Food- The Food Market

Italian food and wine is just as big as Italian art and architecture, and I expect to devour as much of this city as I can during my brief stay.  Already I have expanded my pallet beyond what I believed possible.  I have tried things I never even thought to eat, and enjoyed more delicious versions of dishes I have previously eaten.  I will go over everything in a more refined and analytical section later in my blog, but for now, I want to touch on today's happenings specifically.

Yesterday morning, I woke my roommate up early and together we walked twenty minutes to the giant food market here in Florence.  We were met with scents of fresh meat and fish on ice, sticky-sweet pastries, and spices of every kind.  The ground floor was set up in a loose grid shape of meat markets, veggie and cheese markets, candy shops, and wine stores.  On the first floor- second floor, if you're in the States- is a plethora of restaurants, bars, and gelaterias that you can't get enough of.  Walking through the building is a fulfilling experience in itself, but I couldn't walk away empty handed.

I knew I wanted to make a sandwich, and so I got to work.  From one deli I bought prosciutto- a raw, cured ham- and from another I purchased delicious buffalo mozzarella swimming in a bowl of whey.  After a few more ingredients (fresh bread, arugula, tomatoes, and pesto) I was able to make myself a delicious sandwich.

Then again today, my class took a walking tour of Florence that ended at this same building.  Unfortunately the ground shops close at 2pm, so instead we headed up to the first floor with the assignment to ask around and try traditional Tuscan dishes.  After scuffling about for a few minutes, we all met up stuffing our faces with various finds.  One of my roommates returned with panzanella- a salad traditionally made with stale, leftover bread that is soaked in water, and tossed with cheeses, basil, and tomatoes.  Another member of our group from EIU tried the number one Florence street food: lampredotto.  Lampredotto is a sandwich made with prepared tripe with salsa verde (an herby sauce).  I personally had a variation of a cannolo, which is traditionally made with sweet ricotta stuffed into a sugary, deep-fried roll.  However, the one I had was actually stuffed with gelato and chocolate chips.

I hope to try each of the other dishes before I leave, and to find others to try. Tonight, around 2am, I have an alarm set to go find one of the rumored "secret" bakeries in Florence.  If all goes well, I will create a post going into more detail on the matter.  

Until then,

Ciao!

My prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella panini. 

Art- Frescos

An art medium quickly associated with the Renaissance is fresco art.  It certainly isn’t strictly a Renaissance method, and in fact is found in Italy from multiple time periods.  However, it is a huge part of the décor here in Florence, and I cannot help but to see it every day.  A fresco is a two-dimensional art form created by adding color pigment to wet, white plaster.  An example would be the famous Sistine Chapel in Rome.  Until my time in Italia, this was the extent of my knowledge concerning frescos; pigments mixed with wet plaster equals art.  But there are things I’ve learned in class- especially on class trips- that have really expanded my understanding of this art.

Firstly, there is an obvious setback to making frescos: you have to work quickly.  If not, the plaster will dry and you will have nothing to mix pigment in to.  So what do you do to counter this?  The artist mixes and plasters in sections the size of what he can work in a day.  These sections are called giornatas, and literally mean “a day’s work.”  Many pieces have slight variations in color within them, allowing you to see the specific giornata.

Before the artist can slap plaster on a wall and create a fresco, he must first prepare the wall.  This is the second thing I learned on a class trip to San Miniato al Monte, an ancient basilica just outside of Florence (I will go into this trip in more detail in another post).  Before the artist colored the fresco, he would first draw on the wall to map the project.  I know this should be obvious, but I really never thought about a fresco as a drawing colored in with plaster.  These drawings are rough, basic sketches called sinopias.  Sinopias are named thusly after the natural red earth pigment used to create them. There are many example of frescos left incomplete, containing only a sketch of the fresco-to-be.  Personally, I enjoyed the sinopias I saw and thought them to be just as- if not, more- aesthetically pleasing than the completed frescos.

(Written 26-05-2015)

Art- First Day of Class cont.

Nudity.  It is one of the more important aspects of Renaissance art.  Donatello was the first in nearly 1,000 years to create a nude sculpture when he cast his bronze David.  Much like the early Romans who used nudity in their artwork, this sculpture and time period looked at the beauty of man and man’s body as a whole.  This statue is also very sensual- a long feather runs up the back of David’s thigh- and feminine- the body posture and boyish curves exaggerate the mindset of art at that time.  Before this work was created, it would have been very frowned upon to create this type of sculpture

(Written 24-05-2015)

Art- First Day of Class

Today in class, we learned that the Renaissance really began with a competition to create panels for door to the Baptistery of Saint John in Florence.  The competition came down to two artist’s renditions of the sacrifice of Isaac: Filippo Brunelleschi, and Lorenzo Ghiberti.  Ghiberti became the victor, and Brunelleschi- a man of pride- gave up sculpture and travelled to Rome to study ancient art and architecture.  This would not be the last history would see of Brunelleschi, as this trip to Rome also played a major part in the construction of a Florence Renaissance.