Arriving in Florence in the early afternoon, we headed off to see Ponte Vecchio (vecki-yo), the most distinctive and probably most famous bridge in Florence. On the way, we passed by the Duomo, more formally known as Santa Maria del Fiore, and the Florentine town hall, Palazzo Vecchio. We did some form studies of the bridge and the jewlery shops on top of it before the group split up for the night. Yesterday we headed to the more modern outskirts of the city to ...

We arrived in Venice Friday evening, in the rain, and our first view of the famous canals and narrow, winding streets was from underneath an umbrella, as the rain continued on Saturday. We woke up yesterday morning and headed into the city. Our first stop was the square at San Marco cathedral, where the place was so flooded that the elevated sidewalks were out (the water was over knee-height in places). We then headed over to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, ...

Today, we made a day trip up to the marble country. We started out visiting a sculpture studio. We then went to the village of Pietrasanta, where we toured a museum's plaster model collection. Plaster models are used by marble sculptors as practice and reference for their final sculptures. After lunch, we toured nearby sculpture yards, where anything marble is made, from statues to columns. Though we did not see it, Pietrasanta is home to Michelangelo's own ...

Today was a free day - we did have the option of hiking around the Cinque Terra, or visiting another city by train, but as it was raining, Becky and I opted to make a short visit to the nearby town of Levanto. Unlike many Cinque Terra villages, Levanto is larger, and largely accessible by vehical. We walked around for a while before eating our first official Italian meal. After lunch, we walked down to the beach, and took some photos, and then walked back to t...

We arrived in Vernazza in the early afternoon, after having to take three separate trains to get there from Milan. After meeting the professor for the last portion of the trip, Todd, we hiked up to our various rooms to put our bags away. The room that I was in was up, almost at the top of one of the hills the village is built upon, and it took over 200 stairs to reach it. Then, the group went up to the lookout tower together, and hung out until it closed at ...