Today at school was all about gli aquerelli (watercolour paints). But I started the morning by going for a 15 minute walk before school since I have not been getting much walking in.

Above is a statue in Piazza della Signoria by Thomas J Price, a British artist, called “a celebration of the ordinary”. The title always seems to be lower case, I assume, to continue the idea of ordinary.

At scuola, I finished my Duomo view.

I originally sketched in some people but decided to paint over them. This exercise took a while since I needed to let the paint dry between adding glazing layers.

I listened to a lot of Portuguese in the afternoon. One woman, who had been speaking English with what I thought was a Spanish accent, is from Portugal. In the afternoon, there were two women one also from Portugal and the other Brazil. When they learned this, a Portuguese conversation ensued.

For my last project, I asked Stefano to choose and he suggested something to learn some painting techniques. The painting he chose obviously is not in Florence.

This involved more layers and waiting time so I didn’t get very far.

When I went outside after school the rain must have recently stopped and did not look like it would start up soon, so I went on another walk. I saw a former church that looks pretty old and was advertising opera performances at 9:30 pm—too late for me. The photo on the top of this post was another church on Via San Giuseppe, so I am guessing that’s the name of the church.

No gelato this walk. I needed to start eating most of the food in the apartamento before I move on Saturday—at least the fresh produce and open bottle of wine. I’m going to take other things like balsamic vinegar and I hope I’ll have a mini-fridge for my butter.

I spent an uneventful evening washing clothes (because I need to pack tomorrow evening and as usual, there is no dryer. Clothes need to hang dry overnight.) Between laundry loads, I was watching Italian tv programs, which for me is mostly food related as I can understand most of what is being said and because 75% of Italian tv seems to be about people talking about, not showing matches, but talking about il calcio (soccer, football). Even if I understood what they were saying, I would not want to watch.

Not sure that many places other than Italy would have a show called Le Ricette del Convento (Recipes from the Convent) showing monks cooking in a convent. You can even find their cookbook in bookstores.

They speak nice and slow which gives me time to try to look up words I don’t know (assuming I can spell correctly).

Some food shows also feature locations in Italy and their regional cuisine. Others are food contests. There is a Bake Off Italia that I have found generally easy to follow but have to say, there is a lot of crying, including the judges getting teary.