American Pizza, You've Got a Lot to Learn

Let me preface this blog with an apology.  I'm terribly sorry I have not put up a post in a while and therefore this one is a bit long.  I haven't forgotten, I promise, we just get terrible internet and, contrary to popular belief, I am still in school, I'm not just gallivanting my way around Europe (well, not yet at least).

  We had to be up at around 7:00 Thursday morning to make it to Piazza Garibaldi by 8:00 because we were going to the Chiesa dell'Autostrada del sol San Giovanni Batista (quite a mouthful if you ask me).  This church was deisgned by Giovanni Michelucci to memorialize all of the workers who died while building the Autostrada (the highway).  It’s this awesome, modern looking building slightly in the middle of nowhere, directly in between Rome and Milan.  Similar to Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame de Haut, this building is made all of architectural concrete and stone from all over Italy.  It is sort of like the architect took all of the conventions of a typical cathedral and modernized and inverted them.  Instead of the nave being rectangular with the altar at the end of a shorter side, the nave is midway through one of the longer sides.  Instead of having a vaulted ceiling that soars towards the heavens, the ceiling is almost a concave vault encroaching into the space.  While there are clerestory windows, they do not follow a specific form nor are they particularly visible but rather disappear into the crevices of the ceiling to only let in light in varying patterns.  The columns have no capitals and in fact, fork off in arbitrary places and into different planes.  Every moment of the building was a different experience with varying elevations, the transistions between them promoting movement throughout the building.  Sorry for all of the architecture dork mumbo jumbo, but I found it fascinating.  Anyways, everybody gabbed some cappuccinos and then we headed back to Santa Chiara to eat lunch and then work in studio.  We had somewhat of a miniature review, (again, I do still have to actually work while here) and then dinner.  As a special treat, Santa Chiara brought in a local accordianist for our entertainment for the night.  They also provided us with biscotti and Vin Santo, a dessert (which to me was reminiscent of mandel bread) and dessert wine typical of the Tuscany area.  Clearly, the people around me are not particularly experienced wine drinkers as they didn’t enjoy the wine but rather chose to kick it back like a shot.  Dessert wine is meant to be sipped slowly, rolled around the tongue, and savored but few people appreciated it in that way.  Oh well, their loss.  I enjoyed it immensely, especially as I got to listen to fantastic and moving accordian music, of all things.  I especially enjoyed watching my professor, Paolo, who clearly enjoyed the music almost to an out-of body-experience level.  Just sitting there while the music and wine washed over us, imagining the way the music of the accordian would sound in a music hall or cathedral, I was reminded that I am in Italy and that this kind of experience is really what living in a foreign country is about.

Saturday morning, we woke up really early to go to Cortona on the 9:40 train.  I had a miserable time on the bus because it was super jolty and there were a ton of switchbacks so I was getting really carsick.  The bus finally dropped us off at the Piazza Garibaldi which overlooked the valley under Cortona.  It was just awesome to look out across a huge expanse with mountains rising up on all sides yet we weren’t even at the top of the city, more like half way up.  Cortona was much the same as Castiglion Fiorentino but probably double in size.  On either side of the cobbled streets rise four-storied buildings, each showcasing food, clothing, wine, or other products on their lowermost levels.  While we were so tempted to stop to window shop after every ten feet, we had never been to this town, and, like all other medieval cities, this one is oriented with roads in a circle around the mountain with vertical streets bisecting them.  Unless you know the town, you will get lost, so, our first stop was the tourist information building to get maps.  Despite that, we did of course still get lost but more on that later.  Our second stop was to take a look around the market going on that day.  Much like the Friday morning C.F. market, this one had cheeses and meats, fruits and vegetables, and of course, clothing.  I’ve managed to convince myself that I can do without cute Italian clothes, but I have been in desperate need of scarves.  When Megan and I saw scarves (and cute ones at that) for three Euro, we jumped at the chance to indulge a bit.  We both wound up with three which I am super excited about and you’ll most likely see throughout my upcoming facebook photos or when I get back to the states.  The next couple of hours were spent exploring the city… well, more like getting lost in the city.  Our goal was to get to the big pilgramage cathedral at the top of the hill but we of course passed another church that we had to stop in and see.  In this country, you can't walk 50 yards (or 45.72 meters depending on which country you're in) without coming across a church.  This one was nothing particularly special so we didn’t dawdle too long.  It was only when we went outside and looked at our map that we realized we probably should have taken a longer break because the road that we needed to follow was straight uphill.  This isn’t like College Station where the biggest hill is probably coming out of the tunnel at Kyle Field.  These roads are sometimes so close to vertical that you actually feel the need to climb on all-fours.  This road was no different.  You might think we’re used to this by now but Cortona is about twice as big as C.F. so while we can, on occasion, just sprint up the hills here to get it over with, this street was probably three or four times as long as any road in Castig.  Let’s just say it took us a while and there was no need to do P90X when we got home.  Unfortunatley, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, one of my friends who has little to no sense of direction was in charge of the map.  When we got to a fork in the road and she got too discombobulated, I sort of took charge and just started leading everybody in the direction of the church.  We could clearly see it at the top of the hill so I figured walking towards it would be the best solution.  The road that we took soon became gravel which then turned into a single-file walking path.  This did not dishearten us in the least bit because down to our right, beyond a grove of olive trees, we could see the entire valley, completely undisrupted by trees, the sounds of cars, or any sign of other people.  Even on a cloudy, foggy day, the view was absolutely glorious.  We marveled for a moment but then continued on, our path finally intersecting one of the roads boardering the cathedral.  I know, I’m kind of weird, but this road was just about as gorgeous to me as the view of the valley.  Massive trees were on the left, spanning above the road to create a canopy while a 12 foot high wall was on the right and the ground was covered in moss-laden cobblestones, essentially encasing us in a tunnel of deep green.  It was fantastic except for the fact that it was yet another hill to climb.  We finally made it all the way up the hill and, slightly out of breath, turned towards the front of the church.  The outside was nothing special but the interior was gorgeously painted, predominantly this deep blue.  Unfortunatley, we couldn’t take photos inside, but it was fantastic with four huge domes that were rather celestial in nature.  As we approached the altar, it became clear why this was the Chiesa della Santa Margarita.  There she was.  Emaciated flesh and bone inside of a glass case.  Sorry to anybody out there who practices Catholicism, but I just don’t get it, I don’t really like to look at skeletons as I pray, just a matter of preference, I’m sure.  Unfortunately it was almost siesta time and so the nuns who take care of the building were starting to shut it down for the afternoon so we had to content ourselves with a few photgraphic memories and about a 5 minute sketch of the floorplan.  Hungry and cold, we practically flew down the mountain to make it to what is purported to be the absolute best pizzeria in Tuscany.  I’m not sure if I 100% agree, but I definitely ate the entire thing by myself.  Everything was closed after we left the pizzeria so we headed back to Piazza Garibaldi to take a bus to Castiglion Fiorentino.  

Enough for now, so until next time,

Ciao e a dopo

Becca

Florence Take Two

Wednesday, I woke up to catch the 7:09 train which actually most people on the program took, surprisingly since we didn't have to be there until 10:00.  When we got to Florence, we immediately went to the Louis Vuitton store so that Julie could first know where it was and second be able to walk around and decide on a purse which she is buying for herself as a birthday present.  Unfortunatley, they were closed and we didn’t have enough time to get to the Kosher market because we didn’t know where it was but we asked at the tourist information station.  We had to meet in front of the duomo at 10:00 to go inside on a tour with Paolo.  That was more like an hour long discussion about architecture, analyzing the gothic structure versus what you would see in northern Europe and France.  The dome itself is just fantastic.  Phillipo Bruneleschi, partially out of spite, left Florence to study the Pantheon and come back to build the structure about ten years later.  Until then, the cathedral had essentially been finished except for the open drum that covered the intersection of the nave and transept because nobody could quite figure out how to build the intended design.  Though there are a couple of large (and might I say, rather anxiety-causing) cracks, they have been there just about since the time the dome was built so there apparently does not seem to be much worry of the building collapsing.  Because the dome is actually a double shell, there are stairs in between the two layers so maybe one day, I’ll get to go to the top.  After that tour and then another tour through the Museo Opera, it was lunch time.  Megan, Kate, and I had bought food a couple of days before so that we would not have to pay for over-priced tourist food. 

my bread and cheese lunch

I felt so accomplished sitting there in the shade of the duomo, eathing my saltless bread (all bread here is cooked without salt so it’s actually not very good but you just cover it with spices, balsamic vineagar, and oil) and my Pecorino cheese which is local to Tuscany.  We were supposed to meet at the front of the Duomo at 1:00 to do a sketching exercise with Mark, our professor, but after fifteen minutes of him not showing up, we just started sketching on our own.  We joked that we were such good students for not following standard A&M 15 minute protocol, but we were actually slightly paranoid that maybe Mark was lurking in the shadows somewhere to see what we would do without his instruction.  He finally walked up about 1:30 and told us that we had passed; he was kidding of course, their lunch had just run over because it was particularly Italian and therefore long but he was rather impressed at how many people had, of our own accord, pulled out our sketchbooks.  He took us back to the piazza in front of Santa Croce so we could 1) sketch the area and the façade of the cathedral, and 2) to experience the chocolate festival.  Oh. My. God.  Chocolate everywhere.  Like Godiva on steroids.  There were typical looking truffels, chocolate barks, fondue stations, and chocolate-covered fruits; but then there were chocolate salamis with boscotti pieces, chocolate pizzas with anything ranging from candied cherries to pistachios to even chili peppers, every kind of flavored liqueurs, gears, bolts, and masonry equipement made from chocolate.  There was just too much to take in, too much to see.  Of course, I wanted some, well, all of it actually, but I was so overwhelmed that it took me probably half an hour to come to a decision.  I then ate my chocolate while walking around the piazza sketching so all in all, it was a fantastic day.  Oh, and I found the great synagogue of Florence and the Kosher market so I bought some turkey salami.  I also went to the art store and bought a couple of paintbrushes.  This place was no Hobby Lobby.  They had artist’s palattes that were probably almost as big as me as well as paintbrushes as long as my legs.  Any color in any type of paint, maker, pastel, or pencil could be found.  Basically an artist’s paradise.  

my attempted axonometric watercolor sketches, analyzing the differences between the duomo and Santa Croce piazzas

Thursday, we had to be up at around 7:00 this morning to make it to Piazza Garibaldi by 8:00 because we were going to the Chiesa dell'autostrada del Sole San Giovanni Battista.  This church was deisgned by Giovanni Michelucci to memorialize all of the workers who died while building the Autostrada (the highway).  It’s this awesome, modern looking building slightly in the middle of nowhere, directly in between Rome and Milan.  Similar to Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut, this building is made all of architectural concrete and stone from all over Italy.  It is sort of like the architect took all of the conventions of a typical cathedral and then modernized and inverted them.  Instead of the nave being rectangular with the altar at the end of a shorter side, the altar is midway through one of the longer sides.  Instead of having a vaulted ceiling that soars towards the heavens, the ceiling is almost a concave vault encroaching into the space.  While there are clerestory windows, they do not follow a specific form nor are they particularly visible but rather disappear into the crevices of the ceiling to only let in light in varying patterns.  The columns have no capitals and in fact, fork off in arbitrary places and into different planes.  Every moment of the building was a different experience with varying elevations, the transistions between them promoting movement throughout the building.  Anyways, everybody gabbed some cappuccinos and then we headed back to Santa Chiara to eat lunch and then work in studio.  We had somewhat of a miniature review, (yes, I do still have to actually work while here) and then dinner.  As a special treat, Santa Chiara brought in a local accordianist for our entertainment that night.  They also provided us with biscotti, a dessert cookie, and Vin Santo, dessert wine typical of the Tuscany area.  Clearly, the people around me are not particularly experienced wine drinkers as they didn’t enjoy the wine but rather chose to kick it back like a shot.  Dessert wine is meant to be sipped slowly, rolled around the tongue, and savored but few people appreciated it in that way.  Oh well, their loss.  I enjoyed it immensely, especially as I got to listen to fantastic and moving accordian music.  I especially enjoyed watching my professor, Paolo, who clearly enjoyed the music almost to an out-of body-experience level.  Just sitting there while the music and wine washed over us, imagining the what the sounds of the accordian would be like in a music hall or cathedral, I was reminded that I am in Italy and that this kind of experience is really what living in a foreign country is about.  

Going to Cortona tomorrow and maybe Torontolla on Sunday so until next time,

Ciao e a dopo,

Becca

Oh, That Guy Gets Horns!!

This past Saturday, Megan, Kate, and I, despite our lack of sleep, decided to wake up early to go to the Arezzo antique fair.  It happens on the first weekend of every month and, since we are not too familiar with traveling around Italy yet, we decided this would be a great first opportunity to go somewhere on our own since it’s fairly close.  That being said, we had planned on leaving Santa Chiara at 7:45 to be early to the train station so we could catch the 8:27 train to be early to the antique fair.  Of course we left ten minutes late and were rushing to buy our train tickets without being able to understand the language.  Can you say “stressful”?  It certainly was an experience buying round trip tickets, but thankfully there was a girl there who spoke English who helped us out.  It was now 8:26 and the next train wouldn’t come for an hour so when we saw a train approaching what we hoped was the correct track, we ran for it.  I suppose it could have been an adventure to get on the wrong train, but we somehow managed to just make it onto the correct one and were soon on our way to Arezzo.  Personally, I’m glad we got there so early.  When we arrived, we saw a few vendors setting up their wares on the main street so we thought maybe the fair just went up the main street to the Piazza.  How wrong we were.  Every junction we came to just opened up more directions for us to go, each with rows upon rows of tables.  There were fur stoles, jewelry of all shapes, sizes, and age, chinawear, typewriters, telephones dating back to the turn of the century, fantastic furniture, anything you wanted, all you had to do was take the time to search and it was there.  Some of the pieces were obviously junk but then others were precious metals or stones, amulets, broaches, name brand clothing.  Down one of the less crowded alleyways, I spotted something that looked familiar - a yad.  

There were actually two silver pointers, one with a large star on it.  Throughout the day, I also found a silver and jade-encrusted grager as well as another yad and a besamim shaker for havdalah.  Asside from that, I found a bunch of lighters (several marked Ronson though I think only one was actually legitimate) which would have probably been scoffed at by my father, masks  and mechanical banks that resemble some of my mothers’, porcelean dolls that probably would have appealed to my sister, as well as crystal and glass chandelier pieces.  If you have ever been to my house, you know that it is filled with each of our various collections as well as a lot of crystal, so, pretty much, this antique fair was just a super-extension of my home.  One of my favorite things was the writing desks with their leather  surfaces, inlay designs, and clandestinely concealed triggers which would open unseen drawers.  As we were ogling a table full of telephones, a drumming suddenly filled the air, soon joined by trumpeting.  We didn’t think much of it until we realized that people were clearing the road for a sort of procession in which there were drummers, trumpeters, soldiers, what I can only assume to be council men, flag-bearers, and five women, all clad in medieval garb.  They passed by us in what we thought was just a parade until they walked into the courtyard of the city’s government building.  Noticing that all of the Italians were following them inside, we decided to join in and while we didn’t understand what this ceremony was in the least bit, I am so glad we went.  People were clearly being honored, though for what, I am unsure.  

medieval ceremony in the town square

The drums would announce the honorees, each of which wore a bandana with a certain design, matched by one of the five flags, while other members wearing that bandana would cheer.  We were clearly the only Americans there but it seemed to be some sort of special experience for the Italians as well.  The ceremony ended which meant lunch time before nap time.  

Kate, Me, and Megan with our pizza

I got margarita pizza (what we typically call “cheese pizza” in the states but so so so much better) and then I tried potato which was also pretty good.  The guy behind the counter seemed to really like us because we kept asking him how to say things in Italian and then he gave us free cookies when we left.  Hands-down, favorite pizza place in Arezzo.  Though we certainly did not see all of the antique fair, we definitely got to see most of it, and certainly more than most people who took some of the later trains.  

Sunday was also a ton of fun.  Not wanting to just sit in Santa Chiara like most people, Megan, Katie, Kelsey, and I decided we wanted to walk across the valley and up our neighboring mountain to take a look at its adorning castle.  Might I just reiterate that every day, I see a castle out of my bedroom window?!?  It only took us an hour or so and it was not really that fantastic because apparently some old crazy lady lives in the castle and doesn’t like visitors so you can’t really see or get inside at all but it was still a ton of fun to walk there.  Plus, every other step we took just brought us higher and showed us a more impressive view of the valley and a look back at our own little town.  If I had had my rock climbing shoes with me, I might have seriously contemplated scaling the wall but, probably for the best, I restrained myself to just trying to look through cracks in the door. 

Kelsey, Megan, and Catie on our way up the hill with our valley behind them

Most of the walk back was spent taking photos and attempting to make olive branch crowns because, of course, we were walking past olive groves the whole time.  I wound up wearing an olive branch tucked into my hair the rest of the night.  Though dinnertime was fast approaching, I had yet to buy a Gelato, or even taste one no less so when we passed a Gelateria, we decided it was about time.  Honestly, I prefer spoons.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I think I'll just stick to probiotic yogurts.  Sunday night (well, actually Monday morning), of course was the superbowl.  Had it not been 12:30 in the morning and had I not been in a bar with a bunch of people smoking, and had there been the proper commercials, I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more.  As is, I stayed until the pick at the beginning of the fourth quarter and called it a night, it being 3:30 already.

Monday was the day that I started my stone carving class.  It's going to be awesome. My professor, Alberto Burri, is 81, can’t speak a word of English, and is probably the most gifted stone carver yet primitive painter I have ever seen.  His carvings are absolutely incredible, the most impressive of which is his world record setting stone chain.  It isn’t just like metal where the links are bent to connect inside each other.  This all comes from one single block of stone, around 12 feet tall and probably 3 feet in diameter, just to make a chain with 5 in long links.  It’s just unbelieveable.  Besides that, he has also done stuff like make a working tricycle, a guillotine, functioning grain machines, coats of arms, fireplaces; pretty much anything you can imagine and then some.  I’m really excited.  He has chisels and hammers made specifically just for us so we can take those, plus of course whatever we make, home with us.  I think that is going to be so much fun plus there’s a good group of people doing it so we’ll get along well and have fun.  

Other than that, I've been playing some ping pong and poker, most notably last night when my opponent went all in, I called (because I was just ready to go to sleep), but then completed a straight on the river to win the pot (20 Euro).  The guys were not too happy with that but I had a ton of fun which is really what matters, right??

I went to Florence again today, I'll post some sketches and write about that experience later but now it is time for sleep so until next time,

Ciao e a dopo,

Becca

I'm Just Going To Lay Here a Bit

Most of my time has been spent in class since I last posted (so that, and the fact that I haven't had internet are the reasons why it's taken me so long to post).  Though we knew the city adheres to siesta time, around 1:00 last Sunday, me and a bunch of friends decided we were hungry so we wandered the city to find something to eat.  Epic fail.  Everything closes in this city between 1:00 and 4:00.  There were maybe three places open total but they didn't really have much in the way of food.  I did manage to order a sandwich in my god-awful Italian.  Sono vegetariano.  We started classes Monday morning.  My studio professor had us go outside and sketch which was just terrible for three reasons; 1) it was super windy and cold so all of us froze our fingers off, 2) I'm bad at sketching so I get easily frustrated, and 3) you have to climb up massive hills to get anywhere in the city so we all got a big workout wandering around.  After lunch on Mondays, we are supposed to have an arts class but that doesn't start until this week.  I'll be taking stone carving so I'll have to let y'all know how that goes, I'm really excited for it.  Tuesday was actually pretty cool even though we were just in Castiglion Fiorentino.  This old Italian man named Paolo is my professor for my history class which on Tuesday consisted of basically just touring around the city of Castiglion Fiorentino, talking about the church, the city, the architecture in general.  The neatest part of his tour was when we went into the city's archives where we were surrounded by books ranging from the 13^th to the 18^th centuries.  Being surrounded by all of these ancient texts made me think of my dad and how much he would enjoy this, and how you can't just walk in and take photos at the A&M archives.

I found a portfolio full of watercolors (in which I have started dabbling) of the town from the 1800s and then I also found an old testament.  That was pretty cool because I saw the first few pages and thought, “this looks a lot like Talmud (but of course in Italian)” and then I looked up and realized that it said Deuteronomy in Italian at the top.  It was just like the Talmud with the text in the middle and surrounded by commentary. 

During dinner, some of my friends suggested playing soccer that night.  While I was not ecstatic to play  because I was sore (I've done P90X every morning), tired, and it was cold, I couldn’t find a particularly valid reason to not play so I finally convinced myself it would be worth it.  And, of course, it was.  Though I have some pretty massive/ugly bruises, it was a ton of fun and now there's this crew of about seven or eight guys and I who play every night or so.  Clearly, I don’t know anything about soccer, never having played it in my life, all I can do is run around in circles and annoy people.  We play in a court that is bounded on two sides by a fence and on two sides by a medieval wall.  It's kind of surreal to be playing soccer against a thousand year old wall while a two thousand year old Etruscan tower rises in the background.  No big deal.

Our weekly field trip on Wednesday was to Florence.  Our bus dropped us off first at an overlook of the whole city from which we could see Florence Cathedral, the river Arno, and just a huge expanse of loggia-faced buildings.  Up the hill from the look out was San Miniato de Mont.  I have always loved this church with its marble façade inlaid with travertine but of course, it is so much more impressive up close and in person where you can see all of the intricate mosaic work.

Facade of San Miniato

The inside was just as if not more gorgeous.  In the apse is a golden mosaic of Jesus, there are multiple altars carved out of stone, and the floor is covered in tombs, everything you can expect from a middle ages church.  We got back on the buses and then they dropped us off along the Arno River.  Our first stop was Santa Croce.  This church had a similar façade to that of San Miniato though a lapis lazulai star of david was given a place of prominence at the top of the church.  Inside, we were introduced to the conglomeration of architectural periods; medieval, middle ages, Rennaisance, and so forth.  A narrow walkway and stairs lined the building right below the clerestory.  Interestingly, I was informed that this is where the women stood during services and that they, like in Judaism with its mechitzah, were expected to separate from the men.  Besides being pretty cool architecturally, this church also had the tombs of Dante, Galileo, and, most importantly, Michelangelo. 

tomb of Michelangelo

We left that church and walked into the Piazza Signoria which is where the original David statue once stood.  The main building of the piazza is the central governmental building, crowned with the fluer representing the city of Florence.  Paolo lead us down a street which he referred to as a “Broadway” though it was at most probably five meters wide.  There were lots of shops carrying items ranging from leather gloves to wine to Gelato.  Paolo kept saying there would be a surprise around a corner but it truly was a shock when we came to a corner and all of a sudden, there to our right, were the façade and tower of the duomo.  It’s enormous, specifically, the third largest structure in Europe behind St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and St. Peter’s basilica in Rome.  The Notre Dame in Paris would fit inside.  There was not enough time to go inside so we made our way to the restaurant, the oldest in Italy, the place where Michelangelo used to frequent, and most importantly, where we would be eating lunch. 

part of the A&M crew at lunch, with our Chianti of course!

Joe and the dome

It’s so culturally different to me to walk into a restaurant where there is both water and wine on the table, neither of which you have to pay for, and that we are automatically served bread and a three course meal wherever we eat.  In Italian importance, food comes first, wine comes second, and paying for it all comes last.  Our official tour was over after lunch so we were free to walk around Florence on our own for a few hours.  A group of probably twenty of us went back to the duomo to go inside.  No big deal; this is just the church that we’ve learned about for the past four years, designed by Michelangelo and built by Bruneleschi, hundreds of years of history.  My friend Joe went so far as to just lay down in the middle of the road in order to gaze up at the massive dome.  After ogling at the cathedral for about a half hour, the group split up, so that some people could go shopping, some to sketch, and my group just wanted to walk around.  We passed a leather market, street performers and artists, piazzas and probably thirty gelato places.  After going under a huge archway, we found ourselves in what is most likely the more prominent area of Florence.

Inside Flrorence Cathedral

To our right was a Ferrari apparel store, to our left, a yachting apparel store.  As we traveled further down the street, we started passing Louis Vuitton, Armani, and Cartier stores.  It wasn’t long before we just turned around; all we wanted was a coffee and a place to sit in order to sketch, and this area, with it’s expensive high fashion did not look promising.  We made our way towards the pont de Vecchio, a bridge that once upon a time housed all of the meat vendors of the city until the Medici family (which practically ruled over Italy for hundreds of years) decided that they got disgusted every time they had to cross the bridge from their palace and made it a jewelry vending area, and it still is to this day.  Soon it was time to leave so we made our way back to the buses, went back to Castiglion Fiorentino, and ate dinner.  I played a game of ping pong (which I lost royalty to Troy) and then went to play soccer again.  Within about two minutes, Joe had kicked the ball so that it, in freak accident style, popped on part of the metal fence that stuck out.  We managed to play with a flat ball the rest of the night, but people were falling all over the place, tripping on the ball which didn’t roll particularly well.

That's about it for now, long week with another, more in depth trip to Florence coming up!!
Ciao until next time,
Becca