Buongiourno...
The tour of Italy is over. I learned quite a bit on the tour, about Italy, history, people I work with and about myself. It was a pretty emotional experience. But it has created a dream for me to strive towards in that I want to live in Florence.
I'm in the Netherlands now and will be back in the Bay Area by April Fool's Day.
This is from a page out of my tour diary I wrote to Kiki. So cop a squat and relax...it's a long one...
March 12 10:46pm
OK...how do I start this one...
First off, this was probably the most enjoyable day I have had in ages!
After we checked into our hotel rooms in Prato, about 17 of us hopped on the train and went to Florence (or Firenze in Italian). Once we we arrived, we waited around for about a half hour to see which train to catch back to Prato.
We then set off for the Acadamia which houses the statue of David by Michaelangelo. I must admit that at first I was kinda ho-hum about coming to see it (I was dying to get to the Piazza della Signoria) but when we arrived there and saw it...WHOA! It was pretty intense. We were referring to him as the "pee-pee man" because his dick was so prominant! Even his pubes looked as if they were cut, blow-waved and nicely moussed! lol
In the next room were all\of these plaster sculptures that were the mock-ups for the marble sculptures they were to become. These were probably my favorite part of the museum. There were 100's of busts there (none of whom I recognized). and then there were a few deathbed scenes which I really liked.
Upstairs were mostly religious oriented paintings. The most intense was of Christ's decension from the cross. There were these two women at his side, one was Mary Magdalene and the other I am not sure who she was but she had the most intense expression of pain on her face I had seen in the entire building. I told Nicole, one of the dancers, that and she said she was thiking the exact same thing.
There was this angel or something blowing a horn into Jesus' ear. Jo Ellen commented on this saying "my god, that horn is RIGHT in his ear!" and then Lee, another dancer, said "can you hear me..................can you hear me now..............?" It was pretty hilarious. Maybe you had to be there.
After we left the acadamie, we headed towards the town center. This area was covered with tourists (and most of them being americans). We walked through the market which was kinda cool. I bought a Firenze t-shirt for my mother as well as some cards.
After the market, we came the beautiful Duomo. This was a huge cathedral that was started in 1295 and took until the 19th century to complete. Looking down upon it from the sky, it is literally shaped like a flower. The center of the flower is the main cathedral. There are five petals which are seperate smaller chapels. and the main hall is the stem. There is a big stairway (which I did NOT attempt to climb!) that leads to the top of the dome. It is made up of 436 steps! The ceiling of the dome, of course is fully painted.
After we left the Duomo we headed towards the Piazza della Signoria. The fountain there was really cool and the scupltures...MAN!!! There was one of Perseus beheading Medusa that was INCREDIBLE! Probably my favorite site of the trip.
At the side of the Piazza was a street that was lined with sculptures. There was a street mime painted gold who a few people posed with for pictures. After I took a few shots of them, I tipped him 2 euros and shook his hand.
We headed to the river, which was another mad house. The bridge that crossed it had nothing but jewelery shops on both sides of the street. There was one shop called "Vincenti" that I HAD to have my picture taken in front of.
Crossing back on a different bridge to make our way towards the train station, we saw our poster on a sidestreet so I stopped to take a picture of everyone in front of it. It was so cool to see.
We then we stopped at a small cafe. The guy running the place was AWESOME. He spoke perfect english and we stayed and chatted with him for about an hour. He was telling me what living situations were like in Florence and that it wasn't really expenssive. OK so now I want to live in the south of france AND Florence!
Next stop was to the gelateria. Oh, we could not leave Florence without having any gelato! I had hald Cioccolato (chocolate) and Crema (like french vanilla). Yummy yummy!
We walked back through the market and did some more shopping. Then it was back to the train station.
The train was crowdeed so we had to scatter for seats. We found a six person compartment where two people already were. As we sat down, I said to Pedro, "so how was YOUR day, today?" Then the little girl sitting next to me said all of a sudden, "oh my god, are you guys Americans?!?!" It was the cutest thing. Turns out she is a 17 year old exchange student from Baltimore and has been here for 8 months already. We had a great little conversation with her. She was really sweet.
After we got back to the hotel, Pedro and I went to the restaraunt around the corner. We had our first pizzas here! It was so good Pedro ordered another. Instead of another, I ordered a profiterole. Man, it was good! I saw the waiter grab a bottle of wine and I assumed it was for another customer. Then he put the glass in front of me and said "this goes GREAT with chocolate". Now everyone knows I don't drink and can't stand alchohol. I didn't want to insult him buy not drinking it so I asked Pedro to drink it. He took a sip of it and commented that it was a bit strong. So he put it down and I was thinking he no longer wanted it. I was drinking a coke so I drank most of it and then poored the wine in with th coke to make it look as if I had drank the wine. Bad move. As I poured the wine in the waiter walked by! BUSTED! Pedro saw and started laughing then he went back eating. I started to feel REALLY bad so I said fuck it and drank the cola-wine concoction in one gulp. YUCK!!! By this time Pedro was on the floor laughing at me and I was turning three shades of green. Soon after I started belching and couldn't stop. I felt SO embarressed but I do have to admit it WAS kinda funny...
The From-Me-to-You songs for the moment:
"Running Down" by Mandalay (for the city of Rotterdam at 4am
"Prince Rupert" by And Also the Trees (for the city of Florence)
"No One in the World" by Locust (just for its title alone)
"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush for Kiki (you can do it!)
and
"How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead (for me)
The ever big "what-up" to papawheelie,
and
and 
's to Stina, BoundByTies, Friday, Thora, Thursday, Voltaire, and my new friend RoseMarie
The tour of Italy is over. I learned quite a bit on the tour, about Italy, history, people I work with and about myself. It was a pretty emotional experience. But it has created a dream for me to strive towards in that I want to live in Florence.
I'm in the Netherlands now and will be back in the Bay Area by April Fool's Day.
This is from a page out of my tour diary I wrote to Kiki. So cop a squat and relax...it's a long one...
March 12 10:46pm
OK...how do I start this one...
First off, this was probably the most enjoyable day I have had in ages!
After we checked into our hotel rooms in Prato, about 17 of us hopped on the train and went to Florence (or Firenze in Italian). Once we we arrived, we waited around for about a half hour to see which train to catch back to Prato.
We then set off for the Acadamia which houses the statue of David by Michaelangelo. I must admit that at first I was kinda ho-hum about coming to see it (I was dying to get to the Piazza della Signoria) but when we arrived there and saw it...WHOA! It was pretty intense. We were referring to him as the "pee-pee man" because his dick was so prominant! Even his pubes looked as if they were cut, blow-waved and nicely moussed! lol
In the next room were all\of these plaster sculptures that were the mock-ups for the marble sculptures they were to become. These were probably my favorite part of the museum. There were 100's of busts there (none of whom I recognized). and then there were a few deathbed scenes which I really liked.
Upstairs were mostly religious oriented paintings. The most intense was of Christ's decension from the cross. There were these two women at his side, one was Mary Magdalene and the other I am not sure who she was but she had the most intense expression of pain on her face I had seen in the entire building. I told Nicole, one of the dancers, that and she said she was thiking the exact same thing.
There was this angel or something blowing a horn into Jesus' ear. Jo Ellen commented on this saying "my god, that horn is RIGHT in his ear!" and then Lee, another dancer, said "can you hear me..................can you hear me now..............?" It was pretty hilarious. Maybe you had to be there.
After we left the acadamie, we headed towards the town center. This area was covered with tourists (and most of them being americans). We walked through the market which was kinda cool. I bought a Firenze t-shirt for my mother as well as some cards.
After the market, we came the beautiful Duomo. This was a huge cathedral that was started in 1295 and took until the 19th century to complete. Looking down upon it from the sky, it is literally shaped like a flower. The center of the flower is the main cathedral. There are five petals which are seperate smaller chapels. and the main hall is the stem. There is a big stairway (which I did NOT attempt to climb!) that leads to the top of the dome. It is made up of 436 steps! The ceiling of the dome, of course is fully painted.
After we left the Duomo we headed towards the Piazza della Signoria. The fountain there was really cool and the scupltures...MAN!!! There was one of Perseus beheading Medusa that was INCREDIBLE! Probably my favorite site of the trip.
At the side of the Piazza was a street that was lined with sculptures. There was a street mime painted gold who a few people posed with for pictures. After I took a few shots of them, I tipped him 2 euros and shook his hand.
We headed to the river, which was another mad house. The bridge that crossed it had nothing but jewelery shops on both sides of the street. There was one shop called "Vincenti" that I HAD to have my picture taken in front of.
Crossing back on a different bridge to make our way towards the train station, we saw our poster on a sidestreet so I stopped to take a picture of everyone in front of it. It was so cool to see.
We then we stopped at a small cafe. The guy running the place was AWESOME. He spoke perfect english and we stayed and chatted with him for about an hour. He was telling me what living situations were like in Florence and that it wasn't really expenssive. OK so now I want to live in the south of france AND Florence!
Next stop was to the gelateria. Oh, we could not leave Florence without having any gelato! I had hald Cioccolato (chocolate) and Crema (like french vanilla). Yummy yummy!
We walked back through the market and did some more shopping. Then it was back to the train station.
The train was crowdeed so we had to scatter for seats. We found a six person compartment where two people already were. As we sat down, I said to Pedro, "so how was YOUR day, today?" Then the little girl sitting next to me said all of a sudden, "oh my god, are you guys Americans?!?!" It was the cutest thing. Turns out she is a 17 year old exchange student from Baltimore and has been here for 8 months already. We had a great little conversation with her. She was really sweet.
After we got back to the hotel, Pedro and I went to the restaraunt around the corner. We had our first pizzas here! It was so good Pedro ordered another. Instead of another, I ordered a profiterole. Man, it was good! I saw the waiter grab a bottle of wine and I assumed it was for another customer. Then he put the glass in front of me and said "this goes GREAT with chocolate". Now everyone knows I don't drink and can't stand alchohol. I didn't want to insult him buy not drinking it so I asked Pedro to drink it. He took a sip of it and commented that it was a bit strong. So he put it down and I was thinking he no longer wanted it. I was drinking a coke so I drank most of it and then poored the wine in with th coke to make it look as if I had drank the wine. Bad move. As I poured the wine in the waiter walked by! BUSTED! Pedro saw and started laughing then he went back eating. I started to feel REALLY bad so I said fuck it and drank the cola-wine concoction in one gulp. YUCK!!! By this time Pedro was on the floor laughing at me and I was turning three shades of green. Soon after I started belching and couldn't stop. I felt SO embarressed but I do have to admit it WAS kinda funny...
The From-Me-to-You songs for the moment:
"Running Down" by Mandalay (for the city of Rotterdam at 4am
"Prince Rupert" by And Also the Trees (for the city of Florence)
"No One in the World" by Locust (just for its title alone)
"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush for Kiki (you can do it!)
and
"How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead (for me)
The ever big "what-up" to papawheelie,
and
and 's to Stina, BoundByTies, Friday, Thora, Thursday, Voltaire, and my new friend RoseMarieVIEW 25 of 31 COMMENTS
beste groeten,
jimmyjoe snark III
we call that Kalimutcho.
(i'm really an alcoholic gril I think