La mia vita più il gelato.

So it’s been a little while since I’ve last written and instead I left you with that last less than savory entry for long enough to let it stew…

So much has happened since that trip to Genova, and this entry was originally intended to be on a successive trip to Bologna in which the highlight was the most incredible gelato I have ever had in my life. I will tell you this, the food in Bologna is absolutely amazing and almost worth a jump across the 3000 mile pond simply to gorge yourself in the city where prosciutto, pesto, ravioli, lasagna, and yes also gelato were invented.

But no, instead of concentrating on the minutiae of my trip to Bologna I will instead ramble on about Italy and my life a bit, you will nevertheless not be spared my pictures from the trip which I present to you now:

All the pictures you see above this one were taken after a Heineken, and after i climbed the hundreds of steps in the tower presented on the right. From the height of the tower you could see the whole city.

Italy has already changed me, in ways more profound than I probably even realize. To begin, I can now speak Italian, I mean really speak it. I knew Italian when I came of course; the grammar and the finer points of conjugation, but now I see the difference between knowing a language and actually speaking it—using subtlety to explain a point, expressing joy and sadness, and using language in a way that isn’t just words but actually reaches people, convinces them, changes their minds’ and lets them see your point of view—this is the difference between speaking and knowing a language and the fact that I am now speaking a language that only three years ago was a vague aspiration gives me pause.

Beauty is a religion here for which I have become a believer. I went to the Uffizi gallery and saw such famous works as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Da Vinci’s The Adoration of the Magi, a self portrait of Michelangelo. Yesterday I went with my art history class to l’Accademia and saw Michelangelo’s David—il Davide—the fact that mankind is capable of so much evil and yet there are some among us capable of creating such mastery is enough to restore my faith in humanity and to inspire me to push to be something greater than I am.

Unfortunately this will have to be a short entry. Finals are next week. But after that I’ll have nothing but time.

Oh yea, and I’m thinking of spending my Christmas in Paris. Not a bad life uh?

From Italy, “Buona Giornata!”