Three Days in Florence

One of the many wonderful things about living in Italy is how easy and affordable it is to travel to so many other amazing places.  Of course, with Tom's dissertation work, he doesn't have a whole lot of free time, but whenever he can spare a couple of days off, we always feel torn between spending more time exploring in Rome, visiting other spots in Italy, and traveling to other cities in Europe.

The Duomo (as seen above from the Campanile)

However, a visit to Florence was on both of our must-do lists, since we've heard so many wonderful things about the city and neither of us had ever been.  So, when we found really great deals on train tickets and a hotel, it was a no-brainer to take a quick trip before the Christmas holiday.  Now that we're back, I'm happy to report that Florence ("Firenze" in Italian) definitely lived up to our high expectations.  In fact, I'm tempted to say that I now have a new favorite European city!

Florence sits about 175 miles north of Rome in the Tuscany region of Italy, and is only about an hour and a half from Rome by high speed train.  Florence is considered by many to be the birthplace of the Renaissance, and so the city receives a lot of tourists anxious to learn more about its history, art, culture, and architecture.  For me, though, one of the best things about Florence is just the strikingly beautiful landscape.  The city is on a river, surrounded by hills, and almost all of the buildings have matching reddish-orange colored rooftops. The look is so stunning and distinctive that, once you've seen it, it would be truly impossible to mistake Florence for any other city.

The Campanile

However, the architecture is also quite impressive, and the Duomo (formally the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower), is definitely the city's the most recognizable building.  In addition to the Basilica, which was built roughly between the late 1200s and the mid-1400s (although the facade is 19th century), the cathedral complex also includes a baptistery and a campanile.

In pictures, the Duomo definitely looks big, but visiting it in person is a whole other experience.  When we first saw it, rounding a corner on our way to our hotel from the train station, we were completely overwhelmed by its size and grandeur.  It takes several minutes to walk around the entirety of the complex, and each side of the building is so beautiful that it doesn't seem like there is a "front" and a "back."  For a small fee, you can climb the 414 steps to the top of the Campanile, where you'll be rewarded with breathtaking views of the entire city.  If given the chance, I could have happily spent hours up there just taking in the views, and so this experience was definitely the highlight of the trip for me.

Ponte Vecchio

In addition to the Duomo, other popular spots around Florence are Santa Croce (another gorgeous church), the Palazzo Vecchio (which has a copy of the David as well as other statues out front), and the Ponte Vecchio (meaning "old bridge").  The Ponte Vecchio is unique because, in addition to allowing pedestrians and cars to cross the river, it is lined with all kinds of little shops and boutiques, selling everything from jewelry to leather boots and purses, to pizza (although I don't particularly recommend pizza in Florence).  With so much to see, we had a great time just walking around the city, taking in all of the sights, and doing some window shopping along the way.

Duomo and Christmas Tree

Beautiful Painting inside the Dome

Red Roofs (from inside the Campanile)

Santa Croce (from the top of the Campanile)

Palazzo Vecchio (with a copy of the David statue on the left)

Ornaments and Pottery at the Christmas Market

As an added bonus, we also happened to stumble upon an amazing Christmas market near Santa Croce (on its last open day of the season)!  Unlike our bad Christmas Market experience in Rome, this market had everything I had dreamed of, including dozens of stands (under red and white awnings) selling holiday-themed items such as ornaments, candles, and hats and mittens.  They also had some delicious German foods including the bratwurst (which Tom had-he was especially excited to have ketchup and mustard for the first time since we've moved abroad), and insanely delicious apple strudel (which Tom and I split later as as a pre-dinner dessert (for those of you who are curious, the strudel was very similar to pie, except that it perfected the crust to apple ratio by tripling the apples and halving the amount of crust!)).  In general, though Florence seemed to be more in the holiday spirit than in Rome is, and we really enjoyed hearing the Christmas music and seeing lights and decorations everywhere we went.

Christmas Market

Strudel! (with Market in Background)

View of the Ponte Vecchio from Piazzale Michelangelo

In other ways, too, Florence had a very different look and feel to it than Rome does.  It was smaller (and thus perhaps seemed a bit more touristy), but it also seemed to be a bit cleaner (not that Rome is horribly dirty), and more efficiently run. In general, though, there is a gradual change in look and culture as you move from the south of the country to the north. This statement is a broad over-generalization, but the south of Italy (Naples and south) feels a bit like Greece to me, while the north seems a bit more like France or Germany (although to be fair, I've never actually been to Germany). Perhaps my favorite cultural difference, though, is related to the language.  The Florentine dialect of Italian is considered the "standard Italian" (which you'll what learn in an Italian class), so it was much easier to understand people in Florence than it was in Naples, or even in Rome.

Arno River

Florence From Across the River

Synagogue (with a non-red roof!)

Looking out from Piazzale Michelangelo 

Uffizi (picture is from the internet since no photography is allowed inside)

Of course, while we were in Florence, we also visited a couple of art museums. This may be an unpopular statement, but I have to admit at the start that I'm much of a Renaissance art connoisseur. Frankly, I enjoy art depicting landscapes much more than art depicting people, and once I've admired about five paintings of Madonna holding an infant Jesus, I don't particularly see a need look at a hundred more.  Perhaps if I knew more about the lives of the artists and/or the social and political history of the period, I'd find it a bit more interesting, but on just a basic level I don't enjoy looking at the work of Renaissance artists the same way I enjoy looking at  impressionist or post-impressionist paintings.  I guess it's just not my thing...

Giotto Madonna and Child (stock photo)

However (as Tom convinced me), you can't go all the way to Florence and not see some of the most famous art of all time, so we visited both the Accademia Gallery and the Uffzi.  Normally, you need to reserve tickets in advance to visit these art museums, but since it was off-season, we were lucky enough to purchase tickets right on the spot (and at $6.50 Euros each, they really are quite reasonable).

Although the Uffizi is a much bigger and grander building (you could literally get lost in there), each of these museums houses both sculptures and paintings, including many gold-ground paintings (a particular style of artwork where artists applied gold leaf to wooden panels).  As was was popular during the Renaissance, many of the works are religious-themed (many of the paintings were commissioned as altar-pieces) or involve subjects from the classical period.  The Academia Gallery is most famous for being the home of Michelangelo's David (although there are also a couple of copies of the work around town), but also has a few unfinished Michelangelo sculptures (which are actually really neat to see, since you get a sense of how the figure emerges from the marble).

So, even though the museums weren't my favorite part of the trip, it was a very interesting experience to see so much important and influential art in person (and, if you feel at all like I do about Renaissance art, rest assured that you really can spend as much or little time in these places as you like).

Copy of David (in front of Palazzo Vecchio)

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" (stock photo)

Piazzale Michelangelo

All in all, Tom and I had a fantastic trip.  We saw some amazing sights, ate some delicious food, and really enjoyed seeing another part of this very diverse country. Someday, I'd love to spend some time in the Tuscany country-side as well, but, at this point, I'm not convinced that any other part of Tuscany will quite live up to Florence.  As Tom said on the  last day of our trip (while overlooking the city form Piazzale Michelangelo), being in Florence is like "living in a fairy tale," and I couldn't agree more.

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Wed. Dec. 19:  It's standard Italian winter weather.  Highs in the upper 50s and lows in the 30s.  I really can't complain, although I am looking forward to getting to a point where the sun doesn't set at 4:30 anymore!       

Chestnuts Roasting on a Semi-Open Fire

Even though I'm not a particularly religious person, I have always loved the traditions that go along with the lead-up to Christmas (perhaps even more than the holiday itself).  I love watching the Christmas decorations (especially lights) go up around the city, love listening to the classic holiday songs, and love baking and eating Christmas cookies (Russian teacakes and thumbprints were always the standards at my house).

Cold Wintery Rome (note the snow-capped mountain in the background!)

I realize I've used the word "love" a whole lot in that last sentence, but there's really no other way to describe it.  I'm sure, from an outsider's perspective, our cultural obsession with all things Christmas would seem totally commercialized, over-the-top and a bit ridiculous.  Still,  having grown up in one of the snowiest, coldest, gloomiest winter states, I learned at an early age that one of the best ways to get through that horrible part of the year was to fully throw myself  into any holiday celebration I could.  (When I was little we also decorated the house for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's day!  Of course, in retrospect, I probably would have liked Minnesota winters a lot more if I had gotten into cross country skiing, but that's a whole other story.)  The bottom line, though, is that Christmas time just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without certain special traditions.

Chestnuts and Decorations on the Streets of Rome

Because of this, being away from home at this time of year is always a bit strange, and I didn't know what to expect from Italy.  I assumed, since it's a predominately Catholic country, that Christmas was an important holiday, but I didn't have a sense of how much it would "feel" like the Christmas season I'm used to.  Fortunately,  Italy didn't disappoint.  Or- at least- it didn't disappoint too much.

I do have to say that our first attempt to get into the Christmas spirit here was a complete and total failure.  As you may know, many countries in Europe (but especially in Germany and Austria) have huge "Christmas Markets" this time of year, where tons of vendors line up to sell traditional Christmas gifts and crafts (ornaments, toys, wood carvings, etc) and foods (like gingerbread, hot cider, and mulled wine).  So, when we learned that the Austrian Society in Rome was hosting their own Christmas Market on December 1st, we didn't hesitate to make the hour and a half trip over there with a few other fellows. Unfortunately, though, what we found was less European Christmas Market and more like two old ladies had set up a garage sale of old random stuff (we're talking stuffed frogs and used baby clothes) in a church basement where they also sell bitter coffee and unremarkable chocolate cake.  Needless to say, it wasn't really what we needed to get into the Christmas spirit!

The Mercedes-Benz Tree (yes, seriously)

Luckily, though, things quickly took a turn for the better. On December 4th, the Academy brought in a Christmas tree for the Salone, which was decorated by many of the twenty-two (!!) kids living here.  I can't say it's the most beautiful looking tree of all time (since most of the decorators were under the age of 6, the tree is now covered with random patches of blinking white lights and blinking multicolored-lights, as well as a random spattering of ornaments), but it certainly captures the child-like excitement of the season.  Since all of our Christmas music is currently in a box stored on Treasure Island, Tom and I also started streaming some Christmas songs from the internet in our room, and before long it totally felt like Christmas around here.

The city of Rome also quickly got into the spirit of the holidays, and many of the neighborhoods now have lights in the shapes of icicles or bells hanging over its streets. There are also a few trees around town, including a large (but strangely undecorated) tree by the Spanish Steps, and a nearby "Mercedes-Benz" tree, which, I suppose, is fitting since it's on a street where you'd be hard pressed to find a pair of shoes for under $500.  Another fun holiday tradition in the city is all of the street vendors who sell chestnuts (which are roasting on a semi-open fire).  Honestly, they don't look nearly as good as what I always pictured when listening to the "Christmas Song," but I do feel like I should give them a try at some point.  Since it was abnormally chilly here the past couple of weeks (daytime temps were regularly in the 30s), it even felt like Christmas season outside- even if it did refuse to snow!  

Dead Body and Little Boy After the Christmas Play

However, the high point of our holiday here at the Academy was the annual Christmas Party (which happened just last night).  The purpose of this event is to bring the whole community together and for the fellows, residents, and their families, to thank the staff (the cooks, the gardeners, housekeeping, etc- I know, we're VERY spoiled).

One tradition of the holiday party is that every year the fellows put on a Christmas play- in Italian (!)- which invariably ends with Santa coming out to distribute gifts to children and to the staff.  I have to say that putting on a Christmas play with a group that includes amazing writers, artists, musicians, designers, and architects is an experience wholly different than any I had had goofing around as a kid. We ended up with a great script, and Tom was cast as the male lead, "Little Boy."  Essentially, the plot of the play (which was all done in Italian) is that "Little Boy" and "Little Girl" see and hear a singing star in the night and attempt to round up everyone in the community (scholars, artists, office workers, cooks, etc.) to come see it with them.  In the process, everyone realizes that they have gifts that they can bring the star (the artists create something, the cooks bring food, etc.) based on their own special talents.  I played the role of "dead body," which was great because I had no difficult Italian lines to memorize.  I got to wear an awesome costume, though, and basically just had to run around once the gardeners discovered me (actually, the joke of this bit was that the Academy really did find some ancient skeletons on its property a while back- although, in a place like this, you never really can be sure what's rumor and what's fact).  In any case, everyone had a great time, and after all the gifts were handed out to the kids and staff (it was really sweet just how excited all of the children got when Santa made his appearance), we all celebrated by drinking champagne and eating panettone and chocolates.

Academy Holiday Party

So, all in all, we've had a pretty darn Christmas-y Christmas season here, and we can't wait to celebrate even more with our families back in Minnesota!  (Of course, given that we are flying back on the 24th and have two layovers in potentially snowy cities- Paris and Chicago- I am already mentally preparing for the possibility of spending Christmas stuck in an airport... but let's hope that won't be the case!  Or, if it is, that we at least get stuck in an airport with a Chipotle!).

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Sat. Dec. 15:  After a couple of weeks in the 30s, it's finally back up to the 50s (but rainy). and it feels like a heat wave!

Pizza Pie-a: A Guide to Eating Pizza in Rome

When I was a kid, one of the most exciting events in life was when I'd earn enough star stickers on my holographic "Book-It" button to get my very own "personal pan pizza" at Pizza Hut.  The crust was so thick yet crispy, the cheese so gooey, and the sauce was so... saucy.  But best of all, it was mine- I didn't have to share it with anyone.  Not even my parents!  Unfortunately, though, a personal pan pizza just doesn't do it for me anymore.  I'm not sure if Pizza Hut has significantly decreased in quality since the late '80s, or if my tastes have just matured (probably a little of both), but I'm happy to report that I'm regularly able to re-experience this type of pizza excitement here in Rome.

Pizza by the Slice

As you know, Tom and I eat most of our meals here at the Academy, but on the weekends (when there are limited meals here), we usually find ourselves eating pizza at least once.  Often, we end up getting some cheap pizza by the slice while we're out and about, but once in a while, we'll order pizza out at a sit-down restaurant.  The take-away pizza is a bit different in style from the sit-down pizza, so I'll tell you a bit about each of them below.

First, though, a brief pizza history:  Naples is usually credited with the invention of this beloved food, although a lot of other foods (such as focaccia) could be considered forefathers of the pizza.  In the early years, it was generally the poor members of the community who ate pizza, since it was fairly cheap to produce.  However, (likely due to its deliciousness) pizza making and eating quickly began to spread through the classes, through Italy, and now throughout the world.  Even though pizza is considered a quintessential Italian food, there are still regional differences in the styles of pizzas (which sometimes inspire heated debates about which is the best).  As I mentioned before, Rome is popular for two different types, so let me tell you a bit about each of them.

Suppli

The first type is pizza by the slice, or "pizza al taglio." Getting pizza by the slice is a very popular lunch (or even dinner) option here in Rome, and it's probably my favorite of the two styles.  In any given neighborhood, there are literally dozens of little places serving up pizza and other treats (such as pastries or suppli, which are friend cheese and rice balls) from behind a counter.  Generally, they are standing room only and you take your pizza to go, but every once in a while you'll find a place with a few seats.  Figuring out which places are the best is usually easy;  If there's a long line and most of the people in it are speaking Italian, it's pretty much guaranteed to be tasty.

Pizza by the slice has a little bit thicker crust (maybe 1-2 cm) and can be topped with a variety of ingredients.  One thing that Americans will have to get over right away, though, is that it's not a guarantee that any particular pizza will have both sauce and cheese.  While most pizzas will have one ore the other, neither is really a requirement for pizza here.  One pizza might have just sauce and mushrooms, for example, while another might be peppers and cheese without any sauce.  In my opinion, the worst of all is the pizza with just crust and red sauce but some weirdos (including my husband) claim that this is "good" because you're able to appreciate the simplicity of the flavors.  Sounds like crazy talk if you ask me, though.

Rascioli Pizza

The label "pizza by the slice," might be a bit misleading, however, because you don't buy a piece of a pre-sliced pie like you would in the US.  Instead, the Italians have a much better system that allows you to select exactly how much you want of each kind of pizza.  Basically, the pizzas are all rectangular shaped and not pre-cut in any way.  If you ask for a piece of a certain kind, the server will show you where he/she plans to cut it for you (with a scissors), and then you can say "piu" (more) or "meno" (less) until they have just the right amount.  This also allows you to try more flavors than you might otherwise, which is great for indecisive people such as myself.  Once you have made all of your selections, they weight it, tell you how much you owe (it's by the kilogram and usually pretty cheap), heat it up for you, throw it in a box, and then you're on your way!

So far, one of my personal favorites is a pizza with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil from Roscioli (which just also happens to be the shop from which the Academy buys its bread).  There is also a shop near the Academy that sells (in addition to more standard pizzas) really good dessert pizza, like Nutella and banana or apple and cinnamon.  Really, though, I have had too many good ones to recount- and, surprisingly, most of the pizzas are vegetarian, so I get a lot of good variety.  We also still need to get out to a place called "Pizzarium," near the Vatican, which supposedly has some of the best pizza in town.

Pizza with "Rocket Salad"

The other style of pizza in Rome is what you'll find if you order at a sit-down restaurant.  This pizza is round with a thin crust, and is cooked in a wood-fired oven. These pizzas are either designed to be shared as an appetizer or consumed by a single person as a main meal (at least that's what I tell myself when I chow down a whole pizza...).  They have similar ingredients as the pizza by the slice pizzas, but often they also come with some arugula on top (apparently, arugula is called "rocket salad" in Britain, and so English menus often list it this way, which I find kind of hilarious).  A few years ago I would have found this strange, but since arugula-topped pizza is all the rage in San Francisco (and possibly Minneapolis now, too), it now seems very normal to me.

Other than the arugula, many of the toppings are similar to those you could order from a Pizza Hut (although MUCH better quality, obviously), but you'll also find more creative/interesting options such as "pear and gorgonzola" or "potato and rosemary," too.  I really do love the flaky, crispy crust on these pizzas, but since you can only pick one flavor and can't see what you are getting before you order, it's not my most favorite style of pizza in the city.  Of course, if you think you know a Rome pizzeria that will change my mind, feel free to let me know!

Okay, well, all this writing about pizza has got my hungry, so I'm off to the kitchen for an (almost) midnight snack.

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Sat. Dec. 8:  It's cold.  Really, really cold.  Currently it's 36 degrees (although it's been warming up to around 45 during the day), and I have begun wearing a winter hat and gloves whenever I go outside.  Hopefully this weather will prepare me for Christmas in Minnesota, though!  

Visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum (Belated Amalfi Adventures Part 3)

To be quite honest, my life has been fairly uneventful as of late (or as uneventful as living in Rome can be). Between all the rain (we had showers and thunderstorms for nearly a week straight), the cooler weather (it's actually chilly, I swear!  This morning it was in the high 30s!), and the fact that it's getting dark around 4:30 PM, we barely got off the "compound" (as Tom has taken to calling the Academy) this past week.  As such, I don't have anything new to report, but, luckily, I do have some material still stored up for our trip down to the Amalfi Coast last month.

Herculaneum (with modern buildings in background)

One of the great things about the Amalfi Coast is that it's very close to lots of other interesting places, including the historic sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum.  You can get to either very easily from the train that runs down to Sorrento from Naples. As most people probably learned in school, Mount Vesuvius erupted in the first century, spewing stones, ash, and hot gas over some of the neighboring towns (including Pompeii and Herculaneum). There was some time to escape, and many people did, but there were still thousands who died as a result of the eruption.  As school children, most of us probably found this history lesson either fascinating or terrifying (count me in the latter group), due to the human interest aspect of the story.  We imagined what the residents were thinking and doing once the eruption began, and thought about how we might have reacted had we been there.  (Would we have made a break for it or stayed and tried to ride out the storm?)

Beautiful Fresco in Herculaneum House

However, most archaeologists and ancient historians who work on Pompeii and/or Herculaneum have much broader interests than the towns' final days.  Tom could probably explain this better than I could, but, as I understand it, the same stone and ash that led to the demise of the town also preserved the cities in a way that very few other places have been.  For example, you can still see many of the ancient frescos (that normally would have faded), and the structures are essentially frozen in time, since the residents never had a chance to repurpose building materials in later centuries.  Archaeologists and historians can therefore learn a lot about ancient life from studying Pompeii and Herculaneum, and, for this reason, some Pompeii literature that I read described the disaster as a "blessing in disguise."  I'm not sure I would go that far, but it certainly is an amazing experience being able to spend time in these places.

Herculaneum Street

If you've never heard of Herculaneum, you're not alone.  I certainly hadn't before I was dating a classics grad student!  This site isn't as well-known by the public because it's much smaller in size.  For you Minnesotans, if Pompeii was Minneapolis, than Herculaneum would be Stillwater (or something similar). Before we went to either, I asked Tom which he would recommend if someone only had time to see one of the two.  He felt that it was a toss-up, as each site had something different to offer.  Herculaneum is, as I've said, much, much smaller- perhaps something like four or five square blocks. However, it's kind of cool that you can look down from above and get a sense of the full city layout. On the other hand, you could spend an entire day wandering around Pompeii.  Another difference is that many of the buildings in Herculaneum have preserved second stories (a rarity at an ancient site), so you can get a bit of a better feel of what the town would have looked like- although you do have to mentally block out the modern buildings which now abut the ancient site.  There are also less tourists at Herculaneum, which is nice (especially during high season, I'm sure).  For these reasons, Tom felt that you'd have an equally good time visiting either spot.

Temple of Apollo in Pomepeii

However, after visiting both places, I have to say that my answer (hands down) would be Pompeii.  My guess is that our difference in opinion is based on the fact that the experience of a layperson (like me!) is so much different than that of a specialist (or even a person with a heavy interest in ancient history).  For me, the visit to Herculaneum was nice enough, but it felt a bit like a forced learning field trip. Since it was a smaller town, many of the buildings were similar, and after about 30 minutes, I felt like I had seen enough.  On the other hand, I really could have spent all day just wondering around Pompeii and imagining what life would have been like there.  Since this was a bigger city, there were also more "main attractions" such as the forum, the amphitheater (for gladiators, beast hunts, and public executions), and theater (for plays and musical performances), as well as the houses and shops you can see in Herculaneum.  On our visit, it was gloomy and rainy, but Pompeii also has a lot more green space and views of the surrounding mountains, which I'm sure are just breathtaking on a clear sunny day.

Amphitheater in Pompeii 

As with most sites in Italy, one downside to these places is that there is very little on-site information for tourists.  If a place like Pompeii existed in the US, I imagine that there would be a huge museum on-site with some of the artifacts, pictorial recreations, explanatory postings, and interactive exhibits.  In Italy, though, there is much less emphasis on that sort of thing (not to mention that there's no funding for it, either), and if you want to see the artifacts, you'll have to go to museums elsewhere.  Of course, you can still get a good sense of the place if you bring along a good guidebook, or take a tour (lucky for me I have my very own personal tour guide!).  Still, I imagine it's a sad truth that many tourists come and go without really knowing what they are seeing.

Here are a few more pictures of the two sites so you can get a better feel for things:

Tom in one of the Herculaneum Shops

Herculaneum

Inside the Amphitheater in Pompeii

Pompeii House (note the beautiful floor with a pool to collect the water from the skylight!!)

Pompeii Has Great Views!  (modern city in background)

With all of that said, though, I am very glad we had the opportunity to visit both sites.  I learned a lot, and now finally have some mental images to put with my 6th grade history lesson!

Well, it's back to studying Italian for me, and after that I am going to help Tom start studying his many lines for the Academy Christmas play (which I'll tell you more about in an upcoming post).  He's going to be fabulous as "Little Boy."

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Mon. Dec. 3:  Today was our first sunny day in ages!  The Tiber has been flooded (for the second time since we've been here) and the park where I run is basically a giant mud pit!  And it's chilly!  Today the high was 49 and the low was 38.