Winning some battles, but losing the war

Pretty typical Monday. First up was Italian. We learned some food vocabulary and went to the market. I hadn't been to the market before, so it was quite an interesting experience. It's a HUGE building with vendors selling everything from fruit to wine, fish, cheese. EVERYTHING. The downstairs, which was mostly meat, cheese, etc. admittedly smelled pretty bad, but the upstairs, mostly produce, was an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, though, I found another enemy in the war against my figure: this delicious dried, candied fruit from the market. YUM. (I mean, I've already called it quits on Nutella, and cut back to an occasional gelato, and then this comes along! UGH.)

Back to the apartment for awhile for lunch and a little internet, then I had to head back to school for Religion and Mafia. Nothing much exciting to report from either of those, except for the group assignment for Mafia. I formed a group with a couple of girls I've been sitting next to and we picked Women in the Mafia for our topic for presentation. Pretty cool. :)

I got back from class, and Julia had some supper waiting for me! She's the best! :) After I ate, we changed and headed to a club called Bebop, which has open mic night on Mondays, to listen to her friend Mitch play guitar and sing.

Tuesday started with a trip to the Bargello sculpture museum (a palace turned meeting place, turned prison/torture chamber/execution hall, turned exhibition venue, turned sculpture museum) with my Renaissance Art class. I would love to show you pictures, but again, they frown upon that. I didn't think my teacher would appreciate my attempts at sneak attacks during class. :) Some of the highlights of the trip included Donatello's bronze David & marble St. George, Brunelleschi & Ghiberti's original competition panels (from the competition for the Baptistery Doors), and Michaelangelo's Bacchus.

Then, we went to the Orsan Michele (a marketplace turned granary, turned church/museum) to check out the sculptures in the niches on the outside of the building.



When the building was turned into a church, each niche was sponsored by a guild (workers' organization) from Florence. The guilds commissioned an artist to sculpt their parton saint or other figure for their niche.


This one is the Wool Merchants' guild's, which has a statue of St. John the Baptist (sculpted by Ghiberti, the same guy that did the Baptistery Doors). This was a very wealthy guild, which also sponsored the San Miniato church and the Baptistery. (The woman in the bottom of the picture is my teacher! She's really cool!)


This one is a statue of St. Mark the Evangelist, sculpted by Donatello for the Linen Weaver's guild. This one has an interesting story (sorry if I'm boring you all with all this art history, but I think it's cool!)- when Donatello finished the statue, the head of the guild (while looking at the sculpture on the ground) told him the proportions were off, and it would have to be fixed before it could be placed in the niche. Donatello promised the guild to fix it, but proceeded to place it in the niche without alteration, knowing perfectly well that once it was placed in the niche, about 8 feet off the ground, the proportions would look correct. And he was right- they thanked him for fixing it.


This last one is St. George, sculpted by Donatello for the Armorers' Guild. The bottom panel tells the story of St. George, a knight who killed a dragon and saved the princess (a little cliche, but we'll go with it, lol). And just to make a note of this, all of these sculptures are copies. The originals are in museums, as I noted earlier that I saw this sculpture of St. George at the Bargello.

After Art, I had Ballet. We got into some really tricky combos today. I would also like to note that my teacher definitely thinks I am more flexible that I actually am, because when we were working on arabesque positions, she kept pulling my leg farther and farther. And she mostly does this to me! I don't know why! lol. But I'm a little worried that one of these days she's going to break me! :) But she's a sweet lady, and I have a lot of fun in her class. :)

I met Brian on my way back from Ballet, so we ran and got a quick panini from a shop near his and Brent's apartment and then hung out for awhile. Julia and I are thinking of going to Sienna this weekend, and Brent and Brian might join us! Fun! :)

When I got back to the apartment, Shannon, Marla and I all finally sat down and booked our flights to Sardinia, a sunny island off the coast of Italy, for our trip in April. All this traveling! Exciting!

The weather is BEAUTIFUL today, but I think I might need to take a nap. Didn't sleep too well last night, and I need to rest up for tonight. Andrea invited us to a party at Borgo Antico for Mardi Gras.

Ciao!