I took Blake for a walk. Blake is the Villa's bilingual golden retriever. His tail wagged with excitement as we set out down Via Gramsci. He's a strong boy compared to my six pound Yorkie whom I miss so dearly. We walked for fifty minutes in place of my run that day. I walked alone with my thoughts and breathed in my surroundings. At one point during our walk, an older Italian man, sans hair, stepped out of his car and said, "Che bella golden" or...

In traveling more and more through out Italy, I have discovered that each little town is a different character in a neighborhood. Florence is actually the the cranky old man with the lawn gnomes. Bologna and Parma are the two hot young college boys going to culinary school. Rome is the beautiful wise old women who stands on her front porch in the sun and basks in her superiority. She's got cats. I'm just taking a walk down the street . Oh boy do I love f...

Donatello's David was gilded. I bet you didn't know that! Yeah, well that's OK because no one did. No, really… Don't feel bad. My Art History teacher who has lived in Florence for the past 12 years didn't even know Donatello's David was gilded until we walked into the Bargello sculpture museum the other day. You see, the bronze statue is under restoration right now, and with works as famous as that they perform the restoration right in the museum so th...

All roads lead to Rome... So I went. When in Rome... Do as the Romans do? or Do everything? Pretty much one in the same, but when only in Rome for two days, do everything the Romans did as fast as you possibly can. Rome welcomed us with sun and open arms. The bus drove through the cobblestoned streets lined with orange and lemon trees, into the historic city center, past the birthday cake (I'll explain in a little while), along the river, and dropped us off on...

This morning my morning class was canceled, so I ventured into Florence by myself for the first time. I exchanged a shirt I bought a few weeks ago using my Italian skills. I ended up with two turtle necks that fit me instead of one layered sweater thing that didn't. Afterward, I ventured to the Brancacci Chapel on the other side of the Arno to visit what is considered the very first Renaissance fresco painted by the artist known as Massaccio. He utilized line...