Days 78, 79, 80 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

            Monday morning, my entire program had to wake up early to help take down the art show.  Most of the art pieces were going to be shipped back through the program, but mine was too big to fit in the crates.  Therefore, I was responsible for sending home all my paintings on my own (lucky me).  I did not think it was possible, but with the help of Chloe, I was able to lug my (HUGE) painting all the way back up to our school building…it took awhile to accomplish this.  I then used my afternoon to finish my final book project, which needed its last finishing touches.  I am really excited with how it turned out: it is a VERY fat book, with lots of pages, beautiful stitched binding, and collaged covers and pages, expressing my themes of memory and history.  In the afternoon, we were all looking forward to a massive studio walkthrough, where my entire program would wander through everyone’s studio space to see everyone’s art pieces because the vast majority of our artwork was not in the art show.  Even Luca, the photography teacher’s fiver-year-old son, exhibited his artwork.  It was so much fun to see what everyone was up to these last few months.  I had never even been inside the ceramics studio and the metals workshop.  Once again, I was completely amazed at my colleagues’ abilities.  Meanwhile, the weather outside was being especially dramatic.  The sky overhead was exceptionally bright and sunny, but in the distant landscape, you could see rain falling from heavy clouds and shiny streaks of lightning every few minutes.  It was quite a sight to see. 

            On Tuesday, my art ed class was meeting my art ed teacher, Erin, to eat a potluck lunch together at her apartment in town.  Besides the fact that Erin is my favorite faculty in the program, I was excited to see what Cortonian apartments looked like inside.  Her apartment was ADORABLE!  Although, if you are a few inches taller than me, you would bump your head on the ceiling.  After climbing three flights of narrow stairs, we entered into the quaintest little kitchen I have EVER seen that leads to a small terrace that overlooks a beautiful view complete with endless terracotta rooftops.  And that is not even the best part.  The best part: Erin had previously agreed to let me use her kitchen and oven to BAKE dessert for our lunch.  Oh yes.  I have not baked in three months, and I could not have been more excited.  Someone else brought the flour, sugar, and eggs.  I brought a left over giant chocolate Easter egg (to brake up into chocolate chip pieces) and peanut butter.  Without measuring anything, I mixed everything together and formed a gigantic chocolate chip peanut butter cookie cake creation on Erin’s baking sheet that I stuck into the oven.  Because her oven was in Celsius, I estimated how hot it should be.  We ate our lunch together on her terrace.  The menu: pasta with fresh tomato sauce, grilled vegetables, arugula and strawberry salad, fresh fruit, iced tea, and of course my cookie for dessert.  (The cookie disappeared in less than three minutes!  I was really proud).  It was definitely the loveliest lunch.  We all left very happy.  Later in the afternoon, I had my final critique for book making, which went very well.  After that, I accomplished one of my dreaded tasks: taking my paintings off their frames and rolling them up together and then wrapping them in plastic and tape to be shipped home.   I actually thought I did a pretty good job!  When Jeanette was helping me carry the large roll of paintings down the hall into town to be fedexed, it felt like we were carrying a body because the roll of paintings was as tall as me, and weighed at least as much as I did.  My paintings are now in the mail, so keep an eye out for them! 

            Wednesday was completely open to do anything.  Jeanette and I were craving to see Fra Angelico’s “Annunciation” painting that we studied endlessly in art history.  The actual painting was commissioned for a church in Cortona during the fifteenth century, although now it is displayed in a museum in town.  It was so nice to see this artwork in person.  We met Chloe in town to eat lunch a little while later.  In the afternoon, I went on a huge walk, during which I was almost kidnapped by an old Italian man who was driving by.  Initially, he stopped his car and asked if I needed a ride somewhere.  I said no, I was on a walk.  Several minutes later, as I was continuing on my walk, I noticed that he was standing in front of a gated property waiting for me.  He asked if I was a UGA art student, and after I explained that indeed I was a painter, he INSISTED that I come and see a view from his yard, because I simply MUST come back and paint it.  I decided that it would not hurt anyone to go and see this view, which was very nice.  Then, he insisted once again that I come inside his house because he wanted to talk to me.  He asked about the kind of art I do, and then started reading my PALM, telling me that I have some sort of big problem in the future.  He then started telling me about his own life story, asking me questions as well.  After awhile, the whole ordeal started feeling a little creepy, because this old man was just a bit TOO nice and did not intend me leaving.  Eventually I just started walking away, explaining that I had to get to class, and that no I did NOT want him to drive me back to Cortona.  The entire situation was completely weird.  The rest of my walk, I did not talk to any more strangers and I picked beautiful flowers on the way back to Cortona.  I do think I can get enough of the beauty Cortona has to offer.  

Days 76 and 77 (Art Show Weekend!)

            We all have been waiting for this day to come: our art exhibition opens today!  It was weird being in Cortona on a Saturday, because we are usually on our field trips the entire day.  It was nice to experience the Saturday activity in Cortona which included a cute little flea market in the main piazza.  It was similar to the one I explored in Camucia a few days ago.  After a little browsing, I went on an extremely long walk, which was perfectly refreshing.  When I got back, all the girls were already getting ready for the art show.  It felt like everyone was getting ready for prom or something because hair and makeup was being done, nails were being painted, and shoes were being borrowed…It was a very big ordeal for everyone.  The exhibition was held in an old building in town.  This whole week, we had posters hanging up throughout Cortona advertising our show to everyone.  My painting was one of the first pieces you saw right as you walked in.  I was so excited to see everyone’s work; it really was an impressive show.  Until then, I had no idea what the other studios were up to.  I was amazed with some of the ceramics, metal work, photography, homemade paper…There was also slide show of incredible art ed teaching photos.  The best part, besides the table of fancy snacks and sparkling wine, was that fact that a large part of the Cortona community came to see our show.  I recognized so many faces from town.  Our friend Bryan Mark Taylor (the American artist) and his wife and ADORABLE kids even came!  (Jeanette and I run into them all the time and have become pretty good friends.  We have even offered to babysit their kids).  It was wonderful seeing my whole program together dressed up and proud of their hard work from the course of the semester.  I was especially impressed with some of the sprucing up of our teachers.  After the show, a group of friends and I went to celebrate at our favorite pizza place, known for its amazing pear and walnut pizza, which most of us ordered.  The only exception is that I ordered mine with a side of spinach. (Typical).  The evening was oh-so-wonderful. 

            Sunday was really gorgeous. I went running and read outside for the majority of the day.  The art show was open all day for people to explore, and then at five p.m., there was a sort of closing ceremony of our art show where there was a reading of the written pieces from the creative writing class.  My friend Chloe was reading the children’s story that I was illustrating for her, “Hello Yellow, My Name is Blue.”  Because the story was essentially a conversation between the two colors, I read for Yellow, while she read for Blue.  It was exciting to be the only non-creative writer to make an appearance.  The rest of the creative writing students and teachers read their own poems and stories, and I was really impressed by everyone.  Afterward, my usual dinner group and I decided to explore another new restaurant in Cortona for dinner (afterall, our dinners in Cortona were dwindling and we needed to make the best of them).  We were recommended to go to a restaurant called Fuflums, where I ended up having a beautiful plate of grilled vegetables and melted cheese.  None of us could believe that there was only one more weekend to go…

Days 74 and 75 (Thursday and Friday)

            Thursday, I ran to the flee market that is held each Thursday morning in Camucia, the town down the mountain.  It is a mix of stands selling clothing, shoes, linens, and random things with stands selling produce, cheeses, and meats.  It was fun to explore, but it was so hot, that I was wary of trudging back up the mountain.  Luckily, I happened to run into Gino, who is our grounds worker at our school building.  He offered to drive me back to the school, so I thankfully accepted.  We had one-on-one meetings with our painting teacher that afternoon.  We discussed the development of my paintings during the course of the semester.  Afterwards, I went on a walk around Cortona, studying my art history flash cards.  My walk somehow ended up at Snoopy’s, the wonderful gelato place in Cortona, where there was a gathering of people from my program who also decided that it would be a good time for gelato, the perfect study snack.  I could not agree more. 

            Friday, everyone was cramming for our test that evening.  It seemed to take forever for this test to finally get here.  I started my day with a terrific run, and then in book making, even though we are still working on our final projects, we had to begin cleaning out the studio.  Finally, we took our test, and although I got severe writing cramps, I thought I was well prepared for it.  After dinner, and a celebratory gelato for being done with art history, some friends and I decided to make a fort in our large and spacious room using chairs, mattresses, bed sheets, and duct tape.  This may seem random, but we had actually been planning it for a while now.  It was the perfect space to watch a movie, which is what we did.  I would like to take note that in the past two days, I had somehow managed to trip and fall flat on my face twice (not even during my runs!), my first fall landing on my right knee, and my second fall landing on my left knee.  I now have two huge bruises on both knees.  Oh dear. 

Shabbat Shalom to everyone!  

Days 71, 72, 73 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

            On Monday morning, I thankfully had no dogs chasing me on my run.  In painting, we had our final critiques.  I had never been so nervous for mine, but it went amazingly well.  Everyone responded quite enthusiastically to my painting, agreeing that it was my best painting of the semester.  I was very proud of the positive reaction, but even more, I was proud of myself for once.  Usually, I am so critical of my own art, but I was really excited about my final painting.  Even before the critique happened, I decided to put this painting into the final show, which was quickly approaching.  I had to give it a title, so I called it “Verdure Blu” (Blue Vegetable).  The rest of the day was devoted to art history studying.

            Tuesday was our last day teaching in the elementary school in Cortona.  Even from only four days total of teaching, I have really grown attached to my third graders here, as crazy and wild as they can be.  They finished up their superhero comics and shared them with each other until the end of class.  We had a very dramatic good-bye filled with hugging over and over again, although we still have an art show for them next week, so hopefully they will all come.  Being able to interact with these kids has definitely been one of the best parts of Cortona.  That afternoon, I continued on my final project in book making, and later on continued with my lovely art history studying. 

            Wednesday morning, we had our Cortona program group portrait taken by a funny Italian photographer.  I was amused by it, because we were all sitting on the steps of Cortona’s main piazza waiting for him to come and prep us for the photo.  Well, he did come with his camera, but without any warning and without saying anything, he just started snapping photo after photo of us.  We finally started smiling when we realized what was happening, but I am interested to see what the first few photos that he took look like, when no one was aware of what was happening.  Immediately after our group portrait, my art ed class and I hopped into a van to go to Sodo, the elementary school down the mountain from Cortona, which we briefly visited the week before.  I was extremely nervous about this day of teaching here because I remembered from our visit how wild the class seemed.  I was not looking forward to spending several hours with scissors and glue sticks flying through the air (this is what I imagined).  The third graders at Sodo definitely proved me wrong.  The class of 22 worked amazingly well for almost two and half hours.  They had brilliant ideas for the superhero collage project, and were actually well-disciplined throughout the entire day.  I was also taken aback at how loving everyone one was.  Several students had given us drawings and notes upon our arrival (my favorite is a drawing of me in a purple dress sitting on a hammock between two pink cotton candy-like trees.  This student knows me too well).  Everyone was really excited about the project, their superheroes were so original.  Something that I was amused by was that all the kids were interested in how we spelled our names and what our signatures looked like.  The entire class ended up asking us for our autograph.  When it was time for lunch, all the third graders fought with who would be able to sit next to us.  They literally attached themselves to us, making it extremely difficult to walk to their cafeteria.  I was amazed at how lunch worked in this elementary school.  It is essentially just like our three-course dinner at Tonino’s in Cortona.  There are tables set up with nice ceramic plates, glasses, and silverware (no Styrofoam or paper or plastic).  The students are all very independent, pouring their own water from large water containers and cutting their own food.  The first course was a plain pasta, second course was a meat and spinach, and for dessert, everyone got fresh pineapple.  The whole school ate together, including all the teachers.  I found this to be such a nice way to eat lunch as a community.  I had a very fun table who bombarded me with questions the entire time.  Before we were served our second course, they seemed to be experts of all the foods that I liked, and told the lunch lady for me that I was a vegetarian and would not eat the meat, but would love the spinach.  Once again, we had a dramatic good-bye.  All the third graders hugged me over and over.  This was definitely the most fun teaching experience I had ever had.  The rest of the day was not nearly as fun.  I went on a run, and then we had our last art history lecture, ending with the enigmatic Mona Lisa.  Then at dinner, we found out that there was a ballet performace to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at the theater in Cortona.  We decided to get some culture and go see this, expecting a nice traditional ballet.  What we ended up seeing was definitely not your typical ballet.  It was the most modern of all dances, with Vivaldi juxtaposed with strange noises and sounds.  The dancers performed moves that I previously thought were not humanly possible, constantly defying gravity and rolling around on other people.  It was mesmerizing, and at some points rather creepy, to watch.  At one point one of the male dancers was dancing with just a projected image of another dancer, and it took me forever to decide whether or not she was real or just a projection of light.  Overall, the dance was extremely weird, but awesome.  

Days 68, 69, 70 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

            Friday was a nice change of pace from previous Fridays because I only had one class today, as opposed to my usual eight long hours of class.  As usual, my day started out with a run.  I decided to go farther than usual on one of my mountainside routes.  Before I was about to turn around, I noticed two dogs barking down the steep valley below me.  About a minute later, when I actually did turn around to go back the way I came, I realized the two dogs had some how made up onto the road and were coming straight toward me, barking angrily.  It is critical to take note that these two dogs were actually two extremely large, EXTREMELY ferocious, crazy dogs.  After one good look at their dangerously looking sharp teeth, I panicked and decided my only option was to rock climb up the mountain on my right side.  (My other options were to turn around with the dogs chasing me or fall down the steep valley on my left side).  I climbed a few tree limbs, but realized that trying to climb up the mountain would be a near-impossible feat.  I really had no idea what I was going to do; the dogs were pacing around right below me, barking louder and louder.  THANK GOODNESS that a few minutes later, two large vans drove by, which startled the dogs who ran back down the valley where they came from.  I took this opportunity to sprint away as fast as I possibly could.  I did not look back, and I never plan on returning to this spot, despite how beautiful it was.  After I arrived back to Cortona, thankfully in one piece, I made a delicious vegetable lunch and went to my one class of the day, book making, to get some work done on my final project.  It took me the full three hours of class to sew the twenty-one signatures of my book together.  A signature is one grouping of folding paper that forms the pages of the book.  I am very excited with the progress I am making…I cannot wait to see what the final product will look like!

            On Saturday, we went on our last field trip of the semester to Siena.  Siena is yet another beautiful old Italian town with a gorgeous cathedral and a museum containing a famous Duccio altarpiece painting that we studied in depth in art history class.  I took my time in the cathedral because every element of it was so ornate, from the mosaic floors to the sculptures and ceiling.  However, when I emerged outside, I could not find a single member from my program.  There were swarms of tourists, but none of them were familiar faces.  So, I decided to wander on my own to explore Siena.  It was nice to move through the town at my own pace.  Of course, because I was my own tour guide, I made sure to visit every fancy grocery store and fine food shop, because Siena was packed with these types of places.  These stores sold super luxury cheeses, wines, biscotti and other cookies, spices, honey, pasta sauces, and my favorite: beautiful pastas in all colors and shapes, including pastas that were striped candy colors.  Everything looked so beautiful and delicate.  I grabbed some pizza for lunch, and wandered up and down the streets of Siena all day.  There is a gigantic open piazza in the middle of town where horse races are held annually in the warmer seasons.  Apparently these are very big deal, because the piazza, which is probably the size of several track fields put together, is packed with people to watch the race.  At the end of the day, I was getting a little worried, because I had no idea how to get back to the area outside of town where the bus dropped us off and would pick us up again.  I was especially stressed, because I knew the bus would leave without me if I did not show up.  The streets of Siena twist and turn quite a bit, and I had very little sense of direction here, even with my map.  Luckily, just as I was making yet another circle, I ran into my group who I usually walk with (and who can read maps very well) and knew exactly where to go.  So, I am not still lost in Siena as I type this.  Phew.  When we arrived back in Cortona, we had a painting party all night, working on our final painting projects.  I am working on my super-large canvas, another painting of a juxtaposition of a figural pepper and my own hands, legs, and feet.  I love painting on such a big scale.  I can imagine myself painting on a huge wall, so big, that I would need a sliding ladder or something to reach the entire surface.  I went to sleep that night smelling strongly like turpentine and oil paint. 

            Sunday, like the week before, was another dreary day.  This was probably a good thing, because it forced me inside to study for art history all day.  By the afternoon, I was too antsy from being inside all day, so I went out into the drizzling weather for a walk.  Little did I know, that when I was about a mile away from Cortona, it starting violently ice raining on me, with ice pellets falling aggressively in every direction.  I sped home as fast as I could to get out of the treacherous weather.  I spent the rest of the day finishing up my final painting until dinner when Jeanette, my friend Chloe, and I went to out to another new restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant was in an extremely old 15^th century building that used to be a rich family’s mansion.  The restaurant was only part of the entire mansion, and we ate in this spooky, yet beautiful room in the basement, where the horses were kept.  There was another American couple eating there (we can seek out American couples with their north face jackets) who we talked to for a little bit, recommending to them places they should not miss.  Our food was wonderful!  I ate a triangular shaped ravioli stuffed with fresh spinach and was served with chicory, grape tomatoes, and a pine nut sauce.  It was incredible!  I was also interested in what Jeanette ordered: a mushroom, walnut, and apple risotto.  We also each ordered a side vegetable.  I decided on some grilled vegetables, which came in the most lovely rainbow format with red peppers next to yellow peppers next to green zucchini next to purple eggplant.  I almost did not want to eat the grilled vegetables, I enjoyed looking at it so much.  Before long, we had spent almost three hours in the restaurant; it was such a delicious evening. 

Days 65, 66, 67 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

            Tuesday was beautiful.  Unlike yesterday, I had a rain-free run.  We had a discussion day in art ed of various issues that arise in the art classroom.  I began my final project in bookmaking.  I actually changed my mind about illustrating the children’s story for my final project.  I am still going to do that, but not as my final project because I decided my final project should be completely by me.  Instead, I am going to make an obnoxiously fat book (fat because it has so many pages sewn in) inspired by the antique objects I have collected at the antique markets I have visited.  (I am making a fat book only because I like the overall aesthetic of a book overflowing with pages).  I am planning to collage the cover with pages and drawings from the antique children’s Latin school book in addition to the vintage photographs, which are also going to be integrated throughout the pages of the book.  The pages themselves are a sepia hue, which in itself appears antique.  The overall theme of my project is going to combine the concept of time and history with the idea of memory.  There is also an element of anonymity considering that I am using only artifacts of individuals who I do not know or have any relationship with.  There is still a lot of room to push this project in a slightly different direction, but I am quite excited at where it is headed.  After book making, I went on a wonderful walk before dinner.  Our fearless leader and program director, Rick, has returned to us from working on administrative stuff in the states for several weeks, so it was nice to have him back at dinner.  His 64^th birthday is coming up soon before we leave Cortona, and he is throwing a Beatles-theme party for everyone in the program on his birthday.  This is of course because of the song, “When I’m 64.”  Everyone has to dress up like a Beatles song.  I still am not sure about what song to be.  We have all be contemplating this since the day we arrived in Cortona when Rick forewarned us about this birthday event.  If anyone has any ideas of how I can dress up like Rocky Raccoon or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or any other song, please let me know as soon as possible!  I will gladly accept all suggestions. 

            Wednesday was another picture-perfect day.  It was particularly difficult to concentrate on homework.  I decided to bring my art history notes outside to study, but of course I was distracted by all the flowers, dandelions, passers-by, and cats roaming around.  In the afternoon, my art ed class went on a special excursion to visit the school we would be working with the following week during their day devoted to the arts.  I was picturing a school much bigger than the one in Cortona, but it was more or less the same size.  It was right down the mountain from Cortona, in the middle of a grove of olive trees.  The third graders, (the class I will be teaching) was in the middle of recess when we arrived, and they were the loudest, craziest children I have ever seen.  However, they were so excited to see us at their school.  When my co-teacher and I made it into their classroom with them, all twenty-two of them huddled around us asking us all sorts of questions.  I was proud that I recognized a few of the questions from my limited Italian vocabulary:  When is your birthday?  How old are you?  Do you have brothers or sisters?  What are your favorite colors?  How do you spell your name?  Do you like cake?  Do you know Lady Gaga?  Or Barak Obama?  Unlike our small class of twelve in Cortona, this class was mostly boys, which might have been the reason for the overall rambunctiousness of all the kids.  It was really fun to (attempt) to talk with them.  I wish we had more than one day of art making with them.  Their school was completely adorable and colorful.  I felt at home here.  Back in Cortona, I went on another walk (IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL) and then later on for art history, we had a scavenger hunt in the history museum in Cortona.  I had no idea how gigantic this museum was.  I had never explored it before.  I soon realized that a scavenger hunt was not a good way to properly explore the museum because everyone was racing to get done with the scavenger hunt first.  (The first group to finish would receive extra credit).  Each group had a list of things we had been studying in class to find and take a picture of.  Items on the list included a Franciscan and Dominican monk, a Madonna and Child, a sculpture in a contrapposto pose, a painting displaying linear and atmospheric perspective, a roman column…The competitive spirit was fun, but I want to go back to the museum when I have enough time to properly explore this amazing place.  When my friends and I all finished the scavenger hunt, we all treated ourselves to some well-deserved gelato.  (This time I had melon, strawberry, and yogurt together.  So delicious.)  It was definitely a perfect pre-dinner snack. 

            Thursday I went on another great run.  Each morning, I usually see the same people in the same places depending on my route for the day.  Even though I do not know their names, we all wave at each other; there is such friendly interaction between everyone in Cortona.  Before heading back up to the school building, I stocked up on my usual red peppers, pink lady apples, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli from the wonderful produce people.  It has been such a treat to be eating such fresh produce.  Everything is grown locally and the produce people (I still have to learn their names) are the kindest people I have met.  They are always amused that I come right after my run, panting, sweaty, and out of breath.  But as far as I know, they do not seem to mind.  I was quite proud in painting today, when my painting teacher, as kooky and crazy as she is, told me that my painting had grown a lot this semester.  I feel that my artwork has gotten stronger here in Cortona, and it is especially nice that my teacher noticed this.  Later on in the day, I went into town to study in a café, although I did more people-watching than actual art history studying.  Once again, a group of us got a pre-dinner treat of gelato…it is becoming quite a bad habit craving gelato at this time of day; I figure though that we only have a few more weeks left here, so we might as well make use of the wonderful gelato while we have it.  This time I had some mixed berry and lemon together, which was actually very refreshing.  The only problem was that it had gotten significantly colder, and we were all shivering on our way to dinner.  Luckily, we had soup (my favorite!) at dinner, so everything worked out in the end.  The one last significant moment of this particular Thursday was that in the middle of dinner, Rick, (our director) called me out on my running.  For some reason, all the teachers had just received a gigantic chocolate egg from an anonymous gift giver (maybe they were on sale because it was now post-Easter).  Rick apparently did not want his, because he stood up in the middle of our dining area, and announced that he was going to give his chocolate egg to the person who was able to run to the town down the mountain and back in the shortest possible time or any time at all.  And he proclaimed, “That person is Hannah!” and handed me his egg.  As many of you can imagine, my face was BRIGHT red.  

Days 63 and 64 (Sunday and Monday)

Sunday was quite dreary all day.  It rained non-stop from the time I woke up.  I am just glad that we had a rain-free day in Florence.  Even though I never actually left our building, I made myself be productive all day long.  I painted for hours and hours and I am excited about how my newest painting is turning out.  I am juxtaposing a pepper with my own limbs (legs and feet) in a fresh color palette and composition.  I especially like the juxtaposition because it truly makes one doubt whether or not the other form is in fact a vegetable at all.  After painting, I met with one of my friends who is writing a children’s book for her creative writing class.  We came up with the idea of doing a collaborative project, where I illustrate her story and make it into a book.  It is the first project idea that I am enthusiastic about for my final project, although it is completely different from anything I was considering before.  Her story personifies colors, kind of like the children’s book, “Little Blue and Little Yellow.”  I am not sure what medium well best suit this illustration endeavor, but I began sketching with markers and ink.  I am very curious to see where this project will go.  For the final hours before dinner, I literally hand-washed all my clothes.  I laid them on the heaters throughout my room and the rest of the entire upper story of our building to dry.  For dinner that evening, I went with my usual dinner group to explore a new restaurant.  We had one in mind that we pass each day; it had caught our eye with its beautiful pots of flowers all along the outside.  However, when we walked in, the owner turned us down.  I am pretty sure he said we could not eat there if we did not have a reservation because they were full.  However, the restaurant looked quite empty to me…regardless, we kept on walking and found another restaurant a little further on that was entirely adorable and quaint from top to bottom, complete with a stone fire place and very low wooden ceilings.  I was worried I was going to bump my head as we climbed the creaky staircase to eat on the balcony area.  I ordered the ribolita, which is an extremely hearty and thick vegetable soup.  It is so thick because it is filled with hunks of bread soaking in the soup.  It is actually known as “poor-man’s soup” because one can get such a filling meal with such simple ingredients.  We had one slight faux-pas at this restaurant.  As a couple sat down at the table next to us, we noticed that the woman had a ridiculously huge clip of fake hair on her head that looked completely obnoxious.  We were talking about how awful it looked until we realized the couple was speaking English to each other…so who knows how of our conversation they heard.  Oh well.  The servers here were particularly friendly and gave us a huge discount on our bill.  Yay for saving money!  Despite the rain, this was another delightful end to my week.   

            Even though it was still raining on Monday, I went on a fantastic rain before lunch.  In painting, I decided to make one more huge larger than life-size canvas for my last painting of the semester.  It was slightly sad taking my first gigantic painting off the stretcher bars, but hopefully another wonderful painting will come out in the process.  I am growing more and more wary at the thought of having to ship all the paintings home.  It is going to be the most tedious process ever…but I do not have to officially think about for another week or two.  Monday late afternoon, Jeanette and I explored as many shops as we could around Cortona because neither of us had been inside most of them.  Although Cortona was still extremely crowded because Monday is still considered Easter, we were still able to wander through the abundance of leather shops, jewelry stores, ceramic stores, shoe stores, and clothing boutiques.  The ceramic stores here are my favorite; ceramics are very popular in many parts of Italy, so these types of stores are very prevalent in all the towns we visit.  However, none of them were as quaint as the ones in Cortona.  I fell in love with the little bowls and teacups and salt and pepper shakers and honey jars…Jeanette and I were both frustrated by the large amount of American voices we heard, all tourists.  It is because we feel very possessive over Cortona now.  It is such a special place, and we do not want to share it with those that do not fully appreciate it.  Or at least, that is how I feel.  After also falling in love with several pairs of sandals, scarves, and delicious smelling perfumes, we made our way to dinner.  (We had spinach as our side course!  Yes!)  

Day 62 (SATURDAY!!!)

          On Saturday, my friends Jeanette, Charlotte, and I decided to go to Florence for the day.  We actually did not make this decision this very morning; we had been planning our mini-trip from the beginning of the week.  We had already purchased our bus and train tickets.  We had to take a bus from Cortona to the train station in Camucia.  From there, we would take the train to Florence.  Because we were slightly confused about the bus schedule, we missed our first train to Florence, which delayed our trip by an hour.  However, we eventually made it to Florence.  It felt so good to return to this beautiful and historically rich city.  It felt good to already be so familiar with it and how the city is laid out.  The day was perfect.  Our first stop was the famous Zecchi’s, the art store in Florence where two months ago, I spent a small fortune on art supplies.  Afterwards, I remembered there was an American book store (American meaning that the entire store was in English) a block away from the art store.  We spent a long time perusing through the shelves; it was refreshing to see so many English titles.  I decided to by a used book, because I can never have enough to read in Cortona.  As we were making our purchases, I noticed a flyer that read, “Mama’s Bakery.”  I asked the shopkeepers about it, and they urged us to go visit it.   It was a bakery that was across the river, and they had BAGELS!  We were all thrilled with this news, because we had not seen bagels in FOREVER!  I truly thought they did not exist in Italy.  We planned to eat lunch there later that afternoon.  Before that, however, we visited the San Marco Monastery, which is now a museum.  It was probably the coolest art historical thing I have seen since Michelangelo’s David.  San Marco was a Dominican monastery, and you can explore each of the numerous monks’ cells in the upper story where there is a fresco painted in each one by the artist (and monk member) Fra Angelica, a major Renaissance artist that we are studying in art history.  As you walked in each tiny room, you could see a beautiful fresco depicting some scene Jesus’ life.  During the times of the monastery, the monks would rotate rooms, and would stay in a room containing a fresco that was most appropriate to the circumstances of their life at that point in time.  Walking through the monastery, we realized you could definitely see similarities to the structure of our own monastery that we live in, although we have no frescoes on our walls, and much more spacious rooms.  It was such an interesting visit to see San Marco.  Afterwards, we explored the large markets of Florence, where vendors are selling all sorts of leather goods, from bags and jackets to journals and sandals.  We eventually made our way across the river and following our map, found a very deserted part of town where the bakery was supposed to be.  We were losing hope that we would never find it, when we turned a corner, and there it was!  Despite its remote location in Florence, this bakery far exceeded our expectations.  It was obvious that people knew about this place, because it was bustling with people eating.  In addition to its very cute interior decoration, I was so excited to see that not only did they serve bagels, they had all the essentials of an American coffee shop: muffins, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and American-style coffee.  I had never realized how much I missed all of this stuff (and I definitely was not thinking of how un-Passover friendly everything was…all chamutz!)  I had a delicious grilled vegetable and melted cheese sandwich on a sesame bagel.  So wonderful.  And I decided a muffin and a chocolate chip cookie to go would not hurt.  The owners (who were American) were so friendly.  I am ninety-nine percent sure they were Jewish because they had a collection of Jewish cookbooks all along the shelves of the bakery (and they looked Jewish).  There was actually one cookbook that I want to look for when I get home.  If anyone wants to do research on it for me, it is called “Secrets of a Jewish Baker” by George Greenstein.  It is a collection of bread recipes and explanations on them from around the world.  I realized I had not even mentioned what challah was to anyone since I had been here, so I gave a detailed explanation to Jeannette and Charlotte about challah and Shabbat in general, mostly because I missed that so much.  After our perfect lunch, we spent the later half of our afternoon shopping and exploring.  Florence was PACKED with people that day.  At some points it was slightly overwhelming with how many people there were.  Before our train ride home, we bought some gelato (of course I got a combination of mixed berry and mango flavors).  The only slightly nerve-wracking part of our day was when on the train ride home, one of the train conductors told us that we never validated our train tickets (we did not realize we had to do that) and the penalty for that is a large fine!  We were nervous as he starting writing out a ticket for us (kind of like a speeding ticket), but then because he probably assumed we were dumb Americans, only fined us five Euros each, as opposed to the monstrous fine.  PHEW!  When we got back to the train station, we caught the last bus back to Cortona and made our way back to the school.  The day was quite an adventure!  

Days 60 and 61 (Thursday and Friday)

            I cannot believe it is already April!  Yikes!  This morning I woke up to a note that was posted that stated that in honor of the upcoming holidays (not Passover, rather, Easter) the archbishop was coming to visit and bless our school.  Thus we were told to dress nicely, and if we happen to encounter the archbishop, to courtesy and kiss his ring and when speaking to him, use the title, “Your Eminence.”  I of course thought this was so exciting, so I made sure to actually shower when I got back from my run and pick out a nice outfit.  In painting, my teacher was excited too, because she had all our best work displayed nicely for when the archbishop was going to come see our studio.  Sadly, however, he never came.  Much to my and my painting teacher’s disappointment, the whole thing was an April Fool’s Day prank.  As many of you can imagine, it took me a long time to fully understand the fact that it was a prank.  I guess most people realized this right away, due to the tone of the note that was posted.  But of course, it took me the whole day with many people blatantly telling me it was a prank.  I am still slightly confused about it. 

            Friday was GORGEOUS!  I had a wonderful run, although class today was a struggle, because all anyone wanted to do was play and frolic outside.  In art ed, we are preparing for our additional art teaching day in a much larger elementary school outside of Cortona.  Although we still have one teaching day left in Cortona after the Easter festivities come to a close, after, we have a day planned to go down to the neighboring town of Camucia where the school has a full day devoted to the arts.  The art ed class is going to be driven there for a few hours to teach an art project and eat lunch with everyone after.  Although this is not for a couple weeks, we are planning now to get ready.  In book making, we actually went back to paper making temporarily and did a paper making project using abaca with the visiting professor, Zena (the woman who grows her own garden of fibers and dyes).  Abaca is a fun fiber to work with because as the paper dries, the fibers shrink, thus pulling and stretching the sheet of paper in various directions creating a rippling, sculptural effect.  It takes a few days for the abaca to fully dry, so I have yet to see the ending result of the sheets I made.  Later that night after dinner (where I by accidentally sat at the Italian table and had to make use of my extremely limited vocabulary, which was more or less the word gratzie) there was a  GIGANTIC procession throughout all of Cortona for the holiday of Good Friday.  This is a very important event for everyone here.  People come from all over to participate or watch.  It was very much worth the long wait in the cold we had to endure before it started.  The procession consisted of huge groups of monks, each group in their respective robes and hoods, carrying a huge, much larger than life statue on a big pedestal.  There was a large number of these groups processing by, each carrying a different statue.  As the statues went by, I realized that they were illustrating the story of Jesus.  The entire effect was extremely eerie because the monks were all hooded in a Ku Klux Klan-like fashion, even though the two groups are not at all related.  The statues they carried together loomed above everyone in a ghost-like way.  All sorts of prayers were being chanted.  In the middle of the procession, an actual archbishop marched through (no April Fool’s prank!)  At the end of the procession, a group of hooded nuns carried the large statue of the mourning Mary, and following them there was a marching band playing various funeral tunes.  I was in complete awe of how the entire community came together for this major holiday and city-wide procession.  (I was also amazed at how the monks carried these 10-foot tall statues and even larger crosses up and down the steep hills of Cortona.  They must have some major upper-arm strength and incredible balance).  Every single member of Cortona, from the very young infants, to the very oldest people were there, either in the procession itself, or watching it go by.  Anyone had the option of joining in and processing with all the monks and nuns and everyone.  This was a time where I realized that it was a very special moment to be here in Italy; I could never imagine anything like this happening at home.  

Days 57, 58, 59 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

            Monday before we could do anything, we had to double check the bus and train schedule for Elli and Lauren’s journey onward to Florence.  To get to the travel office in Cortona, you have to go through this glass-tube door.  It reminds me of the cylindrical tubes that money comes out of at drive-through banks, except it was (of course) human scale, complete with blinking lights and colorful buttons as one side facing the outside opened and closed, you stepped in, and then the other side opened for you to step into the office.  The actual travel office experience was not anything remarkable…but that glass tube door was beyond thrilling.  Because my favorite produce people are closed on Sundays, I was extremely eager to take Elli and Lauren to one of my fruit and vegetable market, which very well may be one of my favorite locations in town.  When the date for our art exhibition comes closer, I plan on inviting the produce people to come.  I believe I should learn their names; that will be my task for this week.  After buying some delightful produce, I took Elli and Lauren to our grocery store in town, Mollesini’s, where they can make you incredibly delicious and cheap sandwiches to go (remember that amazing sandwich I had a few days ago…)  Now fully stocked with food, we went on another beautiful walk along the mountain before they had to head down to the train station.  It was beyond wonderful to have Elli here…and in just a month we will be reunited again in Paris! 

            After Elli and Lauren took off on the bus, my Monday resumed to its usual activities.  I had painting, where in my critique, both my class and my teacher loved my pepper with the bold background stripes.  I plan to apply this concept of the push and pull of the flat brush strokes with the gestural brush strokes in future paintings.  That night at dinner, I was slightly homesick because it is the first night of Passover, and I was missing all the seders going on at home.  It was the first time I wished that I could zoom home for a seder and then come right back to Cortona.  As for keeping Passover in Cortona, I will not be as strict as I usually am, only due to the lack of Passover foods available here.  I am collecting ingredients to make my own charoset, although I have not made it yet.  I only wish there was some way I could have some fried matzah…That evening, we had a mandatory meeting the mapped out the schedule of our LAST month in Cortona.  We discussed logistics of our upcoming art show in town and then the processes of shipping home artwork, which I quickly learned is going to be a very tedious process, especially because I have such large paintings.  Either way, everyone is in shock that we are leaving our beloved town in only four weeks to travel on to Venice before the program ends.  I am trying not to think about that.

            Tuesday and Wednesday both started out with fantastic runs.  The weather has been perfect.  Tuesday was filled with class: art ed and book making.  I have to start thinking about my final project in book making, and I still have no idea what I want to do yet.  I have been focused so far on making books look perfect; I have not at all been thinking about applying meaning to them, to give them more significance than just being a precious object.   If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.  Tuesday night at dinner, another Jewish girl on my program, Julie, and I had a brief seder at our table.  We recited the four questions, and explained the significance and story of Passover to the people at our table.  We recited the plagues with our drops of wine, sang Dayeinu, and even saved a cup of wine for Elisah.  Although it was brief and lacked any matzah, it was just what I needed to have some Passover here in Cortona.  That night after dinner, we had our final faculty presentations; this time they were given by Tricia, the English professor, and a woman named Zena, who is a visiting artist who specializes in paper making.  I was fascinated with Zena’s presentation because she has her own beautiful luscious gardens where she grows her own fibers, flowers, and plants to make her own fibers to make paper and dyes.  She brought some examples of the paper she makes, and they smelled so good because they were made of flowers.  She made me want to stop everything I was doing a plant a huge flower garden.

            Wednesday, I was as productive as possible until art history that evening.  Dinner was especially exciting that night because, I had happened to forget to bring my vegetarian card that tells the servors to not give me the meat option.  However, the meat option that night was actually salmon!  Yay!  I had not had salmon since I had been in Italy, so it was especially delicious.  To everyone celebrating Passover, I hope it is joyous and exciting.