where they make the cheese!

OK BAD NEWS, EVERYONE.
They were sold out of soccer tickets! We went a couple days ago and could not for the life of us find the stupid ticket office because the guys at the hotel front desk didn’t give us a street to look on, so we kept asking at bars who just told us to buy them there at a higher price, which we were not favorable towards. SO TODAY we looked up where to go and when it was open and we just went over there and they were SOLD OUT. SO SAD! I bought a Firenze shirt for NOTHING. Except wearing it outside of the stadio, I guess.

So let’s see. Yesterday we went into Santa Croce, a church where many famous people are buried, such as Michelangelo and Galileo. Dante is NOT buried there. In case you wanted to know. There is a cenotaph for him, and a lot of people think they’ve seen his tomb but they HAVEN’T. There were these sweet private chapels on the sides of the high altar owned by mad wealthy families, and this famous artist named Giotto decorated them. They were so cool; one of them was the Life and Times of St. Francis (not his real name! did you know that? I didn’t) and the other was some St. John the Baptist action. Giotto was a beast and was doing all these revolutionary ideas with his paintings, like animation and facial expression. There was another section painted by one of Giotto’s students depicting the Life and Times of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was equally cool (forse only when you have Rocci telling you anecdotes and what every little symbol means) because they told like the apocryphal stories of her growing up. Very very fun class, although it was long, because we had sat in the sun in the piazza outside of the church for two hours (legitimately) because we had nothing better to do than people watch. That itself was sweet because there was this group of musicians who came and played for at least an hour and they were mad good. I kept seeing couples dancing in the piazza and it was terribly cute.

TODAY we went to the Bargello Museum, the national sculpture museum. That is where Donatello’s bronze David is located, but it was being restored. Good news was it was being restored in the museum; bad news (or good news I guess?) was that he was face down on a table so we had an excellent view of his bum and not a lot else. Still, the symbolism with that statue alone made it a good class, not to mention we saw the Competition Panels for the Baptistery doors (to figure out who would decorate the doors to the building opposite the Duomo, they had a competition, and the finalists were Brunelleschi and Ghiberti – Bru lost but went on to be the mastermind behind the actual dome).

IT’S SUCH A GREAT CLASS.

Afterwards we went shopping (didn’t buy anything) and came back to the hotel. I got a phone! Or more specifically, my mommy called ATT a bazillion times and got my phone unlocked so I bought a SIM card and whatnot. Incoming phone calls and texts are free for me so if you really love me…Jay kay but seriously do it.

I can’t believe stupid soccer is sold out! No one even likes soccer here. I think we decided instead we’re going to take a bus to somewhere in the Chianti region and try to find a vineyard or do wine tasting or something. We are in Tuscany – it’s like a problem if you DON’T do that.

I’M REALLY HUNGRY. I want dinner; still have 45 minutes. Alas and alack. Hope life is great!

PS. September 17 is a good day <3