London part 2

Saturday, March 19

So this morning we were supposed to meet Heather and Mark at Piccadilly Square at 10am. Brittany and I got up a little late (our beds were surprisingly very comfortable), ate, and headed out there. We made it there around 15 minutes late and didn't see them anywhere. We waited around till just before 11, and then finally assumed that they had left without us. We made our way to the Portebello Market in Notting Hill, which was only on Saturdays and we heard from the bar staff that it was really cool. We walked out of the subway and followed some signs that led to the market. Along the way, we passed through some really cute row houses that were all pastel colors. Precious. We knew when we were about to arrive at the antique market, because all of the sudden the entire road was jam-packed with people and we could hardly move. There were tons of stands with all kinds of different things; old signs, jewelry, kitchenware, plus tons of stands with random other things. While wading through the human sea, Brit and I noticed this little old man who was walking with a cane and a dog on his shoulders. He walked around the market like that the entire time we where they, and the dog never tried to jump off. And I thought my purse was kind of heavy! After Brit found a cute little necklace at the market, we made our way back up the street to some other stores. One of the clothing stores that we passed had entire walls of old sewing machines as their decor. It was pretty cool actually. At some point while we were shopping, we got a delayed text from Heather and the group saying they wanted to meet at 11. That explains why no one was at the meeting place earlier. Waiting is starting to become a theme of the trip.

After the market, we went back to Camden to get food and go grocery shopping. First, we went to McDonalds (yay bad American fast food!) The McDonalds was actually a really nice one, and it had a orange-green-purple decor which I haven't seen in one before. We got our meals and went up to the second floor seating since the first floor was full. While we were eating and minding our own business, a fight between two guys started across the room. Not sure what they were arguing about, but I think one was an employee and he was escorted out. Behave boys, there are children around! After that we thought it might be wise to get the hell out of Dodge. Brit and I went to a small express grocery store to buy bread, fruit, and other things to make lunch with so we didn't have to pay for it most days. Best decision ever, because there's a 20% VAT tax on everything plus the horrible conversion rate from pounds to dollars was about to kill us. We dropped our goodies off at the hostel and then decided to head out to Trafalgar square for a bit. When we got off at our stop (which was a few blocks from the square) we happened upon a church and memorial/crypt. Being the nosy kids we are, we decided to wander down through the crypt. It was called St. Martin in the Fields and in the crypt was of course graves...with lunchroom tables over them. Whoever decided to combine a cafe with a graveyard is a creeper. I mean, I personally have never had the desire to eat a sandwich on top of a dead person but maybe that's just me. We explored some of the relics around there and a photography exhibit that was also in the building.

Next we were back on track for Trafalgar. The square is huge! There were a few fountains, some lion sculptures that people were climbing on, and a giant ship in a bottle on a pedestal! Pretty random, right? While Brit and I were there, we saw a guy balancing on a plank over a ball while juggling knives. He had quite the crowd till he finished and then asked for money. There was also a break dancing group showing off their skills which was pretty cool. During this time we got a text from Heather's friend, Robert, telling us to meet them at one of the tube stops (I don't remember which now) and we were going to hang out at Anosh's flat before getting dinner. We met up with them around 7, popped into a store to get some wine that wasn't as cheap or yummy as we are now used to, and headed over to his flat. The flat was really adorable. It was a studio, meaning the living room was also the bedroom plus a small kitchenette and bathroom. The windows opened out to a beautiful street with lots of white row houses like the one we were in. We all hung out, talked and watch the South Park movie (always a classic) and then headed to Anosh's favorite burger joint to finish off the night.

London part 1

Friday March 18

Today was the day we had to say goodbye to Venice and hello to London town! Brittany, Heather, and I got up really early, packed and had a little bit of breakfast before we set off. Just like everything else in Venice, we had to take a ferry to get to the airport. When we were on the ferry we did a little people watching. There was the cutest little girl whose mom was putting lip gloss on her. Adorable! We got to the island where the airport was and proceeded to walk about 10 minutes to the entry of the building. After checking in, the girls and I hung out for awhile till we were off! We landed in Rome and had to make our connection there. In case you were wondering, the international terminal in Rome is really confusing. The terminals are just round desks in the middle, and you have to go down an escallator and hop on a tram to get to the plane which is just hanging out randomly in the middle of nowhere. After the flight we had to go through customs. I was super excited to get a stamp from rome and london, but then I found out that all the stamps look the same and didn't have the name of the courty on them. Boo! We waited awhile in line and finally got through. At this point Heather was practically sprinting ahead because her finace, Mark, had flown in earlier and was waiting to pick her up at the airport. He also brought Brittany and I candy. Nice! At this point we split since they are staying in a hotel (and we are in a hostel). Brit and I got out little Oyster cards (for the subway system), found the subway station, and headed with all of our junk out to Camden Town!

So the hostel we're staying in is attached to a bar called Belushi's. The staff was super friendly when we got there, and sorted out a few problems we had with the booking. Plus we get discounted food and drinks there. Score! The room isn't awful, and the bed is actually more comforitable than the one in the hotel in Venice. Who knew? After getting settled in, Brittany and I headed to Piccadilly square to meet up with Heather, Mark, and a friend of theirs from highschool who is living and working in London right now. The official meet time was 8:30. We got there a little early and waited....and waited...and waited. after waiting almost 40 minutes, Brit realized that the time on her ipod hadn't been set to London time, so we were actually and hour early. Oops. On top of that, they ended up being about 30 minutes late, so were felt like we were there forever! Piccadilly square is kind of like Times Square in New York, except with pretty buildings around it. Brit and I went into a few stores in the area. There was one mega souvenier shop which had a map of the tubes on socks...get it?! TUBE SOCKS! I thought this was much funnier than it actually was. Also, we passed by an adult entertainment place that had a sign saying "No VAT increase on lap dances". Good to know.

Once Heather got there, we met her friends, Robert and Anosh. We all wandered a bit, picted up some really good street burritos, and found a pub to hang out in for the night. Eventually, Brit and I made it back to the hostel and met two of our roommates who were Italian university students staying in Camden for 3 nights. They didn't know much English, we don't know much Italian; it was perfect.

Things I've Learned:

Since people drive on the other side of the road in London and lots of people apparently get hit for looking the wrong way, the city has painted on the road directions on which way to look before crossing. Apparently people's parents never told them to look both ways before crossing.

The food here isn't great. Therefore, crappy American fast food is acceptable. They also don't charge you for water here, and bathrooms have toilet seats. I'm in heaven. 

The subway system is the easiest thing in the world to use. I'm in love.

Venice part 3

Thursday, March 17

The day began same as before, yummy breakfast but sans coffee this time. Luckily, the rain weather forecast was wrong and it was sunny and mild. Joy! Kelsey and Cara slept in a bit as usual and needed more time to get ready for the day, so Heather and I ran some errands and then went to the beach on Lido. There was some building and stair structure that wasn't open at the time, so we found our way around it to the actual shore. The beach was kind of dirty, but it was still peaceful...well, except for the random scarf vendor walking around trying to sell scarves to the 5 people on the beach that day. After the beach, we went back to the hotel to pick up Cara and Kelsey and then hopped on a ferry bound for the Ca'd'Oro. Quick note: the Ca'd'Oro (also called the house of gold) has basically been my favorite piece of architecture since I saw a picture of it in my architecture history class freshman year. Needless to say, I was psyched out of my mind that I was getting to go into it. The line that we took went down the main canal and made tons of stops, so we basically got the grand tour of the city center on our way. Everything along the grand canal is absolutely beautiful, especially on a sunny day. The girls and I exited at our stop and made our way into the Ca'd'Oro museum. On a normal day, it would have cost 12 euro. However, today was the celebration of 150 years of Italian unification day (ps, it was also St. Patty's day), so we got in for free. I love Italian Unification!!! Our tour guide from the previous days mentioned that Venice wanted to be it's own country, like Texas, and probably wouldn't do much for the unification day. Free museum entry is good enough for me.

We first entered into the lower portion that opened up to the canal. This portion of the house had flooded the night before, this we gathered due to the random seaweed hanging out on the floor near the canal entry. Although this portion of the house was relatively original, the rest of the interior had been converted into a modern museum to house some of the artifacts. I was a little disappointed by that portion, but the exterior balconies were really nice and the girls and I took lots of pictures there. Or as our friend Alice says, we had a photo-shoot. After the photo-shoot, we grabbed paninis, gelato, shopped, and then headed to meet our class at the Peggy Guggenheim. As we were making our way to the Guggenheim, clouds started rolling in and we didn't have umbrellas with us. Just as our group assembled and started to make its way into the museum, it started pouring. We couldn't have timed it better. There were some interesting pieces in the collection, some Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Picasso, Mondrian and so on. We finished with the gallery as the sun was starting to come out, so we went out to the museum's little courtyard. Outside was a wish tree where you wrote something down and stuck it on the tree. Some of the wishes were really sweet, like "please help Japan" in little kid writing. And then there was one that just said "rich". Nice.

After making our wishes, we headed back to Lido to freshen up for dinner. The plan was to meet up with some of the Orvieto group for dinner. When we were talking to the other group, they hadn't decided where they wanted to eat so they told us to meet them at the train station. The station is an hour away from our hotel, so we were a bit late getting there. When we got there, the group had left Cooper by herself to come find us. She talked to the group about where they were, and they went to a place that would have been only 20 minutes from our hotel, so we had to hardcore backtrack. Nice planning team. Once we got to the stop, three different people on the phone proceeded to give Cooper wrong directions to where they were eating. After wandering around for awhile, we finally found the place. By the time we got there though, almost everyone was done eating so they left in about 10 minutes. Failure. We ate our overpriced food and after the rest of the group set out to find the pub that the rest of the Orvieto group had gone to. While this was going on, Heather and I decided to bail and go back to the hotel since we had a flight in the morning. The rest of the night was pretty chill, just packing and hanging out with Heather and Brittany, my travel buddies for the next week. Best part of the night- Since mom has taught me well, I always check under the bed when I'm leaving a hotel. While checking under the bed, I found a glasses case. Upon opening it, I found RayBan sunglasses that actually fit my face perfectly. Jackpot!

Things I've Learned:

If I ever have too much money, I'm definitely getting a little villa in Venice, for at least some of the year. I know I haven't been all over the world or anything yet, but it's my favorite of all the places I've visited.

Although the ferry system is exactly like the subway system,but on water, it throws a lot of people off for some reason. Also, I have better sea legs than most of my friends. This is another signs that I should live in Venice part time.

Venice part 2

Wed March 16

So this morning we got up bright and early and had breakfast at the hotel. The spread was pretty incredible, i have to say. During the course of this breakfast, I managed to drink about an entire pot of coffee. This was a terrible choice. I now know why some people choose to go caffeine free. It was absolutely pouring that morning when we got on a ferry bound for Murano. There was a pretty big group of us going, including the roomies, the boys, plus my London roomies and a few others. When we got off the boat, a man directed us to the left where there were signs pointing us towards a glass blowing demo. The demo was free, and a lot less explanatory than one I had seen previously, but it was still really cool. Attached was the showroom where we browsed and bought souvenirs. After most of the group getting pushed out (they weren't buying anything, they were just standing in the door), we headed back to the main area where the shops were. Unfortunately, it was during siesta so only the ones right by the dock were open. The large group was being indecisive and not going in anywhere, so Cara, Kelsey and I split of since we had a few more things we wanted to look for. While walking around, we happened upon another demonstration area connected to a shop where we could go in and just watch the men make glass sculptures. I'm pretty sure we stood there for a good 20 minutes.

After that, Kels Cara and I went back to a shop to get something that Cara needed time to think about. While doing this, the big group decided to go back to Lido. The girls and I were waiting at our stop for awhile when we saw a boat pull up at the next station over with Ryan on it. As the boat started to unload, we also saw Zach, Annie, Brit, so on and so forth. Apparently, they had gotten on the wrong boat and just circled the island. I got their attention and told them to come over to the stop that we were at. Only a few came over at first, and a bunch wouldn't at all due to a little wounded pride. About half of them almost got on the same boat they had the first time and did the whole loop again!!! That half only came over when our boat finally pulled up and all of us were getting on. Another thing about the day, everyone was super whiny about the weather, especially the boys! I've never heard so many guys complain about being cold and wet before when everyone else around them is in the same boat...literally. hehe. But seriously, suck it up! During this time, my little 10 euro umbrella from my first trip to Italy broke. Thomas tried to help me fix it on the boat, but it was a goner. It's replacement is about twice as big and cost the same though. Good trade in! The drawback is that I keep whacking people with the new umbrella, and people can't find me when I'm using it since it covers the entire upper half of my body.

After our little adventure we headed to St. Mark's Basilica for our tour. Sabine was our guide again and she led us into the church which was pretty segregated inside and looked different from ones we had seen previously. The most interesting thin in the portion was a large, golden relief that was COVERED in precious stones. I don't even remember what Sabine said about it's purpose, I was just staring at all the sparkles. I'm pretty sure I've never seen so many precious gems in one item before. After the church we toured the attached museum portion and saw lots of relics. I have to admit I wasn't paying complete attention at this point, I think my blood sugar was low and I was pretty dizzy. After the museum, Sabine led us outside for a walking tour. Luckily, it had stopped raining just in time. We walked around for about 15 minutes before Diana got a text from Jeff Clark who had gone off somewhere and gotten separated from the group. (this happens a lot actually, just to Jeff not the rest of the group). While Brittany and our professor Chip when back to try to find him, the rest of the class we played in a piazza, had some sword fights with our umbrellas, and took pictures which displayed how we felt about the situation: Kelsey was ready to punch someone, I was cheering her on, Dan looked bummed as he held the two portions of his broken umbrella....so on. During this time, we also began taking note of all the broken abandoned umbrellas littering Venice's streets and trash cans. Glad my first cheapo umbrella lasted longer than that! After they found Jeff, we continued our tour where we lost our where abouts and ended up at a large bridge market, I think it was Rialto? Anyway, at this point we were released so Cara, Kelsey, Sarah Masalskis found a little place to eat, shopped, and had some yummy gelato.

At this point, it was time for us to catch a ferry to the stop called Academia for a concertto at 8:30 (which our professors had scheduled). The rain had resumed and the tide was high, so flooding was occurring in some areas. Because of this, the number 2 ferry that we needed wasn't running so we had to take the number 1, which stops at every little spot known to man. Be barely made it to the concert, but that beats almost! The string group was really great, they even did three encore numbers! After the lovely concertto, we headed back to Lido at went to a little wine bar across the street from our hotel. Here we played cards and harassed the owners to shine a light on/ spin the tiny disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Once we were done there, there was an after party in Andres and the boy's room, but being the old lady that I am I went to bed early.

Venice part 1

Tuesday: March 15

Our train to Venice was at the lovely hour of 7:10 in the morning, so the girls and I were up quite early to finish packing and get our buns down to the train station. We also discovered that it's really hard to pack for two weeks in really small bags. The forecast for the entire time we were to be in Venice was rain, which was a bummer. Our first train took us to Florence, and then we hopped on our first Eurostar (an expensive, fast train) to Venice. Once we got there, we all had to grab a ferry to Lido, the island where our hotel was. The ferry we happened to be on felt like the slowest moving craft known to man. I could be exaggerating, but I don't think so. Like the forecast had promised, it was raining so once we got off the boat and got our stuff we rushed to the hotel. After getting there, we didn't have much time before we had to all meet to leave for our walking tour so Cara, Kelsey, Andres, Jake, Ryan and I found a quick food place near our hotel. The girls and I ordered pizza and ended up only having 8 minutes to eat it. Ever tried to eat a whole burning hot pizza in 8 minutes. Let me save you the trouble, it doesn't end well.

About half of our school was in one hotel and the rest were in another down the street, so we all met up before getting on a ferry to take us to St. Mark's Square. We met our tour guide Sabine, who talked a lot about the glory of Venice at the time of it's creation and how it sought to be bigger than Rome. She also mentioned that it was bad luck to stand between the two large columns at the entry of the square, which is where we were told to meet. Good going ksu, way to inflict bad luck on us! Since it was raining, she quickly talked about the elaborate carvings on the outside of the palace and ushered us inside. The palace is pretty extensive, lots of rooms with frescoes and gilded ceilings. Sabine told us about the Venetian Doges and the judicial system of the time that Venice was established- apparently it was pretty strict. After the palace we went on a walking tour of the city. The rain had reduced to a drizzle at this point, which was nice. Once we were done with our tour, the group headed back to Lido for Chinese food. (yup, again). It was pretty awful. The only upside was the fried ice-cream that we ordered for desert. I hadn't had it before, but baby I'm a believer now! After gorging ourselves with unhealthy things, we went back to the hotel room and hit the hay.

Why are you Wearing That? It's Toga Tuesday, Duh!!!

Tuesday 3.8

Today we had studio and seminar as usual and then watercolor. During our cake and tea session, which is of course the best part of the class, Gabrielle told us a little about his childhood in Castiglion. Since he was born in 1948, Italy was a hot mess from the war. Apparently his earliest memory is of a left over bomb (i think he meant a grenade or road device of some sort) blowing up in between Cortona and Castig F.no. Also, in his grammar school classes, they had pictures of grenades and other war devices left around and instructions to not touch them, because some kids in his class (3 brothers) had been killed and maimed from picking one up. So all of this was way depressing, but I had already finished my cake so no ruining of the food occurred. I know that's what you all were worried about. He also talked about current events and politics (as usual) and I found out how different an Italian's meaning of Left v. Right is. He was saying they're basically a right country now because left is Fascist, Communist, and Socialist. Then he asked if the USA was a left country because we elected Obama and he heard that BO was a lefty. Not that far left dude! Even the liberal kid in my class told him we were a more right country. Glad to know we're all on the same page on that one.

We left watercolor a little earlier than we usually do because we had to get back to the Study center for Toga Tuesday! Well, a few ksu people decided that fat Tuesday should turn into a toga party. We not so sneakily snuck our bedsheets down to studio and got ready so all the ksu students could walk in together. Andres carried the torch...which was a T-square. So architectural. Amazingly enough, no red sauce got on my or my roomies' bed sheets. After dinner, we changed out of the bed sheets and headed out to Velvet. Apparently in Italy, Fat Tuesday = Halloween. All the locals were dressed up in Halloween costumes, plus a bit more drag than I'm used to seeing. Maybe we should have left the togas on? After happy hour at the velvet, it was time to go back to the study center and play some card games. I've discovered that the few years I have on most of the others at the study center does make a difference. I find myself not being able to stay out very late and yelling at those kids to keep it down at night. So louuuuddddd. I'm officially an oldy moldy.

Wednesday 3.9

Today was our trip to Assisi! The orvieto group mentioned that it was really beautiful, and it did not disappoint. Assisi is probably the prettiest place we've been. It's a super clean late medieval town with greenery everywhere and most of the stone is a local pink stone. Obviously, the whole town is dedicated to the memory of St Francis of Assisi. We went to a few churches like usual. The first was the Basilica of St. Francis. This church is actually comprised of three different churches on three different levels! The first one (ground level) has really intricate frescoes on the walls and the vaulted ceiling. It's probably the most painted church we've been in. The church below it wasn't open, but the one above was so that's where we headed next. This church was more romanesque and gothic so it had really high ceilings.  On the walls were frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis. Two portions of the roof's frescoes were damaged from an earthquake (i think our tour guide Mara said it happened in 1997). Apparently those portions of the roof completely fell through and the restoration team literally picked as many specs of paint off the floor and put them back where they belonged on the roof. The Italians don't fool around when it comes to restoration.  We also went to the church Santa Chiara (one name I'll actually remember) and then the Museum and Cript of San
Rufino. Most of these churches were built on top of other things, so elements of the church are stripped away so you can see the ruins under them. Pretty cool. This town, like all the others, is really big on relics. In Santa Chiara they had all kinds of things that were supposed to have been St. Claire's...including her white blond locks of hair in a box. I'm guessing she was albino by the color of hair they had on display.

After lunch, a group of us walked up to the castle on top of the hill. I'm marking this as the first castle I've
actually gotten to go in, and let me tell you it was totally worth 5 euro. For some reason most people didn't want to go in, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't ever pass up a chance to run around in a castle for a few hours without a tour guide or tons of tourists. There wasn't much actually in the castle, except for cheesy medieval exhibits and really small staircases. The coolest part was a reallllly narrow long hallway that led to the lookout tower. I have no idea how people got past each other in that space back in the day. After climbing to the top of the tower, we were rewarded with an amazing view of Assisi and the land around it. Perfectly picturesque. After basking in the sun for awhile, we finally came down and wandered around a bit more before heading back to the bus.

Saturday 3.12

Since the last time we went to Sienna it was raining, a few of the girls (Brittany and Amanda from IA and Stephanie from LA) decided to go back there to actually get some pictures. We had originally planned on going to San Gimianno, or San Gimi-Johns as everyone keeps calling it, but it was going to be 7 hours of traveling for only 2 hours there. Bummer. Sienna was lovely though. We went by train so we had to figure out which bus to take to get up the hill. Luckly, the spot that it dropped us off at was close to where we had previously been so we found our way easily. After getting some much needed pizza, we headed to the main piazza and took pictures, then wandered to the Duomo to do the same. The rest of the day was for shopping! In one of the stores that had lots of jewelry and bric-a-brac I managed to get a coiled-snake ring stuck on my finger and by the look of the lady running the store I thought she might try to cut my finger off to get it. After about 15 minutes of two of us tugging, I was finally freed and a rule was made the Marissa is no longer allowed to try on rings in stores. Probably a good thing. We were also able to hit up a gelato shop called Grom that our previous tour guide, Giovanni, said was amazing but it was closed when we went on our field trip. I got Limone and Pink Grapefruit; I hadn't seen the later before. BEST GELATO SO FAR.

After the gelato, we headed back to the bus stop. We weren't sure what bus to get on to get us back to the station because the schedule was super confusing and terribly arranged. While we were talking aloud trying to figure it out, a guy who looked around our age with red hair came up and started to help us out. He was very obviously American. I don't know where Brittany's mind was when he started talking but at some point she goes "hey, you speak really good english!" He looked at her and replied, "yea, I'm from Michigan". Fail of the day. Silly Americana! Anyway, he got us back to the train station and we set off for home.

Things I've Learned:Every town you go to has confetti stuck in the cracks of the cobble stone. I don't know when or why they use confetti so much, but it's everywhere.

The cover charge for restaurants is well worth it to be able to use a decent bathroom.

Parental units- I now eat oranges, specifically blood oranges which are the most delicious things ever. Be proud.

Tuesday we're off to Venice and then London! I'm going to try to get internet at some point on this trip, but I
don't know if I'll be able to post. So, till I find internet again, Arrivedarci!

Antiques Galore!

This weekend, the girls and I got a visit from the one and only Rachel Cooper! After a long day (this was Thursday) of an unnecessarily discussion in studio and a test in seminar, we were excited to make our way down to the train station and show off our little town to Rachel. We bee-lined home since it was sprinlking, had dinner, went to the local gelatteria, and got ready to go out. Sadly, Pirate bar is closed till we leave for spring break, apparently the owner is in the Caribbean buying more alcohol. So of course, RAB bar was the first place we had to go. As always, Santi (the owner/ bartender who wears the awesome white lab coat) was there to greet us and chill with us for awhile. Next we were off to the Velvet Underground. They had live music that night, which was unusually awesome. Pretty much most of the K-State group was there, and some others from Santa Chiara. We hung out and danced the night away. I'd say it was a successful venture.

The next morning, we got up and got ready for the Arezzo antique fair! It's held the first weekend of every month, and it's actually a pretty big deal. After a quick pastery from La Perla, we hopped on the train to Arezzo. The antique fair was pretty extensive. It went down the main Corso in Arezzo and wrapped around a few streets while branching off down others. They had everything from precious stones and jewelry to chandeliers and old machinery. Kelsey and Cara bought some stones for their jewelry making class and Rachel got a pair of sunglasses that were made by an Italian purse company in the 80's that no longer makes sunglasses. Pretty cool! After we walked around most of the fair and did a little more shopping, we met more of the KSU group for lunch. We had been looking for something other than Italian for awhile- and on Saturday we caved. Chinese food was definitely on the menu. The place that we went to was pretty nice inside while super affordable. We had a weird realization though- here we were in Italy, eating Chinese, and being waited on by Chinese people who were speaking Italian to us. It felt a little wrong to say the least. The food was extremely average, but a nice break from pizza everyday.

After lunch we stopped by the Eurospar (a grocery store) in Arezzo and hopped on the train for Castig F.no. After our trek up the hill with our goodies we were pretty tired, so the roomies and I decided to partake in the Italian tradition of siesta. We ended up taking a siesta (nap) for about 4 hours. Oops. It was practically dinner time when we woke up, so we headed to the dinning hall for another meal and lots of card games afterwards. After all, when in Rome- eat, siesta, eat again, do something social, sleep. Ah, the life of an Italian.

Things I learned:
The fish tank at the entry of a Chinese resaurant is universal. We assumed it's some feng shui strategy.

Everyone knows we're American on sight (except Kelsey, people think she's Italian). When we were at the antique fair, a woman was trying to show Rachel and I something. The man next to her said a bunch of stuff, but all I caught was "Americana" and "no capisco" (which means "don't understand"). Precisely random dude, I barely understand you saying that I don't understand. We definitely need to expand our vocab beyond ordering food and transportation tickets.

On Wednesday,  we're taking a trip to Assisi! The Orvieto group already went and said it was amazing, so we're pretty pumped for it. And now, I'm off to go enjoy the lovely weather we're having while it lasts!

My Newly Saltless Diet

So I'm going to do a quick runthrough of the week so far:

Monday: class with Giovanni, did research for a paper, and a whole lot of studio.

Tuesday: Studio desk crits, more studio, get lectured at as a class for not working enough even though no guidelines have been given to us...blah blah blah.

Now the good part of the day- Watercolor class!!!
Luckily for us, we have to get out of class about 20 minutes early in order to make it to Garbielle's class since his house/ studio is aways down in the valley. We didn't get to go to class last week since we were in Rome, so we were a little rusty on our painting skills...or lack there of. As always, we found Gabrielle in his studio, cheerful and eager to help us learn. The past two weeks had been a bit rough for his family. He had surgery on his nasal passages the Wednesday we were in Rome (which he had mentioned being scared for but then he said it wasn't bad after all) and his father-in-law had passed that weekend at the age of 91. I guess the show must go on! We painted for awhile, mostly off of examples of his own work, and then were given pie and tea as usual (which we weren't expecting given the weekend they had). Gabrielle talked a bit about current events, politics, and classical writers/musicians... mostly from American culture. It never ceases to amaze me how much he knows about history and literature, ours in particular. We watched him play with his black cat for a bit; it's the fattest cat I've ever seen! I'd be fat too if I ate his wife, Maria's, baked goods everyday. Sooo good. We painted for a bit longer and while trying to show me some techniques, Gabrielle whipped out a 1 minute masterpiece, which he signed for me. Yay! By this time it was close to dinner so we had to leave. The walk home from his house is always rough because we have to go up some really steep hills, but it was especially cold and WINDY this evening. This just made dinner even more rewarding than usual.

Wednesday: Today we traveled to the little Etruscan city of Perugia. It's a hilltop town like Orvieto with beautiful views to the valleys and mountains beyond. Our tour guide was Mara, the same one we had in Orvieto. We first walked into a medieval, underground remainder of the old papal palace. Mara told us stories about Pope Paul III, who started a war in the region by drastically increasing the price of salt. The locals revolted and learned to make everything without salt, which she said explained why there's no salt in the bread in our region (Umbria and Toscana). I have been wondering what the deal was with the tasteless bread this whole time! Now I know. Apparently this Pope also required all the locals to disassemble their own homes (under penalty of death) in order to put the materials towards his own grand Papal Palace. Since the Palace was always a symbol hated by the people, the Grand Palace was eventually torn down but some of the lower passages (which is what we went through) remain.

Next we went to a museum to see some frescoes from Perugia. Mara explained that painters at the time didn't sign their work, so a lot of them have been given nicknames since their actual name isn't known. The individual whose work we saw the most of was dubbed "Perugino". I wonder where he was from. Apparently, he was the first to organize the local painters and really create a business out of it. He was also Atheist, but knew that pretty much all commissions would be of religious nature, so that's what all of his work was. The paintings were in the Baroque style of the region- basically super ornate and everything had gold backgrounds.

After the museum, we went up to a tower to see views of the landscape and then went off to lunch. The place we went to was called Dal Mi Cocco and it was one of those restaurants where you pay a flat amount and get whatever they're serving that day. Only 15 euro for a 5 course meal and wine. It was AMAZING! First, three different types of bread, then two different pastas, pork roast and potatoes, biscotti for dessert, and a cafe. We were so full we barely ate any dinner later. There wasn't much else to do in Perugia, it's one of those towns that all but completely shuts down during seista, which happens to be during all of our field trips. We had to take a tram down to the bus, but the tram looked like a roller coaster. It was super cool. Also, the mechanism that turned it around at the end of the line was like a giant lazy susan. I don't know what I would use it for, but I kind of want one.

This weekend, our friend Rachel Cooper (hey girl, hey!) is coming up from Orvieto to hang out with us and we're finally going to the antique fair in Arezzo. Yay!

Arrivedarci!