My classes are pretty amazing. A few weeks ago Verdon took us up into the forgotten parts of the Duomo, i.e. the space above the roof where we could see all the construction that had taken place. We also got to explore around some balconies on the exterior of the cathedral that most people aren’t allowed to go. I got some amazing pictures of the city and of the architecture, but I’ll spare you those since they’re pretty generic and it takes forever to upload stuff. I do, however, wish to share with you the lovely picture you see below – Jessica, myself, and Timothy Verdon. I’m not sure if you can truly grasp the full essence of this picture, so to clarify, having the actual Dome as the backdrop of this picture is just perfect. “Verdon” and “Duomo” are practically synonymous.
Another little Verdon anecdote: the guy practically owns this city. As we walk around Florence for our class, almost every other person we pass greets this bigwig. As a member of his entourage I feel so damn smug. We recently visited the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo where Arnolfo’s statues from the original façade of the Cathedral lie. The Madonna, which was the centerpiece of the façade (the official name for the Cathedral is Santa Maria del Fiore, and is dedicated to Mary), has these mysterious glass eyes that are meant to be looked up at and are supposed to bring the sculpture to life. But because we were only a few feet below the statue and because Verdon is god around these parts he had the entire class lay down in the middle of the museum so that we could look up at the glass eyes, much in the same way that Florentines had done centuries past. Our professor then continued to lecture from the floor for the next 20 minutes. It was awesome.
A couple weeks ago Erika, Jessica, and I attempted to visit the outlets outside of Florence. Somehow along the way, though, we ended up boarding the wrong train and found ourselves in Arezzo about an hour later. Originally our plan was to visit the random spot we had closed our eyes and pointed to on a map, but after walking outside the train station we immediately came upon an international market. There were booths upon booths of yummy food, crafts, and more yummy food. Again, I have more pictures than I know what to do with, but the only ones worth sharing are this one of the booth with piles of mouthwatering candy…
…this picture of an entire roasting pig – AAAAAAHHHHHH…
…and the one of the scariest mannequin I’ve ever seen.
When we finally got around to the outlets a few days later, we were really quite surprised. We got off the train at the correct spot – Rignano Sull’Arno – and found ourselves in this quaint little town. How deceitful it was. I thought that since I had landed myself in a quiet little part of Italy, that the fashion outlets would be quiet, little, and inexpensive. But Valentino, Gucci, and Armani are still Valentino, Gucci, and Armani wherever you go, and even with discounts as high as 70%, I still would have broken the bank by spending thousands of euros on a shirt. I did discover that I have a newfound love of pretty much everything Valentino, and since this was the most expensive of the overly priced stuff I saw, alls I gotta do now is find myself a sugar daddy to take care of the rest.
For some reason Florence has this knack for bringing really random hip hop artists to the city once a month. Last month it was Fat Man Scoop, and this month it was DJ Unk, of “Walk it Out” fame. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it really isn’t a big deal. My friends and I decided to go, but after he didn’t show up for a couple hours and we kept on having run-ins with creepy Italian guys (the final straw was when some rando nasty guy started licking me), we decided to leave. And the first person we saw upon walking out the door was none other than Unky Unk himself. Awwwwww. So Erika starts spouting off in Italian, “DJ Unk, mi piace DJ Unk…,” while forcing herself towards him. The dude had no idea what was going on, and as much as Erika loved DJ Unk, his bodyguards were not a fan of her. We took a taxi home shortly after.
(This is me saving Erika from one of the shady guys upon her request. This was her requested maneuver.)
For our big Bing trip we went to Padova and Verona. We started out Friday morning on a bus for Padova, but the traffic inhibited us from arriving as soon as we would have liked to. It was also pretty rainy, so we had a very rushed, wet day. It was interesting nonetheless – we got to see the Anatomical Theatre, Giotto’s Cathedral, the Church (which I think might have been dedicated to Saint Anthony…his tomb was inside, and I got to see his tongue, jaw, and voice box – eeeeeeeeeew), and the Botanical Gardens. They also had a lovely main square with over 70 statues encircling the little mote that surrounded the green area. We then took the bus to Verona and stayed in a very nice hotel. Verona was beautiful and sunny, and I got to see Europe’s oldest Arena/Coliseum (older than Rome’s), Juliet Montague’s supposed house (this is most likely an urban legend but she gets tens of thousands of fan letters every year), and some other cool stuff that I wasn’t really paying attention to because it was so pretty outside.
Legend has it that if you touch Juliet's left breast then you will have good luck in your love life. So I groped her like crazy...future love of my life: you owe me for this one.
The graffiti near Juliet's balcony.
The point of this picture was for me to be in the corner of it, instead of leaning into the center like an idiot. That way, you might better enjoy the beautiful scenery. But some inept person failed to take this picture correctly.
That's better. (Though it's not quite the same without me in it ;-)
I'LL PUT UP ROME AND PRAGUE STORIES/PICTURES SOON!!!!! GIVE ME TIME...
