Seeing Italy one tiny town at a time...

These past two weeks have been very busy and tons of fun. Last Friday we went to Assisi. Its this little town tucked into the side of a hill in the Umbria region of Italy. Its a small town but famous for being the home of the painters Giotto and Cimabue and the birthplace of Saint Francis and the Francisians. There's a big, beautiful church dedicated to Saint Francis at the base of the town. I had lunch with a group of friends at a cute little trattoria near the center of town. It was a little rainy and cold but beautiful. On Saturday, I met with a family friend's good friend Matteo who is a well-known art restorer throughout Italy. He has projects going in Venice, Rome and Florence. He was in Florence for the weekend working and I met him and talked to him about his life/career/Florence, everything. He was so nice and gave me some great tips about where to go and what not to miss in Italy. I am going to keep him updated on my travels and may stay with him or one of his connections throughout Italy. That night my friends and I went to a discoteca called Space Electronica. It was crazy--three floors of loud music, 10euro drinks and lots of teenage italians and sketchy men. But we had a blast. The rest of the weekend I just hung around with friends, got gelato and did some work.

Thursday night was my Mamma's birthday. She didn't tell us though because she didn't want us to get her anything...but we're going to get her flowers tomorrow. Her daughter, Francesca, and grandchildren came over and we had dinner and a great meringue cream cake for dessert. After, I went out with friends to a couple of bars. Before going home we found the "Secret Bakery". It's literally a kitchen, veryy hard to find (you're supposed to find it by following your nose--you can start smelling it from a few blocks away) and its only open from 1am to 6am. There were three guys making desserts for all different bakeries throughout Florence. It was unreal. You point to whatever you want and everything costs 1 euro. It was so fresh, we were literally watching them squirt the chocolate into the warm croissants when we ordered them.

After veryyy little sleep I got on a bus at 6:30am headed to Grado, Pisa and Lucca with my Mediterranean City class. They are located towards the west coast of Italy, only about an hour/hour and a half from Florence. It was beautiful. We climbed all the way to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa (which is pretty scary because you feel tilted and disoriented the whole time!) The view was absolutely beautiful. Pisa is crazy because its just this conglomeration of amazing, beautiful buildings (basilica, bapistry, tower, etc) in this tiny town and nothing else around it except fields. My friend Marah and I proceeded to take pictures holding, pushing, carrying and kicking the tower. It was really entertaining. Then we went to Lucca, which is this small, beautiful town and looked at tons of churches with our class. We had a late lunch at a pizzeria in a circular piazza where there used to be an old Roman Ampitheatre. Our professor got us pretty lost leaving Pisa and so he treated us all to hot chocolate..which was just melted chocolate. We got home and I ate dinner and passed out at nine thirty.

Saturday (yesterday) I got on an early bus yet again with Kelly and Marah...this time headed to Ravenna. It was about a 2 hour trip towards the West Coast of Italy. We spent the morning looking at the oldest and most beautiful mosaics in the world. It was like looking at the Early Christian section of my art history textbook. For lunch, Ravenna is known for its Piadina's--pitas filled with whatever you want and then grilled/paninied--and they were amazing. We relaxed at a cafe and ate Bacio chocolate in honor of Valentines day. We got back from Ravenna and went to a late dinner at a random restaurant. We went to a place called Blob club and became members. Its a late night club/bar that plays great music. It was early when we went and we quickly made friends with the owner and bartender who told us about Blog and gave us free drinks. We skipped around and met up with different friends at some bars called Lochness and the Red Garter and then went home, exhausted.

Today Kelly and I just slept in late and went for a walk/jog/jumprope around the Stadio. It was so sunny and beautiful for the first time in a while. I cannot wait for it to get warm...hopefully only a couple more weeks. We cleaned our rooms and we're now at my friend Marah's because she gets internet at her casa. Ok well I have some reading to catch up on but I'll post tons of pictures as soon as my computer gets back from being repaired. Hope all of you are doing well :)
Ciao Ciao.

ciaoooo. 

Just got back from Rome a few hours ago. It was amazing! And very nice and warm yesterday. I left Friday morning with my Mediterannean City Art history class at 5:30...tough hour but I got to sleep on the bus. First we stopped at some Renaissance Villas 

a hour or so outside of Rome. It was soo beautiful. We got to rome in the afternoon and did the Papal procession (known as the possessio) that begins at St. Peters Basilica and ends in S. Giovanni in Laterano. Our teacher/TA treated us to the best best caffe at an amazing little place near Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.  We stopped in there for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel and had the evening off.  I went to a late dinner with five friends 

at a really deliciousss Italian restaurant.  Afterwords we walked to Piazza Navona 

and then Piazza Campo di'Fiori...its a really lively, young, fun place where we went out to a couple bars and ran into a bunch of other Syracuse kids. Twas fun.

In the morning we had a SU tour guide named Rocky take us around the major sites in Rome.  We started at the Vatican Museums where I saw so many amazing things that i've only been able to see on screens for the past four years. It was crazy. After we walked through the Sistine Chapel we went to St. Peters Bascilica and then the Colosseum. It was all so beautiful..and we didnt have to wait in any lines which made it so efficient and easy. My friends and I decided to stay for one more night and we booked a hotel.  We got wine and cheese and hung out with a bunch of SU kids before getting pizza and walking to the Campo di'Fiori area again. We caught a train back this morning and got to florence in an hour and a half.  The train was really nice and the ride was beautiful. I have four days of classes and then I'm going to Assisi on Saturday for another All-School trip. 

I put all of my pictures up on the slideshow in the top right corner of my blog. Just click the photos and you should be brought to a website where you can look at them bigger!