Wine tasting and the sky is falling

I just took my midterm, which went well. Afterwards we went wine tasting. We went to Cafe di Perugia. The Italian man who worked there taught us the history of wine, where what kinds come from and how to taste them. We tried a white, a red and a sweet "frizzante" wine. I will give you a little knowledge about wine tasting.

First: Look at the color. Put it against a white napkin and under a light. The color will help you determine the age.
Second: Swirl to the left and then to the right. This releases the scent.
Third: Smell the wine. Close your eyes and see how long the scent stays with you and what different scents there are.
Fourth: Take a small sip and swish it around in your mouth. This gets any other taste out of your mouth.
Finally: Drink and enjoy.

It is currently pouring outside. I have never seen it like this before. The thunder struck so hard it made a car alarm go off outside the window. I plan on making my way back to the apartment soon and staying and studying for the night. I have my Renaissance Art midterm tomorrow and there is a lot of stuff to know. I have to be able to identify a work of art by name, when it was made, where it is, and who made it and then be able to analyze and compare with other works of art.

Ciao

June 8, 2011 Look everyone! I am all caught up!

Hello everyone! I am actually posting on the current day. It is almost 10 am here and almost 4 am back at home. I got a rough nights sleep last night but am having a good day anyway. The girls and I went to the bar next to our apartment and had cappuccinos this morning. I orderd for all of us and thought I knew what I was saying when I said "Tre cappuccino" and the cute old man behind the counter said "Cappuccini! Tre cappuccini, un cappuccino." hahaha my first Italian lesson. In Italy, you stand at the bar to drink your cappuccino, you rarely sit. So we stood and drank and then headed to school.
Right now I am in the library and about to study for my midterm. The first half of class is my midterm and the second half is wine tasting....only in Italy.
I will update you later!
Ciao ciao!

June 7, 2011 Living for the moment

I loved my breakfast this morning. I made eggs with spinach and put it over bread with fresh parasian on top. Today I went out early to get groceries while the girls were still getting ready. We were out of a few neccesities. I mostly wanted milk…I grew up a farm girl and need my milk in the morning. So I arrived to fight off the old Italian ladies at 9 am when it opened. On my way back to the apartment it started pouring. We stayed in until it calmed down outside and then headed to the school. I worked on my blog the headed back to the apartment for lunch around 12. While I made my leftover spaghetti for lunch I made up my study guides for my midterms.
Class was from 3-6:45. We talked about Raffaelo and then went to museum to look at some of the work. I really enjoy discussing and comparing works of art.
We went out for cappuccinos when I got back to the apartment and then hung out and had salad for dinner. I worked on writing things up for my blog until bed. It takes a long time to rewrite everything from my journal.
Italy is going by so fast and I am very torn about how I feel about this. Part of me misses home and cant wait to run off the plane to see my parents. But the other half of me is seizing this once in a lifetime opportunity and doesnt want it to ever end. I am trying not to let it slip away too fast.

June 5, 6 2011 Book worm days

These days were filled with sitting at the school and studying for midterms. Midterms are on Wednesday and Thursday and I have a lot to study for.

June 4, 2011 "One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." - Henry Miller

Today was probably my favorite day so far. We went to Bognoregio and Orvieto. The drive was our most beautiful yet. We drove through country sides and made our way to a river, which we drove along for a while. The water was bright blue and glittered in the morning sun and the tall green hills speckled with bright orange and green poppies jumped from the shores.
We arrived at Bagnoregio, the birthplace of Saint Bonaventure.

We walked to the edge of the hill to my favorite part of the day. Across a long valley stood the other half of the town, latterly on top of a plateau. We had to walk across the valley on a bridge to get there. Apparently right people use this as a summer home and only about 14 people live there during the winter.

We began our journey down the valley. The hill was very very steep and we knew we would have to climb this later in the day when coming back. We got to the foot of the bridge and looked up at the very long and steep way we had to take. But it was so beautiful. A town placed on the very top of a cliff surrounded by valleys. Rumor had it that an earthquake occurred and split that part of the town away from everything else.

The only way to get to it is by foot (or small moped) across the bridge. Once we got to the other side of the bridge, everyone was breathing heavy. The end was the steepest hill I had ever seen in my life. Even the buff guys in the group were panting by the time we got to the top.
The town was so beautiful and cute. There were probably 3 or 4 stores, a town square (which is literally a square with nothing in it) and Italian style houses with flowers everywhere. We walked around, which doesn’t take that long. We saw where Bonaventure’s house was until the earthquake dropped it off the cliff. I bought a nice poster from there. We then made our way down the steep bridge to the other side. Once on the other side some people decided to wait for a shuttle to take them up the mountain, Jill and I chose to walk it with the guys and a few girls. It was brutally steep and hot (come to find it was about 100 degrees out) and I was very thirsty. But I made it to the top and was proud of myself for doing it.
We then took the bus to Orvieto (which is about 30 minutes by bus. Orvieto is also on a large hill and our professors told us we were going to climb it. Everyone cried on the inside. However, they were just kidding. We took a cable car/rollercoaster box thing to the top and then a bus the rest of the way.
We got off the bus and saw the main attraction of Orvieto, the Duomo/church. This is probably the most amazing church I have seen so far. The front stood taller than I thought possible. It is horizontally stripped cream and grayish green. Frescos cover the towers on the front and upon closer inspection, the front walls have hundreds of tiny scenes carves into them.

The inside is just as spectacular. Your head has to contort all the way back just to see the ceiling. The inside is also stripped and had columns that reach like fingers to the top. Around the front alter are dozens of frescos and tall stained glass windows that reach nearly to the ceiling. On either side of the church are little chapels. On the right side is a chapel with tons of frescos. On the left side is the chapel that has the story of why the church was built. Legend has it that a priest was doubting that the host was the body of Christ. One day while he was saying mass, he half-heartedly held up the host and it started to bleed onto the alter cloth. The priest took the alter cloth to the Pope who had a church built for the occasion.
After the church we lunch, on our professors. Lunch was incredible and so were the waiters. Our little Italian man waiter was hilarious. He was dancing around and running around getting orders like a crazy man. When he came to get our drink order, Jill ordered a water and he pulled it out of his pocket and started laughing hysterically. Our first course was a giant piece of lasagna with bread. Second was 3 meats and potatoes. They placed a piece of chicken, sausage and beef on your plate and then piled up potatoes next to it. Then the final course was a bowl of fresh fruit. As usual in Italy, it was delicious and filled us up.
After a bit of free time we met up and made our way to the bus. When we got back, Jill, Ashley and I went grocery shopping. We then unpacked the groceries, got a cappuccino and gelato and went back to the apartment. We sat in the kitchen for hours chatting until it was time for bed. We plan on sleeping in tomorrow, it our first day off in 2 weeks.

June 3, 2011 "It is not down on any map; true places never are." - Herman Melville

Today we got up at 5 am to head to Florence. We made eggs in the morning and met the group at 5:45 and got on the bus.

Our first stop was the science museum that has many of Galileos original artifacts.

However, we had to walk across Florence to get there. We walked down one of the streets and I could see a church at the end of it. I love churches but there are only so many you can take before they become repetitive. We got all the way to the end of the street and I saw just how big it was. I didn’t think churches could be so big. This is the Duomo which Italians take as “church” but Americans take as “dome” due to the large Dome on top.

This church took 200 years to build and then another 100 years for them to figure out how to get the dome on top.
I also saw the brass doors by Brunecceli that my Renaissance art class was just talking about.
We turned the corner on the main piazza. In the middle is a replica of the famous David.

We passed the Ufiziz museum which is the most famous museum in the western world.
We entered the science museum and explored. The first floor was all about Galelio. They had his old instrument, globes and telescopes. Then upstairs was all about the evolution of science. They had models of child birth and complications….everyone was grossed out by this….I don’t see why. Then they had the evolution of clocks, baramters and amps.
We were given free time so Ashley, Jill and I went to a statue filled area and hung out in the shade and looked at statues. Most of the statues in Florence are violent to show others not to mess with them.

After everyone met up, we went to the Ufiziz. It was incredible. The original work from artists like Giotto stood in front of me. These are the works I have been studying from a slide for the past two weeks. The Madonna and Child by Giotto was stunning in person. The gold leaf in the painting almost sparkled.

We were given the afternoon to explore, eat and shop. Ashley, Jill and I had been craving pizza all day so we went on a hunt for it. While there are almost 3 pizzeria per street, many are expensive. So we wandered around and by this time we were starving. We walked down this very crowded street and saw cameras ahead. As we got closer I saw 2 faces that I recognized but I wasn’t sure from where. Then it hit me. We had somehow run into the pizza shop where the cast from the reality show, Jersey Shore was working. This was ridiculous. We stood there confused and a TV guy came over and said that if we wanted to go inside we had to sign a release form and stand in line. So crazy. We found the idea of standing in line, singing a form and waiting for pizza that would probably be done wrong, absurd. So we continue searching.

In a back ally we found an adorable little pizza place. The atmosphere was comfortably fancy and very Italian, plus the prices were reasonable.
I ordered a pizza with olives, ham, artichokes and mushrooms on it. As usual, they serve you an entire pizza and every bite was delicious. We sat in this quite atmosphere full and tired for a while before venturing back out.
Florence is famous for its gold, silver and leather. Everywhere you turned you could find a store selling an abundance of one or another of these products. We went to an outdoor market and looked around. I wanted to but a leather purse but they were very expensive.

Jill got a hat and Ashley got a scarf. We then made our way to the covered bridge to look around. This is where all the very high priced gold and silver is sold.

We headed back to the bus and when we got back to the apartment we had leftovers for dinner.

June 2, 2011 Relaxing

Today was a slow day of sketching, homework and class. But today was the 150 anniversary of Italy so I got to see a band.

3 more weeks in Italy