Well, folks. It's been one of those weeks. I'm getting near fed up with the weather's uncooperative spirit. Let's start with Tuesday. Tuesday was Valentine's Day, and yes, they do celebrate here. It's not as obnoxious as in America -- no red and pink everywhere or teddy bears in windows. But in the grocery store, we did see chocolate roses and a lot of champagne. It was just another Tuesday. For the second year in a row, Danielle and I celebrated Valentine's Day together. Most everyone here did the same because they obviously couldn't celebrate with their girlfriends/boyfriends. We had a Valentine's Day party at the school that we made an appearance at but we didn't stay long. It was cookies and music and games. Basically, we just went home and made pizza. I found a recipe on pinterest for Chicken Pesto Pizza. Best decision ever. We got in bed and snuggled up for our second annual viewing of the movie I Hate Valentine's Day. Sadly, it was pirated so it was really choppy. But we DID make it through 2/3 of it!
Today was our first field trip to Firenze for Renaissance Art. My professor is the president of OU in Arezzo. His name is Kirk and he is very impressive. You start listening and stop taking notes and he looks at you and says, "You're going to want to write this down." I can't even keep up. It's not your average Duomo, the David, you're done. He takes us to all of these obscure places that he swears are really important. Today we started at the Basilica of Sante Croce. We went in and the entire aspe was covered and under construction. That always happens to me. Last summer in D.C, the entire reflection pool in front of Lincoln was a terror. There were Bobcats and huge mounds of mud. So gross. Anyway, the church was interesting because of Kirk's commentary. Turns out Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo are all entombed there. Pretty awesome, right? I know you're going to cringe when I tell you this, but I took absolutely no pictures. I could barely write notes because my hands were that stiff. I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick/maybe have a fever. It was about 17°F all day. Pity me. Anyway, we visited another museo so briefly that it's not worth mentioning. It was for my music class and it was about medieval notation. I won't bore you completely. Don't worry too much about the pictures though. It was the first of many trips to Florence for Ren. Art. Here are some pics I stole from another girl from the trip:
^^ Michelangelo
^^Galileo
Today was also a holiday in Arezzo! After our day in Florence, we came home and got a lecture on the Madonna del Conforto. Apparently on February 15th, 1796, Arezzo was getting bad tremors that were threatening the foundations of the city. A group of people in some inn prayed to the little Madonna picture for it to stop. The art, which had been in a fire that had scorched it until it was black, suddenly became clean and new. So, of course, the painting is reveared and everyone come from miles around to pay homage to the Madonna del Conforto. We all went to the Duomo today to observe it and it was a PACKED house. I wasn't brave enough to go up and let the priest sprinkle water on me (I regret that) but I watched from afar.
Danielle and I have found out that the only time we fight is when we're fighting over directions. That's happened twice now. Florence has no system to its streets so it's complete chaos. We couldn't find the train station so I asked some stranger, "Dov'รจ la stazione?" Apparently that was too complicated a question. They sweetly offered to take us there instead of us grunting at each other. I looked at Danielle and said, "How sweet is that!" Then we ended up in front of "Dante's house." Greeeeaaaat. We just thanked and dismissed them. At this point, it's 2:30, we're hungry, tired, FREEZING and want to go home. Plus, we had every intention of buying masks for Carnivale while we were in Florence but we spent our whole time being lost. My dad's said this before but it's so true: I need to marry a GPS. Period. We finally find the train station but by then had already snapped at each other. But when you've pushed your beds together to avoid ghosts, you can't stay mad at each other for long.
We came home, took hot showers, ate food and watched Chocolat. GOOOOD NIGHT.
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