The Masters

Apologies for not posting yesterday. It was a long day of classes and then we watched an Italian movie, Caterina Va a Citta. It was about a little girl who moved from the countryside to the big city of Rome and her development and conflicts there. Despite some of the acting, it kept me engaged the whole time and I really enjoyed watching it in italian so I could work on understanding different words. The teacher, Lucca, was a younger italian man always with a large smile on his face. We had a discussion afterwards talking about the movie and its cinematic elements. Lacking any pictures, I decided to take a day off from the blog, write in my journal and plan trips all around Italy!


Today was the first cloudy day that we have experienced thus far in Italy. But that didn't stop any great experiences from happening. We had our usual 4 hour italian class this morning (What is all of the school? I thought we had a 5 month vacation?). The first 2 hours Kaitlin and I struggled to get through it, but after a little caffeine and a new teacher for the second half we really enjoyed the last two hours. Irene, our teacher told us all of the best places to go for gelato and pasta. It was a great help! Of course this whole conversation was in italian and we all started to really feel like we were being engaged in the language, which was a great feeling. Kaitlin and I are really excited to go out and try the places she suggested and experience real italian meals rather than ristoranti turistica. The best part is the gelaterie she suggested were molti economiche. Only one euro for a cup of gelato!

After class, we came back to the apartment to grab a quick lunch. I made a tomato and cheese (these ingredients are becoming quite the staple) sandwich with balsamic, olive oil, and pesto. It was delicious! But before long we were right back out on the street to meet our group for the visit to the UFFIZI! No pictures were allowed in the museum, but I was able to snap a couple of pictures of the beautiful ceilings in the halls of the museum. (To the left) Viaggiamo through the growth of chiaroscuro and perspective in the Renaissance. The paintings we learned about ranged from Madonna d'Ognissanti by Giotto to La Nascita di Venere (The Birth of Venus) by Botticelli. I absolutely amazed by the beauty of the paintings and how intricate the figures were even with the use of a tempra paint medium made from different pigments of the times. The color and detail of Michelangelo's Tondo Doni kept me wide eyed through all of the telling of the history. I can wait to see the Sistine Chapel and experience the colors and beauty at an even greater scale. At the end of the tour, our professor took us to a window to show us the---in layman's terms--"secret passageway built for the Medici family. She also told us more recent history of the area. The Ponte Vecchio is surrounded by newer buildings because Hitler didn't want anyone to pass into Italy during WWII. He kept the bridge because he couldn't tear down the beauty of it. We also got to see a panoramic view of the Arno and the professor told us what places to see and where to go. It was a great, great time and we only got to see a fourth of the Uffizi. I'm very excited to go back and see more. Kenan is cooking us dinner now so I must go, but more later! I posted the rest of my pictures-- look at the link to the middle right!

Ciao!