Feasting and Slumber Parties in Tuscany

(March 27-29th)

For our art history class, the program took us to Florence for the weekend-and that included another one of those delicious free (sort of) lunches.

Before lunch we went to see Masaccio and Masolino frescos in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine. We also checked out the Gates of Paradise and the Duomo, which I had seen before (over the summer with my family) but which took on a new meaning having learned about them in class.

Then it was FEAST TIME. For the first few free dinners, we were shy about ordering a lot. Yeah, it was free, but we didn’t want to seem too greedy or anything. But the professors told us that money wasn’t a problem. So this time, we went all out. Several jugs of wine, three hefty courses, and a panna cotta later, we were tipsy and bursting out of our pants. Our friend Alex really wanted to take a shot of grappa with our art history professor Luigi (who is quite the drunk himself...though he’s so scatterbrained anyway that you wouldn’t know the difference). He asked Luigi, who didn’t seem too keen on the idea. Alex ordered an espresso instead. A few minutes later, Luigi popped up behind Alex  holding a small glass full of clear liquid. He leaned his ear to the glass and said slyly: “Mi ha detto che forse...e’ grappa?” (It told me that perhaps...it is grappa?) He took about half of it and then poured the rest in Alex’s espresso. Alex, of course, was delighted.

We made our way to our hostel after some more exploring and shopping, which turned out to be quite an adventure. We found the building where our hostel was supposed to be located, but the name of the place wasn’t on the plaques outside. Then we spotted a small handwritten note taped to the door that said “For youth hostel, call this number.” We called, and the man on the other end said “I’ll be there in five minutes.” He showed up, didn’t say a word, and gestured for us to follow. We wound down side street after side street with no idea where he was taking us. “I think he’s bringing us to a brothel!” Meagan whispered to me. He brought us to a place that looked a lot like an apartment, but which ended up looking pretty nice inside. While we stayed there, we occasionally saw some old guys sitting at the communal computer video-chatting with girls that looked like they could be their daughters....and tried our best to assume that they were, in fact, their daughters. All in all though, the hostel was really fun. It ended up feeling like a big slumber party. Meagan and I shared a big bed in the middle of the room with the guys on twin beds on either side, and Nicole took the twin near the foot of ours. There was a lot of bed hopping, throwing things at each other, and late night giggling. No pillow fights in our underwear, I swear.

We took a trip the next day to nearby Siena, a beautiful medieval town. We hung out for a while in the half-shell piazza, climbed the tower there (the guys, being typical males, thought it was fun to spit off the top), and went to the museum to see Simone Martini’s “Maesta” and the Lorenzetti brothers’ “Allegory of Good and Bad Government”. The Maesta was way bigger than I expected it to be, and was so much more impressive in real life than on the slides in class. Had an amazing lunch and dessert pizza (?!) with nutella on it, and eventually made our way back to Florence for the night.

We meant to go to Assisi on Sunday but it poured (wah wah!) so we just hopped a train back to home sweet home in Padova.