Day 5

Ciao tutti,

Today was a slow day for us with a lot of free time. I woke up at 9 but wanted to sleep more, so I stayed in bed until 9:30 then got up and got ready to go to a nearby market at 10 to get some fresh fruits and veggies. All us girls in my apartment were ready to go, so we called up to Geoff (who lives in the 2nd floor of the apartment). He didn't respond so Krista knocked on the door. No response. So I wrote him a note telling him where we were and when we'd be back.

The five of us walked straight down our street, Via dei Macci, to the Sant Ambrogio market. As we approached we walked past a lot of stalls with cute clothes, so we plan on returning soon. We finally made it inside and looked around at the different vendors with meats, cheeses, breads, but didn't see any fruits or veggies until we went out the doors on the other side. This market was much smaller than San Lorenzo, but it has more character and it feels more authentic. So Katia, Brittany, and I walked out and walked down the center of the stands, comparing prices for things. I ended up leaving with strawberries, a cantaloupe, nectarines (I asked what it was and the guy just cut one open and handed it to me to eat. It was so tasty that I bought a bag full), a stalk of broccoli, avocados, and a carton of eggs all for 14 euro.

On the way home, Katia and I stopped to get detergent to do our laundry with. I cleaned my sheets and we did a load of underwear and socks. The washing machine is in the kitchen next to the sink, and it's tiny and crazy. It only makes noise when it's sitting still. And we don't have a dryer so everything is hung on racks with the windows open.

Anyway, after we got home from the market we had about an hour minutes before we had to leave to meet Dr. Zaho outside the Bargello. I cut up my cantaloupe and oh my gosh, it is so good. It's a bright, natural orange and juicier than any cantaloupe I've had before.

So at about 12:30 we left the apartment and got to the front of the Bargello (which is a big sculpture museum) a little before 1. Dr. Zaho met us where we were sitting on some steps and led us into the building we were in front of. Turns out it was a large church/monastery known as the Church of Santa Maria Assunta of the Badia Fiorentia. We walked into the church near the end of mass. There were men and women singing; their voices were ethereal and echoed throughout the whole space. The ceiling appeared to be made of a dark wood that had undulating and carved spaces. It was tremendously beautiful. There were frescoes all around the altar and in a dome above it. Various framed paintings were hung around the room, one of which was right behind where I was standing; it was a Filippino Lippi original, which we had entered the church to see. The mass, however, took longer than we had expected and the people praying stayed for a while after so we didn't get a chance to explore more inside. There was a window high up near the ceiling that was letting the light in perfectly. It was raking across the floor and through the dust in the air to form a beautiful single ray of light. Ugh. So cool.

When we left Badia Fiorentina, we decided to go to the Uffizi. The Uffizi is a huge gallery directly next to the Palazzo Vecchio. It was built by the Medici family to have a place to hold all the art they had collected over time; they also used it as offices (uffizi means offices in Italian). So we walked past a large crowd of people, into a room where we walked around a barrier to get our tickets, to another room to walk through a scanner, through two more rooms to a staircase, up the stairs to two more flights, through a weird hallway to an even bigger hallway to the first room. It was a dumb, crowded maze. We then looked at three tempera on panel paintings of the Madonna Enthroned by Cimabue, Duccio, and Giotto respectively. In the next room we saw an Annunciation scene by Simone Martine. Among a few rooms full of art, the most important paintings we saw were the Strozzi Altarpiece, portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, a painting of the Madonna and Child, Judith Slaying Holofernes, and a few Caravaggio paintings. All were amazing to see in person, but the setting in which we saw them was awful. There were people everywhere trying to look at everything and it was hot with no air flow at all and we were all tired with sore feet and it was just all around unpleasant. That is, until we went to the rooftop cafe. It was a beautiful day out so we sat there for a few minutes staring at the great view of the Palazzo Vecchio tower and the dome of the cathedral. It was just lovely. The next thing, though, was the worst part. The exit.

At 4pm we said "hey let's go" and began to follow the signs to exit. We didn't reach the gifts shops (yes, shops) until at least 10 minutes later. If the Uffizi were a maze game with levels of difficulty, entering it would be level 1 and exiting would be the boss level. I can't even explain the path that we took. Like, there was definitely a series of halls we had to walk through that were essentially a construction zone, but that was after we walked down stairs to get to more rooms with more stairs. Then we had to walk through some brightly colored rooms (with cool art in them, but still) and some boring rooms and a different section of the museum to get to another room that led to the gift shop or a series of Caravaggio paintings (this is where we hit the 10 minute mark), so we went through to see the paintings then had to turn around to walk through the four gift shops on the ground floor before final making it into fresh air and daylight.

We're going back to the Uffizi tomorrow afternoon but we're hoping it's not going to be as crowded so it's a better experience and easier to view the paintings. Also, I forgot to mention the highlight of the day, which happened at the Uffizi. As I mentioned before, we all had sore feet. Someone mentioned this while we were standing in front of Duccio's Madonna Enthroned, so naturally I said, "Your Uffizi's hurt?" I turned the name of the museum into a joke about feet hurting. Actually, I made this joke on the first day we were here, it just worked out that someone complained about sore feet IN the Uffizi.

After the Uffizi I bought a bottle of water because that building somehow sucked everything out of me, then Geoff, Katia, and I walked home to eat something and do laundry. After about an hour of hanging out. Katia and I left to wander the city. We ended up just walking in circles in the area that we know best, but it was fun and it felt beautiful out. We got gelato, watched men in funny costumes walk around and dogs play with each other, then walked to a photobooth we found in the street. We were SO excited to use it, but our euros kept coming right back out. I have since emailed the people who run it, so we'll see if it's working soon!

When we got back to the apartment, the three of us sat on the terrace with our laptops and chatted. At one point Katia said, "Is that man peeing and leaning his hand on the window?" So Geoff and I turned around to see the silhouette of a man doing just what she had said he was. So we sat and watched until he was done, which was like a full minute later. My next words were "Are we perverts?" Then we came in to make and eat spinach tortellini with red sauce and pesto.

Everyone else just got home and I think we're going to hang out until bed. Katia and I might go out for a walk later to see what's going on in the big squares. If anything wild happens I'll post an update!