I'm moving to Italy!

So about my big adventure of 13/14: Still in school and still young the world is full of possibilities and there are lots of things on my “100 things to do before I die” list and I’m not usually sharing to much of my personal life, but this 13/14 I see as one great trip. I’m going on exchange to Italy, my neighbors will be Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, haha… I haven’t gotten a host family, so I don’t know what city, hopefully somewhere near Rome. Or Tuscany. Or the sea...
   . I don’t know anything. I know about 20 Italian words and none of them will get me far on my own in a foreign country, with classes in a language that I don’t know. So it’s time to start an Italian course and a new blog. I will still tell you about the cities and the country here, but if you want to follow the life of an exchange student, visit: www.destinationit.blogspot.com (you can go just by clicking the link in the sidebar!) And check into my new life in beautiful Italy in September. I will launch the site properly later, just thought you all should know about it J

-Mari Clémentine

They never told me Gucci was from Florence...

“You have very nice hair,” the lovley girl who had showed us the first floor at Museo Gucci told me. “Oh, thank you.” It was so nice to hear after trying to fix it all morning.

Florence has two great museums: The Uffizi Gallery and Accademia where Michelangelos David is standing. How did we end up with going to none of them? Don’t ask. Early that morning we went out to visit the Basilica di Santa Corce which holds the tomb of both Michelangelo and Galileo, it’s kind of a must, but not to interesting even though the church were rather nice, they were working on it and we did not get to see it in all its glory. So we went back to Piazza della Signora and that’s when I could not help myself. “Let’s go to the Gucci museum!” I said and dragged my mom with me to the entrance where a suit-dressed lady met us. “Do you wish to visit the museum?” she asked. I nodded and followed her. And that’s how we ended up at a fashion museum.
    The Gucci museum is the most fun thing we’ve done in Florence so far. They have different themes like travel and sport where you get different cards where they tell you about the different items you see and why they are as they are. In addition to that Paul Fryer also had a video installation and an exibition at the second floor. It was all such great fun and I would recommend it to any woman who cares about what she wears.

    

“Signorina bellina!” I smiled at the man in the restaurant door and went to the next door store to pick up some water and yogurt. This evening we ate at the Cucciolo. Snack bar again. Our we brought the pizza home and it’s really the best pizza I’ve ever had. It’s located in Via del Corso and you have to try it for yourself to get it – and it’s only 3.50!

   The rest of the evening we spent watching a fun comedian/talking pantomime clown who took people from the crowd and made them do fun stuff. People where gathering, hundreds of them, laughing and clapping. The man had been doing it for 29 years.

Mari Clémentine

The painting

This is the story of how I made it up to myself when I bought a small oil painting for 50 euro at the top of Florence:

“Well… Actually it’s our painting I said,” looking at my mom as she had given me half of the money. “And I do love sunflowers.” She nodded. “And if it hangs on our wall for 500 days, that’s only 5 cents a day!”

“And we walked up here and if we hadn’t walked with would probably have taken some expencive night tour of Florence!”

“Yeah!”

“And that would have cost us 30 euro at least!”

“Our 60! And then we actually saved money!”

     Yes. That actually happened. Welcome to my world. But as you all know, since you of course read tis blog every day, I have a thing for sunflowers, and the oil painting was of a sunflower field here in Tuscany, so the money gods have forgiven me, right?

Mari Clémentine

Party at the Piazza

After walking around Basilica di Santa Corce for a while I think we both understood that we would never find that tourist information so we could get a map, so in the end my mom said “Let’s go to the river!” So we did, only steps away from the Basilica where Michelangelo and Galileo sleeps the river of Arno is splitting the city in two.

    We crossed the blue river and went out to explore the streets the tourists haven’t taken over yet and found a little shop where we bought a map, not that we have needed it much. The Duomo can be seen from pretty much all over the city and we live right next to it at a charming little two star hotel called Hotel Medici.

 For lunch we had pizza, bought in a tiny, tiny shop somewhere between Ponte alle Gazie and the beautiful Ponte Vecchio, eaten at a street corner. Dinner on the other hand was not so Italian as we have a tradition of visiting Hard Rock and this one were just across the Piazza della Republica, a minute or two from the hotel. The food was great, the drinks were even greater and it was good to speak with someone who actually understood English. So while watching music videos and resting between Rod Stewards shoes and Paul Stanly’s guitar we had a lovley meal.

    “I don’t get why people go to Paris or Rome for romantic holidays,” my mom said. “They should try Florence.” I agreed and we spent the rest of the evening going from Piazza della Republica to Piazza Signoria listening to the incredible street musicians of Florence.. The trio at Republica got an entire crowd of at least hundred watching, clapping and enjoying the fun men playing violin, accordion and bass. At Signoria the crowds from Uffizi sat down to listen to the man on the guitar, and later another one playing the flute. Further up the street, two more en at the accordion played classics like Toccata.

      We decided to climb up the stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo in the evening. From there you can see the whole of Florence and it was stunning, even better as the guy in front of the David Statue singing “Oh baby, baby, it’s a wild world,” and while dancing around up there I tought that everyone should know about Florence and come here instead of going off to Rome for their romantic springbreak.

Mari Clémentine