And Then There Were Four / It's a Small World After All

It's 12:10 A.M. and I'm forcing myself to post an entry against my will because I already feel guilty for not posting yesterday. Which, by the way, was a complete accident. In any case, I apologize in advance if this entry proves to be a cursory recount of the last 48 hours.

Up until Tuesday, my schedule for Wednesdays was completely open after Italian in the morning, but I received an email from Antonio telling me my private composition lesson had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoons at 2:30, though he didn’t say who it would be with.

Before my lesson I went down into the city by myself to find Paperback Exchange, an American bookstore near the Duomo that is selling our textbooks. I GoogleMap-ed it before I left, but I clearly didn’t study it carefully enough. The network of roads and alleys just south of the Duomo is a labyrinth of narrow passages and unmarked streets. I wandered around in circles for a while, and even asked someone “Come si va a via della ocche?” (How do you get to Via Delle Ocche) but just as I was losing hope, I found it.

My Italian book was € 48,50 and I’m hoping I can sell it back at the end of the semester…

On my way home I ran into several people I know, which is weird. I think it’s just a testament to how many study abroad (and particularly NYU study abroad) students are in the city.

My composition teacher is Ricardo Ricardi.

That’s actually his name. How brilliant is that?

He’s a composer of opera  and “musical theater” although the art form as WE know it in the US literally doesn’t exist in this country, and no one knows what it is. This semester, I’ll be working with Ricardo on orchestration, setting text, and he even gave me a 12-tone serialism assignment. We’ll see how that goes…

Wednesday night I went to dinner with some people at an off-campus residence. It was very nice.

When I arrived home Wednesday night, I got an email from my Italian professoressa saying she was very ill and class had been canceled for the next day, which meant I got to sleep in!

Thursday:

I DID get up for breakfast, but then went back to bed until about noon. It felt good to sleep in.

My first class at 1:30 was Aural Skills (or “Ear Training”) IV. It’s going to be a challenge. Since the Theory and Aural courses are generally correlated with the History courses (I-IV) we have now moved on to 20^th Century music, so in Aural Skills we’ll be learning to sight-sing atonal melodies, which is extremely difficult. We’re also expected to do dictation of atonal chords…the teacher is originally from Michigan, and comes to Rome via Boston where he taught Ear Training at Berkeley School of Music…so I guess he knows his stuff!

During our break I came up to my room to grab something and check my email and Frank Garcia walked in the door (our fourth roommate)! He was at the inauguration, so he had to come late to Italy (poor baby). It’s nice that all four of us are finally here and we have a complete room.

After Aural Skills was Music History II: The Baroque and Classical Eras. This class is probably the class I’m most excited about because it is my favorite musical period (not including contemporary music). Our instructor was British, slightly neurotic, though quite funny, and certainly entertaining to listen to at any rate.

So here’s a random story (and testament to the genius of Facebook): a couple of days ago, Kora Kilpatrick, graduate of Curtis High School the year before me, posted on my wall to say she saw my profile picture (of me rubbing the nose of the pig statue in the market) and so she knew I was in Florence. She is here in Florence as well, and has been since September with Gonzaga University in western Washington State.

So! Tonight she and her friend met me and some of my friends for dinner at one of their favorite Florentine restaurants called Il Gatto E La Volpe (The Cat and the Wolf) based on characters from Pinocchio. We had a lovely dinner with some of the best homemade bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar I’ve ever tasted. The house red wine was also incredible, and the food was fantastic.

Florentine Fun Fact: Alfredo sauce doesn’t exist. It’s an American invention.

We went BACK to Grom for more gelato (because, of course, we had to take Frank on his first night here!)

You can never have too much gelato. And when it’s only € 2 for a piccolo (small), it’s pretty hard to resist!