Week Seven: Firenze (Florence), Italia
October 11th – 15th, 2011
Before I begin describing the beauty of Italy, I must close the door on Paris – we left off with two days remaining. Among other things, these two days were important because the Lutheran Society (aka the CLU Oxford Program students + Dr. Brint) had a progressive dinner on the 9th, and I experienced my first real train ride the 10th-11th . For the progressive dinner, we had appetizers at the other girls’ apartments on one island, the main meal of Risotto at the boys’ apartment on the other island, and dessert at our apartment on the main land. We finished with tea and coffee overlooking the city on our penthouse terrace. Too surreal. All the food was delicious, and the company was fantastic. This was one of my most memorable evenings of the trip. The next day I was prepared to lug my luggage around the Paris metro, up and down all the stairs and trying to get on the crowded coaches without getting stuck in the doors again. When we finally get on the train, I felt like I was on a combination of the Polar Express and the Hogwarts Express. Each tiny cabin of the coach had three beds, one stacked on top of the other, and a mini sink. It’s amazing how we all fit. Props to the engineers for that one. We rode for twelve hours overnight through the rest of France, then Switzerland and Italy. Just the shadows of the Swiss Alps in the dead of night were enormous.
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| Group picture after the progressive dinner on our rooftop terrace |
“Finche c’e vita, c’e speransa” (Where there is life, there is hope)
That is my favorite Italian saying. I don’t remember where I found it though. Firenze is a beautiful Tuscan town stuck between a city and a suburb and nestled in a valley. Our hotel, the Grand Minerva, was on the eastern edge of the city near the train station, and we could see for miles from our rooftop terrace including beautiful views of Il Duomo and the city center. We arrived before the mist could be dissipated by the sun, so early that our rooms were not ready yet, which means the hotel upgraded us to apartment suites that were two stories each! The staff was great. Very accommodating. After getting settled, Dr. Brint took us on a brief walking tour of the city. Memories from the Texas Youth Orchestra’s 2006 Italy and Austria tour came flooding back, especially after passing the Uffizi, the piazza where we had performed with 500+ audience members, and the Pont Vecchio. The river is much lower than I remembered from five years ago. It was so disappointing that I wished I could have shown everyone the pictures I had taken to compare the two.
Well, my time in Florence was probably not as exciting as other experiences according to people other than myself haha, but it was surely a time of reflection. I spent most of my time wandering around the city by just picking a direction and walking, checking a map every now and then so I was never really lost. I’ve developed the pattern of finding the Jewish neighborhood, violin shops, and original artwork in each city I’ve traveled to, so walking around doing just that and soaking up the atmosphere consumed most of my time. Unfortunately, when I went to the Jewish neighborhood, it was on one of the High Holy Days (still haha), so the synagogue, museum, and kosher cafés were all closed to visitors. Since it took me about 45 minutes to walk there, I ended up just wandering around the piazza saying hi to all the families I had passed because they were just leaving the synagogue. Their thick Hebrew-Italian accent reminded me of being in a little colony of Tel Aviv, even though I know that this neighborhood was here much longer. Or not.
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| Tempio Maggiore Israelitico |
Anyways, a few blocks away from the synagogue was one of the luthiers I had researched! The Vittori Family violin shop has been around for over 75 years. When I approached the shop, I could see silhouettes of violins through a pale curtain, and there was a little post-it note in English that said “Musicians ring doorbell à to play instruments.” Perfecto! So I rang the bell, and Signore Paolo Vittori himself answered the door. His wife was in the background packing up a suitcase for an exhibition in Singapore, and Signore Paolo called for his son, Lapo, to come tell me about his violas. Meanwhile, Paolo pulled one of his own violas out of a glass cabinet that he had created in 2001 for me to practice on. Incredible sound. I was afraid the instruments I found in Italy would be light and dainty like traditional baroque music, but this was very full and rich, and well, it was a viola haha. Then Lapo gave me a tour of their little workshop and showed me some of the violas he is working on. One is for a client in Tokyo, and another for Chicago. Every viola is custom-made, and Lapo stays in touch with his clients via e-mail do determine the style of the viola and staining of the wood. For €14.000 (Lapo’s) or €16.000 (Paolo’s), they would customize a viola for me to try out if I come back next October. They said if I don’t like it, I don’t have to buy it. I would of course bring my own viola from home to compare the two. Hmmm who knows! Maybe if I sell my car and get a full ride to graduate school haha…
The hotel had also directed me to a music shop that had violins, so I went ahead and checked them out as well. It was very commercialized. The violins had cheap wood and they were really shiny…like what we played in junior high. The most expensive one they gave me was about €400. I played a few notes and handed it back. The guy was very nice, but he didn’t speak much English, so we had to use a translator (aka another customer). He basically said that for five years they had a 1986 viola in the shop, but that they gave it back to the original owner in May 2010 because it never sold. He called up the owner (who couldn’t play anymore because of problems with his fingers) and had it delivered via vespa the next morning! I begged the guy translating that I didn’t want to cause any trouble, especially because I am not planning to buy for several more years. So I went back the next day, and all the workers at the shop gave me the nod of recognition. The guy who had helped me so much helped everyone at the counter, and then he revealed the viola he had been saving. It didn’t feel 25 years old, but the strings were really old. The bow had the most damage though – only half the hair was still intact, and the rest of the hair was turning brown. He gave me a brand new bow to practice with, but he stressed that if I bought the instrument (for about €2.800), he would re-hair the bow and include it in the original price. I hardly even used the new bow – the old bow matched the viola so well that to perform with anything else would be cheating. The viola had a lot of sound, but I had a hard time keeping a consistent tone. I’m sure with new strings and hair the instrument would have sounded much better.
When I went on my original art hunt, I was afraid the only thing I would find is mass-produced watercolor prints. So, when I stumbled upon someone painting with watercolors but providing a more abstract perspective at a good price, I bought it haha.
Then lining the Museo Uffizi were more artists. I realized that all my paintings were oil on canvas. When I didn’t see any, I bought from a guy painting oil on glass instead.
Of course my lack of patience got the best of me, because along the river were more street artists. One of them did oil paintings on canvas, but with a very unique style. He took a photograph and meshed it with newspaper bits to create a very original piece of art. I fell in love with it! We got to talking a little more, and then exchanged business cards. He said he actually went to school with a Cardone (pronounced with a thick Italian accent haha) in Florence.
There’s nothing like relaxing the neck after a day of looking up to climb the city and look down. The first of these missions was to the top of Il Duomo, which Paddington Bear was a great sport for doing with me.
The second was up a hill to Michelangelo’s gardens (which were fairly non-existent) for a picnic overlooking the city.
And the third was when we had our Cityscapes class on the rooftop of our hotel at eye-level with the other roofs.
So here in Firenze I am in heaven because I can eat Italian food for every meal. There is no use in counting calories because it will just ruin the experience, but I do need to pay more attention to how I spend my money on food haha. Our “meal plan” covers breakfast + €20 per day for dinner, and lunch is supposed to be out of pocket. Some days I split the money between lunch and dinner, but one night in particular I went all-out. One skewer of the world’s best scallops: €28. Plus the cover charge and water to share, the total was approximately €33. We then found some great gelato that was cheap and off the beaten path for only €1,50. I ordered the chocolate and lemon combo, and the lemon gelato had real lemon zest! Too good for comfort.
I did attempt to do laundry at a Lavarapido laundry mat here because my attempt in the sink was cut short when I had to put all my wet clothes into a plastic back for the trek from Paris to Florence. It was very efficient, but extremely expensive at €7 per load. When you add in dinner at the restaurant across the street so you could maximize efficiency of doing homework, watching the laundry, and eat dinner, the total cost of the experience was €20. I’ll take a day at Cal Lu’s dorm machines at five loads for $10 any day (versus $26 for two)!
There wasn’t much of a Tuscan night-life scene for me in Firenze. My dog, Molly, had a stroke that lasted several days in addition to being diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, so I skyped with her and my family nearly every evening. *Knock on wood* she is improving magnificently as I type this.
Arrivaderci Firenze! Off to Rome we go!
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