June 11th

Buon giorno! The group woke up early on this day and met at the school before walking to the bus stop. The trip to San Gimignano took about an hour. On the way there we saw miles of beautiful Italian countryside, lined with vineyards and forests. It was nice to see some of the more rural parts of the country after living in a bustling city for the past week and a half. San Gimignano is perched on top of a hill and overlooks dozens of farms and small country homes. We had three hours to explore the castle town and do whatever we wanted. After some exciting purchases which included a sling shot, tiny pocket knife, a gnome, and a pair of brass knuckles, Leanne, Alizsha, Payton, and Keara propped up in a small alley way to sketch an interesting composition that the buildings created. After sketching, Keara proceeded to test out her sling shot with some chocolate candy on Payton. He has a nice bruise now.
Sketching took a little out of us so we wandered around the edges and found a path carved out of the woods. There were points where the trees parted and we could see for miles. Along the path there were parts of the wall that had fallen in and left tiny caves, which we took turns crawling into of course.
Kathryn and Carmen wondered around the town and went into some interesting shops. Kathryn bought a beautiful wallet for her bobo (boyfriend). They had a wonderful lunch of bruchette! yummmmm
Sienna came next on the trip and was equally beautiful. The group took a walking tour and saw some of the some of the nicer views of the city. A lot of the streets are at an incline, much like San Francisco. The climb made our legs very tired. Sienna has an interesting history and layout. On the tour we stopped at a church that was quite whimsical inside. It had huge columns with black and white stripes that led up to a blue ceiling dotted with gold stars. The floors were extremely intricate and covered in beautiful patterns and religious stories.
Exhausted, we walked back to the bus, which was parked by a part of the city that once had a castle built on it. The ride home rocked many of us to sleep.
That night we were too tired to go out, but did enjoy some pesto pasta leftovers with friends before drifting into a coma-like sleep.

JUNE 15TH!

Today we had a lovely free day and tried to sleep in, but a dog was barking in our courtyard. We woke up starving for eggs and hash browns, so we went to our favorite place in Florence, Cafe Deluxe! Carmen and I split an Italian style omlete! Soooo delicious! After breakfast, Carmen, Leanne, Alizsha, and I decided to buy some presents for our families and significant others. The gifts included wine, balsamic vinagrette with truffles, and olive oil! It was fun to walk the familiar streets of Florence and actually know where we were going for a change. Fate met us on the sidewalk when Kathryn's wine bottle decided to poke a whole through the plastic bag and shatter glass and wine all over the pavement. (Sorry mom, no wine for you! wink, wink!) Now us four ladies anticipate our evening of a four course meal served with wine at a newly opening restaraunt here in town. We are excited to dress dapper for a change and enjoy a night on the town in Florence. We were invited by some of the locals to a live music lounge called, Be Bop! ("Be Bop, what is this?!" as said by our Italian friend, Matteo.) 

Wednesday, June 9th

Word of advice: if you need a taxi for more than 4 people on a busy weekday morning in Florence, call ahead. Like an hour ahead. After leaving our apartment at 9, we finally made it to the Palazzo Pitti for a sketching assignment at 10-ish. We sketched in the Giardino Boboli for an hour and a half, including fountains, garden pathways and the exterior of the palace.

We enjoyed lunch in the cafe then went to the Galleria del Costume. We were amazed by all of the repeated styles throughout the centuries. The interior spaces of the Palazzo were an equally amazing backdrop to the evening gowns.

We ventured into the heat of the day south of the Arno and walked across the Ponte Vecchio. The shops that line the pedestrian bridge were full of gorgeous jewelry.

We walked along the Fiume Arno through an arched pathway and on our way to the Bargello encountered an outdoor market filled with leather goods. When the stall keeper demonstrated the true Italian leather purse's ability to resist fire by running his lighter across it, Terra was sold!

The Bargello is a sculpture museum housing several Michelangelo and Donatello masterpieces, as well as the bronze Ghiberti and Brunelleschi entry panels for the Baptistery Door Competition. Unfortunately we could take no photos of the most famous pieces. However the interior courtyard was a photo-taking zone and we took full advantage.

We stopped for gelato at our favorite place and began our journey to the school. Now we are here, talking to you! We are quickly finding out that there are not nearly enough hours in the day to see everything we want to see in Florence, but we are definitely taking advantage of the time we have here.

Ciao!

Asaki, Emily, Kaitlin, LeAnne & Terra

Tuesday, June 8th

Payton

Where to start? Well I'll start from the beginning. This morning began with the cooing of pidgins reverberating off the stone of our stone apartment. I rolled over, checked my phone and saw that it was 5am. After contemplating filing a noise complaint on said birds I decided to turn the other cheek and rolled over and went to bed. I woke back up around 9 then munched upon some salami and cheese for breakfast. I must say, the deli food is much better here than in the states. MUCH better. The salami is spicy and the cheese tastes like it came straight from the great cheese mountains.

After imaging a mountain made of cheese for a brief time I got dressed and cantered on over to the Santa Mariana Plaza which is roughly a 2 minute walk from our apartment. The group bought tickets for 3.50 then walked into a beautiful garden and upon our entry immediately walked out. Too much garden to handle, I suppose.

The 3.50 was not to be spent in vain however! Oh no my friends we made our way from there to a church that was a hop jump and a skip away. In we went and sketching commenced. We drew them books up all pretty like and after 2 sketches over the course of 45 minutes we were set free. I left by myself, let myself become yet another slave to facebook for half an hour, then ate a delicious chinese lunch by myself. After that I was kinda bored and had a food hangover so I headed back to the apartment to lie down. That was short lived however, because Zach told me he was going to go to the bank. I needed money and that sounded like a grand old time so I accompanied him.

I snagged a beer, because there are no public drinking laws in this country and we wandered around the Duomo for about 30 minutes until we discovered the bank in question we had passed by 5 times. Woops.

We got out some money then waited for some friends to meet us there. They met us there and good times commenced. We walked to their apartment, sat infront of a fan, and devised a plan for the day. We decided to visit the Uffizi and that we did. Well some of us. Tamara and Krysten walked off to do some scavenging but Leanne and Alizsha joined so off we went: Payton (Payton refers to himself in 3rd person occasionally), Zach, Taylor, Amy, and the 2 aforementioned. We walked to the Uffizi upon our feetsies then walked right in with those glorious museum passes we had been given. I felt like I was a V.I.P. until a security guard scolded me for not taking the camera out of my pocket.

We walked up 4 flights of stairs (to which I imagined the Rocky theme song playing) then began our visual tour of the Renaissance. There were lots of pictures of creepy babies and geese. Those were the two themes I noticed.. and Jesus. It was an interesting little visit but towards the end all the divinity began to blend into each other. On the way out we saw a Carbagio (sp?) exhibit that was pretty splendid. It was surprisingly brutal. I could have imagined several of the paintings as black metal album covers.

After that we found ourselves a nice little eatery and ate. It was delicious. After that we found some gillato and ate that. It was delicious as well. Now it is 9:04 and we must meet up in 12 hours. So that means that I am going to stop rambling and go hit the bars for a few hours and hopefully head back by midnight.

¡Buenos tardes amigos!
Payton


Zach

Today was an important day. Not a big day, but a mile stone. I finally reached the point where I let myself stopped to take a rest. I haven't stopped moving since I got here. Every time a new opportunity presents its self, I'm there. Which doesn't leave much time for foot, sitting, or sleep. But to date, I haven't felt that any part of any day has gone to waste.

We met at San Lorenzo at 10, which wasn't a problem, because my apartment is on the same block. The dome of the Medici Chapel glows in my kitchen window at night, and the vendors selling paintings back up to my street corner. We went inside to sketch the interiors. There was no photography, or bare shoulders allowed. So groups of American girls were wandering through this beautiful historic gem, paying homage to Donatello wearing something between a pancho and scrubs. I don't know how long we stayed, I scratched out 3 or 4 different drawings from a couple of perspectives. We all just kind of decided when we'd had enough and trickled out to do whatever we wanted the rest of the day. It was a lot different than sketching in a public square. No tourists taking our pictures like we were the statues we were surrounded by.



I met up with most of the girls from apartment 4. Apparently we forgot Tamara. I'm sorry Tamara. We paid an extra 2.50 euro to see Michelangelo's staircase. This is one of those things your professor goes on and on about in art history classes while you quietly doodle in the margins of your notebook wondering why of all the things Michelangelo did, a staircase means anything. But I have to admit. It was awesome. It's a small space, but the stairs are perfect. I touched a work that his hands made. It's too big, everything here has too much history, too much significance to fully comprehend the scale of what we've gotten ourselves into. But none of the students I've talked to are letting that slow them down.



We went deeper to see a collection of old hand painted manuscripts up the stairs, then may our way out again. I slipped off to take a nap, have a shower, and eat something. It was a cold shower, and I only had enough time for a few bites of cold pasta left over before I had to be on my way, but its Italy. And you can't be mad in Italy.

I met with Payton, and all the girls from apartment 4 at the Banco Tuscana by the Duomo. We're all starting to need cash. From there we were onto the Uffizi! I'd had the opportunity, with an hour of free time to run through it once already with Kaitlin. And only getting to spend an hour int he Uffizi is criminal. It just feels dirty jogging by sculptures, and paintings the entire world reveres. And Payton totally sang the rocky theme up the stairs. Today was much nicer, and we had the only Art History major in the class with us. She got to see her single favorite painting. Titian's Venus. It was so cool watching someone star struck by art.

Cravaggio's exhibit has been advertised all over the streets. An image of Medusa's decapitated head still screaming with his name slapped across it hangs on every surface things are hung. He didn't have much up though, but I'm glad we saw what we did. At 6:30 they closed and we left.

We stopped and got dinner at a pizzeria on a corner. Cafe Colonial? Or something. I couldn't see the sign and was blind with hunger and my feet felt like ground beef. Dinner was delicious. I highly recommend the place we can't recall the name of. My Italian's getting better. I'm understanding more, and people get more excited when I smile when I catch them saying things. It's 9:30, which means it's only just gotten dark. I've sent sent out pictures and read all my emails. And there's nothing left to do now but find a new place to get a beer I've never heard of.

The Fantastic Four JUNE 7th

After another night of raucous mixing with the locals...

We are actually the last ones to arrive at the Duomo; fashionably late of course.  Walking into the tallest building of Florence, we feel as though we are in an alternate universe.  The experience is completely surreal (as every experience has been up to this point), and the detail within each arch, each piece of marble, every fresco, and every sculpture will forever change our perspective towards the possibility of creating.  This is an experience that every person must witness for themselves, because no words could be as convincing, no sketching as intricate, and no photograph as deep.

Following the Duomo, we travel south to the Piazza della Signoria which houses the Uffizi gallery and the Palazzo Vecchio.  There we have an hour or so to sketch out the facades of the surrounding buildings and sculptures, just taking it all in.

After meeting with our class, free time begins, and for the first time since we arrived in Italy, we actually all go our separate ways. Here are each of our stories:

Amy and Tamra

After eating some delicious bruschetta we decided to explore a new side of town we had never seen for some inspiring sketchbook time.  The chosen location was a greener than ever park that had a green pond filled with ducks surrounded by many massive green trees.  Those trees were unbelievable, definitely not found in America.  We then visited our favorite Italian friend Adi who owns the only American food/drink cafe in town.  He generously shared some delectable wine from Venice.  The sun was still up so we went on a shopping walk around town with our remaining wine in plastic cups (definitely yet another experience not found in America).  Amy is running out of clothes to wear so she bought a very cute, affordable, AND comfortable pair of slouchy black pants.  Tamara finally found her one and only Canoli that tasted heavenly.  We finally arrived home to Taylor, Katelyn, and Zach.  Amy ended her night with one last outing  to join Katelyn and Zach at a pizzaria.  mm m

Katelyn (Blasiar)

I can honestly say I am one of the luckiest people I know. 

(1) I'm in Florence.

(2) I get paired (quadrupled???) with the coolest three girls I can imagine.

(3) I get to blog about the most amazing views of Florence (because I'm in Florence).

(4) Did I tell you my girls were cool?  Well, it just so happens that Zach is cool too; he meshed with our group from day one.  It also happens that on this day, he and I are just crazy enough, just sleep-deprived enough, to climb the most absurd, grueling stairs (and hills) you can imagine.

We had been talking about this for a couple of days, but none of us had had the time nor the patience to trek the 463 stairs to get to the top of the Duomo.  From this point, you can see every facet of Florence and all the beauty of Tuscany beyond.  I don't know what the convincing factor was for me to decide this was a fantastic idea.  I have no idea what provoked me to agree with such a feat-- but I will always be grateful for it.  The view was more than astounding; as mentioned before, there are no words, sketches, or photographs that even come close to describing what we see here. We can try, but nothing will ever do it justice.

With Zach's amazing camera, this is a small chunk of what we saw.

I imagine it had to be the adrenaline still pumping through our systems from that spectacular view, but Zach and I decided it would be a grand idea to travel across the city, over the Arno (River), and up a few hills to the Piazzale Michelangelo. Reason for doing this? Madness, maybe? You'd think one ridiculously beautiful view would be enough for the day, but why not...

It also turned out to be a decision that I will forever cherish. I honestly thought standing on top of the Duomo was the most captivating sight I had ever seen, but I was mistaken.  On the Piazza, you can overlook all of Florence, the Arno, and the Tuscan hills around you, but you can also see the Duomo and its sheer mass. It dwarfs the city around it, but fits perfectly.  As the sun began to get lower in the sky and light the view from a better angle, I thought about how small and insignificant I felt, and about how it was the only time in my life where I wanted so desperately to feel small and insignificant.

Another amazing picture by Zach Weihrich and his ridiculous camera.

Taylor

Unfortunately for me (and you, dear readers), I was sick today and after the Duomo visit my roomies described so well, I just went to lunch with them, had a wonderful caprese salad and then went back to the apartment to sleep the rest of the day. Luckily I have the best group ever and Amy and Tamra brought me back some pasta with veggies. It was delicious! After that, I read a little and went back to sleep again. I wish that our blog day wasn't on a day I felt so bad. I hope that the next time we're up I will have a much more interesting story to tell. I can say that walking around Florence and seeing works of art that I have only seen in text books, by artists I have been studying for years, I can feel the age of the city and it is just overwhelming. To be inside of a building, or looking at a piece of artwork that one of my favorite artists really created is just mind blowing. Today's sickness aside, I have had the most wonderful time and look forward to more exciting story telling in the future. 

Ciao! 

-Amy, Katelyn, Taylor and Tamra

June 5, 2010

We have been doing our best to immerse ourselves into the culture, and being art majors, we are drawn to other artists. We have met a community of local artists and musicians and have been doing our best to exchange talents, although there is a bit of a language barrier. This photo was taken at an exhibition of local well known artists that we were invited by.

Italy is known for its fine cuisine and we have definitely been indulging ourselves. This photo was taken at our Welcome Dinner which we enjoyed very much.

Megan enjoying some of the real italian pizza.

Our first breakfast here, enjoying Italy's famous espresso.

One of the many breathtaking views from our apartment windows.

Yes, we have counted...there are 10 sets of stairs totaling 70 steps each way. Are legs are going to look amazing by the time we get back!

Yes, we have counted...there are 10 sets of stairs totaling 70 steps one way. Our legs are going to look amazing by the end of our trip!

We are taking on Italy by storm, and doing anything and everything to absorb the culture. We are practicing our Italian, learning how they do things and doing our best to fit in. The art, architecture, and fashion are amazing, and we are so blessed to be anywhere near all of this. We are having a blast and want to stay here forever!

"Open my heart and you will see, graved inside of it, "Italy."" -Robert Browning

Caio,

Ann, Ange, and Megan

Keara shop, shop, shopped till she dropped!! H&M, Zara and the market places are enough to made any avid shopoholic giddy. Oh yes, and I now have a more positive outlook on perspective drawing thanks to a little lesson a la Bruce in the Piazza this morning :) Words cannot describe this experience. Everytime I pass a man on the street, I spy with my little eye, facial features that eerily resemble my relatives. Now I believe that my family is Italian. I learn a new phrase everyday and I only wish my grandma were still alive so I could truly appreciate this beautiful language she was fluent in. Now hanging out at a corner cafe with Carmen and Kathryn. The nightlife is not quite as exciting as Houston, Texas' but I could get used to this laid back lifestyle.

Ttys!

Keara

Sunday, June 6th

Carmen and Kathryn got up early when her sister arrived and woke up our entire apartment near 9 am. We had the most incredible cappuccino at the coffee bar near our apartment. We went to the sketching spot from the previous day to finish our drawings. Leanne and Alizsha woke up and did the same at their assigned destination of sketching. We re-adjourned after shopping in the leather markets at the school at two. Carmen haggled over a luggage piece, with a man for thirty minutes then never made a purchase.
The tour left us full of new knowledge and thirsting for water. It was a 2 hour tour, a 2 hour tour. (Gilligans Island anyone?)
The tour guide was nice, patient and her accent was brilliant! We left the steps of the Piazza S. Croce with energy to shop some more. Leanne and Alizsha ventured off with their friend Payton to see the river and have lunch. Leanne had some delicious lasagna and Alizsha had gnocchi al funghi, both of which were decadent. After a very filling meal the three students wandered around the city some more and saw apartments that seemed to float above the river. On the way back home Alizsha bought a hilarious pair of genie pants that all of her friends proceeded to try on at the apartment. It was a great day.
Carmen had Nutella gelatto for dinner and 2 bottles of water "a none gas". Around 9 we all met up again to share wine at the "snack bar" where Carmen and Kathryn had coffee that morning.
We watched the people passing, waved to our Russian friends from earlier in the week, and talked of significant others, and pets from back home. Fizzy from wine and gossip, we all went home and slept like babies.