Parma, Milan, Como, oh my!

Hi!

In the latest installment of Logan's Italian Adventures, I went on my first weekend trip this past weekend! I have a couple more of these trips during my time here, so it was good to finally experience one! I like traveling a lot, I can't wait to see what other cool places I get to go see! Also, I'm sorry if the font gets super weird. It looks all the same when I am composing this, but it sometimes gets weird when I publish it. Technology is sometimes good, sometimes not. Speaking of which, let me just reiterate how much I miss clothes dryers. I will never take mine back home for granted ever, ever again. Go hug yours, right now. Did you? Okay, you may now continue reading. Heads up, this is a long post <3

-Early friday morning we had to meet at a bus that was waiting across town. This trip was supposed to be with two of my roommates, but unfortunately one fell sick right before we left and she had to stay behind. At least she didn't pay for the trip, it was paid for by our school. So then we rode on the bus, which is always pretty because we drive right through the tuscan countryside, and sometimes through the Italian alps, depending on which way we are going.

-It was a long bus ride, but we finally get to Parma... The land of magical Parmesan cheese!!!! :) we stopped at a dairy farm of sorts where we learned how this specific factory makes their Parmigiano-Feggiano formaggio. First, we got to taste different kinds of cheesy breads, little appetizers avec fromage, and Parmesan aged 12, 24 and 36 months. The darker the cheese, the older and harder it's going to be, but richer the flavor. My favorite was the 24, right in between. On the tour we got to see their inner workings  They have their own land, their own cows/goats, their own factory, their own distribution plant, the works. They rely on nobody but the postal service, which I found amazing. Also, it ages for at least 12 months to even be considered "parmigiano-reggiano"! There was about 7,000 wheels of cheese stored in their warehouse curing, and it was so cool! Smelled weird, but I've never seen so much cheese in my life. We had to wear the little plastic booties over our shoes and everything. It was legit. 

-More bus riding brought us to Como, which is where our hotel was. I thought we were going to stay in Milan, but since the next week (beginning the 25th) is Milan fashion week, I'm assuming no places were available and not affordable. So we went to our little hotel, then onto dinner at a restaurant called Birrificio di Como, which essentially was a brew house that had a brewery on site, and it is also a pizza house. Because, Italians NEVER drink wine with pizza (I learned this from the tour guide in Assisi) they drink beer, and here they make some of the best. Here was our menu: 

Risotto with Prosecco and Rosemary

“Giro Pizza”, a different selection of Pizza

Homemade Jam Pie 

So, I actually ordered a beer! It was very exciting because I personally don't like it, but when it's a) free and b) recommended by the restaurant, then I will try it for sure. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible lol. I gave the rest of it to one of my friends that came on the trip, lol. The risotto though.... Dat risotto.... So good. I ate way more than I care to admit I did. Same thing with this pizza-- okay so we had no idea what a "different selection of pizza" was because that was verbatim on our itinerary. No one had any idea what that meant, and past people that had gone on the trip wouldn't ruin the surprise for us. After they clear the risotto mess, out from the kitchen people just start carrying pizza after pizza out to us, Brazilian steakhouse style. You know, where they carry around the slabs of meat on huge skewers? Yeah, like that. These pizzas are LARGE and they come around to each table offering slices to us, and each pizza is something different. Margherita, pesto, prosciutto and pineapple, spinach and potato, arugula and cheese, geez we tried so many I literally don't remember them all. We figure out after the first two that we cannot eat whole slices ourselves so we start cutting the slices in halves and fourths to share with the table so we can taste, because there must have been around 12 or 15 different kinds of pizzas. I don't even know, I didn't count. They were all so good, and I went into a food coma that night. Way worse than Chipotle food comas, which are legendary. Sometimes I miss Chipotle while I'm here, but then I go get a delicious panino and gelato and then I feel better ;)

-The next morning, Saturday, we had another early call time and we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, then on a bus for about an hour to Milan. We began with a guided tour of the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci at Cenacolo Vinciano, Duomo, Scala. I was a bad art major and COMPLETELY forgot from last semester that Da Vinci's last supper was literally in Milan until I saw the itinerary and freaked out. I was all excited to hang out with my roommate, but there wasn't enough tickets for both of us to be in the same tour group so we had to split up. But I had friends in the second grouping so it luckily worked out. Anyway, this "dry fresco" is on a wall inside a monastery's refectory (now turned museum). So every day the monks would eat in the same room as this gorgeous painting, no big deal. The refectory has these really intense doors that close only when the door on the other side opens, so it keeps air, humidity and the elements out as much as humanly possible. They only allow groups in there for 15 minutes, so we had a guy quickly describe it and then we were ushered out. This painting is so cool in person though, because Da Vinci made all of the faces different, which was new for that time. And when you're up close you can see all the textures and colors, although they are faded. Each person is reacting differently to Jesus's words of "one of you will betray me". Thomas is pointing his finger up (foreshadowing when Christ returns in front of him and he must physically put his finger in his wound to believe he is real), Peter has a knife in his hand (foreshadowing what he will do to a soldier when they come to arrest Jesus), Judas is leaning away from Jesus as if to try to hide his guilt. And even though in the Da Vinci code they say that Mary Magdalene was present at the time of the last supper, she's not. That person in the corner with the smooth face is John the evangelist, who in all Renaissance art was depicted as super young by having him clean shaven and with long hair. Hmm I know there is more religious symbolism but that's all I can think of for now. Art history is so interesting! :) we weren't allowed to take pictures of the real thing, but I did take a picture of a replica inside the bookshop.

-We then went on a walking tour of the city while the other group did something else. It was cold and rainy so that wasn't opportune. I forgot my gloves back in the hotel because we had to be up so early and my brain wasn't awake, and so my hands were wet and freezing, so I was struggling trying to take pictures and walk and not get run over. But besides the sucky weather, the city is so cool! We passed old buildings, a medieval castle owned by the Visconti family, and saw shopping centers after shopping centers. The galleria- which is basically their really high-end mall- was so beautiful. There were only designer stores in the shopping center so it was all top notch stuff. Gucci, Prada, Louie, Armani, Hermes, the usual. It is a fashion capital for a reason, and it was so cool. Everyone was dressed nice too, that was cool. Despite the weather, everyone had a look of chicness, whereas I felt unfashionable but at least I was somewhat dry. My friends and I just mainly walked around when we had free time. We went inside the Milan cathedral and it was gorgeous!!! The is a pope and Cardinal buried there, and the inner nave and aisles are humongous. Many pictures were taken, and I'm not sorry about it. We found this DELICIOUS  burger joint called Mama's Burgers, and that was our lunch. I know... I'm sorry I caved and got american food, but it was soooo worth it. It came in a little box!!! :) We then popped in some stores, just to see what kind of clothes some of the ready to wear/ cheaper stores had. My hands were literally blood-red, and I couldn't move them. So I bought mittens for 2 euros. And that is pretty much it! We unfortunately didn't have that much time to see anything, or else we would have gone into the Van Gogh exhibit or some other art museums.

-Dinner that night back in Como was again quite good. We had to walk to our hotel in the rain, ugh, but we passed through the non-sketchy part of town and saw cute little stores and bakeries just like in Assisi. Our dinner was at a ristorante called L'Orologio, and this was our menu:

Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella

Risotto with asparagus and parmesan cheese

Pasta with pesto

Veal escalope with roasted potatoes

Tiramisu

Yes, you read that right, that's 5 courses. And yes, it was delicious. I know it sounds like a lot, but the portions here (disregard the menu the night before) are all really good sizes and you (most of the time) don't eat too much (again, pay no attention to the one last night, that was a fluke). Sorry I've been talking about food so much, but that's something I want to remember. All of the things I write on here are what I want to remember about my experiences here. So, after all this food, we again just went straight to bed.

-The next morning, Sunday, was our last day in Como, so we had to pack up our things and then head out to breakfast. We again split up into the tour groups we had yesterday, so while we went on a walking tour of the old part of Como, the other group went on the boat ride. The tour was nice, I was excited to see all of the historical buildings. Sounds lame, but in Como all of the buildings are different colors. Pinks, greens, oranges, blues, all pastel colors and very pretty. See all of the pictures that I posted because I took a ton of course. (side note, I'm almost up to 1,000 photos and I haven't even been here a full month yet... I have a problem) Their main cathedral was also quite gorgeous, and there were apparently medieval tapestries inside. Mass was going on at the time so we unfortunately couldn't go in. But after the walking tour we got to ride on the boat!! It was about a 45 minute ride, all over Lago di Como. It was beautiful! Although I picked the worst seat on the boat and kept getting splashed and I had all the wind in my face, and although it was cold and rainy, I was able to get good photos and still hear our guide. She showed us prominent buildings owned by the government, farmers, just plain wealthy locals and famous people. She pointed out how close Switzerland was (only a few miles, I have great shots of the Swiss Alps) and all of the little villages right next to Como. She even showed us areas where movies have been shot like Casino Royale, Oceans 12, music videos like John Legend's All of Me and the site where he got married, and pointed the general area of where George Clooney's house is. It isn't lakefront, so we couldn't see if from the boat. But right after we got off the boat and into a cute little restaurant for lunch, the sun came out! We hurried up and ate, and took pictures outside. It's like the entire city came alive when the sun came out, it was insane! It was 10x as beautiful as it had been earlier. I can see why it is so popular in the spring and summer, and for vacation... It's GORGEOUS. 

-And then we got on the bus to go home :) It was a fun trip all in all, despite the weather. I'm glad I got to go and see two more places! Returning to normalcy, this week I have ceramics to do, I'm sculpting an acorn; and painting to do, we have to paint a building and finish one that we started painting on-site last class. That was cool, we got to paint outside during class. People kept taking pictures of us, and it was uncomfortable, but also kind of really cool. Also, Monday night I did a cooking class! It was so fun! We made ravioli from scratch, this potato thing and a chocolate souffle! I hope they post pictures from it so we can see it, but it was so much fun. Oh, and I have to do some laundry, ew. 

In other news, I got an internship for the summer! A few weeks ago I applied to a whole bunch of places, including a boutique called JBT close to my house. It was founded by a local woman who has written some books, done some directing and she's now an entrepreneur expanding into fashion. She has a children's line called Kinsley Kouture, named after her daughter, and they make upscale yet durable children's clothes for the fashionable youngsters of the 21st century. From my current understanding, I believe I'm interning in the pattern making/ sewing department, so I'll be working on the actual construction of the garments which is really cool! I will get more information later, when I return to the states. Praise the lord I was able to get an internship, especially with me starting the application process a little later than most, and from a tiny laptop over 5,000 miles away. Jesus is always Good!!! :)

So that is all I got right now! The future looks bright! I have a mandatory field trip to Pienza and Montepulciano on saturday for my architecture class, because those are two medieval cities like florence that have similar architecture that we can compare. Ohh, and theres a wine tasting. I mean, it isn't a trip to the Tuscan valley without that, right? Lol :) but that's about it, pretty chill weekend. Oh, and my wonderful boyfriend comes to visit me in 10 days time for his spring break *cue tears*, i'm so excited. And my aunt and uncle come a few weeks after that for MY spring break, even more excitement... This semester is going by so fast! 

P.S., I miss everyone back home, hope everyone is doing good! Facebook message me if you want to Skype sometime, I'm 7 hours ahead of central time!

Life is good, la vita è bella <3

Ciao tutti! xx

Assisi for Valentine's Day

Ciao a tutti!

That means hi everyone lol :) I'm probably going to only blog once a week, just when something exciting happens, haha. Life has started to fall into a semi-normal schedule, although I don't consider living in Italy "normal". I go to classes 3 times a week, and then the other days I'm doing homework (yes despite all my travel pictures I do have homework) or just walking around the city. Lately it has been cold and rainy a bit, but today it is gorgeous! 

A little about my classes, in case you didn't know, I'm only taking 4 and we only have each class 1 time a week for 2hrs and 30 minutes. So it's very different from American schools, going to the same classes multiple times a week. I also have no class on Wednesday or Friday, so those make excellent exploring or homework days. But mainly homework ;) ceramics is fun, I just finished my first piece. It's a big water bottle made out of "gaelestro" (not sure the spelling). Now I have to find another object to make into clay. Painting is fun, but I'm having trouble rendering what I want with water colors. You have to let each layer dry before proceeding, which is hard because I'm used to dry media that you can just go go go on and not stop till you're done. So that will take some getting used to. Renaissance architecture is super fun, we spend half the class in lecture inside a classroom, then the other half inside the building that we just discussed. I'm a nerd so I'm certainly enjoying that class. This city is so interesting, I can't get enough. And lastly is handbag construction, which is also fun. I'm thankful for my background in fashion and art, because this class is both parts which makes it easier for me. We learned how to stitch seams in leather last class and Thursday we will begin making our first bag. So that's pretty cool :) I like my classes! But I also really enjoy traveling on the weekends. 

Traveling is a very big part of study abroad, which I'm just starting to understand. You kind of need to get out of the city you are in to experience more of what the world has to offer. So with that mindset, yesterday I booked a weekend trip to the French Riviera! Kind of like my most recent day trip to Assisi (I'll get to that in a second), I booked it not knowing anybody going. It worked out in my favor last week, and I'm praying that it works out for me again that either I'll know someone or make friends. But if not, I'll still be in the French Riviera! If nothing else I'll know the language lol. I'm super excited about it. I think I have a place to go every single weekend, which is wonderful! I didn't think I would get to go to so many places! Some are for school and then others are just trips that we booked either through our program or through a student travel agency. I'm very happy to get to experience all this! I feel like this semester is going to start going by really fast...

Okay now to what my main post was supposed to be about, I went to Assisi this past Saturday! It was beautiful. So as I said, I went to the bus stop at 7:30am expecting to not know anybody, but it turns out I knew 2 girls that are friends with my roommate, and a 3rd girl is in my architecture class. Total number of people on the tour was 7 so I knew a large portion of our tour, haha. We took a "private bus" there, and by private bus I mean a large version of a minivan, and me being the 7th person I had to sit sandwiched between two italian men: our bus driver and our translator/ guide who is also a professor at our school. So that was a fun bus ride, trying to decipher their conversations. It was fast, but I know for a solid hour they talked about food. 

Assisi is located on the side of a mountain, but some of it is down in the valley also. The part we saw was up on the mountain. Assisi is in the region of Umbria, like Florence is in the region of Toscana or Tuscany. Each region is known for different foods and things. It is an ADORABLE little town with tiny shops and cobblestone streets. It's so old, a lot of buildings date back to medieval times. You can still see ruins of old medieval stone structures/ archways in the buildings, they've just updated the inside but kept the outside historic. There's places where you can still see Roman walls built by, yes you guessed it, the Romans. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. I bought a tiny print in a printing studio, and her prints were gorgeous. I unfortunately didn't know how to say "are these metal etchings or woodcuts?" Or "did you make your own ink?" So I just said hi and thank you instead. Sigh language barriers are annoying sometimes. Also, random, but it was really busy in the main square because there were 3 weddings going on that day.

We get there and we meet up with a local tour guide who gave us a private tour for our "pilgrimage" essentially. People in the Middle Ages would take this trek up the mountain to visit the resting places of St Francis and St Clare, and visit other churches with holy relics and sacred things inside. It was pretty cool learning about caltholicism, christianity, art history, architecture and regular history. This lady knew everything, she was a wonderful tour guide. 

Just for giggles I'm including some of the text that was in my itinerary because it had some historical information in it. So this'll be a tiny history lesson, hope you don't get bored. We technically did this pilgrimage backwards, because the medieval people would have began in the valley where they lived, and then walk up the hill. But it was easier to drive to the top and then walk down.  So our first stop was San Rufino. This cathedral was so pretty and it's dedicated to Saint Rufinus. His remains are still there, and in this church Saint Francis, later Saint Clare and many of their original disciples were baptised. It was upon hearing Francis' preaching in this church in 1209 that Clare became deeply touched by his message and realized her calling. (I couldn't remember all of that from the tour so, thanks google!)

Santa Chiara or Saint Clare was our second stop. It was a smaller basilica and less decorated than the first, but still beautiful. She was a follower of st Francis, but because she was a woman she could not be a part of the monastery, so she created her own convent. Like Francis she was born wealthy, but gave it all up to live in absolute poverty and live out her faith life alongside other destitute people. She and the others were called the "poor Claire's" which people still talk about today because to my knowledge, it's still around. It is dedicated to and contains the remains of her and also St Agnes. What was interesting is down in the crypt, her bones are encased in a life size, realistically painted statue of a prostrate woman sleeping with a flower in her hands. So it was kind of scary at first to walk down the stairs and at the end of the hall then you see what looks like body... Lol. But once you got closer the shrine was beautiful. Also, I took pictures of all of the outsides of the churches. Of course. Also housed here was the relic that St Francis heard Jesus's voice speak to him and call him to rebuild his church, which started his life of ministry.

Before lunch we also did S. Francis's Basilica. Which is the mother church of the Roman Catholic order of Friars minor, commonly known as the Franciscan order, in Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis. Down in the valley is where he was born. There is a piazza around the church where he renounced his father and took his vows of poverty very publically- by taking off his clothes and giving the last object that tied him to his family back to the father. They never got along after that apparently. The church is also the burial place of st Francis and the basilica is one of the most important places of christian pilgrimage in Italy.

Then we had lunch at this really awesome little restaurant that served some specialty of Umbria called Torta. It's like a pita bread only they cook it by putting hot ashes on the top, then cutting off that top part and opening it up to stuff various things in. It was so big and so tasty, I ate it all. Because yolo. 

Lastly we visited a little bit away from the mountain part of Assisi another church called Santa Maria Degli Angeli, the place where it is said St. Francis passed away. Theres a little chapel inside the big church which they call La Porziuncola which is one of the churches that Francis restored during his ministry, and that was his inspiration and his model for his followers, and there it is considered the literal birthplace of his order. 

Wow I know that was a lot, but hey imagine being told all of this while being inside the buildings! It was overwhelming but very interesting. Also our guide pointed out paintings and frescos that I studied in school, so I was getting art history plus regular history plus some christian history. Basically I was nerding out for 2.5 hours.

So then we went to a little village about 30 minutes away called Torgiano and we visited Cantine Lungarotti, or Lungarotti vineyard, for a wine tasting and tour of their vineyard. We saw all of their machinery and it was fascinating how long it takes to make just one bottle of wine. Then after our tour, which we had to have translated because the owners didn't speak any English, we got to taste 3 of their wines! How italian, right? They were actually pretty good. If someone told me to drink them I wouldn't have gagged which was surprising because most wines I don't like. I felt so classy though learning how to smell it, how to spin it in your hand to see the colors, how to detect "flavor notes", it was all very impressive the whole process of winemaking and wine tasting. So culturally interesting.

So umm sorry for the really long post, but mainly these historical things are for me to remember and look back on once this journey is over. Because I want to remember this amazing time and I don't want to forget the knowledge I've acquired here. It's much faster than writing in a journal you know :)

Well, it's lunchtime here so I think I'll go get uno panino! 

Ciao!

Venice for Carnivale

Venezia!!!

-We had an early bus time, sleepy! 

-we met in a train station, it was my first time seeing a train station... Cool! Easy to understand and navigate. Maybe I'll take a train somewhere for a day.

-we drove through Bologna, the italian alps, close to Padua and some other places (see map in the many pictures I took)

-we drove through SNOW!!! The italian alps were like a winter wonderland; so gorgeous!!!

-finally get to the shuttle ("people mover") that takes us to the island of Venice. 

-the only way around is by boat or water taxi!

-it was freezing! So cold when the wind blew

-Venice is gorgeous!!! So much color everywhere! And the water is just so pretty moving though all the streets.

-We got there around lunchtime, so we had to search for food.

-Found a really cute place, and got tasty pasta.

-then walked around some more; window shopped and took pictures. We found some masks to wear around for the first day of carnivale, kicking off the festivities.

-then we rode in a gondola!!!! 80€ per group of 5 so only about €16 per person... Worth it!!!

-our gondolier was so nice, and very knowledgable about Venice. Fun fact, you can't just be a gondolier, you have to be born into the profession- it's passed down from generations in Venetian families.

-I got my hand kissed by a gondolier, I felt special

-then we decided to walk around some more and see more things. We got there at kind of an awkward time, around afternoon where we couldn't really do anything besides walk around because the museums and things closed. When we have more time I want to see Murano (glass blowing) and Burano (colored houses), and the inside of some of the beautiful churches there.

-people started coming out in full costume around 6, and boy were their costumes beautiful. Huge elaborate Spanish and French 18th century farthingales complete with jewels, the powdered wig and the beautiful masks of course.

-most of these masks are handmade and hand painted... So every store and stand is different! All of them are so beautiful; so much attention to detail.

-costumes were so pretty but some were funny. One group were giant fuzzy sea creatures. I got taken away by a giant pink octopus, he walked me down the street a ways then back to my friends. 

-danced in St Mark's Square

-I used a water closet! That was exciting. Never had to pay to use the bathroom before

-late getting home because of late people 

-Fun time all in all! Very tired though. 

There's a chocolate festival going on in Florence right now for a few days. Umm have I said how much I love italy??!! :) 

Piazzale Michelangiolo; classes beginning

This city keeps getting better and better. I keep having to metaphorically pinch myself, to wake myself up from this dream. Being here is so surreal, that word doesn't even begin to describe it.

-So, yesterday Feb 1 was a really awesome day. I found a Methodist church actually! In a catholic country, super weird. The service was in Italian (oops), but even so, afterwords some members of the small congregation came to talk to me because I was a new face (also at least 30 years younger than everyone there, so I was very out of place). Even though I didn't speak their language, the kind smiles on their faces, and the fact that an older woman put her arm through mine and started patting me made me feel instantly welcome. There is something about Christian people!! They are different than everyone else! Love and kindness transcend language barriers! Anyway, I said I didn't speak italian, so they brought over an older man (who was the husband of the lady who started patting me) who spoke perfect English. He talked to me for a little while, asking me where I was studying, etc. He was telling me that even though there is an English service in the same church Sunday nights, that I am always welcome at the Italian one. He also said if I needed anything at all, to ask them and they would be willing to help. He also told me how this experience is going to change my life and my mindset about people and cultures. Smart man! And how kind of him to offer his help to me, he had never even met me before! Love breaks down barriers, its amazing to see. Christian people are so great, so full of Jesus; just loving people and strangers like Jesus would. That was a great experience. He also told me that he is Jewish, and his wife is Methodist. He spends sunday morning in the methodist church with her, and she spends saturday night in the synagogue with him. I couldn't believe two people of different faiths were able to function so well in a marriage. It was a beautiful story, and I really hope to talk to them again. Well,  I would be talking to him and he would be translating for his wife... lol. By the way, I took his advice and went to the english service, and it was good :) maybe I'll continue going to both services, perhaps listening to people speaking will help me with my lack of italian skills.

-Anyway, after a cute lunch a hipster crepe/sweets/gelato place, we decided to walk up to a place called Piazzale Michelangiolo... this is one of those places where despite the 60+ pictures I took, none of them compare with seeing this with your own eyes. Sorry not sorry I took so many pictures. So this place is a hike up a hill on the Oltrarno side, with many many stairs,  almost as bad as the Duomo. Probably a 30-40 minute walk, so it's kind of far. But when you finish you're up higher than the Duomo, and you can see legitimately all of Florence. Right out in front of you is just this vast landscape of colors and it was so gorgeous. You can see all my pictures on my flickr account but, you can't even begin to imagine how this place looked. It was the most gorgeous view I've ever seen.

-We continue walking, because there is more stuff to see up there of course. We find this church up even higher than the lookout point we were at, and I am so glad we stopped. Monastero di San Miniato was the name of this place, and it was so beyond gorgeous. A catholic monastery built in around 1290 something.  Gilded altar stations with gorgeous paintings and inset gems, the apses and transepts of the church housed private prayer areas also with gorgeous Byzantine art and covered in gold, the walls housed humongous frescoes depicting Jesus, saints, God, and everyone you could think of. In the very front area with the main altar down below the prayer altar station, was the relic area, which housed the bones of Saint Miniatus (not sure of spelling). The floor was covered with names, from the names of the people interred there. Crazy. But the best thing was at the top level, very front of the church by the pulpit on the ceiling, a huge fresco of Christ the pantocrater giving the blessing gesture to all those who worship there, and also giving blessings to the city below. More amazingly was the fact that it was covered, absolutely covered in gold. And it was huge, probably easily 25 feet tall. The Byzantine style painting, the gold, the just overall feeling of smallness in the presence of God was just amazing. This is another thing my pictures do not do justice with. You have to see this in person, it is just an amazing work of art, I was doing everything I could not to cry. Also, their pipe organ was huge. and very epic. What a site to remember.

-Today, February 2 was our first day of classes. I had ceramics and watercolor painting today. HANG ON, I just said I have classes in Florence Italy. This is still so hard to believe-- how lucky and blessed am I to have this experience?!?!? I am walking in the same places where so many great artists, philosophers, inventors, scientists, thinkers, innovators, architects came before. It is insane to think that they are still alive in their works/museums here. Everything is so well preserved here, it's like living in history with technology just more modern than in their time.

Anyway, I'm super tired. Renaissance Italian Architecture class tomorrow at 9am woohoo! Goodnight! Buona sera, buona notte, ciao ciao.

PS, both my professors said bye to us today by saying "Ciao ciao!" I guess that's an Italian thing. Also, it's very hard to find notebooks with lined paper. I searched a few stores to find it. Most people use graph paper notebooks to take notes in... how strange.

For the past few days...

Buona sera! It's been kind of a crazy last few days!

-Firstly, the temperature has dropped considerably. The first few days we were here it was sunny and high of about 50 deg, just a little chilly but not too bad. Perfect for walking around. As soon as I begin to start doing stuff to get my apartment and begin my actual study abroad experience, it dropped to high of 35. So that's kind of a bummer, I didn't realize Italy got quite that cold in the wintertime. My parents left today, so I'm glad they mainly had good weather for their vacation. I think they really enjoyed their visit!

-I got my apartment keys a few days ago, and I'm all moved in for the semester! My apartment is really cute (rather old but very authentic Italian) and my roommates are very nice. Being on the Oltrarno side is a nice break away from the more touristy side of Florence. It's much quieter here, and much more typical Italian countryside living.

-However, what's not been so nice is our heat. The first night there, it decided to shut off a few hours before we went to sleep. The low was 27; we had to sleep in 2 layers of everything. After orientation things and walking around all that day we hoped it would have come back on... And it did! But only for a few hours. Sometime in the night it shut off, and was equally cold as the night before. And to our surprise this morning, no hot water! We think the system used all the hot water for the radiators (the apt has small radiators in every room) and none was left for showering. Fun times. But luckily later this evening some nice gentleman came and fixed it for us, and it seems to be working now. Let's pray it stays that way! Although, apparently the hot water/ heat/ and electricity going out is a common problem in Italy. That's slightly annoying. But hey, I'm still in Italy so that makes up for it!

-Not knowing more than basic Italian (from Rosetta Stone) is also slightly problematic. I speak more French than Italian, which does me no good because even though there are cognates, they verb conjugations aren't that similar. I've been relying heavily on my talking Italian phrasebook app (this is super helpful actually, if anyone wants more information on it) and also Google translate. But I'm starting to pick up phrases here and there.

-Story about Google translate... We have this wardrobe/ bureau/ armoire in our bedroom for hanging clothes, and it has three doors. Each door had a lock and a key. So the first day I turn the one on the left, it opens. I turn the one on the right, it opens. The one in the middle... Stuck. Of course. So for days I'm trying everything to get it open, including using a knife to try to pry the bottom open. It is the only space big enough to hang clothes, so without it we can't put our hanging sweaters anywhere. Evidently it got jammed shut from the last time it was closed. Everyone takes a turn trying to get it open, even my parents. So today, while the same nice man that fixed our heater was here, I literally had to type "can you open this wardrobe? It's stuck" in english, translate it into italian, realized I couldn't say it so I handed the guy my phone to read. (super embarrassing! I wish i could have asked him like a human being, but none of us knew the vocabulary.) He was kind enough to open it for us! Praise Jesus he got it open! We finally were able to hang up our clothes, which had been sitting in a pile since we got there.

-Classes start on Monday which is really crazy! It's been sort of a big vacation. I've been here over a week and it still doesn't feel quite real. Being on this adventure still feels like I'm in a dream, a little bit. Although, the sobering reality of school is coming soon. But mine and my roommates' classes sound like they will be really fun! My classes are: Ceramics, Watercolor Painting, Italian Renaissance Architecture, and Handbag Construction. Those probably sound really easy, but our syllabi said it requires many hours of outside work, because we only meet once a week for 2.5 hours! Hopefully 3 studio classes won't kill me...

-We got our official FUA ID cards yesterday... So official! We also found this super cool market while on a break during orientation things! It's called Mercato Centrale, literally "the central market." The bottom floor is all fresh ingredients and merchants with fresh food to prepare for meals. It's huge! Butchers, cheese artisans, gardeners, winery owners, it's crazy! The top floor is all little local restaurants where you can eat good food but cheaply without paying a sitting fee. (Most restaurants charge a sitting fee, like a fee for occupying a table, because most people take 2-3 hours for a meal. Seriously.) So that was super cool! I felt accomplished that we found it. Next on my list to see soon is Santo Spirito!

-It rained today :( first rainy day here. But Florence is somehow still pretty wet and with freezing temperatures. Next rainy day we will go to a museum or something :)

-When things go wrong, I just have to remember that even if I'm outside my comfort zone, I am living out my dream of getting to study here. I'm very blessed to be here! Although, that mindset is kind of difficult when its freezing outside and inside your apartment... Lol. It will get better though! Hopefully the weather will warm up soon!

Ciao!

To the top of the Duomo!!!

Hi :)
I am so glad I am living here for 3.5 months, because otherwise I wouldn't get to see practically any of this city or do any of the cool stuff. I haven't even scratched the surface of things to see! It's crazy. I keep thinking i've heard of all the cathedrals/piazzas in the city when someone will mention yet another one I don't know. One of us will read something else to do or another food to try. Almost 4 months might not even be enough to see/ do it all!!!! But that's why this place is amazing; so much history.
-Today my family and I began with a walk to get my cell phone from one of the school offices across town (not actually very far, the city isn't very big) and then walked around to a nearby chiesa (church) called Santa Croce. It's beautiful of course!!!!! I never get tired of looking at all this Gothic and Romaneque architecture in Florence. #artnerd. Sorry, not sorry for all the pictures of all the pretty buildings and interiors of cathedrals.

-We made friends with one of our waiters the other night, and we occasionally see him when we walk past his restaurant to go somewhere. We stopped and talked to him today while walking to Santa Croce like we're old friends. He gives me tips about living in the city, and he also tells us funny stories. See how friendly people are here?!

-The street fashion here is awesome. It's chilly when the wind blows, so everyone has heavy coats on most of the time. But even so, there's every kind of coat imaginable. Printed ones, brightly colored ones, basic neutral ones, lots of puffy ones, leather, fur, etc. I saw many women with fur on today: fur vests, coats, and one lady had a full fur length coat with matching fur hat that was all black and utterly glamourous. Can I be her please? Ugh. Even the men are bundled but dress nicely in leather or wool with nice scarves.

-Designer stores are everywhere. Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors, oh my.

-We did the coolest thing today... we walked to the top of the dome! THE TOP OF THE DUOMO. Santa Maria della Fiore, that big red-domed church we went in yesterday that is in all of my pictures because I am obsessed with it, yes that one. They have a special entrance that takes you up, up, up! I was so excited! I heard some people went a few semesters ago and ever since, I've wanted to go. Well, it was 463 steps to the lookout point, which isn't the very top/spier or anything, it is a lookout point on the outer rim of the dome, giving you a GREAT panoramic view of the city. The stairs are all enclosed inside the walls of the church itself until you hit the lookout point, so luckily it wasn't too cold. Actually that pathway was the actual one built by Brunelleschi himself, it wasn't added later. All of the internal structuring is the same from his original construction, save some extra support added recently. It's an engineering marvel really. About 200 steps up, you hit the frescoes that cover the entire inner section of the dome. Looking up at it from the viewing area, you see huge angels, Jesus, God, just breathtakingly beautiful paintings right above you. Viewing this from the ground yesterday it looks small, but up there you are so close that the seated Christ the Pantocrator figure I bet is easily 20 feet tall and quite possibly more. I also took a million pictures of this on the flickr page, it's just too pretty in person. I was floored by how cool this was. Studying it in a textbook was nothing; you have to see it in person because Brunelleschi was an absolute genius (the actual designer of the dome, this blueprint of dome had never been created. His creating of this one changed the way domes were built) and Vasari was (one of the painters of the frescoes inside the dome) one of the great renaissance masters. Touched by God they were and seeing what they created in person blew my mind. After recovering from my out-of-body religious experience, we continued the climb. The staircases are narrow, but lit, and there are handrails most of the way up. Some are spiral staircases, some straight, some going at strange directions, but you eventually make your way up to the observatory level. And it was a feast for the eyes. But you are up there, let me tell you. Windy, cold, very very high up. It was a little crowded, but it was interesting the diversity of people doing this with us. I probably heard 10 different languages just up there. It was so pretty, definitely one of the coolest things I have done and seen in my 21 years. Coming back down was easier, but the climb in it's entirety it was quite the workout! Calves of steel will result if I frequent that tour. Doubt it, it's 10euros for a ticket. But I might do it once or twice more just for fun.

-We tried gelato today! OMG so good. This was our reward for all that exercise from climbing the dome steps :) I see why everyone raves about it! So tasty.

-Dinner at a pizza shop, so so tasty, and we made friends with our waiter again. He asked us where we are from, and when we replied "Texas" he got all excited and said "Texas! Ooh, my friends from New Jersey saw Beyonce there!!!" Haha, okay, super random! He was so nice though, from Romania living in florence for about 8 years. People have such interesting lives and backgrounds, very different than in the states.

-They played popular AMERICAN hip hop and rap in this pizza shop. And some dubstep. Yes, in a pizza shop. It's weird. Why do they like our music so much??? I came here expecting to hear italian artists, italian pop or rock or something, not Ariana Grande's new single that I hear everywhere in Waco lol.

-I pick up my apartment keys tomorrow! I will be officially living in Florence come tomorrow, I won't be a tourist in a hotel room any more. It was quite fun though, beautiful hotel, beautiful rooms, clean and big, they had a very very nice bar area, breakfast was always nice, and they had a very nice staff. I really enjoyed staying there, clearly. Hotel Berchielli everybody! About 10 paces from the Arno river, maybe a block to the Ponte Vecchio. Great location! Woo sales pitch :)

-Okay I'm tired now. Goodnight!

Walking around

So, an amendment to yesterday's statement of jet lag not hitting my family and I very hard... just kidding. I pass out around midnight right, then all of a sudden at 4 am I'm suddenly awake like I just drank a huge Redbull. It was super weird. I tried all my tricks, listening to music, reading, playing on instagram, pinterest, staring at the ceiling, nothing worked! And I start to walk around the room and it turns out my parents were wide awake too. Guess our bodies were confused. So know I'm super tired at 11pm, and I will go to bed very soon. I apologize in advance for any spelling mistakes.

-Today was super fun! Breakfast at our hotel was super nice, like a little breakfast buffet that you could choose your own items. Had my first Italian cappuccino, and it was pretty good! A little strong, but not nearly as bad as my dad's espresso in a demitasse... I could clean my car battery with that. So gross. If they made it any thicker, it wouldn't even be a liquid, you would be consuming a solid.

-Italians listen to american music. All of our music. Old stuff, new stuff, whatever. Most places we walked by were playing something American. My personal favorite was the new Bruno Mars single being played during breakfast. So random.

-We walked across the ponte vecchio*, looked for my apartment, looked around on that side of the bridge and stumbled upon a huge "supermercato" (supermarket) and it was insane the kinds of foods they have in there. Cooking is going to be so fun. Then we looked around for a bank, crossed back over the PV to find my school (ended up just being the administrative office, I'm not sure where my class buildings are), found the biblotheque natzionalle (national library) and it was GORGEOUS, and lots of other random little things. Florence is cute and quaint, but some streets have lots of clothing stores (we're talking designer stores here, I pass a Michael Kors store, Moshino, theres a Bottega Venneta around here, Balenciaga... yeah. insanity) and so lots of people. So it's city life and quaint european living all at the same time.

*the ponte vecchio is the oldest bridge in florence, it connects the Oltrarno side of Florence to the Arno (with the Duomo) side. They have a whole bunch of tiny little stands/ storefronts and its very touristy but very cool to see.

-We then walked to the Duomo. Aka the Santa Maria della Fiore, the Duomo or "Dome" was designed by the artist/architect/genius Brunelleschi. The dome was his own invention, never seen built before in this manner and with these materials. You are immediately dwarfed in comparison right upon walking up, and it is just the coolest thing to see ever. Up close, far away, doesn't matter it's beautiful all the time. Going inside was a treat, since I studied the inside, outside and baptistry (unfortunately closed to restoration) I was super excited. The inside is gorgeous. The inner side of the dome is entirely covered in frescoes, reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel ceilings/ altar wall (much smaller of course but same idea). #artnerd. Check out my "study abroad pictures" page to see all of this! They don't do the real thing justice but I think they turned out alright. I also got a video/audio of the bells going off at 5pm, so loud!

-We later went to Mass there, which was really cool! As non catholics we couldn't do everything, but just being inside there while someone was playing the organ was just super cool. Methodism took some rituals from Catholicism so some of the things (although entirely in Italian) were things that we say in our own worship services. It surprisingly was really cool hearing everything in Italian, its a beautiful language. We kept up in the pamphlet for most of it, Italian is fairly simple to read and to pronounce. But after the liturgy, not many things were printed... people just started saying stuff out of nowhere and we couldn't understand them, when do you stand up/ sit down/ ahhh, it was awkward. But, i caught the important words like Jesus, God, resurrection and holy spirit. All you need to know, right? :)

-Dinner at a local ristorante was tasty as usual omg.

-So many selfie sticks. I thought they were a joke, a myth, not real. Just for really shallow people who take pictures of themselves. NO. Tourists use them to take pictures of things in high/ low/awkward places, reaching around/ over crowds, getting large groups of people in photos, and for a number of other reasons. FASCINATING. Literally, they are so useful. I won't buy one, but the idea is certainly commendable.

-We talked to an Italian lady today, a proprietor of a bakery, to whom we asked what we should order from her vast number of delicious things. She very seriously used the phrase "mama mia!" in our actual conversation when trying to choose the best thing in the case because they were all "yummy yummy". Verbatim, I swear. She was kind of the cutest and it was the best moment ever.

-It was super cold today; when that wind blows right off the Arno brrrrrrr it will chill you to the bone! But as soon as you get behind a building it was quite tolerable until the sun went down. Then it was super chilly lol. Similar to San Diego weather.

That's all I can think of for now, goodnight!