Umbria: il cuore d'Italia

Just returned to Villa Natalia from a trip to Spoleto in Umbria, the only Italian province without a coastline, referred to by Italians as the heart of Italy. Spoleto was having an art festival, so we went to a ballet on Friday night and an opera this afternoon. I SAW ALESSANDRA FERRI at the ballet! Had a bit of a heart attack, it was so cool to see her. There was a piece called "After the Rain" choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon that was absolutely gorgeous. Anyways, quote of the trip from Stefano, the program director (in his Italian accent):

"The reputation of the United States of America is in your...mouth."

Oh goodness. Happy fourth of July! Celebrating it over here by doing absolutely nothing American whatsoever. Pictures from Spoleto:

(Mio e Audrey)

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm going to Siena for the afternoon. A domani.

Ciao Amori!

Laura

Religion makes people do beautiful things...

At least in Italy, religion tends to make people do beautiful things. This morning went to San Miniato al Monte, the church that sits above Piazza Michelangelo overlooking Firenze. The church has been almost untouched since it was built and has some really interesting Byzantine art (and a mosaic on the floor of the nave with the zodiac signs, the only use of zodiac signs in a church in all of Italy. Che interesante, no?). After that, we trecked down the hill and across the Arno to Santa Croce to look at some of Giotto's frescoes (introduction of naturalism into religious art!), then I grabbed a gelato and trecked back up the montagna to Villa Natalia to eat some food overlooking the grounds and whip out an essay.

(view of Firenze from San Miniato)

(San Miniato)

Italiano was, as usual, quite entertaining this afternoon. We learned how to tell time (sono le seidici e mezzo) and had a discussion about peninsulas (that was around 5, when the delirium fully hits). Had our first quiz and then basta! Finito! Tonight going to a restaurant on the other side of the Arno called Fuori Porta than likely to La Dolce Vita at Santo Spirito for some bellinis or something. Domani it's off to Spoleto at the crack of dawn until Saturday evening. With that, a presto!

Ciao Amori!

Laura

Uno, due, tre...ottocento ottantotto!

(Villa Natalia - our house - from Villa Ulivi)

Well, we learned how to count, among other things, in Italian class. By the time 5:15 rolled around, after almost three hours of class, we were all getting delirious. To solve this problem, Gao (il professore) decided to play a game. Has anyone played the game when you sit in a circle and count off skipping multiples of seven (and eleven, and reversing, and all of that) ? - well, we played that, saying "ciao" whenever we hit a multiple of seven. You can imagine how ridiculous this was, considering we had just learned numbers and were not prepared to do math - nonetheless, we continued to play this game until we were just about at trecento. Dio mio, che pizza.

(il sole Toscana)

Had my first art history class this morning - "Early Masters of Italian Renaissance Painting" - like Jane's class but more focused on painting. I think I might have a little bit of background thanks to Jane (when il professore asked what was notable about the Madonna in various paintings, I said "blue!" acting all nonchalant and intelligent, like normal people actually know that. Blue means royal and heavenly, did I tell you all that? And it's my favorite color...), so hopefully this won't be too overwhelming, although I think I have to read about a hundred pages of reading for Thursday.

(on the terrace outside of the art history classroom)

That's all for today, no inspiring quotes came up - although you should try saying ottocento ottantotto (oh-toh-chen-toh-oh-tan-toh-toh), it's kind of fun. At around 5:00 we all found it incredibly amusing. A domani.

Ciao Amori!

Laura

Salve!

WELL, after taking the bus down to Santa Maria Novella and walking over the Ponte alla Carraia to get to the other side of the Arno, I discovered, after about a half hour of sitting in the lobby, that Florence Dance Center is closed for the summer. Che pizza, and how typically Italian, taking vacations whenever humanly possibly. So, I stretched around in the studio a bit then found out, through my broken Italian, that the only reason the studio was open today was for some audition for their teen company in September, or something. ANYWAYS, looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of barres in the fitness room by my lonesome over the next six weeks - ballet buddies, I miss you! (and tap buddies...theatre buddies....etc etc).

Had our first day of Italian classes today! Mi piace!! Vorrei un gelato!! We had fun and learned about a month's worth of Italian in three hours. So, accordingly, io sto stanca! Currently sitting in our room with the door open and the windows wide open looking out onto the Tuscan countryside. About to shower, make some te di menta peperita and eat some gluten-free cookies. Look at this! I sit at my window and this is what I see:

A presto! A domani!

Ciao Amori!

Laura

Sometimes only beauty can be trusted.

“Because the world is so corrupted, misspoken, unstable, exaggerated, and unfair, one should trust only what one can experience with one’s own senses, and this makes the senses stronger in Italy than anywhere in Europe. This is why, Barzini says, Italians will tolerate hideously incompetent generals, presidents, tyrants, professors, bureaucrats, journalists and captains of industry, but will never tolerate incompetent opera singers, conductors, ballerinas, courtesans, actors, film directors, cooks, tailors. In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.” - Eat, Pray, Love

Had academic orientation today (I'm the only Gallatin kid...I miss you Gallatinos!), then went for a walk through Florence with the new group of kids and got some free gelato across the Arno. Also had a brief conversation in Italian when I was getting a water bottle - the ladies working there asked me where I got my shoes (the sandals you got me, Mom) and kept saying they were pretty (bellissima! bellissima!) so that was yet another opportunity for me to pretend like I speak Italian legitimately (soon enough!). Pictures:

(La Pietra)

("pineapples mean welcome!")

(our window in Villa Natalia)

(San Marco)

(gypsies by the old orphanage)

(see that? Pucci! as in the designer!)

(window in Natalia)

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'm going to the dance studio downtown (finally!), then the first day of classes of this second program. A domani.

Ciao Amori!

Laura