Jul 07

I thought some of you might want to know what is expected of you when you go to Italy. I've also added different brands of common products and music often played on MTV Italia.

Manners:
* bare feet whether in the home (or on the street) is completely unacceptable

* body language even when just relaxing at home is very formal: avoid slouching when sitting

*11pm is the cut off. If you're noisy after this time, Italians have the right to call the authorities if they think you are being to loud

* Did you know that most Europeans don't switch hands when using a fork or knife to cut food? After cutting their food they just turn the fork around and eat.

* At the dinner table, keep both hands above the table. Keeping one hand on your lap is considered to be in very poor taste.

Food:
Colazione (breakfast)- a simple, less important meal, consisting of a breakfast pastry, cookies or toast with coffee and milk at home, and a cappuccino at a bar. An American cafe is equal to a Bar in Italia.
~At dinner time (usually starting around 7:30-8:00pm)~

Antipasto (before the meal)
Primo Piatto (first course)- usually pasta, rice, or soup
Secondo piatto (main course)-meat, chicken, or fish. Served alone or with fries.
Dolce (dessert)-Tiramisu is the only one I recognize. Makes me think of that American Express card commercial.
Coffee (the cappuccino is only for breakfast and won't be served in the evening)

Things to know:
In orientation, we were told not to look at or smile at people in passing-especially men. We were told any look or smile is considered to mean "come hither"-not that you're just being polite. So mom, when you come, don't smile/talk at random guys. This is not to say that you can't greet shop owners in the morning or thank your cab driver.

* People give handouts on the street to their nearby restaurants. Take these b/c there is usually a very helpful map on the back, not only to their establishment, but is also helps you familiarize with the streets, via this and via that.
-----walk around in the late evening to pick up flyers for that night's performances.

* Don't by cherries here- they aren't too sweet. Do buy strawberries! They're very large and very sweet. In fact, just the other day I saw an Italian news report on strawberries here, how they pick them and their greenhouses. The watermelon fruit salads are divine.

* you'll notice that every time the *police* roll around, street vendors selling paintings, sunglasses, or Prada and Gucci bags pack up quickly and leave. That's because they aren't really allowed to sell on the street.

Grocery Products: look for pictures on photobucket
* The main milk distributer is Mukki. It comes in the refrigerated and non refrigerated (not evaporated) version. I buy the refrigerated one in the green bottle (it also comes in blue, though i haven't tasted a difference btw the two). It's not quite 1% but has a creamier/softer taste than the one we buy at home.

* You know that pasta in the blue and yellow packaging in the Sates? They have that here too.

* There's a lemon Ice tea I really like. Its called Belte al Limone. There is also a peach version that tastes pretty good.

* Sugar or "Zucchero" comes in little bags much like the flour bags back home.

* At the grocery store down the street from us, you can only find Skippy brand peanut-butter. For those of us who grew up on Adams peanut-butter, Skippy tastes sweet when compared to others.

* When I get bottled water, I usually pick the natural water one with the pink cap. The one with the black label is also good.

Music/TV
(MTV Italia): L'Aura, Finley, 30 seconds to Mars, Maroon 5
Commercials for Day Gum-just a minty chewing gum
Canale 5-usually has a good Italian movie or an American dubbed version

Originally this was a wine tasting, lunching and biking through the Chianti region of Italy. At the last minute however, the program cancelled on us. Days were switched around and the ride as well as the provider were switched to Sunday July 15th.

There were 13 students all together who signed up. Peter, our tour guide had obtained this job through a family friend. He said that, that is how you get jobs here (everybody knows someone). He was young, probably upper 20's and didn't even break a sweat the entire ride!!

We started by being fit into helmets and on bicycles (very good shock absorbers) not far from the center of town. In total, the trip would be approximately 5 hours with lunch and other scenic stops built in.

It was a little scary riding next to the other mopeds & motorcycles, mini cars/trucks, because of their irregular driving. Also, there's the fact that the road isn't exactly even, making for an even more unsettling ride out of the city!! Locals seemed happy to see us riding through town and also up in the country, cheering us on.

The first half hour was a ride up to San Miniato Church- a previous hike we had endured the week before. And if I thought that that was tough, nothing could have prepared me for the ride up. Not even the week I spent b4 coming to Italy, practicing my heart out on my bike's nice cushy seat. No, no, these bikes had small, hard seats and I was saddle soar at the end for at least the next four days!!.

At San Miniato, we had the opportunity to have a coffee break and or get water for the next leg of the trip until lunch.

There are series of hills as you ride through Chianti with breathtaking views. When we rode through our first olive orchard, Peter told us that Italians harvest the olives by laying down nets under trees and picking them by hand, and just dropping them down into the net. (Just like in Under the Tuscan Sun)

For lunch, we stopped into a small restaurant, of which we were the only ones in, and were seated in what appeared to be the basement, but it had an a joining deck with spectacular view of the country side. There were two courses. Cheese and meat platter with bruschetta topped with either chicken-liver paste or artichoke paste. Can you guess which one I had? The meats included two types of prosciutto and sliced sausage. With the cheeses, one was just aged more that the other. Then, the seccond course consisted of a cheese ravioli and a pasta dish with spiral noodles and tomato meat sauce. To drink we had aqua naturale and wine. The wine was a Chianti red wine that was actually quite good. I really don't usually prefer wine at all especially red wine, but you could tell that this one was fresh and airy. ("light" doesn't exactly fit) You can find it in the stores by the reddish-purple label around the top of the bottle. Also, it says Chianti on it.
At the end of lunch, we were all served one shot of espresso in tiny white ceramic cups with one packet of zucchero (sugar) on the side-and a small stirring spoon. I'm not a big fan of strait coffee, but I poured in the sugar, stirred it up, and took a sip. It wasn't half bad. An then I sipped the rest.

The way down through Chianti was much easier as we were traveling DOWN. The hills were a lot less intense and the breeze on a 95 degree F. day was more than anyone could have asked for.

We returned to the bike place, handed in our helmets and bikes and thanked Peter for an amazing experience. We then straggled back to our apartment to rest.

This experience was challenging but worth it. I would definitely recommend tours like this, because it shows you a new side of the country you're visiting. Hooray!!

This morning was our trip to Pisa. As it turned out, we had a slightly smaller group (just the interior design students), as the others had gotten back pretty late and were strewn across the apartment along with the Absinthe, wine, and failed batch of Spag.

We caught the 8:29am train to Pisa. From the station in Pisa, its pretty much just a straight walk to the main attraction. Tickets to the cathedral and baptistery were paid for by the program, so it was up to us if we wanted to climb the Leaning Tower. It's 15 Euro.
We all got tickets for 1:20pm. Five minutes before you go up, you must check your bag b/c it's such a narrow stairwell. The spiral staircase around LToP is dim lit, with a window here and there (on the left side). On the fifth floor you can go out and walk all the way around, then its back up for some more.
On the very top, there is a smaller, more narrow stairwell that leads to the tipi top. The experience takes about a half hour. (I got plenty of picts!)

I ate lunch with my roommate and we walked around looking at gifts. At 2:30 we met at the fountain and walked back to the train station. We arrived back in Florence at 4:30.

Tomorrow is biking in Chianti!

Wow! And this is only the first week. We visited so many places and I took so many pictures. From now on, I will be posting my pictures on Photobucket. You all should have received an email for the link from me (I will NOT be posting it here, as this site is public). If you didn't get the email let me know and give me yours and I'll get it to you

10 July:
Ponte Vecchio is a little less than half a mile from the Duomo and it looks out onto the Arno River. Lining your way to this point are jewelry shops, one after another-and they all look the same.

San Miniato al Monte Church overlooks Florence. From the Duomo, you walk straight up toward the Arno River, across Pointe Vecchio, and along the river. You walk up via del Monte alle Croci which means "alley of the cross". This up hill stair case takes you to Piazzale Michelangelo. You continue to walk up the hill until you cross the street to go up more steps. Zoe-- you would not like all the steps everywhere! This was the longest and hardest walk so far.

Piazza Michelangelo: We stopped here briefly to capture the view of the Synagog (which will be the building with the blue-green domes on photobucket), and another church (not pictured). There are lots of kiosks selling scarves and tourist 'toys' as well as ice cream or gelato.

11 July:
Today we went to San Marco (Dominican Convent of St. Mark) which includes a museum and church. The church is the Hospital of the Innocents. It was put in place when the Govert. decided orphans should be taken care of. Being unmarried and with children was unacceptable, so mothers who could not care for their babies would take them to this church (the children would go through a kind of revolving door-like at the zoo-so they couldn't come back out). In the 16th century, a grating was put across the door to prevent older children from being pushed in.
Inside the church there are two courtyards. The first was for male children and the male hospital workers, and the second for female children and workers. The first is much more ornate than the latter.

Church of Santissima Annunziata (church & museum) is beautiful and quite grand. The rooms along side the isle way are highly decorated with sculpted marble. The ceiling with its gold moldings look gaudy-but in a good way. It has a courtyard like entrance (like many of the buildings here) with frescoes or murals, which were made first and then set into the wall to look like one piece. The architecture is considered Baroque (early 17th century European; and extravagantly ornamented).

The (Duomo's) Baptistery doors were originally made of wood and later financed in Bronze after the cupola was finished. Patterns from the outside mirror those on the inside. The patterns on the outside also correspond to the patterns of the Duomo. This baptistery is the oldest of its kind from the 16th century.

Duomo Museum:Just a bunch of sculpture that wasn't that interesting.

12 July:
Bargello Sculpture museum: On the first floor, there is a courtyard with a well in the center. There are shields on the walls, but not any frescoes (murals). There are however, fleur de lis are painted on the vault ceilings on the second floor overlooking the courtyard.

San Lorenzo Church: This includes the library with the famous triple stair well, which has rounded black marble steps. The entrance is made to look like the outside is on the inside, with false (filled in) windows on the inside. It basically looks like the outside of a building-only on the inside. This was done purely for decoration. Inside the library, the terra-cotta and white marble floor mimic images found on the ceiling.

The home of Casa Siviera was our last stop for today. Siviera acted as a spy for Italy when Germans were stealing Italian artworks. Today, we had the opportunity to look at his private collection of sculpture, furniture, paintings, etc. Even though most of the rooms' flooring had been converted to hard wood (like our living room in Portland), there was one room where you could see the original mosaic marble floor.
(No pictures for this house)

13 July:
Uffizi Gallery ( Venus, etc.): There are no words to describe how grand this gallery is. A little history: In 1765, it was the first galley to open with requested entry. It became open to the public in 1800. I saw many works here that I recalled from previous art history class and also from class here.

Accademia (Made especially to house David): This museum was built especially to house David and so there isn't much else in the way of famous art. I think one of the most striking things about David is the veins in his hands and the way the artist was so precise in his proportions.
(cameras were not allowed)

Vivo le Gelato: One of our program leaders brought us here tonite as a special treat. She says its the BEST in town and I agree! It's Just the way it is supposed to taste-and not far from the Duomo.

Pensione Pendini is located in Plazza della Repubblica. This is where the marble floor (outside) is. Hopefully, once I give you the link, you can find this and many other pics there (this site only permits a certain amt. of pics per month). Date of construction is MDCCXVC. We visited Ponte Vecchio which is up a small hill from the Duomo (all streets lead here). There is an amazing view through arches of the water and the buildings along it. All along the streets are jewelry shops one after another. From this point, you can still see the dome of the Duomo. I've also just past the fist florist shop I've seen so far. We walked across the Arno river where we saw some pple rowing these very long, thin boats.

Waked up through the Arno gates which surround the city. Its a very old wall made of orangey stone. In older times, the gates would close at curfew. This is where the hike truly begins. This is the time where I which my camera took panoramic shots. We make our way up this steep road to a series of shallow/wide steps. This is called via del Monte alle Croci or "alley of the cross". These steps lead up to San Miniato al Monte, the oldest and first of the churches over 500 yrs. It was the architect's goal to build as wide and as high as possible. Inside, the walls are covered with murals all made with natural paint with egg yolk. There are no lights inside. It is only lit with natural light that comes in from the entrance and stained glass window (there is one at the entrance and one in an enclosed room near the rear). This room is top to middle fresco (mural). Around the lower half,hugging the wall there is dark wood with round pulls and seating side by side. The artist: Spinello Aretino (14th century). The paintings look 3-D with the shading and folds in the subjects' clothing. The floor inside the church is marble and has inscriptions in Italian and patterns. In fact this church has many patterns that in some form or another are recreated throughout other churches in Italy.

Outside, there is a magnificent view of the city. Mom--This is something you MUST do, when you come to florence.IF you go in the church, make sure your shoulders and knees are covered, otherwise you will not be allowed inside (also, I think you need tickets or to pay).

Tomorrow, we will go inside the Duomo. And while it's not required, I WILL be going up into the dome, a some 500 steps!!