I love this band!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Well first off I have some news, I will be traveling to California this coming summer. I have been accepted to a research program in Santa Barbara to work with the Religious Studies department. So what I am trying to say is don't be sad when this trip is done and the London/Florence blog sees no more posts, for Rachel will start a new blog about my West Coast Adventures!
But now back to Florence...
4/10/12
It was nice having a Monday off to relax and explore but Tuesday it was back to school and back to work! I have to say though, not a bad thing! In the morning we went on what I consider the most wonderful tour yet, of the San Marco Convent, of the Dominican friars. Yes, it was fantabulous (I know that's not a real word I really don't care). Cosimo de' Medici paid for the reconstruction and a whole lot of paintings to basically cover every square inch of this place. They did not allow pictures to be taken in here, but I am not a good person and did not follow the rules, I mean how could I when I saw the Annunciation by Fra Angelico? They can't really expect me to not sneak my camera out for a bit...
There are people in the way but you can just ignore them, I do. The convent is also where Cosimo would come and study, pray, and even sleep on occasion, he even had his own cell (since it was a convent there were many cells, or rooms, that the friars would stay in) that I was also very bad and took pictures of. Each of the cells had their own paintings and Cosimo's were pretty cool.
I loved this visit and did want to leave when the tour was over, and I plan on returning!
The rest of this day was classes, early afternoon I had another Italian class with Professor Luigi (I still love his name!) and then my Renaissance literature class with Professor Caldwell later that afternoon wherein we discussed family life during the Renaissance.
4/11/12
The morning this day was a little slow, we took a trip to the State Archives of Florence, which don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring, it was actually pretty awesome, but at first it was a lot of listening to things being repeated several times since the tour guide only spoke Italian and so we needed Professor Caldwell to translate everything for us. That can get just a little tiring. The visit was great though! We were able to walk all over the archives and even go in the document storage area where no other tours are allowed to go on and we got to take a close look at century old tax documents. I guess that can sound a little boring, but seriously it was cool, I am amazed at how great of penmanship these Florentine's use to have, they needed to really since those documents were all pre-printing press.
The afternoon wasn't too eventful, Italian class and then a final edit of my first paper due in Florence (which I already got back and did pretty good on if I can say so).
This was a very long night for me. I met up with some people to go out for dinner since we had a show we had to make it to. ACM paid for the class to go see Breakfast at Tiffany's- all in Italian! So I didn't want to eat at my host family's place to make sure I made it to the show on time. So we went to this cute little restaurant and I just pointed at something at the menu and ended up getting this-
They're called gnocci, they are this weird flour/pasta ball thing with sage and butter sauce. I would get it again.
4/12/12
It was time for another tour this morning, this time it was for Professor Caldwell's class! But Professor Mariotti still led the tour. We went to Palazzo Davanzati, it was a palace owned by the Davanzati family (shocking right?!). It was awesome. The family obviously was pretty wealthy since they owned a palace (that's what Palazzo means in case you didn't catch that) so they had some things that most families probably wouldn't have, such as and area above the entrance door to drop down rocks or hot oil in case of an attack. Sorry no pictures at this one again :(
I did get to take pictures at another place though, after Italian with Luigi in the afternoon the class went with Professor Mariotti again to check out another Palazzo, the Medici's!! I realize a lot of people may not understand why this is so awesome, so take a break from reading right now and google Medici Chapel Procession of the Magi, see all those cool pretty painting? I spent an entire class last semester learning all about those paintings and I got to see them!! Up close and personal! Hannah understood my awe at this moment as well (we did a whole report on the chapel) and of course, just like everything else that I absolutely love here I could not take pictures of it! I did get some pictures of other parts of the palace though.
4/13/12
So Friday's we don't have class but from time to time the program will take us all on a trip to different places in Italy. Last time we went to Venice and this time we went to Siena for a day trip. First off Siena is beautiful, and second we saw some pretty awesome stuff! The first place we checked out was the church of Catherine of Siena (can you guess where she is from?) which is where her head is, yup, her head not her whole body. Poor woman has body parts all over the world just like so many other saints. Sorry to say I didn't take a picture of it, I kind of felt like it would have been rude towards her. I did get some pictures of her house though, which we walked by on our way to another church.
We also went to the Cathedral of Siena called the Santa Maria Assunta. It was absolutely gorgeous and again has links to the Medici and several great Renaissance artists. There are many side chapels including one dedicated to St John the Baptist and a studiolo, an area commissioned by a pope where he could keep all of his books and manuscripts.
Next we went up, way up to check out the view of Siena...
When we finally climbed down what felt like the hundreds of steps to get up in the church we made our way to the Campo of the city so that we could find a place to eat before our next tour. This was a nice relaxing time for all of us, we just ate our pizza, told stories with one another, and tried to scare the pigeons away from us while moving as little as possible. Before we knew it though we had to regroup for our tour of the government building of Siena. It was a grand and beautiful building with a lot of art meant to inspire the government leaders of the city.
After this tour we were done in Siena, but before we left the Professors decided to treat us to some tasty cookies that Siena is apparently famous for. I don't remember what they are called but I will find out and let me tell you, I really recommend them!
4/14/12
Well Jenna Hannah and I went to the library this day... we registered for the library... and I listened to some music Jenna was nice enough to share with me. I'm pretty sure that covers Saturday.
4/15/12
Sunday was more eventful!! We went to Palazzo Vecchio! It was a side field trip that was just optional, we had to sign up ahead of time, and regardless of having signed up early and receiving all of the information ahead of time some people still managed to be quite late. Not that I was frustrated about this or anything...
Anyway, we were able to see some of the ruins that are under Palazzo Vecchio from the Roman ages and then we got to actually go inside of the Palazzo. So this place was once the home of the Medici until the moved into Palazzo Pitti during the Duchy with Cosimo I (not the Cosimo mentioned earlier, that was Cosimo the Elder). A lot has gone down in this place. The architect/artist Vasari has had his hands on this place for a really long time, covering paintings and even raising a ceiling in one of the rooms, and some works by Michelangelo can be seen here as well!
But now back to Florence...
4/10/12
It was nice having a Monday off to relax and explore but Tuesday it was back to school and back to work! I have to say though, not a bad thing! In the morning we went on what I consider the most wonderful tour yet, of the San Marco Convent, of the Dominican friars. Yes, it was fantabulous (I know that's not a real word I really don't care). Cosimo de' Medici paid for the reconstruction and a whole lot of paintings to basically cover every square inch of this place. They did not allow pictures to be taken in here, but I am not a good person and did not follow the rules, I mean how could I when I saw the Annunciation by Fra Angelico? They can't really expect me to not sneak my camera out for a bit...
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| A crucifixion with saints including Cosmas and Damian (patron saints of the Medici family) |
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| A procession of the magi (an event painted very often on Medici commission) |
I loved this visit and did want to leave when the tour was over, and I plan on returning!
The rest of this day was classes, early afternoon I had another Italian class with Professor Luigi (I still love his name!) and then my Renaissance literature class with Professor Caldwell later that afternoon wherein we discussed family life during the Renaissance.
4/11/12
The morning this day was a little slow, we took a trip to the State Archives of Florence, which don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring, it was actually pretty awesome, but at first it was a lot of listening to things being repeated several times since the tour guide only spoke Italian and so we needed Professor Caldwell to translate everything for us. That can get just a little tiring. The visit was great though! We were able to walk all over the archives and even go in the document storage area where no other tours are allowed to go on and we got to take a close look at century old tax documents. I guess that can sound a little boring, but seriously it was cool, I am amazed at how great of penmanship these Florentine's use to have, they needed to really since those documents were all pre-printing press.
The afternoon wasn't too eventful, Italian class and then a final edit of my first paper due in Florence (which I already got back and did pretty good on if I can say so).
This was a very long night for me. I met up with some people to go out for dinner since we had a show we had to make it to. ACM paid for the class to go see Breakfast at Tiffany's- all in Italian! So I didn't want to eat at my host family's place to make sure I made it to the show on time. So we went to this cute little restaurant and I just pointed at something at the menu and ended up getting this-
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| Looks weird |
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| Tastes great! |
They're called gnocci, they are this weird flour/pasta ball thing with sage and butter sauce. I would get it again.
4/12/12
It was time for another tour this morning, this time it was for Professor Caldwell's class! But Professor Mariotti still led the tour. We went to Palazzo Davanzati, it was a palace owned by the Davanzati family (shocking right?!). It was awesome. The family obviously was pretty wealthy since they owned a palace (that's what Palazzo means in case you didn't catch that) so they had some things that most families probably wouldn't have, such as and area above the entrance door to drop down rocks or hot oil in case of an attack. Sorry no pictures at this one again :(
I did get to take pictures at another place though, after Italian with Luigi in the afternoon the class went with Professor Mariotti again to check out another Palazzo, the Medici's!! I realize a lot of people may not understand why this is so awesome, so take a break from reading right now and google Medici Chapel Procession of the Magi, see all those cool pretty painting? I spent an entire class last semester learning all about those paintings and I got to see them!! Up close and personal! Hannah understood my awe at this moment as well (we did a whole report on the chapel) and of course, just like everything else that I absolutely love here I could not take pictures of it! I did get some pictures of other parts of the palace though.
4/13/12
So Friday's we don't have class but from time to time the program will take us all on a trip to different places in Italy. Last time we went to Venice and this time we went to Siena for a day trip. First off Siena is beautiful, and second we saw some pretty awesome stuff! The first place we checked out was the church of Catherine of Siena (can you guess where she is from?) which is where her head is, yup, her head not her whole body. Poor woman has body parts all over the world just like so many other saints. Sorry to say I didn't take a picture of it, I kind of felt like it would have been rude towards her. I did get some pictures of her house though, which we walked by on our way to another church.
We also went to the Cathedral of Siena called the Santa Maria Assunta. It was absolutely gorgeous and again has links to the Medici and several great Renaissance artists. There are many side chapels including one dedicated to St John the Baptist and a studiolo, an area commissioned by a pope where he could keep all of his books and manuscripts.
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| Santa Maria Assunta |
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| Sculpture of Popes |
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| The Medici family coat of arms |
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| extravagant pulpit |
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| St John the Baptist |
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| An illuminated manuscript |
When we finally climbed down what felt like the hundreds of steps to get up in the church we made our way to the Campo of the city so that we could find a place to eat before our next tour. This was a nice relaxing time for all of us, we just ate our pizza, told stories with one another, and tried to scare the pigeons away from us while moving as little as possible. Before we knew it though we had to regroup for our tour of the government building of Siena. It was a grand and beautiful building with a lot of art meant to inspire the government leaders of the city.
After this tour we were done in Siena, but before we left the Professors decided to treat us to some tasty cookies that Siena is apparently famous for. I don't remember what they are called but I will find out and let me tell you, I really recommend them!
4/14/12
Well Jenna Hannah and I went to the library this day... we registered for the library... and I listened to some music Jenna was nice enough to share with me. I'm pretty sure that covers Saturday.
4/15/12
Sunday was more eventful!! We went to Palazzo Vecchio! It was a side field trip that was just optional, we had to sign up ahead of time, and regardless of having signed up early and receiving all of the information ahead of time some people still managed to be quite late. Not that I was frustrated about this or anything...
Anyway, we were able to see some of the ruins that are under Palazzo Vecchio from the Roman ages and then we got to actually go inside of the Palazzo. So this place was once the home of the Medici until the moved into Palazzo Pitti during the Duchy with Cosimo I (not the Cosimo mentioned earlier, that was Cosimo the Elder). A lot has gone down in this place. The architect/artist Vasari has had his hands on this place for a really long time, covering paintings and even raising a ceiling in one of the rooms, and some works by Michelangelo can be seen here as well!
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| Palazzo Vecchio |
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| Medici Coat of arms |
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| Sculpture of Hercules by Michelangelo |
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| One of the many rooms dedicated to a member of the Medici family |
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| Painting of Venus to represent the element of water |
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| Statue of Judith and Holofernes by Donatello |
Monday, April 9, 2012
4/2/12-4/5/12
Mondays seem like they are going to my easier days. I have two classes, but they are my Italian class and my class with Professor Caldwell which includes a lot of reading but its really not too bad. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I also have only 2 classes, but these days include my class with Professor Mariotti, which I am pretty sure will be my favorite class but it feels like we do a whole lot more just because most of the classes includes tours all over Florence. On Tuesday we went to the Opera del Duomo (basically the workshop of the Duomo and we got to see a little museum behind the Duomo that at one point was basically just a storage area. Now it is filled with beautiful art that I had the pleasure of learning about last semester in one of my classes and so when I actually saw the pieces close up my heart kind of started racing out of control. It was an amazing day!
Later this day we also had a tour of the Pergola Theater where we found out that this week a showing of Breakfast at Tiffany's will be! And we are going!! This Wednesday, I am so excited!! In honor of it here is on of my famous music videos!
Deep Blue Something- Breakfast at Tiffany's
Wednesday was another tour with Professor Mariotti, this time to the San Croce Basilica. It was marvelous and I was so excited to see that there is a huge statue dedicated to my main man out front!
And inside was even more awesome things to see!
Thursday was another tour with Mariotti, after Italian class with Luigi and our class with Caldwell. This tour was at the Brancacci Chapel, another beautiful one and I was so excited to see the art work in this one, I recognized quite a few of the paintings! We sadly could not spend too much time in the chapel, but it was enough.
This week was very educational and so much fun, as you can tell in this short time we have already seen so much! We all were very excited though to have a free weekend to ourselves!
4/6/12
Some of us were very good on Friday and (attempted at least) to do some of our homework before the official start of the weekend. A few us met at Linguaviva with our books and laptops and while we all said we didn't get a whole lot done I feel we actually did get quite a lot accomplished in that most of us were able to outline our papers that are due Wednesday for Caldwell's class (see we really do work on this trip too!). After a little while though we needed to get away from work and we went out to lunch, and when we were totally done with work for the day we went out to reward ourselves with pretty trinkets from the market (Jenna got a really pretty scarf) and I scoped out some potential items I may try to purchase later on. I also was successful in that I was able to finally find a cheap enough suitcase that is big enough to carry my massive amount of stuff back home! That's one less thing I need to worry about! Yay!
4/7/12
This was kind of a slow paced day. Jenna Hannah and I all just wanted to get out and see some of the city, sadly by the time I left my apartment it was raining out pretty bad, which I didn't mind but by the time I found Jenna and Hannah they had purchased quite a bit of chocolate to try to make themselves feel better about the rain. They were happy about the chocolate, not so happy about the money they spent to get said chocolate... We met outside of the Duomo and just kind of wandered for a little while. I was able to buy a new umbrella and we found a cute little market that sells all sort of organic products. We walked as far as the river before we decided to give up on hoping for better weather and just headed back to our places to attempt to do homework.
4/8/12
Well Happy Easter! I was pretty sad to not be with my family, but the celebration and parade that I was able to see was pretty enjoyable and kind of made up for it.
To be honest this morning kind of sucked. I was waiting for two hours for this whole thing to start because if I didn't get there early I would not have had a decent enough spot to see the whole show. It was fine at first but then it started raining, which started pouring, and basically became a waterfall. It was really wet and cold and just uncomfortable (made worse by the creepy guy who kept pushing his way onto Hannah, Jenna, and I). Eventually though, the show started and we got to see what turned out to be a 10 minute firework show!! I got the whole thing on video, and I will try to load it to my blog but no guarantees. The rest of the day was pretty slow. I went home and had a nice Easter lunch with my host family and then basically took a nap until dinner :)
4/9/12
Today was so great! A group of us finally took a trip up to the hill town of Fiesole, the most beautiful place ever with an amazing view of Florence and the surrounding areas! We had tremendous views, got to explore another adorable market, had a nice lunch, and visited an archeological museum so that we could see the ruins of early Etruscan and Roman people in the area.
There was so much beauty in Fiesole, and I assure you that I plan on returning very soon!!!
Mondays seem like they are going to my easier days. I have two classes, but they are my Italian class and my class with Professor Caldwell which includes a lot of reading but its really not too bad. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I also have only 2 classes, but these days include my class with Professor Mariotti, which I am pretty sure will be my favorite class but it feels like we do a whole lot more just because most of the classes includes tours all over Florence. On Tuesday we went to the Opera del Duomo (basically the workshop of the Duomo and we got to see a little museum behind the Duomo that at one point was basically just a storage area. Now it is filled with beautiful art that I had the pleasure of learning about last semester in one of my classes and so when I actually saw the pieces close up my heart kind of started racing out of control. It was an amazing day!
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| Donatello's Mary Magdalene |
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| Finger of John the Baptist |
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| Made by Michaelangelo for his Tomb (that's Mikey there in the hood) |
Wednesday was another tour with Professor Mariotti, this time to the San Croce Basilica. It was marvelous and I was so excited to see that there is a huge statue dedicated to my main man out front!
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| That is me with my dearest love, Dante. |
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| Front of the Church |
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| Crucifix by Donatello-Called by Brunelleschi a peasant on a cross. Kind of ticked off Donatello until Brunelleschi made his own crucifix that Donatello admitted was much better than his. (I still like Donatello's) |
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| A chapel paid for by Cosimo de Medici |
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| A side chapel built by Brunelleschi |
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| Crucifix by Giotto, beautiful but heavily damaged by flooding of the church. |
Thursday was another tour with Mariotti, after Italian class with Luigi and our class with Caldwell. This tour was at the Brancacci Chapel, another beautiful one and I was so excited to see the art work in this one, I recognized quite a few of the paintings! We sadly could not spend too much time in the chapel, but it was enough.
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| A byzantine painting not original to the chapel (as you can tell from comparisons to the paintings surrounding it) |
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| Jesus being Baptised |
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| Adam and Eve expulsion from the garden |
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| The artists liked to put themselves into their paintings... this one is actually the artist's mentor though. |
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| And this is the painting I was excited to see! Adam and Eve obviously, but you see that snake there? That is Lilith (according to some art historians) who was the basis of my research last summer!! |
This week was very educational and so much fun, as you can tell in this short time we have already seen so much! We all were very excited though to have a free weekend to ourselves!
4/6/12
Some of us were very good on Friday and (attempted at least) to do some of our homework before the official start of the weekend. A few us met at Linguaviva with our books and laptops and while we all said we didn't get a whole lot done I feel we actually did get quite a lot accomplished in that most of us were able to outline our papers that are due Wednesday for Caldwell's class (see we really do work on this trip too!). After a little while though we needed to get away from work and we went out to lunch, and when we were totally done with work for the day we went out to reward ourselves with pretty trinkets from the market (Jenna got a really pretty scarf) and I scoped out some potential items I may try to purchase later on. I also was successful in that I was able to finally find a cheap enough suitcase that is big enough to carry my massive amount of stuff back home! That's one less thing I need to worry about! Yay!
4/7/12
This was kind of a slow paced day. Jenna Hannah and I all just wanted to get out and see some of the city, sadly by the time I left my apartment it was raining out pretty bad, which I didn't mind but by the time I found Jenna and Hannah they had purchased quite a bit of chocolate to try to make themselves feel better about the rain. They were happy about the chocolate, not so happy about the money they spent to get said chocolate... We met outside of the Duomo and just kind of wandered for a little while. I was able to buy a new umbrella and we found a cute little market that sells all sort of organic products. We walked as far as the river before we decided to give up on hoping for better weather and just headed back to our places to attempt to do homework.
4/8/12
Well Happy Easter! I was pretty sad to not be with my family, but the celebration and parade that I was able to see was pretty enjoyable and kind of made up for it.
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| All took place outside of Santa Maria del Fiore |
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| Hehe, silly costumes |
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| There were flag throwers!! |
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| This big box here was pulled in by 4 HUGE oxen. And guess what? It blows up! Not the oxen, the box! |
To be honest this morning kind of sucked. I was waiting for two hours for this whole thing to start because if I didn't get there early I would not have had a decent enough spot to see the whole show. It was fine at first but then it started raining, which started pouring, and basically became a waterfall. It was really wet and cold and just uncomfortable (made worse by the creepy guy who kept pushing his way onto Hannah, Jenna, and I). Eventually though, the show started and we got to see what turned out to be a 10 minute firework show!! I got the whole thing on video, and I will try to load it to my blog but no guarantees. The rest of the day was pretty slow. I went home and had a nice Easter lunch with my host family and then basically took a nap until dinner :)
[I will try to upload the video again later]
4/9/12
Today was so great! A group of us finally took a trip up to the hill town of Fiesole, the most beautiful place ever with an amazing view of Florence and the surrounding areas! We had tremendous views, got to explore another adorable market, had a nice lunch, and visited an archeological museum so that we could see the ruins of early Etruscan and Roman people in the area.
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| Gorgeous view! |
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| A little walkway that we couldn't quite get to. |
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| An Etruscan ruin we happened to run into on the side of the road |
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| Me in front of my future backyard |
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| Some absolutely amazing trees and flowers! |
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| A wonderful little shrine at the side of the road |
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| My lunch. Mushroom pizza. Fantastic! |
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| A roman Amphitheater |
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| Roman ruins |
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| Some more ruins |
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| Near the Roman Baths |
There was so much beauty in Fiesole, and I assure you that I plan on returning very soon!!!
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