Day 2

Ciao!

I am currently beginning this post at 12:15am. So tired.

Today was a very full day! Let's see. I had the room to myself last night because Krista's boyfriend, who's been studying abroad in France since January, came here to see her for two nights. She stayed with him at his hotel nearby. I slept like a rock last night besides the one time that a very angry man was shouting in Italian and then sped off in his little car at 3am. I woke up at 7:45am, reset my alarm to 8:00am, then fell back asleep until Katia said my name outside my bedroom door about 15 minutes later. I got up, opened my door, said "I'm awake!" and that was it.

We left the apartment at 9am when Krista met us back here and we walked to the cutest little cupcake/coffee shop called Dolce Lab on our street so Katia could get her morning coffee. I'm so excited to go back and get sweets there. It's definitely the kind of place I would hang out at home. Next we stopped at a bakery that Zaho showed us yesterday so Zoe and Jeff could get breakfast. I had eaten a banana with peanut butter and cheese with crackers for breakfast in the apartment earlier. After everyone was fed we made our way to Capa; we ran into the other group of girls on the way, right as the moment they were about to make the wrong turn. When we corrected them we made it to the school in a few minutes, 20 minutes before Zaho.

First thing we did at Capa was sit through an orientation in a classroom with the most beautiful frescoed ceiling and big windows. I was kind of drowsy, but Dr. Zaho brought some pastries for us so that woke me up a bit. After the presentation, a girl came in to give us information on renting and buying cell phones to use while here. After a small dilemma in my brain, I decided against renting one. We ended up seeing the phone girl twice today around the city after that, it was weird.

From Capa we went on a walking tour with a student organizer from the school. We went straight to Pizzicheria for paninis for lunch. I got schiachiatta (flat bread) with pomodoro (tomato), melanzane (eggplant), mozzarella, pesto, and arugala/spinach mix. IT WAS SO GOOD.

After that delicious lunch we walked the city and saw a few things we hadn't seen yet. We ended it with gelato a stone's throw from Orsanmichele, a place with gorgeous statues by Renaissance masters. I got the same flavors as yesterday (chocolate mousse and chocolate chip), both delicious yet again. From there we walked down the street to a cell phone store so Zoe and Brittany could buy phones, then on to a candy shop with a great wine cellar. We all got Kinder eggs in there; my toy was this cool watch thing that shoots a little disk. And by shoots, I mean flicks a few inches. But it's still cool. The chocolate was delicious as well.

While we were in the candy shop, rain slowly started to come down. We loitered in there for a few minutes then left for the markets at San Lorenzo when it slowed down a bit. On our short walk the rain began to come down again, so we casually walked in Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral and heart of Florence. It was gorgeous. The fact that we just walked in there because it was raining and because we could blows my mind. The floors, the frescoes, the ceiling, the clock, everything. Lately, though, they began roping off the center of the cathedral. It's become something of a corral for tourists to funnel through. While that was a bit obnoxious, it was such a treat to be there. I don't know how to explain it without adding pictures, which is something I can't really do with the wifi right now. The floors are all different colors of marble organized in intricate and stunning patterns. The walls bear centuries old frescoes by some of the most talented men in history. The ceilings are vaulted, the columns are at least 5 feet wide and I don't even know how tall. The interior of the dome is stunning. Giorgio Vasari painted a beautiful Last Judgment scene depicting Christ damning sinners to Hell while simultaneously sending good Christians to Heaven. There's a frescoed 24-hour clock face at the end where you enter, beautifully done by Paolo Uccello in the early 16th century or late 15th century. It had a lot of hands, but it wasn't running.

Santa Maria del Fiore was literally built on top of another church, Santa Reparata. There's a staircase in the current church (which is also known as Il Duomo) to go down to the ruins of the old one, as well as the gift shop for Il Duomo. Right off the side of the gift shop is a tomb that no one seems to notice or everyone chooses to ignore. Like, it's literally right in the gift shop. There's a doorway in the wall with a gate on it for people to look through. The tomb is that of Filippo Brunelleschi, the brilliant architect of the dome on the cathedral. It was kind of sad seeing his tomb, because no one else cared and there was a huge wreath laying on top of it as if it had fallen on to it. But it was still a nice experience regardless!

We walked out of Il Duomo while it was still sprinkling a little bit, but it stopped by the time we got to San Lorenzo, the church of the illustrious Medici family. To the immediate right of the church is the market at San Lorenzo, "the biggest flea market in the world" as told by Dr. Zaho. There was so much leather. So much. Bags, belts, wallets, bracelets, jackets, skirts, shoes; you name it, they had it in leather. There were also a lot of scarves and a lot of tourist-y things, but also a lot of really cool stuff that doesn't fit into any of those categories. I didn't buy anything there, but I spotted a few souvenirs for folks back home, plus a gorgeous clock locket that I'm going to get for myself.

Once we had our fill of looking at things to purchase in the future, we walked over to a smaller market place with a bronze statue of a wild boar. Legend has it that if you rub his nose, you'll return to Florence someday. Additionally, if you put a coin in his mouth and let it fall into the grate below, a wish of yours will come true. We all took turns doing this with Geoff standing in as our resident photographer. My coin didn't fall into the grate until the fifth try, but we won't think about that.

It began to rain again, so we all took off to find shelter; Dr. Zaho led us to a covered loggia with a few more stands. I just leaned against a wall and chatted with some of the girls until we walked again when the rain stopped a while later. I spotted some cool postcards on our way out, so I grabbed a few to hang on my wall and also send to people, I guess. I'll be getting a lot more, so if you want one, let me know!!

Once the rain stopped entirely, we went to the restaurant we were supposed to meet a representative of Capa at for our welcome dinner. Oh man. It was wild. But because we got there early, we had to kill time. We walked around the corner to Santa Croce to sit on benches. Katia, Sarah and I walked up to the church together and took pictures. The lighting was beautiful, with the sun peeking through the clouds, focusing right on the church.

We eventually made our way back to the restaurant for - no exaggeration - the best dinner I've ever had.   Are you ready to hear about it? I don't think you are. It's too bootylicious for you, babe. Sorry for the Destiny's Child reference. I'm just so excited to tell you about all the food I ate and it's 1:30 in the morning now and I just can't handle it myself. Anyway. We ate Osteria dei Pozzi (quick lesson: the word Pazzi is the family name of the rivals and assassins of the Medici family, so the word Pazzi became synonymous with the word crazy, because those men were crazy for trying to destroy the powerful Medici family), a quirky little restaurant with lots of funny decorations and a very colorful, singing owner (get it, Pazzi/crazy?). He was delightful. He brought us, one at a time, 15 different dishes to eat family style. 15. Fifteen. 10+5. That was 7 appetizers, 4 pasta dishes, and 4 desserts.

It all began with (1) bruschetta. Fresh tomatoes on fresh bread. It was paired with (2) fresh black olive paste on fresh bread. I usually don't like olives, but this stuff was mad good. Next was (3) tomato slices stuffed with bread crumbs and herbs. Then (4) tomato slices paired with fresh mozzarella (Okay, everything was fresh. I don't want to have to repeat it so much.) Next was (5) eggplant slices. I love eggplant and I had never had anything like this. At some point, I there was a plate of (6) salami, which I didn't eat because I'm vegetarian. The next thing to come out was another surprisingly delicious treat: (7) small onions marinated in balsamic vinaigrette. My goodness, they were to die for. I didn't expect to like it, but they were weirdly sweet and the juices burst out of the onion in your mouth and man, it was great. After that, the man brought out a (8) chicken risotto that Zoe made me try. She separated the chicken and gave me a few bites worth; it was delicious and the texture was perfect. The rice grains were thick and chewy. Next up was my favorite dish of the meal, (9) a pasta with a pesto arugula sauce. I can't explain how it tasted, it was just bliss. The whole dish was green, but not a creepy or gross green. Next was (10) a meat-filled tortellini dish, which I obviously did not eat. After that, we got our first taste of (11) spaghetti in Italy. Fresh, handmade pasta with a spicy sauce. Delicious. Then it was time for dessert, all of which came out together. We had (12) a blueberry cheesecake (my favorite of this course, surprisingly), (13) a pudding layered with three kinds of chocolate, (14) a fruit parfait topped with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and (15) a flan-like thing covered in chocolate (none of us knew what it was but it was good).

Wow, sorry that paragraph about dinner was so long. But the meal itself lasted somewhere between 3 1/2 to 4 hours. And did I mention it was free? Because it was. Capa covered it because it was our welcome dinner. So after that we walked home at around 11pm past Santa Croce. It was weird seeing other young people going out, because we were beat. But then again I'm up at 2am writing a blog post. And I still have to shower!

I'm going to do that now. Sorry this post took so long to get up. I hope you made it through the whole thing!

Until tomorrow,
Kristin