ventisette giorno

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I am officially in Venice and life is good!

It seems like I just get done telling you about the best thing ever and then I stumble across something that somehow manages to top it. Believe me, it just gets better all the time! Just when I think my life can’t get any more spectacular, I’m immersed in even more priceless opportunities and incredible experiences.

Why me!? How did I get this lucky!?

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. We spent the morning at the Bargello museum, where I was supposed to give my report on a statue of David by Verrocchio. I found out I had written my report on the wrong thing a couple weeks ago, so I spent all week working on my presentation. When we walked into the room where my work of art was supposed to be waiting… The red velvet ropes were closing off a space that was obviously empty. Apparently Verrocchio’s David is out of the museum at an art show right now! My report was missing in action! So I gave my report in front of an empty case! Haha! I was a little bummed that I wasn’t able to see it in real life… Especially after how great it was to see the topic of my first report with my own eyes! More than anything, though, I couldn’t get over how funny it was. Luckily, I thought it was an ugly statue from the get-go, so I wasn’t too disappointed. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it.

After my report, we went back to the hotel and began our final. It was dreadful! We locked ourselves in our room and didn’t come out until we were finished… I was the first one out of our room to finish and it took me 4 HOURS! It took the others 5 or 6 hours! We had to define 8 terms and give examples of each, write an essay on Baroque art, write an essay on Renaissance art, and write about our top 5 favorite things we’ve seen here. It took us forever and our brains were dripping out our noses by the time we were finished!

It feels SO good to be done with notes and lectures and to have the weight of the final finally lifted off our shoulders. Let the vacation begin!!!!

After dinner, we got gelato and ate it on the bridge while we watched the sunset. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to Florence!

Arrivederci, Firenze! Ciao, Venezia!

We spent about two hours on the train to Venice. When we walked out of the train station, we gasped in unison as all of our jaws hit the floor… The river running through the city streaming with gondolas pushed by men in striped shirts was right there!!! This was something I had been looking forward to the entire trip and we were all entranced. It is so Italy! I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome into Venice!

We spent the afternoon just walking around and exploring and trying to get oriented. Venice is absolutely beautiful. Again with the colored buildings, stone walls, green shutters, and flowers in the windows… They get me every time! Plus, what’s not to love about jolly old men in striped shirts singing as they push a gondola down the river?? It’s sooo dreamy here! I’m so excited for the next two days!

Oh, by the way, I had the best meal of the entire trip tonight! No questions asked! We convinced Steve to take us all out for CHINESE!!!! We’ve all just about overdosed on bread and pasta and pizza, so our mouths were watering as we passed a Chinese restaurant. Really, who goes all the way to Italy and eats chow-mein and fried rice?? Well, obviously we do! And it was the highlight of my eating experience here in Italia! How funny is that!?

Peace, love, and egg rolls!

See you soon, ya’ll!

Always,

Wit

giorni venticinque

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I just arrived back to Florence after the single greatest weekend of my entire life.

Did you hear that? Single greatest weekend OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!

That is not an exaggeration and no, Colter, this is not me doing what all women do and talking in absolutes.

It really was THAT good!

Friday began with a quick stop in Pisa to hold up the leaning tower. It was so much fun to be an annoying tourist and snap a cliché picture with the tower falling into our hands! We took so many pictures, we were practically Asian. It was so incredible to see the tower in real life and realize that it really is leaning! A huge gasp fell over our entire group as we turned the corner and caught a glimpse of the tower… It quickly turned into screams and cheers. We were so excited to be a part of such an incredible monument. You wouldn’t believe how big it is! And how mind-boggling it is to see it still functioning although it’s leaning. It seriously is breath-taking.

I still can’t believe all the things I’ve seen with my very own eyes that most people only get the chance to see in pictures. You’d think after 4 weeks I’d start to believe that this is real life, but sometimes it’s just so good that I still wonder.

Although the tower was pretty much he only thing we cared to see, we also had the chance to walk through the Pisa Cathedral, Baptistery, and Cemetery. The architecture was gorgeous!

With the adrenaline of supporting the leaning tower still pulsing through our veins, we boarded the train for Cinque Terre. We were all so giddy and excited. We had been looking forward to this weekend getaway all month! Steve and all of us students went our separate ways at the train station. He headed back to Florence for a peaceful weekend away from us and we headed to the coast for a wild weekend on our own!

Somehow we arrived in Italy 4 weeks ago with grandeur thoughts of a resort and pampering when we imagined our getaway to Cinque Terre. So, imagine our surprise as we pulled up to a campsite and saw 10 two-man tents waiting for us.

The weekend got off to a rough start when we used flashlights to check our “room” for bugs… 5 spiders were found in my bed alone. Five spiders!!! In my sheets and crawling on my pillow! I won’t go into much detail about all the screaming and heebie-jeebies that took place, but I’m sure you all can imagine! After catching, releasing, and killing all the little critters we found, we doused our tent in bug spray and coated the entire outside with bug-repellent powder.

In efforts to push those thoughts to the back of our minds, we went exploring. We first stumbled across some frogs. After a lot of squirming and jumping (from ME!), I managed to hold the little guy in my hand and give him a kiss. I was absolutely petrified to let him near me, but how often do you have the opportunity to kiss a frog…? I wasn’t about to let that opportunity squirm out of my hands! No prince, but I got a picture… And in the scheme of things, nothing in life matters unless you can prove it with a picture!

Not too long after that, the bushes started to twinkle. I had to blink repeatedly and rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things... Lights started to blink across the sky and someone shouted, “FIREFLIES!” I was absolutely awestruck. I was speechless. Of all the things I’ve seen in Italy, none of them made me as happy as those little lightning bugs. I was overcome with butterflies in my tummy and had to choke back tears. Seriously! It has always been my lifelong dream to see a firefly in real life and that was the last thing I was expecting out of this Italy trip. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I was standing there surrounded by them. Call me a sap, but it was absolutely enchanting. I went a little wild running around after them. I caught one and watched it blink and flicker in my hands. That is life’s simplest pleasure. It made me so thankful for my life and so thankful for this trip. I can officially cross “Catch a Firefly” off my bucket list! Thank you, Italy!

I’m not sure how anyone expected us to sleep in beds that we knew full-well to be infested with spiders. Seeing as how we were expecting a hotel, all we brought to sleep in were shorts and t-shirts. So not only were we absolutely FREEZING, but we had nothing between our skin and the ooey-gooey, creepy-crawly elements of nature! Linds and I shacked up together and we decided we’d keep each other awake as long as possible so we could fall asleep without thinking about the bugs we were sleeping with. After hours of talking, we finally fell asleep. I woke up with a cramped hip and shoulder from sleeping in the fetal position all night and refusing to move for fear of touching something hairy. Apparently, I was trying to avoid the inevitable, because when I was making my bed the next morning, I was appalled to find bright red bug-guts smeared on my sheets. As nauseous as it made me, I was glad to see I was the one that came out victorious from my encounter in the middle of the night!

That morning, we got up and caught a train to take us into the actual Cinque Terre. It‘s 5 cities lining the rugged coast of the Italian Riviera. Buildings painted in pinks and greens and yellows cover the lush, green cliffs that drop off right into the Mediterranean. It is hands down the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. EVER! You have the option of taking a train between cities or hiking the cliffs from one to the other. We hiked through two cities as we soaked in the gorgeous scenery we were a part of. Those hikes were cake… They were paved the entire way so it was literally a walk in the park. When we got into the third city, we took a break for some gelato and ended up in a spur-of-the-moment decision to hike one of the hardest hikes in the Cinque.

Before any of us really realized what we were getting ourselves into, we were scaling rocks in our skirts and flip-flops with our gelato melting down our hands. We really weren’t dressed for the occasion because of our misinterpretation of the “camping expedition”. You should’ve seen the looks we got from the hikers passing us from the other direction… Apparently shorts and Nikes are more appropriate for hiking? Who knew?

I’m not a hiker by any means! I’m sure all the St. George bike rides and Timpanogas Cave hikes you endured through my tears and screams have testified that to you. So I hope you realize the seriousness of the situation when I tell you that it was the most incredible 90 minutes of my entire life! Nothing has ever been so hard and I’m pretty sure my body has never known that much sweat, but nothing I’ve done has ever been so worth it! The hike was along the cliffs of the Riviera and was made up of steep, skyward steps and narrow ledges. In those moments where I started getting reminders of my aversion towards hiking, I’d look over my shoulder and literally see the Mediterranean Sea under my feet. There is no possible way to feel any less than a million bucks with that view out of the corner of your eye. The scenery was GORGEOUS! There is just about every type of vegetation here… We saw cactuses, pine trees, palm trees, vineyards, and a beautiful array of wildflowers.

With every corner we’d turn, we saw the next colorful city in the distance and our adrenaline pumped in anticipation to reach the water. When we finally reached the bottom, we all started sprinting towards the beach. We ripped off our clothes and threw them down with our bags and towels and ran screaming into the water. We all swam as far as we could out into the ocean before our laughter had us drowning in the salt water. We were all smiles! We were so giddy and giggly and all we could do was scream and smile.

I have never felt happiness like I did in that moment.

For a split second, time stood still. Nothing else in the world mattered. I was caught in a perfect moment when the beauty of this time in my life hit me just as hard as the cold water did. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and bliss. I just scaled the cliffs of the Italian Riviera and ran as fast as I could into the Mediterranean!! That thought, just like the water, was so refreshing! For a moment, all that mattered was what I had just accomplished and the unbelievable reality of the moment I was swimming in. Life is beautiful. My life is beautiful!

The water was perfect.

It was cool and refreshing.

The waves rocked us back and forth.

We floated in the water with smiles beaming on our faces. We couldn’t help but talk about how unbelievable the day had been and how wonderful this entire opportunity has been for us. We couldn’t explain, let alone fathom, the gratitude we were experiencing. I’ve never been so grateful. I’ve never felt as small as I did in that moment… My utter insignificance was proved by the large crashing waves and all the petty worries of life were washed away with them.

Life was absolutely perfect.

We finally climbed out of the water and crashed on the beach. By then, it was about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so we slept for a couple hours on the sand until our growling tummies woke us up. We took a train back into one of the first cities we hiked through and grabbed some dinner.

We were able to make the last train back to our stop but we missed the shuttle that would take us to our campground, so we had to walk the 2 miles back to our warm, clean, bug-free tents. A few of us started belting out music by The Rocket Summer to pass the time. I had one ear-phone in to make sure we were singing the right words and we were singing at the top of our lungs. We had been singing a few songs when Linds stopped us and said, “You guys! Look up at the stars!” We stood dead in our tracks and gazed upwards and the clearest, brightest night sky. The stars were incredible. All of a sudden, the song continued on in the background, singing “I’ll be making up things for you to see like romantic lights surrounding Italy…” We all just started screaming and jumping up and down right in the middle of the road. We are such girls, huh? It was unbelievable! There we were: standing in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Italy, staring at the stars, and it just happens to sing about romantic lights surrounding Italy. It was surreal! We were all so giddy after that. But, really, can you blame us!?

We made it back to our tents and fell asleep the second our heads hit the pillow. We were so tuckered out, the thoughts of spiders didn’t even phase us.

We woke up the next morning, packed up all our things, and went to lay on the beach near the train station until our train left at noon. We got there early enough that we were some of the only people on the beach. We took a nap in the sun for a couple hours… Until we were so rudely awoken by none other than an EMU!!! Yes, a wild emu was roaming the beaches of Italy! HAHA! Seriously??? How much more bizarre does it get? We were all rolling with laughter.

It was the perfect way to end our memorable weekend!

The Cinque Terre is officially my favorite place in the entire world!

I can’t even tell you how many times we said, “This is the best day EVER!” In between screams and giggles, it was the only thing on our lips. Believe me, it really was the BEST DAY EVER!

I love you guys!

Ciao!

Wit

ventidue giorni

Thursday, May 26, 2011

A week from today is our last day in Italy! I can’t believe how fast it’s flown by! I’ll be back on American soil with my favorite people in the entire world in only 8 days! I’m so excited for all the fun things coming up this week and so excited to top it all off with a big hug from all the people I’ve missed like crazy since I’ve been away!

We began our day on the other side of the river, about a 30 minute walk from our hotel. We saw the Church of Santa del Carmine that included paintings of Adam and Eve; bot their temptation and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. We saw the Church of Santa Felicita and the Medici family palace. The Medici was a wealthy, powerful family in Renaissance Italy. They were huge icons to the people during this time and they employed many artists. Their home is ginormous! They housed around 50 people in it at one time and it would’ve been far from a tight squeeze!

We ended our day spending 3 hours at the Uffizi Gallery. 3 hours! My legs are bloody stumps.

We had the opportunity to see world-famous paintings like the Birth of Venus and Spring (Primavera), both by Botticelli. Most of the paintings were ones I could’ve paid attention to only as I was walking by and feel satisfied; but, there were a few, like the Birth of Venus and Primavera, that I am so glad I got to see. Venus is the goddess of love and beauty and she is the focus in both of these paintings.

David was also put to shame today in the Uffizi. There was a giant painting of a naked midget (dwarf). It was absolutely hilarious! He was standing with his back (and bare butt) facing the viewer and he was looking over his shoulder as if to say, “Come and get it!” We were all dying of laughter! The entire museum is full of these elegant pictures of sensual nude women and then somewhere in the midst of them appears this butt-naked midget! If you walked around to the other side of the piece it gave you a full-frontal image as well. With a moth, A MOTH, covering his manhood. Haha, oh my gosh, I’m dying just writing about it. All in all, I found a new Italian heart-throb!

I had a nice little –much needed—pick-me-up at dinner today. We got this lemon sorbet for dessert and it had a funky little taste to it. With each bite closer to the bottom it began to burn the entire way down. After a little chat with the waiter, it was confirmed that the ice cream was mixed with lemon liquor. Yeaaaa-hooooo! Linds and I walked down the street pretending to be drunk to try and freak Steve and this really Molly-Mormon girl in our group out! Haha, we’re going to hell! …If not for drinking liquor, for teasing innocent people! I definitely needed a little alcohol in my system after the main course… I took a big bite of what I thought was chicken and realized it was fish right as I started crunching fish bones between my teeth! I threw it all up it my napkin and didn’t touch it for the remainder of the meal! Oh, barf!

Now we’re just back at the hotel trying to study, write our essays, and pack!

We leave early tomorrow morning to catch a train to Pisa! I can’t wait to do my part and hold up the leaning tower! We’ll spend the day in Pisa and then we catch a train that afternoon to take us to Cinque Terre. Turns out, our weekend getaway is more of a camping trip than a resort. We are staying in tents, have a community bathroom, and have to carry our belongings around in a backpack while we’re there. A little change of plans after the elaborate expectations we had, but it is still going to be such a blast! It’s a beach community with 5 separate cities to hike to, so we’ll be spending the weekend hiking, relaxing at the beach, and exploring through the cities. It’s going to be great! We get back Sunday evening, then I give my report Monday morning, take our final Monday afternoon, and then pack up and leave for Venice on Tuesday! It’s going to be a great week!

I won’t be able to take my computer with me on our weekend escapade, so I’ll get ya’ll caught up on Sunday night! Hope you can find some way to fill the 3 hours you would usually spend reading my email each day! :)

Can’t wait to see you guys!

Love Always,

Wit

ventuno giorno

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Today was jam-packed with sight-seeing. …Haha, I say that like it’s any different from every other day! Who am I kidding? Every day is jam-packed with sight-seeing! So, I guess you could say it was an average day.

We started off at Michelangelo’s house seeing some of his beginning works and also paintings and sculptures dedicated to him after his death.

We spent some time in the Piazza Signoria which is the large square in front of the city hall. It is filled with countless amazing sculptures. They are all so large, immaculate, and detailed that I can’t help but feel intimidated and infatuated in their presence! There was another rape (abduction) sculpture in the square that told the story of two men fighting over the same woman. It is a tower of struggle with all 3 figures intertwined in this smooth, dramatic piece. The Sabine Woman’s current husband is on the bottom, the new guy is in the middle attempting to pull her from her husband, and the woman is at the top gracefully trying to escape the brawl. I love the movement and passion that is portrayed in it. It’s so lifelike! Not to mention, I loved the story behind it. It’s always much more enticing when the sculpture tells a story you care to hear. I was hanging on to every word!

I laid eyes on the David today! I died and went to heaven. He is one big HUNK of marble, if I may say so myself. I couldn’t peel my eyes off of him. I was waiting for all 15 feet of him to come to life any minute. He is absolutely ginormous and every last corner of his body is dripping with detail. He is so lifelike! I was nothing short of amazed. The veins in his hand, his toenails, the tendons in his feet, the dimple on his belly-button, his ribs, the pinch in his stomach from his shifted weight, his chiseled jaw line, his flared nostrils, every line and curve in his legs, and the sculpting of the muscles in his arm… Okay, okay, and his tight butt… It all made me weak in the knees. I couldn’t believe how realistic he is. Other than the fact that I would probably only measure up to his upper thigh, this guy was totally believable. I swear I could see him breathing.

He is absolutely beautiful and I am so totally smitten by him. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and butterflies rising in my throat. He is one of the most famous works in the entire world and I can’t believe I had the opportunity to stand within feet of him! I saw him with my very own eyes… My very own sticky eyes that I could hardly pull away from him! He is so much better in real life. There’s no way to even imagine how mind-blowing and awe-inspiring he is without seeing him in person. He’s a total heart throb! I can’t decide who I have a bigger crush on… David or Michelangelo. Michelangelo’s talent is out of this world. I was completely captivated by the incredible detail he put into every inch of David’s body. To this day, he is one of the most anatomically correct figures in all the world. Not only was Michelangelo’s understanding of the body so impressive, but his ability to convey it in a single block of marble is enough to knock a person off their feet. My mind was officially blown this afternoon. I could’ve stood in his presence forever. He’s absolutely brilliant!

If things with Jersey Shore don’t work out, I’m going to try my luck at TV fame with Ripley’s Believe It or Not. They’ve got to have some sort of special for unbelievable encounters with birds. Yep, that’s right, I got creamed again!! Another bird pooped on me!!!!! That’s 3 times in 3 weeks... Lucky me! Some people don’t even have that opportunity once in their life… And I’ve been spoiled to have it enough that I don’t even have to ask what hit me. I knew the instant I felt a plop in my hair that a little birdie dropped me something nice and steamy! What a wonderful thing to be so familiar with, wouldn’t you say?

Yesterday, Lindsay, Carly, and I had to wear cloaks provided by the Church of St. Lawrence before they would allow us to enter. Apparently our shorts were too short and we wouldn’t be granted entrance until we covered up. Lucky for us, they had these huge sheets of sheer baby blue fabric with a hole cut out for the head that they let us borrow. We were literally wearing a cape… Or something that closely resembled an oversized Ghost costume. It was absolutely hilarious. Everyone in the church was staring at us as our cloaks caught air and floated behind our backs. We were all laughing so hard. We looked like smurfs and were all drowning in our blue oversized dryer-sheets! If anything, it was more distracting than the 3 inches of thigh we were showing would have been. We were being punished for being immodest and I seriously felt like I was wearing “the scarlet letter!” It was one of those moments when all you want to do is laugh but it is absolutely forbidden, so you’re laughing even harder trying to fight it! I felt like 3^rd graders again as we were muffled giggles with our heads in our notebooks as the tears streamed down our cheeks. It was probably the hardest I’ve laughed on this trip. (Partly due to heat exhaustion and delirium, I’m sure!) If only we were allowed to take pictures so you could fully understand how ridiculous we looked. It was priceless!

Carly, Jessica, Lindsay, Amy, and I went for a run tonight after dinner. We usually go in the mornings when nobody is out and about, so it was a whole new experience running at the height of the Florentine night-life! We were dodging people left and right! I about got ran over by 3 different people on bikes and I may or may not have played some “red rover” by running through the arms of couples holding hands. It was mass chaos! There was a concert playing in one of the piazzas (the huge Piazza Signoria, that I mentioned earlier) with crowds of people lining the entire block listening. It wasn’t ‘til we were running right through the middle of the open square, noticed the performer to our left, and heard everyone start laughing, clapping, and hollering that we realized we had interrupted something! Just imagine 5 American girls obliviously bopping through a street concert in a huge open piazza in Italy. It was hilarious! Laughing so hard and running so fast gave us all some serious sideaches!

Tomorrow is going to be a loooooong day! We’re gone from 9 to 6… That’s 9 hours strong and steady in the stuffy world of art history! 3 hours of which will be spent in one museum! Wish me luck! Then we have to pack up for our weekend in Pisa and Cinque Terre!

My body has been longing for a RockStar Energy Drink since I got here. I have no idea how I’m still alive! It’s probably little moments like being forced to wear a floor-length cloak or being pooped on by a bird that keep us going!

Te voglio bene!

Ciao!

Wit