CET Student Correspondent News: Accidental Tourist

According to many travel websites and guidebooks, San Gimignano is one of the top ten cities to visit in Italy, and it is only an hour away on the regional (cheap) train. The town is known for its medieval towers and great scenic views of Tuscany.

San Gimignano

We get off the train and it looks like a scene from the movie The American. This "town" is deserted, most of the windows are boarded up and there are zero towers. We are confused. We rationalize and figure that all the touristy stuff must be on the other side of town and decide to get some lunch. We're starving and about half a mile into town we go inside the first restaurant we see, the Osteria da Camillo. We stand in the doorway for a good 10 minutes, no one comes. Is this place open? 

We leave and try to find another restaurant. An old Italian man wearing a funny hat is sweeping his stoop, this scene looks straight out of some classic Italian movie. We ask him where the restaurants are, he rambles something in Italian, smiles and points towards the restaurant we just left. We return to da Camillo and twenty minutes later, when we're on the verge of passing out, we are seated in a small room in the back of the restaurant. The hostess is the bartender, dishwasher and waitress. Our waiter is the owner. We order a ton of wine, there's fresh bread, cheese plates (Pecorino with honey was my favorite), an antipasto with prosciutto, parmigiano, soppressata, artichoke hearts and crostini with chicken liver spread. I had my first plate of rabbit. 

Coniglio (rabbit)

soppressata

Completely stuffed, we order some caffè because the owner said it would help us digest. I think this is a myth but want it anyway. The owner brings the check and small glasses of Limoncello for everyone (also to "help digest"). I don't believe this either but that doesn't stop me.

Time to find some towers. After 20 minutes of exploring we do see some castles, but they seem to be miles away. We ask a passerby how to get to the center of San Gimignano, and he laughs and tells us it is a bus ride away. We have spent the entire afternoon in the town of Poggibonsi, this is not a typo.

Poggibonsi's bustling city center

The next bus for San Gimignano leaves in an hour, but it's getting late and there is a train that leaves in 20 minutes for Siena, which is about another hour south. Siena is pretty large relative to Poggibonsi but then again, everything is large in comparison to that town. We walk the 3 uphill miles to the center of Siena from the train station. We can hear what sounds like a parade of some sort coming from the main street. We join the parade. The people are dancing and singing along with the beat of these huge drums. Everyone is Italian and dressed in red. We're confused but enjoy walking a few blocks with these people. 

I later learn that the parade we walked along was a communist rally. Apparently Tuscany is very "red" and has a strong communist following. Our day trip was official weird. No towers today, but no real loss either.

Mark Madden

History of Art and Italian Studies in Florence, 

Spring 2011

April Newsletter

CET Events and Activities
April 8, 2011: IPS day trip to Venice


April 19, 2011: Spring Luncheon at CET 1-2:30 pm


April 22-25: Easter Break 


April 30: Day trip to Montepulciano, Pienza and Montalcino. Sign up today!


Events in Florence
Sunday, April 10, 5 pm "I Shall Paint a Piece”
Dramatic readings drawn from the Florentine poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Performed on the "piano nobile" in Palazzo Davanzati by actors Devon Black and Matt Douglas, who have just completed a North American tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Robert Shaw Cameron, associate artistic director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Palazzo Davanzati, Via Porta Rossa 13, Firenze. Free entrance, reservation required. email lapietra.reply@nyu.edu to reserve. 

April 11-14: Shakespeare Week at the British Library 


Monday 11 April
15.00 Public Reading: Twelfth Night or What You Will
A reading of the play in its entirety. All are welcome to come and listen or to join in on the reading in any
language. With the participation of members of FESTA International Theatre Company. Afterwards there will be Elizabethan and Jacobean music, and a light buffet.

Tuesday 12 April
16.00 John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s clever reworking of texts and plots from Shakespeare’s life as well as his plays Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet.

Wednesday 13 April
6pm  British Library“Draw the curtain and show you the picture”: the graphics of Twelfth Night
Professor Keir Elam of the University of Bologna addresses the role of pictorial, cartographical and other graphic modes in Twelfth Night, as part of what we might term the optical allusion at work throughout the play. The issues addressed include the problem of visual perception as a source of knowledge, and the relationship between ‘competing’ arts in the drama.

8 pm British Library Trevor Nunn’s Twelfth Night
1996 film version 


9:15 pm Duomo
Free chorus performance. www.maggiofiorentino.com


Saturday, April 16: International Slow Art Day 

What: Guided visit of the exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi followed by high tea. Cost: 8 euro. Guided conversation and complimentary English High Tea: Meet the group at 5pm in the Loggiata (open space on the third floor, wear your jacket).Reservations required. 

Sunday, April 17: Excursions between nature and culture (free!) www.fiesoleforyou.it

Thursday, April 28: 7-10 pm Knit Lounge at Le Murate plus free aperitivo

(Piazza Madonna della Neve, 1) Craft and Knitting workshop (beginning to advanced, English and Italian). You can purchase a kit or bring your own materials to make a yarn necklace, cotton pillow, and iPad case. 

Saturday, April 30: Notte Bianca

Annual all-night party in Florence; Palazzo Vecchio open all night, Jazz music in the Uffizi, events throughout the city. 

On-Going Events in Florence

April 2-30. Evening openings of the museum in Palazzo Vecchio 

(ticket office open until 11 pm every day except thursday). 

Through July 17: Picasso, Mirò, Dalì. Giovani e arrabbiati. 

Palazzo Strozzi www.palazzostrozzi.org


Every Tuesday
Language exchange at the Casa della Creativita'


Every Wednesday 7 pm wine tasting & aperitivo at Negroni


Art Tuesdays
Free evening admission to state museums: April 26, May 31, June 28, July 26, August 30, September 27, October 25, November 29 and December 27. In Florence, the participating museums are the Uffizi Gallery; Galleria dell'Accademia; Bargello Museum; Medici Chapels; San Marco Museum; Museum of Palazzo Davanzati; Gallery of Modern Art and Palatine Gallery, both in Palazzo Pitti.

See Current Events April-June for more on-going events

CET Student Correspondent News: (Un)Easy Rider

I ask my Italian roommate where I can buy a bicycle. "Don't buy one, it will just get stolen" he says. Surprisingly this is about the third time I've heard this. It's a crappy answer, I just want a bicicletta!!!

I surf the internet looking for bike shops in the city while eating some fresh pasta. Google maps is in Italian and I can't even figure out how to change it back to English. I just leave and stupidly hope to just come across a bicycle shop. I literally wander Florence for two hours completely lost. I stop and ask a guy who's chaining up his bike (in Italian) where I can buy a bike. He smirks and tells me "il negozio di biciclette” (a bicycle shop) ... Thanks.

Seems like everyone in Italy has a bike except for me (and this guy). 

I ask a street cleaner. I thought it was a good idea at first because she works on hundreds of streets every day. She has no idea, I guess she doesn't clean the section of town with bike shops. I finally find my way back because I recognize the train station. There's bikes for rent right outside, I think this is the perfect person to ask. Wrong. I ask the million dollar question. “Why should I tell you where to buy bicycle, rent here!" she says. Good point. 

Lots of bikes to rent, ma io la voglio comprare!

My Italian teacher comes through. She gives me the name of a bicycle shop over by the train station, and sure enough this place is stocked with old bikes. Some are in great condition and others look like they were fished out of the river. I ask the owner how late he's open and tell him that I'm coming back later with one of my friends to buy some bikes. I get a blank stare, he speaks no English. I try to repeat in Italian, he laughs and gives me a business card. By business card I mean piece of paper that he scribbled his name and number on. It looks like hieroglyphics, I throw it away.

One of my friends, Julian, and I go to the bike shop after class. We can't communicate with this guy but at least he recognizes me. He explains to us that of the whole rack of used bicycles (around 30 of them) the only ones that are for sale are these two. Funny that there are only two bikes for sale when two Americans walk in. The new bikes on the top rack were really nice and the sign said 85 euro. He told us we could get them for a special price: 100 euro. How is that special??? 

Of the used ones for sale one's a rusty piece of *@#! but for some reason Julian likes the rusty one, fine by me. With two good locks (a necessity here) the total for both bikes came to 140 euro. Not When it's time to pay Julian and I just give his assistant 120 euro. He counts it, says very good and we ride off in the Tuscan sunset. 

My new ride

Mark Madden, 

History of Art & Italian Studies in Florence

Spring 2011

CET Student Correspondent News: Corso di Cucina

Ciao! Last night, a group of us went to In Tavola for a three-course cooking class! It was informative and very fun. I worked at the table with three of the Italian roommates: Denny, Caterina and Elisa, so I also improved my Italian.

The best part was eating everything afterward, of course. Here is a list of what we made:

Millefoglie di Verdure (Vegetable Millefoglie): We cut eggplant into slices and layered the eggplant with cheese, salt, pepper, oregano and a potato/zucchini mixture. After a quick bake in the oven, they were an easy to make and delicious appetizer.

Millefoglie di verdure

Potato Gnocchi: This was so fun. We peeled potatoes that had previously been baked and then mashed them. To the potatoes we added one egg yolk (or 1 “yellow” as the chef referred to it as), a flour mixture, cornstarch, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then, we kneaded the dough and rolled it into a “sausage” where we cut the roll of dough into smaller pieces. Those pieces then had to be rolled into smaller “sausages”, cut into 1 inch pieces and shaped into balls. Gnocchi is also easy to boil because, as our chef says, when they are ready to be removed from the water they come to the surface and yell, “save me!

We also made two different sauces for the gnocchi: Ragu alla Bolognese (a typical tomato with meat sauce), shown above, and Sugo all’Aglione (tomato and garlic sauce).

Gnocchi alla bolognese

For dessert, we made Dolce al Cioccolato which literally means chocolate dessert. This had a soft center and was my favorite part of the meal, per usual.

In Tavola also offers a gelato making class, so maybe I will be back there soon!

A dopo (see you later)!


Hannah Rogers
CET Student Correspondent
History of Art and Italian Studies, Florence, Spring 2011

March Newsletter

CET News and Events

March 2
Cooking Class at InTavola

March 3-7 Traveling Seminar to Catania 
March 3: Walking Tour of Catania, dinner with CET Siena and Catania students

March 4: Guest Lecture, “Sicily: Traditions of the Past and Future", meeting with Addio Pizzo, Aperitivo at Cortile Alessi with Sicilian students

March 5: 
Full-day guided tour of Mt. Etna

March 6: Free time!

Events in Florence 

March 8
International Women's Day (Festa della donna). Free museum entrances! Women's Day and Fat Tuesday (martedi' grasso) happen to fall on the same day this year. Parties and events throughout the city.

March 12-14 
Taste Festival. Stazione Leopolda

March 12 
Picasso, Miro', Dali': Angry Young Men. Palazzo Strozzi (March 12-Summer 2011)

March 16 Celebrating 150 Years of Italy! 

Events in Piazza della Signoria: 
7 pm Parade

10 pm Dance Performance

11 pm Concert
Midnight Fireworks

Events in Piazza S. Croce
7-10 pm Readings from the Divine Comedy
10:30 pm Concert

There will also be booths set up in Piazza del Duomo. Palazzo Vecchio and the other state musuems will be open until 1 A.M. 



On-going:

Films at the Odeon 
click here for showtimes


Every Tuesday: Language Exchange and Aperitivo
see here for info


Every Wednesday: British Library Lecture and Film 
see schedule here 

Outside Florence

March 6, 8, 13: Carnevale a Viareggio 

CET Student Correspondent News: Umbilicus Urbis Romae

In mid-February we spent three days in Italy's capital city on a traveling seminar. From Audrey Hepburn to Lizzy McGuire, we've long been inundated with cliches about living la dolce vita. Finding ourselves in the dead center of Rome's 'umbilicus urbis' (literally Rome's belly button) in the place to which "all roads lead", and wanting to "fare come fanno i romani" (do as the Romans do), we turned to our resident blogger, Hannah Rogers, for a list of the top five when-in-Rome tips, which we have we extracted from her entries (which you can read in full here):

5. Get a Roma Pass
"the best deal if you ever visit Rome and want to see all of the museums and use the public transportation". 


4. Forget sex on the beach, 
              have a Vestal Virgin on the rocks.  

Our professoressa, Alexandra Massini, is the most intelligent person I have ever met. She is a licensed tour guide for the entire city, wrote this guidebook, speaks five languages fluently and is working on her second PhD. Basically, we could not have asked for a better tour guide of the Roman forum,  the center of Roman public life, the site of elections, public speeches, gladiatorial matches, commercial affairs and the heart of ancient Rome. This was the most important stretch of real estate in the Western World. Now, it is just bunch of rocks, but it was interesting to imagine the temples and buildings that existed during the peak of the Roman empire. The most interesting section of the Forum was the House of the Vestal Virgins, which was the model for medieval convents and monasteries. Chosen from noble families before they reached the age of 10, the six Vestal Virgins served a 30-year term during which they were honored and revered by the Romans. They took a vow of chastity and their main duty was to keep the fire in the Temple of Vesta burning. As long as the sacred flame burned, Rome would stand. If the Vestal served her term faithfully, she was given a huge dowry and allowed to marry. If they found any Virgin who wasn’t, or if a Vestal let the fire go out, she was buried alive. How crazy is that!?!


See Hannah's slideshow of Ancient Rome here


3. Cliches are cliches for a reason, 
    the Sistine Chapel actually is amazing.
A fresco is the art of painting on freshly spread, moist plaster with water-based pigments, so that when the plaster dries, the painting is a part of the wall and when executed correctly, will last forever. It took Michelangelo four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and it took eight years to clean all of the smoke, soot and candle wax that had accumulated after centuries of use. The restoration is still controversial in Italy and both sides believe their opinion strongly. Some believe that the restoration greatly enhanced the fresco, while others believe it destroyed the nuances of Michelangelo’s work. I am not entirely sure what I think. The Last Judgment was my favorite part of the entire chapel, especially since there are three hundred portraits included in the fresco, and not one of them resembles another. Impressive indeed. I could talk about this forever. 

Also check out the Borghese Gallery! Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio. This museum was beautiful. My favorites were Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, the Rape of Proserpine, and most of the paintings by Caravaggio.

See Hannah's Vatican slideshow here

2. It's okay to be a tourist 
                     (and for a good cause!)

Becky, Kendall, Lauren J., Lauren M., Hannah, plus Shannon (VU '10)

By throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain over your left shoulder, legend has it that you will return to Rome. Also, all of the coins collected in the Trevi fountain are used to help feed the hungry and poor in Rome. An estimated $4000 (3000 euros) are thrown into the Trevi Fountain each day and collected each night.












5. Weigh in (literally) on the best gelato:

photo cred

The two oldest gelato establishments in Rome compete over who has the better recipe. The owners of San Crispino are considered gelato “purists.” They only use ingredients that are in season and will only serve their gelato in cups because they believe that cones interfere with the natural taste of the gelato. Whatever works. I had the cioccolata fondente (dark chocolate) and carmello (caramel). Giolitti serves 50 different flavors, in cups AND cones, with a delicious whipped cream on top. It is definitely the better of the two. Since I was already so full of chocolate, I had the lampone (raspberry), mandarino (mandarin), and banana (same spelling as english). They were DELICIOUS and the most amazing gelato I have had in Italy, so far. I would go back to Rome for the day just to get gelato from Giolitti. 




Hannah Rogers, 
CET Student Correspondent 
Spring 2011