Never a dull moment

Champagne tasting

Architectural detail at Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

Playing in the ocean

We seriously have some crazy fun stories to tell from being over here.  Last night, after getting settled into our hostel and exploring the area around our hostel for a bit, we decided to go to a champagne tasting that the guy in our reception told us to check out.  Well it was only 5€... and we were able to keep the glass. So naturally we did it twice so that we each had a pair of champagne glasses to take home.  We met two really great guys and one happened to be a chef.  Free dinner?  Yessss.  I even tried the cheek meat of the fish. Who knew I would one day be so adventurous when it comes to food.  I have been trying just about everything that is put in front of me and surprisingly, I usually like it!

Today we explored the Museum of Arts and Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela.  It is a pretty amazing design, considering it consists of multiple buildings, a park, bridges, landscape design, etc.  You can definitely see Calatrava's influence on the design too... he has such a distinct style.

Then we went to the beach!!  I had so much fun splashing in the ocean and soaking up the nice weather.  Not quite warm enough for swimsuits, but we hung out in the sand, took some photos and I picked some sea shells to take home with me.  I could really get used to this life...

Heading out to go take some night photos of the museum and hopefully we will spy some Christmas lights. 22 days until the big day... why are all the lights not on!?  Fingers crossed that we see some on tonight!

It all must come to an end (sort of!)

MAXXI museum by Zaha Hadid

Villa Deste

Stairwell in the Vatican Museum

The trip that I have been looking forward to for almost an entire year is coming to an end... and fast!  Our last few days in Rome were eventful, filled with more dinners and goodbyes.  It's hard to believe that our semester is done and looking back on all the cities we explored and the architecture we saw is a little overwhelming, but in a very good way!

The last few days when we were in Rome we saw the MAXXI museum by Zaha Hadid, visited Tivoli to see Villa Deste and explored more of Rome on our own.  I finally went to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel and was blown away.  How could you not be?  The gardens at Villa Deste were incredible!  There were so many fountains, one always in eyes sight... however, we were rained out there.  It was pouring like crazy, but it didn't change how beautiful the gardens were the least bit.  The MAXXI museum was really great to see as well.  Zaha's work is definitely unique and the exhibits inside the museum were really great. 

Laura and I had to say goodbye to our classmates after dinner and it was really great to get to know all of them.  It's funny, because in the beginning you had the graduate students and the undergraduate students.. by the end, we were all friends and no longer were divided into the two separate groups.  We spent another day in Rome with Meaghan and her friend Sarah, then took off to Valencia.

We arrived here yesterday afternoon and have been blessed with great weather.  Perfect for carrying my body weight in luggage. :)

ROMA!

Pantheon: Coffered dome and oculus

Pantheon Facade

So many dreams being realized on this journey through Europe!  I am thrilled that we get to spend over a week in Rome, but it still doesn't seem like enough time! 

On our second day in the city we saw the Pantheon and the Colosseum.  Both were amazing, but I was blown away by the Pantheon, which is considered to be the most influential work of Roman architecture.  The geometry inside is perfect.  If the dome were to be mirrored on itself, it would be a perfect sphere.  The oculus (10m in diameter) is the only source of light in the pantheon and is open to the elements.  When it rains, the water drains to the exterior of the building as the floor is slightly bulbous toward the center. 

The Colossuem was really incredible to walk through as well.  The form of the colosseum is based upon an amphitheatre, but is also mirrored.  We discussed the history of the site, so feed your soul to some interesting facts:

-Much of the site that was dismantled and excavated was used in churches in the surrounding area.
-Seated 50,000 people (and only took 10 minutes for full capacity to empty.)
-The inauguration of the Colosseum consisted of 100 days of festivities and battles. Hundreds of men and thousands of animals were killed during this time.

Looking forward to the next few days here! 

Bittersweet Goodbye

Thanksgiving Dinner at 'Il Latini

Italian version of turkey :)

After our meeting on Thursday, we enjoyed one last gelato while enjoying the view of the Ponte Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio at night

The Duomo at night

Well our time in Florence had to come to an end eventually, but it was such an amazing experience and city to live in for 7 weeks.  I'm already looking forward to coming back to visit.  :)

Wednesday night we celebrated Thanksgiving together.  Our professors took us to a restaurant where we had a traditional Italian dinner, 4 courses in all.  I tried many things I had never tasted before and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I tried rabbit gnocchi, chicken liver pate, and other various items that I am not entirely sure what they were.  This was fine by me, as everything was delicious and I left feeling STUFFED!  I'm fairly certain we waddled our way home.  I felt the way I would after eating a Thanksgiving dinner at home, only the turkey was swapped out with a variety of meat and the sides were different too.  Oh yeah, there wasn't any pumpkin pie, BUT the office that we travel abroad through brought one to the final meeting we had which was incredibly awesome!  Definitely made my day. 

Thursday we went out to dinner again as a group.  We had appetizers, pasta dishes and scrumptious desserts.  Every time we go out as a group we enjoy ourselves and end up acting like crazy Americans, giggling through dinner at very silly things.  However, these are moments that I will never forget.

Again, I can't say how bittersweet it was to say goodbye to this beautiful city.  We left at 6:45 Friday morning and I couldn't help but have flashbacks of many moments experienced while leaving town on the coach bus. 

Ciao Florence!  Until next time....

Day trip to Siena and San Gimignano

Some of the towers in San Gimignano

Old bricks lining the staircase to a platform overlooking the town

Awesome view

Overlooking Siena

The Duomo of Siena

What better than another perfect sunset to end the day?

On our last week in Florence, we took a day trip to explore a couple of smaller towns around the city.  I have previously visited both towns with my aunt and cousin, but I was looking forward to going again with class, as I knew I would be experiencing it differently.  We stopped at San Gimignano first.  This is the town that initially had 71 towers built, belonging to prominent families many years ago.  Over the years, family feuds caused many of the towers to be destroyed, leaving about 1/10 of them standing for us to view today.  We did have beautiful weather this day (again!!) and a few of us climbed to the highest point in the city (except for being in one of the towers) to get a better view of the landscape.  I also had a delicious espresso and croissant at a bakery here.  Not that I need any more of the latter, but it's all so delicious!

Next stop was Siena.  Here we visited the Cathedral (or duomo) of Siena which was not finished according to the original plans.  After Siena fell from being one of the wealthier cities in Italy, it couldn't afford to finish the church at the scale it was planned for.  The church was reduced in size and then completed.  We also spent a lot of time in Piazza del Campo, the main piazza of Siena, where races would take place twice each year.  This race is called the Palio di Siena.  Seventeen neighborhoods or contrade selected one rider and horse (who was blessed in a church before the race) who would compete in the race that consisted of 3 laps around the piazza.  It was a very dangerous race, as many of the corners that the horses had to turn were very sharp and they were riding at fast speeds. Craziness..

As we were leaving Siena, we were blessed with another beautiful sunset.  I was a bit sad to leave, as I knew that this would be one of my last times going back to Florence.  We only had a few days left at our home away from home, with lots of packing, cleaning and last minute sites to see before we left. 

Wine tasting and fútbol!

In the Chianti region of Tuscany on a winery tour

See the little patch of red in the distance?  That is a field of Merlot grapes :)

Aging the Chianti

Fiorentina vs. Atalanta game! Florence won 4-1

Sweet scarves to represent our city!

This past weekend was our last weekend in Florence and it was very bittersweet.  We had an amazing time exploring the city more in depth and not venturing too far away.  Friday was a low key day filled with market shopping, cooking dinner with roommates and enjoying some vino!  I was able to skype with Chrissy to catch up on things back in Michigan which also made my day.  We went to bed semi-early to gear up for the events on Saturday.

We booked a wine tour through a local company where we hiked through the Chianti region of Tuscany.  We met a lot of great people and tasted a lot of fantastic wine.  The vineyard we went to is a family owned and operated business run right out of their villa. The produce approximately 80,000 bottles of wine per year and they also make olive oil.  The villa was adorable and we spent most of our time in the dining room around a huge table, enjoyed a family style lunch, tasted 3 wines, a dessert wine and grappa, all while the fireplace was burning in the background.  It couldn't have been a more perfect day..  and I now have a bottle of wine and olive oil to enjoy once I return to Milwaukee!

After arriving back at the apartment that evening, I decided I needed to work on my design charette which is due on Thursday.  I decided upon a site, program and theme to use in the design process and created some preliminary floor plans.  Now that I had actually taken the time to do some homework, Laura and I went out to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls we had met at the wine tasting.  The Italian nightlife was fun and it was great to meet a lot of new people who are all here studying as well.  Before we went out... I caught Sarah on skype and talked to everyone celebrating our family Christmas back in Wisco!  It was fun to see everyone having a blast and hanging out like we do every year, but also made me excited to be with family for the holidays!  Just under a month until I'll be back. Where has the time gone?!

Sunday was a day where one of my long time dreams came true.  I had been wanting to go to a European soccer game the entire time I have been here and finally... This was the day! We bought tickets to the Fiorentina vs. Atalanta game.  We walked to the stadium which was about a 30 minute walk from our apartment and purchased a scarf to show our support for Florence.  We won the game 4-1 and it was fun to see the reaction of all the fans!  When we would score, the fans would hold their scarves above their head, making the stands full of the team colors and logo. So much fun!  Oh yeah... there were more students behind us at the game and they happened to be from Michigan.  It's always great to meet other people from your home state!

Well the fútbol game was a success and so was skyping the Packer game courtesy of Sarah.  I love when they play at noon!  It usually means I am able to watch it since it's at 7:00 our time here.  During the game I worked on my project some more and made some progress... which was absolutely necessary.  Thank goodness we squeaked by with a win... It was a tough game to watch for awhile! 

Tomorrow we head to Siena and San Gimignano... Hope the rain holds off!

Returning to my temporary home!

Leaning tower (leaning 15'!)

Cool canopy covering a courtyard inside of a palazzo

Orange garden at Villa Gamberaia

Catching the sunset at Piazzale Michelangelo

Arno river and bridges in the sunset

Ever since arriving back from our independent travel we have been exploring Florence more in depth.  We also had a few treats waiting for us... our first night back we had another group dinner which was absolutely wonderful and had the best Tiramisu. I could eat that everyday!  The following day when we had a site visit at the train station, we were treated to Italian hot chocolate after, which was much more rich and thicker than what I am used to.  I can only handle so much of that (hard for me to say with my love of chocolate), but it was a great treat on a chilly/rainy day! 

We went to Pisa to see the leaning tower on Monday.  I had already seen this with my aunt and cousin, which I am happy about since we had good weather on that day. When we visited as a class it was very rainy and cloudy.  We still had fun exploring the city, taking typical tourist photos 'holding' up the tower, and my professor shared a great story with us... When he visited in 1990 as a student, there were not railings on the perimeter of the tower.  Currently there are railings on the top two levels which you can go out on to have a better view of the city.  I was slightly afraid being on the top tier... rain + marble floors + worn down Toms made me a tad nervous.  I thought for sure I was going to slip and slide somewhere... I could not have ever done that without the railing in tact.. props to my professor!  On our lunch break in Pisa I had to get another Porchetta sandwich.... a little taste of home and I am finding them all over Italy.  Thank goodness! 

Tuesday we had a tour of a few palazzo's in the area.. my favorite was Palazzo Strozzi which had an awesome courtyard.  The photo above of the canopy was the canopy placed over this specific courtyard to help keep the rain out.  It still allowed the natural light to filter through all the floors and created a nice cover to the courtyard.

We went to a villa on the outskirts of Florence on Wednesday.  We visited Villa Gamberaia where we looked at the gardens more-so than the architecture of the villa.  We walked through the Renaissance and Mannerist gardens and also explored an orange garden.  This was neat to see, as each tree was planted in its own pot.  In the cooler months, the pots would be moved into a building created specifically for the orange trees to help protect them from the cold weather.  The views from the villa were amazing!  I couldn't imagine having those views to wake up to everyday.  The weather was great this day, so some of us ventured up to the top of Piazza Michelangelo to catch the sunset over the city.  It was stunning. We spent time at the Uffizi gallery on Thursday exploring the incredible art collection and the architecture on the interior.  Later that night, Laura and I ventured to a local bar to see what the nightlife was like... a live band, good drinks and friendly people.  This seems to be a reoccurring theme in every city.  I. Love. Europe. 

We began our 3 day weekend today, so naturally I slept in to catch up on some sleep and hit up the markets to get some shopping done!  I also completed a drawing analysis, so at least I worked on homework for a few hours :) 

Tomorrow we are going on a vineyard tour and on Sunday we are catching a futbol game!  This is shaping up to be a pretty great weekend!  Updates to come soon!