Uggghhhhh Traaaiinnnns

Me after a quick standing nap with all my stuff in the train. Never thought I'd be capable of sleeping standing up. Apparently I was wrong.

What a brutal day. And its only 3pm.

My internship is officially over, and now the real adventures begin!

This morning Miranda drove me to the train station, where my journey began with my giant suitcase (I would estimate that it weighs well over 100lbs) and 5 other (also weighty) bags. 3 brutal train rides later I was at the Rome Fiumicino Airport. God Bless all the burly young men who helped me along the way. To put things in context... when my suitcase was standing up on all 4 wheels on a perfectly flat surface, I still needed to take a couple steps and throw all my body weight into it to make it go anywhere.

At Fiumicino I took it to baggage storage where, for a mere 6 euros a day, it is out of sight and out of mind. The baggage storage guys were stunned. "Merda! How much piomba (lead) is in here!?". I told them I would be quite happy to never see it again, except for the fact that everything I own is in there.

Once back on the train bertween the airport and Roma Termini, I had a stroke of genius... moved all the heavy stuff into my rolling bag, and the light stuff (ie. clothing) into my shoulder bags. (Better late than never, right?). With that done, I was finally able to think about the fact that I'm headed to Palermo! How exciting!

In Rome, I dragged all my crap through the streets for several hours trying to find a place to recharge my SIM card. Long story short, it was an infuriating, unsuccessful mission, and I gave up and went for a late Indian lunch. And dragging a rolling bag through the uneven, cobblestone sidewalks of Rome is enough to make one suicidal. So now I'm going to go sit in the lovely train station (that was sarcasm) and read my book until my train comes at 9:30 pm at which point I'm going to lug all my crap onto one last train, pop a gravol (or 50) and nod off to sleep until I am south.

Ciao tutti.

Harry Potter in Italiano

Yesterday after work I went into Florence to get some food (mmmm O'Vesuvio pizza). Then it was rainy and dreary, so I decided to go see a film, alone, for the first time ever. (I also figured I should go see a film since I've been watching TV and movies and listening to music in English all summer, and I've admittedly missed out on some language learning opportunities). The best option was Harry Potter e I Doni Della Morte Parte Due (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two) so 5 euros later I had my ticket and was entering the theatre.

The theatre had assigned seating... My ticket said H9. Unfortunately, H8 was occupied by the only other person in the theatre... some old guy seeing the movie on his own (pfft... what a loser...). So instead I opted to sit at the back. I'm such a rebel... fortunately attendance was minimal and no one yelled at me.

The theatre had 2 features I think needed to be adopted in north american theatres:

1) Bathrooms were right at the back of the theatre. No need to go out in a hallway and get lost. In and out. Done.

2) INTERMISSION! Just 5 minutes. Every theatre I've ever been to in Europe has intermission, and I strongly believe it is essential. After my 8 litres of diet coke, right when the plot is climaxing, I'm really going to have to go. It's very logical that I should get a couple minutes to run to the loo without having to miss any of the film.

I was extremely proud of myself for understanding prettymuch the entire film! I was expecting to get bored and tired and not understand it all, but I was happily surprised by my own Italian skills!

Now I'm all packed up and ready to leave Celle in one hour. In a few minutes I'm going to go pass out thank you cards to my hosts and the housekeepers.

I am dreading the next 36 hours. Tonight Miranda and I are going to drag my deadweight suitcase to her car and then to her home (don't worry mom and dad.. I'll figure out some way to get all my stuff on the airplane. That's still 3 weeks away. I'll figure something out).  So ya, I'm going to spend the night at Miranda's, and then in the morning get a ride to the Prato train station, at which point I, my ridiculous suitcase, and several other large heavy bags are going to travel:

-From Prato to Florence
-From Florence to Roma Termini
-From Roma Termini to the Rome Airport

...at that point my suitcase will be abandoned in luggage storage for a reasonable 6 euros per day. Then my other bags and I are going back to Roma Termini, where we will hop on a nighttime train at 9pm bound for Palermo. I will have a bed in a women-only car, and the train ride is an estimated 13 hours. Should be an interesting experience.

Will write from Palermo!

Ally

PS if any other interns are reading this, I'd love to know if any of you also get insulted now when someone refers to you as a "tourist" or asks "how long are you on vacation for?". I get completely indignant and snap back "I am NOT a tourist. I WORK here"...

Birthday Bash

Patrizia & the pyrotechnics atop her cake

Last night was the big birthday party for Signor Gori's daughter Patrizia who turned 60. There were about 80 people in attendance and it was a spectacular night! Apertivos were served by a small lake / large pond on the property. Then dinner was served at tables set up behind the villa. Unfortunately the meal was heavy on the seafood, which I'm not a huge fan of, so I missed out a bit. But what I did have was excellent. The first course was ricotta and spinach gnudi with a sauce of either lobster or crab (I couldn't tell which). Next was linguini in a tomato sauce that tasted to me like it had a bit of orange in it, which was a neat flavour addition. Next was tuna steak, which looked perfectly done, but I didn't try it. Last was dessert, which was millefoglie (crispy, flaky pastry layers with cream in between). They also served little creamy desserts in shot glasses during dancing, and those were incredible. I probably had more than I should have...

Then everybody danced until 2:30 am. I had to stop after a while, and got severely out-danced by all the 60 year olds (especially the birthday girl). My feet are in agony today... partly because of the heels I wore for the first half of the night, and partly because I was dancing outside barefoot for the second half of the night.

Today is just a relaxing day at the office. I officially have nothing to eat, so I'm going to go into Florence after work to grab some dinner and something I can have for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. Tonight is my last night sleeping at Celle!

Signor Gori & the birthday girl, Patrizia

Millefoglie for dessert

Patrizia and her younger sister, Stefania

Me, sweaty after dancing, and Anna, Stefania's oldest daughter

Dinner setup behind the villa, plus live music

Last Week of Work

Spaghetti All'Ubriaca

Well it literally feels like I arrived a week ago, yet here I am, three months later, with just 4 days left of my internship! Katie left this morning, so I get to finish out the job on my own. I have a tour this evening (provided it doesn't thunderstorm) and one on Saturday morning, after which I will head to Prato and spend the night at Miranda's, before catching the train on Sunday for my next adventure! 18 more days of excitement lie beyond my job, so I'll be sure to post about my continued Italian adventures.

Besides attempting to pack (ugggghhhhhh), not much is going on this week, except for the big excitement of "the party" tomorrow night. Signor Gori's daughter Patrizia is turning 60 and there's going to be a big bash here with about 80 friends and family. It will be a catered affair with dancing under the stars (provided, again, that it doesn't thunderstorm... If it does, the dancing will take place inside one of the rooms filled with fantastic art). It will also be one last chance for me to get super dressed up, which should be fun.

This past week has been pretty relaxed too. Been flexing my culinary muscles... one day I made Spaghetti all'Ubriaca (Drunkard's Spaghetti... see picture above) which is cooked in red wine and then tossed in butter, olive oil, garlic, and some basil and parsley. I also made 5-cheese pasta. I technically had the ingredients for 8-cheese pasta, but I figured that was a bit excessive.

Last Friday, Katie and I were invited out by Riccardo, the guy who does all the tech/computer/fixing-the-internet stuff around here. We went for drinks and dancing to a place called Torre del Lago which is very close to Pisa. It was a lot of fun, and a really neat place... definitely the gayest neighbourhood I've ever been to in Europe.

Last night after I gave a brief tour to a French mayor, I headed down to meet Katie in Florence for one last evening out. I rediscovered my love of shopping in the station (the train station in Florence has an underground shopping center that is AWESOME... got a great skirt and pair of pants for 15 euros altogether). Then after a great dinner at our favourite restaurant, we headed to the summer festival at the Fortezza (the fortress) which I used to frequent, well, frequently, when I was in Florence a few years ago. It was as fun as I remembered, with tons of vendors selling cool things from around the world (I got some great 5-euro pashminas). We had some cannoli and ricotta cake, and then sat down for a bit to enjoy some beers and shisha. There was also a concert going on that was pretty good.

A dopo :)

PS. On Sunday I read a great book:

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What an utterly captivating and fascinating quick read!



View all my reviews

Shisha at the Fortezza

At Torre del Lago

At Torre del Lago

More Photos at Celle

I went out yesterday afternoon to do a little photoshoot of the property (I'm thinking of doing a photobook as a thankyou gift to my host organization). Here are some of the pictures I got. Unfortunately I forgot bug spray and therefore didn't stay out as long as I wanted. Even more unfortunately, I went out with the specific aim of getting a photo of the heron I often see around the lake. I got to the lake and there were TWO herons flying around together... aaaaand of course I forgot to bring my telephoto lens. I only had my prime (which doesn't zoom), so I basically just got silhouettes. Devastating. I'll probably go out another day with the right lens, but I have a sinking feeling I won't get an opportunity like that again.

Italy, Sickness, and PhotoShoots

So apparently I have less than 2 weeks left here! I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone! Fortunately I have some awesome travel plans for after my internship, so the fun doesn't end just yet.

The last few days were kind of a bummer for me. I've had a really bad cold. Yesterday was the worst. I hadn't slept the night before due to congestion, and I was certifiably insane and delirious. No fun. It sucked for Katie too because she had to listen to my nose blowing and sneezing and sniffing. And I had to ask her to take my tour yesterday morning. Her ingenuity totally saved me last night though. In the afternoon she said "Ally, maybe you should have a glass of wine before bed", to which I responded "that is the best idea I've ever heard". So at 10pm we settled into bed to watch Arthur (good movie by the way) and I had 3 glasses of red wine. Passed out within 30 minutes. Slept for 7 hours straight. Magic.

Speaking of movies, we also watched Source Code which was surprisingly good. And we watched the entire Human Planet series. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Anyways, I felt a million times better today and went in at 9:30am to do my tour. Now, I don't know if I've explained the Italian mentality about sickness yet, but let me do it now. Italians are ridiculous about sickness! I've been sick twice this summer, the first time with a stomach bug, this time with a cold. Both times I felt pretty crappy for a day or two, but neither has been a huge deal. All I need is some extra sleep and water. But Signor Gori and everyone else here essentially had me written off as dead as soon as they heard I was sick. Today when I showed up, he was like "Why are you here?? I'll call in a doctor!! Don't do your tour!" and I had to explain that "no really, I feel great.. It was just a cold....". It was the same thing the other time I got sick. When I showed up at the office to check my email, they looked like they were seeing a ghost. "How are you here?? Go home!! We're going to call you a doctor!".

Hilarious.

Anyways, not much else is new here. I'm dreading thinking about packing. It's not like I've really bought much, it's just that I had a lot of things to start with. Tonight we're going for our last grocery trip of the summer. I'm really excited. I've been out of yogurt for the last few days and I want to eat as much amazing european yogurt as possible before I go home. If you want to make a lot of money, produce coconut yogurt with crunchy chocolate balls in it, and then sell it in north america. I'll buy all of it.

On Sunday Katie and I went outside at sunset to do a mini photoshoot in front of our apartment and in the vineyard. Below are some of the pictures we got. Enjoy.

A Moment You Will Always Remember

So I think this is probably my last required blog post for the internship (I'll keep posting more! Just no more of the blog topics provided by YIIP)... I'm going to attempt to tackle "a moment you will always remember". I'm going to do a really bad job...

Essentially... I will always remember LOTS of moments. Especially EVERY moment I spent in Florence. I may live a solid 2-hour trek away from the city, but I get there as often as possible and I desperately want to live there someday soon (*side note to my parents... yes, I know I said that about Reykjavik last year. I desperately want to live both places. It's feasible... Can't a girl dream big? Or at least have several dreams, so if one ends up being more feasible than the others, then there are main dreams and backup dreams?).

Anyways. Florence. Love it. I'm sure it would get frustrating living there, having to battle through swarms of tourists half the year, plus the sweltering heat, plus the endless noise from concerts and drunken tourist hooligans. But for the time being, I love it. It's a magical place where unique, once-in-a-lifetime moments occur on a regular basis. I've already mentioned some of the random friendships that have started in Florence. Trust me, there are many more.

I'll never forget the American girls who invited me to be an honorary member of their sorority after we spent 20 minutes together battling the broken bathroom door at my favorite Florence bar.

I'll never forget the night of my birthday, at my favorite Florence restaurant, Za Za, when Katie and I cheered up a waiter after an obnoxious tourist yelled at him for not speaking English "well enough".

I'll never forget the first time I tasted pizza from Pizzeria O'Vesuvio.

I'll never forget the time I figured out that chocolate gelato and yogurt gelato together taste like cheesecake.

I'll never forget the time I dared to try gorgonzola gelato (...yes, it's as terrible as it sounds).

I'll never forget dancing on Ponte Vecchio with a bunch of strangers while the Ponte Vecchio guitar guy played "Don't Worry Be Happy".

I'll never forget yesterday afternoon, when I was walking through some back alleys to go meet a friend at Piazza Signoria, and I walked past a church window where inside was a little concert going on with stunning music being played by a cellist, violinist, and pianist (see video below).

I'll also never forget yesterday, when I was walking through Via Tornabuoni, thinking to myself "I'm STARVING! I just want a SNACK! Something with TRUFFLES!" and I turned a corner to find myself face to face with an adorable antique cafe with the words "Panini Tartufati" (Truffle Sandwiches) written across the windows. This place seriously just sells little 2-bite sandwiches with different truffle products inside, like truffle butter, and truffled cheese, and truffled foie gras.

Of course this entire internship has been an incredible, unforgettable experience, and there are a million more moments at Celle, Pistoia, and beyond that I will always remember, but I just wanted to try to convey the bizarre way that fleeting Florence moments can really surprise you and stick with you. If your response to reading this is "big whoop, you met people and ate food", I say to you... "you just had to be there".

BTW, FYI, in case you were wondering... today is the most beautiful, breezy, sunny, colourful July day that Italy has ever seen.

July in Italy... Things Get Rough

.... I don't mean rough as in bad. Just, every day gets a little bit hotter, a little bit rougher.

Heat is getting to be excessive. Can't think enough to form full sentences. Remainder of post will be in point form. Sorry for lack of organization of ideas.

-Today is going to get to 37˚C. (which means that by tonight, our apartment will be about 50˚C)

-Only place with A/C for miles around is the office. At least this means I spend lots of time working on my essays.

-Last night was battle with fridge. It wouldn't close so we were tying it shut with ethernet cables. Then I figured out that it was because 2 inches of ice had formed around the "freezer" portion (note the quotes around "freezer"). I smashed away all the ice with a glass bottle (possibly dangerous, but hey, so is rotten food). Fridge closes again.

-Yesterday morning I had a tour. It started out with one American girl and 3 British ladies. They were a hoot. We were having fun. Until... the 5 French/Belgian people who were also supposed to be on my tour showed up 1 hour late. Katie brought them to join my group. One Belgian lady had a panic attack inside one of the art works. A full-on panic attack. Also, 8 minutes after they joined the tour, the other Belgian lady said to me "I will leave now. I am tired." to which I had to respond "no you will not leave now. I am sorry". One of the Belgian men insisted on guessing each artist before I had a chance to start explaining the art work. Then, when I said "no, actually, it's not that artist, its this other artist" he would insist I was wrong. "No. I'm certain it's so-and-so!"

-Yesterday was also lunch with Alan Sonfist (artist who has done work here and elsewhere) and his lady friend. The work he did here is a series of concentric circles telling the story of Tuscany (see here). He talked about his latest project which is a giant celtic snake in a figure eight. Snake is made of moss over raised earth and covers 1 acre of land. In the holes of the figure eight, Sonfist is going to put "ancient microbes" in the soil, and eventually an "ancient forest" will grow from this soil. There's a problem though... the duke for whom Sonfist is making this work is afraid that the art will interfere with his sheep grazing.

-Some artists very much enjoy talking about their work and are very self-confident.

-Some artists have lady friends who get very suspicious and irrationally jealous (poor Katie had to experience this).

-What is with Italian bugs?

And now for some pictures...

Gorgonzola gelato. No I didn't try it, but yes I plan to at some point.

New bar in Florence

Katie tying the fridge shut with an ethernet cable.

Thinking About the Real World

So as my internship here is more than 2/3 done (a depressing thought) I guess it's time to start contemplating the ways in which my experience here will apply to my studies when I return. I thought I'd do a post about it for anyone interested.

I'm going into my second year of my masters and intend on writing my thesis/MRP about graffiti and the movement of graffiti from the streets into the galleries. In other words, I want to examine what happens when there start to be gallery exhibitions (like one that I went to earlier this year in a swanky new gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan that featured French street artist Zevs). My general idea is that graffiti is no longer graffiti when it is removed from the streets, since its original context is such an intrinsic part of what it is (I would argue that graffiti is not just a final product, but comprises an entire performative process in which context/location plays an integral role).

At first, it would seem like working at a contemporary site-specific sculpture park in rural Tuscany would have little to do with my research interests. However, I'm finding it very interesting examining the ways in which ideas of site-specificity (as they apply to art like the sculptures here at Celle) parallel those that I believe to be crucial in the whole graffiti-gallery issue.

As an aside, if you're interested in seeing the pictures I shoot of graffiti during my travels in Italy and beyond, you can find them on my other blog here.

A couple other unrelated thoughts/stories for the day...

1) Italian transit officially has WAY too many strikes. This is getting ridiculous. At least I finally found the extremely obscure link on the TrenItalia website that gives strike info a day or two in advance.

2) Last night in Florence I had a very bizarre chance encounter. I heard someone call my name and turned around to find a Turkish friend that I went to school with in Florence 3 years ago! I was amazed that he even recognized me, seeing as I went from blonde to black hair since then. WHAT A SMALL WORLD!

4th of July at the Pisa Beach

Monday night was the Fourth of July, and I got to be an honorary American for the night. Katie and I headed down to Pisa in the afternoon after work, met up with our new friends, got some incredible pizza, and then headed to the American army base beach for swimming and dancing. It was a LOT of fun, and a really weird cultural experience... like a little slice of the states in Pisa, Italy. I kept talking to people in Italian and they'd respond with a "huh?". Like the guy who was trying to take a chair from our table, and I told him "Oh mi dispiace, usiamo tutti questi" and he said "huh?" and I said "oh, whoops, i mean... all ah y'alls chairs are taken". Then they proceeded to make fun of my "Canadian accent" and mimic me. Apparently to American people, we sound British?

Unfortunately it was raining so they had to cancel the fireworks... but they made up for it by providing a lifetime supply of glowsticks.

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Enjoy! In the meantime, I'm headed back to Florence tonight for some more Pizza O'Vesuvio :)

This is the place where the magic happens.

Me opening the greatest box ever in piazza signoria

Great orchestra in piazza Signoria

Katie and I... last night of Naima :(

New friends

At the beach in Pisa. Like the Gumby shirt I bought at the army base?

Getting ready for 4th of July fun!

Cloudy beach on the 4th of July

We clearly need more glowsticks...

24 Hour Adventure

So last night Katie and I decided at the last minute to head into Florence for some pizza from O'Vesuvio, AKA the pizzeria we discovered that makes pizza that tastes like angels. Our pizzeria expedition turned into epic 24 hour adventure. We got into Florence at 6pm, got our pizza, and ate it in piazza Signoria where an orchestra series was also going on. After that, I remembered that it was the final night that my favourite bar, Naima, would be open, since they're closing for renovations/the summer holiday season (in Italy, many businesses close in late July and throughout August since most Italians go away to the sea) so we went to Naima where, as always, we made tons of new friends, including the bouncer who we talked to for about an hour and discovered that he also makes jewellery. Interesting.

Needless to say, we missed the last train back to Pistoia, so we stayed at Naima all night. Later on, we met an awesome group of Americans and ended up hanging out with them. A few of the guys work at the US army base in Pisa, a couple of them study biology in Florence, and a girl named Lisa whom they had just met 2 hours prior to meeting us is studying Italian in Florence for the summer. It was a wild chance encounter that we all met each other like that, because we ended up having the greatest time with them and feeling like we'd known them forever. We all talked for a bit, and then at 6am they said they were heading back to Pisa and we were invited to come, so we agreed. There wasn't room in their car for 9 of us, so Katie, myself, Lisa and another guy (Matt) took the train and Mike picked us up. When we got there, we went to the army base so Katie and I could buy bathing suits. Then after a delicious Chinese all-you-can-eat lunch, Katie, Mike, Lisa and I went to the beach at Pisa and spent a glorious few hours enjoying the sun, the breeze, the water, and the fabulous people watching.

So that was my weekend! Tomorrow after work we're going to go back to Pisa to a 4th of July party on the beach with our new friends.

Now I'm going to try to go to sleep, despite the incredibly loud karaoke event going on in the village at the bottom of the hill. (Our apartment is in a sort of sound tunnel, so it essentially sounds like the karaoke is taking place in our apartment. Agony.)

Ciao for now!

PS. Unfortunately my camera battery died partway through the night, so I'm counting on Katie's camera for some good shots. I'll grab pictures off her later this week and share if there's anything good

Charlottesville High School Orchestra does Poggio a Caiano

Charlottesville High School Orchestra

Yesterday after work, Katie and I went back to Miranda's place with her, and then made our way to the nearby town of Poggio a Caiano, where Miranda's husband is a councillor of culture for the town. Right now the town is putting on a series of cultural events, and yesterday they hosted high school students from their sister city of Charlottesville, Virginia. Katie, being a UVA student, was ecstatic and ended up meeting a group of students who will be going to UVA next year.

In the afternoon, we went for a tour of Lorenzo Medici's villa and the impressive still life collection on the upper floor. (The Italian term for "still life" is "natura morta", or "dead nature".) Then Katie, Miranda and I needed to escape the sweltering heat, so we drove up to a hilltop town for a beer. When we got back to Poggio a Caiano, they were starting a buffet dinner for all the Charlottesville visitors, and we got to enjoy it too. There were tons of coldcuts and cheeses, and two of my favourite traditional tuscan dishes, ribollita (a soup/stew made of vegetables and bread) and pappa al pomodoro (an unappetizing-looking but delicious mushy dish of bread and tomatoes).

As dusk fell, the students of the orchestra played a beautiful short concert outdoors in a street that had been blocked off for the event. They played a fantastic mixture of American and Italian compositions (ie. 2 of Vivaldi's Quattro Stagioni, and an American piece called Hoe Down which I believe is by a composer named Aaron Copland). We were especially impressed that they didn't get distracted from playing by the church bells, barking dogs, and chatty Italians in the street.

All in all, a great day!

Katie and I in Poggio a Caiano. I've got new shoes and they're PAINFUL!

Unrelated to this post, but this is the lunch I made myself yesterday... spaghetti with truffle cream sauce. mmmm