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Some big news was brewing at the end of the spring semester. I made a trip down to Atlanta to talk to Emory University about an opening they had at the Goizueta Business School (Mr. Goizueta was a longtime CEO of Coca Cola). (Here's some more information about Emory.) Actual negotiations about the position started when I got to Italy, and it was quite interesting having conversations across the ocean with administrators at the school and with Beth.
But now everything is wrapped up and I will be teaching at Emory starting in the spring semester of 2009, which means this holiday season is going to be an interesting one for our family. Alli will be able to finish the fall semester at Tolland High School. Our search for a place to live will focus mostly around finding a good school situation for her in Atlanta and there are a number of options that already are looking good. We will know more about that later in the summer.
Moving will be hard, but also exciting. Missing another Connecticut winter will not be a problem, though.
At the end of the summer session, the faculty at Palazzo Rucellai always get together for a dinner. We went, as did the business professor from Penn State, with his wife and son. Some of the permanent staff was able to attend and we had dinner with Nienke and Francesca (who taught on section of the art history class) and her husband Stefano.
The dinner was held at a palazzo in the town of Scandicci, which is a southern suburb of 
Florence, up in the hills a little bit. There were nice views of Florence, and we could actually see the fireworks for the festival of San Giovanni. The palazzo is owned by Harding University, a small college in Searcy, Arkansas. A small number of students attend each semester and take classes right on the grounds of the palazzo. The director of the program hosted us for dinner, and one of the people from Palazzo Rucellai that helped me quite a bit with my class (Alan) used to work for Harding.
It was a great night and some people really liked the cat that lived there. When dusk came, the gekkos came out an hung from the walls of the house, catching and eating bugs.
My girls arrived in Pisa from New York on Sunday. They looked good and we had a nice bus ride back to Florence. The flight was good, right on time and we had time to walk around and see the town again, and then big cups of gelato (it was hot). A little nap and then dinner out at a place near San Lorenzo. Alli and I are going to visit all the car companies on Monday, and then there is a big dinner for all the Palazzo Rucellai faculty and families on Tuesday night. We'll have a fun week in Florence, and then we'll start on a driving tour of northwestern Italy. Monaco, too!
This is my favorite dinner of the month: some penne pasta with a sauce that I get from Pegna, along with some fresh Italian sausage that they make, with some extra green olives thrown in for extra flavor. I can do it without making a very big mess and with just two burners on the stove.
The wine is from a company named Frescobaldi, and a member of the family is teaching at Palazzo Rucellai this summer. There were too many students for me to handle alone, so she is teaching a family business class and took them out to her family's winery. This particular wine is called Nipozzano, if you're ever in the wine store and looking for something Italian.
My students went to another winery owned by the Mazzei family, and the wine you can look for from them is called Fonterutoli. There are two versions of it, with the 'better' one probably two or three times the price. Both are good.
But my days of eating home (alone) are almost over! I can either cook for Beth & Alli (probably have to skip the Italian sausage, though) or we can start dining at fine Italian restaurants. I can hardly wait. 
Spent some time just wandering around Florence, dodging the rain. Here are some pictures of the walk. Then got to spend time on the phone with all my kids (and the one who made them all possible). Nice day, all in all.
Whether Jeff is in Italy or America, it's still Father's Day. Thank you for my kids, Jeff. I love you. Oh, and here's your gift from all four of us...
UPDATE: Here are the pictures of the parade.
There is a traditional soccer match in Florence in June. The city is divided into four quadrants by the major churches: Santa Maria Novella on the west, Santa Croce on the east, Santo Spirito south of the Arno River, and San Giovani (the Duomo church) is the central "old" part of the city. On Saturday two teams played and the other two play on Sunday. The two winning teams play for the city championship on the festival of San Giovani, June 24th.
There is a parade in authentic costumes through the city and the match is played on a "field" that is created by putting a layer of dirt over the piazza in front of Santa Croce (there were some pictures of the seats being set up around the field in a previous post). The dirt is loose, like a track for a horse race, so the players can't run as fast, but also aren't hurt as badly when tackled.
Soccer? Tackled?
Well, the soccer here is an old style that is really more like rugby than soccer. The ball can be carried, thrown (in any direction) or kicked - I'm not sure there are rules like offsides and such. The match starts with the two teams lined up in the center of the field and the referee throws the ball high into the air and each team tries to catch it.
Some of them do, anyway. The rest start grabbing, tackling, punching, kicking and wrestling with players from the other team. After a few minutes, about half of each team is laying in the dirt wrestling in piles. Occasionally they break up and stand up, and there are 'medics' who check on the piles to make sure no one is being hurt too badly. These fights go on during the entire match.
Those who are playing throw the ball to teammates, while the opposing team tries to steal the ball. When a player with the ball gets close enough to the end of the field, they try to throw it over the wall at the end. It appears that the team gets a point (or something) when that happens, as they all congratulate each other and the ball is retrieved and the referee restarts the match by throwing the ball into the air. Most of the people fighting and wrestling continue to do that even though a goal has been scored.
There is a small tent at either end of the field, and I imagine that throwing the ball into that might result in more points, but I never saw anyone really try. Players who are hurt during fights or by being tackled running with the ball, are taken off the field by the medics, but play does not stop while this is happening. The TV cameras have a difficult time trying to decide what to focus on, as do the fans in the stands.
Many of the students have tickets for tonight's game, but I will not be going...
Alli had her 8th Grade Dance on June 13, 2008. It was a wonderful night and she is quite a beautiful young woman. The "Arabian Nights" dance was held at the Middle School, and she joined nine other friends at Friendly's afterwards. Our dear friend Lauren came over to help her get all dressed up and her doting brother Andrew even pulled Jeff's car into the backyard so she could do some modeling in the car! What fun she had with the two of them, and it was a joy to watch her. Here are lots of pictures.
We traveled on Monday, so I am catching up on some of the pictures I promised:
Here are a few of sights around Florence - no theme, just taking pictures.
Here are (too many) pictures from in and around Santa Croce. It is a really nice place to spend time, and even a Leather School in the back. I got a new belt (too expensive, but a nice reminder of Italy).
Sunday I went to Lucca (in the rain), but had a good time and took a few pictures. There was a Harley meeting and I saw the leather jacketed people all over town. The old part of the city is enclosed in a big think wall, with a few gates to let people and cars in/out. A number of churches scattered around, and some pretty piazzas. It was much quieter than Florence, but also a Sunday and rainy. I hope we have a chance to spend more time there when Beth & Alli get here.
The weather Monday was great for our trip to the winery at Fonterutoli, and the weather cooperated for the first time -- nice and sunny all day, and the rain waited to start until after we returned to Florence. This garden is attached to the main house for the Mazzei family. Pretty nice views.
This is so much different that the previous years in Italy: 50s at night and 70s and rain, almost every day. Yesterday I got my haircut. Can you tell the difference? Didn't think so.
Today I did some shopping for the weekend and then went to Santa Croce. Took lots of pictures that I'll post later. They are assembling the stands for the soccer brawl that will be starting next weekend called Calcio Storico. I got lunch at a little sandwich shop I like, Il Fratelli. And some gelato at Vestri.
Tomorrow I'm going to Lucca in the morning (hope for no rain) and then I going to have dinner with the UConn English professors who are teaching here, Margaret and David.
Monday we go to the winery with the students, and the Penn State professor is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday - I will be so glad to have him here to help. Thirty one students is too many for just me.
So we have this nest of robins under the deck that move in every year. The parents are vigilent and protective, but usually move in and out in a month, leaving behind their belongings and us with the bill. I've been watching these three babies to see when their flight feathers might appear, as I want to see them leave home. I've been worried, though, because just one jump from the nest could land one, or all, of them in our little fish pond right under it. I've found many a dead little critter in the pond, and I wasn't interested in finding a drowned robin chick, but no one asked my advice on which way to jump. I'm thinking the parents will take care of that.
So I take my coffee on the back porch today and am immediately assaulted by the screams from the mom and dad robin. They are clearly upset I am on the roof of their little apartment. "Oh, this is the day!" I'm thinking, so I run down the steps and look under the deck. No babies in the nest. Rats. I missed it. But the frantic calls by the parents aren't letting up, which means I must be a predator, so the babies must be around. I go over to the pond, hoping... oh please let there be just fish and water... and little Roberto the Robin is sitting right on the edge. He, fortunately, missed going into the pond and landed on the rock border. The parents are clearly going out of their minds that Roberto and I are having this conversation, so I decide to take a few pictures and then get back inside so nature can take its course.
It has been a quiet week here in Florence. Monday was a holiday, so we only had class on Wednesday, and took a trip to visit two textile companies in Prato. Both produce wool for the fashion industry, and the companies were pretty different - I'm hoping the students will be able to compare the differences during their discussions on the website for the class.
I have mostly been cooking for myself at the apartment. Only two burners on the little stove, but that's enough for me. I bought some beef the other night, but wasn't sure exactly what it was. "Ferri" was one of the words on the label, which is the plural of "ferro" which is Italian for iron. So I asked Beth and our pastor, Ben, what they thought I was eating. Because of the iron, they agreed I was probably eating liver. Ahh! But it didn't look like liver. So I brought the label to the school to ask what they thought I had bought. Turns out that the plural meant "irons" - as in grilling on hot irons. So I was safe - it was just a steak (better than flank steak, but not a ribeye or anything that good).
I've also been keeping up with cleaning the apartment and doing shopping and laundry. The apartment is easy to keep clean and is nicely equipped, compared to some of the previous apartments. All I really had to get was a rug for the bathroom (went to the same place in the department store COIN and got a fuzzy one).
The weather has been cool - high 50s at night and only mid 70s during the day. Rains most days, and the forecast is for more of the same. I'm hoping we will have some sun on Monday for the winery tour, and I'll probably do some short trips today and over the weekend. But the sky can really open up here, and I don't want to get soaked.
I've been taking some random pictures around Florence and will try to process them for the web later today. I have train tickets to Lucca, and so if the weather looks good, I'll have some pictures from there. Need to get my hair cut, too. Today after lunch.
He keeps sending me flowers. These are sunflowers from Tuscany, my favorite place on earth. I think I'll get on a plane and go visit this guy.
Still a little cool and rainy here in Italy, so on the weekend after all of our trips, I just stayed around Florence. Did some grading and laundry and spent some time on the phone to various people. The regional trains went on strike on Sunday, so I took some pictures in the train station. Then I went up to Fiesole (quick bus ride) to eat and read in the park overlooking Florence.
National holiday on Monday, so no class but also rainy. Classes start up again on Tuesday, and my classes travel to visit textile companies in Prato.
