Charlsa In Italy

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The hand sculpture outside the Uffizi near the Arno is a hit. People climb all over it to get their picture taken.

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One of these men is a statue. The other one is a living person. But which is which?

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Final walk through Giardino di Boboli

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These are both on the same street. Al' Antico Vinaio is one of the top-rated eateries in Florence. It's basically like a better version of Subway, with focaccia bread and meat sliced as you order.

The second is my personal favourite, La Prosciutteria. They are technically not a restaurant, because they don't have a license to serve food on the premises. Instead, they are a butcher's shop where you can take the food you ordered to a table that happens to be inside of the store. Completely by coincidence. With chairs. And free water (a rarity in Italian eateries). Their speciality is taglieri per la degustazione, or tasting menus, served on wooden boards. It's a combination of cheeses, meat slices, and a huge bowl of bread slices, and occasionally anchovies and/or jellies.

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Duomo was looking lovely today.

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New sculpture outside Palazzo Pitti!

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You could, technically, drink from this fountain and no one would stop you. But you probably shouldn't.

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This is part of my daily commute to absolutely anywhere in the city. All day, every day. Pretty different for a Berean.

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Patiently awaiting arrival of dinner companions at Ponte Vecchio.

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Another Example of Old Things I Take For Granted:

The Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova was founded in 1288, and is the oldest active hospital in Florence. I walk by it once a week when I go grocery shopping. To me it is The Building Always Under Construction Next To The Bus Stop. I knew it was something medical-related because of the ambulances parked outside, and the architecture suggested (and the fact that it was in Florence, where everything is old) that it might be historic, but WOW.

Coincidentally, it is also the riskiest part of my trip home, thanks to a small section where parked cars force pedestrians into traffic. At least help won't be far off.

P.S. Leonardo da Vinci apparently interned there.

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I live a block away from the Mother Church of the Servite Order, Santissima Annunziata. Apparently the order was established in 1233, and the church was built in 1250. Giambologna is buried there. Inside is work by Michelozzo, Andrea del Sarto, and Vasari.

I've only ever seen the outside in passing, because absolutely everything is old here, and none of our professors ever mentioned it, but I discovered its history while research Giambologna. One problem with growing up in America is that our obsession with Neoclassicism can make it hard to tell between what is actually old and what only looks old, especially since they are doing constant repairs and upkeep on the buildings here. A 750-year-old building can easily look like it was built in 1920 from the outside.

On Tuesday night, Notte Bianca (White Night, celebrated before Labor Day, and basically an officially sanctioned "drink until the break of dawn and sleep all day" affair) had tango dance outside of it.

[charlsainitaly]

Hey everybody! I really haven't been up to much lately thanks to finals, but I did try something new today since we are nearing the end of my trip.

This is millefoglie, and it is pretty much everywhere--in Italy, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in Canada... It's exactly what it looks like: puff pastry layers with pastry-cream in between, with powdered sugar on top. People can get creative with whipped cream, cocoa powder, jam filling, or an icing top, but this is as simple as it gets. It is also, coincidentally, dirt cheap. And delicious. I wholly support filling the twinkie void in our lives with millefoglie.

Maybe we do have this in the US and I just wasn't paying attention, though. It appears easy enough to make, in any case.

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Not the best photo, because I was on a bus very eager to make it back to Florence before midnight. I'm not even entirely sure which country I was in, but all at once you heard half of the bus rushing for their cameras to try to get a picture of the clouds in the mountains before the view was obstructed again.

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This is Monaco. I did not like Monaco. It is the second smallest sovereign state which sounds very interesting, I know, but is actually a pretty disappointing place unless

you like very fancy cars (I don't)

you are very rich and like to gamble (I am not, and I don't)

you need to hide a lot of money from your home country (what money)

Instead, the most interesting part for me was the walk to Monte Carlo, which had some very lovely flowers.

I went into Monte Carlo Casino because it was free to enter and it's supposedly important in the world of gambling, but since I don't gamble, there was absolutely nothing to do except marvel at how shiny the ceiling was.

Also this... sculpture? fountain? was pretty neat. That building reflected in the... sculpture? is the Monte Carlo.

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These ladies were gazing peacefully all around the exotic gardens at the very top of Eze.

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I went to the perfume factory of Fragonard at the bottom of Eze and learned more about the perfume-making process. Here is what I remember:

Perfumes are 24% fragrance while Eau du Toilette are 10% fragrance (at least with Fragonard), which is why perfume is more expensive. A higher concentration of perfume to water or alcohol means it will also last longer when applied, so you don't have to reapply it as often.

Also, at last, an answer to why I can never find honeysuckle-scented anything that actually smells like honeysuckle: it is one of a handful of flowers from which it is impossible to extract the fragrant oil. At Fragonard, they are instead placed in a... vacuum? I'm not sure what it is... from which the scent can be extracted from the vapors released into the air surrounding the flower. I think. It seemed rather complicated, and to be honest, I still couldn't smell the honeysuckle in the perfume concoctions said to contain it.

In the end I bought a 1 oz bottle of Belle de Nuit perfume because it was nearly half the cost here than anywhere you are going to find online or in a boutique. And also my roommates in the hostel were insinuating that I smelled bad and I was going to make them pay for their words.