Life is good today as we enjoy a wonderful concert from a student orchestra from Estonia right across from one of Firenze's most beautiful piazzas, Piazza della Signoria, where our apartment is located. We are surrounded by Florence's government offices, the Uffizi, which houses the world's greatest art collection, and Cafe Rivoire, where some of the world's greatest authors drank expresso. Some of our students left Friday for the French Riviera while others are traveling to Venezia. Still others decided to spend the weekend in Sweden. They deserve some time off after a hectic week which introduced them to Robin Larsen's travel and feature writing class and the great work of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini in the Italian Cinema class, Lucca and the Uffizi, where they saw a special exhibition of the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610). Caravaggio, Rome's most important artist, ushered in one of the most important movements art, something Leonardo DiVinci and Michaelangelo failed to do. His intensely emotional realism and dramatic use of lighting had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting.
We now await our friends Andreinna and Emilio Gunichi, one of Italy's foremost artists. We met them 13 years ago on our adventure to find Frances Mayes' Bramasole (
Under the Tuscan Sun) in Cortona, Italy. Since then we have seen each other in America or Italy each year. We also spoke to our friend Ilaria Lembo of Compiobi. Ilaria was our first Italian teacher in Florence, and she and her family have become wonderful friends. They even spent a summer at our Arcadia home while we were in Italy. She told us great news--she and her husband are going to have a baby in September. We attended their beautiful wedding in Italy three years ago.
Life is good today!
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