A Day With Giants

We went on our second field trip to Florence and I must say, it was much more eventful! We exited our train at Santa Maria Novella and went to that church for about an hour. We focused on Masaccio's Trinity, which is somewhat tedious since by this point, we've seen what feels like 100 trinities. Not to sound like a spoiled study abroad student or anything. The best part of the day was visiting the Uffizi Gallery. I was expecting Kirk to talk forever about artists I'd never heard of but I spent my day looking at works by the fab 3 of the Italian Renaissance: Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Not to mention Bottacelli, who I realized I looooove. You know exactly the painting I saw of his today: The Birth of Venus and Primavera. My mom has never understood why I love mythology but to me, that's much more interesting than describing Raphael's Portrait of Pope Leo X. I'm sorry but it just didn't tickle my fancy. It just seemed like the audience during the Renaissance was full of superstitious people who believed in the power of art to cure, save and teach them things. I loved today. Much more than any other day of Renaissance Art. I appreciated everything I saw.

Usually we'd go home to Arezzo with Kirk right after class. Danielle and I wanted to say behind and walk around for awhile, though. Also, we wanted to go to Hark Rock Cafe and have real burgers. After having guacamole for the first time in two months, we were about to explode from eating so much. We walked around and I bought another pretty something! Can you guess what it is?? No? I'll help you out. If you're Chloe or mom, it's something I've been wanting for a looooong time. Give up? Here it is -- I'm thrilled:

I'm in love with it!

Here's one of me with my outdoor David. We're best friends and in love. Sorry, ladies.

We headed home after that and are now pooped from all the walking. Of course, I have an Italian Quiz tomorrow morning over a LOT of material. This weekend we're taking a day-trip to another local Tuscan town. I'll update you after!

A presto!

Pasta With Game

A whole week come and gone! February's coming to a close and it just feels so . . . Marchy! We finally got that reasonable weather we've been begging for -- I've even been going out coat-free. Last week we were assigned our first midterm paper for Illicit Trafficking. It will be 10 pages but we have 2 full weeks to do it so I'm not too worried! Other than that, school is decent. Our art class sends us to Florence again on Wednesday and it'll be great to get out mid-week.

Saturday was 60° and we went to Assisi without any jackets. The morning and night was cold but the daytime was perfect. We showed up at about 10am and went in search of the Roman Ampitheatre that was supposedly by the bus stop. If you know me at all, you know this means it took us about an hour to find it.  And it was all really anti-climactic because when we showed up, the "ampitheatre" was not a cul-de-sac of houses, complete with clotheslines and graffiti and patio furniture. We've been using Rick Steves' Italy Guide for Students which is honestly the best thing ever. He literally says, "Turn right here and you'll see . . ." It's great that it's so effortless. He led us to spot with the best Umbrian view you've ever seen. It was gorgeous and you could see the beautiful Rocca Maggiore, the 1,000-year-old castle on the hill.

That was all it took. We were determined to be on that hilltop. Our friend Lizzie won't turn down a good castle so we were going to make it up there: I in my dress and Danielle in her skirt. On the way, we found an ancient Roman faucet-thing that brings water down from the mountains. It was ice-cold and delicious (excuse the fact that I look ridiculous):

Along the way to the castle, we kept getting excited by the pretty views. So that led to a million mini photoshoots. Bear with them. They are pretty cute, though, right?

Needless to say, the hike up the hill consisted of sweat, ripped pantyhose and lots more mini photoshoots. What else would you do if every time you turned, the view got better and better? But we did finally make it to the top and it was so worth it. That castle was our jungle gym for about an hour. So many stairs. We just kept asking, "What did people do in times of war?" If I was being invaded and I had to run down those little passageways, I would've been the first man down. So, without further ado, more pictures from our lovely hour at the castle:

By that time, abbiamo avuto fame! We walked aimlessly til we found a place with outdoor seating. I ordered pasta with asparagus, truffles and pecorino. DELICIOUS. I can't, however, say the same for poor Danielle. Let me prefice this by saying that the only meat that she consistently eats is chicken. If she had her way, she'd shoot and prepare a cow herself so that she could make sure it was done right. Needless to say, she's choosy about her red meats. So it must've been the most ironic moment in the history of ... moments when the waiter comes over with Lizzie and I's plates and a third that he calls "pasta with game." We obviously can't argue in Italian so she graciously accepts the plate before looking at us aghast and says, "I SMELL IT!" I wasn't even trying not to laugh. It was just spilling out.

We also went to the Basilica of San Francesco. He's a very popular man with my art professor so it was very interesting to see his tomb (kind of). I mean, we weren't sure if that was his tomb and the signs were pointing three different directions for the Tomb of San Francesco but everyone was praying. Context clues. We really had such a good day and bought memorable souvenirs. I just love our weekends. They make me so happy.

I Love the Way You Freak Out

Venezia, Venezia, Venezia . . . How do I summarize the Venetian experience? Well, let me start by saying that, while cliche, Venice is as beautiful as they say it is! Some people think its too commercial. Eh, that may be true. But it's busy and lit up and romantic and just lovely. For those of you who didn't know, I've been to Venice before. Unfortunately, though, the last time I went was rushed and consequently, abbreviated. I was able to trek all over that wonderful city this time and it is breathtaking. First of all, one of my favorite parts of being there was that there are no cars to dodge in Venice. There are no streets that fit cars, there is no space for cars. No cars. Everyone walks or uses a boat. In fact, if you'd like to drive to Venice, you drive to the part of the city that's connected to the mainland and park your car in a giant parking lot. No exceptions. I looooved that. Not only did it keep from interupting my walking space, but the whole air felt a little less polluted.

We arrived at 1:30pm on Friday and spent awhile trying to find our hotel. You must understand that Venice is comprised of 118 islands and 387 bridges. Sometimes it feels redundant -- like you've walked that exact street 40 times but really, it all looks the same. We were a little deceptive on this trip. We decided to go during Carnevale season so finding cheap housing is near impossible. We use sites like hostels.com or hostelworld.com and they show us private and public housing available. One of the girls reserved a 4-person apartment for 9 people. But only two of us had to sleep on the floor so it wasn't too bad! When we were on the mission to find said apartment, I was passing by a little restaurant when I saw some men working on some sewage lines. Obviously the smell was repulsive so I said, "Ewwwwww, it stinks!! I'm freaking out!" For those of you who understand my theatrical character, it sounds exactly like me, right? The restaurant owner hears me and as I'm passing by, says, "Ohhh baby, I love the way you freak out!" Whhhhhaaaattt??? He was literally 60 years old. We were all cracking up and I, of course, inserted some jesty comment back to the ole' grandpa. Friday evening was spent meandering through the streets and buying masks. We didn't want to hit the road too quickly because we just wanted to soak in the smells and atmosphere. I was a little surprised/concerned that there weren't a lot of people. It's famous for these celebrations but it was pretty calm . . . which worried me. Turns out we just hadn't made it to the right places yet.

Saturday morning, we were out of the apartment by 10 to go see what we could see! I'd say we got a lot accomplished! Only 5 of us were interested in doing the museum thing so we bought our tickets and headed to Doge's Palace.

While I would go on and on about its historical significance, I won't bore you. I will, however, share some pictures from the dungeons:

After Doge's palace, we investigated St. Mark's Basilica, which is amazingly a huge mosaic on the inside. I'm amazed at the amount of time and labor that was necessary for such a project! The day was spent shopping, taking a ride in a gondola, walking along the Grand Canal and hanging out in St. Mark's Square. There was live music and costumes all day long. It smelled like the State Fair and was a hybrid of people from countries all over the world. We heard English all day, which was a nice feeling when you're constantly having to carefully construct sentences in your head all day long. One of the girls really wanted to find Harry's Bar, which is supposedly the bar famous for the frequent visits paid to it by Hemingway. Apparently you're supposed to go and order a Bellini but we decided against it when we looked at the menu and saw that they were priced at 22€. Not a joke.

That night, we went to dinner close to St. Mark's Square. We wanted to spend our evening there observing the night life. There was live jazz music playing, which if you didn't know, was perfect for me. I could.not.stop.dancing. We were all swinging each other around, which attracted a lot of new friends that we ended up making. One being a man that grabbed my hand and started twirling me. He said, "Do you have a boyfriend?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Why you break my heart?" To which I said, "I think your heart will be just fine." Most notably, though, were the 3 USAF guys and 2 Navy officers that tagged along with us the entire evening. We had a good time! There's nothing like jazz! It made me miss the Sinatra CD that Chloe bought me last year.

I've loved everything about this weekend except for one thing. D-r-a-m-a. For the first time in my life, I'm hanging around girls who don't waste time talking about each other behind their backs. Which is actually a great thing; but they just nip it in the bud and lash out at each other. Often. We came home on interesting grounds so I'm anxious to see how everyone does this week. I guess I'm just from a family who, for all our faults, is really good at owning their portion of the blame. It's a skill that's taken a long time to develop but it's so, so useful. I don't understand people who, when they are obviously in the wrong, will try to use every excuse to defend themselves to the death. There's nothing wrong with being wrong. Right?

On a better note, here are some lovely pictures from our Venetian holiday:

"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."

 -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Will You Be Mine?

Well, folks. It's been one of those weeks. I'm getting near fed up with the weather's uncooperative spirit. Let's start with Tuesday. Tuesday was Valentine's Day, and yes, they do celebrate here. It's not as obnoxious as in America -- no red and pink everywhere or teddy bears in windows. But in the grocery store, we did see chocolate roses and a lot of champagne. It was just another Tuesday. For the second year in a row, Danielle and I celebrated Valentine's Day together. Most everyone here did the same because they obviously couldn't celebrate with their girlfriends/boyfriends. We had a Valentine's Day party at the school that we made an appearance at but we didn't stay long. It was cookies and music and games. Basically, we just went home and made pizza. I found a recipe on pinterest for Chicken Pesto Pizza. Best decision ever. We got in bed and snuggled up for our second annual viewing of the movie I Hate Valentine's Day. Sadly, it was pirated so it was really choppy. But we DID make it through 2/3 of it!

Today was our first field trip to Firenze for Renaissance Art. My professor is the president of OU in Arezzo. His name is Kirk and he is very impressive. You start listening and stop taking notes and he looks at you and says, "You're going to want to write this down." I can't even keep up. It's not your average Duomo, the David, you're done. He takes us to all of these obscure places that he swears are really important. Today we started at the Basilica of Sante Croce. We went in and the entire aspe was covered and under construction. That always happens to me. Last summer in D.C, the entire reflection pool in front of Lincoln was a terror. There were Bobcats and huge mounds of mud. So gross. Anyway, the church was interesting because of Kirk's commentary. Turns out Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo are all entombed there. Pretty awesome, right? I know you're going to cringe when I tell you this, but I took absolutely no pictures. I could barely write notes because my hands were that stiff. I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick/maybe have a fever. It was about 17°F all day. Pity me. Anyway, we visited another museo so briefly that it's not worth mentioning. It was for my music class and it was about medieval notation. I won't bore you completely. Don't worry too much about the pictures though. It was the first of many trips to Florence for Ren. Art. Here are some pics I stole from another girl from the trip:

^^ Michelangelo

^^Galileo

Today was also a holiday in Arezzo! After our day in Florence, we came home and got a lecture on the Madonna del Conforto. Apparently on February 15th, 1796, Arezzo was getting bad tremors that were threatening the foundations of the city. A group of people in some inn prayed to the little Madonna picture for it to stop. The art, which had been in a fire that had scorched it until it was black, suddenly became clean and new. So, of course, the painting is reveared and everyone come from miles around to pay homage to the Madonna del Conforto. We all went to the Duomo today to observe it and it was a PACKED house. I wasn't brave enough to go up and let the priest sprinkle water on me (I regret that) but I watched from afar.

Danielle and I have found out that the only time we fight is when we're fighting over directions. That's happened twice now. Florence has no system to its streets so it's complete chaos. We couldn't find the train station so I asked some stranger, "Dov'è la stazione?" Apparently that was too complicated a question. They sweetly offered to take us there instead of us grunting at each other. I looked at Danielle and said, "How sweet is that!" Then we ended up in front of "Dante's house." Greeeeaaaat. We just thanked and dismissed them. At this point, it's 2:30, we're hungry, tired, FREEZING and want to go home. Plus, we had every intention of buying masks for Carnivale while we were in Florence but we spent our whole time being lost. My dad's said this before but it's so true: I need to marry a GPS. Period. We finally find the train station but by then had already snapped at each other. But when you've pushed your beds together to avoid ghosts, you can't stay mad at each other for long.

We came home, took hot showers, ate food and watched Chocolat. GOOOOD NIGHT.

The Mighty Ducks

What a whirlwind of a week! The plans changed a LOT because the weather here is atrocious. Is that how you spell atrocious? Moving on . . . The most momentous event this week was Danielle and I being brave enough to make tomato soup from scratch! We roasted our vegetables and everything! It was delicious and beautiful... and fun! Also, there was grilled cheese!

Rome was the name of the game but with the epic blizzard, we decided to be a little less ambitious. We set our sights on Siena because it was still in Tuscany and a one-and-a-half hour ride by bus. We'd been told, "Don't expect much from Siena. It's boring." Needless to say, we were getting cabin fever so we were looking for any excuse to GET OUT, no matter where we ended up. We left at 8:30am on Friday and were off the bus by 10:30. We checked into our hotel and set out to see what we could see. It was clear by about 2pm that it was only going to get colder and colder. The main thing we wanted to see was the Duomo of Siena. I was shocked when I walked in to see stripes. Everywhere. It honestly looked like Cruella Deville:

Right?

Another interesting fact: These gorgeous buildings don't promote temperature control. I could see my breath the whole time I was there. It was beautiful but the same temperature as it was outside. I bought some rosary beads. Normal. One of the girls is catholic so she was giving us a tutorial on traditional ceremony. I just find it all so fascinating. I got to pray and light and candle, which was all really peaceful. This picture looks really serious but I wasn't upset or anything, I promise:

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking into random chapels and shops. I love looking at leather! It is seriously one of the best smells ever. My family already knows this but for the longest time, I've wanted a brown leather backpack. The size is negotiable but the slightly worn, vintage look is preferable. So when I walked into this leather shop and saw the bag of my dreams on the shelf, it was all I could do to walk calmly over to it and assess the situation without squealing. Here's the problem: As I've already told you, while I was in Cortona, I bought an expensive, pretty green leather messenger. I can't very well explain doing that twice. I had to talk myself out of this bag because it was just too much. Plus, we have Carnivale in Venice next weekend to save for. I had to ask Danielle to take me away. Sometimes you have to physically pull a girl away from a bag. You understand.

We were told to check out the most popular pub in Siena. It wasn't hard to decide to do that with a name like, The Dublin Post. You had me at Dublin. It was so quaint! The walls were green and everything was Irish-themed. Danielle and I felt a little less like freaks with our red hair! We were so excited when we met Brits there, too! English! English! We are literally startled every time an English speaking person comes into the room. We went upstairs to a room that was a little secluded. Two old men came and heard that we were speaking English. One of them proceeds to call his 17-year-old nephew to tell him to come meet us? Uh, okay, old men? I mean, I'm flattered that you want us to meet your family but you could've asked us how we would feel about that... So his nephew brought a herd of friends and they all congregated to stare. We let the poor babies hang out with us; but they were devastated when we left. I think they thought they had found their ticket to 'merica.

We came back to our hotel and had to push two twins together so we could fit in the bed. Danielle got the crack and hasn't stopped complaining about it since.

This morning we visited an old aqueduct and found this giant pool filled with fish! If you're American and see geese or fish, you immediately find bread to feed them. As if nature doesn't offer it's own forms of nourishment.

 Finally, we headed to the Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico. This church's ceilings were blank but five stories tall. The fact that it wasn't as ornamented made its height much more loud. I often wonder how many men died when they made these huge buildings. Maybe it's because I'm imagining rickety wooden scaffolding. But the major shocker of this church was the holy relic of Saint Caterina. This saint's deteriorating head is still being displayed. For those of you who know how expressive I am, imagine my face when I figured out that her head was real. See for yourself:

CRAZY.

This weekend is Venice for Carnivale! It'll be an expensive weekend so I've got to spend meagerly this week. It costs about 50€ to get there one way. Then we have to pay for our hostel for two nights and pay about the same to return home. We wanted to go to Verona on Sunday on our way back in honor of Valentines Day. We also don't know the next time we'll be that North so we want to do what we can while we're up there. We're also taking our first field trip with Renaissance Art to Florence on Wednesday. I expect this week to be super adventurous!

For tomorrow? I'm going to a catholic service at the Duomo with my catholic friends! I can't wait to experience that!

Here are a few pictures from our lovely weekend:

^^ Me hijacking someone's Vespa.

^^The Mighty Ducks take Siena (Don't Ask).

Livin' Like a Polar Bear

Hello from Antarctica! My dear friends who are reading this are experiencing 60-70° weather; so basically I'm expecting some sympathy, y'all. This last week hasn't been very noteworthy but I'll try and make it sound real exciting. We've had record lows in this wonderful country during the last week, which may not sound like a big deal to you but I can assure you, is completely misreable. Don't believe me? Go ahead and read this article (I wouldn't post Fox but it was the first that came up) :

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/06/europes-struggle-under-record-cold-snap/

Enough said? No? How about this. My Renaissance Art professor sent us into the city 2 weeks ago with an assignment. We were to find a piece of Renaissance art and write a paper and prepare a presentation using the new artistic vocabulary we learned in class. Not too bad, right? When we'd written the paper, our next class period would be spent traveling to our piece of art and sharing our work with our classmates. Last week, our snow day (thankfully) kept us from being able to do the presentation. Today was makeup day. Get excited, folks. The reason we even got a snow day last week was because of the ice that made traveling up steep inclines impossible. I would much rather have gone out that day; because although the elements were left in heaps all down the streets, today was much, much worse. I suppose snow days come at a cost. Nevertheless, today was awful. I was bravely underdressed for the day. I had worn my North Face instead of my peacoat and had hurriedly forgotten gloves. It was 27° tops. T-O-P-S. Plus, I was the second-to-last of 17 to do my presentation. Needless to say, I am recovering in my kitchen with wine and hot food. In that order.

This weekend was fun. There's a group of us that have wanted to find a reason to play. With all the snow and the lack of traveling going on, we're starting to get cabin fever. Danielle and I made popcorn and coke floats and invited over some of the girls. They brought over all their movies and somehow, it was narrowed down to the Lizzie McGuire Movie -- most likely because we wanted something Italy-related. Don't look at me with those judgmental eyes... I'm not ashamed. We had a lot of fun: hair braiding, painting nails, girl talk. Normal. Over the course of the evening, we decided to go to Roma this weekend! I think we're giving up on cooperative weather. We have to get out.

Lastly, Sunday was World Nutella Day! I hope you celebrated sufficiently! We had made plans to go to Bologna to the Nutelleria to buy something festive. But our faculty in residence, Suzette, had spent her weekend stuck on a train due to ice so we decided not to chance it. Instead, we spent the day at a gelateria getting nutella crepes and nutella gelato. Not a bad way to celebrate, huh? Here are some pictures from our Nutella Day:

^^Danielle hates this picture. I think I love it because it's just so typical.

^^The group at "Cheri." Happy World Nutella Day!

^^Danielle, Courtney, Amanda and crepes.

Last, but certainly not least, Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan! You are missed.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

R.R.



Golden Arches

This week has definitely been an interesting one. We started getting threats of snow for Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. We were ecstatic at the thought of an Italian Snow Day because 1) Who wouldn't be? and 2) We had an Art History Presentation on Wednesday. It's not that I particularly mind the idea of an Art History presentation. It's just that I have to take the rest of the class to a piece of art that I found on the streets of Arezzo and talk about it using terms that I'm barely acquainted with while pretending to have deep and consequential thoughts. Which I don't. Wednesday morning, we got emails from our professor that said, "I suppose the snow gods that y'all were praying to took pity on you. See you next week. Also, the best hill for sledding is located at . . ." YESSS! We didn't waste ANY time. Danielle and I bundled up and headed out. We walked around town a little bit, just to observe the scene. We decided to go up to what is now designated "our spot." I showed you guys a view of in some old posts. We spent a long time looking at the view and admiring the whole scene. There's not really wind here... at least not like in Oklahoma; so the cold isn't brutal and the experience isn't misreable. I was, however, getting snow down into my boots, which is why by the end, I couldn't feel my toes anymore.

We found the remnants of an old snowman that had either been knocked down or was weak in the first place. There was a carrot on the ground so we used that to rebuild Francesco. He's a "green" snowman and I think you'll know why when you see the pictures!

The next day was Thursday and it was back to school for the Arezzo kids. The only class I have on Thursdays is Italian so I was pouting to have to brave the streets for one class. Afterwards, Danielle wanted a hamburger really bad so we set out to find the McDonalds. While I'm sure you're shaking your head and thinking, "McDonalds, Courtney? You're in Italy!!" Yes, we understand. We found out later that we took the long way there. We went all the way to the train station, followed the sign that said, "McDonalds, this way --->" which was seriously misleading and unnecessary. Basically, we walked through the snow for an hour to get to this McDonalds. When the golden arches were in sight, we were almost jogging. We were so cold. It was really pathetic. We walk in and realize that there's about a 1/4 of the menu, it's really overpriced and they don't speak English. DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH?? I'm in McDonalds. I don't want to have to think!! I've heard that McDonalds' in China have noodles and such. In Italy, there's a mozarella burger and a pistaccho McFlurry.

SO what's on the agenda for this weekend?? Sunday we're headed to Bologna for World Nutella Day! We're going to the Nutelleria there with a group so it'll be a good time. :)

Here are some pictures from our snow-filled week! I hope you all enjoyed your 70° weather! Sono gelosa!