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