The Medici were here

I've finished my second week of classes and it already feels as if I've been at it for weeks. I'm supposed to submit a proposal for a midterm on monday. I have NO CLUE what I want to write about. The main academic thing I've learned is present in the title of this blog. When it comes to Renaissance Italy the Medici were everywhere. Coming in to the program I thought I already knew that. They were after all the richest family, later the Dukes of Tuscany, and famous as artistic patrons. However the Medici, and from what I can gather most other wealthy and noble families took it a bit more literally. If you look around the buildings of Tuscany, on statues, or church decorations you'll see family crests. And you see the Medici crest twice as often as any other. It makes me think of a cross between graffiti tags and dogs peeing to mark their territory. My friend and I were picturing rogue Medici stone masons wandering Florence in the dark of night and affixing the Medici crest to the side of buildings.

Unfortunately you can't see it that well but the Medici crest is below the bust.

I realize that while I find the near constant presence of the Medici crest both hilarious and fascinating, most people probably don't share that opinion. So I'll move on to things found universally fascinating: eating, drinking, and shopping.

The food remains fantastic and since it's Carnival season delicious pastry abounds. Which is wonderful because I have a HUGE weakness for baked goods. I LOVE PASTRY. I recently tried a Carnival desert called Cenci. It is essentially thin sheets of fried dough and covered with powdered sugar. It was heaven. I went to the central market for lunch today and spent some quality time with my favorite food group... the pig. I had porchetta! It was served thinly sliced and in oil. It was pungent and salty in a way that was so wrong... that it was perfect! Our homestay mother, Sandra, made sole for dinner tonight and I loved every bight.

As for the drinking... I can order a hot chocolate in perfect Italian. Which is good since it is my signature beverage back in the states. As for other kinds of drinking... I went out with my roommate and some friends last night. Thankfully there were not as many creepy men of a certain age as last week. I consider that an improvement. However the club we went to for a while seemed to be the favorite place of the dreadlocked emo/punks of Florence. I was definitely too happy and had showered too recently to fit in at that club. Otherwise it was unremarkable and confirmed my preference for bars. We did go to a bar as well called Fish Pub. This one didn't have Strongbow but it did have a much younger clientele. There were also a lot more Americans there. I admit a part of me would go back there, nurse a beer and watch some of the shit-shows happen. I suppose it's bad that I would so indulge my Schadenfreude and watch other people make poor life decisions but there you have it.

On to the shopping. My bank account probably doesn't appreciate this week very much. On the other hand I'm not planning on buying anything else for a while. I got a beautiful pair of black leather gloves with a pink embroidered stitching that's really subtle and elegant. They're lined with cashmere so my hands should stay nice and toasty. I also indulged myself at the Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella. There is nothing like a beautiful smelling beauty product to brighten up your day. I also bought a beautiful leather bound notebook. Which I can carry around everywhere and record all of the wonderful and ridiculous life stories that seem to occur. Quite a few of which I am sure will find their way onto this blog. But right now a gelato is calling my name and it is quite persistent.