working. This caused something incredible to happen: we were forced to talk to each other. Mary and I devised a game based on the Categories game that Chris, my brother and I play. Here’s how we played: There are 6 categories, numbered 1-6. Ours were movies, music, art history, famous people, food & drink, and wildcard. You first roll a die to see which category you get. Then you come up with a more specific category within that broader category. For instance, if you get 1-movies you may say something like “movies in which Tom Cruise runs.” Then you would provide an example (“The Firm”) and that’s how it starts. Your category goes around the group in order until someone cannot give an answer. The person who cannot give an answer then gets a point. Points are bad. The object of the game is to have the least number of points at the end. The winner gets a prize, but we couldn’t decide what the prize would be so the winner ultimately won nothing.

We had some pretty memorable moments. One genius category was “Gestures of the Captain” where you had to act out one of his many quirky gestures. That was hilarious. I think we’ve got him pegged by this point. Another great category was “works of fiction and the author.” That one went around for a while until Mary said “The Bible… God!” We all cheered her ingenuity until Tom jumped out of his seat, gesticulating wildly, and yelling, “That’s not a work of fiction! That’s a work of Truth!!” Realizing that Mary had in fact given a wrong answer we all jumped in shouting, “That’s true! It’s not fiction! Point for Mary! Point for Mary!” Then we all laughed until it hurt. We are such dorks.

It was a great night. I had so much fun, as I usually do with this group, but, alas, all good things must come to an end. I’ve said my goodnights to them and now I’ll say it to you. Buona notte.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008—HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Ohhhh… this morning was slow. My whole day, actually, was a bit of a fog. I think I’ve lost my mind. I’m not sure when it happened, but I am confident that I am functioning at just over 23% mental capacity. I’m blaming it on my thesis. If anyone happens to see my mind will you let me know?

On that note, this morning I went to the Antiquity to Michelangelo class with Mary. The lecture was about Early Christian/Byzantine art, which both Mary and I love. I was a little surprised at how little the students knew about the Bible. Professor Cook would ask a question like, “what is the Old Testament” and the sound of crickets would fill the air. At least they knew the evangelists. Of course, you’ve got to be familiar with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in art history. They all put in frequent appearances.

After class, Mary went back to her apartment and I stayed at school for a while. I don’t know why. I didn’t accomplish anything. In case you’re keeping track, it has been 8 days since I gave my last symposium presentation. My paper, which is being reviewed and judged “accepted, conditionally accepted, or rejected” (kind of an important paper), is due in 17 days. That may sound like a lot of time, but I assure you it is not. Now, in my past 8 days I have managed to write 0, that’s right zero, words for my paper. Today was no exception.

So all in all that was frustrating.

I finally gave up and left school for La Scala. Once home I found a sick Ciambella laying on the couch and watching TV with the volume up full blast. Guess her ears are plugged up. I went to the hobbit hole and read an article about psalm singing in the early medieval period. I’m trying to learn more about the psalmody in hopes that it might explain a little something about some of my images that I’m looking at for my symposium. So far, niente.

I had planned on having an uneventful night to match my day, but I got a text from Mary saying that her friend was in town and that she would be at Moyo at 7. I didn’t plan on attending until I got another text, this one from Vanessa Avery asking if I wanted to do something. I told her that Mary (her roommate) would be at Moyo at 7. As it turned out, Vanessa Avery was already there. So I figured that since 2 people were going to be there, I might as well go to. Chris got home and we, joined by Ciambella, went around the corner to Moyo where we found Vanessa Avery sitting outside drinking prosecco and looking adorable. Soon Mary, her friend, Clark, and Sean arrived and it turned into a group thing. You know, like it does.

We ate appertivi dinner there, staying for about two hours before moving on back home. Chris and I watched some of the Rome series and that’s where my day will end. I need to make a quick call to my mom for her birthday, but other than that I don’t expect to have any major news to report so… goodnight everyone!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I woke up late today. Moved around slowly. Took forever to do anything. Finally got out the door at 10:30. Today was another I Tatti day. I didn’t even arrive until 11. I’m bad.

My day at I Tatti was not a good one. The longer I stared at images of people with their index finger pointed in the general direction of their mouths the more I started to freak out about my paper. The more I read about the reasons for gesturing, the more I wondered if I had anything to say at all. Then I found it. A book, a terrible, hateful, haunting book called La linqua degli dei (“The Language of the Gods”). Any guesses on what it’s about? Yep, my gesture. After that I began to feel like I was the most unoriginal person in the whole world and that my topic is not only unimportant, but yesterday’s news.

Then I had a crappy lunch while the I Tatti people, Chris included, feasted on grilled chicken and the ambrosia of the gods at an outside picnic. Little winged putti would swoop down from heaven and feed them peeled grapes while fairies of happiness and love sprinkled them with candied kisses. At least that’s what I decided as I sat on a rock and ate my bland salami sandwich under a cloud of brown grumpiness. The smell of the grill mocked my unsatisfied stomach. I then moved to the granaio where I sat by myself and drank my sugary espresso in a defiant, self-depreciating silence. I longed to be transported to another time, say 20 years ago, when my symposium paper hadn’t already been written by other people. Argh. What am I doing? Ugh.

So I left I Tatti. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Instead of working on my stupid, unimportant, uninteresting, ridiculous, horrible, embarrassingly pathetic symposium paper I opted for watching part of Notting Hill. I hung out in the dark apartment by myself waiting for Anna to show up to collect the rent. The time was spent wallowing in my own self pity. It was really a silly, now that I think of it.

After Anna had come and gone I got moving and made myself somewhat presentable for the world. I left the apartment at about 6:40 and headed east down the Arno toward Casa LSD. Tonight Lara, Steph and Dan were hosting a dinner party. It would be a working dinner. We had important symposium stuff to discuss like “What do we want our invitations to look like?” “What order do we want to present in?” “What should our symposium title be?” “Where should we have our dinner after the symposium?” You know, stuff like that. These are the kind of questions that we have to answer, but never think of really dealing with. They seem so unimportant (like my paper—Bahhahaha!) when we have so much else on our minds.

On my way there I met up with Chris and we were the first to arrive, though we were about 15 minutes late. One by one the apartment filled up and the whole group, plus Sean, recently dubbed Stripey, arrived. Lara made amazing bruschetta (correctly pronounced broo-skay’-tuh not broo-sheh-tuh like they say in the States) and mind-blowing lasagna. We managed to take care of a few orders of business, namely our restaurant choice for the symposium dinner and the order in which we plan to present. While not everything was resolved I think we did a pretty good job nonetheless.

My mood improved somewhat, but I still found myself needing to run away at the end of the night. I couldn’t talk about the symposium another minute. It was stressing me out. Since Chris had left earlier in the night, Mary and I walked back west down the Arno together.

With that I have to say goodnight. A domani.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

After getting up this morning I got started on some chores around the house. I managed to get the dishes done and one load of laundry finished before heading over to Mary’s apartment to work. I had been [easily] persuaded to go to Mary’s apartment today instead of I Tatti. After yesterday’s frustrations I thought it might be better to stay away from I Tatti for the day.

Once I got over there I settled into one of the somewhat comfortable red armchairs in the living room and opened up the pathetically sparse symposium paper text that I had started. I am happy to say that I accomplished something today. Yeah! I went all the way through my paper and began inserting footnotes and changing the wording so it didn’t sound like a drunk five-year old wrote and stuff like that and then… ta da! I also bought two round-trip tickets to Malta. (Errr… what?) Yep, Malta. A group of us found cheap flights to Malta so we decided to hop on down there for a few days the first week of November. I’m so excited!

So that was what I did today. I went back to the apartment around 5:30ish and Chris got home shortly after I did. I made a delicious and fattening, in fact a deliciously fattening, dinner of pasta with sausage, spinach, and artichoke cream sauce. I am now not only full, but 45 lbs heavier.

We’re going to watch some Rome and call it a day now. Hope you all had a nice Thursday, catch you on Friday.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Today was much less productive than yesterday, I’m sad to say. Part of that was due to my serious lack of sleep. Those crazy hippies were at it again with the bongo drums and the guitar and the scream/singing last night. I want a meteor to hit them. Of course, if that were to happen it would probably hit me too, so scratch the meteor idea. While I took some Tylenol PM, put in my ear plugs, and covered up my head with my pillow in an attempt to get some sleep—any sleep!—Chris snored away. So, I did what any nice wife would do and I woke him up to complain about how I couldn’t sleep. I figure he would want to comfort me in my time of need. I think I may have been wrong.

So, ok, yeah, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. This morning 9 o’clock came around way too soon, but it wasn’t anything that a hearty dose of espresso could curb. Once I had my breakfast I settled in and got to work on my paper. With the exception of lunch, one afternoon coffee break, some laundry folding, and some dishes, I spent my day in the hobbit hole listening to our neighbor Bruno sing (I don’t mind musical neighbors during the daytime) and working on my paper. Not too exciting.

I fully expected the non-excitement to continue through the evening, but sometimes surprising things are in store when we least expect it. I made tortellini with a spinach tomato sauce for dinner and Chris and I settled in for a few hands of gin. I am happy to report that I am within 100 points now.

While we were sitting there the door buzzed. It was Maso. A little while later it buzzed again. It was Mary. Not too long later it buzzed for a third time. It was Dan. Apparently there was a party at La Scala and I didn’t even know it. We all sat in the kitchen, watched some Eddie Izzard, drank some wine, and had a really nice time, as always. By the time Ciambella came home from her day in Parma the apartment was full of loud grad students.

So that was nice. We were all good and responsible and didn’t stay up too late. I have a long day of work at the library tomorrow so I should probably get to sleep. And so should you. Goodnight, kids.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Today I was up and out the door before I knew it. I met Steph and the garden door for the school at just before 10 and the two us in headed straight into the library for our 10-hour shift as sexy librarians. As time would show, it’s more accurate to say that we were indescribably bored librarians rather than sexy librarians, but whatever.

We were a whirlwind of excitement! We ate pastries as big as our heads! We learned all about Malta from tourist hot spots to crime rates! We talked like pirates! We flew around the world on Google Maps! We ate sesame seed breadsticks and talked like pirates some more! We gawked at fashion don’ts! It was nonstop action and fun! Time was flying by!

Then we realized it had only been 1 ½ hours and we still had 8 ½ hours to go. That’s about when things slowed down quite a bit.

For the next 4 million years (I’m only estimating the remainder of my time in the library) I was bored out of my mind. It was torture. There weren’t even any undergrads there so we had nothing to do. I couldn’t concentrate on my paper so I didn’t get any work done on that. I surfed the web until it got ridiculous… well, until way after it got ridiculous. I checked out all the cat breeds in the cat championship. I drove from Columbus to my parents’ house on Google Maps. Coincidentally I-70 is just as boring and crowded with semi-trucks from the satellite image as it is in person. I checked out the job market for art history professors. I played Scopa on Facebook. I went to my webpage, Chris’ webpage, my brother’s webpage, Jen’s webpage, Melanie’s webpage and so on and so on. I banged my head on the desk for a while. That didn’t help.

This is how the rest of the day went. Ugh.

Once 8 o’clock hit Steph and I were practically running out of that place. Instead of walking back to La Scala I went with Steph to LSD for a movie night. We saw an accident on the way there. Not that remarkable really. People drive like crazies over here so it’s bound to happen. I think that’s the 4^th accident I’ve witnessed. Chris met us shortly after we arrived at LSD and we all settled in with some pizza and Bridget Jones’ Diary. I forgot how funny that movie is. We were all roaring with laughter, especially during the awesome fight scene. (We also decided that the girl who swears all the time reminded us of Ciambella.)

The walk back down the Arno to La Scala would have been wonderful and relaxing if I wasn’t completely exhausted. All that boredom today really sucked the life out of me. So, with that exciting finish, I’m going to have to call it a day and say adieu. To you and you and you.

Sunday, October 19, 2008—Bo-town!

This morning at 10 we had two visitors: two girls who wanted to check out the apartment for after we leave. It was so weird. Ciambella and I have known for some time now that we wouldn’t stay in this apartment (it’s a tad pricey), but it still seems so weird that strangers will be living in our house next year. Fortunately these girls seemed really sweet. Plus they’re in cooking school so maybe we should made friends with them.

After they left Chris and I had just a little bit of time before we headed out and over to the Santa Maria Novella train station for our 11:40 train to Bologna, Bo-town, as they say. I was happy to take Chris there and this was his first trip. We went mapless and the information office at the train station was closed so we stayed mapless. As a result we spent some time walking around the Bolognese projects before finally reaching the city center, our destination point.

The first order of business was food, as it always should be in Bologna. We went to Il Saraceno, the restaurant I ate at last time I was here, and experienced good food and lousy service. This is Italy so certain concessions need to be made with eating out. For starters, the servers will let you sit and sit and sit for as long as you’d like, which is usually a really nice thing. Sometimes, however, it gets a little tiring. Today was a case in point. It was waaaay colder than either of us expected and we were both exhausted. Once we finally got all checked out our food comas were in full effect and walking was a real chore.

We walked through the Piazza Maggiore, the main square of the city, and stumbled on a religious procession. It was all so Godfather-esque with the incense and the horns and the singing. It was around that time that we decided to take the treacherous steps up the taller of Bologna’s Leaning Two Towers. Who needs Pisa when you have Bologna? I have to admit that I was a little uneasy a few times. That sort of thing doesn’t usually bother me, but… huh. I don’t know if it was the notable lean of the tower or the wooden steps or maybe the seemingly haphazard maintenance around the place. Whatever it was, the trip up the tower was… uh… interesting. The view from the top was nothing short of spectacular. That’s what makes it all worth it. I hope you can get a feel for just how crooked these towers are from the photos. It’s crazy.

After descending back down to earth, our maplessness caused some problems. We wandered around and found some churches to check out. I was looking for Santo Stefano, but really couldn’t remember where it was. We ended up over by the campus for the University of Bologna, one of the oldest universities in the world. I was starting to give up on Santo Stefano when we happened upon Roberto, on the fellows over at I Tatti. He and his friend were able to give directions to the church and we were off… sort of. It still took us lots of wrong turns before stumbling upon it.

All that and it turned out to be a little of a disappointment. The church itself was closed for restoration and cleaning and the other parts of the complex were full of rowdy Italian children. I think we were starting to get tired (starting???) because we just didn’t have that spring in our step that we usually have. Because of this, our trip to Santo Stefano was fairly short.

Next it was off to the Church of Saint Horribly Ugly. At least, that’s what I would have named that ridiculously decorated church. Or maybe the Church of Stylistic Vomit. As you may have guessed, I’m not that impressed by the Bologna cathedral. It’s such a mishmash of styles. Ew. So ugly.

Once released from the prison of ugliness we were off to our second most important task of the day: shopping at H&M. You all should be very impressed with Chris. There were some things that he’s needed for a long time, definitely since I met him, and today he actually got some things. He got a button-up dress shirt, a plain t-shirt (that actually fits him!), another shirt for work, and—wait for it—a nice sports jacket. That’s one of the nice things about shopping in Bologna. The prices are so much better than in Florence and you can actually find stuff that you need for a reasonable price. Anyway, you should all be very proud of him. Oh, and me too. I just got a cardigan (something I’ve been on the lookout for) and a headband. The shopping was for Chris.

By the time we had him outfitted it was time to make a mad dash to the train station. We got there in time for the 7:40 train, but it was full. So was the 7:46 so we ended up on the 8:15 Intercity not arriving back in Florence until 9:30. As with so many trips before, the walk from the train station to La Scala was torture. We were so tired and starving! Since neither one of us had any energy to speak of we grabbed some ka-toms at the place downstairs and made our way up the 76 steps to the comfort of our home.

Ciambella was watching La Mummia on TV when we got back. Italians must love that movie or something. I think that’s the 3^rd time since January that I’ve seen that on TV. Oh, well. No worries. Brenden Frasier looks hot in that movie.

So that was my Sunday. Food, trains, sports jackets, churches, and mummies. A domani, people.

Monday, October 20, 2008

My plan to go to I Tatti to work backfired. My plan to go to Mary’s to work fell through. My plan to work was almost lost to the pages of history. It was one of those lazy days. Ciambella was off into the big bad world in search of a German translator and I was left to frolic in my imagination through cotton candy fields instead of getting any real work done. Then Ciambella was back from her failed trip in search of a German translator and just like that off again and over to Mary’s. I was still flitting around dream land. Pampering was the word of the day. Why, you may ask, was I pampering and daydreaming when my Master’s thesis is due really, really soon? The answer, quite simply, is “who on earth knows.”

It wasn’t until well after lunch that I started making some progress with my paper. I don’t know for sure, but I think that it might not be so terrible. These things are hard to tell though so who knows. Chris was home by 7 and the two of us went to Magi for a grocery trip. It had been a while so we were out of everything.

Oh, that reminds me. I’ve come to a conclusion. I’ve decided that I need to stop eating like a heifer. I mean, so far I’ve been able to get away with it, you know, since I live 76 steps up and have to walk 25 minutes to school and stuff like that, but I don’t think it’s such a great idea. I mean, what do I do when I go back to the States where I don’t walk everywhere and lug my groceries 3 blocks over and 6 stories up? I’ll explode! So, I’ve decided to try and curb my gluttony for the next two months. I just want to check if there is any will power left. I’ll keep you posted.

That being said, there was no chocolate buying tonight. I was good. Lots of veggies. Now we’ll see if I eat them and stay away from the gelato…

Once back at La Scala I made a big vat of chili using so many of my newly-purchased veggies. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but it turned out super delicious. Chris made a run downstairs for some bread and we enjoyed the feast over the first installment of Back to the Future. Ok. Two things. 1. I think that after Marty gets his parents back together and George knocks out that redheaded kid at the dance and kissed Elaine they should have shown lots and lots of kids popping up in the photo of Marty with his brother and sister. 2. I think that Doc Brown should have had smooth hair until after he was hit by lightning at the end. Oh, missed opportunities! How I bemoan thee!

Ok. Yeah… so that was that. I actually went back to work for a while after the movie, but now it’s time to call it quits. Hope you all had a happy Monday!

Monday, October 6, 2008

First thing this morning I practiced presentation for the umpteenth time for Ciambella. I have to admit that I’m already getting a little bored of reading my presentation text. I wonder what it’ll be like by December.

I was off to school by 11:30 where I proceeded to practice my presentation a few more times (must remember to feign enthusiasm when reading it later…). Mary and I had lunch together as we walked from the café back to our computers and back to our presentations. One more run through. (Gee whiz! How many times do I have to read this thing?)

At around 2 the time came to set up in room 13 for our spill session. Before I knew it, I was reading those same, familiar words again, only this time for everyone and one very sleepy Captain—he was fresh back from Syracuse this morning. All in all… I don’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t thrilled with the response. Moving on…

As is our custom, we decided to meet at 7:30 for a post-spill session drink and apertivi. Moyo, around the corner from our apartment, got the great honor of hosting myself, Chris, Ciambella, Sean, Tom, Clark, and Mary as we gorged ourselves on risotto, couscous, tiny paninis, pasta and an assortment of other delightful treats. After Moyo we found ourselves standing outside the gelateria as Ciambella and Tom chowed down on ice cream. Though everyone else was content to head in for the day, I met up with Vanessa Avery for a little post-spill session griping. Sometimes a girl just needs to gripe. Since I had her, you all have been saved my grumpiness. Please send all notes of thanks to Florence, c/o Vanessa Avery.

So there it is.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

In my post-spill session exhaustion, I woke up first at 8am, thinking that I was up for good, then somehow went back to sleep, not waking up again until almost 12. Uh-huh. I must have been tired. I’m pleased to say that I did virtually nothing today. Certainly nothing even remotely resembling work.

At 3 my doorbell buzzed. It was Steph and Lara here to pick me up and sweep me off to the movies. The three of us went over to the Odeon for the 3:30 showing of Mamma Mia. Now, okay…so I don’t know what to say about the movie. It was a bit much for me, I have to admit. Plus, I was more than a little uncomfortable anytime Colin Firth or Pierce Brosnan sang. I don’t think that Colin Firth should ever sing again. I must watch the A&E Pride and Prejudice about 4,000 times so that I can wash the memories out of my mind. Oh, Colin. Why?

Aside from the discomfort, I had a great time with the girls. They were both in high spirits and it’s always nice to be around that. After the movie we went our separate ways so I was back to La Scala. Chris showed up soon afterwards and we were off to the grocery store for some lunch-type food. It seems that while I’ve been stressing this past week I’ve neglected our fridge.

We stopped by Vanessa Avery’s apartment to pick up the first season of Rome for a little entertainment, and then, despite having just come from the grocery store, we opted for ka-toms for dinner. I was not at all interested in making dinner and I know Chris wasn’t either so ka-toms it was. They were a little disappointing, sadly.

Well, that’s about it for my lazy Tuesday. Catch you tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

So, I’d forgotten that today Ciambella and I were planning on crashing the site visit for the Captain’s undergraduate class. That came as a surprise to me for sure, but whatever. Ciambella and I left for the Museo del Duomo (the Cathedral’s Museum) in time to catch the 11 o’clock site visit. Steph was the guest lecturer for the day and her presence really brought out the grads. In addition to Ciambella and I Clark and Lara also put in an appearance. I didn’t stay for the whole lecture, though, because I had an errand to run.

Before I go any further I have to tell you what an idiot I am. So Monday night, while I was wrestling with irrational post-spill session frustration, I let my phone die. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be the end of the world except that I lost my special cell phone card that has my pin number on it and in attempting to remember my PIN I locked my phone up totally so that it was officially unusable. Since I’m a big dummy who locked up her phone on accident, I had to go to the Wind store (Wind is like Italian Cingular) and deal with the mean associates. Not fun.

So anyway I left early to go over there, but it didn’t really matter because they didn’t help me. Turns out I have to call Wind and talk to a representative. Doubly not fun.

I got home, had lunch, and somehow managed to waste a ton of time. On a side note: I’ve decided that I want to adopt a crippled squirrel and name it Matt Damon. I have no rational for this thought. It just popped into my head.

At around 3:30 I left the apartment for I Tatti. Even though I was cutting it close I lugged my computer up there with me. By the time I got situated I only had a half an hour online before Chris came and got me. There was a concert tonight. It was a showcase of Baroque something or other. How smart did I just sound there? There was a 5-member ensemble called Stylus Phantasticus—yes, Stylus Phantasticus (future baby name, no?)—made up of two Baroque violinists, a harpsichordist, a viola player (violaist?), a guy playing an instrument that looked like a squid, and a soprano (the singer, not the gangster). It reminded me of Bach. Now I will not pretend to know anything about music, because I don’t. All I can say is that it was really moving. That’s one thing that I love about music. It’s so immediate, you know? It triggers an emotion response the moment it touches your ears. The concert was really, really nice.

Chris and I decided to duck out of the reception early so that we could make a date of the evening. We haven’t really had many dates since he got here so we thought we were overdue. We stopped at a restaurant close by for a long dinner before heading off back to the apartment. Along the way we found a couple rug rats named Ciambella and Sean hanging out in Gelateria Neri. After a short chat, the four of us moved in the general direction of La Scala.

Once home Chris and I retired to the hobbit hole and our latest obsession Rome. Ok. I’m going to take this opportunity to point out some historical inaccuracies in the show. First, there is a portrait bust of Pompey that is being sculpted in the first episode. Now, I would have to double check my dates, but I think that it is too naturalistic for 56BC. If I remember correctly, the Romans were still idealizing their portraiture—at least more so than the portrait bust being made in the show—at that time, but like I said, I’d have to double check my dates. The other major flub is that when Octavian’s mother receives a letter she reads it silently to herself. Oh, oh, oh! I beg to differ. As I’m sure you all know, Plutarch wrote of how private correspondence in Rome was usually read aloud. And, of course, as Paul Saenger writes in his article “Silent Reading: Its Impact on Late Medieval Script and Society” for the ancients reading “movements of the eye were invariably accompanied by gestures of the mouth and tongue.” So, excuse me, HBO, but I think you should be ashamed of yourselves! (Yes, I am a huge dork.)

In spite of its flaws, Chris and I watched the show. Now that’s that.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

This morning I was up, drinking my coffee and eating my bowl of fruit, granola, and yogurt in no time. Not that I was refreshed, mind you, quite to the contrary. In fact, I kind of felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck at some unfortunate time during the night. As far as I know, this did not happen, but it seems I slept funny or something. Regardless, I was tired.

Ciambella and I were off at around 8:30 for the Church of Santa Maria Novella and Lara’s prova with the Captain. I’m not going to try and pretend like there is anything to be dramatic about here. No stress, no worries, no concerns. Lara is consistently brilliant at everything she does and her prova was no different. (Pause… Do you all remember what a prova is? I had one last semester at the New Sacristy. It’s where we present something on site for the Captain. Then he gives [scary] feedback and if we pass we present the same thing to his undergraduate class at site visit.) Anyway, Lara did an awesome job.

After the prova we were off for our standard after prova coffee break. We went to a little place close to Santa Maria Novella affectionately dubbed “The Happy Bar” by the Captain. We all figure that the endlessly cheerful demeanor of the woman working there earned that moniker for the bar. It was, in fact, a very happy bar. We all sat together in the [lights on/lights off] back room and acted like idiots, as usual. Once again, I’m sure the Captain thinks we’re insane by now.

After all that happiness it was back to La Scala for lunch, some phone fixing (Success! My phone works again!) and some computer time. Suddenly 3 o’clock rolled around and Ciambella and I were back to Santa Maria Novella, this time for a group of undergrads.

The Captain had asked for a little assistance from us, his trusty grads, with his Botticelli class. Coincidentally Ciambella is working as his unofficial TA this semester for that class so she was in regardless. Anyway, so his class is looking at the work of Domenico Ghirlandaio as a contrast to Botticelli. That may not seem like much to many of us today, but we should all remember (or maybe find out for the first time) that Ghirlandaio was one of the most famous painters of his time. So was Botticelli, of course, but there was a real competition there that we don’t exactly hear about today.

Well, so the Captain is having his students study the High Chapel, also called the Tornabuoni Chapel, at Santa Maria Novella and the Sassetti Chapel at Santa Trinita. Those names ring any bells? They sure do for me. Those are the chapels that my group studies for the Captain last semester. (Oh, I’ve spent many of stressful morning standing in the unforgiving cold of Santa Maria Novella, wishing I was somewhere else.) His undergrads are kind of doing the same thing we did so he asked if we would mind talking to them and giving them some help with their projects.

Turns out I really love working with the students. I was so impressed by the girl I worked with. She’s studying portraiture (same thing I wrote on!) and she proved to be very bright and interesting. I didn’t really tell her anything. I just asked her questions and asked her to look at the frescoes and tell me what she saw. I wasn’t sure if that tactic would work, but before long—once she got a little more comfortable with me—she was rattling off all kinds of things. I was genuinely impressed. I think her paper will be great, I just know it.

So that was great.

Ciambella, Clark and I sat with the students at, you guessed it, the Happy Bar afterwards. We talked a bit about the school and their classes and the Captain. I love asking the undergrads about what they think of him. If he only knew how much his students like him… I think it would mean the world to him. They were great. I really enjoyed it.

After the orange juice break (I’d had enough coffee for the day) I joined Clark for a quick hop across the piazza to give my opinion on a suit, but then it was back home to La Scala. I got all the way to the street-level door before I realized that I didn’t have my keys. With Ciambella at school and Chris getting his haircut I was stranded. So, I did what any intelligent girl would do in my situation: I went and bought a pair of shoes.

Ok. So they aren’t that exciting. In fact, they are kind of boring, well, no… I take it back. They’re cute, but they were super cheap so they may only last a year or so. Whatever, I don’t care. I went looking for sneakers and ended up with cute, dark brown, velvety corduroy-ish slip-ons with a little bow/buckle thing. That description probably makes them sound hideous. Trust me, they’re cute.

By the time I was done buying shoes and wandering around, Chris was back at the apartment so I went home. We watched a little “Chi vuol essere un milionario” and made a big sausage, pepper, garlicky, onion, spinach, and tomato pasta dinner, which we predictably enjoyed over some Rome. Something tells me that Julius Caesar guy is going get wacked, but maybe that’s just me being intuitive.

Now it’s 10:35 and I have a long day of listening to lectures about Botticelli tomorrow. Better get some shut eye. Good night to you all. A dopo.

Friday, October 10, 2008

This morning after Ciambella had left for school and Chris and left for I Tatti, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready. Due to my own laziness I didn’t have time to eat breakfast or make myself a cauldron of espresso so I was forced to run off to school empty stomached and with a serious lack of caffeine in my blood.

On my way to school for the Botticelli conference I ran into Clark at the intersection for the Viale, which was reassuring since up until that point I thought I was running late. So the two of us went on together to the conference, found our seats and settled in. The conference started at 9:30—or more like 10—and went until about 4:30. It was really interesting with presentations from the Captain, Fuzzy Bear, Dr. Elsa Schneider, and others (do you remember all those names?). I particularly like the Captain’s presentation because he got everyone all worked up. He’s proposing something a little controversial in the art history world. It was great seeing all those people getting their feathers ruffled.

By the time it was over I was more than happy to leave. My head was hurting and it was just time to go. I have to remember to talk to the presenters later to tell them what I thought of their talks. Hum…

Once home I took a nap and wasn’t woken up until Chris came home. At this point it was clear that I wasn’t going anywhere else today so it was on with the pajamas. We ate some dinner and watched some Rome. With that I’m going to call it a day.

(I had some sad news today from home. Today I learned that my great uncle Frank passed away. So to all my family back home, my heart goes out to you all. I know we will all miss those great big hugs, but we can also be assured that he is no longer in any pain and, most wonderful of all, that we’ll all see each other again. With love from Italy…)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

This morning I, like so many mornings, made my fruit, yogurt and granola breakfast and my gi-normous bucket of espresso, which I enjoyed at the kitchen table. The weather has been glorious here the past few days and it promises to keep up for at least a few days longer. Just the other day I was watching Little Cat across the alley on the neighbor’s roof rolling around and soaking up as much sun as her tiny little body could manage. It looked nice. Maybe I’ll do that today…

Instead of rolling around on the roof I opted for some culture. Today I took Chris to the Bargello Museum just around the corner from our apartment. I’d been there before, but this was Chris’ first visit.

We got to the museum around noon and took our time with the collection. The Bargello is a sculpture museum so we got our fill of marble and bronze. The most famous pieces in the museum belong to Donatello, most notably his David (which I call the “Effeminate David”) and the original St. George from Orsanmichele (there now stands a replica in its niche on the north side of the building). There’s also a beautiful sculpture of Mercury by Giambologna. Since I couldn’t take photos inside you all with have to settle for the best of Google images.

After the museum we decided to pick up some bread and milk before heading home. I made massive sandwiches to go with our chips that we just bought and the two of us tried to figure out how to play Scopa. Alright, let me back up. Scopa is an Italian card game that is far too complicated for me to explain. At least, that’s the story I’m sticking to because I haven’t figured it out yet. It uses a special Italian deck with coins, batons, cups, and swords instead of what we’re used to. Anyway, I told my Grandma I would learn how to play so that I could teach it to her, but that is proving to be easier said than done. I’ll keep working at it.

Most of our afternoon was spent somewhere between lazy and relaxed. All the while Ciambella, who’s preparing for her symposium presentation on Monday, was working very hard in the living room. Sean stopped by and the four of us killed more time doing, in the words of Prince, “something next to nothing.” By 9pm Chris and I said our goodbyes and headed down the street and around the corner to Casa di Sizzle and college football.

I’m sad to report that we were not able to see the Ohio State game. (My sources tell me that though we won it was a pretty sad sight. Perhaps Chris and I chose a good fall to be out of the country.) For reasons that no one in the restaurant could grasp, the satellite sports network here decided to show the Notre Dame/UNC game instead. Sure, sure. That’s big time. With the game not on and a crowd of undergrads sitting around us saying stupid things, Chris and I got the hint and left. We made a quick stop by this little Scottish pub down the street just to check it out before heading home. It was a nice night out.

Now it’s very late and time for bed.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I had some quiet time this morning, which was nice. Before Ciambella and Chris got up I staked out my space at the kitchen table with my book. Ahhh… I love it when the house is quiet. Once Chris got up we both got ready and headed out around 11:15 for our day. Our first stop was perhaps the most important stop of the day: coffee and pastry. Yes, let me stress this. Chris got a pastry (not too surprising) and a cappuccino (not too surprising either… anymore). I think he will be so sad when we get back to the States and he tries American coffee. It’s just not the same.

After our breakfast we were off to the museum at San Marco. The Dominican church and convent of San Marco is one of the treasures of Florence, a must-see in the city. It was patronized by the important Medici family in the 15^th century and the mark of the Medici is everywhere to be found, from the ever-presence of the Medici palle, or balls (the primary characteristic of the Medici coat of arms), to the cell of Cosimo il Vecchio, the Godfather so to speak of the Medici. (Of course, you can’t spit in Florence without hitting a Medici coat of arms, but that’s for another time.) Cosimo the Elder had what I call a split level cell in the convent so that he could retreat from the burdens of being a big whig in the city. Another uber important dude from San Marco was Fra Girolamo Savonarola. He was, according to some, a bit of a religious radical in Renaissance Florence. He had this crazy notion that people of Florence should put God before humanistic hedonism and he preached this belief until successfully working the city into a tizzy. Since the Medici were big proponents of humanistic hedonism you can imagine that this didn’t go over so well. Don’t worry about them, they got their man in the end. Savonarola saw his demise in a fiery barbeque in the Piazza della Signoria on the 23^rd of May, 1498. On a trip to San Marco tourists are treated to a little background on the crispy critter in his cell, which coincidentally is what I would call a “master suite.”

So that’s my highly intellectual account of the convent of San Marco.

In addition to religio-political (I made up that term) history of San Marco, the convent and museum also offers the stunningly beautiful work of Dominican artist extraordinaire Fra Angelico, called Beato Angelico. This is not to be confused with the booze Frangelico, which, though a delightful drink, is a beverage and not a man much in the same way that Lando is not a system, but a man. (That was for you, Josh.) There are so many things that could be said about the beautiful frescoes and altarpieces behind the walls of San Marco, but I will limit myself to one: the fresco of Saint Peter Martyr Enjoining Silence in the cloister. One look at this fresco should explain my attention. Look! He’s totally doing my gesture! Hum… I plan on giving this work some serious face time in my symposium presentation in December. Learn it, live it, love it.

I’m proud to say that both Chris and I got yelled at for taking pictures at San Marco—mission accomplished. Ah, it was just yesterday that I was getting yelled at in the Bargello for taking pictures. Guess this was a successful weekend.

After touring San Marco Chris and I split ways. He went on to school to use the Interwebs and I went back home to “work.” As you may have already guessed I didn’t get much done. I did watch Harry Potter e il Prigioniero di Azkaban. I don’t know why, I don’t even like Harry Potter, but I had two pairs of pants that needed hemming and figured I might as well put a movie on while I worked away.

When Chris returned in the evening with his arms full of Chinese food I had accomplished virtually nothing on my symposium paper. Not good. One of these days I’ll get to work on that. I mean, what’s the rush? It’s only my future academic success that’s on the line.

We watched a couple episode of Reno 911, ate like heifers, and then retired to the hobbit hole. It seems that this is where things will end today. Tomorrow is the start of a new week and I fully intend on getting serious and down to business. Until next time, ciao ciao.

On a side note…

We had a visitor this week: a Mr. Big Jim. Ciambella and I tried to kidnap him, or rather catnap him, much to his pleasure as is clearly evident from the photos. Have you ever seen a happier or more willing participant? Hee hee. We love him.