Capri- The Most Beautiful Island... Ever.

April 1-3, 2011

From the beginning of our trip we wanted to go to Capri. I distinctly recall a moment in our living room, with the map of Italy laid out on the floor, a bottle of wine, and us sprawled on the floor, Molly proclaimed, "Capri! I want to go to Capri!" She found it on the map and pointed at it, "It's here! And we're here! Let's go!" So Molly got her wish and I'm forever thankful for that evening when Molly decided it was Capri or bust.

Capri is an island off the southern coast of Italy. We took a train to Naples and from there took a ferry to Capri. Now, Naples is a very dirty city and super sketchy. We had no idea how to navigate the city, so we had to grab a cab. He took us to the port, Molo Beverello and told us where to get our tickets for the ferry. We went to get our tickets and they claimed that we had to walk to the other side of the port and get our tickets there. Confused, we made our way to the other side of the port, where we had no idea where to get tickets, and they sent us back to where we started. After much confusion, we finally figured it out and got our tickets. We had to wait for a little bit but we were on our way to Capri!

When we got there, we grabbed a latte then jumped on a bus to Anacapri where our hotel, Hotel Bussola di Hermes, was located. After a death defying bus ride, we asked directions and walked the rest of our way to the hotel through the narrow roads of Capri. When we arrived at the hotel we immediately felt at home. The women at the front desk was extremely nice and helpful. She upgraded our room to a room with a gorgeous view and basically gave us an itinerary, which would prove helpful. She told us about two different hikes we had to do and a chair lift. So we settled into our room and then went out to explore. Now when I say we "hiked" in Capri, what I actually mean is we took the hike of death. The trails in Capri our basically just hills and stairs and stairs and more stairs. Now, don't get me wrong, I would never change a thing about this trip, but I do remember thinking a few times that I might die. The first night we took a hike on the Anacapri side near the Villa San Michele. It was so beautiful and I immediately fell in love with it.

Capri is the most amazing place not just because it is beautiful and magical but because the people there are so nice. If you pass someone in the street they will say "Buona sera!" or "Buon giorno!" No where else in Italy will you find that. The pace here is completely different then anywhere else. It's slow and relaxed. No one is trying to get anywhere fast and they just love living life here.

The next day was one of the best days of my life. After breakfast we took a chairlift up to the highest point of the island. This was amazing. Not only were there gorgeous views on the way up, but when we got up there it was just completely breathtaking. If I could have my way, this is where I would want to get married. It's just absolutely gorgeous and serene. After spending at least an hour up there, we made our way back down, grabbed some pizza and started on our next adventure.

Time for some serious hiking through some seriously gorgeous surroundings. This hike was on the Capri side of the island and we got to see the Arc di Naturale, some cool caves, and the gorgeous waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We didn't get to go swimming but we did get to lay out in the sun by the sea. This hike took much longer than expected and was much more physically demanding than expected. But I would never change it, it was the experience of a lifetime. But I was so happy to see flat land again.

We were leaving the next day and we still hadn't seen the Grotto Azzuro! AKA, the Blue Grotto. We had heard that this was a must do in Capri and we couldn't leave the island without seeing it. The morning that we left we made time to go see the Grotto Azzuro. And let me tell you, I'm so happy that we did. It is the most amazing natural wonder I have ever seen. You pay these Italian men a ridiculous amount of money to take you on a row boat into the cave. You go through a way to small opening and into the grotto. They serenade you as you are just staring in wonder at the ridiculous blue water. I mean BLUE water. Beautiful blue water. Then when they take you back out, you're like wait... let's do that again! But alas, you must leave the beautiful grotto behind.

We made our way back to the Marina Grande, had some calamari, and dipped our feet into the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean. Then we were back on way to reality, where nothing is as beautiful as the island of Capri.

Pausa di Primavera

AKA Spring Break! Our Italian teacher had a hard time grasping the idea of a Spring Break, so she called it "Pausa di Primavera."

Now... Spring Break in Europe... where to go where to go.... Everywhere!

March 18-27, 2011

I started my adventure off with Michelle in Bologna. I had an extra day before I left and she wanted someone to spend the day in Bologna with because that is where she was flying out of. Now, Bologna is a very interesting city to say the least. It's supposed to be this center of food and culture of Italy... but that is not exactly what I found. Maybe we just didn't know where to go, maybe we stayed in the city center too much. I have no idea! But obviously, Bologna did not like me and Michelle very much. When I first got there, I really did like it, because it has an amazing street market. Very hippie-ish and earthy, and they had some amazing buys! I got one of my favorite rings there and some super cool scarves. One of the first things I noticed about Bologna is it is much more modern than Florence, in architecture and in people's styles. We say a few gothic girls dressed head to toe in black, you would not see that in Florence. But then we found the "nipple fountain" (yes, it had four ladies that had water coming from their nipples....) and the very interesting church, which outside of we were approached by a lady going off in Italian. Well, Bologna, maybe I will have to come back to your very interesting streets, and see if we have a better go-around.

My next adventure was Rome pt. II. My brother was flying in to the Rome Fiumcino Airport from London and I had to meet him. I took a four hour train ride to Rome (cheaper), checked into the hostel and took a train to the airport. Once I had "collected" him, we were off on our adventure. You know how they say Rome wasn't built in a day? Well, Rome wasn't built to be SEEN in one day, let alone a few hours. We definitely didn't see everything but we hit some of the main points like the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and the Colosseum, and a few other cool architectural finds. The highlight of the night was the delicious gelato we found. The only gelato Ben was able to have in Europe, and the best! After galavanting through Rome for a few hours, we went back to the hostel to have our free check-in drink and to check a few winks before our flight to Athens.

Athens, Greece

After a heck of a time at the Rome airport trying to get security and our gate getting changed, we were on our way to Greece! Now, Athens is not what we expected. It's a little bit too dirty and city-ish for my liking. But the ruins are cool, and having a view of the Acropolis from our hostel room was totally cool. And the food is amazing! Greek food has to be my favorite food of all time. On our second day in Greece, we took a cruise to three of the Grecian islands, Hydra (or Ydra), Poros, and Aegina. I loved these Islands. I especially loved Hydra because there were no cars and people either walked or rode on donkeys. The colors of the houses on these islands are beautiful! This is where I want to retire! Unfortunately, when we went it was very cold and windy, so not the Grecian island tour I was expecting, but still worth it.

The next day we went to the Ruins at Delphi. Just getting there was an experience in and of itself. We had to figure out the bus schedule and directions, etc. Definitely a learning experience. But boy, was it worth it once we got there. It was absolutely beautiful up in those mountains. It was such a surreal experience being where the supposed Oracle was. It was an amazing experience and totally worth it.

Other than the amazing food we had, that was the highlights of our Athens trip... onto Paris!

Paris, France

Paris, je t'aime!!! For real, Paris was one of the most amazing places. It's absolutely gorgeous! Getting into Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport and finding our hotel was, of course, an experience but we made it through. After showering and a quick nap, we went out to explore. We met up with Michelle and hit some highlights. The Eiffel Tower had some sort of perimeter set up around it by the French police. We weren't sure if it was a terrorist threat or something, but we weren't able to get close, not yet. Then we went and saw the Arc de Triomphe, which was so COOL to see up close and personal! And all the traffic around it was pretty crazy because it's just a big round-about. Then we went to the Louvre of course! This was one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip. The Louvre is just so darn cool. The building itself has so much architectural character that it just adds to the sheer amazingness of all the art it holds. Our first stop was the Mona Lisa. It is ridiculous how much security surrounds this extremely small painting. But it was definitely awe-inspiring to actually see in person, minus the annoying mob of people crowded around it. Then we made our way through a ridiculous amount of corridors and massive amounts of art. We only had a few hours here, so we didn't get to see as much as we wanted. We then had a delicious dinner, onion soup and salad with goat cheese (yum!), then went back to our hotel to get some sleep for the day ahead. The second day was full of walking around and delicious food. We hit some other sights, the Sacre Coeur (amazing view of Paris from up there), the Moulin Rouge (took us forever to find), and then some amazing street art. We got coffee and a pastry and later crepes (four cheese crepe.... yum!). Later we met up with some friends at the Eiffel Tower, Michelle, Molly, Felicia, Robert, and Nick. We had dinner (escargot and steak tartare!) and had some crazy experience traipsing about Paris. In the morning, we had to say good-bye to dear Paris. We were taking the train to London and I thought it was going to be a breeze, but I didn't anticipate two passport checks and a huge line for security. We were standing there coming up with a Plan B if we missed the train. But we didn't and we were on our way through the French countryside to London.

London, England

Merry ol' London! Can I live here please? I loved London so much. I wish we had more time here. It's such a cool city, but huge! After another nap and another shower, we were on our way. We found an authentic pub and had some fish and chips and brew. I really liked this pub a lot, I wanted to stay here for longer and just listen to all the people around me drinking beer and talking in their adorable accents. Later in the evening we went and did some exploring. Buckingham Palace. Westminster Abbey. Parliament and Big Ben. Eye of London (just saw it, didn't get to go on it). The next day was our big day for exploring. After a quick breakfast we were on our way. Our first stop was the London Tower and Tower bridge. How many times can I say the word cool? Because this was honestly cool! I loved walking over the bridge. Then we saw Shakespeare's Globe Theater (again cool!), the Tate Modern, and walked across the Millennium Bridge where we saw St. Paul's Cathedral. Then we went to King's Cross Station where we saw the Platform 9 and three quarters. So when I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 I said to myself, "I've been there!!!" Then we took a stroll through Hyde Park, where there were some crazy protests going on, but they were winding down when we got there. My only priority here was to see the Peter Pan statue, which I had always wanted to see since I was a little girl. So let me tell you, Hyde Park is gargantuan! It was dark by the time we go the statue, but I was so excited I just wanted to stare at it. But we got back on our way, had to navigate our way through the London Tube and all the stations that were shut down, but we made it back to the side of town where our hostel was and had another round of fish and chips because in the morning we had to say farewell to London.

The next morning my brother and I parted ways at Heathrow Airport. He was on his way back to the States and I was on my way back to Italy.

This was the Spring Break of a lifetime. Neither of us will ever forget this amazing adventure of gallivanting through Europe. Ben and I might not have gotten along at every moment of the trip, (I distinctly remember wanting to punch him), but those aren't the times I think of when I think of our trip. I think of all the amazing experiences we had and all the things we saw. I am still amazed to this day at how smoothly our trip went. We didn't miss one flight, we never got severely lost, and we didn't kill each other. SUCCESS!!!!

Venezia

March 11-13, 2011

Oh... Venice. I'm pretty sure I left my heart here. This is the most beautiful, awe-inspiring city in the world. And probably my favorite city in the world. As soon as we left the train station and stepped out in the cloudy Venetian air, I felt like I had come home. This city absolutely spoke to me and my heart.

We went to Venice as a group. It wasn't just me and Molly and Michelle. We had a huge group of girls, including our teachers, Lynn and Jennifer (and their husbands, the only boys), our guide, Daniella, and about 15 of us students (yes all girls). I wouldn't have wanted my first time in Venice to be any other way. Along with it's beauty comes confusion, logistically speaking. The streets can be very confusing because there are so many turns and alleys and narrow streets. There is not one car in Venice, and it's all walking streets or you can take water buses. When we arrived in Venice there was a water bus strike going on, so we had to walk. Thank heavens we had Daniella (a native Italian), or we would have been completely lost. Even though it was a very long walk, I am glad that we got to see some more of the city. We finally arrived at our hotel (Serinissima Hotel), which was absolutely adorable and Italian in every way, very small and quaint. They even had an adorable dog there named "Sleepy." He was so cute, and I think he was a golden retriever.

After settling in, we took a tour of the "Palazzo Ducalo", or the "Doge's Palace." The Doge of Venice was historically the ruler of Venice. This is the place where all the political stuff of Venice went down. This is one of the coolest buildings ever. So much history and art is housed in this palace. After the Doge's Palace we toured St. Mark's Basilica. This is an extremely ornate and beautiful church, but it is not the kind of style that I prefer. It's very gaudy and felt very stuffy. There were lots of golds and blacks. Gorgeous, yes, but not where I would want to go to church.

On our free time, we took a ton of pictures (of course) to capture the beauty of Venice. We also found this delicious pastry shop where we got caffe lattes (my favorite) and scrumptious cakes. I got a strawberry shortcake-ish type of cake. It was absolutely delicious. For dinner, we dined right by the "Ponte di Rialto." I had some of the most delicious pizza I have ever had here, accompanied by a glass of yummy Italian Prosecco. And of course we did some more exploring.

The next day, after a delicious complimentary breakfast, we went on a walking tour of Venice. We saw so many beautiful things and places I would probably have never seen on my own. We went inside a church that I cannot recall the name of, but it was one of my favorite churches in Italy. The reason I liked it so much is because it was so open and airy. It was not stuffy at all. It may not have been as ornate as St. Mark's but it was still beautiful. It had some very unique sculptures and artwork.

After our walking tour I had my first officially Kebab. Now, it's probably not what you think. A kebab is a delicious Middle Eastern wrap, filled with pork, vegetables, and sauce. It is delicious. I had many more of these after this first encounter.

Then as a group we visited the island of Murano. This is the glass blowing island. We were able to see glass blowing performed. It is an amazing art, and the glass is beautiful. I probably spent way too much money here, but it was worth. Then we went onto the island of Burano. There is not much to do here, but it is absolutely beautiful. The houses are all different bright colors, and it is just such a cute Italian island.

Back on Venice, we had another fun night of exploring and adventure. We had a craving for "American" food so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Then we went to an Irish pub and I had my first full Guinness. Not my beer of choice, but I had to at least have one... Come on, I was at an Irish Pub!

The next morning, with the rest of our free time we took a way to expensive gondola ride. It's 80 euro during the day! And 100 euro at night! Extremely overpriced, but worth every penny. You get to see so many cool things that you would probably never see on foot. Our gondolier's name was Simone, and he was, as the Italians say, "Che bello!" A very worthwhile experience. My next tourist experience was the feeding of the pigeons in St. Mark's Square. Those pigeons are crazy and they are not afraid to fly at you and land on you. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

And this brings me to the end of my first Venice adventure. I fell in love with it immediately and never stopped loving it. Every moment in Venice, I cherished and will remember for the rest of my life. I will definitely be going back as soon as possible.

Roma

Wow... Time has really gotten away from me. I only have 24 more days left in Firenze! I cannot believe it. I also cannot believe how much I have not written about. An entire month! But now is my catch up time. 

Roma. March 4-6, 2011. 

Awww, Rome, what a city. This was our first overnight trip outside Florence, and my first experience staying in a hostel. Rome is a completely different pace than Florence. It's much bigger and more spread out. It's more "city." There is so much to see and do here. We had to bide our time and hit all the main spots. After grabbing some lunch, the first stop was the Colosseum, of course. It's so surreal to finally see one of the most famous spots of Rome. It's so huge! I know that is like a "duh!" comment, but it's true! We also saw the Roman Forum, which is right next to the Colosseum. The next thing we came across was this huge white building that has some amazing statues in front of it and on top of it. I don't know the name of the building, but it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, it was built in 1900 so it's not from ancient times, or even the renaissance but it's still breath taking. We took an elevator to the top and got the most amazing view of Rome. It was a definite highlight of our trip. Then next was the Trevi Fountain. It is so beautiful at night! If you can get over the crowds of tourists. But other than that minor detail it is beautifully lit and such a romantic spot. After this, we had the most disgusting Italian food ever. Do not eat around the area of anything super touristy. It's all bad. We then called it a night to prepare for our long day ahead. 

Our second started off with a quick breakfast consisting of a cappuccino and a croissant. Then we headed to the Trevi Fountain to get some pictures minus the tourists. Check my Facebook for those. Then we walked through the Roman Forum, which is amazing I might add. Then we made our way to the Colosseum. However, the line was ridiculously long so we paid to join a tour group, which we ditched when we got in there. Unfortunately, it was a little miserable because it was pouring down rain, but still cool. It was cool to actually stand inside the Colosseum. Then we did some more walking around saw the Pantheon and grabbed lunch at an Irish pub (yummy), then we headed to the Spanish Steps, and then back to the hostel for a quick nap. After "rebooting" we headed back out to the Vatican, which is super cool to see at night. St. Peter's is an amazing site to see. After spending a little bit of time here, we got some much needed Mexican food and margaritas and headed back to the hostel. 

At the hostel we made friends with our two roommates and went out for a few drinks. It was a lot of fun. Meeting different people from different cultures and backgrounds is so interesting.

So all in all, an amazing trip. 

Beautiful Lucca, and Some Everyday Stuff.

Lucca, February 26, 2011. 

Michelle, Molly, and I again jumped on a train and headed out to Lucca on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Sooooooooo gorgeous here! I loved it so much! The most famous thing about this city is that the original city wall is still intact. So we were able to walk around the whole city along the wall.  There's not too terribly much to do here, but it's completely gorgeous and I would love to go back. The main thing we saw people doing was kissing. There were couples everywhere! PDA is so common in Italy, so it was not unusual to see two people sucking face on a bench. I swear I saw at least a hundred couples. Since none of us had a handsome man to love on, we had to entertain ourselves in other ways. After grabbing a delicious lunch of ravioli and tiramisu for dessert (yum!), we set  off exploring the city. Because of it's beauty, it's a perfect place to take pictures, and we took about 200 of them! It was a lot of fun. While searching for a bathroom we came upon a Plaza with a carousel, tons of people milling about, and a few boys playing soccer. After finding the water closet (Toilette), we came back to the plaza and snapped some pictures. In doing so, we found ourselves in the line of fire of children spraying each other with canned foam (similar to silly string, but foam not string...). This is typical during Carnevale. We escaped with our lives, and didn't even get hit with foam! Then we went back to the wall and took a few more photos, Molly tried (unsuccessfully) to climb a tree, we saw a man doing Tai Chi, and we saw more couples making out. All in all... A good day!

Everyday Florence

The other day I was scolded by my boyfriend, well more like lovingly reminded, that I should write in my blog more often. So this is my attempt to write as often as possible. I'm going to try and post once a day or at least once every other day. This is going to be quite a task because not only do I have homework, I'm also keeping a journal for my Italian culture class. I'm also trying to do as much as possible here! So, it's all about time management. 

I've decided that my three main goals here are to find the best gelato, the best tiramisu, and the best cappuccino. So far, my favorite gelato is from Gelateria dei Neri. It is only a five minute walk from our apartment and is absolutely delicious. My favorite flavors are chocolate, hazelnut, and caramel. I'm sure I will be trying more :) Other gelato places we have tried include Vivoli (super famous, and super close to our apartment, but really just ok not great), Festival del Gelato (a PLETHORA of flavors, I was so overwhelmed! The decor is my favorite so far, super colorful and bright, reminds me of the rainbow track course on Mario Kart...), and an unnamed gelateria near the Duomo (first gelato I tried in Florence, I got a delicious scoop of chocolate, just ok, nothing special). Places to try: Carabe, Grom, Perche No?, and any others we find! 

As for the best tiramisu, I haven't tried any in Florence but I had some in Siena and in Lucca... both delicious couldn't decide which was better.

Best cappuccino? My favorite so far is a simple little cafe right by our apartment called Caffe Mario. But some places I have heard are good include Caffe Giacosa (in the fashion district), Il Bigallo, La Loggia (both on Via del Corso), Gilli, and Donnini (both in the Plaza della Republica). 

So I'll keep everyone updated on my search! And will hopefully have a long lists of all "the bests" in Florence.  

As for food and wine... Right now we're trying to keep it as cheap as possible. We've only eaten out a few times, we mainly make food of our own. We're going to try to make our own pasta sauce and go out of comfort zone with a few other things too. And when it comes to wine, we go for cheap. None of us are big "wine-os" but we like to immerse ourselves in the culture and do like the Italians do. We did find a store called "Il Buffalo Trippone" which had a lot of good wine. But we got distracted by the delicious honey, jams, biscotti, and pasta that they had. Seriously the best honey I have ever tasted in my life. But we will have to go back and get some nice wine and olive oil. 

Siena, Viareggio, Pisa.

Siena, February 18, 2011.

I absolutely loved this city! It is super small and quaint but filled with so much history. This was a group trip with about 35 students, so we got to take a private bus and we had a tour guide. Let me just say, this is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. It's such typical Tuscan beauty, it's more of the countryside than Florence is. So we started off at a Basilica of San Domenico. At this church, St. Catherine, the patron saint of Italy, is honored. Her actual skull and right thumb are on display here. Super eerie and kind of strange but interesting nonetheless. St. Catherine is pretty popular in Siena because she lived there, we even got to see the outside of her house. Next, we got to walk through a bit of the city, and it was a beautiful day so it made Siena look even more amazing. We took a tour of their Duomo or Cathedral. It is absolutely beautiful on the inside and out. The sculptures and carvings on the outside are so intricate. The inside was so amazing to look at and had a lot of Byzantine influence so it had black (actually dark green) and white stripes. It was huge on the inside and works of art everywhere. Next we went to a museum with some more works of art, and then we got to climb up to the top of this building and we had an amazing view of Siena. It was so surreal because it was one of the most beautiful views ever. Climbing up was a little nerve wracking because of the narrow spiral stair cases but it was so worth it. After we were done with our tour, we went and had a delicious lunch of pizza and fried artichokes, and had our first Italian tiramisu. Delicious! 

Carnevale di Viareggio, February 19, 2011.

Viareggio is a small coastal town about 60 miles west of Florence and it is known for it's Carnevale celebration. It's not as packed as Venice is during Carnevale because not as many tourists go there, it's more locals. My roommates, Michelle and Molly, and I took a train there and it was about an hour and a half train ride. Then we walked from the train station to the main area of celebration, which was right along the coast. So we started our adventure off by going to the beach, which was a lot of fun. It was so beautiful and sunny. We then walked around for a little bit and got some lunch, which was delicious. I had the most amazing bruschetta ever, some delicious salmon, and grilled vegetables. Then we walked around some more and grabbed some gelato. By this time, more and more people were showing up for the festivities. After having a delicious crepe filled with nutella and a disgusting alcoholic coffee drink (definitely not for me), we decided to find a place to watch the firework show we had been hearing about. So, after dodging children spraying each other with foam and being pushed around in a huge crowd, the fireworks finally started. Best. Firework. Show. Ever. I can't even describe this moment. The fireworks were so amazing and were set to music. And we were wearing our Carnevale masks and watching the fireworks over the ocean and it was such an awe inspiring moment. I felt like I was in a movie or something, it didn't even feel real. By the end of the show, the three of us had tears in our eyes. We were all too embarrassed to start crying but we all admitted that we wanted to. After the show, we made our way to the train station. Extremely slowly at first, it was so packed that we could barely move we made a train and just pushed our way through. When we arrived back home, we had a surprise waiting for us. Our other roommate decided to have three boys over. I know these boys and they are all very nice but I wasn't really in the mood to socialize after a long day. Oh the joys of roommates... So we socialized for a little and went to bed. It's always interesting when you live with three other girls...

Pisa, February 21, 2001. 

After a lazy Sunday, we decided to have another adventure on our day off from school. So, we decided to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Michelle, Molly, and me hopped on another train and headed off for the touristy city of Pisa. We grabbed some lunch, which consisted of the most delicious veggie calzone thing and overpriced peach tea, which is super sweet and tastes like those peach rings. Then we headed off to find the tower. We walked for a little and then turned a corner and BAM! There it was all super anti-climatic style. But as we got closer it go cooler. It's really not as big as I was expecting but still pretty darn tall. The courtyard around it is super pretty with green grass and a Cathedral and Baptistry. We took a bunch of pictures, including the super touristy holding up the tower picture. Then we made the decision to climb to the top of the tour. We went and bought our tickets but we had about an hour to spare before our tour started so we went back into town to try some gelato that I heard someone claim is the best gelato in Italy. I don't know if it's the best gelato in Italy but it was pretty delicious. I had coffee and chocolate, yummy. Then we went back and made our excursion up to the top of the Leaning Tower. Alright, just to let everyone know, I have a bit of a phobia of heights. Ok, more than a bit. Walking up the tower wasn't really too bad, just a little nerve wracking because the stairs are so worn down but when we finally got up to the top I kind of started to freak. I don't even think it was the fact that it was so high, but it was the fact that the thing is LEANING and it's about 900ish years old. So we spent a little time up there and took some pictures then we made our way back down. Then we went to a souvenir shop and I went a little overboard. But Pisa is such a good place to buy souvenirs! 

So that was the end of our travel packed weekend. There are more stories to come... 

School and Museums

Boun giorno! Sorry it's been so long. I've been super busy with school and traveling! And all the other things involved in living on your own in  a foreign country. Since it's been so long I'm breaking this up into two different posts. This post is mainly about school and the museums I've been to. The next one will be about my extracurricular travels. 

For one of my classes that I'm taking, Social Science 300, it is all about Italian culture. For this class, every Thursday, and sometimes Tuesdays we go to a different museum or important site in Italy. Last week we went to La Specola and The Accademia Gallery. La Specola was one of the coolest museums I've been too. It's the oldest scientific museum in Italy. It is stuffed full of pinned insects, posed crustaceans, and "stuffed" animals. At the very end there is a human anatomy wing... but I'll get to that in a second. So the first room that I really looked at was the one with all the pretty butterflies and moths. I had an assignment for my Physical Anthropology class to find examples of sexual and natural selection, this was a good place to start. Some of those insects were crazy cool, with all their colors and defensive strategies. There were these butterflies that had transparent wings. Never seen anything like it. We also saw a selection of stick bugs and bugs that looked exactly like leaves. I skipped over the spiders and only just glanced at the crustaceans. Then we came to the mammals. Lots of cool animals to see. There was even a hippopotamus that was a Medici pet in the 17th century that lived in the Boboli Gardens. How crazy is that? The rest of the animal rooms had birds, monkeys, lemurs (a super cool and freaky one called the aye-aye). And a plethora more of "stuffed" animals. So now we come to the final wing... The human anatomy wing. All the figures in here are wax figures of real people. The wax models came out of the Black Plague. Over half of Italy's population was wiped out so these anatomically correct models were representations of Plague sufferers. I had kind of a hard time with this part, because I have a somewhat weak stomach, but at the same time it was intensely interesting. 

The Accademia Gallery is where the real David is. What a hunk... Haha. It was totally insane to actually get to see the REAL David, that Michelangelo sculpted with his one hands. It is the most surreal experience ever. I've seen two replicas in Florence already and nothing can ever compare to the real thing. It's huge! It's 17 feet tall. I have no words to describe seeing the real thing. It's also really cool to learn the historical significance of this statue, and what it meant to Florentines at the time. There were some other statues there by Michelangelo, however they are unfinished. There are four sculptures that mainly people called the Prisoners because they look like they are trying to break out of their marble. And then there is an unfinished Pieta by Michelangelo too. There are some other cool things too, but David was the most important to me. 

So other than going to some crazy cool sites I've just been doing school work. Haven't had too much homework which is good. And I've been keeping up on it pretty well, which is good so I can go travel on the weekends. And now on to my adventures....