February 22, 2009

went to mass at Santa Maria Novella with Pat. Although I've gone to their daily mass a couple of times, this was the first time I'd been in the main part of the church. It was pretty cool inside even though I'm not a huge fan of the white and green stripes of marble. The little alcoves in the front of the church were all completely covered in frescoes, which was a strange contrast with the stark white walls of most of the rest of the church. It made me wonder if originally they planned on covering the whole church in frescoes, or if that's the way they meant it to be. Every church I've gone to has a different feel. There were so many people at this mass, and I really didn't get a touristy feel, so I think most of them go there regularly. Plus I recognized a few faces from daily mass. This was only the third church (including the one in Pruno) that had an altar server. Pat and I still can't decided if it was a boy or a girl. He/she had sort of longish hair for a boy but we figured he just had long hair. Then at communion, we saw that he was wearing red patent leather Mary Janes. My first thought was "why would a little boy wear such obviously girl shoes?" and then it occurred to me that it might be a girl. And then I could see her as a girl, but at the same time she still really looked like a boy, so we never made a final decision. During Communion, these two women started a conversation on the side of the church. I was thinking how rude it was that they just got up from their pews and started talking, not ever whispering, while there was obviously still a mass going on. I saw one of the church guards, who keep out the non-church-goers and help with collections, giving them the evil eye. Then when Communion finished and the priest stood up to say the final blessings, he stood at the altar, glaring at the women, and said in a very pointed tone, "Pregghiamo" (we pray). Then he waited until they stopped talking until he continued. I thought it was really funny that the priest totally called them out for their rudeness.

went up to studio to do some work. On the way there, we saw some people rollar-blading and biking by with funny hats and painted faces, but we didn't know why. Later as more people started coming into studio, they were telling us that there was a parade for Carnivale, but every time a new person came in, they would say, "But I think it's over now." Finally around 5 or 6, after this happened probably four times, we decided to go to Piazza della Signoria where the parade ended just in case the festivities weren't over. Lo and behold, they were still going on when we got there. Apparently everyone in the parade was dressed up for a different nationality (most of the people actually being from that country originally), so we got to see the Russian group singing their national anthem, but they were the last group, so Carnivale really was over then. We were glad we got to see at least a little bit, though.