La Capella dei Brancacci e La Basilica di Santa Maria del Santo Spirito

The Brancacci chapel's pretty and all, but is it bad that I didn't find it particularly extraordinary? The only frescoes I was really fond of and that stuck out for me were Masolino's Temptation of Adam and Eve and Masaccio's Expulsion from the Earthly Paradise. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that it was raining heavily earlier (pouring, even) and we had to walk in the rain to get to the chapel. And I was so starving therefore cranky that I was ready to slap a begging gypsy had I been presented with the opportunity. I was much more interested in seeing the rest of the church, but it was unfortunately roped off. The depth of the ceiling's design and detail was spectacular; there was an impressive illusion of a dome on top of the windows surrounded by cute little cherub sculptures. 

After that, we watched a movie concerning the background of the Brancacci chapel and Florence during the Renaissance in general; the first portion was exciting and informative and I was also entertained by switching between the languages (English, Italian, and French) on our personal little walkman thing. By the second half of the movie though, the novelty of the English narrator's voice wore off. Although the movie was still informative, it had a difficult time delivering the excitement the first half had (e.g., less neat 3-D illustrations and overdramatizations).

Santo Spirito, however, is the most gorgeous church I've ever been in. The exterior is relatively modest (bland) so I wasn't expecting the interior to be so grand as if God has personally blessed the church himself, despite the fact that it's supposed to be considered one Brunelleschi's greatest work. Everything seemed absolutely perfect: the alters especially, the pews, confessionals, and whatever else that's supposed to be in a Catholic church. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed that I almost wanted to bow down on my hands and knees (Muslim prayer style), not necessarily for God, but as an homage to these visionary gods, these artists themselves for having conceived such a beauty! I understand now how this may serve as religious propaganda; if every church back in Los Angeles made me feel like this, I wouldn't mind sacrificing my Sunday mornings. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the church.

Chianti

(Click on the photo for full view; this blog's template likes to cut off my horizontal photos)

I wasn't able to fall asleep until about 3:30AM the night(/morning) before our day trip to Chianti and we had to meet at the train station at 7:30AM. You also have to give us time to walk to the train station, which is approximately an half hour walk. Needless to say, it was a bit of a rough morning. 

We met up with the rest of the group who booked this trip with Florence for Fun, a sort of travel agency that organizes trips for study abroad students. We had two guides with us, Remigio and Luca. The bus seemed more like a charter bus than say, public transportation, but I'm still pretty unclear about what kind of bus it is. It took about an hour to get to Chianti from Florence and the ride was scenic enough. 

Unfortunately, it was raining in Chianti, but only light showers while we were there. The mud just made the 4-mile hike through the vineyards a little challenging. The cold air was really nice though. I wish we could take more hikes in Florence instead of just walking all over the city. We took a 40 minute break during our hike at San Leolino church, a Romanesque church. A black cat was guarding it, which was both creepy and cute. Remigio gave us a nerdy recount of the history of Chianti and the church itself. The church land was established by Etruscans and Chianti is basically man-made. 

After the hike, a friend of Remigio received us for lunch and wine tasting. For appetizers, we had bread, naturally, and prosciutto and salami followed by two courses of pasta (pesto, pomodoro). We tried two different bottles of wine: Terre di Panzano Chianti, which is made from a combination of three types of grapes, and Granducale, which is made solely from San Giovese grapes. After the wine and our meal, they brought us biscotti and a shot of a dessert wine and then everyone's least favorite, a shot of grappa. I was able to polish off about 5 grappa shots because that's how brave I am. 

I'm not going to lie-- coming back to Florence was a little bit disappointing. The air is not as fresh and there are far too many people, but I got used to it again soon enough. It's definitely not as relaxing as Chianti, which I actually prefer to Fiesole as well. 

Kylie & I + wine

Yours truly + grappa

View from Piazza Michelangelo

Cool. (Click photo to enlarge)

Our apartment is falling apart!

Literally. (Well, maybe not literally...)

Earlier this evening, our power went out randomly. We weren't using more electricity than we usually do so my roommates and I were thoroughly confused. I called the landlady and she said she can't do anything about it until tomorrow morning. So we called Antonella, our program's "on-site coordinator," (basically our go-to woman if we ever have a problem or question about anything) and she told us to flip some switch and the power came back on. 

I just got out of the shower and there were mysterious puddles of water: one in the bathroom right by the tub and the other in our "hallway" (it's not really a hallway; I don't know how else to describe it) that has no trail. Water is probably seeping from under the tub because it was poorly made and/or the overflow drain wasn't mounted properly. In any case, that's another issue we'll have to bring up with the landlady tomorrow morning. 

Now, I would like to share with you verbatim a special note she left for us: 

"WE SHALL   YOU DONT SMUDGE   OR ATTACK   ANYTHING TO WALLS (ARE AVAIBLE CORK-BOARDS  IN EVERY  ROOMS), OR TO DAMAGE OR DIRTY FURNITURES

EVERY DAMAGE MUST BE PAYD  AS  EXSTRA FEE   BEFORE   DEPARTURE 

WE HOPE   YOU WILLiLEAVE   THIS HOUSE AS YOU FOUND IT,CLEAN AND IN CIVIL ORDER

HOUSE   OWNER IS   COSTANZA MORANDUZZO(OLIVIERI), AND IS   AT YOUS DISPOSAL 

CALLING UP HER    CELL NUMBER 335 718[xxxx]

OUR BEST REGARS............AND ENGIOJ FLORENCE"

Oh, in other news, I'm going to Chianti this Saturday for hiking and wine tasting! It should be Fun!! "Fun!!" with a capital F and two exclamation points! 

I would also like to apologize for my lack of posts/photos. It turns out I'm a terrible and lazy blogger. Perhaps. And since my last post, I made a new friend, attended a wine and cheese reception, visited the Uffizi and the Ferragamo shoe museum. Perhaps I shall make posts on that later. Perhaps. (Probably.)

MY BEST REGARS.............. xx thip