This weekend, I took a trip to Orvieto, a small hill town with lots of white wine and a really fancy church. Reaching Orvieto is a bit tricky – first a train, then a Funicilar up the hill, and finally a minibus to the town center. I only had a few hours, so I stuck to seeing the cathedral, and a meat/cheese/wine snack on the Piazza.
Back in Florence, it’s gotten very hot this past week. Because of electricity prices and a belief that air conditiong is bad for your health, most apartments stay hot.

In central Florence, most of the people you see are tourists, but as you go out in any direction coffee prices drop and most people are local. There are many people from Sardegna, the big island to the west. In Italy, moving to a different city/region is a huge deal. An Italian’s personal identity is hugely based on hometown. Around town, there’s a huge immigrant population as well, mostly from Africa and Eastern Europe. There are large groups of North African men who sell cheap posters on the street to tourists. They lay the posters on the ground in such a way that, when police are spotted, they can swoop all the posters from the ground at once. South Asians sell little children’s toys on the street, and Africans sell purses. It’s a little strange how all the illlegal street selling is completely divided by ethnic group. The last group of people are the Gypsies. Gypsy women are obvious, with long skirts and braided hair.   They beg around the all the major sites.

I also can now apparently speak well enough that shopkeepers and waiters don’t answer me in English. This was a big hurdle before.

I’ve got two weeks left in Italy,  which doesn’t seem like very much time.  But I’ll be ready to get back to the US.  I specifically miss air conditioning, Texmex, and peanut butter. I’ve seen all the major museums, so I’ll spend the rest of the time finding the smaller ones.  This weekend, I took a bike ride around Oltrearno, the part of Florence on the other side of the river.  I saw the Bardini gardens, which is a relatively small shade garden, very pretty, with great Florence views.  The Coffeehouse at the Bardini actually sold coffee, unlike the Coffeehouse at the larger Boboli gardens.  Boboli Coffeehouse is just a building that USED to sell coffee…very deceptive.  Then I walked over to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is the famous place to view Florence.  Unfortunately, it was mostly a parking lot, not the pretty piazza on a hill I was expecting.

I also stopped by the Galileo science museum, which exhibits old scientific instruments.   Also, terrifying wax models of pregnancy and pregnancy complications.  Galileo’s actual finger is displayed as well.

Sunday, I took a bus to see San Gimignano and the Monteriggioni medieval festival.  San Gimignano was very small pretty, but had way too many tourists.  Monteriggioni is an extreeeemely tiny town. It seems like more of a medieval fort, with a big stone wall.  The entire town was participating in the festival, everyone dressed, and playing the part.  Dante walked around reciting, etc. The finally was a pantomime play of St. George and the Dragon entirely performed on stilts.          Then fireworks shot from the town walls.

My favorite things to draw in Florence are statues!

First is “Rape of the Sabine Women”. It’s not the best subject matter, but the statue has so much movement.

I arrived Saturday in Florence, after a pretty long trip from Montepulciano.  I got lost looking for the hotel and ended up just taking a cab.  I had the most relaxing day possible at this hotel.  I mostly napped and watched TV.  For dinner, I walked around the neighborhood until I found a grocery to buy Pecorino fresco, olives, and bread. On my walk, I found a Ferrari convention, and Amerigo Vespucci’s house.  I got a glass of wine at the hotel bar, and collapsed on the bed. In morning I took another cab to my new homestay apartment, which is very nice and about a 10 minute walk to the Duomo. Since school doesn’t start until 9:30, I may start doing morning walks around the city, before it gets too hot and full of tourists.  I played tourist today and walked and the city for a few hours, stopping to do some drawing outside the Uffizi gallery.  Tomorrow I’m going to the Palio at Siena!