Santa Reparata

Santa Reparata International School of Art is located in the heart of the city just a few blocks from any Florentine landmark you can name. The printmaking studio is spacious and well equipped. I loved spending my afternoons there and define my time in Florence, and in the studio at Santa Reparata, as the art-school experience I never had.

This may be the single most important piece of equipment at the school. An automatic espresso machine! Italians drink iddy-biddy cups of espresso, (coming from the land of Starbucks this took me a while to get used to) but those tiny cups of espresso do not come cheap. One euro for a (not even) 4oz cafe americano (about $1.50 American dollars at the time I was visiting). One euro, fifty if you want to plant your butt in a chair to drink it. This nifty little machine at the school dispensed a 2oz cafe americano (or straight up espresso or a cappuccino) for 40 cents. And it was pretty good coffee. I found it quite helpful in using up all the little coins I collected.

Here is a shot of John working on his one block reduction print.

This is my roommate Joanne working on a block. You would never guess that this woman is 82 years old. 82! In the background in Lindsey tearing paper.

Here is a link to the blog of another northwest artist who is on the faculty at Santa Reparata this summer. More pictures of the space and of Florence. It looks like they are having fun.