Things have been pretty low-key for the past two weeks in preparation for the next two months. The weekend before last we did not travel because arrangements didn’t work out on time so we spent the time getting used to the streets of Florence and experiencing the weekend nightlife, which wasn’t more exciting than the weekday nightlife, but definitely more crowded. This past weekend Mr. and Mrs. Smith aka Roni and Steve came to visit and whisked Joey away to Bologna (home of the deli meat- I think, I actually have no idea) while we went on two class field trips.
The first trip was on Friday morning to the Textile Museum in Prato with our Fashion class. We took a 9:07 am train out of Florence about 20 minutes to historical Prato.
Train station breakfast of champions... could not be any happier
On our way to the museum we passed the birthplace of everyone’s favorite coffee cookie, the biscotti. It is called Antonio Mattei where the smell of fresh baked biscotti hits you from down the block. The store opened with its signature sweet in 1858.
“Made exclusively with Mediterranean almonds (the most flavorful in the world), fresh eggs, Italian pine nuts (not the cheaper, Chinese version) and sugar, you can taste the rich nuts over the flour and sugar that dominate the flavor of most biscotti."
"In the Florence area they're known as biscotti di Prato, probably since the greatest version of this cookie comes from the historic bakery Mattei in Prato."
"In the Florence area they're known as biscotti di Prato, probably since the greatest version of this cookie comes from the historic bakery Mattei in Prato."
-Faith Willinger, The Atlantic Food Channel
When we arrived at the textile museum we first learned about the process of taking a plant or a silk worm and making it into a specific garment. We got to feel the different types of cotton, hemp, and silk strands before they are made into what we use to create clothing. We saw a preserved energy something or other that powered the factory back when it was a factory (it looked like something out of Ellis Island, I was creeped) and a bunch of different types of clothing and fabrics they’ve made throughout the years. We even saw floor to ceiling examples of fabric that they use for handbags. One in particular had a very distinct logo of the letter F. Can you guess? Yupp, it’s Fendi. Towards the end I came across a glass case with a small coin collection. It turns out that the factory in Prato was also really big in recycling clothing and reusing the fabric to make something new. They would get shipments in from all over the world of old clothing and the coins sitting in front of me were a collection of loose change left in the pockets. I thought that was pretty cool.
After that we went to this little store called Opificio JM which houses cool and unique things made right in Prato by the local merchants. Overall the store was strange and artsy. It was opened last June by the actor John Malcovich (Lenny from “Of Mice and Men” and Cyrus the Virus in my all time favorite “Con Air”, ugh I love that movie). Hence the name Opificio JM. That was interesting for a hot sec, and then it was back to the train and home to Florence.
Like okay John Malcovich, your crazy
The next morning we woke up bright and early once again and headed to the Salvatore Ferragamo store where a bus would pick us up to take us to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello with our Made in Italy class. The bus ride was two hours but it was fine because it gave us a chance to get a few more minutes of sleep. Maranello is basically Ferrari town. A huge statue of the Ferrari logo horsie welcomed you to a town fully dedicated to the expensive Italian car. We passed stores like Vroom Vroom Gelato and Ferrari Red Nail Salon. Just kidding- but seriously this place was crazy about Ferrari. When you first walk in there is a huge gift shop where everything is either red, yellow, black or white (you can find the occasional green if the Italian flag is being sported). The rest of the museum is basically a car show like they have at the Javits Center in New York City. They have one or two cars from each decade or a car from each time they adapted the style or mechanics. Out of 50 or so cars, only three of them were remade because they had been damaged or were not able to obtain the original models. The rest were owned by Ferrari or belonged to private collectors. They had trophies, engines, racing gear, steering wheels and leather swatches and paint samples of all the choices one has when custom making a Ferrari. Amongst these pretty shiny toys were tons of Formula 1’s (not that I know what that means either), Grand Tourers and Sport-Prototypes that have made Prancing Horse history. I didn’t listen to a lot of what they were saying because I was too busy taking pictures and imagining me in the passenger seat, the wind blowing in my long blonde hair and Vin Diesel driving fast and furiously next to me.
My initials (teeheehee)
photography
Okay here’s the worst part…
We’re finally done with the field trip and arrived back at the Ferragamo store. The bus was like a double-decker but there were no seats on the bottom level, just a bathroom and a side door exit. We were just about to walk down the side door exit when the girl in front of Dani stops and says, “I think I hear banging. No I definitely hear someone knocking on the bathroom door.” It turns out that some girl was locked in the bathroom for FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES!! I suppose she wasn’t with any friends who were wondering where she was, the boy sitting next to her didn’t even think twice and the tiny bathroom (were talking tiny like broom closet with no room for a sink) was next to the engine so no one could hear her banging. She had a few overwhelmed tears when she came out but she was fine. I however was not. My heart broke for her and I could not imagine sitting in that gross box for nearly an hour. Then I left my e-Reader on the bus but I got it back :0)
Enjoy your fortieth snow of the winter New York and your week off from school America!
