"In this big, epic movie - everyone is an extra."

Last week I went to see Michelangelo’s David. I figured that I better, considering I’ve been here since September and hadn’t seen it yet. This may be blasphemous, but I like the copy in Piazza Signoria just as much. I also went to the Mercato Centrale at San Lorenzo; it’s this gigantic indoor food market with tons of meat, cheese, dried goods, produce, and my favorite, dried fruit and nuts. There are stands with every dried fruit imaginable and the best cashews I’ve ever tasted.

Saturday I went to Lucca, which is a beautiful medieval town surrounded by it’s original city walls. To get in, you have to walk through these super-old winding tunnels.


The churches are beautiful and the shopping is excellent. I also ran across another parade with people dressed in Renaissance garb. Again, I have yet to ascertain the occasion for the parade. That’s the second seemingly unmotivated parade I’ve seen in two months.

I visited the Boboli Gardens with my comedy class. They're incredible. And I've realized that the only time I see trees in Florence is when I'm in a garden. I miss foliage.

I also went to a an artisan's workshop with my Italian class and we learned about etching. Kind of neat.

I went to Torino for the Torino Film Festival and the city is beautiful. We had clear views of the snow-capped Alps and the streets were strung with Christmas lights. We visited the National Film Museum, which is now my favorite museum of all time. It had cameras from the development of cinema, the earliest shorts, movie paraphernalia, and some really interesting exhibits on special effects. I could have spent a week in there, but unfortunately we only had a couple of hours. You can also take a glass elevator (it’s very Willy Wonka) up to the top of the tower and see a gorgeous view of Turin.

This was Marilyn Monroe's bustier.

And an original script of Citizen Kane.

Chewy!

And a gremlin from Gremlins 2.

I saw Roman Polanski this weekend. I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity since he’s not allowed in the United States. He was very small and very arrogant. But the man does know how to make a darn good film.

I saw some movies from the British Renaissance (the late 70s, early 80s), some by Polanski, and some new films that were in the competition. We had passes that let us into as many movies as we wanted. It was a cinophile's wet dream. I didn’t want to leave. Also, Ferrero Rocher sponsored it we got tons of free chocolate. And apparently, they’re the company who makes Nutella, so they also gave us these great little snacks called Nutella & GO! that are basically tubs of Nutella with dipping sticks. So good.

And here are some videos from inside the awesome interactive exhibits in the film museum. On the left, I'm inside a Camera Obscura and on the right I'm Elliot from ET!