Photo of the Week: Dec. 21, 2009

The Duomo during the snow storm on Friday night. In getting this photo my fingers nearly got frostbite. Cotton gloves only keep your hands warm if they aren't wet. I hope you enjoy.

Florence in the Winter

It was snowing last night in Florence for the first time in years.  I had been watching the weather reports religiously for the last week hoping that their forecast would hold and some of that fun white snow would come our way, and look what happened.  This is the first time in years that I've been in a city while its snowing, and I couldn't wait to go out and see it for myself. 

Dragging Rachael along, we put on all of cold weather cloths and headed out to enjoy the city.  Heading down the street towards the city center the first thing we noticed was the lack of people.  This place was abandoned.  There were the occasional group of young adults running about, but nearly everyone who was out was American.  Next in our observations was that all of the shops and many of the restaurants were closed up for the night.   The entire city had shut down on the account of the snow.  I have never been on Corso with that few of people out.  Usually it is littered with people all throughout the day, but apparently Italians do not have the same affinity for snow.  Granted it was rather chilly out, the temperature was floating around 1-2'C.

Wandering around it was interesting to see the buildings begin to collect a dusting of snow.  Seeing Brunelleschi's dome painted white was quite memorable.  The snow was extremely heavy and wet.  Falling in large chunks rather than flakes.

This morning I woke hoping to find the city buried under the snow.  Unfortunately this was not the case, but there was still some traces of the snow left on the ground and on the roof tops.  So, after getting ready we headed out again to see what there was too see.  What we saw was mostly our breath because it was freakin' cold out there.  It was still relatively empty for such a touristy city on a Saturday.

After a quick bite while we warmed up in Il Ghibellini I made the precarious journey up to piazzale Michelangelo to get a view of the city while it still had traces of snow.  The piazza was crowed with photographers, like myself, of all levels.  I'm certain that there are bound to be very similar postings on many facebook pages in the next few days.  I guess I'm no better though, and I can't blame them.  It was rather pretty.

As Promised a Few More Photos

Here is Santa Maria Novella.  This is maybe 5 mins into our walk to school.  We take a right here.

 We take another right here.









This is where that last right takes us.

From the balcony of our school...

From the same balcony...





Not bad right?!






This is where we go to school Piazza della Repubblica.

Let Me Show You Around a Little.

So, I'm now in week three of the teaching program.  Teaching is a whole lot of work!  I happen to not have too much due tomorrow so I thought I would take the opportunity to give you a little tour of my world.

What better place to start than our front door.  From here we walk down past Santa Maria Novella.  Unfortunately some of the churches, like this one, that have impressive pieces of art have been turned into tourist attractions.  You have to pay to get into the main portion of the church which contains the culturally significant artwork.  I'm not sure if I just didn't pay attention when I was younger or if paying to get into these churches is a new development, but either way it was slightly disappointing.

On the brighter side their are some excellent gelaterias in this piazza.  Everyday on the way home I'm enticed to try one of the waffles.  Oh my lord these things are delicious.  Two yummy hot waffles with a crunchy sugar glaze act as the bread in the waffle and nutella sandwich.  Mmm!  Fighting off the temptations we take a turn and are now staring straight at the Duomo.  Such an amazing site early in the morning before the tourists with their constant picture taking over the Piazza del Duomo.

Taking another right leads us into the Piazza della Repubblica.  Our school is in the top floor of the building on the Northwest corner of the building.  Here is a picture out one of the classroom windows where I teach and take lessons.  Not bad right?  The dome in the back there is from Bassilica di San Lorenzo. When I have a little more time I will add some additional photos to share.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!