Buon Compleanno, Claire!

My dear friend Claire has made many a cameo on this blog. It's high time she have a post dedicated to her entirely! Her birthday is in a few days, and last week some friends and I organized a little get-together so we could celebrate the occasion together. It was a "surprise," but one of which I'm sure Claire was almost completely aware. ;]


Just a little peak into the silly part of the otherwise sweet card I wrote for Claire. :P

We ate at a fantastic little trattoria - essentially, a small restaurant or tavern of sorts - called La Trattoria dei Tredici Gobbi... which, I believe, means "thirteen hunchbacks." Who knows?

I rigatoni famosi della casa.

La torta cioccolata.

Cheesecake alla frutta di bosca.

Claire, Jackie and Alyssa.



We passed by the most magical carousel in Piazza della Repubblica.

And then we walked home!


Things were getting more holidaysy by the day, and we were getting more and more stressed by the imminence of finals...

Florence, Christmas-style.

The street off of which I live.

A street in centro.

The most beautiful Christmas tree by the Duomo!

This stylized fleur-de-lis is the emblem of the city of Florence and they are everrrywhere. So much pride.

And here it is by night!

♥

Slowly but surely over the past month, Florence has been Christmasifying itself. First, the lights started to be strung up over streets. Next, the trees began appearing. And then... well, then there was the snowstorm that caused the city to shut down completely. But, that's a story for another post.

Tourin' Turin.

A few weekends ago, my Contemporary Cinema class headed out to the twenty-eighth annual Torino Film Festival. Torino - known to us Americans as Turin, for whatever reason - hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics and is also home to il Duomo di Torino where the Shroud of Turin is kept. It's a bustling European city - like Paris or Barcelona with less crowds - and it is absolutely beautiful, even in the freezing weather.


A view of the Alps from our train!


Piazza San Carlo - la piazza più bella di Torino.

The group!

On the left is il Duomo di Torino.

One of our first stops was il Museo Nazionale del Cinema - the International Museum of Cinema. It is an incredibly awesome place. It is a huuuge building that also has a lookout installed up top! So we went up there to take in the city. It was by far one of the greatest experiences I had abroad.



I can't get over these Alps!!








Wayyy too gorgeous.

Then we headed back down into the beautiful museum.



I feel like being able to attend an international film festival is sort of a big deal. In a matter of two days, my class managed to watch seven films. It was a whole lot of sitting and also a lot of enjoyment :]


Official pass. Too legit to quit.

The hub of the Film Festival!


One of its several theatres.

The director and cast of the Italian film "Henry," the winner of the Audience Award.

We had originally planned to see more films the next day, but there were none playing at convenient times. So, we were able to go to La Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, which was pretty cool.












We got home Sunday night and were back in class Monday morning. It was a nice little respite from schoolwork - such a great weekend!