Ciao! Sorry I haven't written all week - I guess you could say that's a good thing - I've been so busy here trying to see and do everything! Monday I went to the Piazza Michelangelo - which looks over the entire city of Florence. it was absolutely beautiful - unfortunately I accidentally deleted my pictures :( but I'm going to "steal" some from my friends here haha. Tuesday we went to Santa Maria Novella, and it was incredible. I saw Giotto's crucifix a...

Saturday - Sunday, we took a bus from Florence to Rome! I was very excited about Rome, probably more than anything else. On Satuday, we arrived around 11am, had lunch, and checked into our hotel - I'm finding more and more that "hotels" in Europe aren't the same as US hotels (unless its the Ritz or something, which obviously I will not be staying in) - anyways, our hotel was more like our little apartment. My 4 roommates and I all stayed in the same on,...

Today we went to the Chianti, to the Verrazzano castle and vineyard! We left at 8am from Florence and made a little breakfrast break in Greve, then we went on to the vineyard - it was only about 2 hours away on bus. The ride through the Tuscan countryside was gorgeous - pictures can't show how beautiful. When we got to the castle, we had a tour of the winery - the castle was built in the 10th century and the villa was built on in the 15th. We toured the gardens a...

Ciao! So far - each day of "class" has just been one wonderful trip to museums and landmarks after the other - and today we went to the Or San Michele Tabernacle. It was incredibly beautiful, and I still can't get over how massive and impressive the architecture is - it makes me sad they don't make buildings and churches like they used to. Afterwards, I cooked for my 4 roommates, and 5 other friends - I made my pasta with pancetta and arugula. Cooking w...

Today we went to the Uffizi and it was so overwhelming! I felt like my brain was on overload - seeing all of the amazing works I've studied and read in person one after the other was incredible. Unfortunately I couldn't take photos - I idid find this out though after snapping one of Giotto's Enthroned Madonna and Child. My favorite part was of course, the Botticelli room. I had no idea how large Primavera and Birth of Venus, etc, really were. All of the works wer...