Primavera

Spring has arrived to Orvieto, and sooner than I expected it would. This afternoon I rolled up my jeans, took off my shoes and socks and sat on my third story stone window sill to take in the sun, much to the chagrin of one of the old nuns puttering around in the garden below (“Oh! Mamma mia!”). Besides frightened sisters out enjoying the warmth, below me was a flowering pink tree in full bloom inhabited by the biggest, blackest bees I’ve seen, grass that is beginning to grow lush and cool in the shade, rich, fresh upturned earth ready to be filled by more than the scattered palm bushes, inactive hoses leading to potted plants whose gorged soil leaked water onto the warm concrete paths, and everything else that makes a garden in the spring fresh and re-consecrated by natural birth and honesty in labor.

Yesterday, St. Patrick’s Day (which I only knew because my roommate is both Irish and was born on the 17th and had his 21st yesterday, which of course means absolutely nothing here), we all traveled to Florence (Firenze) for the first time on one of our many instructional trips. I was excited to go back, both because we’d been to Roma three times already and I’ve become sick of Baroque everything, and because Firenze was my favorite of the three major Italian cities my family and I visited two summers ago. We had a little bit of trouble with a delayed train in the morning, but got going soon enough. Looking back, I feel like it was a bit of an unusual day in terms of what we looked at and what we ignored. For instance, we completely ignored Santa Croce and the district, walked by the Palazzo Vecchio and didn’t even walk up into the sculpture Loggia, etc. But I did have a nice quiet lunch by myself, after which I walked up the street that houses the flagship stores for every major Italian designer (I still like Calvin Klein suiting best, but Zegna…wow). And, of course, Uncle Bobby, I peeked inside the Officine Panerai shop. I had time left before we met in front of the baptistery, so I walked into the Duomo, which I found actually disappointingly boring and plain. Dr. Skillen (or “J Skillz,” as we’ve come to affectionately call him) talked to us for a bit about the baptistery doors, led us over to view the Donatellos in the open air on the Guilds chapel, and across the Ponta Vecchia to Palazzo Pitti and back. While on the other side of the Arno, we stopped into a church briefly to view Pontormo’s “Deposition.” Now, I loathe Mannerism, but I do have to admit that it was an impressive painting; not only could I appreciate the balance of color and the movement, but it also looked much, much better in “real life” than in all the horrid reproductions I’ve seen of it.

Today we had our group presentations on different parts of the Catholic Catechism. My group covered Liturgy and the Sacraments. It went well, even if we were rushed for time. Keith Pecklers, a major figure in the Jesuit world (he’s ABC’s correspondent for all things Vatican) and also the presiding priest at the English-speaking church at Caravita, gave a talk on Ecumenism this afternoon, which was insightful. Tomorrow we have our final for this course, and then the rest of the day to finish up our papers and celebrate the local holiday of San Giuseppe, the patron saint of Orvieto.

Friday, my friends Ryan, Jake, Abby, Heather, Jess and I pack up to head out to Venezia for two nights, returning through Bologna on Sunday. It should be a great end to this first “semester” here in Orvieto. Monday begins Matt’s drawing course…I’m very excited for it.

Edit: how did I forget this? My favorite part of yesterday was going to the Dominican monastery San Marco (which is now just a museum) in Firenze. Why? The entire thing is filled with Fra Angelico frescoes! Every cell had its own...not to mention the awe-inspiring Annunciation, for which he is best known. I'm not even going to try to put into words the overwhelming nature of that place.