Florence, Part 3

I have to admit that I slightly exaggerated our experiences in the past week when I wrapped up my previous blog post. The most accurate (and interesting) thing that I described was actually the counterfeit 20 Euro bill, which was also, unless I am presuming too much, the most intriguing thing I described. But, for the sake of your understanding, dear reader, and unfortunately at the loss of your interest, I will continue in chronological order. And of course, for those of you whose interest was most piqued by the massive sandwiches, pre-Colombian map and Medieval Manhattan, you will get a decent (if not detailed) account of those adventures as well. 

Actually, after reviewing my pictures on my iPod (the only way I can keep track of the days and what we did on them is by looking at my photo album, which thankfully records on which days photos were taken) I realize that the next interesting event which occurred was the Medieval Manhattan. So, we shall commence with that! Onwards, dear readers! 

Medieval Manhattan

The official name of said Medieval Manhattan is San Gimignano, and it is a little Tuscan town about an hour and a half away from Florence that is known for, as you may have guessed, its skyscrapers. Or at least towers, they don't nearly reach the height and grandeur of the real Manhattan's skyscrapers. But let's call them skyscrapers, just because it is far more interesting. These skyscrapers were built by the wealthy families of San Gimignano as displays of wealth and power, similar to the Medici and their sponsorship of great artists here in Florence. At one point there were over 70 of them; currently there are 13. It was quite a quaint town, with a beautiful church, gorgeous views of the Tuscan countryside, and extremely medieval piazzas, cobblestone alleys, and houses. It was of course nothing like Florence, as its height was in the medieval period as opposed to the Renaissance. That being said, it was extremely beautiful in entirely different ways. We ended up spending a large portion of our time in its cathedral, which had two frescoed walls, one telling stories of the New Testament and the other of the Old Testament. We also headed up onto the old wall of the city, and got an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. And of course one cannot forget the gelato, which has in recent weeks become a staple of our diets. Another exciting monument there (which we unfortunately did not see the inside of) was a room that was supposedly used by the famed Dante Alighieri, writer of The Divine Comedy. We did, however, eat lunch directly outside of it, which I thought spectacular. We also, after completing our visit of San Gimignano, headed to the neighboring town of Volterra, the former home of the Medici family. Although it was not our intended destination, we did enjoy seeing an ancient Roman theater and a state prison which was formerly the Medici family's palace. 

Skyscrapers!!!

That room with the balcony was supposedly stayed in by Dante!

Gorgeous Tuscan countryside!

I really am panocrazy. ;)

The Roman theater. As you can see there are two levels, but that used to be three. The first would have mortal characters, the second heroes, and the third gods.

The Medici palace which is now a prison.

A Flat, Upside Down World Which Lacks the Americas (aka pre-Colombian map)

This is perhaps the least interesting of my descriptions intended to entice you at the end of my last post, dear readers. Please, bear with me, as the spectacular story of the counterfeit 20 is near. The pre-Colombian map was seen in the Museo Galileo, and was far more interesting in person than it will be in my (or any one else's) description of it. But again, I beg you to bear with me. I, personally, am fascinated by old, and specifically inaccurate, maps. Is it not funny to see something as mundane as a map so incredibly wrong? In a world where I can simply pull out a phone and open up the GPS app or Google Maps and find anything from a photo of my own house to a diagram of the entire planet with a few absentminded taps and swipes, it's hard to imagine any map being inaccurate. I find it particularly hilarious when I come across a map where California is displayed as an island (and there were a lot of those). Lots of times mapmakers would have no real idea of what a certain part of the world looked like, so I've seen my share of maps where anything north of Québec was only vaguely outlined, barely suggesting land of some sort, or covered up with a plaque or sea monsters. Not to mention all the maps and globes with weirdly distorted and barely recognizable land forms. On our trip so far, the only continent that was accurately drawn on any of the old maps I've seen was Western Europe. It is also fascinating to wonder how they became so inaccurate. Anyway, this was the oldest map that I've seen so far. It was pre-Colombian, which I found interesting because one wouldn't think twice if they walked by a flat map, but people actually thought the world was flat back then. It also had north in the direction that is usually south, so the whole thing looked upside down despite its text being right side up. Africa and Asia were also weirdly distorted, the only recognizable features being around Western Europe and the Mediterranean. One could only tell what everything else was by the labels. And finally, to top it all off, this "world map" was missing the Americas, as Europeans hadn't "discovered" them yet. It was overall very interesting and we had a lot of fun with it. I might add that at that same museum we also saw three of Galileo's fingers and his tooth. Whether or not they were legitimate is beyond me, but it sure was disgusting! 

Not exactly what you think of when you imagine the world in your mind's eye.

And there you have your upside down map of the Mediterranean! Can you make out Italy and Spain?

Umm… not exactly the most accurate portrayal of Africa.

The Counterfeit 20 / Sandwiches The Size of My Head

I presume, dear readers, that you recall the Mercato Centrale, which appeared in my previous two posts. Little did we know that it would become the site of an extremely exciting event in the story of our stay here in Florence. 

On the eventful morning of March 23 my mom went grocery shopping at the Mercato Centrale while the rest of us did work at home. When she came back she told us that the woman at the produce stand was really nice, helping my mom pack her bag, giving her advice against people who might cheat her, and even giving her a free lemon. The woman had been particularly thankful when she accidentally gave my mom two 20 Euro bills' worth in change instead of a 20 and a 10 and my mom swiftly returned one of the bills and got the right amount. Immediately, my brother Nicholas said, "She was probably lying to you. I'll bet she was trying to cheat you, that's why she was like, 'Be careful of people trying to cheat you because you're a foreigner!' Then if she cheated you, you wouldn't suspect anything." 

All of us thought that Nick had a valid point, but none of us could come up with a way that she could've gained something from that interaction—the receipt was legitimate, my mom had paid the right amount, and nothing was missing from the grocery bag—so we dismissed it. Little did we know, it was a legitimate concern. Later that day we got massive sandwiches for lunch (they were like Subway style, where you chose what you wanted in your sandwich, except it was a MILLION times better than Subway). But we had barely paid and walked out the door when the guy from the shop ran after us, waving a 20 Euro bill in the air. We turned around and he told us that we had paid with a fake. We were really surprised, but of course we took it back and gave him a legitimate twenty instead. We had a long time to ponder over where we had picked up the fake (I'm telling you, those sandwiches were massive) and eventually my mom came to the conclusion that she had gotten it at the Mercato Centrale that morning. After all, we knew that we had gotten it earlier that day and the only other place where we had bought anything was the market. Eventually, after a lot of recalling on my mom's part, we realized that the only place that my mom had spent enough to get a 20 Euro bill in change was... THE PRODUCE STAND. 

That nice lady who had been so helpful and so concerned about my mom not getting cheated was a cheat herself. Just as my brother predicted. He, of course, got a pretty big head about it, although rightfully so. He kept going on about how he had always known that she was being too nice not to be a liar, and the rest of us laughed and shook our heads and told him, Nicholas, you were right. The rest of us were wrong and you were right. Unfortunately, it was already too late to go back to the market (it closes at two every afternoon) so we ended up just going on with our day. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Boboli Gardens, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we kind of started late so we didn't get to stay there for very long, but we definitely enjoyed it. 

The next day, the first thing we did in the morning was go to the Mercato Centrale. We decided that we should all go as a family to support my mom, who was going to do most of the talking because she was the one who bought the groceries the day before. We also decided that if they weren't going to be nice about it, my dad would take pictures of the store front and my mom would threaten to give them a bad review on Trip Advisor. Armed with our threats and a thorough game plan, we marched into the Mercato Centrale and made our way towards the produce stand. My mom was nervous (and I can't blame her) but when we got there the woman from the previous day wasn't there! We ended up talking to this other man who my mom hadn't talked to, but who was also there when we got the counterfeit. We explained the problem, he examined the bill, and immediately he said, "No problem!" He then opened up the cash register, grabbed a real bill, took the counterfeit from my mom, gave her the real one, and put the counterfeit back into the cash register. "All done!" 

We were really happy that he didn't put up a fight, so we thanked him and walked away. But as we rounded the corner, the Mercato Centrale no longer in sight, my dad said, "That was easy. Almost too easy." We all thought about it for a while, and then we realized that he was right; it was too easy. He had given us the right one pretty much immediately. And then I realized something else. 

"He put the fake back inside the cash register."

Everyone stopped. He had put the fake back inside the cash register.... What would he need that for? To give it to someone else. We all groaned. My mom had never had both bills in her hand at the same time; he had taken the fake, and then given her the real one. There wasn't really anything we could have done about it. After a quick discussion, we decided to walk in with our heads held high and ask him to destroy the fake. We were all kind of nervous, my mom in particular, but we went back to the produce stand. The guy looked really surprised, but he walked up to us. My mom said, "We just wanted to make sure that we destroyed the bill. Ripped it up." 

The guy looked confused for a second, but then he said, "Oh! Already done!"

We were surprised. "Really?"

"Yes! Tore it up and threw it away!" He made a motion of dusting off his hands. Then he started pushing us out of the way, moving forward so that my mom and dad moved back, until finally we were nowhere near the produce stand. Then he walked up to another customer, completely ignoring us. 

I have to admit, we were slightly dumbfounded. There really wasn't anything else we could do. The guy was a liar and a cheat, even more so than the woman the day before because she evidently felt guilty while he seemed to have no qualms about what he was doing. My dad stepped up to the wastepaper basket next to the cash register and shook his head. No sign of the counterfeit. We all stood there for a while, staring him down (the guy was very obviously trying to ignore us) and then we walked away. So the whole thing is going on Trip Advisor after all. 

The one thing that did get out of it (other than a real bill) was a great story. We made sure to take pictures of both the fake and a real bill next to each other, in order to compare, and my brother wrote a great blog post about all the detective work he did (it went beyond identifying the woman as a liar; if you'd like to hear his version of the story, which is much more interesting and Sherlock Holmes-y, check out his blog at nicksawesomeadventures.blogspot.com). I, as you may remember from my last post, wrote my first ever play about it. It's still a work in progress, and I'm not the most proud of it ever, but if you'd like to see it comment or email me and I'll send it to you.

Can you tell which one's legit? Comment if you think you know! I'll have your answers for you in my next post. ;)

Other Stuff That Happened

The next day we went to the Borgello Museum, which houses Donatello's David (not as famous as Michelangelo's, unfortunately--poor Donatello) and we got to see lots of amazing Renaissance art--and some not-so-amazing Medieval art. ;D That was a lot of fun. On Friday we also went to the Palazzo Vecchio for the first time, which was fun because we got to take the "secret  passages tour," in which we got to see all the secret rooms and back passages used by the ruling Medici family when trying to avoid the riff raff--or even each other. There were a lot of false doors, paintings that were really cabinets, cabinets that were really doors, and, of course, secret passages. Very cool. 

The Borgello Museum

An old Florin from the height of Florence.

A secret study room thing 

That "cabinet" is a door… and the paintings beside it are cabinets!

Attic of the Palazzo Vecchio

The Palazzo Vecchio was the political center of the city.

Everything Revolves Around Nicholas

He did, of course, deserve it. It was his birthday, after all. Double digits! He seemed very excited about that. :D Anyway, Nicholas is a homebody. He will do anything to be able to stay home and play Legos for the weekend, particularly nowadays because we're out doing stuff so often. Sometimes he will spend the entire weekend without getting out of his pajamas once. So what did he want to do to celebrate his birthday? Stay at home.

To give you an idea of what that looked like, I'm going to tell you about Man Cave Weekend. Last year at the beginning of the summer my mom and I went on a three day trip with my Girl Scouts troop to Lake Tahoe. Of course, my dad and brother were slightly disappointed that they weren't  going as well, and so to make up for it they had Man Cave Weekend, in which they watched three movies in a row in one day, went to another movie at the theater, and played video games for hours on end. It was hardcore. They only ever went out to go to movies and play footbball, and that was only for a few hours. Anyway, my brother wanted to do something like that. Originally we were going to celebrate on his actual birthday, which was Saturday, but he ended up having a baseball game that day and it didn't work out. So it ended up becoming Man Cave Thursday. We got up in the morning, ate pastries for breakfast, played the football video game Madden Mobile, watched a basketball game, went out for pizza, bought my brother a Lego, went home and finished the basketball game, went to his baseball practice, and then watched a 2012 Giants baseball game during dinner. It was Nicholas's ideal day. Unfortunately, not all of the stuff that he wanted to accomplish got done, and Friday we were busy with our tour at the Palazzo Vecchio, so on Saturday we had to finish out fun stuff. We did actually watch a movie Friday night (X-Men Days of Future Past--it was very good) which was another thing on his list for Mancave Thursday through Saturday. Nick also had a game on Saturday (remember that was the actual day of his birthday) so in the morning we went shopping for some stuff that we needed, had lunch with the family of one of Nick's new friends from his baseball team, went to a four hour baseball game with them, went shopping again, and then went out to the Mexican place for dinner. Thus we completed Nicholas's birthday wishes! On Sunday he also had a game (this one was a real game--the previous one was pretty much just practice, where he played against his own team) so we got up REALLY early in the morning to get to that. We had been rising at about 9 every single other morning, so already getting up at 7:30 for an 8:30 game was going to be a struggle. But then we realized that it was the end of daylight savings time, so we basically had to get up at 6:30 in the morning! It was pretty brutal for us, even though it would have been no problem had we been at home. Anyway, the game took up the greater part of our day. Overall it was a pretty hectic weekend. 

Looking back at the beginning of this post, I realize that I started off in a very different author's persona than I ended in. Hope you enjoyed it. ;D And today we're going to see "Naked David," so I'm sure I'll have lots of great stories and photos to share for my next post! 

Florence, Part 2

All right, so where did I leave off? Right, green saint at Lucca. The next day (Sunday) my parents and Pat and Shirley headed out to go on a wine tasting tour. My brother and I, who would of course have been very bored on such a venture, opted out. (Although half the time when we go out to dinner here they offer me a wine glass--there isn't really a legal drinking age here in Italy because irresponsible drinking and alcholism aren't such a problem. Well, technically you're supposed to be 18, but that's pretty much disregarded, and from what my uncle says, without much consequence. You never know, maybe instead of the rules being lax because people are responsible with their underage drinking, it's the other way around: people are responsible with underage drinking because the rules are so lax. Just another perspective.) Anyway, that gave me and my brother pretty much an entire day to stay at home and do whatever. Of course, my parents assigned us some homework first, but after getting that done we got to watch not one, but two movies: Mockingjay and Ferris Bieuller's Day Off. (I know, quite a contrast, but after watching that heavy, violent, emotional, and highly political stuff, I kind of wanted some comic relief.) We pretty much stayed in all day long and then went out to dinner with the adults once they got back.

The next day (Monday--it's near impossible to keep track of the days) we decided to go to the Mercato Centrale, which I'm 99.99% sure means Central Market. (I don't say 100% because I didn't actually look it up on Google Translate or a dictionary or anything like that, I just used my knowledge of Spanish to figure it out. I am pretty darn certain that I got it right, though.) The Mercato Centrale is a short walk away from our apartment, so after a late start in the morning we headed over there just to take a look around. Just so you know, the Mercato Centrale is the market that I described going to in my last post that I said was something like La Boqueria in Barcelona. After walking around a bit we discovered that it had a second floor which was entirely made up of restaurants, all of which smelled DELICIOUS. That took care of lunch. We ended up going up to third floor and eating up there, which was really fun because we got a view of both the floor directly below us with all the other restaurants and the main floor beneath that with the markets. Unfortunately, my brother wasn't feeling well again, so he and my mom headed home while the rest of us went to the Museo Nove Cento, or Museum of the 1900s. (Those of you who are familiar with Romance languages will probably notice that "nove cento" actually translates directly to 900s, not 1900s. This is because as far as we can tell, in Italian when talking about a particular century one mentions solely the century and not the millenium in which it took place. Kind of, I suppose, like how we say the '60s or '70s. We're not entirely sure of this, but we noticed it both here and in Venice with its Museo Settecento.) Anyway, that felt like quite the antidote to the so-so and not at ALL contemporary art of the Lu.C.C.A. museum. I enjoyed the Nove Cento a lot. Eventually we made our way home, only to find that my mom and brother weren't there. We had known that they were going to go across the city to try to get my brother on a baseball team, but we had assumed that they were going to get back before we did. We ended up waiting for a few hours before they returned bearing the news that Nick would be able to play the next day and talk to the president of the team to see if he could stay. Who knew that Florence, Italy had a peewee baseball league? Eventually we headed out for a late dinner and thus ended the one and only Monday, March 16, 2015. 

Pretty fun lunch experience.

The next day was Pat and Shirley's last day with us in Florence! We stayed home for most of the morning and then went out for lunch, after which we all just went home again and they packed up and left. Fortunately it wasn't such a sad parting because although it was their last day in Florence we were going to see them the next day! Which was going to be a pretty once in a lifetime opportunity, I might add. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing pretty much nothing, and then we all got into the car and started driving to the baseball field for my brother's practice. We ended up being really early (oh well) but we all stuck around to see my brother start off. He was definitely happy to be playing baseball again, that's for sure. After a little while I headed off with my dad to go running (I'm missing track season this year, so I'm being sure to run as often as possible so as not to fall behind for next year, when I intend to kick butt and win another first place in the 100m dash, not to mention long jump), and then we headed back early to see my brother play some more. We were not disappointed. The coaches were having them do some sort of batting practice in which they pitched to them underhand from the side and the kids would try to hit the ball, and my brother was almost batting 1000! Almost. He was probably hitting at least 80% of the pitches, if not more. Eventually when practice ended (half an hour late, I might add) Nick told us that after he finished batting, one of the kids who spoke fluent English came up to him and said, "You're going to bring us to the championships!" I think that totally made Nick's day. ;-) 

Nicky at baseball practice!

All right, and now comes the day that you've all been waiting for.... drumroll please... the once in a lifetime opportunity... the day where... WE SAW THE POPE!!!! *echo* *echo* *echo* 

First of all, I should say that I'm not actually Catholic. I mean, my paternal grandfather was. In fact he was in seminary school before he decided to become a doctor. No one really knows why (except my grandmother) but he left school and the Church in his 20s, long before my father was born. We think it's because he didn't like the Church's racism. And my mom was Catholic, too. Just long enough to have her Confirmation, in fact, although I don't know how much good it did since she left right afterwards. She was the same age as I am now, give or take a year. But as you can see, aside from celebrating Christmas every year, the religion kind of died out in my family before it could reach me. I don't think there really is an exact word to define my beliefs on religion, although I guess the closest word would be agnostic: I don't identify myself with any particular religion, but I'm also not an atheist; that is, I believe completely in science as an explanation for our existance, but I also feel that there is something more to the human consciousness. This may be explainable in some way, or it may not, and religion may have nothing to do with any of it. I suppose it is a belief less in the possibility of some version of God and more in the complexity of the human spirit, if that makes any sense. Anyway, the main point is that I'm far from being Catholic. But still, I gotta say, Pope Francis is one respectable person. I don't even have to be Catholic to appreciate that. And although I still disagree with many of the Catholic Church's viewpoints, he is definitely taking monumental steps that have never been taken by the Church before. Of course, some of them aren't going as far as I feel that they should go in the future, but it's a start, and a good one at that. Anyway, I was pretty excited to see him speak. 

That morning we got up really early, like 6 in the morning. Which never would have been a problem had we been back home, but which was a MAJOR jam in the gears of our getting out of the house that morning. (That was a really bad metaphor, sorry.) Our parents woke us up and turned the lights on, and my brother had his "tired angry face" on, which is basically the biggest scowl you could possibly imagine. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, "I don't wanna see the Pope! I want to go back to bed!" and then he shoved his face into his pillow. It was not an auspicious start. 

It took about three or four tries to get Nick out of bed, and even then he would stop whatever he was doing about every five minutes to whine and say, "I don't--wanna--SEE THE--POPE!!!!" Luckily we had prepared ourselves for such roadblocks by leaving our clothes, food, and backpacks out and ready the previous night, so we got out of the house in time and walked to the train station, which was but a few blocks away. We were timed perfectly, because we had just finished buying pastries for me and my brother when the train arrived and we hopped on. We then sat in the train for the next hour and a half and when we arrived to Rome hopped off and headed for the Vatican. I would like to add that the last time I was in Rome I was but 3 years old, so all I have is a few vague memories of the Colosseum and stuff. It wall very exciting. After we got off the train we hopped on the metro, which we took to a stop just a few blocks away from the Vatican. It was pretty crazy because everybody was heading in the exact same direction, towards the Vatican. Anyone who was going somewhere else was like a salmon swimming upstream (now that's a much better metaphor), so I figured we were going in the right direction. Finally we arrived at the gates and got through security to find ourself swept into a sea of humanity. 

I like that phrase. "Sea of humanity." Because really there's no other way to describe it. A giant open space filled to the brim with people. After making contact with Pat and Shirley (did I mention that we were meeting up with them?) we discovered that in fact to get to our seats we needed tickets. Except the reservations were in Pat's name, so we needed him to get the tickets. And when he and Shirley had arrived at eight in the morning, they had been told that they didn't need them... basically we had no way to get to out seats, because at that point it seemed that even people with tickets weren't being allowed in and we didn't even have those. In the end we just stood in one of the aisles between the rows and tried to watch from there. It was pretty crazy, especially when the Pope passed by in his car, because everyone around us was standing on their chairs and we couldn't see a thing! Luckily my brother went on my dad's shoulders, though, and he took pictures for the rest of us. After the Pope passed by a bunch of people cleared out so we got to have seats for the rest of the speech. And thank goodness, too! Not only did the Pope speak in Italian, but it was also translated into about eight other languages! Basically it was about the value of children and how we make everyone's lives better ;D and we're symbollic of people's relationships with God, etc. I thought it was very nice.

The Pope is under there somewhere! 

My brother says that I'm "panocrazy," which is not pronounced "pano crazy" but is pronounced with an accent on the second syllable and the A's in "pano" and "crazy" are pronounced like U's. Try it.

Ancient Roman fortress that we saw.

After the Pope, we met up with Pat and Shirley, walked around Rome and went out to lunch, which was very delicious. Then we said goodbye to Pat and Shirley (FOR A WHOLE FOUR MONTHS! NOOOOOOO!) and headed to the Sistine Chapel! I was very excited because I have in recent weeks become a HUMONGOUS fan of Michelangelo. We got there and the line stretched all the way around the block. It was insane. Thankfully, my mom had gotten us reservations ahead of time, and we got to skip that entire line! We ended up going not only to the Sistine Chapel, but also a few museums and stuff. The Chapel was my favorite part by far, though. It's pretty amazing how far artists went from the Gothic period to the Renaissance. Everything was immensely detailed and realistic. 

After the Sistine Chapel we headed towards the train station again to get back home. I must admit I am still very behind on posting (the Vatican was over a week ago) but I think I'm going to end my post here and catch up on another day, because I am extremely brain tired right now because I spent almost all day writing my first ever play. So check in over the next few days, guys, to hear more about our adventures in Florence! (And believe me, you're gonna wanna hear it, 'cause we have some pretty exciting stories which include sandwiches the size of my head, a counterfeit 20 Euro bill, the "Medieval Manhattan," and a flat upside down world in which the Americas don't exist. Enticed any? ;D) 

Florence, Part 1

First of all, I cannot even begin to describe how great it is to finally be staying in one place for an entire month. After our insane 18-hour travel days and weeks of moving homes up to three or four times, it is amazing to be able to know that we're going to stay here, in  this apartment, for an entire four weeks. We can actually adjust completely to our environment.

I would also like to say that after being in Turkey, where the only word I managed to learn was teşekkürler, or thank you, being in Italy has been a welcome relief. Sure, I stumble and my Italian is not at all good, but at least I can understand bits and pieces through my scrappy Spanish, which also allows for me to make sense of the most basic grammatical rules, and orally it is somewhat familiar because I hear it a lot when my cousins Giulia and Ella are around. My parents, on the other hand, are totally rocking the Italian, and the Italians must think so too because they don't immediately switch to English when my parents start attempting to communicate. So, that's all good.

Anyway, my brother had been dying to have some Mexican food for a while now. We were all a little starved of the comforts of home and so when my brother begged my parents to find a Mexican restaurant in Florence and go there for dinner, they happily agreed. Believe it or not, there was a Mexican place right around the corner from our rental apartment, a mere block away, so after arriving to the apartment and settling in, we headed out. I have to say, despite it being the worst Mexican food I have had probably in years, it was still really nice to eat something that tasted the slightest bit like home. Seriously though, I think the first thing that goes in my mouth when I return to San Francisco will either be a burrito or something Asian, because Europe isn't the best place to get either of those things. The restaurant did, however, have an amazing icy mango drink thing that I got and which definitely made up for the overly salty dinner. And as good as it feels to be able to stumble around in Italian, it felt even better to be able to speak fluently to the waiters there in Spanish. Can't wait for Spain!

The next day we went to the market a few blocks away. It reminded me a lot of La Boqueria in Barcelona (although admittedly a lot smaller) because it pretty much sold every local cultural food you could imagine and a lot of it was stuff that you couldn't just get at a market in California. (Think amazing Tuscan sausages, prosciuttos and cheese. I love Italian food!) The market was also surrounded with leather shops, which was pretty cool. We also walked around and looked at the outside of the Duomo, or the main cathedral for the city. (If you recall Milan had a Duomo too.) This one is extremely well known in particular because its dome is massive, the largest of its time, and it is painted on the inside using the finest of Renaissance techniques. It was also designed by the famous Filippo Brunelleschi. We also made sure to get some gelato ;) and got some dark chocolate ice cream that finally topped the last place in Venice. I am such a chocoholic. Eventually we made our way home and cooked the rabbit that we bought at the market. SO DELICIOUS!!!

Thus ended day one of Florence! Day two was a visit to the Medici Chapel, a basilica sponsored by the wealthy Medici family during the 16th and 17th centuries, and a great example of how Florence really was the wallet of the Italian Renaissance. The entire thing was made of inlaid marble, for starters. There was a humongous painted ceiling (all in beautiful Renaissance style) and there was a second part of the building that was, drumroll please, DESIGNED, BUILT, AND DECORATED BY MICHELANGELO!!!! That's when you know that they've got some disposable income.

Actually, to be honest, some of the statues made by Michelangelo were a little bit unrealistic, obviously not his best work. We will, of course, see his statue of David at some point (which my brother insists on calling "The Naked David," as if that were its given title) and I'm sure that will be a lot more realistically designed than the ones we saw at the Medici Chapel. It was still pretty cool to see something designed by someone so renowned though. And the entire chapel was pretty darn beautiful. After that we headed home and did some homework :( and that ended day two.

On our third day we finally got to see the Duomo! I was pretty excited. The inside was  surprisingly plain, almost not Catholic, as we saw many Protestant churches in Zurich that were more decorated than it. That is, plain with the exception of the dome itself. There were also ruins in the basement of previous churches built as far back as early Christianity in the Roman times, something like 5th century CE. So that was pretty cool as well. But back to the dome. It's pretty amazing because you really feel like you're looking up at people sitting in the sky. There are even paintings of people that look like their legs are hanging over the edge. Not to mention the fact that painting on a curved surface is extremely difficult. To draw something that looks like a straight line, you have to draw a curved one, for starters! That alone was pretty darn amazing. But when we started climbing the stairs to get to the top of  the dome, it was even more so. First of all, there were a LOT of stairs. We counted 459 on the way down, although a sign at the bottom said 463 (we think there were more stairs going up than down, since they went on two different paths at some points). Second of all, it was really amazing walking around the inside of the dome, because  the paintings that looked life-sized from down below were in fact MUCH larger than life. The head of one demon that we saw painted on the ceiling was probably three or four feet in diameter! Just to put things in perspective. Being so close to the paintings also gave me a greater appreciation for them, because we got to see the beauty and detail up close. But it didn't stop there. We also climbed all the way to the very top of the dome (getting out of the way of the people coming down in the meantime) and the view up there was SPECTACULAR. We were REALLY high up (376 feet, to be exact, if Wikipedia is to be trusted) and the piazza below us looked tiny! We spent a good amount of time up there simply because the view was so spectacular. After we made our way down (counting our steps along the way and quadruple checking between the four of us) we also went to the baptismal building and the bell tower, both of which were separate from the main cathedral. The baptismal building was gorgeous, with a beautiful gold mosaic ceiling. The bell tower was also pretty amazing, because it was almost as tall as the dome (almost) and it provided a great view of the dome and the city together.

Interior of the dome

As you can see it's surprisingly plain

View of the bell tower from the dome

Ceiling of the baptismal building 

The bell tower 

We should also note that being Thursday the 12th of March it was also the day before my birthday, so that night we planned to all go out and catch some music. Things got complicated, though, because my brother wanted to go to a soccer game in celebration of his birthday (which is the 28th)  and it was the only night that we could make that work. So in the end just my dad and I went out to see some music and my brother and my mom went to the soccer game (and from what I hear they had some pretty good seats too). It ended up being really fun. The band advertised themselves as playing MPB (Música Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Pop Music) although sometimes it was more like MPB and other time more like ragtime. It was an interesting arrangement: a percussionist/lead singer, a guitarist who also sang, a violinist, and a keyboardist. The violinist and the keyboardist were by far the most talented in the group, and they were not only extremely quick and creative with their solos, but they complimented each other very well and improvised in relation to each other, which is pretty difficult. All in all, it was a lot of fun and we got home pretty late.

The next day was my birthday!!! We all slept in late because we had been out pretty late the previous night and we didn't get out of the house until about 10:30 AM. So I guess I turned 13 somewhere on our walk to the pastry shop for breakfast. ;) After our pastries we headed out to go to the Boboli Gardens, but by the time we got there we were going to have to head back again in an hour so it didn't seem worth it to pay admission. Then we walked around for a little while and headed home. We had to get home early to meet our family friends Pat and Shirley, who were coming to visit, but by the time we got back they were already there! We ended up spending most of  the rest of the day planning for the next week or so, and later we headed out to go for a walk and finally at around 7:00, went out to dinner. Dinner was a lot of fun and very delicious, although what I ordered  wasn't at all like what I expected. I ordered "marinated beef," which it definitely was, except it wasn't cooked, it was raw! It was still really good though, surprisingly. We all had a lot of fun and headed home late that night--again.

Beautiful!!!

I went Paleo! Yay!

The next day my brother was really sick, having thrown up three times in the middle of the night, so he and my mom stayed home and Pat, Shirley, my dad, and I all got in the car and drove to the nearby town of Lucca. There was a museum there called Lu.C.C.A. (what a fantastic acronym) which stood for Lucca Center of Contemporary Art. It turned out to be a very misleading title. Most of the art there wasn't really all that great, and none of it was contemporary except for a few pieces in the cafeteria, so it was pretty disappointing. We then went out to a late (but very delicious) lunch and went to a few churches, including one that had the relic of an ancient saint from 1272 who is currently slightly green in fuzzy. Hence our name for her: the green saint. We also saw two street performances of interpretive dance, which was pretty fun, and then we headed home for another large and delicious dinner.

Just to get your Sunday off to a good start, here's a picture of a 750 year old relic in a church!

So that's been our experiences in Florence so far! Be sure to check back for more in a few days! And for more pictures take a look at my Instagram @sachiko_happiness.

THERE ARE STREETS MADE OF WATER😱😱😱

That was the most awesome thing ever. Second to maybe only people living in caves for thousands of years. Like, who says, "I need to build a city! Hey look there's a group of tiny islands over there let's stick giant trees into the water and make a platform out of hundreds of trees that way and then we'll build our city on top of that!" I mean, it's not the most obvious decision. Which is probably why Venice is so unique. It's not very often that people think outside the box that way.

SO CUTE!!!

Anyway, as you've probably inferred from my previous post, my title comes from the first thing that I said when we arrived to Venice. Over the course of our next five days in the city we went to a few museums and walked around and enjoyed the sights. To be honest, the museums we saw weren't all that great, but the food was AMAZING, the views gorgeous (as those of you who have seen my Instagram are aware), and it was really fun to visit with our relatives in the city. See, my uncle Chuck (my dad's eldest brother) is married to my aunt Gioia, who is Italian, and her brother Alessandro (Sandro) and his wife Roberta (Robi) live in Venice with their kids Filipo and Margerita (who are 17 and 14). (Yeah that was a lot of parenthesis in one sentence. Sorry about that.) So we got to visit with them, and then Chuck, Gioia, and my cousins Giulia and Ella came in from Milan over the weekend.

As you can see Milan and Venice are both in northern Italy.

Of course, the first place we really went to was Piazza San Marco, the famous plaza with the clock tower, the Basilica San Marco, the Doge's palace, and iconic winged lion statue(s). Unfortunately we didn't go inside the Basilica and it was under restoration, but oh well. The lion statues were everywhere, constantly being used to symbolize the city, but the most famous one was on top of the column in the piazza. 

So picture perfect!

The Doge, by the way, was the elected leader of Venice who got the grand honor of wearing a really, REALLY ridiculous looking hat FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. 

And, of course, running the city and stuff like that, but come on, you cannot honestly tell me that the hat is not the first thing you notice. Guess you'd be able to tell him apart as soon as he entered a room. Anyway, Venice was considered a republic, but the only people who got to vote were wealthy male members of aristocratic families. Anyway, we got to see his palace, which was very interesting because it was not only the home of the Doge and his family, but it was also the political center of the city. So we got to see how the Venetian government worked, because all of the government officials' offices and meeting rooms were housed there. And, of course, to top it all off the attic and basement of the palace were the city's prison! Believe me, you did NOT want to land yourself in prison in Venice, because the cells were extremely small and cramped, the treatment was poor, and whenever the city flooded the poor guys in the basement would get most of the water. Imagine having to stay in wet clothes for days on end! Sounds terrible. 

The Doge's palace.

So the Doge's palace was pretty fun. Another place that we went, which was my favorite by far, was Murano. Murano is one of the islands of Venice (it's made up of hundreds, including one which is completely dedicated as a cemetary) which is famous for its glass blowing. One hardly ever comes across traditional glass blowing; I don't think it's even possible to find in the United States, and it's extremely rare even in Europe. Originally one of the doges (I'm not quite sure which) moved all of the glass blowers of Venice to the island of Murano for fear of fire. Now glass blowers continue to work there, using original methods. It's not even possible to go to a glass blowing school or anything like that; learning is only possible by apprenticeship and their techniques are a closely guarded secret. So we walked around the island for a while and looked in the shop windows, and eventually decided to go to one place to watch professional glass blowers do their work. It was AMAZING. They formed the glass really quickly, and we even saw the guy make a glass horse in probably a minute and a half. We all really enjoyed that.

Then on Friday night my cousins Giugi and Ella arrived! We had a lot of fun with them on Saturday and Sunday. It's funny though, my brother and Giulia have a really close friendship but every time they get together they just play video games on the various Apple products lying around the house. The current fad is Minion Rush; last time it was Candy Crush. Maybe that's the key to a great relationship--play video games together all the time. ;D 

What else was fun in Venice? Gelato. We literally had gelato every single day, and on Friday I tried the best dark chocolate ice cream/gelato that I have ever had in my entire life. It's a pretty indulgent habit, but boy, do Italians know how to make good ice cream. They invented gelato, after all. 

Anyway, those were the highlights of our trip in Venice. We also went to the Naval History Museum, which wasn't nearly as interesting as we expected. My parents were going to have me write about how "Venice conquered the seas," and although we didn't enjoy the museum as much as we would have liked, the answer to that question was given as soon as we walked through the doors. 

STUFF LIKE THAT.

Overall, Venice was a lot of fun. And seriously, it still stands: THERE ARE STREETS MADE OUT OF WATER. AND THAT IS AMAZING. On Monday morning we got up and said our last goodbyes to the city (we had said our goodbyes to our family the previous night) and walked to the bus stop on the mainland. We then took a bus to the place where we had parked our car two weeks previously, on our way to Istanbul, and picked it up and drove to our next destination: Florence.