So quite a bit has happened in the past few days!

So Tuesday (Sept. 7th) was la Festa delle Rificolone (festival of the paper Lanterns) which is on the eve of a religious Italian celebration called "Nativita della Beata Vergine Maria", remembering the Birth of the Virgin Mary. At night, Florentines walk through the city carrying paper lanterns illuminated by candles from within. This tradition dates back to the Renaissance, when pilgrims bearing lanterns would gather in front of the Church Santissima Annunziata, and many would arrive from outside of the city after sunset so needed a lantern to light the way.

We watched the main procession go right down our street, Via dei Servi, into Piazza della S.S. Annunziata. In the Piazza, there is a festival with many vendors, cotton candy machines, balloons, and lots of children shooting spitwads to break the lanterns--those little punks! After art class, I hurried back to my apartment, grabbed my camera and went down to take some pictures. We also brought some euros to buy some authentic italian almond brittle. deeelicious!

Wednesday, in commemoration of the Nativita della Beata Vergine Maria (birth of the blessed Virgin Mary), the terrace level of the Duomo was open to the public for free! They only open this level once a year, so we were very fortunate to go up. Today also was our first rain and I got to put my fancy REI rainjacket to use. (It works well parents!!)

From left to right: Caroline (San Jose), Ilaria (Italia), Valentina (Italia), me, Maleesa (San Luis Opispo)

Finally our house is complete--our two italian roommates moved in 3 days ago, and their names are Ilaria and Valentina-- and they are the sweetest girls! We went and got gelato last night( ilaria said it is the best gelato in firenze--she told me that she is "a gelato expert") , and tonight we went and got some pizza! It was soo good. I know that we are all going to learn so much from eachother and I am so excited for what is to come!!



Today after class, Kayla and I walked over to the San Ambrosio market, which is like a giant farmers market plus clothing, purses, jewlery--pretty much anything you can think of. I have officially decided that this is where I will buy everything from now on.

Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to Volterra, learning all about the Etruscan people and all that good stuff. Then we are having dinner at Machiavelli's house--you know, the guy who wrote The Prince? Ya, no biggie ;)

Well I gotta wake up early tomorrow, so it's time to sleep!