Before I get to Saturday, I should probably mention our Friday night. After returning to Pisa, we had a quick dinner (though I can’t even remember what we ate now), and then headed out to a bar called Mayday. I’d never been, but a lot of people wanted to go because they gave them a lot of free stuff before. We sat in a huge group (like 15 or 16 people!), so I didn’t have a great time. I was sitting off to the side and couldn’t talk to anyone. But I did get something called a Blueberry Farm, which was vodka, triple sec and blueberry juice. It was really really good…! But it cost 7 Euro, so we’ve decided that we’re not going to go out that often. A bunch of people got really really drunk, which I was surprised at since 1) we’re in a strange city and 2) drinks were so expensive that you’d have to drop about 30 Euro to get drunk! I’m glad I didn’t, because I made the stupid decision of wearing high heels. Then we decided to walk the approximate mile home—I still have blisters. It’s fun to go out with friends, but this particular evening wasn’t my favorite so far.
II. Futbol
Anyway, we made plans to eat lunch together on Saturday, but we couldn’t find the place we were looking for (Danny Rock, a supposedly American restaurant for students, closes on the weekends), so we had some pretty awful and overpriced pasta at a cafeteria. Then I wandered around near the Duomo looking in shop windows. I saw a pair of boots that I might just die over, but they recently took them out of the window, so I don’t know if they have them anymore. Plus, they were 99 Euro. Well, I still have to go and see if they’re there.
The exciting bit about Saturday isn’t any of those misadventures, though. We went to see the soccer match between Florence and Torino. It was a blast! We were sitting in the absolute nose-bleediest section possible, but it was a smallish stadium so it really didn’t matter. I spent the first half of the game playing with my camera and got some pretty cool pictures. Florence was purple and Torino was white. The refs are dressed in red. WE WON!
This section of the crowd was a standing-only section. They were led by a guy on a big platform and chanted all the songs. We only knew the one where you scream "AL´E VIOLA" and could only jump along to "Jump if you hate the other team."
And here's Caitlin with halo-like lighting.
And Arielle and Melissa
After the soccer game we walked around downtown and ended up at an Irish pub (yeah, I know, whatever), called The Lion's Head. The music was way too loud, but it was all good American stuff—it was very comforting.
III. Fiesole
The next day, we all made plans to take the number seven bus to Fiesole, a small town a couple of miles away, where there were Roman and Etruscan ruins. We didn’t have a guide, so I didn’t really learn much (all the signs were in Italian). But we went to a museum there, and I got to see a lot of really cool Greek pottery, Etruscan bucchero vessels, and little ceremonial pitchers for babies (so cute!!). Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of that stuff, since it wasn’t allowed, but you can look it up.
When we first walked on the site, the ampitheater was right in front of us. It's amazing that it's still pretty much intact. The acoustics were amazing, too.
Hannah (standing), then Caitlin, Melissa and my room mate, Caitlin.
These cute little squat trees were placed sporadically around--they were really cute!
That's a barrel vault! And my room mate (whom I'm going to call Caitlin D. from now on) is climbing the stairs, Hannah's taking a picture, Johanna is peeking around, Caitlin is waving her arms, and Will is making a funny face.
The biggest part of the site was this cluster of Roman baths. Nothing really remained but perfectly rectangular holes.
I distracted everyone from looking at the vomitorium long enough to take this lovely photo. (Left to right: Will, Caitlin S., Johanna, Melissa)
We stopped along one part of the path to take a group photo--and you see me for the first time! (An obliging British woman took this with Melissa's camera.) (Left to right: Ryan, Neil, Johanna, Will, Melissa, Caitlin D., Caitlin S., Hannah, me.)
And later on, we admired the "bella vista," as we call it here. It would have been nice, had the day not been so dreary--but it's still pretty bella. To the left:
Straight ahead:
To the right:
And then after being very mature and admiring all the Roman innovation, we became goofy college kids and played on the rocks.
IV. It doesn't start with an F, but you can read about Madame Butterfly anyway.
On Tuesday evening, ACM took us to see Madame Butterfly by Puccini. It was pretty fabulous! I don’t really know how to describe the opera—if you’re really interested, just go to iTunes. But the theater was really nice. We had really cheap seats, but even though they were high up, they weren’t actually that far back. I sat right on edge of the balcony, and it had a glass wall—I seriously felt like I’d fall over the edge with any sudden movement. But I really enjoyed it. Samuele, Janet, Patricia and Elisabetta came with us. Elisabetta said the next day in class that Samuele left early because he thought the conductor “was a dog,” that he let the orchestra play too loud over the singers. I agree—it was difficult to hear the lead male at times. But I’m still infinitely amused by Samuele. He’s my favorite Italian thus far. Regardless of the volume, the costumes were amazing (even though in her white kimono and Japanese wig Madame Butterfly had a tendancy to look like Princess Leia), and a couple of the voices were just phenomenal. There was an adorable little kid as Dolore, too. He had this hilarious blonde wig on, though, and every time he was just about to get off stage he adjusted it. Anyway, I cried. What more can you want?
I’ll post pictures from my trip to the chianti winery next week. I know it was Wednesday, but it’s been busy! We just had our final test in Italian today. I think I did well, but it’s really weird to have a test three weeks after you’ve just started learning something. I’m really learning quickly, though! We took a fieldtrip to an Italian bookstore, and I bought a copy of Candide in Italian—not just because I love that book, but because I read the first page and actually understood it! We’ll see if I can get through the whole thing.
P.S. I bought a year-long subscription to Flickr, since they only let you upload 100 MB of pictures a month. So now I have unlimited space! Be prepared for ridiculous amounts of photos!!
P.P.S. We got gelato at Pisa. It was delicious!
P.P.P.S. If you can't see these photos very well, if you click on them, they'll open up in a new window and get a lot bigger--you can see detail in everybody's face that way.
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