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"Wherever you go, there's something at which to marvel."

This morning found me lounging about my casa bella sharing a glass of fresh squeezed Sicilian orange juice with Paola, my host mother. She is always cooking up amazing Italian treats for me! Her simple, healthy meals are infused with so many natural flavors of hot red pepper, garlic, and olive oil. Honestly, the only thing disappointing about mealtime is when it's over.

It snowed in Parma today! The scene outside my window this afternoon was a delicate winter wonderland laced with frosting. Since it was so chilly, Paola and I worked together to get the fireplace going and relaxed as the flames danced and hypnotized us both. Over the warmth of the hearth, we conversed in italian (hers perfect, mine still broken). She learns english words from me, and I learn italian conversation from her. When I hosted a few of my Boston College friends for the afternoon and dinner, Paola welcomed them in. She gave them some cooking tips as we all worked on the meal together. The gelato that we had for dessert was probably the best I have ever tasted. I am getting adjusted to life/food in Parma very quickly and I have my first cooking class this Wednesday with a cute older woman named Anna. 

Some notable things I forgot to mention about the first week in Florence:

There was a Carousel. I have loved these from a very young age &was so happy to take a midnight ride on the colorful painted horses that lit up the piazza. Also, walking by the Duomo at night can be very eerie and extremely awe-inspiring. Everything is so perfect, you feel like you are in Disney World. 

Damien Hurst's "For The Love of God" at Palazzo Vecchio. A skull entirely covered in diamonds, worth about 99 million dollars. A work of modern art, in a palace whose name literally means 'old.' Stunning. 

While in Florence, we took a short scenic bus trip to a small village called Fiesole. Hiking to the top of the hilly area was entirely worth it, as we saw a view of the Duomo and Florence skyline that was INCREDIBLE. We had lunch in a small cafe at this deserted town before descending the mountain. 

Le Ciel Dans Une Chambre

I was warned to beware of the culture shock that would occur upon arrival in Parma. The slower, more rustic life of the quaint city of Parma doesn't compare to the fast-paced stimulation of life in Florence. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by the change of scene. A smaller, more intimate city than Florence and Rome, Parma offers a taste of "real" Italy. Almost no one speaks English very well. There are no flocks of American tourists and students in the streets and museums. As such, I look forward to making Parma feel like home.

The yellow architectural structures and innumerable traffic circles create an amalgamation of old with new as modern shops and vintage cafes line the narrow streets. I have fallen in love with my rusty black bicycle. I ride my bicycle all over the long tree-lined streets and explore the beautiful park right outside my doorstep on Via Torelli. On main roads, the right of way is given to bicyclists because of the prevalence of riding here. Though it is still chilly and I am forced to wear a hat or earmuffs, I have found no better way to get around town.

The center of the city is called Piazza Garibaldi. A yellow building with sundials, thermometers, and compasses etched in black stands tall with a clock marking the piazza where cafe tables surround a giant statue of Garibaldi. I am becoming familiar with the street names and locations of the other students' villas and apartments around town and my map is always handy while I orientate myself to Parma. I was placed in a homestay with a couple in their mid-forties with no children. Their names are Paola and Marco Gazzola and they are AMAZING. They are sweet, well-traveled, knowledgeable, and kind. However, they do not speak english. This has been a blessing in disguise as I end each family dinner thinking in italian. Hopefully, I will have some mastery over the language by the time I leave here in June.

The Gazzola apartment is BEAUTIFUL. Located in a quiet neighborhood five minutes from the main street through town, the area is lovely. A mix between Bauhaus decor and eclectic European simplicity, their home is comfortable, neat, and well decorated. My room is spacious with rich hardwood floors and plenty of reading material. There are gorgeous guitars hung on the wall. I have the most picturesque view of the park and the trees there look like something out of a fairytale. I can't wait till the weather gets nice to lay out with a good book and some vino frizzante.

We have visited the Galleria Nazionale in Parma and the Farnese Theatre (which had to be reconstructed after bombings in World War II). We learned about a fresco of nude putti dancing through a garden at the once affluent convent in Parma and also seen the Cathedral. These sites where one of the great Northern Italian artists called Correggio had his start. The Art History class will continue with day trips around Italy and more information on hotspots in Parma. Also, we have begun learning about the history of Parma. That class takes place entirely in italian, but the Professoressa (Elizabetta) is fantastic!

The people from Parma are so real and though life isn't as wild as Florence, I will certainly be enjoying the quiet and culturally immersed life here. As the church bells toll out my window and I sit anticipating cooking dinner with my host mother (she is a fabulous cook and a vegetarian so I have been taking note of all her recipes!), I am so content with this new life in Italy. It is everything I could have imagined and more!

Bones

The day trip to Rome on Friday was extremely enlightening. It deeply satisfied my hunger for art, as well as food. For some reason, waking up at 5:30 AM gave me a true Italian appetite and all I could do all day was eat and eat and eat and eat. And what better time to do that but...when in Rome, right?

6:40 AM Craving a hot dog at the station as I prepare to board my first European train. I refrain. 

7:20 AM Eat my sugar crackers and Nutella on the train. Never having quite understood the Nutella mania before Italy, I have now come to LOVE the brown gunk and just bought a full jar for myself today. 

9:40 AM We got a quick coffee break before entering the Vatican. I proceed with the group to the nearest bar (which is what they call cafes here) and order an over-priced blueberry pastry and a steaming cappuccino. Delicious, but somewhat rushed. 

10:00 AM Enter the Vatican Museum. There is no other word to describe this haven of expensive art than "priceless." The collections within are centuries old and house some of the most famous art ever made. Seeing Raphael's School of Athens and his Transfiguration were a dream come true. There was also a modern art section with Bacon, Picasso, etc. that I would love to go back and peruse. 

11:00 AM St. Peter's Basilica was the most beautiful and elaborate place of worship I think I have ever stepped into. Said to be built upon the bones of San Pietro, this church's paintings, tombs, columns, and sheer gargantuan size were unreal. Rocky said you could easily fit two football fields within...yet the intricate Baroque architecture and massive sculptural elements are deceptive and mask its large size from within. The shrine to San Pietro is shining with gold embellishments and resides under a large baldachin by Bernini with Solomonic columns that twirl in bronze. After the basilica, I journeyed down below to the tombs of the popes to see where John Paul II was buried. People stood praying and just looking at the pristine white marble that lays over the beautiful humanitarian buried below. I had to stop to admire the flowers that lay gently across the inscription as the guards instructed visitors where to go.  

1:30 PM Bruscetta. &A rich, spicy dish of Penne Putanesca at a small restaurant. 

3:00 PM I shared a sugar covered donut the size of my head and helped to finish off someone's gelato while we waited to meet the group in St. Peter's square. 

4:40 PM I am back at the train station and craving a hot dog...again. 

7:00 PM Our amazing chef at the hotel provides us with another fabulous italian meal....as I have every single night, I eat an entire plate piled high with pasta, meat, salad, bread, and of course...I have dessert. 

I have eaten CONSTANTLY since I have been here. I have learned to love everything put on my plate, from prosciutto to artichokes. I have eaten pizza almost every day. I am addicted to cappuccino and love the way they eat dinner for hours. 

Overall, Florence and Rome were a whirlwind of sensory overload. I didn't sleep at all the first week and just took everything in. ART, music, food, people, language, culture, dance, and wine. I love everything about Italy so far and I can't wait to tell you how things go now that I am safely in Parma!!! 

Renaissance / My Boy Builds Coffins

The view from the fifth floor window of Hotel Meridiana was my first breath-taking moment in Florence. The setting sun gleamed over terra cotta rooftops as the balcony door opened. I became covered in sooty dust as I grasped the windowsill to gain a peek further down the tree lined street. Cars zoomed by below and beams of sun blinked through the hint of the Duomo standing in the distance.

The Art History intensive class crammed into last week left me not only breathless and covering in goosebumps, but also speechless. A brilliant man named Rocky was our professor and guide. His relaxed yet informative on-site lectures left me weak in the knees. The course focused on High Renaissance and Mannerism. 

Throughout the week, we covered Donatello, the Sculptural and Architectural Works of Michelangelo, Mannerist Painting, Rome under Pope Julius II, The Medici Popes & Dukes, Da Vinci, and Raphael. 

Upon visiting the Borgello Museum, we saw the first freestanding male nude statue made since antiquity (Donatello's David), the Competition Panels of Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, a statue of St. George the Dragon Slayer, as well as a statue of Bacchus by Michelangelo. Visiting Casa Buonarroti after that was fantastic. Though Michelangelo never actually resided there, the home was made as shrine to him and his works after he left his multi-million dollar fortune to his nephew. One of my favorite parts of this place was seeing the master of marble's shoes and walking stick, in addition his fantastic sculptures. 

Other sites visited in Florence throughout the week were The Uffizi Gallery, The Accademia Gallery, The New Sacristy, Palazzo Pitti, San Felicita, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, and The Duomo (which I climbed alllllll the way to the top of for a terrifyingly beautiful view). I also visited a nearby rustic town in the hills named Fiesola for a gorgeous view of Florence. Also, the Boboli Gardens outside of Palazzo Pitti were breathtaking. 

By the end of each of Rocky's lectures, I found my self more and more obsessed with Michelangelo. Despite Raphael's vibrant use of congiantismo or Leonardo's perfection of chiaroscuro, I just wound up always marveling at Michelangelo's influence on the history of what makes an artist. He experienced his success at such a young age, and his minute mastery of stone surpassed any other sculptor. His works, like The David, had me literally brushing away tears and goosebumps. His room dedicated to tombs of the Medici at The New Sacristy told a mythological story that was literally explicated in every curve of marble. 

Another artist who made a large impact was Botticelli. Seeing LaPrimavera and The Birth of Venus was truly a spectacular experience. The large scale paintings with gold-leaf interwoven amidst paint and myth brought an emotional effect. The iconography and stories within Avid's Metamorphoses explicated the visual narrative as Rocky put the works into historical context. Created under the patronage of the Medici Family in a time when Catholicism dominated in Italian art, the paintings prove stunning in their duplicity. For example, the figure of Venus in LaPrimavera, goddess of love, could be seen as a type for the Blessed Virgin Mary, as her son Eros (Cupid) flies above her bringing love to earth (i.e. Jesus Christ). I personally love when classic Greco-Roman themes of myth and paganism are able to be tied in with religion of the Renaissance...oftentimes within one single work.   

Dream About Flying

Flying high in the aeroplane over the sea, the mounting excitement of my journey hits me hard and heavy like a change in cabin pressure. The geometric red cross logo of Swiss Air cutting through clouds over the Alps made me reconsider the term "mountains" as we flew over Zurich. Never had I seen such infinite stretching snow-capped delights in all my life.

On the flight, I perused the Swiss Air Magazine and some Italian guide books to glean hints as to how to prepare for this "Euro" experience. While seeing ads for streamline, expensive watches, Swiss chocolates, and the relaxed, laid back European lifestyles, I read about obscure art nestled in Prague hotspots. I felt so addicted already. In fact, I scribbled notes into the blank back pages of my pleasure book so I wouldn't forget all that inspired me as the friendly multi-lingual flight crew patrolled the aisles.

Here are some tidbits I learned while Wagner tunes flooded my free plastic headphones...

A poet of the Czech 'decadent' movement described a scene at the Prague Castle where horse-drawn carriage rides and romantic strolls through medieval cityscapes still exist...

"In the autumn dusk, slightly hazel, the moon is shining with the light of a shaded lamp."

-Karel Hlavalek 

There is also a gigantic circular architectural tower made of books at the city library in Prague...a must see for any nerdy gal. 

I also learned about Prague's Baradov Studios, one of the oldest film studios with beautiful antique equipment.

It seems I need to go to Prague someday.

As an aside, if I ever make it to India, I would love to see the Devi Art Foundation at the Vadehra Art Gallery in Gurgaon where esteemed husband and wife artists Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher make beautiful sculptures out of Bindi dots and metal eating utensils (separate sculptures of course).

&So my list of "places to go" grows larger and my world expands with every turn of the page of the in-flight magazine. Go figure. I am sure my parents would have been happy to learn that all I needed for adventure was a few glossy feature articles and an aisle seat. 

Lastly, I will leave you with this quote out of an article I read that gives me a feeling of inner peace as I embark on this new and intimidating new phase of my life. I decided upon reading this to follow this philosophy while in Italy...as I will be seeing things I have never seen before and may perhaps never see again...

"Detoxify. Cast off everyday routines. Forget all about roles & functions. Empty the mind. Take that long dreamt of journey into the inner self. Encounter peace & calm. Become not merely still, but unhurried. Take it easy. Marvel."

-Frudi Von Fellenburg-Bitzi

More to come on how I have applied this mantra with fun in Florence, running around Rome, and finally some peace in Parma!

Time To Send Someone Away

Packing for my semester abroad in Italy! I will stay in Florence for a week, and will then reside in a small city in Northern Italy...a place called Parma. My posts will include overviews of my journeys, experiences, & most importantly...amazing artistic adventures!

P.S.
Each of my posts will be titled with a song name...Just a fun, quirky way to share some tunes if you're hankering for musical stimulation.