Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter Everyone! Buona Pasqua!

Easter in Florence is quite the event, beginning at 12 midnight when every, and I mean every, bell tower in the entire city rings out in celebration for Easter Sunday. Laura and I went out onto her terrace to listen to it but we did not join the candle light vigil ontop the hill of San Miniato, this tiny church on a hill and also one of Florence's oldest lead the bell procession that evening.

Laura and I did attend easter service at the Duomo though, as well as the "Scoppio del carro" or "Explosion of the Cart" festival. This historic festival is held in Florence every Easter, a giant precession with an elaborately decorated cart, pulled by white oxen and followed by drums and horns, is pulled all the way from across the river Arno to the main square of the Duomo between the baptistry and the central doors of the cathedral.




When the Bishop ends the service inside the cathedral a dove-shaped rocket flies out of the church and lights the cart's fireworks where the congregation gets the witness a fantastic display. What an amazing way to celebrate Christ's rebirth!



Ciao!

Italy v. America

Heres alittle bit of cultural differences I've been learning about Italians as I've lived with them these past couple months. There are people who speak English but it is few and far between where I live in Florence unless I go to a souvenir store or some store in a very touristy area. I wouldn't have it any other way though because while I'm here I want to speak Italian, not a language I can speak anytime when I go back home.

* Italians do not believe in ice, it just doesn't exist. I had a spider bite earlier in the semester and when it was suggested to put ice on it to stop the swelling I had a devil of a time finding even an ice pack.

* Homes are heated with radiators and there are no air conditioning units anywhere unless you go to a hotel. Even bars and restaurants lack air conditioning because it is unneeded, these places are designed so the large windows open like doors and let air flow in and out. Residences use a series of functional shutters in order to air out the home. Also as far as appliances go Italians don't do dryers because of the energy it wastes, they hand the laundry on a line.

* Traffic signals are a guideline, walk at your own risk even on crossings, especially in Roma. Stop signs are also optional so don't walk unless your sure you won't get hit!

* Italians love a clean street, street cleaners are constantly cleaning the streets and sidewalks in order to keep the city sanitary.

* It is considered odd to get your food to-go, Italians like to relax and enjoy their meals whether it be in the bar they bought it in or chilling at some nearby piazza.

* Italians do not know how to anticipate, which probably comes from their lack of personal space. I have more then one occasion ran into someone trying to avoid people on the sidewalk or in a piazza.

* Italians eat late on all occasions and dinner can last up to three hours. Which is no surprise considering all the courses one has at dinner. Cappuccino or espresso is commonly served after the meal as a sort of palette cleanser.

* Places of business are more likely to be closed on Monday then they are on Sunday.

* The take on drinking anything alcholic is very different here too. I know back at my university I had roommates that would drink to get drunk and just drink way too much in general. Drinking is an art form here in Italy, rarely anyone gets drunk in public except the idiot American students living here. In Florence drunk American students seems to be a popular joke among the locals.

* Metric metric metric!!!

* Staring is an invitation, so if you don't know someone don't stare at them directly.

* It is my experience that no Italian really hates Americans, there are two types of Italians: The ones that are curious and will try to practice their English on you and the ones that just simply don't care.

There are certainly more differences but that is all I have for now. Perhaps there will be another installment!

Ciao!

Touring Italy

Dear readers, however many there are,

I'm sorry there has not been a blog posting lately, I've kinda been cashing in on all this relaxation time I've had here in lovely Florence so there has not been many blog postings. Fear not though, for I shall have so much more material once I return from touring with my Parents to Rome and Pisa.

Thats right, my mom and dad (Kathryn and David Ladd) have arrived safety in my home city and we shall be exploring the ancient parts of Rome and the quirky town of Pisa over the next couple days. This is very exciting considering I loved Rome when I went with my Grandmother in Summer 2010, there are quite a few things I want to see again as well as a few churches I missed and want to see.

Excitement and Awesome-ness await! In the meantime enjoy this video I took of some jamming Italian men in the middle of Piazza Reppublica one afternoon!



Ciao!

Festa della Donna

Along with living in a different country comes interesting Italian celebrations that just creep up on me as I go about my daily life. Today is International Women's Day, a festival observed in some European countries (including Italy) where women are celebrated.

The Yellow Mimosa Plant

In Italy, the yellow Mimosa flower is given out to women on the streets (sometimes for a fee if you take it!) and is sold in the stores so that men may buy them for the women in their life. Here in Florence for the day all state Museums are also free of charge for women, which is pretty awesome I mean what a great gift! There are also various other perks at clubs and restaurants but go figure I got the most excited over the museums even though majority of the ones in this city I can get in free of charge with my Friends of the Uffizi Card. Oh well, it is kinda neat to be special for a day!

Ciao!

Epic Friday!

Okay so, Laura and I went exploring again, this is a typical Thursday or Friday situation when we are not in class, and today has to have been the best use of exploration in Florence that we have ever had! Something we would have never gotten to experience if we hadn't deviated down another street we had never gone to on our way to the Central Market.

It all started when we decided to go into a stationary store called Il Papiro, we saw the inside from the street and were curious as to what all they had within the store. There was all sorts of handmade stationary, cards, and bound books as well as a collection of wax seal supplies and ink for fountain pens. It was going to be a short visit, until a lady offered to give us a demonstration of how they create the beautiful marbleized paper that they bind to their books and other various stationary items. It is something that was unique to the Tuscan region and so naturally Laura and I said sure, curious as to how they actually made these patterns. (So it is something they do it for the tourists, but we wanted to see it!)

It was an interesting process, a shallow rectangular tank is filled with distilled water and wallpaper paste. The artist picks three colors and lightly taps each color brush from right to left in order to add colors to the paste, the color expands on the surface and then the artist manipulates the colors with a stick or comb (or even a combination of the two.) in order to achieve the desired pattern and scheme. Last step is to set the paper face down on the color mixture and tap it abit so it absorbs the design and colors. It was really quite cool to watch!

The store was very expensive, and rightfully so with all the beautiful paper and handmade items, so after that demonstration we were ready to leave the beautiful shop and head to the Central Market. But here is where we met the master of the beautiful paper works and owner of the shop.

This elderly man, who merely introduced himself as Johnny, took a keen interest in us from the moment we walked in. Asking us where we were from and what we were doing in Florence. Naturally Laura and I were hesitant to tell him too much about us but as we spoke with him he seemed friendly and honestly not trying to get us to buy anything like many of the street vendors or berate us for just coming in and not buying anything. It wasn't until we got to telling him we were an Art and Architecture major at LdM that his eyes seem to light up and he asked us if we wanted a go at making the designs we had just seen demonstrated previously.

It was an unbelievable offer and Laura and I agreed because the artist in us was itching to try the old technique that had been done for so many years in Tuscany.

It was just like watercolor splatter painting!

Taking the spatters and swirling them.

The master of this art was with us the whole time, teaching us patterns!

My finished paper in the "Flame" pattern. Naturally I chose to use blue, yellow, and green!

It was an amazing experience to be sure and we even got to keep our beautiful works we created right then and there free of charge! Johnny wrapped them up, handed them to us, and said it was our apprenticeship diploma and that he wanted us to stop by and see him again sometime before we leave just to say hi! (And perhaps come buy from him later, which I am totally tempted!)

Johnny dubbed both of us apprentices, just like back in Gothic and Renaissance whenever someone was learning an art technique or skill! We even got him to pose for a picture for the folks back home!

I donno if he is like this to all students who come in but I really doubt it since not many students take such keen interest in works like this, Laura and I felt honored to have met him and gotten to try this form of art. Florence just continues to amaze me!

Ciao!

Lost Beyond the River

Today we spent the entire day on the other side of the river, the mission? To explore the outskirts of our city center and get lost.

And boy did we explore, my legs are still killing me from all the hills (and that I did a session of P90x with the roomies), we went all over the map and even off the map in some spots but it was well worth it due to all the amazing sites we saw and all the cute residential neighborhoods we passed along the way.

Out by the Florence City Wall that defended Florentine people from the people of Siena.

We managed to explore the entire day and still see the piazza Michelangelo at sunset.





The night was concluded with a gelato run and a viewing of P.S. I Love You. Great end to a fun weekend, for tomorrow is for studying and work to get ready for the next week. Next weekend I am going to France on an excursion with LdM, and I am sooooooooo excited!

Ciao!

Chocolate Festival and Buffalo Chicken

Low and behold I end up in Florence when there is a Chocolate festival going on, we noticed there was something going on at the Piazza in front of Santa Croce on our night out but who knew it was going to be all about chocolate!

Santa Croce overlooking the chocolate festival!

Laura and her sample spoons!

Chocolate liquor, chocolate fondue, chocolate covered nuts, chocolate sauce, chocolate tools, chocolate shoes... The combinations where endless and just about everywhere we went there were samples of the concoctions. And it was all soooooo good! I wanted to send some to my sister, but it probably would be hung up in customs forever. Sorry V, here is a picture for you!


This one is for Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle Steve:


And this one is for mom:


Making dinner is fun, but it is even better with a group. Our dinner was wheat pasta with made from scratch tomato sauce (two of my friends are taking italian cooking classes!), breaded buffalo chicken with real blue cheese, and real garlic bread. It was a meal to be proud of, I'm learning alot about how to make food so I too can make good food for myself to add to my recipes of scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, and pasta with jar tomato sauce.

Christina, the made the banging Buffalo Chicken!

Rachael, she made the wine run with me and we debated over what 5 euro white wine to get since we both had no idea! It was good though!

And here is an example of everyone working in our tiny kitchen:


Ciao!