Avventura a Firenze

Adventure in Florence!

These last few days of exploring Florence have been a delight. Now, I have adored exploring the city with my two "big brothers" (who may or may not have been old enough to be my dad...don't tell them I said that...), but it was really quite lovely to explore the city on my own.

I've hit a couple places that are "must sees" on the Florence list. For one, the Galleria d' Accademia to see The David.

Now, this is not a picture I actually took. Because taking pictures in the museum is prohibited. Which doesn't necessarily mean I don't have a picture...it just means blogosphere doesn't get to see it. But I can tell you this: the replicas of this statue - even the full scale replicas - don't hold a candle to Michelangelo's masterpiece. Seeing the original in person is an awe-inspiring experience. You can feel the pain and effort that went into this statue. You can see the veins, tendons, and muscles posed for battle. You can sense the artistic genius. And that's not even mentioning the hallway leading to the statue. It is filed with Michelangelo's unfinished prisoners. They, quite literally, seem to be charging and fighting their way out of the marble block. If you have any interest or connection to any kind of art, I highly HIGHLY recommend you get your but to Florence to see these works. They are astounding.

After coming up on art (and causing an empty stomach), I took Rick Steve's advice for a nearby lunch stop. In an absolutely adorable cafe, I had my very first real Italian spaghetti pomodoro.

Spaghetti, bread, and wine cost me under 8 Euro. Not too shabby!!

After coming up on pasta, the next order of business was getting lost in Florence. I know. That sounds crazy. But I'm a firm believer that you can't really know a city until you've gone off the beaten path. So of the beaten path went. Luckily, I found my way back before dehydration and overheating took over. I, after all, had to prepare for the next day!

Today (before it got TOO hot outside), I set out on my last adventure in Florence. One of the places I really wanted to see before I left was Piazza de Michelangelo and San Minato church. So I hiked my way up the massive staircases and reached my goal.

Then, headed back into the town for lunch, I ran into a string instrument flash mob!!

Jeez!! Chalk that up to things that probably only happen to you in European cities dating back to Roman times...

Finally, before heading home to get out of the heat (and the impending rain), I popped by Santo Spirito check and piazza (one of the only big places in Florence I hadn't seen) to say hello. It was beautiful, but not terribly exciting. I'm told it is much more exciting in the evening.

But alas, that will have to wait for my next trip to Florence. Tomorrow I will head back to the beautiful Dynamo Camp for another 9 day session. I look forward to more humbling experiences with talented, beautiful kids.

Ciao until next time, friends!!

Città in collina e di più!

Hill towns and more!

I feel a tad bit behind on my blogging, but only because SO much has been happening in the last few days. Let's start at the beginning.

Saturday was our last day of the Dynamo session. Since the evening performance was no doubt going to be hectic, I took the opportunity after breakfast to lounge beneath the villa's linden tree. I doubt I'll ever be able to recreate the peace and calm of that morning. The wind was rustling ever so gently through the tree, I had Jim Brickman playing softly in my headphones, The Princess Bride open in front of me, and a rumbling thunderstorm rolling over the mountains.

That evening, our wonderful theatre kids put on their performance of a Macbeth-Grease mashup (we lovingly called it "Greasy Macbeth"). Of course, I still couldn't take photos...but I was so proud of all those teenagers!! A special kudos goes out to our Macbeth (Christiano) for jumping onstage and improvising when Lady Macbeth wasn't ready for her entrance. And also a shout out to Wanda (aka Francesca) who was our main contact and theatre person at the camp.

Wanda and company.

I feel incredibly honored to get to work with the kids at Dynamo. It is very easy to forget that all of them have battled, or are still battling, horrible chronic illnesses or cancers. It is very humbling tho be a part of a camp where they can simply be kids again. I'm also happy to say that the big wigs in charge of the camp loved us and already want us back for next year!

On Sunday, we packed up our bags and headed back to Florence. The first thing we did upon arrival was hit the Stibbert museum. For those who don't know, the Stibbert is the largest weapons/armour collection in the world. A sword dork's DREAM! Unfortunately, photos are not allowed...so I cannot show you any of the thousands of swords/weapons/armour/artifacts that we saw. But here is an exterior photo that represents the Stibbert well:

Heraldry on every wall!

Since it was Ron's last night in Italy, we all decided to take a little road trip for dinner. We ventured slightly west to the little town of Lucca. Lucca is one of the Tuscan towns that still have medieval walls around the city center!

It has a "moat", too!

In its heyday, Lucca boasted 160 privately owned towers and 70 churches inside the walls. Today, the ramparts around the city are a walkable city park. Inside the walls, Lucca still retains most of its medieval charm.

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Ron. Joseph (my fellow foodie and wino on this adventure) and I decided to take off to the heart of Tuscany for a little more adventure. We hopped in the car and headed for Siena...an even more beautifully medieval town! Siena is a classic Tuscan hill town.

In Siena, we found loads of history and quaint cityscapes. But most importantly, we found wine! We lucked into a pretty inexpensive class at the Tuscan Wine School, where we learned about the wine making and categorizing process in Italy. And we got to drink wine. And we got diplomas for it!

After coming up on wine and knowledge (and buying more wine to take home), we headed back to Florence on winding Tuscan roads. A surprising fact about Tuscany: There are a lot more trees than you expect. Which is great! Until you want to take a picture of the countryside and all you can get are trees zipping by. We did pull off the road a few times and named to get a couple good shots.

Back in Florence, it was time to say goodbye to Joseph so he could make his way back to America. This meant today (Tuesday) I was all on my own!

Now, I adored exploring Tuscany with Ron and Joseph. It was like having 2 big brothers around all the time to mess with. But I'm really glad I finally got a day to wander around by myself.

This morning, my first stop was the Tuesday market aft Cashina park. This, I'm told, is where the locals ACTUALLY shop. The energy was incredible! There were vendors for clothing, kitchen tools, makeup, flowers, produce, food, bags, sunglasses, etc. It was a very vibrant atmosphere.

After checking out the market and grabbing a pastry and cappuccino...I set of to the city centre. My next stop was the Galileo museum. Quite honestly, the name is a tad bit misleading. It is not, strictly speaking, a museum dedicated to Galileo. It is a museum dedicated to all renaissance scientists from Galileo and beyond!

One of Galileo's contraptions for measuring time/distance/angle ratios

Book written by Galileo for the Medici family 

Telescopes!

Science is cool!

So, I have a few more days here in Florence before I go back for the second session of Dynamo Camp. I'm sure I will fill the time with museums, exploring and (of course) gelato! I'll let you know all about it!

Ciao!!

Tutto Risale al Culo!!

Lesson learned this week: many Italian hand gestures derive from metaphors of the backside. Tutto risale al culo! (Everything goes back to the a$*)

Last night was our dynamo theatre leader's birthday. Since drinking while camp is running is heavily discouraged, many of us counselors went out for celebratory gelato. During this educational and fun evening, there was a rich cultural exchange of rude, crude, and useful hand gestures. I'm proud to say I could now have a lengthy, meaningful Italian conversation with only my hands. And many of my new Italian friends will be able to communicate the crude necessities of American life. All in all, it was a highly entertaining evening! And true to "tutto risale al culo"...we hijacked a toilet on the way home.

This will supposedly become a theatre prop...

We, of course, continue to do more meaningful things than gesticulate wildly and steal toilets. We teach young, impressionable children! I'm happy to say that we now have a cast of 19 teenagers...and 3 days to produce a mini version of Macbeth. The production will be set in New York and will be complete with gypsy/belly dancer/witches, a fashionista Lady Macbeth, and rival gangs. (P.S. the kids created this concept on their own!) There will be sword fighting, dancing, singing, comedy, and dramatic death scenes (probably also comic). I'm very excited...and a wee bit trepidatious about it all coming together. But I know it will be fun!!

In our free time, we continue to explore the Italian mountains and countryside. A couple days ago, we hiked a few miles up the mountain to the sweet, idealistic mountain town of Gavinana.

Gavinana was once a medieval fortress! This statue is a knight who led the town against the Florentine Republic army. The town center consists of this statue, the 15th century church, an ancient palace-turned-museum, a pharmacy, a bar, and a fountain (with water for general purpose usage).  The little town itself was a hotbed of classic Italian life. There were roosters.

There were kitties.

There were undergarments hanging on every clothesline. (I don't want my undergarments posted online, so I did not take pictures of any of theirs!)

And, as always, there were sensational mountain views everywhere we looked. Speaking of great views, I leave you with some beautiful ones of the dynamo campus:

A panorama of our villa and surrounding landscape

Mossy staircase

A peek of the villa through the trees

In Italy, even the purposefully planted flowers end up wild

Dynamo Camp!!

(This title isn't in Italian because the camps name is simply Dynamo Camp!)

First off, for anyone who doesn't know what Dynamo Camp is...it is a summer camp sponsored by the Paul Newman Foundation for kids with severe and/or terminal illness or disabilities. It's a camp designed to give them a classic summer camp experience in a safe environment that doesn't make them feel like "handicapped" outsiders. This particular camp is tucked away in the Tuscan mountains near the town of San Marcello. It boasts state of the art medical facilities, camp activities and beautiful surroundings. If you want to find out more about it, check out http://www.dynamocamp.org/en/the-camp/

Now...to get on with cool stories! Perhaps the coolest part about Dynamo is the setting. Everywhere you look you see picturesque mountain views.

Since we are volunteer teachers at the camp, they give us some seriously swanky housing. We're staying in a luxury villa on campus that normally rents out for 460 euros a night!! Our room is complete with a veranda, fluffy robes, and a shower that can apparently fit twelve people (so I've been told).

The other parts of this villa are equipped with a baby grand piano, a beautiful old fashioned billiards table, and a fireplace that could probably also hold twelve people.

Besides exploring our sweet temporary home, we've gone on a few walking/hiking adventures in the last few days. Yesterday, we hiked a trail converted from an old railroad. We're told this railroad was built in the early 20th century to export goods from the original farm on Dynamo's property. We found many exciting treasures like an old railroad depot, a secret tunnel, and scattered bits of marble and ceramic in the road.

Today, we used some of our free time to hike into San Marcello for more picture perfect views and a taste of hill town Italian life.

Of course, we are here for a lot more than traipsing around the Italian countryside and sitting in fancy villas. We have the amazing opportunity to share acting, improv, and sword fighting with tons of teenagers! Now, I can't really take and share photos of all the kids and the happenings around here (to protect their privacy), but I can tell you so far that the camp here has been amazing! We've taught a few classes, seen artwork that has been made in the art classes, witnessed superheroes made for each cabin, and learned many silly dances (we all dance for about 10 minutes after lunch AND dinner). We've also been able to eat some pretty tasty foods. Granted, it IS still camp food (there was a slight hotdog and fries fiasco last night), but some of it is pretty darn tasty. Much of the food (meats and vegetables particularly) come directly from this mountain property. And yesterday, I had some fresh ricotta cheese that flat out shames any ricotta I've had in my whole life.

As the week progresses, we'll start developing a show that our campers will perform on Saturday. I'm sure there will be many interesting stories to come!

Shakespeare in Giardino!

Shakespeare in the gardens!

Over 30 children, Shakespeare dialogue, and swords...and nobody died!!!

Every morning this week, all four of us have braved the hot Florentine sun to teach the next generation of actors. The best part? Our setting for the week were the gardens behind the Corsini Palace.

This garden is even complete with about 100 adorable, leaf-munching turtles.

While the setting was beautiful, the work was definitely difficult. Our students ranged in age from 6 to 15. And, of course, their skills and attention spans varied wildly as well. Several of our students were made to run military-style through the gardens (and their peers) carrying swords above their heads shouting "I will respect my sword!" There were many times when we all thought of duct taping kids to trees. By the end of the week, though...we actually had some semi-decent sword fighters.

Beatrice kicking Benedick's butt!

Othello and Desdemona

But don't worry, Desdemona wins this version.

All in all, we were quite proud of our kids!  We celebrated their success with wine, fruit, cheese and bread.

And even though we worked ourselves to the bone this week, we still snuck a little adventure in. Indeed, friends. We visited Florence' s only Ethiopian-Peruvian restaurant. In fact, it might be the WORLD'S only Ethiopian-Peruvian restaurant. We are this.

This plate was full of delicious, unidentifiable, spicy meats and veggies and sauces. It fed 5 people. And we washed down the Ethiopian food with Peruvian beer!! Perfecto!

To top of our sensational week, I made the jump and treated myself to a beautiful Italian leather trench coat.

So now, our Florentine adventure comes to a pause. We leave this evening for the mountains around Pistoia to spend a week at Paul Newman's Dynamo camp for terminally ill children. We will be in an astoundingly beautiful location giving our best to make deserving kids smile. Look for updates soon!!

Non posso, non ho le prove...

"I can't, I have rehearsal..."

That's right, I actually DID come over the ocean to work!! The last few days have been filled with rehearsals, planning for classes, and going to the beach. Okay, maybe that last part isn't quite rehearsal. Nonetheless! The end of last week was full of cutting and rehearsing Shakespeare, choreographing and rehearsing fights, and lots of sweaty work. Here is Ron and Joseph working hard in the noon day sun.

Luckily, after working in the strong Italian sun, our days often end with tasty vittles like this:

Work in Italy is not all work, of course. We intersperse our day with tasty foods and trips to places like Mercato Centrale.

I also spend quite a bit of time scouting out an Italian leather jacket.

But still, the two most exciting things from the past few days were rolled together: Dani (my German sister) came in tho town to visit and we went to the beach! I haven't seen Dani since my freshmen year of college...and while I don't have a picture of her (they're on her camera, I think)...I do have a picture of the beach!

It was a lovely Italian beach, but at the end of the unseasonably windy (i.e. chilly) day, I was ready to head back to the city to prepare for Shakespeare camp.

That brings us to today...the start of FESTA Shakespeare camp! We've got a great group of kids, and a great group of instructors. I'm sure you'll hear more about them all as the week hours on, but for now...wine waits and cherries beckon. Arivvaderci!!