Our time in the Alpine village of Cortina d'Ampezzo was quite relaxing. We stayed in a cozy lodge where the people built fires for us and stuff. I went for a hike at one point, but other than that there really was nothing to do there. But luckily, we had wireless, so not only did I get to Skype with Mom and Dad (and Andrew for, like, 2 seconds) but I also got to get caught up on some television! I watched all the new episodes of Chuck, Desperate Housewives, Dexte...

Here (finally) is my entry about Venice! Hands down, favorite city. I think it was partly getting away from the obnoxious noise of cars and motorbikes, and partly being surrounded by those beautiful canals. A lot of the time, I was just walking around. On our free day I walked from one end of the island to the other, going through all the little alleys. For class, we went to San Marco to study the building and look at all the mosaics inside. The piazza outside t...

Here are some of the things I did this past weekend in beautiful Firenze: Went to San Miniato al Monte, a monastery on a hill that looks down into the valley, where I heard monks singing the Gregorian Chant Saw Botticelli's Primavera, Birth of Venus, and Titian's Venus of Urbino, in the Uffizi Gallery Tried many flavors of gelato- Chocolate Orange is yummy. So is peach. Went shopping on Via Tornabuoni, where all the designer shops are- got myself a lovely ...

Thursday was our last day in Rome. We had a free morning, so I went with Ali, Max, and Cristina to relax in the Borghese Gardens until it was time to meet up with the group. That afternoon, we had a session at St. Peter's. Walking inside there, it honestly felt like the most enormous building I had ever been in. I tried to take some pictures with some people in it so that you could get an idea of the scale of that place. We had a lot of time to just go around by ...

I luckily stumbled on a bar with wi-fi here in Rome, so I am sitting here putting up loads of pictures as I write this. On my first day here, I threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain; climbed the Spanish Steps; and went to the Piazza Navona. That afternoon, we had a group session with this English art historian who teaches in Rome. He took us to the Pantheon, the Forum, and the Colosseum. I have to say, it was a bit surreal to be seeing them in person after studyi...