Day 27 - 29
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
12
19
Trip End
Jun 23, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Monday, June 9, 2008
Day 28 (W) I woke up later than Jerry so I just headed into CAPA on my own and stopped at Demis for a cappuccino, a cornetto filled with apple jam, and to talk to Dan
Wine
. For class today we went to the Uffizi gallery. The artist we talked about today was Botticelli and his Adoration of the Magi, Primavera, Birth of Venus, and Calumny of Apelles. I took about 4 pages of notes so I won't write all of them but I'll try to give you the gist of what we learned. The first three paintings were part of the neoplatonism movement to translate ancient myths and writings into Italian and give them relevance and alter them to life in present day Florence. Primavera was commissioned by the Medici and was placed above a day bed that the Medici wife would receive guests on. The painting is of a garden in spring with 45 types of flowers and golden fruit (oranges) hanging from the trees. Medici means doctor or that's were the name came from. In the old days doctors handed out citrus fruit for cures to things, so the oranges represent that. Venus is in the middle the God of the new bride (painting was a wedding gift). To the left of her are 3 graces the protectors of new brides are doing a wedding dance conducted by Venus. To the left of them in Mercury waving a wand to keep clouds away from the perfect garden. This shows the Medici power of protection. On the other side of the painting is the story of Fiora the Goddess of spring and flowers, how she became a Goddess from being raped by the God of the West Wind. This represents the city of Florence. Florence was founded by Julius Caesar in 56 BC during the festival of the Goddess Fiora so in honor of her he named the city Firenze in latin after her
Disaeonno
. The last painting we looked at the Calumny of Apelles, showed Botticelli's support of Savonarola a weird guy that opposed the Medici and thought he was a prophet sent by God to clean up the city. Well the Florentines hated him after a few years and burnt him in piazza del signoria. The painting is that of someone in ancient history that was falsely accused of something. In the painting King Midas known as the unfair judge is sitting on a throne with asses ears. Whispering in his ears are Rumor and Suspicion. Hate is dress in a brown cloak leading calumny (lies) which is dragging the wrongly accused in front of the judge King Midas. Decorating Calumny's hair with jewels are Fraud and Vanity. Off to the left of the painting is naked truth pointing to the heavens right next to her is repentance. This is saying that Florence needs to repent for what they did and God is the only one that can save you. The first part of the painting means false judgment is fueled by suspicion and rumor, which leads to hate which is lies and false persecution. After class we walked around the Uffizi for about 2 hours looking at the amazing art. For lunch I got that stewed beef sandwich again. For dinner we went out with some of the girls because one of their friends is leaving tomorrow. We got the pasta sampler which was 5 types of pasta it was good the last of the five was a ricotta cheese ball in tomato sauce my favorite of the 5. The main course was a fillet of beef that was covered in a blueberry glaze. The best steak I have every had the glaze was very different from anything I have had it was oh so good. I'm going to try and find the recipe online. After dinner we went out to a bar where we know some people that work there. I didn't drink, drinks here cost around (converted into dollars): beer $10+, shots $5+, cocktails $15, staying sober and watching everyone else waste their money PRICELESS.Day 29 (Th) Today in culture class we get to learn about wine and wine tasting it should be the best lecture of this class. Class was full interesting facts and tips today. First he taught use how to look at the label and what everything meant. In Italy and the rest of Europe most wines are named after the region from which the wine traditionally comes from and the traditional grapes of that region. We learned about the different classifications and what they mean. DOCG means that the government is guaranteeing that the grapes that made this wine are the classically grown of the region specified in the title. For example Chianti can only be made from Sangiovese grapes grown in the area of Chianti a stripe of land from Florence to Siena. So Chianti can't be made from Sangiovese grapes grown anywhere else, along the same lines it can't be made from any other grape grown in the Chianti region. Most wines have a percentage that must be made from the traditional grape, for example Chianti must be made from no less than 80% Sangiovese. There are 36 DOCG wines in Italy and they are marked by colored tags wrapped around the bottle of the neck, green for white wines and pink for red wines. Then there is DOC which is the next step down these wines are still of a high quality and they are made from grapes from the traditional region just like the DOCG but they just aren't guaranteed by the government. After that there are IGT and Vino Tavolo which don't have to follow any guide lines as to what % of grapes they use from a region so there is no region of origin. Jerry and I went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and pick some stuff up for the weekend because we chose to wait until next to week to go to Cinque terre on the coast because it is going to rain there all weekend not much fun. We took some time to explore the store and we found that they sell coniglio (rabbit) so we picked some up. I think we are going to make our dish for our class project with rabbit. We also picked up some Disaronno because it was only $14 a lot cheaper than in the US. On the walk home we saw our friend Luigi the owner of the wine shop. Speaking of wine I looked into how much money it would cost to send 6 bottles of wine home not to mention the cost of buying the wine it would cost 242 euro which is around $375, not even close to worth it. For dinner I made spaghetti with olive oil, olives, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers it was very good. So after dinner we played some cards and had some Disaronno.
