Olga's Poetry & Thoughts

*Apologies for belated post. Internet was down for one week!* Yesterday, I went on a class field trip to Florence. The majority of the day consisted of a guided tour through the Uffizi, one of the oldest art galleries in the world. Apart from being insanely crowded and bursting at the seams with tourists (like myself) I was still able to take a few angled photographs of the most interesting pieces we saw, of which I will give a brief description in this blog post. Below is the first art piece that the guide showed us. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the name for it. It features the Virgin Mary, very two-dimensional, with the angels seemingly stacked on top of each other. Her facial features are diminished and there is no use of highlights or shadow, giving no depth to the art piece. Below is the art piece “Ognissanti Madonna” by Giotto di Bondone (1310). This representation of the Virgin Mary is much different from the first. In this piece, she is strong and feminine,

I refuse to sell my heart, not for twenty-five cents The auction is closed, ladies and gents I’ve already sold my eyes, when they caught sight of the streets So now everyone can see the beauty of my Italian retreat I sold my tongue for gelato, feeling so young Letting the wild berries dance around on my tongue I sold my feet when I traveled to see our Holy Mother in gold Like a saint on a mission, I’ll walk until I get old I sold my ears when I heard beautiful Aida open her lips Echoing through the theatre in which the ancients used to sit But I won’t sell my heart, it is still free For my heart belongs to God and not really to me My heart aches for home, too many miles away Yet for now I am here and I will live for today Yes, I sold my eyes to Italy; it’s all I can see How I wish you were here seeing these treasures with me I’ll try to buy back my sight, taste, and ears too So that I’ll be able to share these memories with you

As you may or may not know already, I am doing a summer abroad program in Italy at the University of Siena. I'm taking an ethnic politics course where we study the different ways that ethnicity influences nation-building, and how a unified Italy came about from ethnic solidarity. So far, the trip has been amazing. Yesterday we went on our first class field trip to Pisa and Lucca. In the photograph below, you can see the Leaning Tower of Pisa (of course) and the Pisa cathedral (which actually leans a bit as well). Pisa used to be a marshy area, which is obviously not a good foundation for these gigantic structures. You could not climb the tower throughout the 1990s because the tower was leaning too much, but they fixed it by putting lead blocks on the non-leaning side in order to stabilize the structure. Walking up the tower is a dizzying experience, as you can really feel the lean! Also, the steps are made of marble and can be slippery. The view from the top, however, is surreal.