For God, Profit, and Freddy Mercury

The past week and a half was relatively uneventful. I continued to consume vast quantities of food. However I mostly spent my time in class or studying (when I wasn't eating). Fortunately this weekend has largely compensated for that. On Friday night I met my friend Caroline for dinner. Caroline and I met through pure serendipity. She isn't part of the SU program, but her roommate has known one of the girls in my program for years. We all went out together and Caroline and I realized we had three important things in common: sarcasm, bitterness, and an irrational, Anthony Bourdain inspired, anger toward vegans and the culinarily unadventurous. We had a fantastic dinner at Baldovino. I ordered pappardelle di cinghiale (pasta with a wild boar ragu) and Caroline and I also split a trio of sausages and a chocolate cake for dessert. It was Italian food at its best. They also have a 10% student discount which made me love them even more. I should mention that I've been to Baldonvino before, but I was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12 and couldn't remember the food. When I walked through the door I had a huge moment of deja vu. I don't think I'll forget what the food there is like this time. After eating enough food to make me wonder if I'd grown a second stomach since arriving in Italy, Caroline and I headed over to Be Bop to see the Queen tribute band called Great Queen's Rats. We met up with some other people from SU, including Jean a fellow Renaissance Studies major. So the band was awesome. They had everything a Queen tribute band needed: leather, sequins, union jack tshirts, and a fake mustache on the Freddy Mercury impersonator. Not only that but it looked like they were having a great time and they were actually capable of playing and singing the Queen songs well. I was particularly impressed by the lead guitarist, he was super talented. As for the Freddy Mercury impersonator, at times he reminded me of Borat. I think that had a lot to do with the fake mustache and his accent when he was speaking in English. He was also hilarious and phenomenal. As Jean said, "Only and Italian could out Freddy Mercury, Freddy Mercury." They began the show with We Will Rock You, and they did. I was devastated to have forgotten my camera because there were so many photo worthy moments. Naturally they played Bohemian Rhapsody, there might have been a small riot if they hadn't. My personal highlight was when they played Under Pressure and Somebody to Love back to back. The band wasn't the only entertainment available at Be Bop. My friends and I debated which was more entertaining, the band or the American frat boys who were in the midst of a hilarious bromance. The band obviously won, for one thing they were actually talented.

On Saturday I went on a field trip around Tuscany to see some more Medici Villas. Once again my class mates and I were impressed by how subtle the Medici were in establishing their presence and power around Tuscany. After visiting two Medici villas, Castello and Petraia we arrived in the town of Prato. Before taking us to see any art our Professor felt that we should get acquainted with the town and some fresh doughnuts. I should mention that my professor wrote a book about the city of Prato. He also ate a lot of doughnuts while writing this book and he will tell you that with pride. Anyway the first thing we did upon getting off the bus in Prato was to head straight to a café that makes fresh doughnuts every 20 minutes. Our professor treated the entire class to doughnuts and a hot beverage of our choice. Professor Mclean's field trips always involve good food. After fortifying ourselves with doughnuts we went to several churches in the town of Prato. In one of them was the tomb of Prato's most famous banker, who signed all his letters and contracts with his name and the phrase, "In the name of God and Profit." This is a man who knows what his priorities are. The church was also patronized by the Medici, who hired Fra Fillipo Lippi to do the frescoes in one of the chapels. This is an example of subtle Medici patronage because they only put two of their crests in the middle of the high alter, rather than all over the entire church. I was really impressed by their subtlety and self-restrain in Prato. Lunch in Prato was unfortunately unremarkable. We just got sandwiches. My friend Jean and I had 3 goals while in Prato and managed to achieve none of them. Goal number one was to visit the Biscotti store that sells traditional Almond Biscotti and has for several centuries but we failed because it was closed for lunch. Goal number two was to ride the carousel in the town square, but it too was closed for lunch. Goal number three was to get take out in the Chinatown in Prato (yes this is a legit Chinatown) because our professor said he'd take us through it. This failed as well, we went through Chinatown on our bus. The final portion of our field trip was visiting the Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano. I'm going to gloss over this part as it was relatively uneventful. Suffice it to say that even the shrubbery (I love that word) looked like a Medici crest.

On Saturday night I went to dinner with my friend Cathy. We went to a cute little Osteria near Santa Croce. The pasta and bruschetta's are excellent there. I would especially recommend the drunkard spaghetti. Which is spaghetti cooked in red wine and garlic. It tastes like red wine and garlic which is a good thing in my opinion. The only downside to our meal was the table of extremely annoying American girls sitting next to us. Cathy and I inevitably texted back and forth during dinner complaining about them. We also wished that we spoke fluent Italian so that we could talk about without resorting to text messages at the dinner table. Other topics of conversation at dinner including student theater productions, our families, the pursuit of advanced degrees, and sexually active Popes.

The only other news in my life is my continued obsession with Top Gear. I've even downloaded episodes that I watch while doing my Dramatic Lit reading. We will also be casting the SU Florence production of Romeo and Juliet this week. I'm looking forward to that and getting down to rehearsals. I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that I was stage managing the production. I may also make a cameo appearance.

-Spitzy

For God and Profit