And the heavens opened up

Got to love Thursdays. I mean, we have our class that starts at 11 and then we get to tour a church or museum in the afternoon. It cannot get any better than that.

Thursday started off great with me having a wonderful night's rest and sleeping in until (gasp) 8:30. I got dressed, had a quiet breakfast, and came back to the room where I stayed until 10 working on my laptop. At 10, I grabbed my backpack and vacated the room so the maids could clean. I then sat in the lounge and read the assigned chapter from Gomorrah . While I was reading said chapter, title Women, I heard a noise. It sounded like really strong wind. I look up out the window and what do I see? That's right, rain. It was raining so hard outside for like 20 minutes before the sky cleared up. When we walked to class at 11 we had clear skies, not a hint of rain.

We were touring the Brancacci chapel this afternoon. We had an appointment at 3:45 and we couldn't be late. All of us went down early and ended up at the chapel a good half hour early. We were shown a movie of the chapel first that highlighted all the main points before we were allowed to see the chapel. We were only allowed 15 minutes in the chapel but that was all that we really needed. The church was almost destroyed in a fire in the 1700s but the chapel was restored to its greatness. There are frescoes of Masaccio and Masolini that are really elegant and great. My favorite is the fresco of Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. It is either the first or one of the first to show such intense and vivid emotions on the face.

Anyway, after we left the chapel, a few of us walked back to the Duomo and around town for a little bit. While walking through the San Lorenzo market, the sky opened and it really started to rain. We got a little wet but the rain was off and on for about an hour. We hopped the bus back up to Fiesole at around 6 pm and made it back by 6:35. The four of us girls decided to just head up to La Reggia instead of heading back to Villa Bonelli. But, as we leave the bus, it is raining extremely hard again. I couldn't believe it. By the time we got to La Reggia, my pants we soaked through in the front as were my socks due to the mesh in my shoes. I was completely wet and cold.

Dinner was okay when you take into account most of us being wet. We had spaghetti with pesto (really yummmy) for the first course, omelets and salad (omelets not so yummy) for the second, and tiramisu for dessert. When we left La Reggia it was, thankfully, not raining and we made is back to Villa Bonelli without becoming soaked again. I immediately took a shower as I was soooo cold and am now in my pajamas and my fuzzy socks all nice and warm.

Tomorrow we go to Siena. I hope it doesn't rain while we're there but my Yahoo! weather says rain. I'm going to have to get a better umbrella as the two I brought with me are slightly defective and the one I bought over here broke. Oh well, that's what I get for buying the cheap stuff. Fino a quando la prossima volta.