where they make the cheese!

YESTERDAY we had our welcome dinner at a very delizioso restaurant – we had four courses and some Italian vino (part of my education of Italian culture of course) and I ate like 2 pieces of chocolate cake (very small pieces) because people didn’t want theirs. DUMB. But awesome? For me!

TODAY we had to navigate our way through the Italian post office to pay our permits of stay for the time we’re here. IT WAS SO FUN. First, you take a ticket to get in line (blue for paying things, green for mailing packages) and then you wait and look at this screen which tells you what number is being served and at which ticket counter. It was basically a game of running around and it was very silly.

ALSO we had our second class – in the Uffizzi, which is the National Painting Gallery in Florence. We saw up close and learned molto about the transition from Byzantine to Gothic to Renaissance style, da Vincis, Bottecellis, Michelangelos, all while viewing them in hallways lined with nude men! Oh how they loved those Greco-Roman sculptures. We got to see The Birth of Venus, and the painting that changed how da Vinci’s teacher regarded his own career. Basically he saw the figure that da V had painted and said he was done for life because Leo had surpassed him in talent. It was really interesting because you could definitely tell the differences between the different figures, and da V’s was definitely the best. Pretty sweet.

ALSO ALSO we had a freak thunderstorm/hailstorm which was odd. We caught a bus before we got too drenched but it came out of nowhere. I went to Italy, not England. Come on now.

We’re planning on a nice quiet night by the Arno and Ponte Vecchio, and tomorrow are thinking of going to Fiesole, which is a little hilltop village about half an hour away. Already it will be good to get away from the city – it sometimes feels like there’s nothing to do but shop – so it will be nice to get a change of scenery.

PS I finally had some gelato 2 days in. MENTE! Mint! In a cone because it was cheaper. LIKE YOU CARE!