Week 9: 10/21 - 10/27 — Charlotte Harrison

Baci from Perugia!

Over the halfway hump! Week 9 started with a beautifully warm Monday — I hurried over to my favorite cafe in the morning so that I could order a cappuccino at a socially-acceptable hour, and then I finished up some homework before our apartment cleaner arrived. Once he started unloading his gear, I packed up and headed out to explore for the morning before class. I circulated around several different piazzas — Tasso, Della Signoria, and Repubblica — to people-watch and take pictures. Once I was satisfied with my step-count, I grabbed a panini from La Nicchietta (my current favorite spot — 5 euro!) and hiked north to my class.

I’ve dropped some photos from my walk below:

In my class, we watched a half-hour documentary on the Native American technique of rope clay work. The woman explained how she first creates clay by mixing fresh dirt with water, and then she forms the clay into ropes. These are scored, slipped, and wound together to form bowls and plates, and then smoothed by hand to form one unblemished dish.

You might think that this woman’s careful demonstration would be enough for a handful of 20 year olds to make their own pot. Wrong! Our ever-helpful professor spent the next hour and some change repeating the woman’s process right in front of us. You could probably make one of your own at this point.

Once he finally released the class to do the work ourselves, we were able to spend the rest of the class working on our own pots. It’s quite a meditative process to work with clay, even more than painting or drawing. Your hands are covered in slip and glorified mud, and you’re forming and twisting and scraping until your lump looks promising. I made a pretty healthy sized flower pot, complete with a drainage hole and some middle-school-esque carving decor. It will be my apartment’s pride and joy in approximately three weeks.

On Tuesday, I had my history class with Virginia! We talked about Alexander the Great, Persia, and a million other little things hiding in my notes that I’ll have to re-learn for the midterm. After class, I was in the mood to cook, so I grabbed some supplies for the Ina Garden tomato sauce that my sister used to make a lot when we were all home together. It’s basically just whole tomatoes, an onion, and a big hunk of butter. It was delicious, and it reminded me of home.

Wednesday — Human Resource Management! We started out in the classroom, but then we headed out to the tram stop together for our field trip to the hospital. After all 35 of us squeezed into the tramcar, we traveled about 15 minutes to the Florence Hospital, and walked around the building to the Meyer Health Campus. The staff were so welcoming to us, and they gave us a tour of the simulation center that they use for their nurses and doctors to practice procedures or emergency scenarios. According to the man, each successful simulation is worth 5 credits, and you need to earn 15 per year while employed at the hospital. It was interesting to see that here, these healthcare professionals are required to brush up on their skills or take the time to learn something new.

I woke up early on Friday so that I could make it to the bus stop at 7:15 for another day trip with SAI. This time, we were heading to Perugia — the chocolate capital of Italy — to explore the city and tour their chocolate factory. My friends Mia and Sienna had signed up for it too, so we grabbed seats next to each other and then snoozed for the two hour bus-ride to the city. When the bus finally stopped, we shook each other awake and looked around at a decidedly unattractive sight: it was the industrial complex for the chocolate factory, Perugina. The factory was founded in 1907 by a team including Luisa Spagnoli, the genius behind many of their bestselling chocolates. Her most famous confection is the Baci, which is Italian for “kiss.” It’s a chocolate and hazelnut truffle topped with a whole hazelnut and draped in Luisa’s famous 51% cioccolato fondente. I also learned about Luisa in my HR class, because she was the first CEO in Italy to create and offer childcare on the work property in order to encourage women to stay employed.

We started by watching a video about the history of the factory, and then our guide took us through the Perugina museum. Next, we got to try a selection of chocolates that they produce there — they were amazing! Some of the flavors weren’t my favorite, like amaretto or coffee, but overall I loved the Baci. After we’d had our fill of samples, our guide led us through a tour of the factory on the manager’s catwalk. It was pretty unreal to see just how many chocolates they produce each day, or even in an hour. One interesting thing I learned about the factory from our guide — it’s uncommon to eat chocolates during the summer in Italy because it’s too hot, so the factory shuts down from May to August. I just find it so fascinating that they’re able to be a fully-functional factory and only produce 9 months out of the year. We finished our visit at the gift shop, and then we hopped back on the bus for our next stop.

After a few minutes of navigating windy roads, we got off in the main city of Perugia and followed the crowd towards lunch. SAI had booked us a group lunch at Ristorante Ferrari. It was quite good! We started with some lasagna, which I thought was pretty good, and then they brought out roast chicken with potatoes. We had tiramisu for dessert, and then they brought out espressos to cleanse our palette and have a little afternoon pick-me-up.

Next up: a guided tour of the city of Perugia. A very nice Italian woman guided us through several tunnels and towels, and then finally through the winding streets of the city. She showed off beautiful churches, several terraces, and explained the history of Perugia. I comprehended about 20% of what she said, but the sentiment was there.

After we finished the tour, she gave us an hour of free time to continue exploring and shop around. I grabbed a pin for my bag, and my friend Mia picked out a perfume for herself. We headed back to the bus and settled in for the long journey home.

On Saturday morning, Brelan and I woke up at about 8 so that we could make it to our train for our impromptu day-trip to Bologna. To be quite honest, neither of us knew much about the city, but we were interested in doing more exploring, and it seemed like an easy trip. After our 40-minute ride, we made it out of the train station and into the fresh morning air of Bologna… covered in graffiti and a blanket of silence. Charming! Brelan and I eyed each other, but we tried to stay optimistic. Our first stop would be the MAMbo, a contemporary art museum just a short walk from the station. Luckily, with our student cards the tickets were free, so we shoved our way through the weird art and made a morning out of it. Next stop: the Museum of Zoology. I’m not really sure why they have this in Bologna, but it was free and the Google reviews seemed promising. When we entered, we were met with rows and rows of cases full of dead animals. It was interesting for about five minutes, and then it just felt weird to keep glancing at birds who wouldn’t blink back at you. Once we had made our way through Africa and Asia, we circled back to the entrance to try something new.

The Pinacoteca: our saving grace! This is the National Art Gallery of Bologna, and let me tell you: it delivered. Brelan and I spent a good hour and a half following the museum’s chronologically-organized collection of Christian art from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Each piece was stunning, and it was really interesting to see how the same stories were depicted through the eras of art. You could recognize when artists would make new developments, like the concept of perspective, or the move towards naturalism. One other thing that I found interesting: it seems like Catholic art pretty much only features Mary and the baby Jesus. Everywhere you look, walls and walls of the Holy Child grasping his mother. It’s interesting to me that there were almost no depictions of other bible stories. Something like Noah’s Ark, or the Parting of the Red Sea, seems like they would also be a captivating subject, but they are not explored.

After we got our fill of art, we headed out in search of lunch. One of Bologna’s specialties is a type of pasta called cappelletti; it’s Italian for “little hat” because the tortellini-like noodles look just like them. They’re filled with cheese and topped with a classic sauce. Brelan and I each got a variety: I got mine with ragu, and she got the cacio e pepe. They were delicious! The restaurant did a great job making them, and I would definitely order them again.

Once the churches opened up after their midday break, we got to explore two of them, and they were enormous. I think both churches had the highest ceilings that I’ve seen so far in Italy; it seemed like a hundred feet or more! They were gorgeous.

We spent a little more time walking around and exploring, and then we finished our day trip with what was allegedly Bologna’s best gelato. Other than the insane line and poor crowd control, it was great!

I finished off my week on Sunday with a wonderful morning sleeping in, and then a stop at Wild Buns for an iced latte and some Scandinavian pastries. I visited the Santo Spirito market, grabbed a kilo of Sicilian oranges to try (honestly, not mind-blowing) and then spent my afternoon walking around and journaling. Overall, a lovely, slow day!

Week 9: 10/21 - 10/27

Baci from Perugia!

Week 10: 10/28 - 11/3

Week 8: 10/14 - 10/20

Charlotte Harrison