Today, I went with my Italian class to the Mercato Centrale di San Lorenzo. I met up with two other girls in my class, and naturally we got terribly lost trying to meet up with our class. We were told to meet in the Market, but the Market is huge. After calling Lauren for directions, we found the meeting spot. Our instructor Enrico equiped the class with a list of questions to ask the various merchants. Lauren and I wandered through the expansive market, pausing to look at the fresh vegetables, pastas, and fruits, and hurrying past the displays of meat and seafood. As a vegetarian, Lauren was fairly repulsed by the smell and sight of meat, and I have to admit that I felt a little queasy after I caught sight of a head of a small animal, complete with bones and brains. That certainly isn't something I've seen at a grocery store in St. Louis! After that experience, we wandered over to a bakery of sorts, where I asked (or so I thought) for one muffin. The woman helping me quickly placed three muffins into a bag, weighed them, and charged me €2.97. Additionally, she gave me pane gratis (a free loaf of bread)! After class, I bit into one of the muffins, only to discover that it was a vanilla cupcake. I can't say I was displeased.
There are a select number of courses offered, so there are several people in both my Italian Language course and my GST course. While at the market, one such individual took a look at the dress I was wearing and asked if I was going home during our lunch hour to put on jeans. I had no idea why I would need to change, as my dress was fairly modest. I had forgotten that our professor (Dr. Rich D'Amato) had specified that we must wear pants to climb the duomo! Yikes! My apartment is a good 20-25min walk from the Accademia Europea di Firenze, so I speed-walked home, felt my way in the dark (the light in our stairwell is not working, which makes for a pitch-black walk!), managed to open our door, changed, and left for the walk back to school. Thankfully, I made it just in time.
The reason I was hurrying to class today was because our class was meeting at the Accademia Europea di Firenze before walking over to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral). Remember reading Brunelleschi's Dome when you took AP Euro? Well, that book details the construction of this building! As a class, we climbed the 463 steps to the top viewing level. Once we arrived, we spent a half hour of so admiring the view and taking pictures of the beautiful landscape which surrounds the Basilica.
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