Florence aka Firenze

Like I said Florence has been amazing; what started off as surreal has finally started to feel like my reality. Life has been crazy, chaotic at times, overwhelming, and yet a great adventure! I realize now that I have yet to fill you people in on what Florence itself is actually like. It's AWESOME.

Here we have a pretty sweet apartment that I share with 3 other girls. I have my own room which is great, we have a loft, and we're right in the heart of Florence. Only a 5 minute walk from the Duomo and right by all the night life. We live on the 3rd floor (not the same as 3 floors in the States FYI) so multiple times a day I climb 72 stairs. Don't worry I counted again this morning and the number still hasn't changed.  I walk everywhere, and have come to understand that it's the reason why not many Italians are overweight.  Most my friends apartments are about 15 minutes away as well as school which is on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio.

On my way to school I pass by all the big tourist attractions meaning that I have to wind my way constantly through groups of people with headphones in and  following someone with a flag or something. My mission is to one day walk around holding up a random object just to see if people will follow me, I think there's a good chance of it working. My classes here are great, minus the fact that they have this odd expectation that we'll do homework…. Just kidding mom and dad! I'm taking an international economics class which is not my thing yet I still find it fascinating. There's only 7 of us in that class so she's quick to notice when someone isn't paying attention. The professor for that class speaks Arabic (native tongue), Italian, and English. For my painting class my professor speaks Dutch (native language), German, Italian and English. I'm impressed by these people! So far I have yet to be in the studio for a painting class because we have spent every class outside painting different things. The first week and a half we were in a Plaza painting a church and fountain and now we're painting a view of the Duomo and baptistry from the Boboli Gardens. It's odd painting outside because all the people passing by stop to look, some taking pictures and trying to give us pointers too. Very intimidating/awkward and takes a lot of work to just focus on the painting.  My favorite class so far is an art history class called Leonardo di Vinci where we study all about Leonardo's life, teachers, competitors, works, and surroundings. It's fascinating. We have  class sometimes in a classroom but have also been to several churches/museums to view works of art or certain pieces/installations/sculptures. The professor is a source of entertainment too. She snorts, laughs incredibly loudly and at herself a lot, slaps things (not people), is more animated than anyone I know and is incredibly passionate about art history. I don't think it's possible for anyone not to love her or the class. Finally there's my Italian class. Because I don't need any more language credit I'm taking the basic one (remember though that I had an intense 2 week course for orientation, just so you don't think I'm slacking off) which I'll admit is incredibly boring. Luckily it doesn't take up too much of my time. Overall I can't complain about school; I mean I am in Italy so it doesn't get much better than that.

People here are pretty great overall with some peculiar ones scattered in. Our program has students from all over the States. I've been hanging out with some from California, Washington D.C, Washington and ones all over the east coast. That in and of itself is an experience, one which I hadn't even thought about before coming here. I find it interesting how all of us have different expectations for what we want this trip to be. Some came here to see Italy but mainly travel all over, some here to party like they won't remember any of it, some to really see the art, some to learn the language and culture, and some who have no idea what they want of it yet.

I fall into the category that really wants to get to know Italy, and not necessarily the parts that all the guide books talk about.  So far I think I'm accomplishing that. Some of my main goals while being abroad consist of:

• Horseback riding in Italy (I think this is going to happen in the next week or two)
• Wine tasting
• Renting a Moped for a day to go exploring, you have no idea how exited I am for this
• Checking out Greece and maybe another place
• Making some great Italian friends
• Not taking anything for granted

I think I'm on track or have a plan for most of these! While I'm excited for everything here there are days that it's rough. I miss both places I call home and all the people there. I think one thing that caught me off guard was how life goes on when you're not there. Not that I expected everything to freeze but in someway I did :)  Hearing from people about big changes is a blast but also makes me wish I was there for some of them.  I've gotten use to the time change, general layout of the city, the food/schedule. I'm working on getting used to the streets smelling all the time, the constant noise/echoing, hearing the language, and having to walk around the tourists 24/7 (which is funny because I don't feel like a tourist anymore).  I don't know if I'll be able to get used to not seeing grass or natural trees, having to search to find American sports (some success), dealing with issues and not being able to convey the problem because of the language barrier, not having all family and friends be a simple phone call away that doesn’t need scheduling,  struggling with making coffee every morning, and not sleeping with a fan at night : )

Overall life and God are good, actually they're great! I am constantly reminded of how different God made everyone and amazed by it. Back home I saw beauty in nature and creations, here I see it in works of art and buildings. Funny how what life is for one person is so drastically different for someone else. God works in incredible ways and I hope that someday everyone gets to see it in a different placed and a  different sort of world.

Until the next blog,

Ciao!

P.S. Brad and Janelle are engaged!! (that's my brother fyi)

loft area



pretty sweet kitchen



take note: the one on the right isn't a toilet



MY ROOM!



One of our night activities, that ended up working surprisingly well



Cooking class



Part of the view from Michaelangelo's Plaza



The real veiw from Michaelangelo's Plaza : D





Fiesole

Florence has rocked my world. I am incredibly blessed to be in such a great place. The other day we got a break from the town `which was much needed. I've seen cobble stone and gray buildings for the past 10 days and even the trees in Lido were not the real kind.. .I didn't realize I missed trees and grass until we got to see it on our day trip to Fiesole. What a gorgeous place. Florence is situated in a valley and Fiesole is up on top of the valley. From there you could see all of Florence. We walked up this massive hill that puts Seattle to shame. An old monastery was at the top which was really pretty and mellow. We toured through it and saw the old monks quarters (only 1 or 2 monks remain) and the doors were shorter than I was!! From the huge hill we walked down into the center of town to the old Roman Theatre. It's an archeological site as well as a theatre. There were may rustic ruins around as well as several pieces of gladiators…that ones hard to explain. We literally walked in and there was a giant foot, then around the whole area was different parts, several heads and body frames, as well as hands and feet. Sounds really weird but was pretty awesome! I think the pictures should say enough, overall just a great day.

see the Duomo!

too small : (

pondering life there

see! A giant foot!

and then the gladiators head! Told you!

Apuane Mountains: Caves of Antro del Corchia" and a feast!

This past Wednesday we had the opportunity to go to this incredible marble caves up in the Apuane Mountains. The program that I'm with definitely has the adventure/activities part down. We left early in the afternoon for a nice bus ride up some of the craziest roads I've seen….all in a charter bus mind you. I don't know how we made it one some of these roads, let alone had people go by us. Lets just say I didn't sleep. Not only because I was focused on the fact that there was no road outside my window but also because beyond that was amazing views going by/above all the quarries, through the mountains, and mountain towns. When we got to a point where the buses could literally go no further the smaller buses from the caves came and picked us up for the tour.


These caves were insane. Our guide said that it's one of the largest in the world and largest in Europe. Don't quote me directly on that because we couldn't hear out guide due to being in the back behind our Italian teachers. Let's just say the Italians don't do adventurous things a whole lot so climbing on every rock was a big ordeal. It didn't matter though because that just gave us more time to take pictures (with out a flash of course :) Being in a cave is one of the most bizarre feelings in the world. Knowing already you're inside a mountain and then climbing farther down = weird. They had all the main different parts of the cave and each one was unique. I could never really wrap my brain about what we were seeing. Looking at my pictures from it though, everything looks the same… let me just say that in person it was 100x cooler than my pictures could capture. We were on stairs most the time and then a walkway that they had built. Made me feel a lot safer in some areas where all you could see is that it kept going down. There were little lakes throughout and it was the stillest water I have ever seen. It was an amazing thing to see.

After we finished our tour, we went back to the little town where we had left the buses. There we were treated to a true 'Italian dinner.' I have never ate so much food at one point in my life. I honestly don't know where I or anyone else found room to put it. Let me just lay out the menu for it…

On the table: bread

Appetizer: amazing stuffed tomato thing (possibly with hummus), salami, brushette, fried bread ball things, a fried polenta with salsa on top which tasted kind of like enchilada filling, and then an artichoke/cauliflower quiche thing. The only thing I didn't eat was the artichoke thing, I was stuffed after all this though. So what did I naturally do… kept eating of course

1st Course: 2 types of homemade pasta, one was a linguini type thing and then stuffed ravioli. Of course French bread with cheese on top was served with these.

2nd Course: we had our pick from either turkey, pork, or chicken. I opted for the turkey and pork which was a great decision but then again there wasn't really a wrong choice during the meal.
Dessert: a delightful yet weird texture rice pudding cake thing. How could I stop?

I'm afraid that if all the meals in Florence are like that I won't survive… It was incredible, but also a ton of food. Any time I thought my plate was close to empty they came around with something new. Talk about a little piece of heaven!! By the time we left it was 10 and so we had to get back in our huge buses and try and find our way down the mountain with just the buses lights to guide us. Never a dull moment.


Things are finally wrapping up in Lido di Camaiore. It's been a great time here where we were kept very busy. Everyone has hit the point where we just want to be settled in our apartments in Florence. Luckily that's happening tomorrow. We take our Italian final in the morning and then peace out. Our apartment is apparently right in the city which should be entertaining and exciting. The next chapter is about to begin, wish me luck!

I think this one was called 'The Eagle' or something, to us it was known as the Tree of Souls from 'Avatar'

Yes those are people on the right, this place was huge

 
Fun Fact about Italy: they push beds really close together, our twin beds are now a great giant double

Cinque Terre

Wow. Wow. Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.


I have found my retirement spot. Cinque Terre are 5 charming towns along the coast. Each hamlet has it's own character. We had 2 options of how to get to all these towns spread over 8 miles, either train or hike. I chose hiking which was well worth it in the end. The first town was Riomaggiore where we got off the train to start the adventure. We didn't spend much time in the town because we all were eager to start. The hike was beautiful. They have set up the first one so it's a pretty easy and delightful walk to the next one. You pass through this tunnel so to speak that has graffiti and artwork throughout on one-side while the other has stone windows looking to the Sea. Along the way we passed several places/walls/fences that had been bombarded by locks. Like the locker locks. Often inscribed onto them were peoples names. The meaning behind all of this I'm not 100% sure, but pretty sure it was a romantic one. When we arrived at the 2nd village, Manarola, we pretty much went straight through that one as well (don't worry we stopped at the others, we just heard that the best ones were at the end and we didn't have a lot of time to waste if we were going to hike it all). Manarola was definitely a place for more of the locals to live. As we hiked to the 3rd village we got a good work out in. On the way up (yes, UP) to Corniglia we had to climb a ton of stairs. Not the kind of even stairs you climb everyday, stairs at angles and some different heights. The view was well worth it. We decided upon reaching the top to plant ourselves there for lunch. Pizza in Italy is the best thing. Corniglia was the one that was most spread out and didn't seem to have a real main area of concentration/congestion. After leaving Corniglia we had to navigate some tricky paths before we came to Vernazza (#4). That hike was a long, uphill stretch with a ton of steps descending into the town. When we got to Vernazza we recovered for a bit with some water and gelato. That place was amazing! By far my favorite there. There was a lot to do and lots to see. It was gorgeous!! It had the feel of locals but also the hubbub of tourists without feeling so touristy ( I know that was confusing). The water was right there and a great area to people watch and shop. I wish we could have stayed there longer but we had to keep moving to hike the final stretch. By that point most the group had resorted to taking the train to the towns but 3 of us girls kept it going, other people did to but on their own time. It took us an hour and half pretty much. Since we had to go down a ton of steps to get out of Vernazza, we had to hike up a bunch to go around the cliffs to drop in on the final town of Monterosso. The hike was pretty intense in the beginning but beautiful as soon as we were up above Vernazza. We had to hike in some areas where the path was literally a foot wide, and had to figure out passing people on that. Monterosso has some gorgeous beaches that's for sure. I'll admit that I was disappointed because it was quite clear that Monterosso was the tourist town of the 5. I felt like I very well could have been in some beautiful part of California. The hike to it though was well worth it. All the way around the hike was great! We finally got on the train to go back and meet our buses and everyone passed out. It was a day to remember!

Heading out of Manarola (i think)

all the locks

The view of Vernazza on the way to Monterosso

P.S. Italians don't eat Peanut Butter
P.P.S I'm not proof reading any of these posts so far, so excuse all the errors, I'll do better when I'm not on such an internet time crunch

Pisa, Lucca

the top of the tower in Lucca

In the Duomo at Pisa

How could you not hug it?

This past week has been filled with so many activities and everything that it's been crazy! I have loved every minute of it and can't begin to convey just how amazing Italy is. The culture, the sites, the food, the views…all an experience of their own. So here's the part where I try to recap just how great this place is, oh boy, this could be a long one.


Our group headed out to Pisa last Thursday. It was a total tourist trap but I was ok with that. The minute you walk through the arch and see the Duomo, Leaning Tower, and Baptistery you realize why someone choose to capitalize on the area. The lawn is bright green, contrasting the white buildings and blue sky. It all makes for a very pretty picture as many people discovered. We were lead on a tour by my soon-to-be painting teacher. We first went into the Baptistery which was beautiful. While we were there one of the guides/worker/ticket taker (I'm not sure what he was) came in and asked for silence and then proceeded to sing to show off the acoustics of the building. Quite incredible. We then went to the next place I think it was called the Camposanto which held many fine frescoes that they are working on restoring. My favorite part of that one was watching 2 workers on scaffolding tediously trying to restore one area of the frescoes. From there it was onto the Duomo. Once inside you forget all the people around you and outside. It was breathtaking. I guess that's what Italy's about though. The detail and work inside was unlike anything else I've seen.

Everywhere you looked was another work of art; whether a painting, the floor, or architecture. I can't imagine what a service there would be like. I think I would be incredibly distracted the whole time. Of course after that we acknowledge the tower that has yet to fall over. We didn't go inside but instead chose to be the tourists that take awesome pictures holding the tour up. That's enough to keep 90 college students busy for a long time : ) Finally the cameras were put away as we then had to forge our way through the stands to the buses.

On Sunday we went to Cinque Terre, but I'm not going to talk about that now because that deserves a whole post of it's own. Instead I'll jump to when we went to Lucca.

Lucca was overwhelming for me. We were only there for 2 and a half hours so we had a lot to pack in. The wall surrounding the town surprised me at just how well it hid what was inside. We took a tour through the city and saw all the incredible areas. The guide shared some crazy fact that there are almost 90 churches crammed into the city. The city had streets barely wide enough for cars and all the buildings were minimum 3 stories high. I had no clue where we were at any point in time. Had we had more time I think I would have found it much more enchanting. The part that really captured my attention was climbing up a ton of stairs in the Torre Guinigi. This is the tower that randomly has 4 oak trees growing on the top, no one quite knows how that works. The climb was crazy and a quite scary for the person who's not so fond of heights. However once on the top the view was incredible. From there you could see the whole city and the wall surrounding it, out to the areas around Lucca. A different kind of beauty. Lucca had so much beauty and detail packed into such a small area that it almost frustrated me. I wanted to stop and look at every building and just take it in. Instead I felt like some of the beauty of each building was lost among all the other buildings and their character. This is a place where the tour definitely was a help because otherwise I would have had no clue how to get anywhere and the history of the town was very intriguing. Maybe I'll go back at some point and take a little more time there so I can really enjoy it all.

On another note….

Fun fact about Italy: Italians don't care at all about body image. I have seen more than my fair share of elderly people, larger people, and all shapes and sizes in bikinis and Speedos since being here. In fact I don't think anyone here has heard of a one-piece. I love it. Everyone is comfortable in their own body, which is such a contrast from America where we want to cover up every flaw. Here they embrace it and acknowledge the imperfections and that everyone has them. I wish everyone thought this way and was this comfortable because really it's a beautiful thing.