From Bologna - Lucca in 48 Hours

As I sit in bed now at ten a.m. here, I am so thankful that I did not have to wake up and look forward to power walking today. The past two days I have gone on field trips: Bologna with my class, Pisa and Lucca with my room mate's class. It has been exhausting but amazing to see these three cities.

Bologna is Italy's version of a small university town. I loved the aura the city had because it was young and fresh and so much more authentic than most places I have seen so far! I will be going back to visit on my own time, because since I was with my class, we were power walking from church to church for about 10 hours of the day which was not very fun (although I probably burned off a lot of pastry calories haha). We got to see a lot of things but there were three things that I enjoyed in the trip more than anything else.
The first truly interesting thing we saw was Saint Catherine and her chapel. Saint Catherine is the first women artist of Bologna and the only artist to have ever been made into a saint. If there was ever a saint I was going to venerate she would be it. They have a tiny blocked off chapel that you have to have special permission by the nuns to see and Catherine is actually preserved there, sitting up in her nun costume holding a cross. Saint's bodies apparently don't break down so she has been sitting there for 600 years! She is surrounded in the chapel with her manuscripts, paintings, musical instruments, and a crown given to her by the Queen of Spain. However morbid it may seem, it was oddly beautiful in a way to see how much care and work the nuns put into celebrating her and her work even 600 years later.
Another really interesting part of the trip was lunch because it was Bologna! Bologna has a nickname in Italy "la citta grassa" or the fat city. They are known for their food and it is true that they locals truly celebrate it! We were able to walk through the market which was full of various vendors, all yelling at each other in Italian and throwing food around!

I ended up eating ravioli which was amazing. It was simply cooked pasta with olive oil but the ravioli was stuffed with cheese and spinach and there was no way that pasta needed anything else on it. All the food looked amazing and I am looking forward to going back and being able to try something else.
The last thing I'll mention was a science/art museum where we were looking at the wax anatomical studies done by Anna Morandi Manzolini. Her husband was the dean of the school of medicine and when he died she took his place which was a big deal at the time. She did these beautiful anatomical studies looking at the body and it was interesting to look at because she makes this variety of body parts and studies of anatomy so beautiful.

In the room next to her works, there was a wax study done on babies in the womb and all the different problems that can happen in delivery. Although sad, the way these wax figures were done was so interesting to look at since you don't think about how the baby would look on the inside of the body while being delivered.

At the end of the day, since we seemed miserable and tired, Helen (our professor) bought us gelato and I had yogurt e pompermo (grapefruit)! And I successfully made myself stuffed tomatoes for dinner!

The next day, we went to Pisa in the morning and Lucca in the afternoon. They were both interesting places, but I was pretty worn out from the day before so I wasn't as focused. Of course I got to see the leaning tower as well as the baptistry and the cathedral.

We also got to see a Gothic cemetery, which was very different from anything I had ever seen. There were beautiful marble sarcophagi and the bodies were put in the marble floor. So as you walked around, you were walking on top of the resting places of people. But the sculpture in cemetery was beautiful and very interesting to look at.

For lunch, me and Sai ended up wandering farther into Pisa and found a small panini place (which was delicious) and then went and ate in a local park. We ended up having to leave though because some crazy man started throwing corn immediately behind us and the pigeons decided it might be fun to attack! We ended up find this very cute gelato place as well so we ate a huge cup of fruit topped with cream gelato :)

Lucca was a very cute little town and we mainly visited churches and the most interesting thing for me was just seeing all the piazzas and markets.

At the end of the day Helen bought a variety of cakes, which is a Lucca specialty. I tried lemon and St. Zita cake which was a vegetable cake. The St. Zita cake was fantastic!

Today we heard there is a free wine and food tasting at a local market so we are about to make our way there. Ciao!

Venti = 20

Well this week was my birthday week so hooray! I am no longer a teenager! To celebrate my birthday, me and my roommates have done a variety of things throughout the week. On Tuesday, there was the last cooking class of the semester which was amazing! We had sun-dried tomatoes and ricotta pasta, quattro formaggi (four cheese) pasta, stracchino cheese on bread, and biscotti di prato dipped in Vinsanto wine. A full italian meal let me tell you. Plus then we proceeded to buy a variety of pasteries to be shared as we sit all together and talk and eat :) (this is one of the pasteries we tried)

We also went out to dinner tonight for my birthday. We went to a trattoria on Via Cavour and Sai and I shared a Mozzarella buffala pizza and a vegetario pizza (peppers, eggplant, zucchini). It was nice since we hadn't yet gone out to a restaurant and its always fun to sit with a group of people while you eat and talk! There were a few interesting differences between the restaurants here and those in America: you have to buy your water, service charge is included in the bill if you sit down, and they place a bowl of bread in front of you at the beginning of the meal but if you eat it you are charged extra! Interesting interesting haha.

I have had class as usual this week. In Batik I started my next project, which is going to be a floral design I created in different shades of blue. I have done the wax and one dip so far and I am really excited about it! It is bound to be really fun and pretty. In jewelry I started my next project which is going to be a Pinocchio pendant with movable arms and legs. We had to include rivets in the piece so it seemed like the perfect idea. I have cut and filed almost all my pieces so I have gotten a good amount of the work done which is super exciting! In fresco, I came up with my next project which is going to be a portrait of my mom and nephew. I am excited to do this even though I know it is gonna be pretty rough considering there is so much detail. This is how my first fresco turned out if you didn't see it:

I love and miss you all <3

Genova Weekend!

Well, this past weekend was long and insane and fantastic. I loved almost every minute of it :)

Friday:
I had art history and fresco painting. I finished my first fresco painting ever which turned out fantastic and I will post a picture of it on my next blog. Then it was time to catch the train and travel the long three hours to Genova. As it was my first time taking the train I was nervous going into it but I had no way of expecting what ended up happening on the trip. I caught the train and transferred at Pisa without any trouble. It was relaxing and I finished a book and napped for a while. When I woke up, it was dark and you couldn't see the station names out of the window. So I asked the conductor when I should get off and got off the train where he said. After wandering around for a half an hour, I realize that I am in fact at the wrong station. So I am without a cell phone, by myself in a strange city and I start to internally panic. A lady at the station tells me to just hop a train to the next station and then I will be at the the right place. So I do that and then I get to the correct station and Lucia is not there. So as I would normally, I start to think the worst and try to come up with a plan of where to go and how to get a hold of her. About an hour later we find each other and the relief just hits. Turns out, she had gone to find me at the other station when I hadn't shown up, so we simply missed each other! Ridiculous but now I know that I will be getting a cell phone because I am not okay with that ever happening again haha. After we find each other we head to Porto Antico, where there was a small concert going on and also plenty of various places to eat since there was food festival going on called "Genova, Mercata di terra & di mare". So we got to try 3 different kinda of food: Cima (sliced ham stuffed with egg and veggies), farinata (a chickpea patty) and foccacia formaggio (cheese foccacia). All are traditional Genovese dishes and all were delicious. I really want to try to bake the farinata myself. After we ate, Lucia, her friends and I headed to il centro, or downtown, where all the students in Genova go on Friday nights. It is basically a big piazza surrounded by bars and full of young Italians. Everyone was chatting and milling around with beer in hand! It was very fun to see a typical night out for the locals, since this is their way of going out and getting to know other people who are going to their university. We stayed for a while and then went back to Lucia's house to sleep since we had a fun day planned for Saturday!

Saturday:

Relaxing fun day! First we rode on Lucia's scooter (!) and went to the beach at Pieve which was so beautiful! Pieve is a town right outside of Genova and the beaches are a lot more clean because it is farther away from the port. The beaches are not the typical white sand beaches. There are cliffs leading up to the water, so the city has set up terraces where you set up your towel to tan and then you climb down the cliffs to the water! We ended up staying there for around five hours, laying out (falling asleep and burning more like), swimming, and playing Italian card games. We brought food to eat there (torta di porcello (onion patty), pizza, and foccacia (it is seriously addicting trust me!) and one of Lucia's friends, Pietro, ended up coming and hanging out with us. After the beach we went and walked around on the coast of Nervi (another surrounding town) and ended up going and sitting in the park there and playing more card games. After we finish relaxing, we go to Lucia's father's apartment and her friends come over and we all make Pansoti al Sugo di Noci (spinach filled pasta with a walnut sauce, typical of Genova and delicious). So I get to have the typical young - Italian meal: beer, bread, pasta and chatting for hours! It was fun and I was getting to try to translate their rapid Italian chatter so that I understood what was going on. It started raining, so we ended up staying in the apartment and playing cards until three! It was a blast and I got to try two of the local alcohols which was interesting: Minot (herb infused alcohol from the alps) and Genepi (fruit infused alcohol from Sardegna). We all sat around with tiny tea cups of the alcohol and sipped as we played all sorts of various games! It was way fun although the late night did nothing for my energy level on Sunday haha.

Sunday:
We slept in because of our late night and then they showed me various parts of the city. We went back to the food festival and ate lunch (Trofi al pesto and I tried the octopus) and then went to the richest part of town and went to Lucia's favorite gelato place (yogurt and anana (pineapple)). We ate our gelato and sat on the beach which was in a beautiful old port.

After this we went to train station for me to head back to Florence to find out that the train workers have gone on strike. I was mega lucky and my train was only delayed not canceled so I was able to get home. I did miss my second train though and had to hop one to Florence without a ticket :/ Not a good thing to do but I was not about to get stuck in Pisa. It ended up all working out great and I got home only a half an hour later than I was meant to! Overall it was a great weekend and I had a really great time. So thankful that Lucia let me come up and visit and showed me around!

Bread, cheese and tomatos

Well, halfway through my week and I am so excited. So much to look forward to this semester and when I return home :)

Monday I had Batik and I actually started my silk scarf! As I think you all have seen, I am doing a doorknocker design and then some random motifs on the corners in order to create unity in the space. I am using all warm colors (yellows, reds, oranges and a reddish purple color). I had to draw my design on the scarf using wax. There is an interesting pen tool which looks like a stick with a little cup on the end and a tiny straw sticking out of the bottom of it (weird description but I want to actually give people an idea of what it looks like). You put the wax in the little cup and then have to draw with the straw after warming up the wax with an oil lamp. I eventually got the hang of it, even though you have to hold the tool at this weird angle that was super awkward at first. After you finish the drawing and check to make sure all the shapes are separated by wax, then you can start painting in the shapes with the dye. Its like watercolor except on fabric and it is really interesting watching the dye spread like wildfire on the silk. I finished painting my doorknocker, so I have the motifs and the background to go! I have started thinking about ideas for my new scarf which I will be starting soon. In the evening, SACI hosts open figure drawing, which is basically my favorite subject so that was very fun to be able to end my day with two hours of that.

Tuesday I had jewelry. I finally finished all my sawing for the practice pieces we are working on and then got to move on to filing them smooth and sanding them. Basically I was stuck in hell for three hours... It is so frustrating when you are trying to sand down a piece and there is one tiny scratch that you just can't seem to get rid of! My arms and hands were cramping from being held in such a tiny position and there happens to be a girl who likes to talk and talk and talk about herself who sits in front of me. Not the best class I have ever had haha. I don't know if I am cut out for the detail work of jewelry.In the evening we had yet another cooking class (and again there was no cooking involved only eating!). It was a delicious meal and involved basically my favorite sauce in the world. PESTO!!!! Best invention ever since you can eat it on everything (fish, chicken, potatoes, pasta, crackers, wraps, sandwiches, etc, etc, etc). So we had pesto pasta with green beans, fagioli all'uccelletto (bean dish), mushroom sauce on bread (surprisingly awesome considering my hate of mushrooms) and an apricot tart. Tina Fallani is the signorina who teaches the class and she is an amazing cook and has been giving us tips on the cooking culture of Florence. She also filled us in on the fact that Genova is the best place to get pesto (and guess what? I'm taking a trip there this weekend!)

Today I had two classes, Women and the Arts in Italy and Fresco painting. As a fantastic way to start the morning, for whatever reason there was not loud construction going on outside our window at seven (trust me, this is a refreshing surprise to wake up to only cars driving by). For my art history class, we got to explore the Palazzo Vecchio, which is the old palace of the Medici family in Florence. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live in a place like that. All vaulted ceilings with a continuous array of frescos coating the walls and cielings. Legends, muses, battle scenes and virtues are represented in human form and I am still just caught off guard every time we walked into a new room. I have evry hope in the world that I can find a way to surround myself with that kind of beauty on an every basis during my lifetime. Fresco painting is amazing as well and I hope I can continue to do this when I am no longer in this class. We are currently working on copying a Michelangelo portrait. W have a tile that is covered with a rough concrete like substance and then we had to trace the outline of the portrait and poke holes through the tracing paper. Then you pat sinopia (a brown pigment) over the top. This filters through the holes and then you have a guide for your painting! Today we used sinopia to paint a sepia version of the painting onto our tile and them mixed the colors f fresco we will be using. All water based, the fresco seems like it is going to be like water coloring concrete. Odd but I guess we will see how it works out!

This weekend I am going on a trip to Genova to see Lucia so more adventures await :) ciao

I'm Starting to Realize...

that the state of exhaustion I am currently facing may last the whole trip simply because of how much I will be doing on a daily basis. I feel like there are a million things I could talk about on the blog because so much goes on.
        On Wednesday night, Florence held a lantern festival in honor of the Virgin Mary's birthday. So there was a huge amount of people stuffed in a Piazza, many holding lanterns that they had made themselves. They paraded through the streets of Florence with a band marching in front and a police escort. There is also a tradition where little boys and girls run around with these little blowguns so that they can blow balls of clay at the lanterns to try and catch them on fire. More than once I got pelted in the back when a child would miss. This was a celebration when a lantern would catch on fire, all the kids would gather around and oo and ahhh at the fire before it went out. The festival also had a band and traditional dancing, so out on the stage were two accordian players, a flute player, a guitar player and eight dancers all decked out in traditional garb. They danced for a long time and then decided they needed audience participant so all these guys rush out and start asking random women to dance with them. Of course who gets asked?

So I got to do a traditional Italian dance in front of a huge crowd and it was a blast! Ridiculous but a blast!

Thursday we got to go on the terraces of il Duomo! They only allow people to do this one day a year and it was beautiful. There were some great views of the city and the country side and the shutter-happiness hit me again!

Saturday I went on the Ravenna field trip with an art history class, which was way fun and super tiring. We were at the bus at 7 and dropped off at 8:30. We got to see some beautiful churches and amazing mosaics (Galla Placidia and San Vitale!!) on this trip, as well as being given biscotti by a stranger, eating the Ravenna specialty piadina (flat bread, prosiutto, mozzerella, tomatoes and olive oil), and trying pistachio gelato :)

I love and miss you amici <3

zzzzzz.zzzzzzzzz.zzzzzzzzzzz.z.z....

Yes dears, that's me snoring. The jet lag and excitement has finally caught up to me and now I am just pooped. Lots has happened in the past few days since I have posted anything and all of it has been fantastic.
Sunday:
       We (meaning me and my roommates) went on a day long adventure on Sunday which was by far the best day I have had. We started off by walking to il Porto Vecchio, which is the famous bridge in Florence. Major tourist attraction, so we ended up walking a couple blocks down to the next bridge to avoid the hustle and bustle of the tons of tour groups. The view from these bridges is beautiful with the Italian style buildings on either side and what the Italians consider mountains in the back ground. First order of business was to find a gelato shop that we had been told had 1 euro gelato (which is the cheapest you can find in the area). I got a cone with a scoop of Creme de Caramele and Coffe. Mmmmm..... If I ever happen to be craving coffee I will be walking over there to get a gelato instead because that was fantastic.
       Then we headed to il Giardino di Boboli, which is the main garden of Florence and was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Filled with huge bushes and cypress trees, the gardens created a maze where you could wander aimlessly and eventually you would run into a beautiful fountain or one of the many museums that are in the gardens. Sculptures and random buildings popped up around every corner and needless to say, I got a little shutter happy. We eventually end up finding this staircase that we decide to go up and see what is up there. There was an immediate gasp when we realized that this platform overlook the Toscana countryside which is every bit as magnificent as it is made out to be.
        There were a bunch of over things that went on, such as there was a random rainstorm and 15 people managed to squish themselves in a ladies bathroom to escape it. We ate salad in the gardens. We came upon many stray cats that live in the gardens. We went through a costume museum (so fun). And then we walked home and rested our sore feet before making ourselves Pomodoro Caprese Salad with fresh bread from the market (which if I had to chose, would be what I would live on for the rest of my life :)  ).
Monday:
       Classes started for everyone and I had Batik as my only class of the day on monday. The class is held in a studio hidden away. You have to walk through an outdoor courtyard, where locals are hanging their laundry and gossiping with their neighbors. I think that I may have found a calling for myself in the textile art however because I am just so excited to start. For my first project, which I will start tomorrow, I will be working on a silk square which I plan on decorating in red with a lion door knocker that I have drawn and possibly the Firenze fleur-di-lys. Since I had the rest of the day off I wandered around the city, trying to find a place to sit and sketch. I ended up by the river, standing and sketching on of the bridges (which was fun for a while but the detail in the buildings was hard for me to stay focused on). In the evening, me and my roommates attended a gallery opening, where we all ended up sitting in the SACI garden, eating sushi and drinking our first glass of Italian wine :)


Tuesday:
        I had jewelry as my only class and we started off by starting to learn how to use all the various tools and it is a mini version of the tools I used in sculpture. So we haven't done anything exciting in that class yet but we have to get through all the introductory stuff. I was exhausted so I ended up napping and reading all day until the cooking class! We didn't actually get to cook which was a shame but we ate better than we have since we got here. We ate Gnocchi in Sugo Finto, Fagiolini al Pomodoro, Crostini with Salsa Verde and Caprese, and poached peaches with chocolate sauce. Jealous?

Today I had Art History which looks like it is going to be a very interesting class and I still have Fresco to go! I miss you all <3 Ciao

Orientation Weekend

Ciao belles!

This weekend has been crazy busy but super fun and eye opening. So we have been attending lectures and going on tours for the past couples days which has been super interesting and also happens to be breaking in my new converse and toning my calves. We have wandered what seems like the entire city and have gotten lost plenty of times to and from the school. We also went to the Mercato Centrale which is like a farmers market that takes place every day in a huge building the the downtown area. So much fresh food I was simply amazed. So now I'm going to list things because i feel like it :)

Things I wish we had in the USA that are everywhere here:

• door knockers as big as my face
• lantern holders on the buildings
• cobblestone
• open air markets / farmers markets that take place every day
• bikes (at least the huge quantity)
• teeny tiny cars
• nice guys in tea shops
• the legit specialty shops (a butcher where meat is literally hanging of the walls, or bread where they are actively baking in front of you, such a kick in the pants)
• talented musicians playing in the street (haven't seen one bad one, we even have an accordion guy who hangs out near our apartment)
• open windows everywhere
• gelato :)

The things I don't particularly like:

• feeling like an idiot when i mess up in Italian
• smelly when you walk by a sewage vent in the street
• the pigeons are fearless! they fly directly at your face
• humidity :(
• jet lag... I am still so tired all the time

The foods I have tried/made:

• kiwi gelato
• panini with mozzerella, spinach and tomato on foccacia
• pizza: one just cheese, one with ham
• lasagna: red and white (SACI welcome party)
• freshly made chai tea (the man makes the tea himself!)
• dried fruit (soooo good)
• Spaghetti with olive oil, basil, garlic, mozzerella, tomatos, onion (me and my roomies made this!)

My roommates are fantastic. Tomorrow we re going to take a day trip across the river to the Giardino di Boboli, which are like the botanical gardens of Florence.We are going to take a picnic and spend all day exploring and taking photos of whatever we may find. Buona notte amici :)

Up, up and away :)

Hello all!

I made it! I am officially in my apartment in Florence. The ride here was an interesting one. Sixteen hours in and out of airports, I better get a few good stories out of it. Ok, so to start me and my mother were waiting for my flight to board when I hear them call out the name Javier Colon to board. I recognized it and even said something about how I thought that it was someone famous. Turns out it is Javier Colon winner of the Voice (which i religiously watched). Exciting! I got to talk to him and everything (don't worry I wasn't one of those crazed fans who starts crying or something).

So I make my flight to Atlanta and get on the flight to Paris. Turns out I am sitting next to another study abroad student, Sydney. She wasn't going to my school but it was interesting to talk to her and we navigated the Paris airport together. Had to take a bus a mile down the road to get to the concourse I needed to be at (confusing much) and they didn't even post my gate until the plane began to board. It was the classiest airport I had ever seen though with most of the building being made of glass.


Made it to Florence and after successfully receiving my checked bag (YES!!) I go to exchange money. While there I run into Sophie (!), who is from DU and is also headed to SACI. So we found our way to the main building and I am now sitting in my apartment alone, because none of my room mates have arrived yet :( I am one block away from il duomo and am about to go explore with my camera and embrace my inner tourist :)


Ciao li miei amici <3