Field Trip Friday!!

This past friday, February 13th (Friday the 13th!!) I had a field trip with my villa and the garden class. We took a bus from Florence to one of the surrounding areas outside the city. The first place we visited was called the The Medici Villa Castello and was a beautiful villa with ornate gardens and a wonderful view of the entire city. We got a chance to walk through the villa which had an interior courtyard, or foyer, that was decorated a lot different than most that we had seen. Unlike most courtyards that are based on the architectural structure of the space (columns, pillars, symmetric lines) this one had beautiful paintings from ceiling to floor. These painting reflected the members of the families that had once lived in the villa, and most scenes portrayed street festivals or political celebrations. Much of the interior of this villa was influenced by French designs of the time; with many paintings outlined in gold paint and many of the rooms with busy wallpapers and velvet tapestries and bedding. 

The second place we visited was the Medici Villa of La Patraia. We didn't go into any sort of villa here, but rather focused on its garden. This garden was a lot more symmetrical than the and focused a lot around the mathematics of planning the placement for each hedge. Unfortunately, flowers are not traditional in Florentine villas (and as I may have said in previous posts, are more typical of English romantic gardens), so there was a lot of green to be seen. The fountain in the center was under construction because some of the statues were being repositioned. 

But we did get to see a former fountain, that no longer runs the water due to erosion problems. It was located directly in the center of the back of the garden and was made partially out of sea shells! It had statues of animals, such as goats, lions, and horses. It was pretty impressive!

After this school field trip business was over, a small group of us decided to hop back on the bus and go for a hike in Fiesole; a small rural area outside of the Florence city walls. It was a beautiful (but chilly day) and we just wondered around the area. We saw a cute little church and found the lookout point where you can see all of Florence; it was beautiful! We also ran into a group of American students sitting at the lookout point and they brought a picnic of cheese, wine and bread with them and they were organizing a small game of soccer! I took that as notes for our next visit up there!

Then we walked along a dirt/rock trail, stumbled upon a villa turned hotel and kept hiking around the perimeter of the town- it was refreshing and so nice to just be in the fresh air. I of course had to try out the local gelato and got a hazelnut flavor- it was amazing, typical. :)

We all decided that we would stay in and rest that evening for Venice the next day. We stumbled upon a little Mexican restaurant in our sweatpants and sweatshirts and shared some chips, salsa, guacamole, and Sangria. It was a great relaxing night, just sitting and talking in this restaurant- and I have to say that I have truly made some great new friends here!

xo,

Amanda