Not a good blogger...

I've come to the realization that I'm not a good blogger. I've been in Italy for 3 weeks, and I've only posted a few blogs. So, I apologize for that. But I've realized that I'm a person that likes to live in the moment... which is why I don't take enough tourist-y pictures of myself, and why I don't really blog a lot.

I can't believe the 3 weeks are already over. All at once it's felt like a long time, but also an incredibly short amount of time. The days here just go by so much faster than days at home. Maybe it's because we do so much in one day, but I think that's how time passes when you're on vacation. The weather has been getting hotter the last few days, up into the 90s, but other than that, we had really good weather this whole time. It rained a bit yesterday, but it was a welcome rain that cooled you down from the heat!

Yesterday, half of our class did our final presentations at two different museums. I was nervous like crazy, with a shaky voice and losing my words, but I'm happy it's over with and my final paper is also done. Today we have more presentations around the city, and then we have a final culminating event where we're going to present our teachers with gifts. It's been such an amazing opportunity to learn on site from Dr. Junkerman, and it's also been fun testing myself about what I know, and what I need to work on (a little bit of Comps studying going on!). It's satisfying to be able to identify things just by looking at them.

Tomorrow I'm spending my last day in Italy in Venice. It's going to be a long day, but I'm sure it's going to be completely worth it. I can't wait to see what the city has to offer!

It's time to shower and get ready for the day. I promise to post more pictures!

Festival Day - St. John the Baptist

So I've realized that I'm not the best blogger. I haven't written much about my trip! But it's mostly because after our long days of site visits and lectures, I'm too tired to do much other than eat dinner and then lay down.

We've done so many things in the last two weeks, and we're just now really getting into the heart of the Renaissance with this week and next week's material. We visited the Bargello museum earlier this week, our first museum visit, and saw so much amazing stuff. We didn't focus on the Michelangelo room, so I might have to go back on my own time to take a look around there, but I did get to spend time with one of my favorite portrait busts - Bernini's bust of his lover Costanza Bonarelli was on a pedestal in the middle of a back room, and I got to spend some time with her by myself as I wandered off from the group and before all my classmates piled into the small room. She was by far my favorite thing in that whole museum, and it was a nice surprise because I didn't know she was there. I thought she was in the Borghese Gallery in Rome with a lot of Bernini's other works. So since I was in the room by myself, and the guard wasn't there, I took pictures. The last time I was in Italy, I remember telling my dad not to take pictures when it was the rules of the museum because it was disrespectful.. but this time around, I've done it a few times and am happy I have because I get to say "look what I saw" and because it was a small little triumph to get away with it.

It's pretty cool that I've seen a lot of this artwork on the screen in class, or in textbooks, and now I get to see a lot of it in person. It's such an eyeopener to realize that some of these paintings are gigantic, and our professors aren't kidding in class when they say that the slide on the screen isn't the actual size. It's been really nice to have the opportunity to see the works up close and personal, and really look at them. Yesterday we went to a Dominican monastery where Fra Angelico's painting of the Annunciation greeted you on the wall as you walked up the stairs, and we noticed that it sparkled. That's a quality that I never knew about that painting, and probably never would have noticed if I hadn't seen it in person. Apparently artists back then used sand to give paintings that glittery quality, and it was most prominent in the Angel Gabriel's wings, to signify his holiness. In this same monastery, I got to see Cosimo de' Medici's massive 2 story cell for when he wanted to take religious retreats, as well as Girolamo Savonarola's three roomed cell. We learned that even though he was crazy, burned paintings and books, and was an adamant preacher of the Dominican order, and eventually was executed, he's on the path to sainthood. Seems a little cooky if you ask me...

Today is a festival day for one of Florence's patron saints - St. John the Baptist. There are special masses, a parade, a historic soccer game, and fireworks that are launched from Piazzale Michelangelo, near San Miniato al Monte.. but the most important thing is, we have an extra day off from school because of it! It's nice to have a little extra time off this week, especially since next week on Monday we have a short lunch and a busy day at Casa Buonarotti.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do today with this free time, especially because I'm sure a lot of places are closed because it's a holiday. I have to write up an assignment that's due tomorrow, so I suppose I'll be spending some time getting that done, and then I might try to catch some of the parade later, and then see the fireworks.

Some Photos...

These are all kind of out of order, but here's a sneak peek at some pictures!

View of Florence from San Miniato al Monte

Palazzo Vecchio in the morning

Baptistry at 6am

Michelangelo's tomb.

One of our teachers, Marco Cianchi

Fiesole.

Some of the girls at our table for the first dinner.

An streetscape in Florence

lack of sleep doesn't stop life in firenze

I didn't sleep very well last night. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, and spent most of the night restlessly tossing and turning. Oh well. I'm hoping I'll be adjusted to the time schedule by tomorrow, or the end of this week.

Today we visited Santa Croce, and spent 3 hours walking and talking and looking at the various chapels and frescoes by Giotto and Taddeo Gaddi, and saw the tombs of Machiavelli, Dante, and Michelangelo. It was amazing. The massive altarpiece and apse were covered by scaffolding, so we didn't get the full effect of the church, but it was still really impressive.

Every time I've traveled abroad, I've lit a few candles at churches for my family, and especially my Grandma Carolyn. She travelled so much in her life, and she paid for my first trip abroad, so I feel like every time I travel overseas, she's like my guardian angel looking out for me so I pay my respects and say my thanks by lighting a candle and letting her know I'm thinking of her.

I'm pretty tired today due to my lack of sleep, so I'm going to do my few pages of reading for tonight, take and Advil PM, and head to bed.

day 2 - walking tour

Today we went on a walking tour of the city. We started off in Piazza della Repubblica and talked more about the city's history - not just from the Renaissance, but also how the city changed during the 19th century when Florence became the capital of Italy. We walked everywhere.. to the Duomo, into alleyways leading to small churches, to the place where Dante was baptized, to Orsanmichele... it was a nice introduction to the city. At lunch Sarah, Amanda and I went back to Orsanmichele to see the inside. Then we broke off and I did some exploring on my own.. wandering around, looking at the street stands, taking in the city, looking at the people and the buildings. It was a nice, leisurely lunch. I got a little lost a few times, but made it back to the CSU center and sat down for a bit before lecture.

Today was our first lecture with Dr. Junkerman, and I love how passionate she is. It's so fun to be here and learn on site from a professor that has been a mentor to me the past few years. She's so inspiring. Tomorrow she's leading our site visit, so I'm excited for that.

I just realized how late it is here, so I'm calling it a night! More to come...

I'm not a middle sister...

but this looked fun :)

You're a Smarty Pants. Yeah, you know who you are. You were the first one to raise your hand, finish the test, and make a million. If only you weren't so tall, beautiful and well-dressed, we'd really hate you. Seriously, anybody would be lucky to have you as a friend. You complete us. Because you always have lots of Smarty Pants Chardonnay to share and if we ever travel abroad you speak five languages.

Flights and Day One meet & greet

After a 2+ hour delay on my first flight, I made it to all of my other connections and met up with Marianna. My plane itinerary was: SFO -> Boston; Boston -> Zurich; Zurich -> Florence. We got in to Florence, and our luggage made it just fine (which is what I was most worried about for some reason) and we got a taxi and made our way to the hostel. Got there just in time, because while I was at the counter, Sarah and Amanda walked in so we all checked in together and made our way to the 5th floor where our room is. It's pretty nice, and I think we can call it home for 3 weeks. Our window has access to the balcony terrace, and though there's a door down the hall for the terrace, I'm sure we'll just be crawling out the window. We can see the Duomo to the right of our room, Brunelleschi's large dome peeking up through all of the other city buildings. It's amazing!

After getting settled, I took a shower and got ready. After we were all done, we made our way to the CSU center, and we thought we were late, so we ran part of the way, and I felt like I needed another shower! We sat and met our professors and got more information about the course, and also got our museum pass. After all that, we then walked together (in the rain) to the restaurant we were having dinner at - I failed to get the name. Our first course was a little pasta dish that was molto bene! Then second course was a chicken of some sort with wonderful cheese on top, and some potatoes and spinach. For dessert we had this sort of mint, cherry, citrus tiramisu. There were so many different flavors every time I took another bite. After dessert, everyone at our table was almost passed out on the table since most of us had just arrived earlier in the day. On our way back to the hostel, Amanda wanted some gelato so we made a quick stop. I have no idea what flavor it was, but it was really good.

I've gotten maybe 4 hours of sleep tonight since I'm not used to the time change yet.. It's 3:30am here, and I'm groggy but not enough to sleep. I'm hoping I'll be able to fall back asleep after a little computer time, because I really need rest. Tomorrow our first stop is Fiesole, and then our first lecture is in the afternoon. I hope I don't fall asleep in class...

Did I mention that it's raining?! And the one thing I didn't pack was an umbrella. So I'll likely be buying one at one of the markets tomorrow.

I'll try to start posting pictures later this week!