Today's Installment
Here is my cute little room in the villa. I have a VCR and DVD but no cable TV. Only some very blurry Italian station.
View from San Miniato.
I know that some of you are staring at the computer, waiting with coffee cup in hand for me to write another update on the Italian adventure. First the updates…no duomo steps for me, I am not hauling these canned hams up 500 steps. I don’t think that they have oxygen waiting every hundred steps. However, Bweave does continue to keep the cool-o-meter on its highest setting. Also, my reports are that the “we got married in Switzerland” couple seems to be lying their way through all the Student Services personnel. They will get caught!
Wednesday night we went to the Bible School in Scandicci that Avanti Italia runs. They had cooked hotdogs and hamburgers and the students just loved it. They also had some good cheese dip along with some Rice Krispy Treats. However, I think that the best item on the menu was the oven roasted potatoes that Lauren Freels made. They were amazing! She had cut about 20 pounds of potatoes into spears, sprinkled the pan with olive oil, then sprinkled rosemary over them….the best ones were crispy on the bottom and kinda stuff to the pan….YUMMY!
I am afraid that yesterday might disappoint some of you. It was a calm rainy day at the villa. No one came downstairs in the their pjs. No one tried to slice their tongue off by licking the Nutella knife (the knives we use here are like steak knives and someone that many of you know did that last week. I told that person that if she sliced her tongue off that I would NOT rush her to the hospital!!). We spent yesterday just recovering from the whirlwind of the last few days.
Today was museum marathon day. Academia was first. While we were waiting in line some Americans approached me to ask if they were in the right line for reservations. I suppose that I now look so Italian and so sure of myself that they just knew I knew what was going on…of course, I didn’t but I told them that Tracy would be right back and could help them. In the meantime I asked where they were from and two couples were from Navarro County, Texas. My home! They actually lived at Richland-Chambers Creek and when I asked if they ever ate at the St. Elmo One-Stop they said they lived around the corner from it. Then I had to tell them that Gerry Harris and I had known each other from the crib up. They were so excited and had to write my name down. They said that they had just send Gerry a postcard because he puts them on a bulletin board in the restaurant side. I just love it that people in Firenze, Italia know Gerry Harris at the St. Elmo One-Stop.
After doing the Academia and the David we walked down the street to San Marco. It is one of my favorites and I am not sure why. It is just a little out of the way and out of the throngs of people who are scrambling to see the other big name sites in Florence. While sitting in the beautiful, peaceful courtyard I looked down to see this…it cracked me up! The good news is that this is NOT one of our girls!
Lunch for the faculty (that would be me), the tour guide and Tracy was at Gozzi Sergio Trattoria. Really good food at a reasonable price. The roasted pork had the most wonderful flavor. For future reference, it is right behind San Lorenzo market, just past the leather stores.
This afternoon, was San Lorenzo church, old Sacristy, and the Medici chapel I saw Reagan’s favorite Michelangelo sculpture, Night and Day.
There was a bus strike today in Florence. But some busses were still running and some were running but they wouldn’t pick anyone up. They are so unusual with their striking protocol. We rode busses in and make it just in time for the 9:15 am strike (isn’t that an unusual time to begin a strike!) and we had rented a charter bus to get us home. It was a good day and I am tired!
posted by BW @ 1:27 PM
6 Comments:
How well we remember that little room at the Villa!! Of course we didn't have any electrical appliances in the window. There was only one TV at the entire Villa and that was in the wine cellar (oops, I should have said basement) and it could only play the several VHS tapes that were there. How times have changed! But if I remember right, there was little time to watch it anyway. Glad things are going great! I'm headed off to Ole Miss for the Reunion and I will tell everyone (with a slightly greenish tint) that you are spending the semester in Italy!
i think there is something people give off when they are from a region, so that others from that region will recognize them. i have no idea what it is, but those women from augusta, ar came right up to me to ask me to explain something while i was in pisa! so crazy!
and also, i do love michelangelo's night and day....day more so than night.
I feel slighted...i didn't get an invitation to the reunion at Ole Miss or was it a Speech reunion? Of course, I have to admit that when I've gotten all the others from the Student Center, I've never gone so maybe they just gave up on me.
It is neat to meet people from home when you are far away. It's always a disappointment if I don't!
I don't think I've ever seen Michelangelo's Night and Day...maybe one day I'll get to, but probably not on this next trip to Italy.
Reagan is coming to spend the night with me in a few days and I am anxious to talk to her and find out who these "unnamed" people are...not that I will know any of them anyway.
I'm going to my cousins wedding tomorrow. she is the one who stood in line all night long to see the Pope when he died and then they closed the line just as she was getting close enough that she thought she might get to see him. I'll be sure to tell her that I'll get a good look at the Vatican and Cisten Chapel for her when I am there in November.
Tammie...it is a COMD reunion. I have never even received an invitation from the Student Center. Oh well. I am in Italy. Reagan can fill you in!
Much love to you!
You are right about waiting for the posts, only no coffee cup for me...thanks for the great stories and info. Jons very short e-mail said he was stressed. Maybe that slower, rainy day helped them catch up. He'll have to adapt to moving quickly and often, it seems ever busy from my recollection. Keep up the good work and the posts!
Just for the record, I didn't go to Tammie's cousin's wedding today. Mike James did and they think he is wonderful. Joe and I played hookey by going fishing on the White River in Arkansas. Does that make us red necks? Reagan, I think we saw your Augusta, AR ladies today because they asked me to explain something about the fishing.
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