The Last Weekend in Castiglion

So we just wrapped up our last weekend in Castiglion. Overall it was pretty good. Friday night we had a ping-pong tournament, which yes I know sounds nerdy, that was really fun. Nobody from UT won, but hopefully we'll be able to take the doubles tournament tonight.

Last Saturday we went to a lake called Lake Trasimeno that is about a 30 minute train ride away. We had been warned that it wasn't very glamorous but decided to go anyways since we had been talking about going for so long. It actually ended up being a really great day. Only 4 of us went which is better than the huge mob we normally have. The place we went to on the lake had a small "beach," even though the sand was more like tan dirt.. but I really didn't mind. First we ate some lunch (mine was of course leftover from lunch the day before) and just laid on the beach for a while. Then we rented a paddle boat which was a blast. We went pretty far into the lake and then jumped off the sides into water that was way deep. We also found a raft with diving boards on it, so we spent some time there and then went back in. The rest of the day was just reading and napping under trees. The only bad thing about the day was that I got really really sunburn. I was basically a walking lobster for half the day and it still hasn't gone away completely. I hate sunburns, so that was kind of a day killer for me.

Sunday was mostly work. It is very hot here now, and a sunburn definitely doesn't help, so it's difficult to find the energy to get stuff done. Imagine Texas heat with no AC and that is about what it is like here. We have some puny fans in our rooms, but they don't do much. So most of the day was me trying to convince myself to do work, and the rest was me actually doing work. We give our final presentation tomorrow and they just added even more scaffolding to the loggia (the focus of our project) today, so it should be interesting. Then we just have to turn in our final art projects by Wednesday morning and we are done! It will be a relieving day, thats for sure.

I'm at the point where I am sort of itching to come home. I guess since the day is so close now it makes me want it to get here already. Hopefully I'll be able to take my mind off it while I'm traveling through Germany, but I don't really see it happening. Hopefully I'll also be able to stop stressing about money, but that probably wont happen either. Some people are just always right, especially about these things. I really should try to take more advice next time I'm on the fence about something. Anyways, I have to go super glue my wounded bag and try to finish up some of these pieces. Ciao for now!

Oh yeah, and the piazza that is in the opening scene of the video I posted is the one I did my short presentation on. Pretty cool, huh?

The Jeannie Tate Show

So this is a hilarious video that illustrates what I hate about most of the other American tourists that are here abroad. If it wont play on the blog, click the frame and it will go to the website where you can also watch it. Enjoy!

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Vineyard/Florence

Tuesday was probably one of the best days I've had here in Castiglion so far this trip. In the morning we had studio class and we finished and turned in the project we were working on. That is always a relief, even if I'm not completely happy with it. Now were moving on to our last project which isnt near as many pieces and is a little more open style wise. I would normally be excited about it, but we have so much to do this last week that I am not really. So after studio class and lunch we went over to a local organic vineyard here in Castiglion. It was such a beautiful property, and the castle was so close to it! We got a tour of the olive fields, grape fields, and cellar.. all of which were very interesting. Our tour guide was this cute little italian guy named Ricardo that told us some interesting stuff about the process and the politics of olive oil and wine production. Then the best part, wine tasting! We had 2 types of White, one 100% Chardonnay and one 50% Chardonnay and 50% Sauvignon Blanc. Then we had one red that was 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. All were amazing, but none compared to Vinsanto, the dessert wine we had. After the wine tasting and food we got to go swimming in the pool! That was exciting for me because I had yet to use my swimsuit since I'd been here. After the pool we came back for dinner and then spent the rest of the night relaxing.

Wednesday we took our last trip to Florence. It was a very HOT and busy day and by the end of it I was happy to get back to Castiglion. In the morning we went to Santa Corca bascillica which was pretty neat except for the fact that the alter was under scaffolding from floor to ceiling. It was cool to see the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and especially Dante.. since I'm reading the Inferno right now. After that I met up with Holly for the last time and we had lunch and caught up. She leaves this Saturday for the States, so she will be back almost two weeks before me. Then was the Uffitzi. It is definitely one of those museums that has so much stuff in it that it can be really overwhelming. And some of the lighting and positioning of the pieces seemed a little off. I think if I wasn't so hot and tired I could have gotten more out of it. But despite all those things it was really enjoyable. Once again I got to see all these works that I have seen in pictures all my life in person. I even found some new paintings that I really liked, which to me is a lot more fun. :)

The rest of the trip is going to be pretty busy. We have group projects due Tuesday and our final show on Wednesday. In other words, I gotta get back to work! Ciao! Oh yes, pictures.. the first is the grape fields with the castle in the background, next is our cute wine glass setting at the tasting, the last our not so glamorous but still fun pool.

Weekend Update

So this weekend was the first that I spent entirely in Castiglion Fiorentino. It was definitely a good time. Saturday was a very relaxing day. I spent the morning working on projects for my art class ad reading. One of my favorite spots in town is the loggia in the center of the city, so I got a cappuccino and sat out there and and read and drew for a while which was very relaxing. For lunch a few of us got to-go pizza from the amazing Roggis and took it up to the tower and ate outside. It was a really beautiful day, not too hot at all. During the afternoon we walked down to the co-op grocery store and got some food for the hike we took today. I'm obsessed with these Italian cookies called GranCereale and its getting a little scary how much I crave them. They are healthy cookies though, so I don't feel as bad. Those are one thing I'm definitely bringing with me back to the States in bulk. So then we just had dinner at the school and watched the soccer game. Last night was Russia vs. the Netherlands, and Russia surprisingly won 3-1. It was a fun game to watch. I've realized that it is kind of hard to describe some of the places I talk about in this blog, like the loggia and the tower for example. They are both beautiful areas, but not even a picture could show just how great they are. So sorry if it's not descriptive enough, you'll just have to come to Italy if you want an accurate portrayal!

So today I did the unthinkable. Me and a group of 6 more people basically hiked a marathon. And when I say a marathon I mean the ones that are 26 miles. We left at 715 this morning and hiked to Cortona. This time we got there a lot quicker. We got to Cortona at about 1130 and after a lunch break.. we walked back! We did the walk back and 3 hours, definitely a record. I know how crazy that all sounds, but it was a beautiful walk, a great work out, and also really accomplishing in a way. In theory I though I would never be able to do it, but now I'm back and still breathing (but very hot and very sore), so I proved myself wrong. I've definitely had my long distance hiking fix and wont be doing anymore of those, except maybe at Cinque Terre. The day was good, but then the night was very disappointing. Italy lost their soccer game to Spain in a shootout. So no more Italian soccer games to watch. There was a betr made however prior to the game and after Italy lost one of the guys in our group had to shave his head into a mohawk. That was very entertaining. It looks pretty decent given that a bunch of people with no experience did it.. I'll try to get a picture though, it looks crazy. So this picture is from our studio early in the morning before we left for the walk. Pretty beautiful huh? Ciao!

Siena

So after our trip to Siena, we only have one more left. And Siena was our last new city. I was worried at first because we were staying literally all day. We left at 730 in the morning and got back at 1030. A long day, but it ended up being really fun. As a group we went to the Piazza Publico and the Piazza del Campo. I did a short presentation on the Piazza del Campo for one of our projects for Art History class and it went really well. The area is huge and it really is the prefect place to just sit and relax. The Piazza Publico had some really great frescoes, the most famous of which are the Effects of Good Government on the Country and the others in that series. After that we broke for lunch and a bunch of us went to a local grocery store and ate food on the steps of the Duomo. Then we went to the Duomo and the Duomo museum as a group. Unfortunately the dome itself was under scaffolding (something always is here in Italy) for repairs I guess, but we still got to see the inner part of the dome inside of the cathedral. The duomo museum had the originals of all the things on the facade and inside that are now replicas, including the huge stained glass window that is above the aps. It was a really well organized museum and we managed to see a lot of stuff. Afterwards we went to the top of the portion of the failed enlargement of the church, which is where the great views in the pictures here are from. That was probably my favorite part of the day, I always love a good view. The rest of the days was spent wandering the city and eating pizza and gelato in the piazza del campo. Today we have another long studio class after lunch, so I gotta go rest up before hand. Ciao!

Oh yes, some quick captions for the pictures. From the top- the piazza del campo in the foreground and the piazza publico in the background, the original stained glass window from the duomo in the duomo museum, the nativity pulpit by nicola pisano (very famous), the dome from inside the cathedral, the arch of the failed expansion of the cathedral, moi on top of the arch of the failed expansion of the cathedral!

Italy vs. France

So I've realized that I rarely make posts about every day stuff in Castiglion, the're always about the trips we take. So I though I would change it up a bit. The remainder of the long weekend was very relaxing. Yesterday was particularly good In the morning I got up and went running, which is easier here because the air is fresher but harder because there are so many hills. It was a good start to the morning though. Then after lunch me and Sonya and Hayden walked to this castle that is on a hill near ours. It was about an hour walk on little side roads with farms and cute houses and what not. At one point we walked through an area with tons of greenhouses filled with flowers. We got there and the castle was closed for maintenance or something, but it was still a good walk and it was neat to see the castle I look at out my window everyday up close. After dinner a big group of us went and watched the soccer game that was going on. Italy was playing France, and they are real big rivals.. especially after France beat Italy in the final game of the world cup last time around. But lucky enough, Italy won! 2-0 The first goal was off a PK and the second off a free kick right outside of the box. So both were from penalties, which is not quite as exciting as a normal goal.. but I'm not complaining. A win is a win no matter how the goals were scored. So now Italy moves on with the Netherlands, who are REALLY good this year, in the EuroCup. Which means more games for us to watch! Well I'm off to class and to our pre-Siena meeting. A dopo! Oh yea, and I felt like this post needed a picture.. so heres me with one of the little turtles we have in the courtyard! Aren't they tiny? I wanted to put a picture of the castle, but iPhoto is being stupid as usual and won't retrieve my picture, so you get turtles instead!

Rome/Long Weekend: Pictures

Heres a few pictures from the last week. I would have put them with the written entry below, but iI though the post would have been entirely too long. So here ya go, with captions of course..


The houses of some of those lucky people that get to call Rome they're home.













The Trevi Fountain during the day, although I enjoyed it much better at night.









St. Peters Cathedral in the Vatican City. And the resulting traffic of people in cars.







The Laocoon, with Jennifer in the frame so you can see the scale of it.
















The Baldacchino by Bernini in the foreground and the dome, which had several desginers including Michelangelo, in the background.












The view of Rome from the dome of St. Peters Basilica.









Moi on the train. I spent a lot if time there this last week..










Me and Holly hanging out in Castiglion!

Rome/ Long Weekend: Entry

Whew. It's been a crazy week. I'm happy to say I am now back in Castiglion relaxing before classes start again on Wednesday. From Monday to Friday of this week our whole group was in Rome and I think we all loved every minute of it! I knew I was going to like Rome, but after going there I love it even more than I imagined. The whole city is absolutely beautiful and has a really great energy to it. Everywhere we went had something interesting to do or see. There isn't any wasted space in Rome, which is rare even in the best U.S. cities. It went by so fast I can hardly remember what all I did, but here goes.

The first day we arrived in Rome by train and then went straight to the Roman Forum. It was really amazing and much better than I've ever seen in pictures. It's hard to even fathom how huge these ancient structures are until you see them in person and in comparison. to all the modern buildings around them. Then we headed over to the Colosseum, which wasn't originally on our agenda, but I'm glad the plans were altered to include it. It was neat but I'd seen it so many times in movies and pictures that nothing was much of a surprise about it. Still really interesting though. The only bad thing about Monday was that I left my camera in my suitcase that we dropped at the hotel before heading off into the city, so I have no pictures. Really disappointing.. but nothing I can do about it now!

Tuesday was a little more low key and consisted of a few really beautiful churches. There was some really great frescoes in one of them that you could get up really close to. You can rarely see works like frescoes so close because they are normally on ceilings or very high walls. The rest of the day unfortunately only consisted of window shopping and looking everywhere for a park. Not the best day.. but Wednesday!

Wednesday we went to the Vatican City. And I though the roman forum was huge. Everything in the Vatican is at least 3 times the size of normal cathedrals. And the extent of their museum is almost unbelievable. I guess it just goes to show how much power the pope has. It was SO neat to see the Sistine Chapel in person. The Last Judgment was way more beautiful than I ever imagined. I was also pretty surprised to see how small the Laocoon statue was. I guess the features just make it look really large in pictures. After seeing it though I think it is the perfect size. We also went to the top of the St. Peters dome which had a unbelievable view of the city and allowed you to see some of the elaborate mosaics up close. All I have to say is that you have to be pretty rich and/or dedicated to art to have that much gold in one place. I can't even imagine what it's worth..

So Thursday was a Carravagio themed day. Not the only artist's work we saw obviously, but he had paintings at most of the stops we made. The highlight would have to be the Borghese gallery. Some of that marble statuary is completely beyond my comprehension. I loved everything there and the statues may have been my favorite thing so far.

Friday I left Rome for Florence where I met up with Holly. We spent the night there in Florence and then her and I came back to Castiligion so she could get a taste of the countryside. We had a very relaxing day of shopping and a really great dinner at Roggi's cafe. And of course I made her try the amazing Gelato we have here in Castiglion. She loved it of course and was sad to go back to the big city. The rest of the long weekend I plan on doing some serious relaxing and trying to work on some of the assignments we have for drawing class. Should be nice. Until next time, Ciao!

Pisa

So my trip to Pisa this week was wonderful. When we first got to the city my first reaction was that I probably wouldn't like it. I think this was mainly because it was the local High School's last day of school and a bunch of teenagers were running around EVRYWHERE pouring water on each other. A Pisa ritual I assume, but very annoying. After being there longer and getting farther into the city I really started to like it. The leaning tower was cool of course, and indeed leaning. But the other buildings in that area were even more amazing. The cathedral was one of the coolest I've been to yet and there was lots of grass and piazzas to relax in, which I love to do. I guess it's hard to describe the rest of the city, but it just had a very relaxing feel to it without being boring. Maybe these pictures will help...

Asissi/ Hike to Cortona

So our trip yesterday was listed on our syllabus as a "walk" to Cortona, but I think we all realized that it was definitely a hike. A 6 and a half hour hike to be exact. Probably about 10 miles. And despite all these things, it was absolutely wonderful. There is nothing like getting out into nature after being herded through big cities on all our past trips. We got some great aerial view of both Cortona and Castilgion. I also have to admit that I am not sore at all. I think we probably walk for about 6 hours a day when we go on trips anyways, so this was just the same general thing but just in a different setting. Certainly a more vertical setting!

So that was Thursday. Tuesday we went on a trip also but to a town called a Asissi. I have very mixed feelings about Asissi. On one hand it has absolutely beautiful churches and beautiful artwork as well. But on the other hand the city as a whole seemed to very much exploit the beauty of these things and the beauty of St. Francis, who the city was built for. St. Francis was a saint that renounced worldly goods and preached against the idea of the wealthy church, which was present at the time. He lived as a peasant but when he died the city of Asissi built a very large and extravagant church for him. Kind of contradictory, but beautiful none the less. What bothered me most about the city was that everything in town that wasn't the church was trying to make money off the church. A millino gift shops all with the same overpriced St.Francis and Santa Maria trinkets. Overall, not really my type of city. The highlights were the awesome Medieval Fortress and the San Francesco church, which both happen to be pictured here. :) Oh, and it rained all day. Yeah.. Asissi is not my fav town.

Going to Pisa tomorrow and have to wake up real early, ciao!

Italian Fireworks

So my assumptions were wrong, the Italians totally know how to do fireworks... take a look.

Birthday!

So for my birthday I went to Florence and it was a blast! Me and my roommate Alicia went and met up with Holly, my roommate from home. During the day we just walked around and went to the big outside market that they have. There was a ton of cool stuff there but of course indecisive me didn't buy anything. Alicia got a cute leather bag and a wallet for her boyfriend and Holly bough souvenirs for her family too. I almost got some leather gloves from Holly for my birthday but the guy was giving us a bad price so we decided to try and look around some more. We got caught up doing other stuff though and never made it back. I think I'm going to Florence for our long weekend after Rome though so maybe I'll try and get some then. My dad said he would buy something for me while I'm here for my birthday so if I don't find anything by then gloves will be a pretty good option.

So then we walked to the grocery store along the river which was really peaceful. We stopped over one of the bridges and just stared at the water and caught the breeze for a while. There was a cute little park next to the grocery store also so we sat there for a while too. Thats one thing I really like about Italy so far. There's always somewhere to stop and relax and no one thinks its weird that your stopping cause everyone is outside anyways. The U.S. is very much and indoors country now so its nice to have something different. So then instead of going to one of the expensive Florence restaurants we went back to Holly's apartment and cooked pasta. It was so delicious! I am definitely bringing some Italian pasta back because it is so much better then anything we have back there. We got the cheapest brand and it was still amazing.

So next is when the exciting, very European part of the night happened. Me and Alicia went to catch our train back to Castiligon, the last train to be exact, and it was canceled because of a strike! They had warned us that the trains usually end up striking on Friday and Saturday nights, but it was still really surprising. Luckily Holly had enough room for us at her place so we just stayed the night. I didn't really mind at all. We ended up hanging out with Holly's roommates and just wandering around Florence. Its completely different to see the city at night and I really liked it. I can't wait to go back again. Florence is a nice change from our tiny tiny town.

Oh and I almost forgot, we also went to a museum called La Specola. It is a sort of natural science museum and they have TONS of stuffed animals from all over the world. I know that sounds kind of gross but it was really neat. Its great to see all these exotic animals that you could never normally see in there true form. They also have an area that is kind of like the Body Worlds exhibit that shows replications and casts of the human body. Apparently since it opened in the 1700's artists and scientist go there to draw and study. There was a bunch of artists drawing and painting when we were there to.

Tonight is the last night of the medieval festival and they are doing fireworks! And tomorrow we have a trip to Asissi. So the next 24 hours are busy as usual. I still miss everyone back home, especially my parents and Nigel. Cant wait to see you guys again! Ciao for now!