Hey all-
Well, time has come once again for a big bad group mail from Brian. Life hasn't been terribly exciting for me lately; meaning I've only taken one big trip since my last update. So, perhaps the length on this mail might be a bit more manageable compared to what you may be used to from me. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise with something that I can get all long-winded with. Probably not...
The weekend after my last email was a very quiet weekend. I didn't have any trips to go on, and all my close friends here in Florence did, so I was pretty alone then. It was quite fine though. Some downtime was definitely what I needed right about then. Thursday night (weekends start on Thursday, right?), it was my friend Dan's birthday, and a bunch of us went out to a place called Il Latini, the name of which, if it's trying to Italian, is totally grammatically incorrect; as it would be in any language I sort of know (English, Italian, French, Latin and a pocito of Spanish). Despite the grammatical problems, it was an awesome place. We were told the kitchen was closing 15 minutes after we sat down, yet food was still coming an hour later. And my goodness how it came! Huge bowls of tomato-ish soups, more deli-slices of meat than I could conveniently look at, sundry other appetizers, massive platters of pasta, and a plate of meat-stuff piled about a foot high (or around a third of a meter, for those metrically inclined). Twas all very very good, and even more filling. We even had pigeon in all the mix. But I didn't partake in pigeon kidney like some people did. Ewww.
The rest of that weekend was quite mellow for me. Did some homework, met a gal for a couple drinks downtown; all very low key and nice. It was really nice to just sleep in and all. Now with finals coming up and all, I doubt I'll have another such weekend. Ah well.
The next weekend (Notice I just skip over the weekdays all the time? Going to day-to-day classes in Italy is just about as interesting as it is back home...), I went to (drumroll...) Rome. Wow and wow and wow and wow! Indescribably amazing! Rome is just so vast! Ugh! The first day, we did the Vatican, covering the museums and stuff first. The Sistine chapel was utterly beautiful. I'd never seen a picture of the whole ceiling before, so I thought it was all one image, with God and Adam in the middle (the famous finger to finger, touch thing). Well, not so; there's a whole series of images up there, with a very disproportionate number dealing with Noah and the flood. In the hell scene (all churches here must have a requisite hell scene, showing what will happen to YOU when you sin), there's even a cardinal who criticized Michelangelo, and was thus portrayed with donkey ears, fat and a snake biting him in a very very uncomfortable way. Lesson learned: don't cross the famous artist-guy. Then on to St. Peter's. It's really big. The Duomo in Florence was the biggest church in Christendom before St. Peter's, so the scale didn't get me quite so much (it is HUGE) as the utter beauty and sculpture and artwork. The word Breathtaking comes to mind. Michelangelo's first Pieta is there (if you've heard of his Pieta, this is it; but he did two more later on). A Pieta (meaning pity) is a scene of Mary holding the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, before the entombment, and any artist worth his salt from the Renaissance did one or two of them; they're probably second in popularity to Madonna-and-childs. Regardless, this one is pretty darn incredible and quite interesting. A few years back, some psycho jumped up on top of it screaming "I am Jesus Christ!!" and bludgeoning it was something hard enough to break off some hefty chunks of it. They've since restored it rather well, and it looks awesome. Elsewhere in St. Peter's, there's a 3 story tall bronze altarpiece marking the location of Peter's tomb, and one of the most beautiful sculpture groups I've ever seen with red marble flowing like a blanket blowing in the wind around several Christian figures which is placed above and around a (guess!) broom closet.
The next day in Rome, I split off with my archeology class and we went to the Forum, several imperial fora, the Coliseum, and other stuff. We went to St. Clement's which is a small church near the Coliseum. It was built in the early Renaissance on the top of 4th century church of the same name, which was built on the house of St. Clement. The street level in Rome has continually risen because of flooding and silting everywhere thanks to the Tiber River. As such, at the church, you can go down 60 feet through the previous structures until you get down to St. Clement's house, at the street level of ancient Rome. They've excavated several houses, an apartment complex and a Mithraic temple down there. Very very cool to see. The Coliseum was amazing (bigger than it seems in Gladiator). The Coliseum, like many other ancient Roman monuments, was converted to a church during the middle ages or Renaissance. Seems really weird, but these structures (the Pantheon, several temples and others) probably would have been torn down, being symbols of paganism, if they hadn't been converted to churches. I guess it's better that they're churches rather than rubble. Hehehe. Just seems odd. :) That night a group of us felt like going all the way American, so we went to Hard Rock Cafe and drank Budweiser. I don't drink Bud at home, but it was very cool. They were playing all sorts of classic American music and new pop hits (yadda yadda). Much fun had by all.
The next day, we went to the Villa Burghese (bur-gay-zay, with a spanish-style R). There were plenty of cool paintings there, but nothing that hit me too hard really. What did get me was the sculpture. If you like sculpture work at all and haven't seen anything by Bernini, then you haven't seen anything. The skin on these figures looks soft to the touch, and the hair is so thin, you wonder how anyone could carve it without just breaking it off. I can't really try to describe it at all, but just rest assured, this work is completely overwhelming to see. I also now have a favorite marble: porphyry. It's deep reddish-purple in color, and incredibly rare. Being in Rome, you wouldn't think its rare, but it's probably the most rare stone in the world. There was only ever one quarry, and it ran out over almost 2000 years ago. So the only new works in porphyry have been from cutting up another piece. As such, not many big pieces remain. I did see one huge porphyry bathtub that was probably 20 feet across. Just insane! I stood there jaw-dropped for a few minutes. And then I went back to Florence.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and you probably all thought it would be lame here. Well, it would have been, but instead, I decided to cook dinner for my host family and 8 good buds here. It was awesome. My friend Susan and I did the turkey (yes they've got turkeys here, Chianti turkeys, named after the region; same thing though), I did the spuds, and she did the green beans. For the vast amount of disorganization involved, it went remarkably well. I called my dad up the day before to get some particulars on cooking time and oven temperature, and got some recipes out of him. I made apple cider in the recent tradition of my family: with cinnamon and strawberries (no cloves, couldn't find them), but added one extra ingredient, Brandy. It was a big hit with everyone. :) Everything was done without timers or measuring cups, not even a thermometer for the turkey. The Lord must have decided to take some other time to humble me, cuz it all turned out pretty much perfectly. We then learned some Italian drinking songs and danced to the family stereo and a few choice CDs. Pretty danged schweet Thanksgiving if you ask me. Of course, I missed my family, but they called right when the turkey should've been taken out, so I got a little taste of home for a moment. :) That night was one of the best times I've had here. Good times, good times.
This weekend, I'm going to Milan to pick up Susan's mom with her. We'll spend a brief moment in Milan, but we'll be back here in the land of Fiorentina sooner rather than later. Should be a brief distraction, but I gotta get going on my final paper soon. It's gonna be one of those kind where I don't have to do much research and just go off on tangents for like 8 pages. I'm looking forward to it.
Next weekend, I'm going to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Salerno, Amalfi (for the second time) and other places to see Roman ruins and whatnot. Should totally totally rock.
I return home on the 15th of December and number one priority is getting Potbelly's for lunch. Then probably going immediately back home for the commencement of Christmas festivities. I'm looking really forward to getting back, as I've said, but I'm definitely gonna miss this place. I'm coming back, sooner rather than later. We'll see where life leads, but Europe is gonna be on the road somewhere, I guarantee. Ciao for now.
-Brian