NellItalia: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Firenze

A classmate got locked in a monastery with priests who are under a vow of silence! No, that's not a bad attempt at a joke. That actually happened. This semester abroad is increasingly paralleling the story line of Euro Trip meets American Pie meets Epic Movie meets a tiny bit of Breakfast Club (seeing as I've only seen that last one, this is mostly based on conjecture, but let's just pretend for excitement's sake).

So we took Firenze (Florence for all of you still learning Italian-speak) by storm the weekend of February 5th, and it was a fantastic trip if there ever was one. On the drive up, we stopped at said monastery, which was a greatly educational combination of both art and architecture - the ancient frescos and architecture of the individual priests' apartments were unlike anything I've seen. Once we got into the city itself, we made an immediate ascent to the duomo (dome) - designed by Brunelleschi - of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. After gazing upon the stunning view overlooking all of Florence, we made our way over to the Uffizi Gallery, which houses some of the most spectacular artwork of the Medici era onward. The rest of our day was spent wandering and exploring, including meeting up with a friend from back home who's studying in Florence for the year. A group of us wound up dining at a wonderful little restaurant, ZaZa's, where I ordered the traditional Tuscan ribollita, a bread and vegetable soup that frankly rocked my world. Our second day in Firenze started out with a trip to the Museo Zoologico, housing one of the most extensive - and really flipping creepy - taxidermical collections in the world as well as an entire section of extremely realistic wax human figures, in every medical breakdown imaginable. After that, we grabbed lunch at a little trattoria called Dante's, where I got possibly the best vegetable pizza I've ever eaten. We spent the rest of our visit cramming as much locale-hopping as possible, of course including a stop at the Accademia: home to the one and only David by Michelangelo. Though ridiculously different from Roma, I know I wasn't the only one in our group that enjoyed the experience of an alternate student-geared Italian city, and can't wait for our trip back up to Tuscany later in the semester.

The following Friday (February 11th), a group of us had the special honor of attending a private wine- and food-tasting at Renato E Luisa, one of the best restaurants in the heart of Rome that also just so happens to be literally across the street (if you can even call it that - more like literally right out the door) of our palazzo. Well technically, we were the second group to go, since they had to split the Cornell program into two separate Friday's so we'd all be able to go. Let's put it this way: Renato E Luisa has spoiled any food with cheese for me permanently. Yeah. It was that good. We started off with the owner himself explaining the proper etiquette for wines and how to gain a proper understanding of them. After pushing our temptation to the last possible limitation (aka 45 minutes of torturous talk of food and drink later ), we started out with baked balls of cheese covered in honey, as well as extremely thin rolls of beef with a soft cheese placed in the center. This was paired with a fantastic spumante (sparkling wine): very light, very sweet, and oh so good. Our second course started with cheese-filled zucchini flowers - something I had never tried but now can't stop dreaming about - and prosciutto paired with a plum/prune. Say that 5 times fast, I dare ya. This was sampled with a very dry, deep red wine - more robust than any wine I've ever had (which is none because I'm not 21 and have definitely never had wine before or anything) and yet complemented this second dish perfectly. Finally, the meal was rounded out with the most phenomenal crepe I've ever eaten - overflowing with cheese and mushrooms, it was actually something to die for. But for real. When paired with the crisp, moderate white wine they served? Nothing short of perfection. And with that, I'll move on before you and I both ruin the keyboards salivating.

The next day, we drove on over to Palestrina/Villa Adriana. Though only about an hour trip outside of central Rome, it's like stepping into an alternate universe. We visited the Museo Nazionale Prenestino, where we saw a great collection of antiquity artworks, including one of the few complete Roman mosaics depicting the flooding of the Nile. After lunch it was onward to the Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa), a retreat space for the emperor Hadrian built during the 2nd century AD. Let me tell you, the number of times I've dreamt of what the Secret Garden must look like is more than a little embarrassing, but this is about as close as I've ever gotten. So now that you know I'm secretly a ten year old...stretching for what seems like forever, the ruins are still in surprisingly good shape for being, y'know, almost 2000 years old and all. There are several water sources that accent the architectural structures, and this former empirical haven is still as serene as one would imagine it was back in the 130's AD.

Look, I promise I'm not stopping writing now because I'm tired and can't think of any other adequate synonyms for descriptive adjectives. It's just that I think the 947-some pictures (sadly that's the exact number of new photos iPhoto uploaded two days ago) I've taken in the past weeks deserve an equal amount of attention. Those fameseekers.

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The monastery right outside Florence:

inside the chapel:

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FIRENZE

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Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

climbing up to Il Duomo of Santa Maria

YS, I hope your wish comes true one day

view of Firenze from the top!

graffiti and engravings covered every spare inch of the Basilica/Duomo...

don't worry, he meant to be the odd man out

copy of David, nbd

friends and Florence, nothing beats it

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Day Two in Florence: Museo Zoologico

***the following images are wax figurines. Realistic, but not real (trust me, I would've been outta there before we'd set foot in the lobby if they were real)***