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