When talking to my mom she mentioned how I hadn't posted in a while and I said, "Well, we haven't gone anywhere else...I would just be posting about everyday things" to which she responded, "Yea. People want to read about that stuff, hun." So here I am posting about our everyday life, hopefully it will be interesting!
The cold weather that first started creeping in a couple weeks ago has now settled in to stay. This means that our apartment is FREEZING! I think we are located in a shady area or something, but it is way more cold inside our apartment then it is outside of it...go figure. Just yesterday we found some more blankets that we can throw on top of us at night, which has proven very helpful. I would be more welcoming of this cold weather if it did one thing, just ONE thing and that is kill all of the mosquitos. But no, they are still somehow making it into our apartment and I think my mosquito death toll today is about 7. Arg.
The weather has been picture perfect for the past few days. We have found ourselves just wanting to go outside and walk around or sit in a piazza and read because it is just that perfect. The only thing missing is a nice warm fire and maybe some hot apple cider.
This week we made an itinerary of sorts based on when certain museums were open at a discounted rate/free and just decided to try out cafes or venture to places we haven't been to in the off time. On Monday we went to the Alinari National Museum of Photography, named after the 3 brothers who founded the oldest photography firm in the world in 1852. The museum walked you through the history of photography around the world. It was a pretty packed exhibit filled with the oldest photographs created with a camera that needed an 8 hour exposure time, as well as pictures that looked like little paintings because of the process in which they were created. Then the museum itinerary took you through the next stages of photography until you got to where we are now: the digital age. I found it interesting that in a lot of portraits taken back when the exposure time was pretty lengthy the subjects had very solemn looks on their face. Apparently, because of this long exposure time if you tried to smile and would change your expression at all during the course of the picture being taken it would mess up the picture completely. So these people in the 1800's weren't just old sourpusses as I had come to believe, they just couldn't hold a smile for an hour or longer. I mean, who can blame them?
The next day we decided to try out a couple cafes in our neighborhood that we hadn't tried before but had wanted to. The first was this really hip cafe that during the day people will be lounging in and by night it's either packed with people listening to live music, or packed with people playing board games - both of which sound awesome. At night though we get a little intimidated to try it out since it seems like a local place, so we decided to first try it out during the day. It proved as hip as it looks and we grabbed a couple cappucini and talked about life before heading to the next cafe. Hemingway's is literally right up our street on the corner. I had been here once before, but the girls hadn't and Courtney was super excited to go. They serve tons of different types of hot chocolate, coffee, tea, plus chocolates and pastries. The drinks also have the option of being alcoholic or non alcoholic. We of course went with alcoholic...when in Rome, err, Florence, right? Courtney got the Montezuma, which kept making me think of Montezuma's revenge - ew, and it consisted of hot chocolate, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, rum and brandy. Caroline went for a tea with honey, vodka, and lemon. I got a coffee drink with cinnamon, blue caracao, and something else I can't remember - maybe rum? My drink was definitely the most fascinating, which was also proven by the two women who stared and pointed when I got it. It came in a little Irish coffee glass with a sprig of cinnamon floating around and as soon as you stirred it the black coffee color mixed with the blue caracao and turned an awesome shade of green. I kept thinking about Kelley and how she would be SO jealous! Courtney took pictures so I'm going to have to wait until she uploads them to show you the awesomeness, so for now you'll just have to imagine :)
A sidenote about why this place is named after Hemingway: For those of you who don't know much about this notable American author (including me), Hemingway volunteered to go to Italy and drive ambulances for the Red Cross during the first World War. After delivering chocolates and cigarettes to troops one day he was severely wounded by shrapnel and passed out only to wake up and be wounded again by machine gun fire to his knee. Despite all of this, he was still able to carry a wounded Italian soldier to safety. He received a Silver medal of valor for this and the Italians still hold him in high esteem. This cafe peaked our interest to learn more of Hemingway so Courtney did her research and presented us with a short life story. The most important thing we learned is that somebody must of had it out for him because that man has been seriously injured more times then 3 normal humans collectively get injured in a lifetime. Here is just a taste of his many injuries: a skylight falling on his head in Paris causing a huge scar, contracting amoebic dysentery in Africa, car accident in London, TWO plane crashes in Africa, 2nd degree burns from a bushfire, and then after all of this he committed suicide. It's such a crazy, and sad, life story!
That night was free night at many of the main museums around Florence. This is something Italy has started to do once a month and we decided to take advantage of it! We headed over to the Academia to see the David and it was fantastic how there were not that many people there! Apparently people either weren't "in the know" or the tourist season is finally winding down. There were also 2 exhibits within the museum, which included a musical instrument exhibit with instruments from the Medici and Lorraine time periods (cool) and an exhibit of paintings that were reserved for rooms containing the marriage bed (I guess kinda cool?). The music exhibit had computers where you could learn basically everything about the important musicians, instruments, scores, and uses of music back in that time. We especially enjoyed the serpent instrument.
The other exhibit was kinda interesting. It was just a huge collection of panels of mythological and/or religious stories that related to marriage. I wasn't so fond of the panels depicting how a woman needs to know her place and obey her husband or she would be stripped and killed (yes, there was actually a panel of that). So yea, it was ok?
The David is obviously the main show followed by Michelangelo's unfinished 4 prisoners, which were originally started for Pope Julius II's tomb. The David is pure perfection - Courtney even lists him as one of three guys who would make up the perfect man. I could literally just stare at the statue for hours. The unfinished prisoners are also amazing because it is as if these men are trying to escape their marble trappings. There is no clear reason why they were left unfinished because they were started earlier in Michelangelo's career, but the effect of them being unfinished is just as magnificent, if not more, than if they were finished.
The next day was so gorgeous that we ventured to the small grassy area in front of Santa Maria Novella church and read, napped, ate a few hours away. As the sun went behind the buildings it got freezing so we headed home to get ready for another aperitivo at our favorite place. Afterwards we headed to a hip wine bar and sipped on prosecco and wine!
Well, that pretty much gets you up to date on my life! Tomorrow we are heading to Arezzo for the day and then the Halloween festivities start for the weekend. Court and Caroline have little things that we bought from the dollar store to wear, but I am still without anything :( Oh well, I will figure something out!
Miss you all and hope you have a wonderful Halloween weekend!!
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