Squishy socks and Orsanmichele

The rain has been putting a damper on my experience... being uncomfortably wet and walking around the city with squishy socks (maybe rainboots would be helpful..?) is not fun at all! Which is why on Sunday, I woke up late (once I heard how badly it was raining in the morning), went out for quick lunch and gelato trip at the same panini and gelato places as the previous day (which shows how freaking delicious the food was!), and then headed straight back to my apartment. It was the laziest Sunday ever. (Except for the one Sunday after my birthday when Cara and I rode the struggle bus all day... but anyway.)

Monday's classes were... normal. Nothing too exciting, to be honest. The exciting part of my Monday happened after class. With a bit of exploration and after saying "maybe it'll be on the next street..." about 5 times, Tylar finally found this teeny little sandwich place (where she ate a 2 euro sandwich once!) near the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica. We walked in and there was barely enough space for us to stand, so you can imagine my surprise when the owner asked us if we wanted to eat downstairs... yep, we went downstairs and walked into 2 TINY underground rooms with stone walls, super cool decorations, full of stylish Italians. I was already in love as we sat down, but as Tylar, Chris, and I were talking about the cool restaurant, one of the waiters looked at us incredulously and asked, "OH, you guys are English?!" GUYS, IT WAS A BITCHIN' MOMENT. I was super pumped. Anyway, the menu was in Italian- generally a good way to tell you are in a genuinely Italian place, not a touristy spot. I had polpette, which I THOUGHT were only meatballs... NOPE. The dish was balls of all kinds of things... I still don't know exactly WHAT I ate, but it was all delicious. Sidenote: the orange fanta here is made with REAL ORANGE JUICE, so it literally tastes like oranges with fizz, aka heaven. I'll never have orange soda at home again!

Polpette miste con le patate al forno

We ate lunch and scurried off to meet Dennis Looney, an incredibly knowledgeable professor from Pitt who is acting as an advisor in Florence, at the Orsanmichele church in between the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, and Piazza della Repubblica. Okay kids, get ready for an Italian monument history lesson. The Orsanmichele church was built in 1337 on the site that was once a monastery, but interestingly enough, it was not a church initially. For a very long time, it was used as an open grain market- farmers would go and show off their grains and make deals; they would pour their grain down chutes and show it to customers and other grain farmers. It slowly became a church because farmers would pray for good deals and prosperous crops!

Entrance to Orsanmichele.

On the exterior of the church there are 14 niches that hold different statues all paid for by different guilds that ruled Florence in the 14th century. These statues were somewhat revolutionary in the way the sculptors conveyed movement and a greater sense of realism; many of the statues seem to be coming out of their niches, and most seem pensive, as opposed to the stoic facial expressions of statues of the past. One of the statues that clearly shows a new way of sculpture is Donatello's St.George, which was paid for by the armourers guild. Other guilds that paid for statues were the shoemakers, bankers, silk merchants, etc. The copies of the statues are on the exterior, while 13 of the originals are inside the church's museum.

St.George by Donatello

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures of the inside of the church, but it was truly beautiful. Amazing ceilings and a Gothic Tabernacle that surrounds a painting of Madonna and Child by Bernardo Daddi. We walked up to see the original niche statues and they were nothing short of breathtaking. We then walked up the last set of stairs to see a great view of the city beneath us! Not only that, but the sun finally appeared after days of elusively hiding behind rain clouds. It was absolutely inspiring to see the sun shining down on the rolling Tuscan hills in the distance and lighting up the Duomo.

LET. ME. DIE.

Once again, I realized just how lucky I am for this opportunity. I am sincerely thankful for this experience because I know that I will learn so much through it, not only about Florence, but about myself. And, as cliche as that sounds, it's what studying abroad is all about, right? That AND the gelato... snagged some after visiting the church at Perché No, again!

Following a short meeting at CAPA, I went home for dinner with my homestay family. On a whim, I decided to buy train tickets for a day trip to Bologna on Saturday! GUYS, FOODIE CENTRAL. The weather better cooperate!

A presto!

p.s. Sorry for the potato quality of my photos. I forgot my camera at home and all I had was my ipod.