Currently in Paris!

Hi everyone -

It's absolutely mind blowing to think that I will be home in three days - such a short time after four months abroad! Leaving Rome yesterday marked the end of my stay in Italy - very bittersweet. I don't regret studying abroad at all and I'm going to miss Italy a lot, but I am looking forward to getting home and seeing my family.

I'm going to keep this short - honest this time! But I just wanted to say that Jim and I are still having a blast together! We spent a few days wandering around Rome, and saw lots of churches, including the gorgeous Santa Maria della Vittoria, and St. Peter's Basilica. We walked around the inside of the Colosseum, checked out the Pantheon, and ate Pizza and Gelato. We also went to the Vatican Museum to see the art and the Sistine Chapel - with NO LINE! I kept hearing to expect 1 1/2 - 2 hour line for the Vatican, but apparently the trick to literally just walking in is to go during a Wednesday Papal Audience.

We spent today in Paris! The morning was spent wandering and getting lost around Montmartre - finally ending up at Sacre-Coeur, the beautiful church on the hill of Montmartre. We then went to my personal favorite church in Paris - Notre Dame! When you climb to the top, you can get right on level with the gargoyles and even see the large bell. Afterwards, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, and climbed the stairs to the second level of the tower. We hung out in that area until 10:00, when the tower lit up and "sparkled"!

Tomorrow: more of Paris, and Sunday: London!

Florence with Jim!

Okay, so I didn't realize that I could get internet access where we are staying right now - therefore, that wasn't my last update!

Anyway, Jim is here in Italy with me! It's been a lot of fun showing him the city. I picked him up at the airport yesterday morning!

We've done quite a bit in the day and a half that he has been here; got all of my luggage out of my apartment, went to markets, did the Uffizi gallery (his first, but my seventh time there!), walked around the city and my favorite stretch up and down the river, climbed the dome of the main cathedral, walked up to San Miniato al Monte, and went for aperitivos. I'm going to put a few pictures on Flickr, so look at those!

I'm leaving the city early tomorrow morning, so today was really my last day to see parts of Florence again. It's actually been really sad, I'm going to miss this place a lot. I find it different from leaving Neenah, because Florence, unlike Neenah, is so far away that I don' t know when, or even if I'll come back (although tonight I made sure to visit Porcellino, the bronze pig in Mercato Nuevo - you rub his snout for good luck, and feed him a coin to ensure your return to the city - so I should be covered (: ) But part of me really felt thing wrapping up, I finally climbed the duomo, went out for one last good bowl of Ribollita (Tuscan soup), and listened to the Monk's chant at San Miniato. San Miniato is the church with the enormous graveyard, and I have been looking for one specific grave since I first started going up there - that of Carlo Lorenzini, the author of Pinocchio. It became a bit of a challenge for me more than anything else. Today, on my last trip there, I wandered down a row of chapels that I had never been down before, as always, looking vaguely around for the name while admiring the beauty and serenity of the cemetery. Suddenly, there it was, I stumbled across the Lorenzini Chapel! I couldn't believe it - it honestly felt meant to be.

That's about all I have to say for now, but tomorrow morning we leave for Rome! Can't wait to see everything there....

See you all soon!

My Last (and once again long) Update.....

Wow - it sounds so surreal to be saying that. I'm sitting on my bed surrounded by evidence of packing, and I still can't believe that tonight is my last night in this apartment. The past four months have been the fastest of my life, and some of the most incredible. I've seen more than I imagined I could, and really proved to myself that if something is important enough for me to do, I can do it, no matter how hard or impossible it may seem.

But, on an exciting note - Jim is coming tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to a week in Europe with him! On our list, Florence, Rome, Paris, and London.

So here they are my last random statements about my time in Italy:

The Five Things:
That I'm really going to miss about Florence:
1 - Coconut or hazelnut flavored gelato.
2 - Being a part of a city that has so much history.
3 - Taking my nearly daily walk along the Arno River.
4 - Always having something new to explore.
5 - Going for the occasional drink and aperitivos with friends.

That I miss from home:
1 - Garbage Disposals!
2 - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and popcorn, enough said.
3 - Not having to dodge people and cars whenever I have to go to class.
4 - Stores that are open later than eight or nine, especially during midterms and finals week.
5 - Fitted bedsheets that don't have to be remade every night.

That I've learned about myself:
1 - I will never, ever consider a career path of a travel agent.
2 - I can do what I consider impossible, if I set my mind to it.
3 - I don't do well when I don't get enough sleep.
4 - Grass and other green stuff is more important to me than I realized - I miss it when it's not around.
5 - I really don't like shopping sometimes, and sometimes I like it - just can't figure out when or why...

That I've learned about my family:
1 - When you call my family on Skype, you never know what to expect on the webcam. (ie: Sideways camera, Dad without a goatee, Eric on crutches, John laying on the floor, the neighbor's dog, you get the idea).
2 - If you want to get your parents and grandparents using the latest communication technology, just go abroad!
3 - Mom would be terrible at art restoration! Her theory, just take the statues with just heads, and put them on top of any statue that is just a torso.
4 - Talking to Eric and John are the ones to call if you're ever in need of entertainment!
5 - That there is something about Italy that reminds me of every one of my grandparents.

That I've learned in class:
1 - Florence had a flood in 1966.
2 - My Italian professor draws the most ridiculous looking sheep in the world. (Yes, he was drawing sheep on the whiteboard one day.)
3 - Divorce only became legal in Italy in the 1970's.
4 - If you wanted to sound knowledgeable about Italian History, just say that something happened because of the Medici family. 60% of the time you'll be right! Man, they were powerful...
5 - We saw a statue "in class", Donatello's Magdalene. It has quickly become a favorite of mine. (I really wanted to get that in there, can't you tell?)

Horses + Palaces + Torte = Vienna

The one city outside of Italy that I knew I wanted to visit was Vienna, and I finally made it a couple weekends ago with Sarah, and I wanted to just let you know about it. This blog will be pretty short, because I'm just taking a quick break from studying for my finals (as much work here as in Wisconsin!), and I'll be seeing most of you soon - home in exactly two weeks from today! I can't believe it, the time flew by so fast...


So, highlights of Vienna for me:

• Sitting under a tree in the Hofburg palace garden.

• Attending a performance at the Spanish Riding School!

• Running through the hedge maze at the Schonnbrunn palace.

• Getting lost in the maze of Vienna's beautiful streets.

• Sitting next to a little woman on the subway, who talked to be in German the entire trip - I have no idea what the heck she was saying, but it was fun!

We saw so many amazing things, the palaces, St. Stephan's Cathedral, tons of horses, the City Hall, a Butterfly House, and the market. We enjoyed sausages, beer, and delicious torte. Vienna is kind of like New York City - it's lively, crowded, and modern, yet you can turn a corner or come up from a subway stop, and there will be this incredible and historical building in front of you. It's a little bit of everything.

Well, I'm going to tackle some more of my study/to do list right now. Finals, here I come....

*I've also put up about 30 pictures on the Flickr website if you'd like to check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mia065/

Penguin Birthday Cake!

This has nothing to do with Florence, but Mom just made this cake for Eric's Birthday! It was so cute that I had to let everyone see it!

Tuscany Wine of Choice - Chianti Classico

It has officially been way too long since I updated this blog. I guess that I just kept thinking "I'll wait until something big happens," except that now I have so much I could tell you about, I don't know where to begin. Let me go re-read my last entry so that I know where I left off...

I don't have much time left in Florence (in fact, exactly two weeks as of today! Yikes!), so I've been trying to eradicate all of the remaining items on my list of "Things to See" and "Places to Go". Unfortunately - I seem to keep adding on one more item for every one that I cross off. But I did manage to really see the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, took a bus to Fiesole (a small town outside of the city with a gorgeous view and natural park), and took a couple of day trips when I could squeeze them in to the cities of Bologna, Perugia, and Orvieto.

I also finally got to Rome (if only for a day) with my Women and Religion Class. It was a really small group, seven of us including Martina, our teacher, so it almost felt like just hanging out with a group of students visiting the city. I'll tell you, standing in front of the Colosseum for the first time was one of those breathtaking, "Oh my God, I can't believe that I'm actually here!" moments. You know the kind, when you feel completely overwhelmed by the size, history, beauty, or whatever, you're stomach seems to drop, you inhale and feel like you will never exhale again - to me, moments like that are some of the best in life! I had been reading Angels and Demons (I found an old copy in our apartment) and was pretty much falling in love with the book. (I read it years ago, but I think that I was too young at the time to really appreciate it.) Anyway, our class visited a number of the sites that they mention in the book, such as Piazza Navona, Santa Maria della Vittoria, and St. Peter's Square, which I also found really exciting since it was all fresh in my mind - not to mention that it was ROME!

I also had the opportunity to go to Castello Verrazzano in the Chianti Region of Italy, which is an old castle now a winery, although they also produce many other delicious products. A trip through the Study Abroad Italy program took some students up to this castle, for a tour of the castle, winery, and a delicious lunch and wine tasting. It was a lot of fun, and delicious. We had a full five course meal, including wild boar sausages (they raise wild boar on the land), amazing Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegarette, and a different type of wine for each course. The staple wine is the Chianti Classico, so of course I had to buy a bottle of that to take home! It was also really nice to actually have a certain type wine with the course that it was meant for (I usually don't match the wine and food well), and to listen to our guide talking about how for him, wine, wine-making, and the Italian countryside was a way of life and a way to get in touch with himself and his humanity. His passion for the wine was evident in everything that he said.

I think that is everything that I wanted to say right now, but keep checking back because I'll be telling you all about my trip to Vienna soon!

Ciao!

Oh, Florence...

The weather's warming up, and I have been trying to take advantage of all of my remaining time in Florence - only about one month now. The time has flown by like never before - I can't believe I've been here since January. I've been planning my week long trip after school ends here. Jim is coming! So we are going to Rome, then up into Paris and London. I am so excited to see all of those places, but it does make me realize that as homesick as I can be, I really don't want to leave Italy yet. I think it's because, unlike leaving Wisconsin, Neenah, or De Pere, I don't know if or even when I'll be back. So I've been taking lots of walks along the river and in the Oltrarno district of Florence (across the river, and a little less crowded than the historical center, and just really trying to enjoy the beautiful combination of ancient architecture, modern conveniences, and spots of nature that make up beautiful Florence.

I did finally make it to Pisa and it's nearby city Lucca through a school trip last weekend. Yes, the leaning tower is still standing! That tower is so iconic, it's really fun to see. But a funny tidbit: when I first started taking pictures, the tower didn't look like it was leaning as much to me in my camera - I finally noticed that I had been leaning the camera angle, unconsciously trying to compensate for the tower! The cathedral there is beautiful also, and interesting because it was the first cathedral built in the Renaissance-y style that all of the other cathedrals (in Florence, Rome, Siena, etc...) followed. Lucca is an interesting city because it has all of it's city walls (about three miles worth) still intact. In fact you can walk along the top, or even rent bikes and ride along the thick walls.

I feel like I've been mentioning church, religion, spirituality, and God quite a bit - but let's face it, I'm in Florence (the land of the roman catholic cathedrals), Italy has a very strong religious background, and I'm also currently taking a class called Women and Religion, and an Ethics class. So I'm being exposed to many different ideas right now.

On that note, my Women and Religion class went to visit the Jewish Synagogue and museum yesterday in Florence. I've been in so many religious space since I came here, but none have them have ever felt that alien to me. I will admit that I have never been in a religious space that wasn't Christian before, so I was really excited to see the similarities and differences. But when we entered, we had to go through possible the strictest security that I have ever been through (it was literally worse than getting into an airport.) Nothing metal or electronic was even allowed inside, we had to leave it all in lockers outside the area. Then, I just wasn't used to the customs of the synagogue, it started with all of the men being required to wear the yarmulkes, and ended with the guide telling us that during services, women were not allowed to sit where we were sitting, but had to be up on the balcony. The synagogue was beautiful though, and I learned a lot about the Orthodox Jewish religion, and their women's roles (which were in my opinion, extremely limited - I'm not going to go into anymore detail here at the moment thought.) I also enjoyed the museum, particularly getting to see an old, handwritten Torah. Apparently, this is extremely unusual, because Torah's are only used during the service, and once they are damaged and cannot be read properly are either buried or locked away in a separate room. This particular museum however, did have one on display that had been damaged during the Florence Flood.

I really just want to be able to document everything about this city - I think that soon I'll have to devote one day to walking my usually routes and everyday stores and just take photos - maybe even some video with the camera. I know that if I don't have that, I will definitely regret it!

I haven't been able to sleep yet tonight, but I do have an early class tomorrow morning - so I guess it's back to bed for me! Bye everyone!

Rolling and Crashing Waves

Cinque Terre - the Five Lands

Since I started telling people that I was going to be spending four months in Italy, a number of people began mentioning the Cinque Terre region. I had never heard of it before, but once I looked it up, I knew that it was somewhere I wanted to visit. Mom felt the same way, so we ended our week together in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is composed of five small towns all very close to each other, right on the shore of the sea and build up into the cliffs. The towns are all connected to each other by hiking trails and trains.

We managed to visit all five of the towns, and the thing that sticks out to me the most were the incredible waves. I finally understand where people came up with the phrase "rolling and crashing waves". The waves would literally roll up from the sea to the shore, and hit the rocks with a resounding crash - over and over again. It was incredible to see.

We actually went to the second city first - Manarola. The city is built on the perfect place on the bluff, trickling down to the water that makes it the most picturesque city of Cinque Terre - at least in my opinion! Manorola also had some art that was exactly what I really like looking at - just really different yet simple. On the hills that were the vineyards of Manorola was a series of large, yet incredible simple wooden figures, depicting scenes from the Bible. Apparently a local artist had promised his father that he would replace the cross on the family grave, and just never stopped creating wooden religious figures that now decorate the hill. I also got the impression that the figures are rotated depending on what time of year it is - so as it was almost Easter, the main scenes being shown were the stations of the cross. I found it's simplicity so refreshing (especially after months of studying Renaissance art), yet it commanded attention.

We walked back to the first city, Riomaggiore (where our hotel was) as the sun was setting. The next morning, we took the train to the last city, Monterosso al Mare. It has one of the only sand beaches in the Cinque Terre area, and Mom did take that opportunity to go wade in the sea. As we were exploring the rest of the city, a mass began to take place outside one of the churches. It was Palm Sunday, and everyone was carrying intricately woven palms. Some of the designs were quite beautiful, I wish that I had more of an opportunity to look at them closely.

We then took the train to Vernazza, the fourth city of Cinque Terre. It's not the smallest or biggest, but to me it seemed like it had quite a bit of character. I can't quite but my finger on why, so I can't really expand on that statement here. I guess if someday you get to Vernazza, make your own opinion! We then hiked to Corniglia. The path went from almost sea level in Vernazza, very high up among the cliffs, and then back down to connect up with Corniglia. It wasn't a flat, easy walk, but the time spent was totally worth the amazing views that were rewarded from the cliffs. Corniglia (which is the smallest town) is the only town that is not on sea level, but entirely up in the cliffs,which creates a slightly different atmosphere than the other towns. But the train station is down by the water, so I managed to get confused and had a hard time finding the station so that we could catch the right train to get home! But it all worked out, we took a later train back to Florence instead.

Cinque Terre is definitely worth a few days of your time to visit - it's small, fun, warm, and beautiful all at the same time, and one of the most unique places I've ever been.

The City of Water, this Time with Fewer People

I had spent a weekend in Venice earlier with friends for the Carnival which was amazing! But going back to Venice without the horrific crowds of people was wonderful also!

Mom really wanted to see the city, she had said that it just sounded so different and unique she really wanted to be able to see the place. So we made it our next stop together. The first thing that we did was just to take a Vaporetto, or water bus, ride along the Grand Canal and see the general city. I had some pages from a guidebook that I had ripped out, telling what many of the buildings were along the way (mostly gothic and baroque style palaces, if I remember correctly). I want to mention that in Venice, especially noticeable along the Grand Canal, the buildings literally come right up to the water, often without even a dock or a sidewalk separating the two. I didn't mention this before because for some reason it didn't really surprise or impress me until Mom mentioned that she hadn't expected to see that.

We spent our short time in Venice wandering, seeing some of the main sights, and shopping at the famous glass shops all over the city. The Frari Basilica had some amazing works of art namely by Titian (the most famous Venician artist), and of course a sculpture by Donatello. We spent a couple of hours in the Ducal Palace (which was amazing to see but also explained some of the government of the time) and walked through the fish market. As we were running out of time, I went into St. Mark's Basilica (which had been at the top of my list for Venice) because Mom still wanted to do some more shopping. I actually don't think that I've ever seen her that excited in a store in my life - Mom, I never have realized how much you love blown glass! Anyway, the basilica was really a sight to see, the entire ceiling was covered in beautiful gold mosaics, while the floor was covered in marble ones. You could go up onto a balcony overlooking the main alter, which actually brought you right next some of the mosaic work on the ceiling, demonstrating how detailed it was and how small each individual piece actually was. Every tile was no bigger than my fingernail, and some were so tiny they seemed to be just shards.

All in all, Venice was just a fun as it had been during carnival, but different. It's a tourist city, so it was still insanely crowded, but compared to the carnival weekend, it felt like you could do cartwheels down the middle of the streets without hitting anyone. (Don't try it because you probably couldn't without knocking out a fellow tourist, it just relatively felt like that!) But it definitely wasn't as lively as before, and I did miss some of the characters wandering through the narrow paths. I'm just glad that I had a chance to see both sides of beautiful Venice.

The Hills are Alive

Yes, in America, Salzburg is probably most well known as being the setting for the Sound of Music, but when you actually go there the hills and mountains that surround the city really seem to create an atmosphere and bring everything to life. For some reason I have always really wanted to visit Austria, a desire that I think I can trace back to a report that I did in the fourth grade. So since Austria borders Italy, Mom and I took an overnight train from Florence to Salzburg - getting in at four in the morning! (I had an opportunity to go to Vienna later on this semester, so we choose Salzburg instead.) We ended up completely lost in Salzburg at 4:30 in the morning, eventually finding the historical center, where we sat and wandered until about 6:30. We then walked over to our hotel, and were able to check in early - so we dropped off our bags and spent some time at the hotel until things started to open up in Salzburg. The hours that they hold there are very short, things start to open around nine (sometimes eight), and everything except restaurants seem to close between four and five.

We stopped by a really beautiful cafe for breakfast, where we basically had danish and an absolutely delicious slice of cake with cream and nuts, and then headed over to the Salzburg Museum. While we were there, Mom was looking at a painting done of the famous Cafe Tomaselli in 19o8, only to realize that it was the same cafe we had just eaten at! That was pretty funny, to realize that we had been in a cafe that has been running for over 100 years and didn't even know it at the time!

If any of you have talked to Mom since she got back, you may have heard about the extraordinary number of churches that Europe has - and that includes Salzburg. So as we spent the rest of the day exploring the historical center of the city, we admired the inside of a number of cathedrals. We also took a tour of the magnificent music halls, wandered through St. Peter's Cemetary, and admired the many objects and stories displayed in Mozart's birthplace (which was amazing! I especially enjoyed seeing his first violin). We ended the night by walking through Mirabell gardens which surround Mirabell Palace. The gardens are well known for being one of the main filming locations used in the Sound of Music - Do, Re, Mi sequence, and sure enough I recognized them despite the many years it had been since I'd seen the movie. (Of course, I had to watch it the first opportunity I got after visiting Austria!) Actually, speaking of the movie, just watch the Do, Re, Mi scene and you'll pretty much see Salzburg in all it's glory. Seriously, pull out your copy, borrow someone else's, or look it up online, and just take the five minutes and watch it again. It's probably better than any photos I can put up, just keep in mind that in most of the sequences I can now say "I was there." or "I know what that is in the background."

The next morning, we took a bus out to Untersberg Mountain, and then took a cable car up to the top for a beautiful view of the Austrian Mountains. It was that perfect kind of weather where it was warm and sunny, yet there was still a ton of snow everywhere because it hadn't yet melted. Unfortunately, I didn't have good shoes for walking around in the snow, and kept slipping all over the place! Back in Salzburg, we took the Funicular (a steep train track) from the city to the giant Fortress that dominates the landscape of Salzburg. In one of the rooms, they had a small marionette museum set up, and there was one that you could attempt to play with. I learned that if I ever wanted to be a puppeteer, I would need a lot more practice! By the way, each of those marionette's are made out of hard wood, and they are heavier than they look. We stopped by St. Sebastion's cemetary, and then took a trip out to the Hellbrunn Palace. It was still the off-season for tourism in Austria, so the actual palace and the other buildings were closed, but we spent quite a bit of time wandering around it's gardens and then walking up a hiking trail. I was randomly following the signs to something that I only knew as the Stone Theater, more just to have something to aim for. I'm still convinced that that was the best impulsive thing that I have done in a while (so thanks Mom for just following me)! To me, the stone theater was completely amazing and a source of great amusement. It is just as it sounds, a theater made of stone - carved into the side of the cliff. But it's not only a stage, it has steps, multiple entrances that all lead back into a dark room (that probably functioned as a sort of green room) and a passage from that led out the side into the canyon that the theater was built into. It was kindof like a stone playground, with small tunnels, steps to climb, and short but twisting passageways that all seemed to connect up with either the main stage or one another. I felt like I was playing on the playground back in elementary school again.

Our overnight train to Vienna was going to leave late that night (actually I think it was technically early the next morning), so before heading over to the train station to wait, we were wandering around the city one more time. Mom wasn't hungry, so I just decided to grab a sausage from a street vendor for dinner. Those are so common in Austria. Of course, when I got there, everyone getting food that late at night all seemed to be locals, and I didn't have the slightest idea what anything was. I ended up literally just asking for the first type of sausage listed, which you get with a roll and your choice of a sweet or spicy mustard. It was actually very good, and was my most "authentic" Austrian meal while we were there. All in all, a good way to end our short but incredible stay in Salzburg.

Depth of Faith (and Buona Pasqua!)

I know that this probably isn't the blog that you were expecting, but I've been thinking a lot about something for the couple days, and wanted to make some comments about it. More about my spring break is coming soon.

On Friday, I decided to take the train to Assisi for a little bit. Assisi is famous for being the home of St. Francis, and in fact the Basilica of St. Francis is the main attraction of the city. It is made up of two separate churches, one built on top of the other. I had been really looking forward to seeing the famous fresco cycle depicting the life of St. Francis in the upper church, which definitely did not disappoint. There was a Good Friday service beginning in the lower church, so I was only able to see half of it at the time. I spent a hour or two wandering up the main street, getting gelato, sitting in a piazza listening to a street musician and doing some sketching. I also wandered into another couple of churches along the way.

Finally, I headed back down to the train station early, with the intention of stopping by the lower church of the basilica again to see if the service was done so that I could see the rest of the church. Sure enough, the procession out was taking place just as I entered, so I hung around. I was watching the police and friars putting the church back into it's usual order after mass, when suddenly the priest appears directing four other men who were carrying a statue of the dead Christ on a bed, with a canopy of blood red velvet. After the statue was set in front of the altar, people started lining up to approach the statue. I become completely enthralled by watching these people and their rituals, many would kiss the feet and then the chest, some would cross the statue and then themselves, some would touch the wound in the side, and others just got down on their knees next to the bed and prayed. I don't think that I've ever been to a church on Good Friday before, and I wasn't sure if this was a usual practice, or fairly unique.

To be completely honest, I was literally brought to tears while watching this, without really a good explanation. I was raised going to Catholic Church, but to be honest, over the past couple of years I have found myself growing more distant from Catholicism and some of their beliefs and practices that I don't entirely agree with. Every so often I feel like I couldn't even be considered a true Christian. I would consider myself to be a spiritual person, but not necessarily religious. So the fact that I was so spellbound by what was taking place and emotionally affected by it was very strange.

At the time, I thought maybe I was just tired from the long train ride, and overly emotional in the first place because of being away from home at Easter time. But after a few days of thought, I think it was more of a feeling of envy. I could see how deep the faith was of some of those people lined up at the statue, and it reminded me of the depth of faith of other people that I know. I'll admit that I have always craved being able to unconditionally believe in something, or more importantly trust in something or someone. I've been struggling with that feeling for a while, of never fully trusting anything or anyone. Maybe they just come across that way, but it seems to me that people who have some kind of higher or spiritual being that they absolutely believe in, have that level of trust. Yet, you need to have that absolute level of trust to really believe in something also - it's a never ending circle. It's something that I just don't understand.

I'm reminded of a quote that I always found fascinating from Star Trek (what else?!). I think that it always stuck with me because I never really understood it: "That's the thing about faith. If you don't have it you can't understand it, and if you do - no explanation is necessary."

I'm not sure why I'm writing this all out here, I guess that I've just been really trying to sort everything out that I felt like if I wrote it down for others, maybe it would make more sense to me.



On a different note, I want to say Buona Pasqua to everyone - Happy Easter! It surprises a lot of people, but Easter has always been one of my favorite days of the year, and because I was missing out this year I've definitely been feeling homesick. I really wish that I could be at Busia and Jaja's to help get all of the food ready to take to blessing, laugh at everyone being showered with water inside St. Agnes during morning mass, and enjoy polish sausage with my entire family. So I woke up early this morning, and was still feeling really down. Therefore, I decided to go walk around the city a bit and get a cream pastry before heading over to the Piazza del Duomo to watch the "Scoppio del Carro" Easter celebration. I still ended up getting there much early then I planned, and people were just starting to line up along the fence so I ended up literally right one the fence line with a really great view (and a long wait - but there was a girl next to me that I talked to for a while).

The Scoppio del Carro (also known as the exploding of the cart) is a tradition in Florence that has been taking place for over 300 years. A huge, tall, and colorful cart called the Brindellone is laced with all kinds of fireworks and pulled through the streets of Florence by white oxen. It is escorted by drummers, flag bearers, and over a hundred other costumed performers. The parade stops directly in front of the cathedral, where Easter mass is held. The cart is then connected to a white dove shaped rocket hanging above the alter inside the cathedral by a wire. During the service, the dove is ignited and flies across the wire, igniting a show of fireworks on the cart that lasts 10-15 minutes. Obviously it was in fairly close quarters, nothing over a lake. But they had amazing sparklers, bangs going off, and even smoke colored red, white, and purple. Like me, any pyro would have appreciated the display! The force also propels the dove back, and if it makes it all the way back to the alter (which it did!) it is supposed to be a good omen for the coming year.

Late tonight, all of the SNC students got together for an Easter dinner. It was so nice to really have more of a good, home cooked meal! Sarah made a delicious ham, potatoes, asparagus, and an amazing berry lemon cheese pie for dessert. It was really nice to be able to sit around a table with people on Easter, and the mean game of spoons afterward wasn't a bad way to have some fun! (I do just have to comment that once I got all four cards first, yet when I went to grab the first spoon I knocked it away on accident - therefore, I ended up being the one without a spoon! Still not sure how that happened but it was pretty funny.)

I put more photos up of Assisi and the Scoppio del Carro. I've been trying to add a video on Flickr also, one of the dove hitting the cart, but it always seems to get stuck at "99% complete" when loading. Oh well...

In Firenze, Italia con mia Madre

Wow - the past week has been so busy that I don't even know where to start! Actually, I think that it has been nearly two weeks since I last updated this. Sorry about the really long wait! Quickly, I just want to say that I think my midterms went fairly well, I got A's in three classes, and a C in ethics. That one was kind of disappointing, but honestly I was expecting it. It was one of those tests where I knew the material, but while actually sitting there I couldn't organize my thoughts. Oh well...

But, on a better note I was so excited to see Mom last week! We had been talking almost every night the previous week about hotels, trains, last minute reminders and arrangements, and packing. I will admit that I was so worried about midterms thought, that I didn't get completely excited and filled with anticipation until my last midterm was done on Thursday. By Saturday morning, I was on the shuttle bus to pick Mom up at the airport! I could hardly believe it when we met up in the airport - she was really here, halfway around the world, in Italy with me!

We took a crazy taxi ride back to my apartment (the taxis drive really fast here), where she dropped off her bags and showed me all of the goodies that she had brought for me, including a box of my all-time favorite girl scout cookies (by the way, they are already gone), and some homemade kruscikis that Busia had sent up for me - they are a polish deep-fried cookie thing tied into a bow shape, and absolutely amazing. That totally made my day - so thanks once again! We checked out Santa Croce first, and I then proceeded to, according to Mom, "drag her all over the city instead of letting her sleep." We went to my favorite outdoor food market, Sant'ambrogio to get some fruit and veggies, and then went on a walking tour of the city: the Duomo and the Baptistry (with an amazing gold mosaic ceiling), the mercato San Lorenzo, through the Piazza's, and Ponte Vecchio.

The next day, and a good night sleep later (I went to the train station in the morning to sort out some train ticket issues, while Mom slept in) and we were ready for another amazing day together in Florence. I took Mom up to my absolute favorite spot of the city - the Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato, and what I refer to as "the woods" - a small green area next to the church that is always empty and a great place to just walk by myself. It's almost a relief to be able to show someone this area, so that they know what I am talking about when I get back home. Unfortunately, the cemetary was closed (the hours can be confusing here) so we came back the next day to check that out, Monday! After exploring San Miniato cemetary, we headed to the Boboli Gardens for the remainder of the afternoon. (We had talked about climbing the dome, but the line was insane when we got there - I was completely frustrated, not being used to the tourism yet, but Mom just calmly suggested that we head back up to San Miniato instead. She really did managed to keep me calm a lot that week when things seemed to go wrong - thanks Mom!) Early that evening, we packed, walked to Statione Santa Maria Novella, and boarded a train on our way to Salzburg, Austria!

One thing that has happened in Florence, is that the tourists have started to come out in flocks. Sometimes it literally feels like picking my way through the tour groups following the leader with the umbrella or the random trinket taped to the top of a long pole is like trying to pick my way through a flock of sheep. (Not that I've ever done that, but hey - I can imagine it!) I think I'm finally starting to understand the love/hate relationship of tourism. The money it brings in is what keeps the city going, but it really can try your patience day after day.

That's as far as I am going to go for today - it's getting late here and I want to actually wake up tomorrow for a day trip to Assisi.

By the way - I am slowly putting up more pictures on Flickr, keep looking!

Midterms already!

I finished writing the blog about my weekend trip almost two days ago, and somehow managed to not publish it. Sorry everyone!

I just wanted to make a few quick notes, to let you all know a little about what has been happening this week.

1 - It snowed! Yes, I'm in Italy, in March, and it was snowing (according to weather.com, it was actually colder here in Florence than in Wisconsin on Tuesday). I just had to tell you all that. Mom's coming up to visit soon, and I was hoping to be able to send some of my warmer clothes home with her - instead, she's planning on bringing a winter coat!

2 - Trains in Europe are not fun to try to plan, especially when you only have about a week and a half left until the trip, or right around Easter time. Mom and I are planning to go to Salzburg, and I finally managed to get tickets today, but trying to plan it was unbelievable. So, thanks Mom for doing so much of the work online! Don't get me wrong, trains are still the best way to travel in Europe - but if anyone is planning a trip soon, don't wait too long to start looking at any trains that are international!

3 - I have midterms next week. That means that half of my time in Italy is up - unbelievable. The time has just flown by, and there is still so much that I want to do! It also means that I really have to study this weekend though, I don't feel as prepared going into midterms yet as I do at SNC. That worries me, but in the same way, I'm still having a hard time getting too concerned about school when I am exploring Italy. I really need to find a good balance between fun, relaxation, and schoolwork right now.

4 - I got hit by a pigeon today. Literally. I honestly think I'm still in shock about that. I was walking down the street back to my apartment, and as usual, there were pigeons in the road. Well, a car came by and scared them, so the pigeon jumped and flew away from the car, and then hit my arm in it's desperate escape! I never thought that I would ever in my life be run into by a wild pigeon - very strange...

Fun but Chilly Weekend

So this past weekend I went on a trip arranged through my school! We left Florence at 6:45 in the morning on Friday so that by bus we could arrive in Napels around 1:00 for lunch. I was so tired, I hadn't gotten much sleep for the past couple nights, and now I honestly can't remember what route I took to walk across the city to the meeting point. Not really a good idea for keeping myself healthy, but I survived and have caught up on sleep. Anyway, after a long nap and longer bus ride, we finally arrived in Napels.

Napels is actually the home of pizza, and particularly Margherita Pizza (which is topped with sliced tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella, and basil leaves), so of course we had that for lunch, along with some truly delicious appetizers! It was absolutely delicious, but unfortunately, as soon as I ate the pizza, I started to feel sick. We then went on a two hour guided walking tour of the city, in the rain. I am really glad that I saw Napels, especially two of the churches which were absolutely gorgeous, but honestly I wasn't overly impressed. It is a large city, about one million people, and definitely "acts" like one. It's loud, modern, dirty, the people are crazy drivers, and the crime rate is higher than most of Italy. Although, we did get to see Mt. Vesuvius for the first time which was pretty cool! It may look like any other mountain, but there really is something enthralling about staring at an active volcano.

After Napels, we took a bus to Sorrento, checked into our hotel, and had dinner. The resturant had a meal of gnocchi (a traditionally Italian course, that is very starchy, made of potato and pasta and then covered with a sauce), veal, and "Delizia" for dessert. I was still feeling pretty sick at this point and couldn't really eat the gnocchi or bread, so I decided to do what I have never had never done before - try the veal. For anyone who knows, although I eat meat, I can get very squeamish if I think about the fact that it used to be a living animal, especially when eating red meat. It's something that I haven't been able to get past for a few years now. I have never been able to bring myself to try veal before. It was very good, and I could eat it without making myself feel worse, but I did have to work to not think about the animals. I also had a few bites of Delizia - amazing! Delizia is a popular dessert in the area, made of spongecake, filled and topped with lemon cream. Sorrento and the surrounding areas are known for their lemons and their lemon products.

I pretty much crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel, I was so tired. But, I woke up Saturday morning well rested, feeling better, and ready for a day on the island of Capri! Capri is this gorgeous little island, basically a mountain or two sticking up out of the sea, which is an absolutely clear and beautiful blue. It was sunny that morning, and probably the warmest period of time that we had (the rest of the weekend was pretty chilly - ironic since we were in a tropical environment!) Buses take you from the marina up to the city - we were packed in like sardines, and then taken on about as wild a ride as you could get while going up steep roads. Then I went with most of the group to a "beach" on the other side of the island. Capri doesn't really have sand beaches, so the place we were going was basically where the water met up with the rocks on the coastline. The hike down was long, but absolutely beautiful, as was the coast. Of course, you have to realized that we just hiked down to the beach from the main city - which is a lot higher on the hill! Hiking back up wasn't as much fun... but it was totally worth it. I spent the rest of the day just exploring the island with Sarah and Melissa after a nice lunch.

Sunday was the day that I had really been looking forward too - Pompeii! Pompeii had been on my list of "must see" cities and it didn't disappoint! Actually, it made me think again that maybe I should have considered archeology more.... Not really - I love design, archeology is just an interest. It was so amazing to see an entire city still laid out as it was hundreds of years ago. You know, if you go anywhere else, you may just see a building here, a few artifacts there, but Pompeii is literally an ENTIRE city! It made it really easy to understand what life was like back then, how people lived, and what they valued. You could go inside the houses, walk along the actually streets, see the frescoes, walk into the stadium, find the restaurants, and explore the roman forum. We had a guided tour of the ruins, and I found everything that she said so interesting. I also couldn't put my camera down (I didn't realized it at the time, but I took almost 200 pictures there - not sure what I'm going to do with that). I honestly don't know how to go into more detail about some of the things that we saw there, it was so amazing and I ended up learning so much more about the city.

I think that's about it for the weekend, but I put up more pictures on Flickr from the trip this weekend! Ciao!

Siena and other stories

Wow- I sat down today to finish writing about Siena, and realized that I actually went there almost one week ago. Sorry this took so long.

I took the bus from Florence to Siena last weekend with Sarah, one of the girls from SNC. It's such a nice place, and the city was much smaller and quieter than Florence (especially for a Saturday) which made for a nice change of scene. The first thing that we decided to do was to eat (of course...), so we went and got a pastry and cappuccino at a local shop.

We then walked to the Piazza del Campo, the large, bowl shaped piazza in Siena. Piazza del Campo is famous for the running of the Palio, which is a famous horse race in Siena. Each of the districts enters a horse and they race against each other in late summer. It's not like races in the US though, the jockey's ride bareback, whichever horse to cross first wins (with or without it's jockey), and anything goes in this race - kidnapping has not been unheard of... Crazy...

The main palace, Palazzo Pubblico sits at the head of the piazza. The Torre del Mangia, a tower built as tall as the dome of Siena's cathedral (to show the equality of church and state), is connected to the palace. We climbed up to the very top for a view of the city - 400 step, and a few were so tight that absolutely nothing could be carried up other than a camera out of it's case, and you had to duck so you didn't hit your head. The view from the top was worth it though. So we were standing there, taking pictures right underneath this enormous bell, when all of the sudden the bell rang. I think that I jumped about five feet in the air, it was so loud and unexpected - but pretty funny. We then went through the rest of the palace. It was beautiful, most of the ceilings were ornately painted, and they had frescoes, old paintings and other items everywhere. One of my favorite things to see there, was a fresco next to it's underdrawing (found during removal and restoration of the fresco). I've never seen the two parts of a same fresco hanging side by side.

We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant by the cathedral. We had mixed bruschetta (traditional tomato topping, some cabbage mixture, an amazing onion and cheese topping, and something that looked a bit like raw fish to me - honestly, I wasn't brave enough to try it and Sarah wasn't sure what it was) and each had the most delicious bowl of ribolitta! Ribolitta is a traditional Tuscan soup, originally a peasant dish, made of tomatoes, cabbage, spices, stale bread, and whatever other vegetables that people want to put in it. It was so good and filling!

Next, we went into the cathedral. Three things really interested me about that cathedral. One, everything was striped! It actually made me feel sometimes like I was in the middle of some optical illusion. Two, the entire floor is marble, but arranged in different colors to create ornate scenes and symbols. Third, the statue of St. John the Baptist. I'm starting to really like Donatello, and I walked up to this statue, looked at the style, and immediately guessed that it was Donatello's work - turns out that I was right! We also went into the crypt of the church. We didn't know what to expect, but basically you can see the remains of the wall of the original church that was there (the cathedral was built on top of a preexisting, smaller cathedral). It probably wasn't entirely worth it, but I did really enjoy seeing the frescoes that have been undamaged by years of light and pollution. The colors, especially the reds and blues, were so bright, and they were so detailed - some of them could have been oil paintings. It was nice to some frescoes as they were originally intended.

That was pretty much our day - we walked around the city some more, then got on a bus back to Florence as it was beginning to rain. It was tons of fun though!

I have a few other stories from the past week (since it's been so long) that I wanted to share also. I finally went into the Uffizi gallery, I had been waiting to get my Museum Pass. My Renaissance Art Class was there this week! The most famous piece in the gallery is the Birth of Venus, by Botticelli, but the pieces that I got really excited when I saw were the three Maesta's that they have there (by Giotto, Cimabue, and Duccio). I wouldn't have thought it, but seeing them all in the same room was really impressive.

I also am beginning to understand Italian better! I was in the supermarket the other day, and some woman suddenly asked me for help. Basically, she was trying to figure out which type of tomatoes were which price. I couldn't really speak to her in Italian well, but I could understand what she was saying to me! We managed to figure it out (with me muttering to myself in English) and I said goodbye and started to leave. She then thanked me, first in Italian and then in English (I guess she heard me talking to myself!). Not that important overall, but I was definitely excited that I am at the point where I can finally understand some of the language - not bad for one month.

One month - it's official now! Honestly, I am starting to get homesick, especially wanting to be around to see everyone in the family when they get together, but I am also having the best time. I love this city so much! Often I walk along the street and see parent's picking up their kids from school, tourists trying to find where they are on a map, someone sitting on a bench reading a newspaper, or hear cheers coming from the inside of pubs whenever soccer games are on, and I just know that I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else for the next few months.

I think that's about it for now - but if I forgot something I'll try to put it back up.

Siena pictures!

View of beautiful Siena and the Duomo!

The inside of the Cathedral - beautiful, but I did feel like I was in the middle of an optical illusion.




























Climbing the 400 steps to the top of the tower for a view of the city! (This staircase was both the way up and down)

Rain, Gelato and Klingon!

Well, its been almost another full week here in Italy, and filled with lots of drizzle and rain. Not the ideal weather, but not so bad that you can't go outside either. When it stops raining it is so nice and warm here, around 55 degrees. (I keep thinking about the weather in Wisconsin right now!)

Valentine's Day in Florence is celebrated pretty much the same way that we celebrate in the states, lots of flowers and candy vendors advertising for the day. I went with my roommates that night to a bar for drinks and aperitivos, and then we got some gelato late that night. It was fun, but not much else to say about that.

My classes are going well. In Renaissance Art we went to Santa Croce (which has a museum with Cimabue's Crucifix and a beautiful Fresco of the Last Supper, and also has the graves of people such as Galileo and Michelangelo). For Women and Religion we went on a walking tour of the city, and ended up at the Baptistery by Santa Maria del Fiore. The interior has the most beautiful gold mosaic that I have ever seen! It depicts a scene of the last judgment, portraits of the prophets, and scenes from the Bible. I still can't believe that these are my classes here - although I have been getting a lot of homework which isn't as much fun. For any fellow trekkies, I did find out that my Italian professor (who is a linguist and speaks about 10 languages fluently) speaks Klingon! That pretty much made my day when he mentioned that!

Someone pointed out a gelato shop to me that is right around the corner a little while ago, and I have been back a couple of times since. One of the workers recognized me when I went in yesterday - I'm not sure if that is a good thing, or if it means that I need to stop eating so much gelato...

I also found a beautiful little park up in the hills by San Miniato! It has enough trees and grass to really remind me of my many walks through the woods in Memorial Park at home, but the view of the outskirts of Florence is unbelievable. I also met some tourists from Hungary, who asked me how they could get to San Miniato. They were so nice, and seemed genuinely interested in just talking for a few minutes. They told me that they came to Italy for a long weekend to see the art, and that they were really enjoying the warm weather (it was snowing back at their home). They wanted to know where I was from, and seemed really interested to learn that I was in Italy as an art student. It was so nice talking to them, and as a plus, I was able to point them in the right direction!

I think that's about everything for now. I'm hoping to spend tomorrow in Siena (an easy day trip from Florence), so I will tell you about that soon!

Flickr Update

I put a few more pictures on Flickr of the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato al Monte (the basilica on top of the hill). Hope you enjoy them!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mia065/

Two Things...

I just have to say that I walked up to San Miniato al Monte this morning - the basilica up on the hill with the cemetery. It's literally one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. Today, I actually went inside the basilica - it's very dark and quiet in there, but there were so many beautiful paintings on the walls, and even an unfinished tempera painting that I found fascinating to look at. If anyone ever comes to Florence - make the walk for the view of the city and to look at the basilica!

Also, something that I was thinking the other day about how we always study the same things in history classes in the US, and that most of that history is directly related to the US. It made me realize how narrow my view of past world events are. I was thinking about this, because since I came here, I have heard so much about the Florence flood of '66. The flood was one of the most disastrous events in Italy, and happened so recently that it is still fresh in everyone's mind. Yet I had never heard of it until I arrived. It was the first time that the Arno flooded since the Industrial Revolution, so in addition to the lives and homes lost (which would have been bad enough) so much history and art of the city was severely damaged. Just one more thing to make me realize that what is important to us in the US, is not what is important to everyone in the world.

Carnival of Venice

Sorry it's taken so long for a update. I'll be honest, I just really haven't felt like writing lately - but here we go! This should be a nice long update...

I know that I mentioned the Chocolate Festival this weekend in the Piazza Santa Croce. I don't think that I've ever seen so much chocolate in one place at one time. It was like chocolate as a work of art. There where more chocolate animals than I could count, "rusty" chocolate hand tools, nails, horseshoes, etc..., chocolate covered fruit, hot chocolate.....the list goes on and on! I did have some hot chocolate, "cioccolato calda", which here is basically melted chocolate mixed with cream - so rich, but so delicious!

I went to Venice this weekend for the Carnival with the other girls from St. Norbert (Sarah, Beth, and Caressa) and Caressa's roommate Abbey. What an amazing weekend! We took the train out of Florence, which passed through many tunnels. I later realized that the tunnels were actually going straight through the mountains. There was snow everywhere! This may sound crazy, but seeing the snow made me both homesick, and more glad that I was in Italy at the same time. Talk about mixed emotions, all from a little snow!

We arrived in Venice at about 4:30 on Friday, and took the water bus to the stop by our amazing apartment. Venice is a city with no roadways, all transportation is via a series of water canals and boats, including buses, taxis, police, and deliveries (FedEx!). All of the "roads" are actually just walkways. This was a love/hate relationship with me - I will walk just about anywhere within reach, but I'm not really fond of boats. It ended up being really fun though. That night, we went to a market, and made a nice dinner in our apartment, before walking around the city at night in the rain, and doing some mask shopping.

Saturday was nicer, weather-wise (overcast, but no rain!). We walked across the famous Rialto Bridge and to the market (complete with many dead fish - yuck! - we were right on the Adriatic Sea), and then around the rest of Venice, taking time to stop in many of the fun shops with clothes, boots, Murano glass, and the famous Venice masks. We ended up in Piazza San Marco, were the stage for the festivities was slowly being uncovered. The piazza is named after St. Mark's Basilica, which is an amazing building. It is really interesting, because over a period of centuries, elements kept being added on, creating this crazy, colorful, yet really interesting compilation of styles of art. I think that it is one of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen! St. Mark's is famous for it's golden mosaics, a few of which we saw when we walked through the entrance of the basilica. We also saw Doge's Palace, the Campanile (belltower), and the clocktower (with the world first "digital clock"). We then got back on the water bus, and just spent some time riding down the Grand Canal and taking photos on our way to Giudecca, a large island just off of the historical center. We were actually looking for the "Art and Chocolate" exhibit that we saw advertised, but it ended up not being open while we were there. After returning to the main island, we walked back past the Bridge of Sighs, and into the heart of the carnival. There were a bunch of people gathering at the main stage, so we decided to stay and see what was going to happen. Some man came out and announced that weather permitting, the performance (a play of Arlecchino Servitore Di Due Padroni) would be taking place in a half an hour, weather permitting, but first, some workers from the recently closed steel factory would be performing their own interpretation of "Full Monty". Sure enough, three men get up on stage, start dancing, and stripping down to their underwear - that was pretty much the last thing we expected to see, but it was really funny! Anyway, we stayed for the beginning of the performance, and then headed back to the apartment for the night.

Sunday was absolutely beautiful! Sunny and warm. After checking out of the apartment, we walked around some more and did some shopping. We went back to the piazza to watch the Flight of the Angel - a tradition where a woman "flies" down from the bell tower to the piazza.

I don't know if I was just tired from the weekend or what, but yesterday was really the first crummy day I've had since I arrived in Italy. I started to get really homesick - I was tired of the crowded streets, pollution, not being able to communicate, etc... I couldn't find what I wanted at the market, got really lost trying to buy some schoolbooks, missed my class because of a broken apartment door latch - anyway, I did get through it and today has been much better! My Renaissance Art in Florence class took place at the Cathedral and Baptistery, and inside the Museo dell'Opera (the Cathedral/Duomo Museum). It was so amazing to be standing in front of the pieces that we were discussing, rather than just looking at slides (although it was hard to take notes!).


***I updated my photo page! http://www.flickr.com/photos/mia065/

Classes Start

I think that I'm finally starting to get used to living in Florence! I never really thought about the size of the city before, I mean, compared to New York, LA, or Chicago, Florence is nothing. But it is still about 15 times bigger than any city I've ever lived in. It's been a bit of an adjustment, but I really love this city a lot, and it's so beautiful. I finally made the hike up to Piazza Michelangelo, across the river, which offers an amazing view of the city, surrounding hills, and mountains. Amazing!

My classes started this week also. I'm taking Italian, which means that my vocabulary has expanded from about ten words to forty - a definite improvement! I'm also in Florence Rennaisance Art History, Religion and Women, and World Ethics - all of which seem really interesting right now. In a couple of the classes, we take many "field trips" out around the city, sometimes not even meeting in the classroom. For example, next week my Art History course is meeting at Giotto's belltower, and then we are having class at Santa Maria del Fiore (the cathedral most commonly known as Il Duomo) and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (looking at the art galleries). My Religion and Women class even takes a day trip to Rome in April - wow! I'm still trying to get one final class added in so that I have a full course load - tomorrow's project!

I've started to interact a little bit more with the locals also, mostly at store's and markets. Nothing seems as simple here as it is back in the states, such as buying groceries, getting stamps and finding a post box, It's always a bit nerve wracking to not be able to communicate as much as usual, but most people speak a bit of English, and I am learning the art of gesturing! Hopefully I'll catch on to Italian quickly...

Today I walked back up to Piazza Michelangelo, and then past it and higher up to the gorgeous San Miniato al Monte. I walked around the outside which is a graveyard - and the most unique graveyard I have ever been it. I found it so fascinating and relaxing. There were old and new family crypts, some actually graves and headstones, and mostly just hundreds of vaults all around the walls, some old and some new with fresh flowers. The church was amazing to look at too but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me or have time to go inside, as my goal was mainly just to get outside, walk around, and relax a little bit. I will definitely be going back when I have more time to spend there.

Tomorrow, the chocolate festival starts in Piazza Santa Croce (yum!), and this weekend, I'm going to Venice with four other girls for the carnival. After that, my next goals are to get in a library and find the best gelato stand!

I want to thank people for reading - it's nice to hear that people are enjoying this blog and makes me a little more motivated to keep writing! Hope everyone at home is doing well!

Photos

Okay - I finally have photos up on Flickr! The web address is:

www.flickr.com/photos/mia065/

Piazzas and Mercatos

Hi Everyone! I usually won't be updating this every day, but I have so much to share right now - everything is so new!

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours just wandering around part of the city. I walked over to the Piazza della Signoria, which has all of these amazing sculptures from the Renaissance (although some are just replica's now, with the originals moved indoors, such as Michelangelo's David). The piazza is all cobblestone, and is bordered by high end shops such as Chanel. One of the palaces, Palazzo Vecchio (which is now the town hall of the city) and the Uffizi Gallery, also border the piazza. The sculptures border the piazza, and there is also a small, covered sculpture garden. Some of the famous pieces include the Fountain of Neptune (Ammannati), the Rape of the Sabine Woman (Giambologna), Perseus with the Head of Medusa (Cellinni), and replicas of David and il Marzocco (Donatello). Every time I get in front of works of art that I studied in classes back at St. Norbert or have admired through books, such as the sculptures, I just can't believe it. It's so awe-inspiring to me. I took my sketchbook and spent a few minutes sketching one of the figures on the Fountain of Neptune. It was a bit surreal to be sitting in Florence, ten feet away from a sculpture done in the 16th century with my sketchbook and pen, but that's a huge part of why I wanted to come to Italy.

I then walked through the open center of the Uffizi gallery. There are caricaturists that line up along the gallery, and I found it really funny that about half of the people had examples of an Obama caricature. But set along the pillars were statues of all sorts of famous Italians, and at the end, an Archway that overlooks the Arno River. I then walked back to my apartment along the riverwalk - it was foggy, but still a beautiful view of the bridges over the river, with mountains far in the background, just visible through the fog.

This morning when I woke up, I decided to go to the Mercato Sant'Ambrogio to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies. This is one of the two main food "farmer's markets" in Florence, but it is much less "touristy" than the other one, and closer to my apartment. Of course, that meant that I had make more of an effort to speak Italian. Also, I wasn't sure what the proper way to pick out the food was (in "supermarkets", you are supposed to wear disposable gloves to pick out any fresh fruit). So I ended up walking around the market for a while just exploring taking in the sights, and trying to figure out what I wanted to buy and how to buy it. It was so interesting to me, outside is all the clothes, trinkets, fruits, jams, and vegetables. Inside the building, vendors were selling lunch, meat, and cheese. The meat was so interesting to see, everything from fresh fish, to sausage links hanging from the ceiling, and bacon that they would carve off for the customers right there. Outside, people were chatting, and sellers were trading with each other - I even spotted one vendor throwing oranges to another nearby. I was so nervous to try talking to anyone, but eventually I decided to buy some oranges, tomatoes, and lettuce to have in the apartment for meals.

On my way back to the apartment, I stopped to get my first gelato - cioccolato and cocco - chocolate and coconut! It was so delicious, I will definitely be trying more at some point!

Some random things about the city that I've noticed:
-There are pigeons everywhere! Especially by the river and in the piazzas - but no squirrels.
-There is very little grass or trees, I actually miss grass more than I thought I would.
-On the water faucets, C is hot water and F is cold (which confuses me because in our bathroom you can't really see the "F", so I keep mixing them up!)
-The motorcycles shake the windows as they drive by on the street below.
-A "Bar" is actually a cafe, and "Caffe" is a bar.

Anyways, I'm going to go out for a little bit longer before it gets dark now that it has stopped raining. But I'll update again when I have more to say. Hope everyone is well back home!

Santa Croce

This is a roommate's picture of Santa Croce - the church only about a minute walk from our apartment - their is also a Piazza in front that I have spent some time in.

First few days (with better spelling!)

Wow - I've only been in Florence for a few days, yet I have fallen in love with the city already. Yes, it's true that I'm terrible at communicating and have already made multiple "mistakes" that true Italians find inappropriate (such as not ordering all of the courses when eating lunch at a resturant), but I am having a great time and learning quickly.

The flight over was uneventful. I was flying with three other girls from St. Norbert, and we managed to catch all of our flights and find our baggage. I only really mention the plane ride, because of the completely surreal experience that I had. I had just woken up, so I was still in that sleepy state, when I looked out the window, not really expecting to see anything because it was so cloudy. What I saw was the sun rising over enormous mountain peaks poking up through the cloud bed. We were directly over the Alps! Amazingly beautiful and something that I never thought I would see. It was so white with clouds and snow, yet slightly glowing from the rising sun, and every so often you could see lights down on the mountains from small collections of buildings and a couple that looked to me like they were bonfires. I couldn't believe it.

I got to my apartment, and met all of the other girls. We went out for dinner that night, but spent most of the time relaxing. Yesterday, we went to a couple of orientation meetings and out for lunch. We finally got the internet set up, and then went to the market next door to get food. We were going to make a pasta dinner, but couldn't get our stove working, so ended up just eating brushcetta (the oven works!) and other "snack foods". All of my roommates decided to go out that night. Hannah knew a guy also in Florence, so we met up with his roommates and another full group of girls, and then walked to the Cavalli Club. However, we got lost on the way, and ended up seeing a lot of Florence. For those of you who know me - I was in heaven, I was exploring the city at night, which I normally wouldn't have done, and saw so many amazing buildings, palazzos (palaces) and piazzas (city squares) - it was actually the highlight of the night for me! I can't wait to see them again and spend more time at some of the buildings. I did have fun dancing at the club though - a completely new and interesting experience for me.

Today, I woke up this morning and went to an optional, informal orientation session were we got some helpful tips about pickpockets, markets, restaurant etiquette, etc... So, that's pretty much everything so far!

One thing - I did forget to bring the adapter that transfers photos from my camera to the computer, so no photos yet! I'm going to look for one here, or maybe just start showing you other people's photos - not sure yet.

I can't believe that I am actually here in Italy. I know it is so far away, but right now, it just feels like a new city with a different language, and not all that different from home. Then again, I'm walking the same streets that people like Galileo, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio, and Dante walked - unbelievable.

Ciao!