this is How we do

Where was I? Umm... Oh, the rest of spring break. Well, now the problem is where to start? One of the other places we hit over our week of classlessness was Dante's house and museum. What kind of an English major would I be if I didn't end up there at some point? We went to his house after one of our failed attempts to go to the Uffizi (the line is really long and you basically have to get there at like 8 in the morning if you want to get in sometime before you turn fifty). The house is a lot different than it was in Dante's time but there were a couple of rooms (well, one) set up to look like they would have in his time. The rest of the museum mainly consisted of information on what Florence would have been like in Dante's time including maps of Florence and a mini replica of the city. There were a few nice paintings of the guy and a copy of the book listing the people exiled from Florence, including Dante. I was really excited because I thought it was the real thing then I realized it wasn't. Sad day. The coolest part of the museum was mainly knowing that I was walking in a place Dante had lived and being able to say hey! I was were Dante was!

map of old florence

outside of the divine poet's house

At the end of spring break I received a wonderful suprise: Danielle and Caitlin and their friend Megan came! Totally suprising me and waking me up, I might add. They weren't going to come to Florence because they couldn't squeeze it in but when their train to Bari (to catch the ferry; it rhymes heehee) didn't pan out-- apparantly the entire railroad was broken or something-- they came to see me! Yay! So I took them on the grand tour of Florence. We hit San Lorenzo and its market, the Duomo, Piazza Signorina, Dante's house (just the outside this time), the Uffizi/Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti with a grand finale at Piazzale Michaelangelo. On the way back, I performed an encore by taking them to get gelato and eating it on the steps of Santa Croce. (Sidebar. I did not notice, silly me, that there is a GIANT statue of Dante just chillin alongside Santa Croce. Weird.) We attempted to see my good friend David but the line was way too long and the kiddos were really tired. So we put him on the list for later and headed home for some r&r before dinner.

what is going on here? it would be me, creeping on those gentlemen
lemme esplain. for italian class i had to listen in on 3 conversations of native italians
i am attempting to do that here
and failing cause the wind is too loud
despite the look on that guy's face he has no idea

Day 2 was just as action packed as the first. The plan was to hit the David, then hurry on over to Fiesole so I could show them the awesomeness that is the few and the Etruscan ruins. After I was done with class that is. (Yep, my spring break was over and I had to do real life again but I ignored it in favor of pretending I was still unencumbered by silly things such as classes.) However, the Accademia is closed on Mondays so we headed straight for Fiesole. We played on the playground, then got gelato (I'm pretty sure I had gelato more with these kids then the past month combined) before heading to the tombs we found last time I was there. After having our fill of the tombs we wandered off to find the other ruins that we knew were around there somewhere. Well. We found them. But... it was pretty darn expensive to get in and walk among them. So we walked along the outside, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful day. And I may or may not have tried to climb the wall with Caitlin's help.

big ruins at fiesole

Sidebar again. Across from our break-in point was a shrine to the local saint, Sant'Anna. I managed to ignore that, though I did pay a little homage to her... whoever she is. I admit I have no idea:


After attempting to enter the ruins (and failing miserably) we decided now was the time for the big reveal, the pièce de résistance, the view that trumphs all views and we climbed the hill of death to look out over Florence and its surrounding hills and sigh with longing.

Even farther above the amazing view was an old monastery. We chilled on its steps for a little while, soaking the sun and the view, before deciding it was time to call it quits and head home. But not before a little jewelry shopping. The man selling the jewelry was all cute and old... and a little scary. While we were sitting on the bus waiting to head back down to Florence, he leaves his wares behind, crosses the street and proceeds to yell at the bus driver very angrily and vehemently. He was mad about something, that's for sure. I was a little frightened that he might try to board the bus and attack the driver! But all's well that ends well and we headed home to a night of pesto pasta and fun.

But wait! There's more! But this blog has been entirely too long and my other adventures with these kiddies (POMPEI) will have to wait for later, along with everything else I have to catch you up on. I also have no pictures for that yet so you're just going to have to wait...

me, caitlin, dan, megan