For the past two days, I have been in Florence. I particularly liked this city, the scale of the city was much larger than Venice, but they views were spectacular. Beautiful, multo bene! We had a day and a half in this city, we walked a lot but I took a small break yesterday evening. Instead of hiking to see a sunset from a similar view I had already seen, I did homework in the hotel room just to steal a chance to rest, get a little Michelle time, and get more of my essay assignments done so I can so throw the book away and stop carrying it.... 5 more to.
Kababs galore, they are quite delicious and I have officially eaten 5 in 3 weeks, each city holds a different version of this delicious food and I am looking forward to meeting every one of them. We have come to realize that Americans like Florence. A lot of that we saw on the street were obviously Americans and stood out just as much as we do in their ugg boots and north face jackets and unintelligent talk. I certainly hope we don't come off like that, but I'm sure 42 people walking around with matching backpacks, cameras and looking around with inquisitive eyes tend to draw some attention. People tend to stop and stare... a lot. We are quite a sight to see.
We left early the next morning (today) and headed towards Rome but stopped in a few cities on the way. The lucky cities are San Gimignano and Siena. We only stopped to sketch at the first and I took out the charcoals because I was feeling lazy and got a couple sketches that are quite striking if I do say so myself... We stayed in Siena for a few hours and spent the afternoon in a very famous plaza called Piazza de Campo where historic horse races still take place. The plaza is similar to a shape of an orange slice, half circle, what have you. It slopes down towards the middle of the orange slice with a drain. Luckily its a Saturday and a beautiful day at that, so we got to see a lot of activity with old ladies and babies and small children chasing after the pigeons that were incredibly demanding and got waaaay to close for my comfort. Someone sitting next to me hit one with his sketchbook.
Then we all hopped back on our coach and road the rest of the day to Rome where I am currently sitting at this moment! We had an amazing dinner, compliments of Ryan Young's parents (fellow traveler who's parents have joined us for Italy and Greece) spicy pasta may be my new favorite thing, and I had vegetables...I don't get my hands on those much lately. I am very excited for what the next 3 days have in store for me. Tomorrow we are going to the ruins and then have the day on our own so there will be a nice update in store, especially since we have free wi-fi but the internet is a little weak so that is why there are no pictures in this post. Even though there are perfect pictures to portray what I am talking about, you all will have to wait until a later date when all of my classmates are not clogging up the internet and I can get some decent service. So hopefully there will be some imagery to go along with all of your imaginations, I'm doing my best. Until tomorrow or the next day, or the next... Ciao!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
We're in Italia, yeah? Venice and half of Florence
Milan was uneventful and somewhat boring. There was one particularly good shopping center and a square, but the rest of the city was sad. Move on to Venice!
Ginger requests that I talk about how much I miss her. Ginger, I miss you. haha. We are in Florence, Italy and just left Venice. I loved Venice. The city seems so small even though the actual size of it is substantial. Coming directly out of the train station, I was faced right at the canal with gondolas and other boats floating along, people EVERYWHERE, shops open on the street, and amazing food. It had been so long, at least it felt that way, since I had more than a sandwich for lunch and dinner. Finally getting to Italia and being able to eat some sweet pasta and of course, bread. We managed to find an amazing Italian (or just a regular?) restaurant that had a tourist special. Two amazing courses with a salad and wine...mmmmmmmm. Spaghetti it is! Soo goooood. For the past few days...maybe a week, every time I eat, I have been feeling nauseous. I'm definitely not full, but the thought of food makes me feel sick. So I guess I have not been eating much and walking a lot, so I sometimes feel faint before it is time to eat again. Mom, don't be concerned, I am fine. The worst of it seems to have passed. But the breakfast portion of food has decreased since all we get is mostly bread... and as soon as we get out of the west, I think I have to say goodbye to fruit.
Anyway, back to Venice. I got to see a lot of Venice since my group of fellow travelers managed to get lost and turned around dozens of times, going around in circles, trying to find our way by familiar candy and pastry shops that we had stopped in. The architecture here is amazing to me. I love the rustic look of all of the buildings, you can feel the history even if you don't care much about it, like me. You can just tell these buildings have looked just like this for centuries, the concrete on the surface has been blasted away and exposed the brick. The buildings are dirty but it just adds to the feel of the city. I loved it there. We crossed over so many bridges over small canals, I lost count. The city is completely unique to any other city in the world, there are none like it and bad weather couldn't even deter my amazement.
We were in Venice for an evening and a whole day and left this morning to head to Florence by train. I have already finished my first book a few days ago, so I traded with another girl...her book is about WWII and is super depressing but really good. We did a small tour of Florence with our guide after settling into our hotel and corraled as a group again. And guess what we looked at... squares and architecture. But Les is trying to get the entire group to see some incredible gardens because the landscape architecture students are tending to be short changed quite often. Can't wait to hear the groans! I had a conversation with a 4th year architecture student that consisted of his view of landscape architecture...none. Landscape architecture takes away from buildings, he prefers a blank plaza in front of his masterpieces. I responded with respect to his opinion, but inside I was in shock.
So our mission today was to see the Statue of David....and we conquered! The statue is so amazing. He's 17 feet tall and the detail that Michelangelo put into the statue, the veins in his hands and neck. I cannot believe that he had the ability to mold marble into this awe inspiring statue that stands the test of time. It is illegal to take a picture of the statue but one of my new friends may have snuck a pic of David... he he, I was promised a copy.
While in Venice, we stumbled upon 1,50 euro for a CARTON of wine. Below is a picture of me drinking my "juice box for adults" in Florence today...yes the next day, for lunch. Walking around a city looking at buildings is a little more interesting when you are a little fuzzy around the edges, just a little, I promise. haha.
The David in my picture here is a replica that sits outside of a city building in a square, the original is in a museum.
Kababs for dinner, mmmmmmmm. And now we are all loading the wireless server in our hotel, clinging to our homes via internet, so no pictures load and the service is slow...but what can you do... roll with the punches.
Ginger requests that I talk about how much I miss her. Ginger, I miss you. haha. We are in Florence, Italy and just left Venice. I loved Venice. The city seems so small even though the actual size of it is substantial. Coming directly out of the train station, I was faced right at the canal with gondolas and other boats floating along, people EVERYWHERE, shops open on the street, and amazing food. It had been so long, at least it felt that way, since I had more than a sandwich for lunch and dinner. Finally getting to Italia and being able to eat some sweet pasta and of course, bread. We managed to find an amazing Italian (or just a regular?) restaurant that had a tourist special. Two amazing courses with a salad and wine...mmmmmmmm. Spaghetti it is! Soo goooood. For the past few days...maybe a week, every time I eat, I have been feeling nauseous. I'm definitely not full, but the thought of food makes me feel sick. So I guess I have not been eating much and walking a lot, so I sometimes feel faint before it is time to eat again. Mom, don't be concerned, I am fine. The worst of it seems to have passed. But the breakfast portion of food has decreased since all we get is mostly bread... and as soon as we get out of the west, I think I have to say goodbye to fruit.
Anyway, back to Venice. I got to see a lot of Venice since my group of fellow travelers managed to get lost and turned around dozens of times, going around in circles, trying to find our way by familiar candy and pastry shops that we had stopped in. The architecture here is amazing to me. I love the rustic look of all of the buildings, you can feel the history even if you don't care much about it, like me. You can just tell these buildings have looked just like this for centuries, the concrete on the surface has been blasted away and exposed the brick. The buildings are dirty but it just adds to the feel of the city. I loved it there. We crossed over so many bridges over small canals, I lost count. The city is completely unique to any other city in the world, there are none like it and bad weather couldn't even deter my amazement.
We were in Venice for an evening and a whole day and left this morning to head to Florence by train. I have already finished my first book a few days ago, so I traded with another girl...her book is about WWII and is super depressing but really good. We did a small tour of Florence with our guide after settling into our hotel and corraled as a group again. And guess what we looked at... squares and architecture. But Les is trying to get the entire group to see some incredible gardens because the landscape architecture students are tending to be short changed quite often. Can't wait to hear the groans! I had a conversation with a 4th year architecture student that consisted of his view of landscape architecture...none. Landscape architecture takes away from buildings, he prefers a blank plaza in front of his masterpieces. I responded with respect to his opinion, but inside I was in shock.
So our mission today was to see the Statue of David....and we conquered! The statue is so amazing. He's 17 feet tall and the detail that Michelangelo put into the statue, the veins in his hands and neck. I cannot believe that he had the ability to mold marble into this awe inspiring statue that stands the test of time. It is illegal to take a picture of the statue but one of my new friends may have snuck a pic of David... he he, I was promised a copy.
While in Venice, we stumbled upon 1,50 euro for a CARTON of wine. Below is a picture of me drinking my "juice box for adults" in Florence today...yes the next day, for lunch. Walking around a city looking at buildings is a little more interesting when you are a little fuzzy around the edges, just a little, I promise. haha.
The David in my picture here is a replica that sits outside of a city building in a square, the original is in a museum.
Kababs for dinner, mmmmmmmm. And now we are all loading the wireless server in our hotel, clinging to our homes via internet, so no pictures load and the service is slow...but what can you do... roll with the punches.
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