8/7/08 to 8/21/08

That's right. It's another boring, no pictures post. This is just stuff that happened between the trips to Rome and Assisi.

Thursday 8/7
Today I went back to I Tatti for my first day of work while the library is closed for the month of August. I soon learned that, even though it's closed, there are still fellows that come in to research. And of course the employees are there working, except for those that are on vacation. So basically I Tatti is only closed to Sarah and her people. Those lowly grad students.
After I got home from work someone rang our buzzer. Sarah said we should ignore it. We later found out that it was Lara and her sister Megan who were locked out of Casa LSD. Stephanie was in the States and Dan was in Spain and Lara had no way to contact her landlord. Oh, and her friends weren't answering their door. I blame Sarah. Luckily they found us a little later when we ventured out to buy some groceries. I lent them my phone and we parted ways. They showed up later though, since they still couldn't get ahold of their landlord. So we watched the Forsyte Saga and Lara and Megan used the absent Kellin's bedroom.

Friday 8/8
I worked again today, and Lara was able to get into her apartment. This was very important since I met Sarah at LSD after work so that we could watch the openning ceremonies of the Olympics. In celebration of the Beijing Olympic games we ate Chinese food for dinner.

Saturday 8/9
Today began my fourteen days of spending every waking moment (while not working) sitting in front of the tv watching the Olympics. Well, from early morning until about four o'clock that is. That is when the games were covered here. It also began my immense frustration over the terrible job the Italian tv networks do of covering the Olympics.
I did take a break from television watching to go over to LSD for a dinner party featuring Sarah, Dan, Clark, Analia, Earl, and I and later Lara and Megan. Good times. Unfortunately it was quite hot this evening, even when we got home around 1:30 am.

Sunday 8/10
Watched terrible Olympic coverage and the terrible movie Failure to Launch. Really terrible.

Monday 8/11
I work at I Tatti Monday through Thursday, so I'm not going to bother mentioning it anymore. After work Sarah, Sarah D., her cousin, Kellin, Sean, Lara, Megan, Dan, Clark, and I went out to dinner at Za Za which was good but quite expensive. That's kind of how most things are here in Florence. Afterwards some of us went to House of Sizzle to be entertained by Francesco and for more Olympic coverage.

I'm going to skip ahead a few days because every day involved watching Olympics, soccer, and dinners.

Friday 8/15
Today was Ferragosto. I don't think that's how it's spelled but I don't care. I think it's kind of a dumb idea. This "holiday" marks the middle of August. Yay! So everything that wasn't already closed for the month of August in Italy was actually closed today. Better buy your groceries ahead of time. I think that the dumbest thing about it is that everyone leaves. We saw on tv that all the highways leading north to the rest of Europe were packed and at stand-stills. Actually, that went on most of the month. That's what happens when you encourage an entire nation to leave at the exact same time. Hmmmm.
Well, we stayed. It turned out to be a really nice day. It rained for a very short time around 8 am and was nice and cool the rest of the day. Sarah thought it was cold. It was a great break from the usually unbreakable heat. There was a nice breeze and the rain came back off and on al evening. There was even some hail. Could this day get any better? Yes! Along with the usually non-stop coverage of Olympic fencing, cycling, judo, and rowing, they actually showed diving, volleyball, and track and field events. Things we actually like. I really don't understand the Italians obsession with fencing and cycling. That's usually all they show. Unlike in America where there are seven stations showing non-stop coverage, here they have one network that shows a little bit of crappy sports and then spends way too much time talking about it. That's all they do is talk and not show highlights. It was infuriating. There were fantastic things going on and they would have a panel talking for hours on end. Sorry. I was not happy.

Saturday 8/16
There was more Olympic watching in the morning. Sarah and I broke the monotany by going for an athletic power walk (not to be confused with Olympic speed walking - those people are hilarious) across the river, up to the Piazza Michelangelo, past San Miniato, around this long hill-top road (sometimes called Viale Galileo and sometimes Viale Niccolo Machiavelli), back across the river, west through Cascine Park, and back home. I haven't tracked it on Google map's pedometer, but it was almost ten miles, much of it uphill.

Sunday 8/17
Thankfully the showing of sports I like continued, but there was still way too much time wasted on panel's of "experts" (who happen to be experts on every sport) opinions. Sarah, Lara, Megan, Dan, Sarah D., and I went to Tijuana for dinner then back to Sarah's place to watch An Affair to Remember. After mixed drink specials at Tijuana and wine and grappa at Sarah's, I was a little inebriated. Well, not a little. I still made it to work early the next day, as I do every day.

Tuesday 8/19
Today was my first day of working in the archives at I Tatti with the archivist Ilaria Della Monica. And...
Wednesday 8/20
I got a ride home from Eve Borsook. Well almost home. A couple of bridges away, which is way better than taking the bus. Plus, in walking home I discovered a great bar called the J. Joyce. Eve Borsook is a very well known art historian who moved to Italy from the United States in 1952.

I'm going to stop there for right now. Not very exciting stuff, but I figured I should let people know what's going on. I know that it looks like we go out to eat and drinking at dinner parties every other day, but that's usually not the case. This posting happened to include a number of dinner parties, but that is not the norm, unfortunately. The vast majority of our days see me working at I Tatti, Sarah and Kellin working all day on presentations and research, a small but tastey dinner at home, and more studying. It just so happens that days like that don't make for very exciting reading. So now I am beginning to prepare some more postings with pictures. Hopefully one of these days I will catch up and not be writing about things that happened a month ago. Later.