Fiesole

Sunday morning we woke up and headed to the bus station bright and early. We took about a 25-minute bus ride to the little town of Fiesole. We stepped off the bus and were overlooking a Roman Theater that has been around since 3 thousand B.C. it was absolutely breath taking. We entered a small museum to learn about the Atruscan’s, the people of Fiesole. Little is known about their culture because their language hasn’t been fully translated. Everything we do know about them comes from their tombstones and burial sites. So our first stop in the museum was a tombstone that was over 5,000 years old. Like I said before, the museum was very small, so most of the artifacts were little bronze cast items (the Atruscan’s were know for bronze casting!). The last thing we saw was a burial ground. The women were buried with their jewels, and the men with their tools, so grave robbery was very prevalent. The man’s tomb that we looked at included his tools (but they were a little rusty!). Our tour guide said the skeleton saying is “What you are, I once was. What I am, you will be”. The skeleton was thousands of years old, so it was all very eerie!

After the museum we walked outside to talk about the Roman theater. The theater holds up to 3,000 people even though it seems small. The top rows would have been for the women and lower class citizens. A girl from our group went into the middle of the amphitheater and spoke in a normal speaking voice to prove how the theater was built based on acoustics. The theater was one of the only forms of entertainment for people in their time, and plays from Sophocles and Euripides were performed here. I think what I will miss most about Europe is the fact that everywhere I go here is full of such rich history.

We toured the gardens surrounding the theater, and got to see some ancient roman baths before we started our hike. We hiked to a legendary view of Florence, and then headed to a small monastery on the top of the city. By this point it was very rainy and we were all getting pretty hungry… so we were ready for brunch. The brunch that was provided was FIVE COURSES LONG! I swear… all I do is eat here! But hey, I’m not complaining!

After brunch we headed home and went straight to bed! About 25 of us made reservations at a bar for the Super Bowl, and kick off wasn’t until 1 a.m. so a nap was necessary. At about 3:30 us Broncos fans couldn’t handle the slaughter any longer and came home. We were excited to sleep in this morning because they pushed school back to 2:30 p.m. today, but our maid came at 9 and kicked us out of the house for 5 hours (like I’ve said before, sleep isn’t really a thing for study abroad students).

I have lots of exciting things planned for this week/weekend, but I’m not sure when I’ll have time to sit down and write all about it. I’ll do my best to do it soon!

Arrivederci