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.