Some older pictures...

Duomo
Julia, Katie and Me :)
My roommate, Kayte and me at San Miniato above Piazzale Michelangelo on our first weekend.
Kayte and me in Fiesole

art, art, art...

so...its getting a little warmer! its kinda nice because there has been so much rain and cold recently, it is nice to have a little break from that! the beautiful days are SO beautiful here...i wish you could all see! one of these days i am going to have to take my camera up to the place i run to...it is the most gorgeous view of the city. the other day i ran up to Fiesole which is technically not a part of Florence, but it is a cute little hilltop town with shops and there is a convent there and church...so beautiful! :)

so i am in the middle of studying for midterms so there are no exciting trips this weekend :( but my kelsey conklin is in town so i am excited to see her! and i am also getting SO excited for spring break...one week from today i am flying to PARIS!!! I am going with my friends Laura and Katherine. I am soo excited to experience the city with friends. we are staying with one of their friends which is so sweet, so i am soo excited! i hope i will get to see alexine, too! she starts  her program this week so i know things will be so crazy and exciting for her! :) 

and then later in the week I am visiting Allison Long in Amsterdam! I cannot wait to see her!! it has been soo long since i have seen her and it seems like she is having an amazing time...so i am so excited!! :)

i thought i would tell you a little about my art history class just because i think it is awesome the way it is organized and i realized i haven't told you yet! basically, we have one lecture a week in the classroom where we look at slides, etc.--a typical art history class. then on tuesday, we have a Site Visit, where we meet somewhere in the city--past site visits have included Piazza Signoria, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Piazza della Annunziata, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (where all the original statues that were on the fiscad of the Duomo are located)....and the TA's give us a lecture there! it is SO awesome because it is so much more effective to have a lecture in the actual place we are learning about. Then every week we have a Looking Assignment--we have a certain place we need to go in the city where we observe something and write a journal on it. we have looked at tons of frescoes and learned a bit about how they were made and why which ones are more preserved than others, which gives me more of an appreciation when I see one. Also it's interesting--with many of these frescoes, in the 18th and 19th centuries, when renovations were being made in some of these churches, some of these frescoes were completely whitewashed and/ or removed from their original locations. Its pretty interesting to see how much we value them today, but at times in their history they were kind of pushed aside. But many that were whitewashed or removed, are now uncovered and put back in their original places. so some of these have gone through A LOT! SO far we have had looking assignments in the Uffizi (where we have this museum pass which lets us get in on the reservation line--no wait at the Uffizi is seriously a dream, especially as tourists keep piling in), the church at Santo Spirito, the competition panels at the Bargello (these are bronze panels that Brunelleschi and Ghiberti made in competition for who would design the Baptistry doors in Florence), a couple of the chapels in Santa Croce, the Brancacci Chapel painted by Masaccio and Masolino....basically this class is allowing me to see SO many of the most important pieces of art and architecture in the city. So when I walk around, I know exactly what I am looking at! Florence is the absolute perfect place to take an art history class because we are in the middle of a museum!

Anyway...should get back to studying....hope all is well!!! CIAO! :)

Siena

Siena and San Gimignano in a day!

San Gimignano: Relaxing with a glass of San Gimignano's famous white wine--Vernaccia. San Gimignano is known as the "Medieval Manhattan" because it originally had 72 towers, but now there are just 14. Basically, the town started with a bunch of feuding families who all thought they were better than the other so built towers--and each one tried to be tallest--to show how awesome they were. ha hence the 72 towers! Then the Black Death wiped out 75% of the population! So crazy....I can't even imagine. We went with my Masterpieces of Art class (who I also went to Rome with and will go to 5 other Italian towns...yay field trips! :) We saw some very famous frescos in the main church here, called the Collegiata. 
San Gimignano: Jen (Syracuse), Mackensey (CU Boulder), me, and Aaron (USC). So fun! the streets were so cute.
San Gimignano: wandering...this was mid-search for gelato! 
Siena: We climbed one of the towers in Siena and saw this beautiful view. That tower in the distance is on the Piazza del Campo--one of the most unique piazzas in all of Italy. It is shaped like an eggshell. It was such a beautiful day!
Siena: Piazza del Campo.

my Internship!

I cannot believe I forgot to tell you this! I have an internship! and guess where it is...in an Enoteca! and guess what that is....drum roll please...its a WINE SHOP!!!! It is seriously the internship from Heaven. And next week guess what I get to help with?? a WINE TASTING!!! I will get to help pour the wines and serve the food that goes with the wine...and the producers of the wine will be there! Ok so it is amazing...I work every Thursday for anywhere from 2 and a half to four hours. It is so great because I do not have class the next day and if I ever need to leave for a trip I am done until 8...plenty early! The people I work with speak NO ENGLISH. this is SO great for me...I am living with a family that speaks no english and again, i am speaking only Italian at my internship! It is great because this Enoteca is located in a purely Florentine area. It is about a 20 minute walk away from campus, but located in an area with no tourists. So there are regulars that come into the shop asking for wine to match with their dinner or to buy a gift for a friend. it is so great...I do not help the customers because I do not know enough about the wine but i LOVE listening--all in Italian....people take their wine SO seriously and this is the perfect place to observe this. People come in and say they are having fish or chicken or meat for dinner, they want something light but dry, or a bit heavier, or one from a specific region in Italy. listening to the customers talk with Luca and Roberto--my wine shop friends!--is so great because I realize that choosing a wine is an art. and it is very specific...customers will spend 45 minutes in there looking over every bottle of wine. this Enoteca has French wines as well.

I have learned a little but about Tuscan wines...the Chianti, Chianti Classico, Montepulciano Nobile, and the Montalcino Brunello--all reds and all AMAZING. in fact, on the job last week, I got to taste some Chianti Classico Riserva from 2006--let me just say YUM. and AMAZING. and i could not believe I was tasting wine while at my internship. WOW. is this real?? I learned about how I know about the French wines--the type of wine it is by the shape of the bottle. I look forward to learning more every week! I look forward to the wine tasting because I will get to converse with more people, pour wine, (maybe drink some!:), and truly get a feel for the customers who come in there--observe them, how they taste the wine, which foods they choose to serve with the wine...i am so excited!

So basically, i cannot believe my internship is working in a WINE SHOP. wow...i could not wait to tell you!

oh and p.s. i also have to tell you--as i think i did before--that there is an amazing gelato place, forno (bakery), and cioccolateria (chocolate shop) in my neighborhood. As I am sure this may not surprise you, I have frequented these places quite often. In fact, the woman in the chocolate shop does not speak any English and every time I pass the shop if I do not buy a piece of chocolate (that is the great part, is i can go buy one piece of dark chocolate, i do not have to buy whole bag--perfect to satisfy my sweet tooth) or whenever i walk by and she sees me, we say ciao! she totally knows me! also after my run today, i went to the pasticceria where i bought a piece of schiacciata--and the guy remembered me from a few days ago. I am the american who struggles with italian, but obviously trying and i love it. i love feeling uncomfortable because that means that I am in an area that never caters to tourists. every time i go in these places, locals are in there buying bread for their families and chocolate with their children after school...i observe conversations with regulars and i hope to soon feel like i am one of them. basically, i am finding that some of my favorite places have included food--shocking, I know!--but the reality is, these are the places where Italians hang out, this is where they go after work, and these are places where they leave happy because they buy something they wanted and they often know the people who work in there. I get this in my small neighborhood of Le Cure because I am living in a purely residential area, not in the middle of the city. i look forward to more updates for you!

dinner time...and you know what that means...my favorite time of day because I never know what AMAZING dishes my Nonna is going to prepare!!!!

CIAOOO!!!! :)

Rome and Venice!

Rome: Sistine Chapel! Trying to get the Last Judgement on the front wall and the ceiling...AMAZING.
Mackensey and I in the Chapel!
Mackensey and I in a Piazza in Rome...I forget what it's called but I think it's famous! ha
The Roman Forum
Laura, Mike and I in front of the Duomo before a night out in Firenze!

Carnivale in Venice and Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel!

Wow...ok I will try and not wait this long to update because I have SO much to say and i do not want to bore you! so i will try to be concise--but it's difficult when trying to explain how it felt to be in the Sistine Chapel for 2 hours in a private viewing with only about 30 people! ok so i guess i will start off with that....

it is hard to explain in words. in fact i know i cannot do it justice but i will attempt. we had a day in Rome of super-sightseeing--i saw the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum, Capotiline Hill, climbed St. peter's basilica, and saw the sistine chapel all in one day. the most important part--seeing the sistine chapel. while two hours seems like a long time, it flew by. we had a couple teachers with us, one teaching a Boticelli class and another teaching a Michelangelo class--little known fact is that everyone focuses on Michelangelo, but Boticelli did many of the side panel frescos in the chapel. beautiful. the Last Judgement is the gorgeous altar wall of the sisine. Michelangelo did this when he was about 60 or 70 while he did the ceiling in his 30s. pretty amazing guy. seriously, staring up at the ceiling and the walls for that much time with that few people in it is an experience i will remember forever. i apologize for not doing this experience justice in words, but it is hard to describe! as we entered the chapel i got overcome with emotion, got some chills, and almost started tearing up a little--it was the SISTINE chapel! ahh! absolutely incredible. sorry for gushing....but it was just incredible! but the weekend was not over yet...

we ended up getting up early the next morning to go to Venice for Carnivale! what an experience! venice is truly one of the most unique places on earth, and equally unique during Carnivale. People walking around in full-on costume--some Renaissance-like dresses and suits, kids in costumes, everyone wearing masks....so fun! we literally wore masks all day around the city! it was so great...it was fun because so many of my friends who were studying all over europe were there so it was fun to see them! i got to see ana mazdyasni and miriam finder as i was just walking on the streets in venice! so fun! walking around the city was difficult because there were SO many people there but it did not take away from the gorgeous city. it was great to be near water, too! i miss the ocean and it was nice to see the open water :) the food was also amazing...there are these special pastries just for Carnivale--one is this flaky, fried dough dusted with powdered sugar which is amazing and another croissant-like thing with chocolate in the inside and chocolate chips on top and then inside a little bit of almond flavoring. we of course needed to try both! hey, carnivale only comes once a year! it was a whirlwind of a weekend, but so fun and worth every minute of lost sleep! :) that is the thing with being abroad...there are few nights when i get enough sleep but there is just too much to see! i never want to miss out on anything! the adrenaline keeps me going and i am LOVING every minute of it.

this weekend I am off to siena and san gimignano--two great cities that i have fortunately been able to travel to with my family but i am so excited to go again. soon i will also have to start studying for midterms...crazy that spring break is almost here! i don't even want to think about how fast this is going! 

i miss all of you and love you and i will update again soon! 

ciaooo!!!! :)

Bologna and Ravenna!

Ravenna: Dante's Tomb!
Bologna: Mackensey, Elaine, and I in Bologna. Right after this picture we were walking along the street and saw a painter in his studio painting a huge mural on the wall. He noticed us watching him and invited us in and we talked to him for about a half an hour! We learned that he has been to New York a couple times to learn English and to exhibit his work. He has worked on several movies--including one starring Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis--we are not really sure what he did on the film set, but that's pretty cool! And he has met with Robert de Niro, Harrison Ford, and some other actors! The brochure he gave us was in Italian so we had a difficult time reading what he did on these movie sets, but nonetheless, it was a pretty great experience! 
Bologna: The tower on the left is leaning--the leaning tower of Bologna! Not totally sure about the story of these towers, but we found a great gelato place right under them! ha There are some legends about what happened on these towers, but not sure which one is true. Its cool though because they are in the middle of more modern buildings and these are very medieval-looking.
Bologna: We loved walking these streets in Bologna (before it started pouring!). We stopped by a bakery and found a little snack called "pizza di linguine" or something...basically a long piece of pizza dough covered in marinara sauce and basil--perfect. Then we wandered the streets more and found little open fish markets, cheese shops, and wine enotecas...it was wonderful and quaint. 
Florence: This is where I live! I can't believe I haven't put these pictures up yet! This was taken on a bridge that I cross every day to get to school and come home--my house is not along the river but down the opposite way. But I just love the look of these houses and it was so beautiful this day at around 5:00 when it was starting to get dark. I love where I live. :)

cortona and montepulciano

Cortona: a really cute couple walking down a gorgeous street in Cortona on a Sunday afternoon.
Cortona: Laura and me!
Montepulciano: My favorite street! a "vicolo" is a little street...so cute.
Montepulciano: residential area

Montepulciano

more montepulciano and cortona... :)

Cortona: this man was just walking down the street singing to himself...it was such a great moment.
Montepulciano: Laura and me at dinner! We ate at a really cute trattoria and had the most amazing crostini with pecorino cheese and truffles, penne arrabiata, house wine, and ended with a crepe and limoncello! Limoncello is like liquid candy...so sweet and tart..i recommend that you all try it! :) my nonna said she often makes it from scratch, so i look forward to that :)
Montepulciano: I thought this clock tower was so cute. When it turned 3:00, the little man on top of the building rang the bell. Such a small town feel.
Montepulciano: Just loved this street. There are countless streets just like this that wind around corners, easy to get lost in.
Florence: The Duomo on one of the most beautiful days yet! It has rained about half the days so we all LOVE and look forward to days like these!

Montepulciano, Cortona and a little bit of Florence!

My friend Laura and I in Cortona. Laura goes to USC but just met her on this trip! 


Montepulciano :)

On the left is Laura and I on a GORGEOUS day in the Bobili Gardens at the Pitti Palace across the Arno river...and on the right is a video of Laura and me in the middle of the main piazza at 9:30 at night in Montepulciano....we did not see one other person!

Schiacciatta....

I have discovered my favorite bread on earth...it is called schiacciatta. basically it is an Italian flatbread--kind of like focaccia--it is baked with olive oil brushed on top and finished off with salt on top--seriously HEAVEN. I have now found that a bakery close to my house sells it...dangerous. I love my neighborhood area--it is called the Le Cure area, and apparently it is a pretty nice place in Florence. I live about 15-20 minutes from campus and I have to pass under some train tracks to get the the Le Cure area and once I am there I feel at home. It is such a cute little town...none of the shops are open on the weekend except for one sandwich shop (which is actually not unlike the center of town, where unless you are near the Duomo, you will not find anything open on Sundays...). I cross a little bridge where on either side are what I think of typical tuscan homes--it seems like they just build on top of each other with miss-matched sizes of buildings, some protruding a little farther over the little river, with clothes hanging outside the windows...I just LOVE it.

So last night i took a cooking class! that was on my list of things to do in Italy is take to take a cooking class!! we made, what else--PASTA!!! 3 different kinds...ravioli with a ricotta and spinach filling (i learned why its called "ricotta"--basically this is sheep's milk that only has 5% fat because it is cooked twice, hence the name "ri-cotta"--"re-cooked" ...interesting!), we also made a tagliatelle with a roasted red pepper sauce with a little bit of cream, and a tagliolini (which is just a smaller tagliatelle) with a tomato sauce...and tiramisu!!! it was all sooo amazing! we made the pasta from scratch--with the flour, eggs, kneading it and everything. and we also learned how to make "naked ravioli" which is just the filling of the ricotta, spinach, and a little bit of nutmeg (did you know that if you eat a whole nutmeg clove it is fatal?? ha little known fact--so...take it easy on the nutmeg!) and just boil that, add a little bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top and parmesan cheese! everything is better with freshly grated parmesan cheese...yummmm....secret to life!

also, this past weekend a friend and I went to two small little tuscan towns called Montepulciano and Cortona! they were absolutely amazing!!! My friend Laura and I took an early train on Saturday morning to Montepulciano...we have realized that sometimes travel to these little towns is a little challenging just because the train does not drop you off right at the town--you often must take a bus or two and/or a taxi to the actual town! but our theme for the trip this weekend was "go with the flow"...so we did because there were so many things we found out when we arrived at each place!

so Montepulciano...known for its red wine...amazing! we got there and my dad had helped me look for a little place to stay and we found the most amazing little place. We stayed at "Cittino" which is actually a restaurant, and the lady that owns it, Marcella, rents three rooms above the restaurant for just 40 Euro! Best deal in town! So she speaks no English--which I am getting used to!--but we arrived and she was so excited and showed us our room and treated us like we were her own children! when we came downstairs, she had prepared some dolci for us, which were like little pastries with powdered sugar..home made cooking! THen we walked around, roamed the streets--it is hard to explain how beautiful this place was. Views of the rolling hills of Tuscany, hardly anyone there. I wandered by myself a little after our lovely lunch of enormous pizzas and discovered lovely little cobblestone streets, steep hills, little restaurants...I think i went to the top of the town which was so beautiful. In fact, after dinner, Laura and I went to the main square--which has been compared with the Piazza Vecchia in Florence because of a large brick building with a large clock tower, an old government building--we were the only people in the square at 9:30! It was amazing and a little eerie...but such a cool experience! Oh also, after dinner, we were served limoncello which is a typical Italian after dinner drink--heaven! it was literally like liquid candy...so sweet and tart. I hadn't had limoncello before but i told my nonna that we had it and she told me that she makes it from scratch...so i am looking forward to that! Montelpulciano was a little dream of a town, with narrow, quaint streets, some seemingly straight uphill--Cortona was similar.

then early the next morning we were off to Cortona. We arrived at the train station with no way to get the the actual town center which we were used to! so we called a taxi and ended up with this adorable man who told us a lot about Cortona as we drove up there! he told us that cortona has 11 or 12 churches, but you can't go inside all of them...in fact none of them were open while we were there. in montepulciano, just one was open but it was in the middle of mass...but it was beautiful! Cortona has two main piazzas--republica and signorelli--but you would never know it when we were there because there was no one there! I LOVED being there with no tourists because i felt like a stumbled upon these little towns as they are, with people wandering the streets, getting out from church, and enjoying family time. the only shops that were open were on the "main drag" which is a tiny little street..but Laura and i went into an amazing little shop where this lady makes all the pasta by hand and packages them. and then we went into this other one that sold  limoncello, truffle oil, biscotti--basically everything is specially made and packaged and very local. I loved visiting the place where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed! that is such a great movie mostly because of the scenery and i just loved being there...we wandered the streets and finally found a place that was open! we had some of the best pizza i have had yet...and then we just wandered more. it was so beautiful because as Montepulciano was, i felt like i stumbled on a town as it was...with no tourists just people who lived there! it was soo beautiful. ad next weekend I am going to Ravenna and possibly Bologna and Pauda...we'll see!

update soon! ciao for now!!! :)