Piazza San Fedele

October 16, 2007

It was finally lunch, and Amy looked a little tired. No, I think she actually looked sad. I honestly felt a little unnerved. The friend that had provided such strength to me during the last two months looked upset and there was nothing I could think of to do. I had no idea how to help her. I couldn't even think of one witty thing to say. Amy loves anything witty, but right here and now, my mind was blank. So I am sure I digressed to talk of the spinach ravioli which we were enjoying for school lunch. If Amy likes witty sayings and lyrics, I love school lunch.

"We could paint!" I exclaimed, perhaps a little too exuberantly, thankful to finally have an idea. "You owe me a painting class! And I want to learn to paint!" Her face lit up and I realized the ball was now rolling. We could paint by the Duomo! We could pretend we were real artists! We would sell our pieces at the end of the evening to not so smart tourists! Could I wear overalls? Did Amy have a beret, an easel?

There was one problem, Amy really is an artist, and well, I am not. But the agenda was set and the smiles were on and before lunch was over we had a plan. Mike thought we should do portraits, we could download a David Beckam sketch from the internet to pass off as our own.

"You could pin them on your shirt to advertise and walk around harassing people!" I glared at his contriteness. Did he not believe I could be an artist? Really!

So once the school day ended and Amy and I had our daily nutella and cookie binge, we were on the number 24 heading to the city. By then, our plan had been reworked to include just sketching. There would be no painting and thus, no side business art sale, but I was very hopeful that art would at least be produced and of course absolutely adored.

While sharing an ipod on the tram, Amy gave me my first lesson on perspective and vanishing points. I was so excited thinking, "I shall become a real Italian artist (said of course, more like arteest)!" We hopped off the tram ready to look for the perfect place. Amy, led us to a little crevice of a street to plop down and start creating our masterpieces. It took me exactly two seconds to realize that I would rather write than draw and the last thing Amy needed today was to spend time with a pesky amateur. So, as we sat in the middle of the tiny Piazza San Fedele, at the base of the statue, we both tried to capture the beauty that surrounded us. Honestly... sublime perfection! It wasn't until the sun was almost set and we were half frozen, that we finally got up and headed to dinner, declaring before we left that Tuesday night would officially be art night!