The plane ride(s): My flight was scheduled to leave February 1st, but a huge snowstorm hit Missouri and I had to fly out six hours earlier than planned in order to beat the ice! I met sixteen girls from my program at the gate in Washington D.C., where we had to wait for five hours. I sat next to a priest on the flight to Rome, and tried to be friendly but he wouldn't talk to me - I assumed because he didn't speak English - but when I offered him my dinner roll in broken Italian he laughed at me and started offering advice on which artworks to see in Rome (in perfect English, of course).
Ashton (left) and Angela wait at the gate in D.C.
Rome: We spent four days trying to learn all fifty-something names and faces, while cramming as much art into our schedules as possible. The hotel was a ten-minute bus ride from the city, and we rode in every day to see things: St. Peter's, the Vatican museum, the Roman forum ruins, the Colosseum, the Maxxi (a contemporary art museum), the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Four Rivers Fountain, some Caravaggios in various churches, etc. Best food eaten: a slice of pizza by the Colosseum with eggplant and basil.
Maya (one of my roommates in Cortona) enjoying her pizza
Florence: I started getting to know people better, and the hotel was much closer to the center of town, so no buses were required! We were still pretty busy looking at art (the Uffizi, Galleria Academia, Il Duomo, Orsanmichele, etc.), but we had some more free time, too. I went to La Specola, Florence's natural history museum from the 1700s, which has everything from stuffed platypuses to wax anatomical models on silk cushions. I wandered around by myself in search of yarn (not an easy task in the less touristy parts of town, especially because I didn't know the Italian word for "yarn") and wound up at a chocolate festival in Piazza Santa Croce. There's an art supply store (Zecchi) right next to Santa Maria del Fiore, and we nearly cleaned them out of paint. Oh! I should mention that in both Rome and Florence the group ate together at a restaurant every night, and pasta is SO DELICIOUS. Favorite food in Florence: dark chocolate orange gelato.
In front of the baptistry doors (by Lorenzo Ghiberti)
Cortona: Finally we arrived in Cortona! The bus took us up a winding hill into the most perfect Tuscan town you can imagine, with terra cotta tiled roofs and Starry Night trees and laundry hanging out of windows, and dropped us off in Piazza Garibaldi. We got to see Tonino's, the restaurant where we eat dinner on the weekdays. And then we began climbing the hill: the elevation rises 400 feet in the quarter-mile stretch of cobblestone road leading to the dorm. My legs are in such good shape now, let me tell you. But it's worth it - look at this view!!!
I get to look at this EVERY DAY.
Ok, that's it for now. I have to go to town and grab some food for lunch.
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