Botticelli. Bologna. Birthday.

I am all too aware that my European adventure is coming to an end. And so, on Friday I finally went to the Uffizi to see some amazingness.

I got in for free with my student museum pass. I didn't take any pictures, because the security was dense.

The Seven Virtues (1469-72) [from google images]

The virtue on the far left was painted by Botticelli and the other six were painted by Piero del Pollaiolo. You cannot see them too well here, but when I saw them they took up a whole wall. They are each awesomely expressive. I thought that Botticelli's Fortitude was the most well done.

Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (1486) [from google images]

This piece is the reason that I went to the museum. And it was definitely striking. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. I was fortunate to have gone on a uncrowded day, so I didn't have to push past a mob to see it. Her hair is awesome. 

Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur (1482) [from google]

However, though Venus is lovely and all, I preferred Botticelli's depiction of her sister, Pallas Athena. While Venus is floating out of a seashell, gorgeous and passive, Athena is taking care of business, wielding a giant axe to be used if necessary. 

On Saturday, a friend and I went on a day trip to Bologna. We actually had no plans at all for what to do once we got there. Fortunately for us, there was a giant chocolate festival that day! It was even more legit than the one that I went to in Perugia. We had gotten there in the morning, and at that time it was not crowded. We walked around and helped ourselves to samples from every white tent. This random chocolate festival felt like God's early birthday present to me. He knows me so well. :)

Bologna!

Some chocolate goodness

So we walked from tent to tent and I asked for a sample at every stop. They don't often have samples out but if you ask in Italian then you can have a lovely market experience. So I would point to some chocolate and say, "Posso trovare questo?" I was trying to say, "Can I try this?" What I was really saying is, "Can I find this?" I did not realize that until after I got back to Firenze. It explains why their faces were so confused. But I must say that between my persistent pointing and my hopeful face, I did succeed in getting tons of samples. I now know that the correct phrase to say is, "Posso assaggiare questo?" ("Can I taste this?")

Even chocolate shoes!

After that we walked around the city for a bit. It was decked out in Christmas cheer!

Really tall tower

We noticed that Bologna really favored the color orange for its architecture.

Christmas lights!

At lunchtime, we searched forever for a place that served Bologna's famous dish, tagliatelle al ragù alla bolognese. We found a vegetarian place and several pizzerias and were getting discouraged. I finally found an empty ristorante, and we decided to give it a try as we were starving.

It was super fancy! In Europe, you are lucky if a restaurant has a bathroom let alone a bathroom with toilet paper. So between the waiter asking to take our coats and the bathroom having cloth napkins, we knew that this was way fancier than we'd bargained for.

Le tagliatelle al ragù alla bolognese

I ordered the famous dish and it was very good! My friend ordered the greenest gnocchi that I've ever seen and she said that it was good. So we had a very nice, fancy meal.

After, we got the bill. There was a five euro each coperto! Usually the coperto (seating charge) is two euros max. So it turned out to be an even fancier meal than we'd anticipated! Oh well, live and learn!

And on Sunday, it was my birthday! Happy twentieth to me!!

I decided to start off my twenties on the right foot so I volunteered to feed the homeless. There was only one lady in charge and there were about a dozen homeless adults, and they all only spoke Italian. So it was a bit intimidating for me as I was the only volunteer there. Fortunately, we had just learned the cooking vocab in my class, so I was able to understand some of what was said. I was nervous so that contributed to my Italian being terrible. It was a humbling reminder of how good my Italian isn't. Nevertheless, when the lady spoke slowly and repeated things a few times, I was able to understand. One guy seemed skeptical of my bread cutting skills (I thought that they might like a variety of sizes, ok?), but I got to eat with them and after I felt good about going. I also made it to church and that was nice.

On Monday, my professoressa told me that she hadn't known that it was my birthday. But another girl in my class had her birthday on the same day, and she wasn't in class today, so my teacher gave me the cake that was meant for my classmate and my class sang "tanti auguri" to me (as is our class tradition). It was an apple cake and it was yummy.

At dinner, my homestay family made me a special birthday dinner. The primo piatto was lasagna. It was nothing like the lasagna that we buy from Costco and pop in the oven. This lasagna was homemade with love. Then we had meat and potatoes. And then I got to see the sorpresa that the girls were so excited about. My Italian mom had made me a tiramisu as a birthday cake! And my Italian sis G and her friend had helped make biscotti!

my tiramisu cake

G's friend, G, me, and M

"Soffi!" ("Blow!")

This probably goes without saying, but the tiramisu was lovely! And the cookies that G and her friend helped make were surprisingly good, too! They took the marscapone cookies, put Nutella and creme in them, rolled them in milk, and then rolled them in cocco (coconut). I'm a big fan of coconut (especially coconut with chocolate), so I thought they were great!

I'm so glad that I got a cake with twenty candles on it to blow out! Because now, I officially feel twenty.

"O Lord bless me and keep me / Cause your face to shine on me / Lord be gracious / Lift the light of your countenance / Give me peace / For I live only to see your face / So shine on me." ~ "Light Of Your Face" by Misty Edwards