A few pics too

I ment to give you a few pics in the last post so here you go.


This building is the Laurentian Library, and the other picture is a pic of me in front of the Hog Statue. In Case you have forgotten we beat Auburn 44-23 that day.

Florence

I spent this past weekend in Florence and it was a ton of fun! We left by train on Friday morning and arrived in Florence at about 10 o'clock. We got to see all the big sight including the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, the Laurentian Library by Michael Angelo, and the brother to Drooling Hog Statue on campus.
I also spent ample time in the leather market and bought lots of really cool Christmas Gifts. The purchase I am most excited about did not come from the leather market, but from a very famous leather shop called Misuri. They are famous for their gilded leather and the purse they designed for the queen. When I was here in high school I bought a belt and have loved it ever since. I was hoping to purchase another buckle for my belt, but they were so friendly and gave me such a good deal that I ended up buying a whole new Belt. Special thanks to Dean Maness from St. Agnes for giving me directions before I left this weekend I would have never found it without her help.
This weeks classes should be pretty low key. We are going to spend a lot of time studying St. Peters, and figuring out what needs to be done to prepare for mid-terms. I probably wont be seeing much of my roommates because they have mid-semester review for studio on Thursday. I am extremely gratefull that I do not have to take studio while here. It is allowing me to enjoy my experience 10 times more than I woudld have if I were in studio.

Update

I figure it has been a few days since my last post so I better update the world on what is going world. It has been an average week here in Rome filled with class site visits, and the first day to sleep-in in about 3 weeks. That great day came today. I slept until 11:00 it was amazing. This afternoon I went to lunch with my friend Mary Beth and then went to class at 4. WE had class at 4 because we did not have class this morning. Things I have setteled into a routine here which is nice. Tomarrow is Thursday which means the worse class of the week. We are meeting out on a construcation site for a new government build wich will be pretty cool. Hopefully the professor isnt planning of also lecturing becasue the site is about an hour away from the class. But this woman is crazy so who knows.

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are headed to Florence. It should be a wonderful time! This week I have also booked my Thanksgiving trip to Athens, and my weekend trip with Catherine to Cinque Terre. Both should be amazing trips. I plan to book the trip to Salzburg next week.

Orvieto

Ahh! It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Orivito is a quite little town, that is allmost 100% car free. The streets are small and a joy to walk. The big must see sites are very few. There are really just 3, the large cathedral, the old cathedral amd the bell tower. It is the little side streets and beautifully average mid-evil and renissance buildings that make you feel like you are on a movie set that really make Orvieto grand. It was an amazing escape from the city! I got to sleep in full size bed which was amazing, esp. considering that my bed here in Rome is a little less than a twin. We couldnt have ordered more amazing weather. Cool and Crisp, perfect for blue jeans and a light sweater.

We also traveled to Perugea for the day. It to was a lovely destination with a movie set feel. The we visited an entruscan well and a museum that contained may regligious art pieces. The day was very enjoyable.

Sunday we visited a few small towns to tour a small museum and see a Roman Theater. Both were very interersting and we returned to Rome mid afternoon. Over all the weekend was very enjoyable and a lot of fun.

This week should be a very nice one. Today we didnt have a tour, but a very interesting lecture. Wednesday our morning class got moved to late afternoon, so I will be able to both sleep in and enjoy lunch with Mary Beth.

We are jet set (more like train set) again this weekend and off to Florence. We are all looking forward to a lot of shopping and word on the street is that there is a Taco Bell in Florence as well.

Just a Short One

Today was another good day in Rome. We went to the EUR, the poriton of Rome build by Musolini, for class. This afternoon I had lunch with my friend Mary Beth. We worked at kamp together the last 2 summers and we love or weekly lunch dates. Tomarrow will most likely be a long day because it is my least favorite class, but as soon as I get it behind me the weekend starts. We are leaving Friday morning for a class field trip to Orvieto. It should be another fun filled weekend.

Oh! And I got Ice Tea again today! How lucky am I, I guess if i were in Arkansas it would be smart for me to play that new lottery?

Movies and Ice Tea

So tonight my roomate Deborah and I we nt on a little adventure. We decided to go to the movies. There are a few theaters here that show movies in English so we went to the The Informant. The movie its self was okay, but it was great to watch something in English and the theater was very nice. I was even more excited about the movie when I relized they had fresh brewed ICE TEA. NOw it was lemon flavored so it was more like an Arnold Palmer (Ice Tea and lemonaid mixed together), but it was still amazing, esp when you consider it is the first thing I have had that resembled ice tea in nearly a month. We had a grea time and will def. do it again.

To all of you who are dying to see pics from Naples I promise they are coming.

Another Big Weekend

This weekend was another big one. I traveled to the Bay of Naples on a class field trip. It was a lot of fun and we saw all the big sites. I took a lot of pictures and will try to get some posted for all of you in the next few days. We started out on Friday by taking a train to Naples. I was not all that impressed with the city of Naples its self. The city was dirty, smelled and looked old. Yes, everything here is old but most of it looks historic, but Naples looked run down 1930s old. It had lots of high rise condo buildings (high rise takes on a new meaning over hear, they were about 10 stories high), grafitti, and loud traffic.

While in Naples we visited an art museum that is located in an old palace. It had many interesting pieces of art from the 15 and 16 hundreds. Several of the rooms were left as they would have looked when the palace was being used as place a residence. We grabed some lunch and then went to an anthropological museum. It contained several pieces of art, sculpture, frescos, and other pieces that had be collected from sites such as pompii. Once we finsihed up there we all boarded our bus and wen to Sorento to check into the hotel.

The hotel was nice but the view and the area around it was even better. We were 1 block from the Mediteranian Sea, and surrounded by the beauty of a slower paced life out side of a major city. We ate dinner over looking the Med, Sea and spent the evening ahanging out in a pizza that over looked the sea as well.

Saturday we went to Pompei. I was amazed at how large it was and that is was not govered in ash and hardened lava. Once I took a moment to think about it, it made since. Of cource is wouldnt be covered with cooled lava and ash. The lava and ash are what protected it and what we see is what they found when they removed the ash. I did not know that Pompei was a such a large city though. It was apparently a tradign hub for souther Italy. Its proximity to the Med. Sea made it a vital trade center for the world.

After eating lunch at Pompei we all decided to go to the top of Mt. Vesuvious. We spent 9 Euro on a bus ticket to take us there and when when we arrived we had to pay another 5 Euro to climb to the top. The whole experiance is without a doubt a tourist trap, but it was ver interesting and worth it none the less. It was a very steep climb and we were all very tired by the time we made it back down to the bottom.

SOn sunday we visited a Palace that is know as the Little Versi because of its style and it gardens. It was a very interesting and beautiful palance, but haveing been to Versi I dont think they can even be compared. THese gardens were beautiful, but Versi was much prettier even when I was there in teh middle of March. (Perhaps I am becoming an travel snob, but whatever). The palace was very nice and a relaxing way to finish the tour.

This week should be pretty low key, but this weekend promisses to be another big adventure as we take a field trip to Orvieto. Dont ask me whywe are goign to Orvieto or why we are going because I dont know. I guess we will find out this weekend.