Final Adventures in Italy

On Sunday, November 23, I had my first visitor from home. I was so excited that Tyler was able to come and see me here in Florence, especially since I know he's always wanted to come to Italy! Sunday morning I took the shuttle to the airport to pick him up. From there we headed to the apartment he'd rented for the week (at a significantly cheaper price than hotels or hostels) and checked in there. The place was teensy, but fine. Unfortunately for me, the kitchen didn't have a stove, however, which caused my to change my Thanksgiving plans a bit (read below.)

After lunch and settling in, I decided to show Tyler around a bit. We went to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which was right down the street, to see the David and other artworks. Tyler was really impressed with "Davide," but I know he secretly LOVED the music instrument collection that is there, as well. We saw lots of Stradivarius instruments, as well a some more experimental instruments like hurdy-gurdies, modified clarinets, and one-stringed sitars. As an art project, I am drawing a couple of the statues in the museum, so Tyler covered for me while I took some illicit photos of the works I needed.

Monday morning before my class, Tyler and I went to the Mercato Centrale where I showed him all of my favorite vendors and picked up groceries for the week. I always forget how much I like going to the market. I should go more often, but many mornings I just want to sleep in. I think Tyler really appreciated the market atmosphere, and I will hazard a guess that his favorite was the cheese stand, where I bought some delicious pecorino--a cheese made from sheep's milk.

After my class, we went on a walking tour of Florence. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and overcast. First we went to the Duomo, where we visited the interior. I had not been inside until now. I think it's really pretty, despite being much more sparsely decorated than some of the other cathedrals. I can really appreciate the Duomo and it's architecture now that I've read Brunelleschi's Dome, which chronicles the challenges the builders faced.

From there we went inside the Baptistery, also my first time, and saw the frescoes there. After that, I took Tyler to my favorite bookstore, The Paperback Exchange, to look around. He bought my a copy of A.S. Byatt's Possession, which I promptly devoured, and we had fun being bookworms together. After the bookstore, we walked down the street to Grom, which has the best gelato in the city. Getting two cuppe piccole to go, we wandered to the Cinema Odeon in hopes of buying tickets to the new James Bond movie. Unfortunately, the movie was playing in a different theater much farther away, so we decided to call it a night.

I skipped class on Tuesday so that Tyler and I could go to Pisa and Lucca. We got a later start than anticipated and didn't end up in Pisa until after lunchtime. THEN I got us lost wandering around the city looking for the Duomo. (You'd think I would know where I was going, since I'd already been before.) We FINALLY got the the tower and looked around there and went inside the cathedral, which is really pretty. The weather at this point was beautiful, too. Unfortunately, in order to catch our train to Lucca and get there before sunset, we didn't have time to climb the tower. (Sorry, Bob.)

We took the train to Lucca, which is a beautiful town about 25 minutes away. It is a medieval city surrounded by an ancient wall. We got there as the sun was setting--around 4:30--and headed into the city center. After a brief walking tour, we stopped for "lunch" at a local pizzeria. We wanted to get pizza in honor of Luca's Pizza from the Aiken Mall. We did, and it was delicious. Satiated, we hopped the train back to Florence.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday I had class all day, so I didn't get to take Tyler on any tours. While I was in class, he wandered around downtown Florence taking pictures. We met up at the Duomo and the proceeded to the grocery story on my new Thanksgiving quest--to make pumpkin pie.

I had decided in the previous week to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (despite never having done it before) to give to my roommates for their party. Of course, I was planning on keeping some for Tyler and myself as well. After a whirlwind search for the elusive ingredients, I took everything back to my apartment to bake. Originally I had planning on baking on Thursday at Tyler's apartment, so as not to be in the way of my chef/roommates, but I had to change plans because of lack of oven. Tyler patiently waited around for the four hours it took me to make three pies. (It took longer because we had a power outage midway through.) Finally, finished with my mad day of baking, we got dinner and called it a day.

I had class again all day Thursday, so we didn't do anything during the day. Thursday evening, however, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in true Italian style. Tyler took me out to a little restaurant down the road--l'Toscano--and we had an Italian meal. I ordered delicious pear-stuffed pasta in cheese sauce, and as a main course, we both had wild boar. I feel that the exoticism of boar makes up for not having turkey. It was really good, especially the pomegranate sauce. The seeds exploded in your mouth. Post-dinner, we retired for pumpkin pie. It was a really nice Thanksgiving, and I didn't feel too homesick having a loved one to share it with.

Early Friday morning we caught the train to Rome. It was unfortunately rainy when we arrived. We huddled under an umbrella and hiked to the Vatican, where we visited St. Peter's Basilica. Tyler was duly impressed with the cathedral, and we even went to the catacombs under the church, as well. It was really neat to see the sarcophagi of many past popes.

From there, we caught the metro to the Circus Maximus. The plan had originally been to walk up the lovely avenue from the Circus Maximus to the Coliseum, and then visit there, but when we stepped off the metro, it was POURING rain. We shuffled up the road, glanced at the Coliseum, and by that time were so miserable we decided to go home. I was soaked all the way through. Unfortunately, we got lost looking for the nearby metro station and ended up wandering around, cold, wet, hungry, and cranky for a while before taking decisive action. Together we finally found the metro station and caught a train for home. It has been raining pretty much every day here, so we were prepared for the weather, but it was still a miserable day for tourism. The warm train ride home was a nice relief.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Galleria Palatina and the Modern Art Gallery at the Pitti Palace. First we saw the Galleria Palatina, which houses many Renaissance paintings. My favorite part of all the art was looking up at the frescoed ceilings of the palace that depict all sorts of mythological stories. I think it's really neat. There were also a lot of Titian paintings, which was cool, since he's one of my favorites. (Note: Bob, I looked and looked for your statue, but could not find him. I think he must have been in one of the rooms that was closed off.) Then we went to the Modern Art Gallery upstairs, which was predominantly Victorian art.

After the Pitti Palace, we stopped by the el cheapo luggage stand on Via Nazionale to buy a little suitcase. Tyler was kind enough to take a suitcase full of my stuff home with him. We brought that back to my apartment and then went to Hong Kong, a nearby Chinese restaurant where Tyler bought me dinner.

This morning I packed my suitcase full of bric-a-brac and took Tyler to the airport. Though it was raining, the flights were on time, and hopefully he will get safely home. The week was really nice, and I feel revived to finish out the rest of my projects for this semester before heading back to America. Only three weeks to go!