Florence, Fiesole and Prato, Monday, November 21, 2005

Florence, Fiesole and Prato

[Monday, November 21, 2005 // 2:14pm]

[ mood | happy ] [ music | 80s music. Naturally. ] Pft to 1,50E an hour for internet; today we trotted up to the Monash Centre in Prato and we get internet for FREE. Hurrah! Am therefore providing you with this second update. So it got colder. So what? I hate you all, with your silent 'I told you so's' and your stares of accusation. GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE. Not really. Come back. I love you and crave your approval. SO. I believe last time we spoke it was Saturday afternoon. After leaving the internet cafe, we returned to the hotel and watched Italian MTV (I'm ABSORBING POPULAR CULTURE, OK?!) which was HILARIOUS. It had several middle aged men with startling eyebrows doing some sort of choreographed clapping. Also they have ads for Green Day's 'Bullet in a Bible', but they say it in a really thick Italian accent. I guess you have to be there. Went out for dinner again, and did not have cream pizza; had ham and mushroom pizza, which was very nice although less interesting. The wine was hideous. Tasted like cask wine apparently, although I've never had cask wine, so I wouldn't know. Yesterday was BRILLIANT. It was sunny, but freezing - the tops of the cars were frosted over. We started with a walk to the topographical museum, which was really interesting. We were mainly focussing on the Chain map of Florence - or a replica at least; the real one is in Germany - but they also had some Roman artifacts and that painting of the burning of Savonarola, which I've seen reproduced so many times it was fantastic to see it in the flesh/canvas/whatevershutup. It's a TINY museum and really quiet. Noone else was there. But yeah. Interesting. After that we walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to Fiesole. We lost one of our people along the way - Raph has caught a virus of some sort and has apparently been throwing up non-stop, prompting Michael, who is sleeping about thirty centimentres away from him (the beds are very close) to stock up on vitamin supplements. So he went home and Hannah accompanied him. BTW, there are two Hannah's, so Hannah is the tutor, and Hannah S. is the student, OK? Oh, which reminds me, Hannah Fulton, the tutor, is an ex-Tintern girl! Tintern is totally rocking the Renaissance. ANYWAY. After a quick coffee stop (by which I mean most people had coffee and I ate a pear and fed the core to the pigeons, whilst fending off a man trying to give me free Christian literature) we caught the bus. The views up the hill into Fiesole were incredible. Fiesole is this hill town above Florence. It's an ancient Etruscan settlement, so it's older than Florence, and it was used by the Romans as a defence point - y'know, being on a hill and all. So we got up there and climbed a bit of a hill to a viewing area to look down on Florence. Not in a patronising way. In an admiring and affectionate way. I took pictures, but you can't see much. Unfortunately, the valley was very misty, but we could still make out the Duomo, and while we were up there we could hear the Campanile, and the hills on Florences other side were just rising out of the mist. It was very beautiful. Camilla used it as an opportunity to talk about Florence as a state rather than a city. It's all much realer when you're there. After she finished talking, we were free to do what we wanted and make our way back to Florence at our own leisure. People were doing that standing in circles and not deciding things thing that people do, so I headed up the hill to see if there was anything interesting, and discovered when I got to the top that Lydia and Michael came too, and also there's a monastery of St. Francis up there. We were there just before midday prayer, so they let us see the chapel, which was just lovely. There were four or five paintings by semi-famous Renaissance paintings in there, and also the pillars were painted with pictures of different saints, including St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who is my patron (confirmation) saint. We were politely shuffled out ater not-enough-time, and it seemed disrespectful to take photos, so I might have to head up for a full day some time, and look at things more closely, not down what the painting are etc. I have a couple of photos of the outside of the monastery. After leaving the chapel, we went into the gift shop (yeah, I know) and accidentally met Penny, Hazel and Angela (who is Aron's mother). We headed down the hill together and tried to get into the Roman ruins, but it was 4,50E and we were told they weren't really worth it, so we just kind of jumped a bit to see over the fence, then went and had lunch. Caught the bus back down to Florence and Hazel and I had a bit of a wander and took tons of photos, as it was blue skies. Started at Il Duomo and wandered through the more touristy areas to the Ponte Vecchio, where we crossed over to the Oltrano. The Oltrano is MUCH nicer than Florence Proper. Much quieter and whatever. I had been told that it was where you'd find 'real' Florentines - although our tutors tell us that 'real' Florentines don't exist, and that you have to go to Prato. The main difference I found between the people in the Oltrano and the people in Florence Proper was that the English speaking tourists are more strongly present in Florence proper. The only people who would think that the Oltrano isn't as touristy are the people who can't tell French and Spanish tourists from locals. It was PACKED with French and Spanish tourists. Took a wander down San Iacopo, as we have to write an essay on it, and happened accidentally across the Harvest Market, which was actually really gorgeous. There was a gypsy woman playing an accordian and making puppets dance, so I took a photo, even though Hazel informed me that her mother wouldn't approve. We went up and had a look at the Pitti palace as well, which is really quite mind blowingly BIG. We didn't go inside - we do that with the class later on - but it was worth just standing in its shadow and feeling small. Went back to the hotel when the light started to fade and watched MTV again. It was '80s afternoon, so lots of Depeche Mode and Bangles and whatever. Made fun of hilarious mullets until Hazel fell asleep. Went out to dinner around eight with a whole group of others, and deviated from the pizza trend by getting gnocchi, which were delicious. Was sitting across from Bri, who told me about her room mate back home who went bush diving (it's when you dive into bushes along the side of the road apparently. Please make sure Lachie, Ladouche etc never find out about this) and put a hole in her, em, cheek, which she didn't notice until the next day because it miraculously missed all the nerves. She apparently got laughed at quite a lot in the hospital. Went out for gelati with Penny, Hazel, Katrina and Lydia afterwards, as the rest of the girls (bar Angela of course) were going back to the hotel to change into their 'club clothes' for a night on the town. As Penny summarised it, "Oh for goodness' sake." Returned home and Penny stayed for a visit and made us tea that tasted like unspeakable things. This morning we had off, so naturally we accidentally all woke up at 6.30. Katrina went to Prato early with Penny and Michael. Hazel and I had a late breakfast (I am getting increasingly stealth about stealing breakfast food for lunch. CUSTARD PASTRIES. How am I meant to resist? Plus it make me think of Abuela. :D) and then went up to the room. Rocky (Rochelle. But Rocky) came to visit so we could go shopping, but Hazel got a nosebleed, so we waited until it slowed to non-life-threatening speeds, then went to the supermarket under Santa Maria Novella without her. Bought lots of food, juice and water. Almost noone is drinking the hotel water, which I don't understand. I mean, it doesn't taste GREAT, but it doesn't make you sick either. ANYWAY. Met down in the foyer for the trip to Prato. The train was late, so we loitered quite a bit. Michael and Raph weren't there, so there was only one boy, and Myra and Di, two of the three older women on the course weren't there either, so it was a group of predominantly young females in a group. And there were Italian soldiers at the station. They weren't on duty or anything. They were waiting for a train. And they spotted us, and their eyes lit up. They quite literally started circling part of out group (the part without the tutors, Aron or Angela) and eventually started chatting to Leah. As is my wont in such situations, I made a fast exit and joined the other group, and Hazel followed me. I mean, they weren't even good looking. Leah got a number though. Hee! Spoke to her afterwards, and apparently she told them we were all married. As you do. Caught the train and here we are, at the end of the entry. Sorry it was such a long one. You could've skipped it though if you didn't want to read it, so really, it's ALL YOUR FAULT. I love you anyway though. Special shoutouts to everyone who's been commenting.