Mosaics and Modern Art

Though you can't tell from the photo, we're in front of Santa Croce. The church and piazza are beautiful. Last weekend, we saw a puppet show there (there's a video clip of said show at the bottom of the page).


Last Friday I went to Ravenna and looked at early Christian mosaics and ate amazing pasta with gorgonzola cheese and hazelnuts. It was as good as it sounds.

This was in the dome of a baptistery and it was completed somewhere in the early-mid 400s. Baptisteries were especially significant in early Christian times since a person couldn't enter the church until they converted.

I love this mosaic because the story behind it is so intriguing. Ravenna was the seat of Theodoric the Great who triumphed Arian Christianity, which stated that Jesus was not fully divine. This mosaic used to depict Arian bishops, but when the council of Nicea decided on modern Christianity and declared Arians heretics, they needed to alter earlier contradictory art. They covered up the bishops with the curtains, but decided it was too much work to redo the columns, leaving these odd disembodied hands.

Dante was exiled from Florence as a result of him choosing the losing side of a political power struggle. While in exile, he wrote The Divine Comedy which is considered to be the greatest literary work composed in Italian. Ever. Since then, he's become Florence's favorite son. There ae statues of him all over and a giant tomb waiting for his remains at Santa Croce where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. However, he continues to rest in Ravenna, where he died.

This is the outside of the St. Francis's Basilica in Ravenna.

This past Friday, I went to the Gori Sculpture Garden. Basically, Giuliano Gori, a filthy rich art collector, bought a seventeenth-century villa in Tuscany and turned the area and farmland into a huge open-air museum. He invited artists to come in the early 80s and do site-specific work. Apparently, this was a huge success and since then artists have been invited and commissioned to do bunches and bunches of works. It takes about 4 hours to walk the park, and to see it you have to first write and let them know why you want to see it. It was amazing. The place is filled with large-scale modern sculpture and installations. This is a view from the villa.

This is a teahouse that was originally part of the property. Inside, there's a room that has a giant tea-leaf pyramid. And bathrooms.

This is me walking around a piece called "The Rings of Time." The artist planted the flora of Tuscany, from the prehistoric to the modern, in concentric circles. Those bronzed branches next to me are meant to signify extinct plant life.

This is Ariel and I in front of some grapes and olive trees. The entire place smelled delicious. The air was so fragrant, I wanted to bottle it.

This is a piece called Daphne (the nymph who turned into a tree- except here she's returning to earth in a more rudimentary form).

Yesterday, we happened upon a parade. I have no idea what it was for. Sweet outfits, though.

I had no idea eggplant was so tasty.

Here are some leftover pictures from Assisi:

This is the fortress at Assisi called Rocca Maggiore.

The view from up there is unreal. Umbria looks like a patchwork of olive orchards and wheat fields.

And I wanted to move into this storefront. Those meringues were bigger than my head.

Ami and I went to this awesome flea market at the Piazza outside of San Spirito where I procured the pictured hat. That's the Ponte Vecchio in the background.

Anna taught Kristen and I how to make gnocchi. Anna can roll the little pieces of potato-dough into these shell-type things super quickly and amazingly uniformly. Unfortunately, Kristen and I weren't quite as adept. Our gnocchi was a little deformed, but still delicious.

This is Fiesole, an Etruscan town just above Florence. It has one of the oldest Roman theaters in Italy.

My professor is showing us what a senex (old man stock character) comedic mask would have looked like.

Right around the theater are the ruins of some Roman baths and these ancient arches.

It's starting to get really chilly here. The weird thing is that it's colder at 11 am than it is at 11 pm. Tights are crazy popular here. I'm obviously thrilled by this. There are bunches of stores that sell hosiery almost exclusively. And the leather jackets in the storefronts are completely buttery-looking. I'm seriously coveting one.
Everything here is so entrenched in history that it's a little overwhelming. I went to this really swank hotel with my art history class that used to be a women's prison in the 13th century. And in the basement there are remains of Roman baths! And it's not even like they advertise this; my TA just knew about it and went in and asked at the front desk if we could go downstairs and check it out. So cool.
Yesterday I consumed one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. It was Gorgonzola cheese and grilled eggplant and I think I might go get another one. Right now. Seriously, this sandwich in itself provides a reason to come to Florence if the fact that the entire city is practically dripping with Renaissance art and architecture and history isn't enough.

Ciocolato Amore gelato changed my life

Last Sunday we went to a festival celebrating the birth of the Madonna. Basically, a bunch of little kids carry paper lanterns with candles inside in a giant procession which culminates into a giant party with music.

My roommate and I were easily the oldest people carrying lanterns.

The kids who aren't carrying lanterns have these spit-shooter things and they try to knock out other people's lanterns. Amazingly, I only saw one catch fire.

I started my classes this week. I'm super-excited for this semester. I'm taking this Italian comedy class and the professor is certifiable. He's very energetic. I think he wishes he were still acting regularly and uses our class time as an opportunity to have an audience for an hour and a half. But it's really fun.

Taking classes here is so completely different from taking classes at Wellesley. In my film class, one person commented about how she noticed that the increasing presence of Coca-Cola products in the film denoted the rise of capitalism. And then another girl raised her hand and said,

"Yeah. And I was like, DRINKING a Coke. While we were watching the movie. Woah."

I wish that I was kidding.

I'm also taking this intro art history course and we go to a museum in Florence every week! It's fantastic. This week we went to the Bargello and saw sculpture by Michelangelo, Donatello, and Ghiberti. And did I mention that we only have class Monday-Thursday? Forget Disney, THIS is the happiest place on earth.

I had this gelato that I wanted to take a bath in. I would be happy if it were the only thing I consumed for the rest of my life.

I went to Assisi yesterday. It is so beautiful. The city is in Umbria and it's made out of pink and white limestone.

In their main square there is a Roman temple, built around year 100. And that's a 12th century bell tower right next to it. And the building on the other side of the piazza was built in the 1600s. The amount of history is mind-blowing.

We went to the Basilica of San Francesco d' Assisi. There are the most amazing frescoes by Giotto and Cimabue.

Why didn't anyone warn me about the mosquitoes?!!!

Hello! Meet Kristen, the girl I will be cohabitating with for the next four months.

This is the living room of the apartment.

Kristen and I went to the Duomo Friday night. This is an incredibly American tourist hangout. Almost everyone in our program inexplicably ended up in this area. The Duomo was beautiful, though. When I was here last, it was being cleaned. The colors of the marble are incredible! Last night, we went to a piazza by our house and watched the soccer game on a big screen and a group of aging men play jazz. We did manage to find a crowd that was almost exclusively Italian, but they were also all almost exclusively over 40. I think that we go out too early for the Italian youth.

This is the Basilica San Miniato al Monte. It's Anna's (our host mom) favorite church.

Today, Anna's daughter and son-in-law came over for lunch. They speak a lot of English and they showed us how to connect to the internet in the apartment. They are officially my new favorite people. Later tonight we're going to a festival of paper lanterns. I'm not sure what exactly this entails, but I will most definitely post details and pictures.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

This is a picture of the Arno river.

First things first- if you feel so inclined to write to me, my address is:
Katie Wingate
c/o Syracuse University in Florence
Piazza Savonarola, 15
50132 Firenze
Italia

My Italian host mother picked me up yesterday. She's an older woman with a grown daughter who lives alone. She's very nice and she speaks very little English, so my Italian will inevitably improve in her care. I met my roommate yesterday just a few minutes before we were picked up. She goes to Johns Hopkins and no, she's not pre-med. We live about a 15 minute walk from the school. We have a room that is a little difficult to navigate with both of us in there, but I think we'll manage. The food was excellent and Anna (our host mom) seems very happy to help with our Italian and show us around. I'll post some pictures of our house asap.

"Don't use the brakes. Cars are made to go, not to stop! "

Here's some documentation of my pre-Florence adventures:

Shirley and I did crafts at late nights at the DMA.

And ate copious amounts of cotton candy at the Ranger's game.

And went to your mom's.

I left for Florence on Monday at noon and got to Florence Tuesday afternoon. I have never felt grimier than I did after I got off the plane.

Florence is amazing. The city is beautiful, the weather is a little warm, but nice. There are about 280 people in the program with me, and a few of them even seem like people I might deign to be friends with.

Yesterday, I met a girl from Mount Holyoke. When I introduced myself and told her that I went to Wellesley, she said "I thought you might." - she knew because of my hair. I have the stereotypical and easily identifiable Wellesley chop. Damn.