The Fugates are coming! Part 1 - The beginning

I don't remember the exact dates (since I waited so long to post this), but I think Sarah's parents Bonnie and Steve Fugate (for those of you who don't know them) came over to Florence on the 10th of December. They were here to see us, to sight-see, but also to be with Sarah when she presented her paper at the symposium which would also be her graduation from Syracuse University Florence. I don't remember everything that we did, and they did some things without me while I was at work. So I'll just follow and describe the pictures, like I do.


Even though I had already lived in Florence for almost six months, this was the first time that I had been inside the Duomo, aka Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka the Florence Cathedral. The term duomo does not refer to the dome, but instead is the word for a cathedral church. It was begun in 1296 but wasn't finished until 1436 when Brunelleschi designed and finished the famous dome. The dome was one of the largest in the world until the modern era, and is still the largest brick dome ever built. It weighs 37,000 tons and contains over 4 million bricks. The inside of the church is actually quite plain. I know that there was quite a bit of damage from the 1966 flood, but I don't know the specifics. Ask Sarah next time you see her.


Here's the inside of the dome. That will be shown more later because Sarah, Steve, and I climbed to the top of the dome at a later date.


So there seems to always be one strike or another in progress. Whether it's an education strike, a transportation strike, or whatever, there always seems to be some unrest. I actually don't know what this strike was about. I think it was related to the education business, but this on didn't involve students, unlike the other school strikes I'd seen.


So a lot of things were closed due to, or in support of, this strike.


I don't think they knew where they were going.


We tried to go into San Marco, which was supposed to be open at that time but was closed due to the strike. We'd have to try again later.


Instead we went to the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. We went into the enclosed area that comes before the church but no further. There was a mass in progress. I like this area though because some of the little fake windows above have people painted into them.


Now we move on the the day of the symposium. All of the grad students' hard work came down to this one day. Here the girls (Stephanie, Lara, Sarah, Kellin, and Mary) in the group re-enact the gestures that they were researching, kind of.


They nervously await their turns.


Sarah presents her paper on the silence gesture, which changed meaning over the years. Ask her about it. I dare you.


After the presentations were over Barbara Deimling congratulated them all since this was, in effect, their graduation ceremony. Here's Tom (blocked), Mary, Sarah, Deimling in front of Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark.


And again: Tom, Mary, Sarah, Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark. Glad to be done.


Sarah applies the suspenders.


Steve and Sarah discuss the finer points of gesture in art.


After the dinner with the professors, parents, and students, some of the new graduates went out to Moyo. And I must apologize to Clark, but I got two great pictures of him so I'm going to show them to the world. Or at least three members of this world.


Sarah, Lara, Kellin, and Clark. Four of the six new TAs. Someone's education is now in their hands.