7/10 Volume 1, Issue 1

September 14 – September 16, 2001 

My first weekend of real traveling, away from the entire rest of the house.  Our traveling was limited solely to the city of Florence this weekend because of the tragedies in America.  It isn’t safe to be too far from the villa at the present time.  But that is more than fine.  Pepperdine has agreed to reimburse us for a museum a day, so my roommates Laura and Robin, Laura’s sorority sister Brianne, and myself, picked good ones.  Well, good is relative, let’s just say the expensive ones…might as well see the finest of antiquity on Pepperdine’s dime.  On Friday (yes, we get every Friday off), we decided to hike down to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.  This excursion was about a 45 minute walk away, across the Arno River by way of the Ponte Vecchio bridge (picture coming soon!).  When we got there, it started to pour rain, and who really wants to see a garden in a torrential downpour?  We walked home by way of expensive stores and tried on leather and fur jackets that cost more than some third world nations earn in a year (picture coming soon!). 

That night, we went to a restaurant called the Red Door.  Well, let me clarify.  The restaurant is actually called Ristorante Blah Blah Blah, but no one from the school ever remembers the name, and the place has a red door, so…you get it.  Guess what I had to eat?   The same thing we’ve eaten for a week straight, pasta, salad, and bread.  We couldn’t afford the second course, which we get at the villa.  Sometimes getting a few liters of wine is more important than including protein in the diet.  I find it so humorous that some people with whom I’m traveling have decided that alcohol and leather are more important than food.  Boggles the mind.  After that, we went to an Irish pub…nothing notable…after fighting off the roving hands of many Italian men.  I actually find that I’m getting used to their stares and catcalls, but the men here are the biggest problem next to the thieves.  (picture coming soon!)

Fast forward to Sunday, because Saturday was just spent sleeping off Friday night and wandering around the city.  On Sunday, we decided once again to walk to the Palace and Gardens.   I decided I wasn’t going to dress up like I had on Friday, in case of inclement weather conditions.  So there I am, with my tank top, jeans, New Balance shoes and ponytail, looking SO obviously American.  Mind you, I seldom have a desire to blend in while at home in California, except at work when I have no choice.  For those of you who don’t know me very well (you will), when I’m not meandering through the palaces of Italy, I have my very own castle at home.  I work at the Disneyland Resort in California, as a Tour Guide.  My costume at work was designed by Walt and Lillian Disney, and Lord knows what they were thinking, because I have a feeling that red plaid hasn’t been that fashionable since the 1940’s.  My ensemble, designed for a polo match…so they say… features a red plaid skirt (the pattern is Royal Stuart, for those who were wondering), a white highcollar shirt, red vest, red jacket with a blue velvet collar, red knee highs, a riding hat, and a crop.  I’m sure if you bribed Sean, he would love to put a picture on the site.  At any rate, I have gotten way off the path.  I don’t blend in that well at home, so I sure as hell don’t want to blend in here.  If I feel like wearing tight black pants, leather, or shoes that would make me very much eligible for the NBA, I will, but not because I’m feeling a need for haute couture (high fashion).

Boboli Gardens was amazingly beautiful.  (picture coming soon!)  Well, the parts that I could see, anyway.  As I was rock climbing to the peak of the area, a British gentleman, who was obviously NOT sporting his practical New Balance shoes, slipped and planted his elbow into my left eye.  I now am the proud owner of a welt the size of a grape.  However, I’m very familiar with the diversity of Advil, so this is one of the times it will be useful.  I’ve taken at least 6 so far, so if the Split seems more like an acid trip than a European one, you have my humblest apologies.

I had my brilliant point of the weekend after several Advil…go figure.  I realized I hate cobblestones.  We were walking home from the Gardens, walking is nothing new for me here.  I’m looking at the ground in the hopes of not hitting my face with anything else, and because it fascinates me greatly how much the cobblestones change from area to area and city to city.  What kills me is how a nation like Italy that has to be so up to the minute with everything else (except, as noted earlier, the design of a functional restroom), has decided to keep cobblestones here…everywhere!  In my opinion, the David and other pieces of artistic magnificence would look just as nice if they were surrounded by a healthy dose of cement, or blacktop, or paved smoothly in some manner.  Just a thought…

My last crisis of the weekend involves our upcoming trip to Sicily.  We leave Tuesday and I have 3 pairs of clean underwear for 5 days.  As a political science major, I realize that we have a major problem here.  The laundry machine takes these tokens called gettone, but we don’t have any more in the house.  I’m not certain what I’m going to do.  I have to find gettone, get the laundry machine and time, pack for Sicily, go to Mass, attend 3 classes, and of course, take a long nap.  I know it will all work out, I’m just not sure how.

So with all this to do, I’d better get a move on.  I’ll have more adventures to report after a week in Sicily.  I’m hoping to meet a member of the Mafia, but the bruised eye and the lack of clean underwear make it a challenge. 

 Until next weekend, C’e’ un posto libero stasera??? Arrivederci!