La Casa, la Gatto e il Volpe

Sunday was a short but exciting day. Most of the roommates took off for Cinque Terre, a visit I'm saving until the last Sunday of my trip--and also a visit not considered lightly after two nonstop days in Rome.

I took advantage of the emptiness of the house to get my laundry in the washer (it takes two hours here... for some reason) and then wait around and clean up my room until I got it on the line. Once the laundry was hung up and properly clothesline clipped I grabbed my map and promptly headed south to find the "Casa Buonarotti" (or Michelangelo's house). The property was bought by Michelangelo however he never lived in it himself and it is one of five others he bought in the surrounding area when he was just 25 (his mastery of sculpture had earned him many high profile commissions... including from popes!).

His nephew Lionardo adored his uncle so much that it was in this property that he tried to save and collect all of the works of Michelangelo that he could. The Casa Buonarotti is best known for having the greatest collection of drawings, writings and models by the artist himself and also for his two first works in sculpture--the "Madonna of the Stairs" and "The Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs."

As amazing as it was I walked up and down the street (Via Ghibellina) three times and missed it each time! I was truly worried that I would not be able to find it. My map had even had the wrong address, but I knew it had to be in the proximity of the street bearing Michelangelo's name! It took a little while, but I found it!


I was unable to take pictures inside. The temporary exhibit going on was called "Il volto di Michelangelo" ("The face of Michelangelo") and featured works by many different artists who represented the master in their own works. They had original copies of Vasari's 1568 writings for the "Vite" with a woodcut of Michelangelo... a feature that may help me with my paper.

The other collections were eye opening. Lionardo cared dearly for his late uncle and you can tell he took great care in collecting works, even having some paintings done after the ones that were present at Michelangelo's funeral.

I bought one of the guidebooks from the gift shop and took it to Santa Croce. While reading through some of the details I found that I had missed a room with some of his most important drawings--so I will definitely have to make the trip back out there to find them... and also make sure to bring a notebook in case anything else might come up to help with my paper!


I forgot to mention this before: Santa Croce has a large piazza and on the feast day for Saint John the Baptist (June 24th), the patron saint of Firenze, the Florentines have a no-holds-barred soccer match right in the piazza. They dress up in traditional clothing and the city erects stands all around the central area to accommodate spectators. The Florentines have held this soccer match since the middle ages--they did not even postpone this match when the city was under siege in the 1400's! It is truly sad that I will have to leave the city before I see this age-old tradition enacted in the piazza!

I spent the rest of the day browsing some shops and picked up extra supplies for my capri trip, mainly a sarong and another bit of enrobement.

When I got back to the apartment Mary Beth asked if I wanted to spend some meal tickets at "Del Gatto e la Volpe" and I said YES!


The "Cat and the Fox" is one of my favorite restaurants here so far. The food is always amazing and the service is fairly nice to "touriste." Its a little on the pricey side, but we find ourselves there when we've been too stingy in spending our meal tickets for the week.



The interior is dark but confortable, and the coke is the way that coke should always be! I haven't ordered another drink there yet because it is so good!


Another thing you should know--the Italians (and this could just be the northern Italians) never put herbs in their olive oil! They take it plaaaaain. It takes some getting used to! Il Gatto e la Volpe makes the transition a bit easier by putting herbs on the bread.


Today, I had the Pizza Fiorentina, which had cheese, peppers, olives, oregano, olive oil and salami! Don't let the darkness of the picture fool you--it was delicious!

The rest of the evening was spent in the student center, gathering my sources and creating a "carell" for them in the library, and checking out one to begin some reading!