Thursday we checked out of our hotel at 8:30am to arrive at the Villa Rossa for a little free time to tie up last minute business. My advising/internet/errands were taken care of, so it left me some time to Skype and arrange my class schedule. At 11am we met with heads of departments and staff within our particular class interests. I went over to the art history department and basically took a syllabus from every professor there. Meanwhile, I needed to arrange not just my class timetable, but my weekend timetable. For all of the art history classes offered through SUF, each present unique field study trips across Italy and France. However, because of the abundance of trips and classes, many of the trips overlap. When registration came around Friday morning, and the drama of registration times settled down (I had the first time slot), I was able to get into all the classes I’d wanted, without any field study conflicts. I am taking Italian VI (ITA 202/218), Black Death and Medieval Art (HOA 411), Artistic Patronage of the Medici (HOA 423), Italian Urbanism: 100 Cities (HOA 520), and Leonardi da Vinci (HOA 556.1). This means I’ll be traveling to:
Arezzo/Perugia – Sept. 18th (100 Cities class)
Vinci/Carrara – Sept. 24th (Leonardo)
Padua – Oct. 23rd (Black Death)
Medici Villas – Nov. 1st (Medici Patronage)
Siena/San Gimignano – Nov. 5th (Black Death)
Paris – Nov. 18th-21st (Leonardo optional trip)
Pisa/Lucca – Nov. 20th (Black Death)
I also get to pick a weekend to go on a Rome overnight trip for Medici Patronage. This also means I can start planning my weekend travels throughout Europe as well. Tutti va bene!
Thursday’s big activity involved meeting our host families!!!! Our families and roommates and area zones were posted at noon. Obviously Hannah and I were roommates. And our host mammá is Anna Maria Bruschi. We were handed a short bio of her and told we’d be picked up at 3:30pm.
“Anna Maria is a very young and spritely elderly lady who has hosted our students for many years”—22 years, we later found out—“As she never had a family, the students she hosts are very important to her and she gives them all the time and attention they may want, while also respecting their privacy and social life. She lives in an elegant apartment across the Arno River, a 15-20 minute bus ride from SUF on the #8 metro.”
When our names were called at 3:30pm, we went up to meet Anna Maria in all her 4’10” glory. As we greeted her with bessini on each cheek, the Director of SUF whispered to us, “You’re so incredibly lucky to have her, she’s everyone’s grandmother! Sweet as pie but tough as a bear.” We think he was mixing his metaphors…but we got the point. And soon enough we realized that not only could Signora hold her own and was tough as nails, but she also didn’t speak a word of English!! Talk about full immersion!
When we got to her large, but elegant, apartment across the Arno (it’s definitely at least a 15-20 minute ride…I guess the bus system will be a learn experience!), Signora showed us our lovely room (it’s very Italian in the best ways possible) and called us to dinner around 8pm. She’s made us pasta pomodoro from scratch, with caprese salads (MY FAVORITE!) sprinkled with olive oil and basil and garlic and pepper. I wish I could’ve whipped out my camera to take a picture of how beautiful our cena was! For dessert, she kept asking us if we liked pesce con vino, and Hannah and I kept looking at each other, thinking, “Fish with wine?” Non ho capito. Signora brought out the dessert. It was a fresh peach cut up in cubes and doused in a sweet white wine. Aaaah pesce. Not pesce.
(Though they’re spelt the same, peach and fish are actually pronounced differently. While peach is pesh-kay, fish is pes-kay. We had to ask Signora the difference on that one.)
And it certainly wasn’t fishy at all! In fact, it was one of the most amazing desserts I’ve ever tried!!! It was absolutely AMAZING! Hannah and I were raving the rest of the night! (In Italian, of course.) We must get the recipe!!
We said buona notte around 10:45pm and settled into bed. One Italian custom is that Italians wear shoes in the house. Not only do they wear shoes, but bear feet is actually frowned upon. I’d just slipped off my shoes to sneak a shower, and Signora came into the room to tell us something, and immediately noticed my bear feet. She didn’t make a big deal about it, but you know when you’ve done something wrong and your grandma gives you that look. Yeah, Signora knows that look. So I made it a priority to find slippers Friday afternoon during my spare time.
More to come…trying to find the world’s best gelato vicino al Duomo.
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