trip to Frienze
Jun. 27th, 2010 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaThis week ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aelfgyfu is visiting some friends of hers in Florence, and I was invited to head down that way for a visit. Since I've never been there (other than to change trains once), I decided to go, and went down after work on Friday evening, arriving at 22:00. They met me at the station and took me back to their place for the night. aelfgyfu refers to their apartment as a palace, and compare to The Closet in which I live, it certainly is. I love their nice, cold, marble floors, the fact that they've got a back yard, with grass and everything, and the fact that even when the outside temps reached 33C on Saturday their apartment was still nice and cool. Her friends are in Italy because the female half of the couple is on a Fulbright scholarship working on her PhD on something to do with Medieval poetry that was later set to music, which sounds like a totally cool research project to me. They are both (unsurprisingly) musicians, and they are part of a choir which was having a performance on Saturday evening at a monastery which started life as a 14th century hospital.
We spent Saturday day wandering around town and picking things up from the market. I am impressed with the view from the bridges which span the river through town--there are actual hills visible from there, and plenty of greenery. As a result I find Frienze much prettier than Milano. Sure, the Alps are more impressive than the hills down south, but they are rarely visible from Milan, and even when they are they are much smaller and further away.
Saturday evening we went to the monastery, and whilst waiting for the concert to begin I worked on my nålbinding whileaelfgyfu worked on her spinning. We drew a crowd! People were taking photos, and once an English speaker was found to ask us questions we had quite a number of questions to answer. It was rather fun. The concert itself was wonderful. First just the women sang, and they were lovely. After quite a few pieces the men came in and joined them, and I was stunned at how much richer the sound was when the men started the next song. What a lovely contrast.
After the concert I was feeling tired and felt almost like I might be coming down with a headache, so I left them to enjoy the rest of the weekend, and I caught a train back to Milan, where I had the energy to come in and catch up on reading e-mail (I'd actually left my computer behind for this adventure!) and lj before heading home for yoga. By then the "might be a headache" was feeling rather like a low level headache, so I took the time to take a hot shower and let the water massage my neck, shoulders, and forehead before yoga. During yoga I also did chanting, to let the sound resonate in my nasal passages, to further dispel the last vestiges of pain. Worked like a charm, by the time I was done and ready for bed there was no more pain, and I was able to sleep beautifully. I am so grateful that there are so many other options to painkillers and that they work for me.
Today I've taken more time off--spent a large chunk of the day curled up with a book and nibbling food. I was careful to not exceed my "average" normal daily intake, but since I had that food poisoning last weekend my intake has been below normal, so I was able to feel like I'd over indulged, while still being quite reasonable. With luck the combination of the adventures and the alone time will give me the much needed energy to tackle that to-do list I posted before leaving for the train trip.
aelfgyfu is visiting some friends of hers in Florence, and I was invited to head down that way for a visit. Since I've never been there (other than to change trains once), I decided to go, and went down after work on Friday evening, arriving at 22:00. They met me at the station and took me back to their place for the night. aelfgyfu refers to their apartment as a palace, and compare to The Closet in which I live, it certainly is. I love their nice, cold, marble floors, the fact that they've got a back yard, with grass and everything, and the fact that even when the outside temps reached 33C on Saturday their apartment was still nice and cool. Her friends are in Italy because the female half of the couple is on a Fulbright scholarship working on her PhD on something to do with Medieval poetry that was later set to music, which sounds like a totally cool research project to me. They are both (unsurprisingly) musicians, and they are part of a choir which was having a performance on Saturday evening at a monastery which started life as a 14th century hospital. We spent Saturday day wandering around town and picking things up from the market. I am impressed with the view from the bridges which span the river through town--there are actual hills visible from there, and plenty of greenery. As a result I find Frienze much prettier than Milano. Sure, the Alps are more impressive than the hills down south, but they are rarely visible from Milan, and even when they are they are much smaller and further away.
Saturday evening we went to the monastery, and whilst waiting for the concert to begin I worked on my nålbinding while
aelfgyfu worked on her spinning. We drew a crowd! People were taking photos, and once an English speaker was found to ask us questions we had quite a number of questions to answer. It was rather fun. The concert itself was wonderful. First just the women sang, and they were lovely. After quite a few pieces the men came in and joined them, and I was stunned at how much richer the sound was when the men started the next song. What a lovely contrast. After the concert I was feeling tired and felt almost like I might be coming down with a headache, so I left them to enjoy the rest of the weekend, and I caught a train back to Milan, where I had the energy to come in and catch up on reading e-mail (I'd actually left my computer behind for this adventure!) and lj before heading home for yoga. By then the "might be a headache" was feeling rather like a low level headache, so I took the time to take a hot shower and let the water massage my neck, shoulders, and forehead before yoga. During yoga I also did chanting, to let the sound resonate in my nasal passages, to further dispel the last vestiges of pain. Worked like a charm, by the time I was done and ready for bed there was no more pain, and I was able to sleep beautifully. I am so grateful that there are so many other options to painkillers and that they work for me.
Today I've taken more time off--spent a large chunk of the day curled up with a book and nibbling food. I was careful to not exceed my "average" normal daily intake, but since I had that food poisoning last weekend my intake has been below normal, so I was able to feel like I'd over indulged, while still being quite reasonable. With luck the combination of the adventures and the alone time will give me the much needed energy to tackle that to-do list I posted before leaving for the train trip.
