Vita Aggiornamento

Life Updates

-The glass is now officially 2/3 full-- our Renaissance/Counter-reformation Art and History class came to an end. To celebrate it’s coming to a close, Tony decided to give us a final essay exam where we traced the artistic, philosophical and political transitions in Florence and Rome from the Middle Ages to the Counter Reformation. Three hours and a cramped hand later, I whipped out a pretty decent in-class essay. I still can’t decide if it’s fair to give a 3-hour time limit when you’re instructed to write an essay over a period of 1,000+ years. Time waits for no man, and apparently, neither does Tony.

-Since Tony’s class is now over, we’ve started the second block of classes. This includes a course on German politics/the Holocaust and another on Global Contemporary Issues. The German politics/Holocaust instructor is from UGA and I really enjoy his class. The Global Issues teacher is from Rome, Italy originally. He has an incredibly stacked resume. He’s fluent in several languages and has done work with the United Nations. He’s impressive. To go along with his incredibly stacked resume, he has an incredibly thick accent. I’m not sure if it’s more of an Italian accent or a French accent. Sometimes he sounds German to me. Regardless of its derivative, the language of the professor is foreign, even when he is speaking “English.” He’s really energetic though and he’s very knowledgeable. I would love to find out more about his career and background, but for now I’ve just got to hone in on what he’s trying to communicate. #Saywhat?

-I took a day trip to Milan to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” this past weekend. It was extremely interesting and worth the hassle. I had to make a reservation to see the fresco because they only allow groups of 25 at a time to enter the exhibit. I had to book the ticket 2 weeks in advance. The voyage to Milan was more complicated than I had expected. Since it was a Sunday, the normal bus that I would take to the train station wasn’t running. Therefore, I had to take a bus that was headed for Trento then looped around back towards Verona’s airport. Did I mention I caught the bus around 8 am? Verona is essentially a ghost town at that hour on a Sunday. Anyway, I got to Milano and went straight to the exhibit. It was fascinating to see Da Vinci’s work so large and up close. He used a “dry” technique when doing this fresco. Because of his use of this technique and several damaging historical events, “The Last Supper” has required a lot of restoration. The colors of the paints were nowhere near as vibrant as those found in the Sistine Chapel. Da Vinci depicted the initial shock of the disciples when Jesus spoke, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me…” He captured each disciple’s personality and specific reactions through not only the facial expressions, but also the hand gestures. The hands intrigued me. Even Da Vinci’s depiction of Jesus Christ’s hands in the painting caught my eye. In the painting He has one hand upward and one cast downward. I wonder if this is any sort of allusion to the Mosaic in the Florence Baptistry of “Christ the Judge” in which Christ is seen doing the same hand gesture. I think the fresco was particularly neat to me because it depicted a religious scene I have heard so much about throughout life. I was so intrigued. The fresco was stunning.

-I gave Ryan a hair cut yesterday. Perhaps I could make a living cutting hair…

-In other news, Fat February has officially come to an end. No more eating whatever I please and drinking useless calories of divine wine. We’ve now entered Modest March. Time to “think thin” again with portion control. Gelato, however, deserves an exception.

-I hate to resort to talking about the weather, but the weather in Verona has been thawesome! I went from wearing a pea coat, scarf and gloves to wearing shorts and soaking up sun on the back balcony. My excitement with the wardrobe change up may be misleading. I said the weather was thawsome. That means in the mid 50s. But as a Southern gal, I’ll do anything to wish warmer weather upon us! I’ve really enjoyed the sunshine.

-We ran into John in Rome! Crazy huh? I was walking by Capitoline Hill and I heard, "Angie?" from behind me. It was John! What're the odds?

-By the way, I booked a weekend trip to Budapest!!!!! I’m excited to say the least. I had to ditch the idea of going to Greece. It was just not a smart move economically, so I made other plans to go to Budapest. I wasn’t considering the idea until Jared called me earlier this week: “Let’s go to Budapest!” I guess it didn’t take much convincing. So I talked Kristin into going and we’re meeting Lynnie over there too. It’s going to be so neat to get to see a different side of Europe.

-Just to clear up confusion—I’ve been without internet connection for quite some time now. That means I’m way behind on the blog. I’ve got so much to spill about Florence and Rome that it may take a while. I’ll keep posting as I can. They may be a little out of order. I send my apologies!

Happy Wednesday!

…Ciao!