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! :)