Buona Pasqua (Assisi, Amy, and the Blowing Up of the Cart)

Buona Pasqua a Tutti!

Easter weekend was filled with tons of festivities in Florence. The weekend began when my good friend from home, Amy and her sister Allison, came to visit. Amy is studying abroad in France, and Allison is working in Switzerland. Allison arrived on thursday evening, so I got to spend some time with her that night, as well as during the day on friday. Amy arrived friday afternoon, so we met her as she got off the train at Santa Maria Novella. We had a really nice dinner on friday, and it was great to catch up/ hear about her completely different study abroad experience. Saturday they had plans to head to Cinque Terre, so I headed to Assisi with my friend Meagan for the day.

Assisi is a town in the Umbria region of Italy, about two hours away via train, and is known as the birthplace of St. Francis. The thing to see in Assisi is the Basilica of St. Francis. The cathedral contains his tomb, as well as beautiful frescos of his life by Giotto, an artist I have studied pretty extensively. The basilica in particular is something that we have studied, so it was really amazing to get to see it. Other than that, we wandered the streets, had a nice lunch, moseyed into a few churches, and listened to a man playing guitar in one of the main piazzas. The day was beautiful; the sun was shining and we were surrounded by a beautiful landscape. Because it was Easter weekend, and St. Francis is a very important figure for the Catholic faith, the town was lively with many tourists (mostly Italian) , creating a really great energy.

The Basilica

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is an extremely important day in Florence, filled with a grand celebration. A bunch of us in the Villa set off into the city around 9am for the events. The day starts with a parade throughout the city. There were flag twirlers, drums, piccolos, etc., and many people dressed in medieval garb. The parade ended in front of the Duomo, with a massive cart that is pulled by oxen into the piazza. At 11am a fake dove is flown from the Basilica doors to the cart that begins a massive fireworks show. This is traditionally called the "Blowing Up of the Cart," which is not quite what they do, but it's a pretty cool show. This tradition originated when the crusaders finally took over the city of Jerusalem. A Florentine soldier was said to bring back flints from the Holy Sepulchre which was used on Holy Saturday to light a fire and carried in a processional throughout the city. Later, they began using a cart to carry this relic throughout the town. The cart became more and more elaborate over the years, and in the 16th century, fireworks replaced the fire. Here are some pictures and a video of the event for you to see!

Amy and Allison visited that weekend, but my friend Erin from my public policy class was also in Florence that weekend. It was great to see a bunch of familiar faces!

Amy & Allison

Erin

On monday, we have a celebration of our own at the villa. We had an easter egg hunt in the formal gardens, followed huge lunch outside. The food included bruschetta, lamb, chicken, risotto, salad, beans, potatoes, and traditional easter cake called colomba.

Easter Egg Hunt

Pasquetta Lunch

Venice and Random Adventures

Since my last post, life has gone into hyper-speed mode, and it seems almost impossible to keep up with my blog (let alone my other work...). Since Paris, I've had a few fun trips. We took a day trip to Arezzo with Professor Mariotti (art history), and Professor Shank (Galileo). Mariotti gave us a great tour of the town, focusing on some amazing art by Piero della Francesca, Cimabue, and other masters we have studied. One of the greatest movements was seeing a crucifix done by Cimabue. The work sits above the altar of this completely deserted church. It was amazing to me to see this precious work of art in a church that people hardly visits. Italy is filled with lots of little treasures! This trip lasted the entire morning, and afterwards Professor Shank and his wife Carol invited us along with them to the town over called Sansepolcro. This town is the birthplace of Piero della Francesca, and had an awesome museum displaying more of his work. There were five of us that took Professor Shank up on his offer, which was amazing, because it was like we had our own private tour guide.

Arezzo

Cimabue's Crucifixion

Recently, I also took a day trip to another hill town called San Minato. My friend Sarah and I spent the day wandering in and out of churches, seeing the art museum, and had a nice sit down lunch of pasta with truffles. San Minato is known for their delicious truffle mushrooms! Another highlight of the trip was climbing the towns highest tower and seeing the view of the surrounding tuscan countryside. I swear this view will never get old!

The weekend of San Minato, the villa director, Helen, put on a cooking class for us. We learned how to make a basic red sauce, meet sauce, pesto, risotto, and this amazing apple cake. I have some amazing recipes that I cannot wait to impress you with when I get home!

Last weekend, our program had a scheduled trip to Venice, and let me just say, it was such a different experience from any of the other Italian town I have visited. Venice seemed like a dream world to me. You are constantly crossing over canals on tiny bridges, seeing gondolas pass by, and to top things off, the weather we had created a sort of foggy haze over the city that reminded me of a dream sequence in a movie. On our trip we visited the Academia Museum, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, had private boat ride, saw a glass blowing demonstration, toured the Palazzo Doge (The Dukes Palace), and St. Marks Basilica. The glass blowing demonstration was amazing! The man made a vase and a glass horse right in front of us, in a matter of minutes. It is crazy how quickly this man could create such intricate designs out of liquid glass; I will never look at a glass anything quite the same!

A bunch of us with Prof. Mariotti (in the middle)

Besides the glass blowing, the highlights of my trip included a lunch with my friends Hayley and Amanda alongside one of the many canals (great company, conversation, and scenery), and our private tour of the San Marco Basilica. The Basilica closes at 8pm, and we had the church all to ourselves after that (professor Mariotti has crazy connections!). When we walked into the main part of the cathedral all of the lights were turned off. As we walked down the aisle and took a seat in the pews, the lights slowly increased to reveal the detail of the surrounding space. The dim light continued to increase so slowly that when they were finally completely on, it took me a minute to realize it. As the light filled the massive space, it created this amazing shimmer on the gold tiles of the mosaic sealing, an experience I don't think words or pictures can do justice. There was something so spiritual and moving about this moment, and it's a feeling I will never forget.

My Weekend In Paris!

This past weekend I traveled with three girls, my roommates Savannah and Caroline, and our friend Molly, to Paris. We left late thursday afternoon and arrived at our hostel just late enough that we got settled and went to bed. Friday we got an early start to the day, and headed a little outside the city to see Versailles. The palace was spectacular, the gardens were beautiful, but what I enjoyed the most was Marie Antoinette's estate and Hamlet. What I loved most about her estate was the amazing detail. All of the molding to the beautiful chandeliers were awesome (mom you taught me well). The Hamlet is basically Marie Antoinette's fairytale land. She created this village in her backyard that is straight out of a picture book. I can only image spending my summers outside near the pond and in these cute little houses.

Versailles

The Versailles Gardens

After Versailles, we headed on the RER train back towards the city, grabbed something to eat, and headed to The Louvre. This is the largest museum I have ever seen, and it would be impossible to go through every exhibit, but we dedicated about 2 1/2 hours to it and ended up really seeing a lot of wonderful art. Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa, and spent a lot of time in the Italian art section. We also spent a good chunk of time in the French art section. After the Louvre, we found a little cafe, ordered crepes, and ended the night with a walk through the city, seeing the Eiffel Tower at night.

The Louvre

Saturday morning, we got an early start and headed towards the D'Orsay Museum. This art museum is not nearly as extensive as the Louvre, but I actually liked it better. They have a lot of famous paintings from works of Van Gogh, to Monet, to Degas, and it was really exciting to take a break from all the Maesta's and other religious paintings we study. The Museums in Paris are free to EU students, and if you have a student visa, that also you to get in free. However, we found out that your visa has to be for at least six months (and ours are for four). Some of the Museums (like Versailles) were very strict about this policy, but others were not. We got in free at the Louvre, and just barely got in for free at the D'Orsay. When we went to buy tickets, they told us just to show our passports when we headed in. We went to the entrance, and the man that checked Molly's let her straight through with no problem. The women who checked Caroline, Savannah, and my visa, were unfortunately not as nice. They told us to go back to the ticket office, but instead of doing this, went over to the man who let Molly through. We showed him our visas, and as the french women yelled at him, he mumbled something back in french, handed us tickets, and let us right in. Needless to say, the women were not happy.

After the D'Orsay we headed towards the Notre Dame Cathedral, and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering and exploring the city. That night, we spend exploring Montmarte, the part of the city where we stayed. We had dinner and just pretty much enjoyed seeing the lively city at night.

The Notre Dame

Sunday, we woke up, had breakfast, and check out of our hostel. From there, went to see the Moulin Rouge, and The Sacre Coeur Cathedral. Moulin Rouge was really not as impressive as I was expecting, but Sacre Coeur was a beautiful church at the top of the city, with a great view of all of Paris. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower, and climbed to the top. The Tower really is amazing, and it was very cool to see the entire city. We then got lunch, saw the Arc de Triomphe, and walked around the Champs Elysees. From there, we headed to the airport.

Moulin Rouge

The Sacre Coeur

Top of the Eiffel Tower

The Arc De Triomphe

It was an amazing weekend, and we saw sooo much in three days. Besides the sites, I had some crazy moments bumping into people. In the train station in Pisa (where we flew out of), I ran into my friend Kyra, who lived across the hall from me in DC last summer. She was headed to Prague for the weekend. On Friday night, while watching the lights of the Eiffel Tower sparkle, my friend Andrew, who also was in DC with me last summer and in my Public Policy class, came walking by with his friends. He is studying abroad in Prague, and happened to also be visiting Paris that weekend. Then, if that wasn't enough, I ran into another girl from UofM, Joelle, at the airport on the way home. She is studying in Barcelona, and had also been in Paris that weekend. It's amazing how small a world this really is!

A presto!

Danielle

Spring Break In Spain

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken such a long time, but writing a post about my entire spring break has seemed like a daunting task to take on. In 11 days I traveled through Barcelona, Sevilla, and Madrid, and saw/did a whole lot! In Barcelona I was with two other kids from my program, and for Sevilla and Madrid, we met up with one other person. I had a great time, and feel so lucky that I was able to experience something totally different from the world in Italy that I've become accustomed to.

Barcelona

Barcelona is a beautiful city right on the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona was a great change of pace because of its modern feel (nothing like Italy). We stayed in a hostel right on La Rambla, which was really convenient. While there, I went to the Picaso Museum, a museum in one of the famous Gaudi houses, saw the Olympic Stadium, Park Guelle, saw the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, walked along the beach, and just in general, explored the city. For those who don't know, Gaudi is an extremely famous architect, who designed many of the buildings in Barcelona. They are very modern looking, and just really cool. He designed the Sagrada Familia, as well as Park Guelle. One of the greatest things about this destination was that my friend Anne from UofM was visiting that weekend. It was really great to spend some time with her. Also, her boyfriend is studying there this semester, and he took us on a huge walking tour of the the city. We saw the gothic quarters, different churches, etc. etc.. It was really nice to be with someone who knew the city so well, and I definitely think I saw a lot more than I would have. On the last day we were there, we rented bikes and road along the beach. It was a really nice relaxing ending to our time in Barcelona.

Being super touristy on top of the Gaudi apartment/ museum

Anne & I in front of the Segrada Familia

Arc de Triomphe

Park Guelle

My travel buddies

Sevilla

Sevilla is much more like the Europe I have experience; cobblestone street, older buildings, and I thought it was just incredible. We were only there for about two days, but I could have stayed longer. Sevilla has the largest gothic-style cathedral in the world (also the third largest cathedral). We did a tour of the Cathedral and it was awesome! I think we spent about two hours there. One of the most famous parts of the church was the tomb of Christopher Columbus; I thought that was pretty cool to see. There is also this large tower that went to the top of and had a great view of the city. Other things we did in the city included seeing a flamenco show, walking and exploring the city, and we also got a chance to see my friend Gayle, who is studying there. It again, was great to see the city from the perspective of someone who is living there. One of the funniest things we did while in Sevilla was a free walking tour that our hostel offered. The "tour guide" was this loud Austrian woman, who I'm pretty sure just read about Sevilla on Wikipedia and then started giving tours. Not sure if it was the most worthwhile thing to do with our time, but we did get to see a lot of the city, so that was good.

Top of the Cathedral

Madrid

Madrid was probably my favorite city that we visited (which has for some reason surprised a lot of people). I really just enjoyed the amount of museums and things to see there. We went to three different art museums, The Prado, The Reina Sophia, and The Thyssen, all of which were awesome and had a large range of different types of art. We also took a tour of the royal palace, which was beautiful, and did a lot of walking around the city. Madrid is the capital of Spain, and know to be similar to a New York City type of a feel.

Train from Sevilla to Madrid

Outside the Royal Palace