Say Cheese!

It’s time for photos! I have some time today to post photos because I am stuck in the apartment waiting for a package from the Fulbright people to arrive. I should be working on the talk I have to give next week… sometime… no one will tell me a day. I was just told that sometime next week Dante wants me to give a short presentation about my work to his group. His group is about 30 people. (Can I put this on my CV? Is it an invited talk or is it a group meeting? Must check with Jim…)

So some background. We live in the city center of Florence, about … 200 m from the Ponte Vecchio. Florence is actually the name of a whole bunch of little communes grouped together. We live in the commune of Firenze. The lab is northwest of us in a commune called Sesto Fiorentino. To get there, we have to take two different buses. Sesto Fiorentino is more … working class? It looks like a real town, not a touristy destination. These are some pictures from the bus on our way back to the city center. I didn’t take pictures on our way out because there were too many people on the bus and I didn’t want to look like a dork.

This last photo is the most interesting. It is part of about five pens enclosed by a fence. There are dogs running around in there. Sometimes people are in the chairs, just sitting. Not playing with the dogs, but sitting. I tried to get some other photos of what is just around the corner but they come out blurry. I think it is a no kill pound. It’s about 3/4 of an acre of pens cobbled together from siding, plastic roofing and tarps filled with dogs. There is a banner on the gate but my Italian doesn’t extend to “Welcome to the pound” yet.

Some of the places we drive through look like gypsy camps. I’m going to try to get photos of them too.

If you are in luck on the bus, they have the little information screen turned on and you can get your horoscope:

OK, so it is bad picture, but remember the whole dork thing. I think for Scorpio (on the screen in this photo) it said: Watch out for large scorpions on your shirt. There is all sorts of information that gets flashed up on the screens. Too bad I only understand things like “the” and “and”.

The chemists will like these next photos:

I work in the department of chemistry in Florence, but organic chemistry has its own department! I guess they got tired of the smell and built them their own building. The organich chemistry department is named after Ugo Schiff, of Schiff base fame. He lived in Florence for most of his academic life. We got our keys to get into the building yesterday. I feel like a real person finally!

Notice the frizzy hair. It is really humid in Florence. I borrowed a hairdryer from the landlady and bought my own straightener but to no avail. I look OK before I leave the apartment but as soon as I leave, all my work is undone. I’ve given up at this point.

Dirty, filthy money

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

So it’s not exactly culture shock anymore, but everyday I find a few more smaller differences between the US and the rest of the world. Today’s observation: germs.

So it’s no surprise, the US is OBSESSED with germs. Not that cleanliness is bad. I’m not saying that. I’m just amazed at the number of people that carry around little bottles of hand sanitizer. A little dirt is good for you. Our immune systems evolved to tackle germs and when they don’t have any, the body starts to attack itself. IBS is just one disease that is thought to result from people being TOO clean. But enough of that.

I went out to eat yesterday at … get ready for it… A MALL. Yes, I found a mall with a supermarket and reasonably priced clothing. I bought a ream of paper and some headphone during my lunch hour. I have never been happier. I was standing in line, waiting to get my pizza, when I noticed something strange about the woman dishing up the pizza.

She was taking on and off her gloves as she was getting pizza, but in the reverse order. She would serve and cut pizza with no gloves on, but whenever she had to handle money, she would put the gloves back on. Isn’t this the exact opposite of what we do in the states? So I starting thinking and doing a little web research.

Images from the US Treasury website. Notice the “specimen” watermark on the image.

It’s against the law to take pictures of money like this!

Our money is pretty dirty. There are traces of cocaine on pretty much every bill in the US. Not because everyone is using drugs, but because cocaine is a really fine powder. A single bill used for cocaine in an ATM can contaminate every other bill in the machine. Approximately 10% of bills in the US will grow nasty bacteria when cultured properly. The average bill in the US only last about 18 months before the US treasury decides it is too dirty and they shred is. (Most of my info came from this article, but there are lots of other sources too.)

Anyway, I just thought it was strange. I still ate the pizza. I’m not dead yet. I’m not even sick. (Except for allergies. They never go away.)

I have some pictures. I don’t have a cord for the camera right now. We’ve actually been doing stuff in the evenings so I haven’t had a chance to download stuff off the camera. We went to a MOVIE. In ENGLISH! Molto figo. (I love Google, especially this site.)

Pitti Palace

All I can say is WOW.

Jim worked today and I took some time and ran to Ikea to pick up a few things that we needed around the apartment. (You were right Claire, they do have an Ikea over here!) We decided to take a break when I got back and walk around for a bit.

We ended up at Pitti Palace, which was one of the homes of the Medici family in the mid-1500’s. They apparently used it mainly to store their art collection. From the outside (I’ll get a picture soon - that one is free), it’s not that impressive. But inside, WOW. The rooms are over the top opulent. Ceilings are painted with amazing friezes. The walls are covered with silk. Every room has a huge chandelier. I tried to take some pictures but the museum police (actually just a little old lady) yelled at me.

There are two museums that you get into with the twelve euro ticket - the Palatine Gallery and the Modern Art Collection. The Palatine gallery is about 35-40 rooms in the Palace with art work covering every spare centimeter on the wall. Tiziano, Tintoretto, Raffaello, Rubens, adorned the wall. It was so overwhelming that you end up just slowly walking through and stop looking at the paintings.

After all of that, we went up to the Modern Art Collection. I was thinking Warhol or Pollocks or some poo on a pedestal. That’s modern art, right? Not in Florence. This was 1800-1920ish. The setting wasn’t nearly as opulent, but still a palace. Jim liked it to the Newport mansions but on steroids. (I hope that the New Englanders get that reference. Personally - no clue, but don’t tell husband.)

The best part of the day? The cannoli I had on the way home. YUM. The best part about it? The store is on the way home from the bus station. Cannolis after work anyone?

I promise some pictures tomorrow! I’ll try to get a picture of that cannoli if I can restrain myself long enough… CRUNCH!!

It was better than Screaming Eagle.

So on Wednesday night, Jim and I stumbled onto a real treasure. Something that is once in a lifetime. We went to the Chianti Classico Wine Tasting, 2008. It’s held once a year in Florence. We were expecting something, well, American. A large cover, a few wines, lots of snobs. What we got was this:

That’s no trick photo! It was 100 meters of open wine bottles. As much Chianti Classico as you could possibly taste. The tasting was held in a old warehouse near the train station. We walked in and looked around for some clues. There was a registration but that was all. We filled out a form and they gave us a badge (which we promptly put in our pocket). We walked in, grabbed a glass and started tasting. There were over 300 different bottles of wine open for our pleasure.

In the next room over, over 120 different producers has tables set up with 2-4 different bottles of different vintages or single vineyard wines to taste. It was really overwhelming because we don’t really know anything about Chiantis. So we wandered around, looking at things:

Do you like the little glass pouch around our necks? Very handy! You’ll see me sporting it at the next wine tasting that I go to at Dusty’s.

It doesn’t really give you and idea of how many people were there. See those rows of lights above my head? Each of those is a light over a different stall with a different producer pouring wine. The glasses were free too. Speigelau with the rooster logo that is on all bottles of Chianti Classico.

We wandered around for a bit then Jim decided to look for Villa Calcinaia. This is a producer that we are familiar with because they had a wine dinner at Dusty’s awhile back.

We find the Villa Calcinaia table and the guy pouring the wine is the same person, Sebastiano, who was at the wine dinner! What a small world. Come to find out, he is the owner of the winery. We chatted for a bit and he gave us some suggestions of wines to try. They were all great suggestions. (Jim has the list, I’ll find and publish later.) More chatting and even smaller world - Sebastiano lives on the same street that we are living on here in Florence, about 50 meters away! It was kind of creepy but cool at the same time. He knew all of the places that we like to hang out and check email.

We had a great time. We tried so good (and some not so good) wines. We even remember a few of them!

Tips for visiting Florence

Some acquired wisdom:

- There is no ice in drinks.
- Dogs go poo on the sidewalk and people don’t clean up after them.
- Be prepared to walk.
- If you try, people are nice.
- It costs to sit down.
- There’s not a lot of hot water.
- Soda is sometimes more expensive than wine.
- Doors open into a shop or house.

OK - I’m working on a post right now!! (With pictures too.)