On Sunday, we opted to skip the Uffizi for that day because its a big museum and we will be visiting it with our Art History class so we decided to walk around a rainy Florence. Toni's mom, (shout out to Toni! haha) had given me the address of this perfume place that I had to go to which is near the Santa Maria Novella Church which is on the other side of town. Ironically as we were looking through Rick Steve's tour guide book of Italy it came up as a place we must visit so we went to check it out. It is called the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica Di Santa Maria Novella and it is one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. It was founded by the Dominican friars in 1221 and it used medicinal herbs grown in the monastic gardens to make medications, balms and pomades for the monk's infirmary. Today it is a beautiful museum that has windows to the garden and sells all sorts of perfumes, bath soaps, pot-pourri, shampoo & conditioners and much more. You could actually smell it from outside! It was a really interesting and awesome place. I couldn't decide on which perfume I buy so I'll just have to make the trip back!
Monday was our first day of classes in the second part of the program. We are allowed to go to any or all of the classes offered and then we can pick from there which ones we want to take. Yesterday I went to Medieval Art History in the morning. Its a small class and we go on a bunch of field trips but the Medieval period doesn't interest me as much as the Renaissance era does. So I went o Renaissance Art History in the afternoon and liked that class much better! (Thats more art history in one day then I've had in my entire life!) In this class we learn about Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo (as they refer to him here), Raffaello and many more! We also go on field trips around Florence as well. So I am taking: Italian 2, Renaissance Art History, Italian History, and Italian Cinema. After class it was food shopping and then we decided to go to the movies. Once a week here they will play a movie in English with Italian subtitles at the local movie theater called the Odeon. Let me tell you, it certainly blows the Ritz right out of the water! It was incredible! It was a stain glassed dome in the middle of the ceiling, complete with a balcony, velvet seats and an intermission! It was so much fun! Plus with our student card we get a discount! We saw "Rachel Getting Married." I didn't love it. Its very dark and not what I was expecting but I would definitely go back!
Today I start Italian 2 classes and we might be going to a free chocolate tasting! Yum!
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