Catch-up! Paulie, and Milano!!!

I can't believe I've got so behind!!! Alright -- here's an overview of what has happened in the fabulous life of your favorite want-to-be Florentina!

March 23rd - March 29th:

This week I was madly preparing for the emminent arrival of my favorite little brother! I had the opportunity to visit the Basillica of Santa Croce on Tuesday with a classmate, Chelsea (funded by Carlo!) to explore the various chapels, cloisters, etc for a paper we have to write. I saw the tomb of Galileo and Michelangelo, as well as tons of beautiful artwork! Unfortunatley some part of that church is always under construction, so our trip was somewhat marred by the proffusion of scaffolding, but we still had a great trip.

On Wednesday I visited the Bargello with Laura and Katie, and saw Donatello's newly restored David. I also dragged them all over the city in search of a birthday present for Evan -- which I accomplished!!! In the afternoon we had the opportunity to attend a symposium on public spaces put on by Syracuse University. Some of the lectures were in Italian, and sadly we came too late to get headsets with translations, but the parts that I *did* understand were very interesting! Unfortunatley, as these things go, it dragged on foreeeeeeeeeeeeever, so we left a little before the end when we were all getting to restless to listen properly.

On Thursday we went to Palazzo Davanzati with Carlo for my AII class -- this is my favorite Palazzo EVER!!!! It has all the original furnishings, and paintings and was so interesting to walk around! It even had a really old chest with the giant locking mechanism!! I dragged Paul back here a few days later, and took pictures - check them out! Afterwards we had a Treasurehunt in my Italian class. A group of five architects teamed up and the native Florentines had a fantastic time watching us run like madmen back and forth across the piazza fulfilling different tasks...We had to: Dress up Jarrod and take pictures, interview a Florentine, send a postcard, find out what the best-seller was in Edison (a bookstore) and figure out what it was about, and take a picture next to the lucky bronze pig. All in Italian, of course, and all before the other teams. Of course my team was far superior and we won!!!!!!! So Elena had chocolate eggs for all of us as a prize. :) Totally worth it...For studio we went on a trip to a newly constructed area of Florence that housed new University buildings, housing, and a new "Justice Palace" which we eventually figured out was a giant oversized courthouse....

On Friday we had our Florence Sprawl Tour with Franco for AIC. We got to visit the Highway church by Michelucci which had amazing concrete columns, and go shopping at the new Barberino design fashion outlet -- which had a chocolate outlet!!!! I was very happy.

On Saturday my little brother arrived!!!! We had a lot of fun walking through Florence and catching up for a few hours before he crashed, and we were up bright and early (daylight savings time = evvvvil.) to take the express train to Rome! We met Laelle and Mitch there and went straight to the Collosseum, which this time we got to go inside!!! It was a dream come true to actually be able to go THROUGH the colloseum, and Paul and I possibly went a liiiiitle photo happy....The we toured the Imperial Forum, and the Palatine Hill (where we had a fantastic photo opp posing as statues!) before heading up to St. Peters and the Vatican City. We tried to get into the Sistine Chapel, but were just a half hour too late, so we went up the cupola of St. Peter's instead, where we had a view of the ENTIRE city. We saw the Spanish steps, and the monster house(!), when it started CHUCKING it down, so we ducked into a cafe at the top of the Spanish steps...where Paul and I enjoyed the most EXPENSIVE sprite we've ever had....and then carried on, practically sprinting across Rome to see the Trevi Fountain before REALLY sprinting across the train station to get onto the train back to Florence...next time we're in Rome, we'll have to go to the Pantheon, Paul!

March 30th - April 5th:

On Monday, Paul and I went up to Piazzale Michangelo for a picnic, and around San Miniato, the church on top of the hill. While I was in class, he explored the city!!! Thankfully the weather held most of the time, and it wasn't too rainy...On Tuesday Paul went to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and played with all the machines, and on Wednesday we climbed the Duomo with Katie and Laura! During studio I had the chance to go around the new Piazza Alberti with the architect, Paolo, and tour his new project.

Thursday, after my Italian test, we took a bus to San Gimignano with Laura, explored the backstreets, and picked up a bottle of wine for Paul to take home to Mum and Dad (funny story about that...............). We made it back to Florence in time to take Paul to Family Dinner, where he met everyone, and Carlo even showed up for a short time at the end! Paul had his first (at least, it had better have been his first....) bar experience in the bar downstairs, and then we headed home to get some sleep before Friday's trip.

On Friday we took a train to Milan with my studio class and spent the day exploring the new Fiera Milano Complex that Carlo talked us into (!!!) and various other contemporary buildings. We took lots of breaks, and even got to play in the park for a little while!!! That night, Paul and I took the train home to Florence, where we got a few hours sleep, before heading to the airport at 4am to send him back home. P.s. you have no idea a suitcase rolling across cobblestones at 4am is.....really...I was afraid for our lives....After dropping Paul off, and seeing him through security, I took the early morning train back to Milan where I met up with the archies for another day of touring Milan. I was a wee bit tired by the time we got back to Florence that night -- but I had a fantastic time. :)

On Sunday I took Laura, Katie, Kelly, and Margaret with me on a hiking trip up around Settignano with Laelle, Mitch, and his friend Andy. It was a beautiful hike topped off by a delicious aperativo-style meal in a small cafe. Laelle and our hiking guide, Melissa left us 'kids' around 8 because of previous engagements, but we were having too much fun to go back that quickly. I'll write more about what we had once I get the list from Margaret or Laura......suffice it to say it was a small MOUNTAIN of food, and we were all stuffed by the time we caught the bus back home around 10. Once we got back to Florence we decided to go on a quest for gelato. We were probably out about the time the earthquake hit south of here, or maybe we were on the bus hurtling down the hill, but we didn't feel anything. A few friends felt it in their apartments, and things fell of shelves, but nothing like the one we made it through in Seattle all those years ago. Italy is in a period of mourning for the vicitims of the quake at the moment - - it was pretty nasty, and a lot of people died....

This week I've been working on catching up on things I put off while little brother was here...:) Only two weeks until studio presentation, and then just a week after that until I have to leave Florence!!! I've fallen in love with this city, and it will be really hard to leave....

This weekend the Youngs are here for Easter, and we're heading down to Siena for the day, today! Hopefully the weather will hold long enough for the easter parade and fireworks on Easter Sunday.

Buona Pasqua everyone!!!