Living room Dance Party!

I was listening to some music on my itunes and it reminded me of the dance party's me and Daisy would have in our apartment in Italy

Italian Tv was quite bad but they did have 2 stations that played music videos all day out favorite was DJ

and yes the tv in out apartment was that old

Jet Lag Zombies

we left Florence at 3pm and got home to LA at 7pm the same day after a 14 hour plane ride

how that works i don't know; all i know is that i'm tired

Leaving Firenze at Dawn

we had to wake up at dawn to make our flight; it felt like we were sneaking out of the city

i drew this on the long plane ride home

Ciao Firenze!

our last night in Firenze

i am very sad to be leaving; it has been a wonderful adventure but i do miss my friends and family and will be happy to be home

i will be back and i know me and daisy will have many more adventures, but this past 3 months was a wonderful experience and i feel so lucky to have had the opportunity

Ciao Firenze!

the big show

the night of thanksgiving was the screening of all of daisy's students' films

it was a packed house and most of the films were very good

i was very impressed to see what they made in 3 months while learning flash at the same time

good job daisy your kids did great

View from the wine bar

on one of out last days in Firenze, we had a wonderful lunch at this wine bar right across the street from the Pitti Palace

i drew the view of the street as i sipped a wonderful glass of super Tuscan wine

i will miss Firenze

Blue haired old lady

i saw this lady walking the streets of Firenze; she had blue bangs and a head of gray hair

most people in Italy dye their hair and do not wear glasses

Window

we went to San Gimignano for the day; a beautiful Tuscan hilltop town will many towers

this is the window near the place where we had lunch

Mama Bar regular

the cafe down the block from our place has a cast of characters that hang out and drink all day

Renaissance man

one day in Firenze, we heard some drumming and turned the corner to find synchronized drum team with flags standing around the drummers were a hole cast of Renaissance re-enacters; it was for the opening of another olive oil festival

this man was the captain of the guards

fountain

this is one of the fountains in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata

it has been nice to have the time to just sit and draw for a bit

scenes from the Italian mall

we decided to go to the one mall near florence. it was a 30 min bus ride

once we got there, it was a bit surreal. it felt like a mall from anywhere in america except that everyone was speaking Italian

coming from the city center of florence (which has not changed much since the Renaissance) it was odd to be dropped into modern suburbia

Italians take death seriously

we went up the hill to San Miniato

it is surrounded by a large cemetery

some of the family crypts are huge- this one looked like the pantheon

power eating

Daisy had a bunch of dinners with teachers from other schools that sent their kids to her school

they were the long Italian style dinners

the other teachers were not used to this style of eating but because we have been here for 3 months we were up for the challenge

we got gelato on the way home

1st anniversary

when we were in Italy we celebrated our first wedding anniversary

this whole trip has been like an extended honeymoon and i am having my anniversary already in the middle of it

it has been amazing year i am very lucky

Hermes

always has been my favorite god

olive oil festival

we stumbled upon a new olive oil festival where they had samples and tastings

one man took it so serious, he did not go for the regular bread dipped in olive oil sample

he gave you a cup of the oil that he wanted you to warm up to body temp in your hand and then smell before you tasted it

new olive oil has kind of a peppery taste, along with a bit of a fresh cut grass taste to it (followed by a slightly bitter after taste)

the drawing is of this one table that had 2 lonely, bored looking girls sitting at it where no-one seemed to want to try their olive oil

spaghetti western

Italian do have a fascination with the old west

there always seems to be an old western playing at night on tv here

Chimera

one of the strangest mythological animals in Etruscan mythology is the Chimera

it has the head and body of a lion, the tail is a snake, and it has a goat head sticking out of it's back. Oh yeah, and the goat breathes fire.

there is a famous sculpture of one that is normally in a museum in Firenze, but right now is on loan to the Getty Villa in LA. I guess i will see it when i get home

Menrva

another favorite god for the Etruscans was Menrva