Firenze!

Ciao tutti!!  I hope that 0-12 is treating you well so far! I wish you happiness & prosperity!

Back to Elysia's visit of a couple weeks ago... we took the high speed train "la freccia rossa" (the red arrow, only about 1h15min!) up to Firenze to spend a few days.  Tuscany was AWESOME!!!  I had been dying to go to Florence & I saved it for when I had a visitor to go with me.  It is the birthplace of the Italian renaissance!  We hit a ton of sights & museums.  Once we maxxed it out with 3 museums IN ONE DAY!!!  It was a marathon & I admit, a bit much.  We had found out at about 9pm that it was free museum night!  So, of course we had to get one more in.  Well worth it.

The lion, symbol of the Medici clan, displaying the city's coat of arms.

We liked Florence a lot!  The feel of the small city is quite different from Rome, also the feel of the weather was quite a bit colder than Rome.  There are many red roofs, many churches and lots of DAVIDMANIA!!! (Michelangelo's David, he's amazing!)  We were interested also in trying out new Tuscan foods!  Tuscany is famous for a lot of meats!  Elysia partook in some wild things like boar & rabbit...  Me?  I stuck to the veg & my favorite thing was ribollita.  This is a "peasant" soup including cabbage, kale, beans & bread, it is traditionally thought of as a good way to use up leftovers & old bread.  This peasant liked it.  We were also able to drink some nice Tuscan wines, like Chianti!  

Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in town.  Lined with jewelry shops

the lovely Arno river flowing through town

the Duomo & Palazzo Vecchio on the skyline

view of the duomo in the afternoon light.

the campanile was designed by Giotto, one of the forefather's of the Italian Renaissance!

We scaled that dome with a herd of other people one morning, it truly is a marvel!  You squeeze through some pretty tight spots, sometimes with two way traffic of people.  Cannot imagine what it might be like in there in the hot & humid summer, probably gross.

hitting the steeps in the duom.

view from the top!

florence panorama

the inner duom is painted up like crazy!  not pictured, the rather gruesome burning in hell montage around the bottom of the dome.  those christians get cray!

fascinating floor inside.  apparently, i didn't take other photos of the interior.  sometimes i get churched out.

these bronze doors of the baptistry are pretty special!  there was a contest to see who would have the honor of creating them.  Can you believe how much detail is involved?  wow.

Michelangelo called Ghiberti's bronze doors the "gates of paradise"

pizza paradise can also be found in florence :)

fashion.   note the shiny puffies & also the extreme hamstring fadeout on those jeans.  this was Elysia's favorite fashion trend.  the "hammy fade".

We also visited the Uffizi gallery, AMAZING!  Lots of renaissance art including a TON of religious stuff.  Innumerable Madonna & Child...  We liked the Botticelli room the best.  There were about 8-10 of his works including the amazing Primavera & Birth of Venus.  It was fabulous to be in the room with those in particular.  We followed along diligently in our Rick Stevie's guide book to get the most out of the experience.  After about 4+ hours in there we had to get out.  I suffer from "the low back pain" after too much museum going (standing, that is).

here you see the trusty ribollita.  not too pretty but tasty, i assure you.

This was my favorite spot in Florence!  Piazza della Signorina & the loggia di Lanzi.  A huge piazza full of gorgeous sculpture!

the palazzo vecchio, was the seat of the government during the days of the medici.

Ammanati's fountain of Neptune

Giambologna's rape of the sabine women 

same one

Rape of Polyxena

Michelangelo's original David was designed to be placed atop Florence's duomo but, he got placed here outside the governmental palace instead & became a symbol of the florentine republic.  This is a replica, the original got moved inside of the Accademia museum to protect him from the elements & from vandals.  Michelangelo was 26 or 27 when he sculpted this masterpiece!  David is a true renaissance man.  (my god, I am starting to sound like Rick Steve's!)

replica of DAVID!!!!  David is 17 feet tall!!

They were selling DAVIDMANIA! bumper stickers in the museum...  But seriously, David was awe inspiring. (and I sort of seriously wanted a bumper sticker too)

Here's the actual David!!!!

This one was spectacular!  Perseus after killing Medusa

Giambologna's Hercules & Nestor (correction (Jenny) Nessus)

As I mentioned, I'm back in language class!  And whoa!!! it is really hard.  I'm in over my head in the "progredito" level.  I don't even know what that word means!  On top of that we've just started the subjunctive tense!  English speakers beware!  Just when I was finally getting the hang of combined & relative pronouns it's on to the next challenge.  At any rate, I like it.  My new teacher is funny & engaging.  I am also using my ample free time to visit some lesser known museums & sights, doing some yoga, doing some reading, suffering from a slight cold...etc.

To report to you honestly, since I don't know if anyone reads this anyway, I'm having some tough times in Italia so far this year :) (ten days, haha)  I'm sure it is obvious to those who have been reading the bloggy blog or keeping in touch with me that the work situation is not really working out here.  I haven't been working much which has been depressing & frustrating!  Also, along with the country of Italy I am now also in my own financial crisis.  I am giving "operation Italy" until about March to pan out into it's fantastic potential before setting my sights on other goals.  There, I've told you!  That being said, I really do want it to work out because I like it here a lot!  So, let's all keep some shiny, happy thoughts for me to realize my goal of becoming an Italian chiropractor!!!  I really do believe that there is great potential for it to really take off, it just has to happen before I go broke.

I've been really putting all my hopes on my chiropractic gig working out but, at this stage in the game I am open to finding some other work to try to stick around a bit longer.  Have I ever mentioned that becoming a financially successful chiropractor is not as easy as it might seem?  It takes a lot of integrity & perseverence.  In case you are wondering, I practice a very specific type of chiropractic that requires specialized equipment like xray & treatment tables so, I can't easily just work in another location or for someone else.  Because I don't "own" the equipment.  I suppose I am being stubborn because I could technically do a different type of chiropractic work but really, I don't want to.  So... if anyone has any brilliant ideas or supportive thoughts for me please feel free to share.  

In the meantime, time is of the essence.  If you are looking for an excuse to visit, do it now!! :)

Take care! XX  Still a bit more of the Tuscany trip next time! :)

Tivoli!

Yay Tivoli!  

Elysia & I decided to make a day trip to Tivoli one day.  We had been going over various day trip choices with my roomie & she had a strong positive reaction to the Tivoli idea.  So, we tramped to the metro & hopped on a bus & sooner or later we were in Tivoli, a hill town near Roma.  First stop, Villa D'Este!  A UNESCO world heritage site & great example of Italian Renaissance architechture with a mind blowing garden.  Full of bazillions of fountains, a hydraulic engineering extravaganza!  

Here we go with Franz Liszt's piano, the most amazing Hungarian pianist ever!  The cardinal D'Este hosted him @ the villa for a year or so while he was living as sort of a franciscan monk out there.  The villa was mostly empty but for a nice array of frescoes covering the walls and ceilings.  No photos, unfortunately.

 The villa is perched on a hill with some sweet views, that I didn't seem to get a good photo of.  We toured around the gardens for some time, they are huge!

hamming it up as usual.

buddy shots!

really, the amount of water blasting around this place is unreal!

somewhere there is even a "water organ" that puts on a musical show several times a day.  we missed it :(

 We were on a tight schedule that day & had to make it to another site on our Tivoli hit list before darkness fell.  It is tough to pack some sights in when you have a leisurely morning & it gets dark by 5. Then there is so much of the day that is just... dark.  So, we blitzed out to Villa Adriana.

Hadrian's Villa.  Hadrian is my favorite ancient Roman emperor!  He was an architect & a traveler!  He built this massive "villa" complex as a retreat from the city of Roma & ended up governing from here.  It is a massive site & amazingly well preserved.  Most of the sculpture has been restored & is in museums, some of it was also taken to Villa D'Este.  Hadrian is famous for building Hadrian's Wall in the UK, to separate Romans from the barbarians.

here he is, my friend Hadie.

Hadrian was a big fan of greek culture.  He was the first Roman emperor to grow a greek style beard, which then became very fashionable.  He had a wife, Sabina but also had this young male greek companion Antinous.  Antinous drowned in the Nile one time they were in Egypt & Hadrian mourned him for ages.  Even naming an Egyptian city after him & naming him a god.  Hadrian was a handsome philanthropist & patron of the arts.  

This was probably the most beautiful zone, a long pool lined with pillars.  Imagine it with clean, white marble & many more statues.  Oh yes, Hadrian's villa is also a UNESCO site.  

not bad.

this is the "maritime theater"  it is an island retreat that used to have two drawbridges as access.  Hadie would come out here to just chill.

corinthian columns....

nice old mosaic in the guest quarters

Tivoli or "tiv town" up on the hill.

really feeling these columns.

Ciao for now Hadie, you and your fashionable beard.  Stay tuned for more Italian intrigue from the Roman Empire! :)

In other news, or lack of.  Nothing to report on the work front, UNFORTUNATELY!!  I am still in my Italian holding pattern.  I did print out some cute Italian business cards that I am happy about.  I read a good book recently, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, that my sister gave to me.  It is in the fantasy genre & I found it very cute!  Now I am planning to start in on the Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.  I really thought I had read more of her books when I bought it but it turns out I was thinking of Ursula Le Guin.  Oops!  I think it will still be good.

I'm going to re-start Italian language classes 2x/week in the evening beginning tomorrow or the next day.  I quit them last month because I thought I was going to be insanely busy with work!  That hasn't happened yet so...  I am excited to go back to my Italian school!  I love it there!

I am having a new years resolution to try harder to find a place to teach yoga here.  Also, to eat and drink less.

Happy new year to you!!! xoxo