"Se sei un angelo?"

THURSDAY

Thursday morning began at Palazzo Vecchio where no fish were biting for English tours, so I followed this one tour, and it was great, it made my morning! It's called the Vasari tour, and one of the guy tour guides who work at the Museo dresses up as Giorgio Vasari and gives the tour as if it was the late 16th century as he shows off his work in Palazzo Vecchio (Vasari was the main architect, painter, and engineer for the Palazzo in the 16th century). It was GREAT!!! I'm so jealous, and I wish I was able to work here longer so I could get bumped up to the character tours and give the tours as the grand duchess or Vasari's wife (two options for lady tour guides). AH!!

Thursday felt like the last day of classes...though technically that's not until next Tuesday. We had Italian, where we signed up for our oral exam (at 9:30am Friday the 17th, and our written exam is the same day from 3pm-5pm...yes, the Friday before we leave...I'm throwing a fit our exams are that late!). And then into the library I went to finish up research for my final papers. I have two of the 6 left (I've been chipping them away! So happy!), and they're both half done, which is good and bad. Good because I have the weekend. Bad because I had tours all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday! So I'm still trying to figure out when they're going to get done. As Anna's best friend Antoinetta would say, Piano piano ("take it easy!").

After a couple hours in the library Hannah and I went over to the student art show and saw some of the cool stuff that the studio students did all semester. Hannah took a photo class this semester so two of her pictures were featured, and Anna met us at the show. We took her around the galleries and munched on apperativo and were so proud to introduce our great host mom to some of our friends. She took us home in her new car (an early Xmas gift from her brother, she's so proud of it! It's the tiniest little clown car you've ever seen but it's great!) and was way better than waiting for the bus, and we stopped at the store where we helped her get a thousand cases of bottled water. She made patatas e pollo (potatoes and chicken--in olive oil with salt and pepper, served cold) after a minestrone pasta for dinner.

FRIDAY

Friday morning started with a 9am make up class for Leonardo, and it was just so hard to get out of my warm bed--it's gotten so chilly! For a while it was humid and wet, now its dry and coooold. This morning Anna said it was -2C. Brrrrr. But we have blue skies, so I guess that's a plus? We had our intervalo and our professor treated us to cappucinos and pastries at the bar down the street from school--a great pick me up before we delved into Freud's psychoanalysis of Leonardo da Vinci. After class I headed into the super secret quiet room of requirement Study Lounge in Villa Rossa to continue doing work. 

Hannah met up with me a little after 1, and we went to look at all the Christmas decorations around Firenze. After a late lunch of pizza, I realized my tours that afternoon were sooner than I thought so I hustled over to Palazzo Vecchio, only to realize there was no one to give a tour to, so I grabbed some work and went outside to work in the Loggia di Lanzi. Intent on my work, time flew by, and I had no time to talk to strangers sitting around me (that's a story to be told in person, Hannah was amused by it!). Right before my 4:30 tour, Roberta, my boss, caught me and handed me my certificate of completion and a little "presetino" from Palazzo Vecchio, a book on the Museum and Palazzo to thank me for my time with the Museum, which was so sweet of them, they didn't have to do that!

I headed home to do a little work before dinner, we were meeting two of Hannah's friends from SUF Nora and Rachel, and three of Rachel's friends from another program at a place Sam and I went for lunch one afternoon, Dante's on our side of the Arno--but over 7 bridges from our house--where drinks are free for students and there's no coperto (cover charge). Waiting for a bus, we forgot there was a bus strike for #23 from 5:30-9:30 (technically we didn't know, we just knew there was something going on about a strike on the 10th), so after waiting for a half hour, I had the genius idea of hoping on our #8 bus to take us at least closer to the Arno, and then we walked 4 bridges over from there. We actually didn't get there too late, and sat down to enjoy a lovely dinner of (my Tuscan favorite) ribollita and wine wine wine. At the end of dinner they came and asked us if we wanted limoncello, and we all said no no we've had enough, so they poured us shots of limoncello anyway. It was actually my first time trying limoncello since being in Italy, and it was surprisingly good! It didn't taste like Pinesol. I was pleasantly surprised. We walked our two bridges over admiring Christmas decorations and trees sparkling out of the apartments by the Arno on our way to our bus stop. Hannah and I must've had good bus karma after our panic getting the restaurant, and we got to the bus stop just as the night bus
was approaching (good thing too, it only comes once an hour!).

SATURDAY

Both Saturday and Sunday were spent at Palazzo Vecchio getting my last few hours in. Saturday though, was a little strange. As usual, no takers for the 10:30 or 12 tours, but I had three friends come by to see the David Hirst exhibit (the diamond skull that everyone's making a big fuss about--previously mentioned in a different abroad writing), but they asked me to give them a tour of the Palazzo if I could. Well I didn't have anything better to do, so I took them on my 10:30 tour! Liz and Sarah are in my Medici class, so they followed along really well. After no one showed up for my 12 tour, I didn't see myself on the schedule for the rest of the afternoon, and anyway, my other supposed tour wasn't til 3:30, so I took off to meet Hannah at Villa Rossa for lunch--and by lunch I mean crunch time for finals.

I spent three hours locked in the warm library (thankfully! It's been so cold, and Palazzo Vecchio is rather drafty!) actually being extremely productive. Something told me that I needed to go back to the Palazzo for 3:30 though, even though I didn't see myself on the schedule. Thank goodness I did because I ended up having a tour after--and people to give a tour to! And so I took a couple from Scotland around the Palazzo. They reminded me of Sam and me. They were really funny and asked all the right questions. After wishing them a Merry Christmas, I felt like I got the tour thing down pat. Too bad I only had one day left of the internship. Oh well! 

I headed home shortly after with Hannah, and we cleaned ourselves up and headed out to our last dinner with the gang in Florence at our favorite osteria Gato e Valope. We enjoyed a huge meal and called it a night so we could get some work done. I had two more papers to finalize for Monday, and by the end of Saturday night, I had one down, one more to go!

SUNDAY
Sunday repeated Saturday: up and out the door for the Museo. No tour at 10:30 and the intern room was being used for a fresco workshop (one of the many activities offered by the Palazzo for kids), so I locked myself in the coatroom to get down to some Black Death paper writing business. By noon, I'd finished the bulk of the paper, and knew I had some takers for my tour. It turned out to be a group of about 12 people--by far the biggest tour I'd given!! And hands down the BEST tour I've given, I was so comfortable with the information, and so comfortable with the Palazzo and in front of a big group (not that I'd ever had problems with presentations or big groups before...), but they were also a great group of people who asked great questions in a curious way without sounding ignorant or confused--it was just awesome! I had two little old ladies in my group, so I took special care of them (as if they were Anna!) making sure they didn't have to walk up and down the stairs (which leave me winded) and taking them to the elevator. Within the big group was a 6-person family from right outside of London, a couple from the States, a mom and daughter from Australia, and a little Italian nonna who insisted on going on an English speaking tour, even though there was one in Italian at exactly the same time. Oh I can't say enough good things about this tour, I think they had fun, and as a result I had so much fun too!

After that tour I locked myself back in the coatroom to continue working on my Black Death essay. No takers for my 3 tour meant another hour and a half of homework, which ended up being just enough time to tie up loose ends on my papers. My 4:30 tour, however, did have another large-ish group: a Spanish couple with wife's mother in tow, an American girl students who'd been studying in Switzerland and is now traveling in Florence and Rome for the week, and another student. I took them around and thanked them at the end of the tour, explaining it was my last (sob!). I packed up my things, said good bye to the few tour guides who also stuck around late, and realized I'd be back to the Palazzo later that week--I hadn't taken any pictures of it!! Thank goodness I have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday relatively free!

Snapping a few pictures of the Palazzo all lit up at night, I decided to go to the Duomo to get a few pictures of the huge Christmas tree in the piazza with the Cathedral and Baptistery in the background--only in Florence, right? Well on my way, I ended up getting caught in two HUGE protests. One was for PETA with Italians screaming in other Italians' faces wearing fur coats (which is actually very come here--hello, booming leather industry, no surprise). The other was for immigration reform. Come on people, I just wanted a few pictures of the Duomo and the pretty Christmas lights! But it was fine, especially since I was on my own and able to bob and weave throughout the crowds. Headed to the bus stop back by Palazzo Vecchio (it tends to be a reliable stop), I stopped at Gelateria di Neri, a well-known gelateria I had yet to visit, and oh I was so glad I did! I walk past it every day from my bus stop to work, and the chocolate gelato paired with the cream and fig gelato--to die for. Perfect too since I'd missed lunch today, and it was only 5:30-6 and we had some serious time until dinner.

So I was content waiting at the bus stop with my gelato, listening to the record store across the way play Beatles music, but apparently the bus was running very very late. I was surrounded by very disgruntled old Italian men making it known how impatient and disgruntled they were. There was this little boy, Valentino, zipping around, weaving in and out of their legs being a little stinker. He'd impishly point up the to the old men and say "Polizia?" before he was off identifying the next "polizia." I was watching him laughing, while his mother yelled at him, "Valentine, che cosa fai?" ("What in the world are you doing?") when he came up to me and asked me "Se sei un angelo?"--"Are you an angel?"--as if this kid didn't have my approval already! Aaah so precious. Finally a bus arrived, and we were squished like sardines on it. As the bus chugged along and people got off, I realized Hannah was also on it on her way home from the library! We got home just as Anna and Antoinetta got home, and we all ate a great dinner together of minestrone noodles in chicken broth, chicken, salad, and tomates in olive oil.