Martedì

Happy Tuesday!

It may not be very late in the day for those reading this, but I am SO glad today is almost over in Italy.

Today I lost my wallet. I don't know what happened to it or how it went missing or how it would have been stolen... but it is gone. Thankfully there were only 60 euro in there and my bank card doesn't let me charge anything onto it since this sort of thing is common overseas (my bank is so smart). The main thing I was bummed about was the wallet itself, since I had just gotten it and it was super cute. My drivers license was in there too, but I didn't like my picture anyways, so I'm glad I have to retake it :)

I don't think my mom will appreciate my optimism about this situation, haha, but what else can you do?

Aside from that, today was still stressful. It was our second day of class, and we were supposed to climb to Piazzale Michelangelo yesterday but it was raining, so instead we just did a little walking tour of the main piazzas, ducking under cover every time the rain started to fall a little harder. So the plan for today was that it if was still rainy we would meet at the Duomo to see the Baptistry, and if it wasn't then we'd meet and make the climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Well, we woke up this morning and it was raining. It stopped about 30 minutes before I started freaking out about my wallet (12:15), so we assumed we would meet at our rainy-day meeting spot... wrong!

By 1:15 we realized we may have made a mistake and tried calling our professor. By 1:30 we finally heard back from her and she told us that they had already left for the look out spot, so hurry and meet us. Tara and I were on our bikes, but the 3rd group member was walking, so it took awhile to get there, not to mention making only two wrong turns and freaking out about the weather...

"Wait, why are we outside?"

But anyways, we met our professor and 4th classmate an hour into class, and started the long hike up. This is the same lookout Tara and I went our first night here, and thankfully you can get a better view from the pictures this time!

A bronze copy of the David at the very top of
Piazzale Michelangelo

Cattedrale Santa Maria del Fiore
(Il Duomo)

A fort, and the original Roman city walls to the right of it

This time we went past the Piazzale and went to one of the oldest remaining churches in Florence, San Miniato, named after Minias who was tortured by the Emperor and survived everything until someone cut off his head, but even then, he picked up his head and walked up this mountain. So now there's a church in honor of him.. I'd say that's pretty deserving.

Chiesa San Miniato

The fort and original Roman city walls to the right

View of the city- important people are buried here,
like the author of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi

Frescoes from before the Renaissance 

Pillars in the Crypt- all very different

The remains of Saint Minias

View of Florence from the steps of the church!
[From right to left:
Il Duomo, Baptistry, Palazzo Vecchio]

Lots of walking today! But it was amazing, beautiful and very interesting!

My batik class was directly after this one, and I'm pretty sure my teacher is just going to have to accept I'll always be at least 10 minutes late. But I was able to start my first scarf today! I'm still putting the wax on it, and that took WAY longer than I expected it to. Hopefully I'll have pictures of the process tomorrow when it actually starts looking cool.

Tomorrow's destination is the Baptistry right next to the Duomo - you can see it in that last picture, it's the second little dome in the middle. I really really hope it doesn't rain. Today was the second time Tara and I have gotten caught in a rain storm (and yes, Professoressa, it was a rainy day). Thankfully today wasn't as bad. On Sunday it was hailing and we had to take shelter in a tiny cafe with about 25 other people for 45 minutes. Once the hail and wind calmed down we booked it back home, but not without getting soaked to the bone.

And lastly, the italian word for mom is "mamma" but they say it "mom-mah." So when they say "mamma" they have to touch their lips twice because mothers are just so sweet :)

Ciao per ora!