Oi...

Cramming the happenings of this past week into a less-than book sized post will be a challenge. It's immensely exciting not only to experience Florence oneself, evolving one's understanding of this city daily, but also to experience it through others. Everyone has a story to tell everyday, whether it be about their ongoing battle with the pidgeon population, maintaining an amicable relationship with a bartender you accidentally clocked in the face, or simply discovering "the best wine in Italy" for only 20 euros. I've lost count the number of times I've thought, "Wow, I am so glad I'm in Florence, and not WashU right now." I've almost forgotten what it's like to sit down in a classroom and default to the comatose stare-at-a-chalkboard. We're learning the best way possible, and I love the times I've walked into a church, and suddenly realized I'm standing in front of Masacchio's Holy Trinity—"What? Am I dreaming??" I didn't even know that Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo had tombs...let alone under the same roof.

One thing I can't gloss over is our past trip to Volterra. I'm sure it's been rehashed in about half a dozen blog entries by now, but I still need to get it out of my system. Asides from the fact that a certain vampire-human pair allegedly paid this city a visit, we were all terribly excited on the way over. Quite proud of our ability to get up at 5.45am and navigate the buses through the Italian countryside, we arrived minorly bus-lagged but eager to explore. It lives up to its reputation of beauty, and as the oldest city in Italy, is full of narrow alleyways and winding, sloped streets. We all agreed that a foray into the countryside was just what we needed, after being cooped up in a Florentine labyrinth of dog poop and homicidal pidgeons. It was incredibly refreshing to be out in the open air, and like a bunch of 6-year-old hippies, frolicked around making daisy chains and climbing trees. A select number of our group also devoted their efforts to reenacting scenes from the Twilight series—which I can't resist posting here and here.

By the end of the week, I realized that I'd narrowed down many of my interests in the city. While I don't want to focus too much on one thing, to neglect another equally meritable aspect of Florence, the medieval manuscripts in the Medici library absolutely enthralled me. I returned after my initial visit on Tuesday, to surreptitiously snap more photos and marvel at the winding script and glittering illuminations. I've made a mental note to seek out more exhibits on the matter, and meanwhile, started a smaller mind-mapping exercise on the topic—which led to my choice of conceptual topic of "Word Art", particularly calligraphy and graffiti. I've become quite interested in the creation of words, not by machines (as in a keyboard or printed sign), but in a more hands-on process of writing or carving.

Meanwhile, here are some more pictures of this past week (after more trial and error with Flickr's oh-so bug-free upload process).

~Mara