Sunday, February 10, 2008

A few exciting stories for you all this evening:

First of all, I am an idiot and I don't know how to make espressos on the stove even though it looks so easy. I tried to make one on my on for the first time and learned that you must put a certain amount of water in the bottom otherwise what little water there is will simply blow out as steam and the espresso pot will proceed to melt. I owe my Italian roommates a new pot. But there is really no hurry seeing as they own 4 or 5 of them.

On to better news: I took my first trip to Florence on Friday and it was wonderful! I went with my Medieval Lit class and our teacher Martino took us for a brief tour, told us a lot of interesting historical stories, pointed out some things Dante may have seen in his day, showed us his favorite linens shop, and then treated us all to triple scoops of his favorite gelato in Florence. I love Martino. He first took us up to the Piazza Michelangelo, so this was my first view of Firenze. I love being oriented to a city from above.


Saturday I woke up and decided to run away to Cortona for the day. I decided to run away at 9:05am and the next train was leaving at 9:40, so I really did have to run part of the way to the train station. I made it with ten minutes to spare, took a bus through the countryside then switched to a train. I went to Cortona with the sole intent of seeing Fra Angelico's Annunciation that is in the Museo Diocesano. It's a wonderful painting. There are probably four thousand annunciations in Renaissance art, but this one stands out to me as the most stunning portrayal of Mary's innocence and the angel's gentleness in telling her the news. I can't figure out what the gold words are coming out of the angel's mouth, but I like the way they unfurl toward Mary.

I'm putting some pictures up on Flickr, including a picture of the Annunciation that I illegally took. But it's ok because I also bought a little poster from the shop. It's been a good weekend, time to study for my Italian class now!

Ps. you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger. I apparently have no control over the layout of this page, otherwise they would be bigger.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Of course, you are not an idiot. No parent can let such a comment go unchallenged, even if made in fun. This was just a learning experience!
It is great to hear of the wonderful places you are seeing. Again, it is like being there with you.