Museo Nationale del Bargello tourist day

Through Daniel, I met a new friend a few days ago. Nora also goes to my school and we share the fact that neither of us have traveled much since arriving in Florence. So today, we both got together to do some tourist stuff. We stopped by a few fountains for photos outside the Uffizi Gallery.







golden "statue" man and me


stone "statue" man and Nora - she was amused and scared at the same time

right outside the Uffizi Gallery

the false David under restoration

Mr. Leonardo outside the Uffizi Gallery

We considered going to the Uffizi Gallery, but the long line dissuaded us. Perhaps another day when we can get reservations! We ended up going to the Museo Nationale del Bargello to see sculptures of Vincenzo Danti, who studied under Michelangelo:



(not by Danti, but impressive nonetheless)

Florentine coats of arms from time that building was built, I cannot recall the exact date

Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1570) - Danti's "absolute masterpiece"

the courtyard of the museum - it made me really feel as if I was in another time

After spending a few hours in the museum, we found a great pizzeria nearby and went for gelato afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed mine, especially since they put a mini cone on top!



We also walked by a fantasy/game store. We went in and found a large room in the back where a group of Italians were playing a card game of World of Warcraft. I have no idea how to play the card game, but it made me smile regardless. At least I'm familiar with it through the video game version!



I returned home to find host mum Elisabetta cooking squash in traditional Japanese garb. Now *that's* culture for you. She most likely uses it in her Tai Chi classes but she looks fabulous while cooking in it too!



Tomorrow, Nora and I are headed to San Gimignano. It's only an hour and 1/2 train ride. Our train leaves at 8:10am so we're planning on making an entire day of it.

Coldplay, Italia Style

an overly excited Daniel and I during Coldplay's "Yellow"

The concert was even more that I expected - Chris, Jonny, Will and Guy (collectively Coldplay) were flawless and delivered such a high-energy performance that it didn't matter if every one of the Italians in the 10,000+ crowd could understand their lyrics. There were lasers, translucent curtains, backdrops of famous paintings, video spheres, light spheres, smoke machines and confetti in the shape of butterflies. My friend Daniel danced and sang along with me. We ended up getting a great general seat location. I say "general" because we didn't actually sit in our assigned seats. If the stage was at 12 on a clock in a fairly round stadium, our seats were assigned at 7 in the second level. After hanging out on the railing though to take photos of the pre-concert crowd, we were able to slip into seats that were at about 10. We were looking right down on the stage! And judging from the shoving mass of the crowd on the ground, I'm glad we had a safe and comfortable perch. It definitely made for better photos! I took a ton of both photos and videos, but the videos are proving to take much longer to upload than I thought. More of my favorite shots:







And the rest of the concert photos are at http://flickr.com/photos/42077052@N00/sets/72157607610338093/

Futurshow Station was about a 15min drive from the heart of Bologna. We paid 2.90euro for a special bus pass for it. It was hard to get on the first bus because of the sheer amount of people waiting. But coming back? Now THAT was an experience. It has been said that Italians don't know how to properly "queue". I can believe it now. With many people coming out of the stadium and eager to return into town, the bus line simply wasn't supplying frequent enough buses. The result? After missing a VERY packed bus, Dan and I waited about 30min for another bus. Still pumped with concert energy, I assured Dan we WERE going to get on this bus, despite the crowd of 70-80 people around us also waiting for the bus. Even as the bus was crawling up the curb, the swarm of people starting pulsing forward to it. So I grabbed Dan's hand and rushed towards the bus. People getting onto the bus were not simply "getting on". It was more like compressed air pouring into a vacuum. I was squished tightly for a few seconds, but I was able to tug my way onto the bus. I was very surprised I didn't crush the rolled up Coldplay poster I had purchased! Poor Dan had a slight problem with the people being packed closer than sardines in a can, but he made it ok. I didn't mind at all because everyone was still smiling from the concert and I could hear bits of Coldplay songs being sung in Italian accents all around the bus.


We had arrived by train in Bologna around 2pm. Since the concert started at 8pm, we had some time to explore the city.



I wasn't sure just what to think of the fountain's feminine figure underneath Neptune

statue of Garibaldi

We stayed in Bologna overnight at a youth hostel. Only 17 euros each! I shared a 4-bed room with one other visitor from Canada. It was very similar to a standard college dorm room:


The next day, I was VERY proud to show off my concert shirt. I love the design of it!



Since returning from that successful outing, school has been going fine and the homework load has been light. I'm not sure of my plans this weekend, but I'm tossing around a few ideas between friends. Off to dinner now with my host mum - she has been brewing vegetable soup for an entire day now. Yum!!