Ep 38 - AI in Tuscany: 10 Real Ways Claude Helped in Italy

aiGED: AI for the 65+ crowd

Transcript

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Well, hello everybody. Welcome to Aged, the one, the only podcast that is all about AI for the 65 Plus crowd. I'm your host, Jenny Dearan, and if you're a regular listener, you know I'm traveling in Italy. Have been for almost a month, and I'm sorry to say I'm recording this from an airport hotel. We depart from Rome for the US in just a little bit. So I'm on the run. Thus, this episode of Aged will be abbreviated. I'm also very happy to say I continue to give little attention to the news, so no AI in the news for this episode. We'll just move into the main topic, which is more about how I've been using AI on my trip. I have to say, the power of AI has been diminished for me during my travels because of internet service. Most of the time, the service has been intermittent and in some cases non-existent. The reasons for this are mainly caused by the fact that most of our time has been spent in very rural Tuscany, Italy. Lack of internet service is a small price to pay for being in paradise. But even under those conditions, AI has been very helpful and has made our trip even more interesting than it would have been without it. My listeners tell me that the most helpful part of my podcast, where they get the most help, is when I tick through use cases, which are simply examples of how I use AI. So I'm going to pick up where I left off on episode 37 and share more use cases with you. So here you go. First up, I'm going to start with a question I asked my AI, Claude. It might strike you as odd. Try not to judge me. Here was my question. Why are the penises on statues in Florence so small, including the famous David? Were penises just smaller in those days? Here's what Claude has to say. Not an odd question at all. It's one of the most common things visitors notice and wonder about. I'm kind of skeptical about that part, but at any rate, the short answer that Claude gave me is that it's almost certainly not anatomical reality. It's a deliberate artistic and cultural choice. Here are the four points that Claude made. Number one, Renaissance sculptors, sculptors like Michelangelo were consciously reviving classical Greek and Roman aesthetics. And in that tradition, a smaller penis was actually considered the ideal for a heroic or noble male figure. Large genitalia were associated with fools and base animal desire, not virtue or intellect. Hmm. Number two, David isn't meant to be a portrait of an average man. He's an idealized hero. The proportions throughout his body are actually slightly distorted for effect. His hands and head are larger than realistic scale, for example. The genitalia, being modest, is part of the same aesthetic program, emphasizing nobility over carnality. Number three, some art historians also point out that David is depicted in the moment before his fight with Goliath, tense, alert, focused. The body's physiological response to stress and cold, both of which Michelangelo may have observed in life studies, would produce exactly what you see. Not much. And number four, a bit more literally, many life studies were done in cool studio conditions, and Michelangelo was known to be obsessively accurate about anatomy from dissection studies. We all know what coal does to well, I'll stop there. But Claude did take care of my curiosity. Now the next use case I want to present is also about down there. Ha! But in this case, it's about males and females. My request of Claude, tell me why and how Italians use bidets. In all the bathrooms we had, in the apartment we rented in Pienza and also in hotel rooms, there was always a bidet. I'd never use one, or if I did, I'd forgotten. This trip to Italy is an adventure, so why not extend that adventure to trying out the bidet? Claude told me everything I needed, actually more than I needed. I am now an expert, although one try was enough for me. My next use case. Claude and this one, this use case has nothing to do with down there. Back when ChatGPT was my primary AI, I asked it to create a three-hour walking tour of Florence inspired by the book A Still Life by Sarah Winman. It did a pretty good job, but I couldn't find what they had created for me, what ChatGPT had created for me. So I asked Claude, would you please do this task? Claude did a brilliant job, and we thoroughly enjoyed the walking tour it created. Next use case. I asked Claude to give me options to get from the Florence train station to our hotel. I got exactly what I needed. The choice was clear, take a cab. Claude gave me the approximate time it would take, told me how to spot a real cab and avoid scam drivers, and told me about how much the cost would be. By the way, Claude was only one euro off of the cost estimate. Next up, I asked Claude to tell me about Poggio San Pietro. I noticed a sign near Pienza, the little town in Italy where we were staying, and I was curious. Claude told me that Poggio San Pietro is one of the named hills. A Poggio is a Tuscan hill or knoll near Pienza, or in any place in Italy, or any place maybe in the world. Claude provided more information, and this new knowledge prompted a long walk and picnic to enjoy Poggio San Pietro. Next use case. I bought a jar of salt from a convent that I stumbled upon on one of my walks. I snapped a photo of the jar and the label and gave it to Claude. I asked him to tell me about the salt. It's really pretty amazing that Claude could figure it out and provide such great information. Here's a taste. Ha! Get it? Anyway, Claude said, what a great find. That salt is from the Monastero Benedictino di Pienza, literally our local monastery. The label reads Sale Aromatizzato Alvino della Val d'Orcia e Rosarino. Anyway, salt aromatized with val d'orcia, wine, and rosemary. The pinkish color, Claude told me, comes from the wine infusion. The Benedictine monks at the Pienza Monastery produce a range of artisan goods. This is exactly the kind of thing they sell on site or at local shops in town. It's a classic example of the Prodazi Monasticci tradition, where monastic communities sustain themselves through small-scale food production. Then Claude gave me some tips about how to use it. It's best used as a finishing salt rather than a cooking salt. Anyway, that was really helpful and amazing that Claude could dig up all that information about a little convent in a tiny little town in Tuscany. Next use case. I'm not a very good watercolorer, but I was enjoying it as a way to illustrate my little journal. AI was a great sidekick. For example, when I needed to understand how to create the color gray, I asked for help. Claude answered. He said, There are a few classic ways to mix gray and watercolor, and honestly, the right one depends on the mood you want to paint. You mix two or more complementary colors together. These create beautiful, lively grays that feel much more alive than just something coming from a tube of gray paint. Anyway, Claude gave me several examples of some combinations. For example, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, which is the most popular go-to. And if I wanted to lean into sort of a cool feel, I'd put more blue. If I wanted more of a warm feel, I'd lean toward more sienna. Now, you may not be the least bit interested in watercoloring, but you can turn to AI, to your AI, to assist you in all sorts of ways to support your hobbies. Next use case example is a simple one, but another example of the breadth of knowledge and information an AI can access. I asked, what's the famous small chapel filmed in Gladiator? That that was a long movie and was filmed a couple of decades ago. But within seconds I got the answer. It's called Capella della Madonna di Vitaleta, the tiny white chapel framed by two cypresses on the rise between San Querico, Dorcia, and Pienza. My siblings and I found this little chapel down a dirt road, thanks to Claude. It was beautiful and a real treat to see. Now I just have to watch the movie. Next use case. There's a lot of history in Tuscany about World War II. I asked Claude to give me a history lesson. It was a great and rather long back and forth conversation as I asked more and more questions. The last use case I'll present is about me getting help from another movie, getting help about information from another movie filmed near Pienza, The English Patient. Now that film I watched and I loved it. I asked Claude, in which Tuscan town was the English patient filmed? I was told that the monastery scenes where the English patient is cared for by Hannah were filmed at the Monastero di Santana in Caprena, just a few kilometers outside of Pienza. Claude told me you're essentially staying next door to it. It's a 15th century former Benedictine monastery with frescoes by Ilse Roma in the refractory, and it operates as an agroturismo, a small hotel, so we're able to visit it. And of course we did, and we got even more information prior to our visit so we could get the most out of it. And that night my brother and my two sisters and I, four of us, sat on the couch in our apartment in Pienza, took out my sister's laptop, and prayed that our internet service would be strong enough to stream the movie. It was. So we squished ourselves together on the couch with my sister's little screen, which she placed on her lap, and we all loved watching the film, having just been on the actual ground at the monastery. The only problem? It's a long movie. And we had enjoyed several martinis and a bottle of wine and plates full of Tuscan food just an hour earlier. So we only lasted for about an hour. No worries, we watched the rest the next day. I think this is a really good example of what I mean when I say AI can be helpful and also make life more fun and interesting. It sure did. Okay, I'm going to stop with the use cases, but I hope they are helpful to you. Because I'm in the middle of my journey back to the States, I'm about to run out of time to get this podcast episode published. But I do want to make one recommendation, and that is our hotel in Florence. Hotel David. I loved it. Mainly the location, it's in a quiet neighborhood and a short walk to many interesting places. It's small, I don't know, maybe 40 rooms. Mine was lovely with a balcony. The staff is so friendly, beautiful linens, which I'm a sucker for, and wonderful happy hour and full breakfast. Lovely indoor common spaces and terraces. For happy hour, they have wines, beers, and also the makings for mixed drinks. Every happy hour, my brother and I had a couple of martinis to get the evening started. Martinis are new to me, but they are now feeling like a very old friend. If you plan to be in Florence, I highly recommend Hotel David. By the time I do my next podcast, I'll be back in the States. Until then, remember that AI can be both helpful and hazardous. We live on the helpful side at Aged, but be sure to protect your info, double check advice, and trust your judgment. Thanks for listening, and remember it's never too late to learn something new, especially something that might make life easier and especially more fun. Ciao!