These Boots Were Made For Walking

Well, I made it through the first week of classes and had a wonderful weekend.  My Art History class is so enjoyable, especially since we get to see so much of the art we're studying firsthand.  It's a whole new experience.  But, by far, my favorite class is Italian.  My teacher is the most adorable Italian woman who does not speak much english and teaches us by doing fun things in class, such as writing our own personal ads and listening to italian music.  It is so much fun, and I feel like I'm learning so much as well.  I try to practice my Italian whenever I go out, at least a little bit.  The other fun thing about our school is that it is right next to the amphitheater where Florence held their games (yes, I'm talking gladiators) back in the day.  Apparently, the basement of the building we have school in was used to house the beasts used in the arena, as well as the gladiators.  Fun bit of history!

Outside of school we have just been enjoying the beautiful city of Firenze.  There is so much to do here and I want to experience all of it.  On Friday we went to Fiesole, a small town up on a hill outside of Florence that has a beautiful view of the city.  The town was built by Etruscans and then taken over by the Romans so there is a lot of beautiful architecture.  We got to tour the remains of a theater, and the Roman baths, which was very interesting.

The view from Fiesole (a bit cloudy so it's somewhat hard to see)

Remains of the Roman baths at Fiesole

I also had the pleasure of attending a traditional Italian Mass at the Duomo, the large church with a huge dome that can be seen in any picture of Florence.  The building itself is breathtaking.  The outside is so intricate, but the magnificence is truly shown when you enter and look up a the inside of the dome.  There is a gorgeous fresco done by Vasari that is so detailed, I could stare at it for hours and still not see everything.  Mass was extremely beautiful.  Of course, I did not always know what was going on, having grown up in the Christian tradition and not Catholic, and also not knowing Italian very well.  However, the few words I could pick up, to understand the gist of what was going on, and the power of such a long standing tradition was so beautiful.  I hope to attend more services at different churches, as well as some in English, so I'll understand a little more.

By far, the best part of my weekend was last night.  We all got to go to the Fiorentina soccer game (the Florence team)! It was such an incredible experience.  It was not like american games where there are replays on a big screen or mascots running around doing silly things, but there was nothing boring about it.  There was a group of Italian guys in front of us with matching shirts who were probably singing during about 90 percent of the game.  Instead of regular cheers like we have in the states, they have full songs that everyone knows.  One person starts and EVERYONE follows, it's incredible.  We did witness a bit of a standoff when the other team scored a goal and their fans, few though they were, offended our fans.  As I wrote to my brother in an email, I felt like I was in the middle of the movie Green Street Hooligans.  Soccer is a whole other world over here, and it is extremely exciting!  Sadly, we did lose the game, but the experience was one that I will never forget.

Some of the girls from the trip and the Italian boys in front of us who sang the whole game!

The fight between our fans and theirs (check out all the security)

Having fun at the game! Their color is purple, I was one happy girl!

We walk EVERYWHERE here! I am not against walking in any way, I like to think that I walk a substantial amount when I'm home.  I probably walk even more when I'm at school because I haven't had a car for the past two years.  However, nothing compares to how much we walk here! Not only do we walk everywhere, almost all of our apartments are flights and flights of stairs up so we are getting quite the workout.  At first, it was very hard; my legs just weren't used to all the walking.  Now, I'm getting a lot more used to it and I absolutely love it.  There's so much to see here, and I would miss so much of it if I weren't walking everywhere.  But, I'm probably going to come home with the legs of a body builder.

My beautiful, new Italian boots :)

"These boots were made for walking, and that's just what they'll do.  One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you." Nancy Sinatra