No Big Deal

My History of Tuscany Professor is Italian royalty. No big deal. We had our first class today and he took us out for wine and his great grandmothers house (aka a palace). No big deal. Oh and did I mention the palace where the movie Hannibal was shot?! No big deal. I saw all these (original may I mention) centuries-old pieces of art that are hidden from the public. And I saw them!! I felt like I was standing on the set of The Da Vinci Code. His library is wall-to-wall old archives in Latin, Italian, Spanish and German. So our project for the class is a paper on the topic of our choice, but our topic has to be one his archives cover...which is pretty much anything old and famous or Italian. Any suggestions? I was thinking something along the lines of the Medici Family's banishment from the city of Florence, or how World War II affected Florence, maybe even Mussolini's relationship with Hitler?? I have to decide by next class period so I don't have a lot of time to procrastinate unfortunately. I think I'm really going to enjoy this class and the professor. First words: "I drink. I smoke. And I swear. There, thought you should know a little something about me." He has this great British accent, but he's full on Italian (Cipolla-google him). Mahoney is a tamer, milder version of Professor Carlo. M. Cipolla  (for all those SHS'ers reading). It's going to be a fun 15 weeks. 

Ok. So on to bigger things. Cinque Terre was yesterday with the Simpson family. It was a very warm day, with loads of hiking, but it was all worth it for the beautiful views of the five cities along the coastline (and for the fact I have been eating 'heavily' for the last week well-knowing of the rigors the day trip offered).  Let's just say we all worked up a great sweat just before jumping into the Mediterranean for a quick swim. All of the five cities ranged in population of 900- 2000, so very small fishing ports. Except the fish nearly went extinct so they can no longer fish- but rely on us tourists to buy boat loads of gelato! Although they are no longer known as the fishing ports they once were, we still had a traditional Cinque dish of squid, octopus, crab cakes, shrimp and mussels. Oh and the best pesto pasta I have yet to have scourged down since my arrival in Itlay. Well worth missing my first day of classes at my new foreign school! No biggie!