Field Trips and the first full week!

Ciao! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but its been a long and tiring, but awesome week! Tuesday we went to the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Basillica. It was AWESOME, I didnt even realize how much of the famous art I have been waiting to see was there.The line for the Vatican was probably a half mile long! But luckily we bought tickets and stood in a much much shorter line. First we went into the huge art gallery and saw everything from Byzantine art (Art from Byzantium which was considered the empire that carried on Roman tradition after the fall of Rome in the East) to tapestries of the last supper, also Rennaissance art, and my personal Favorite, the Rafaello rooms. These rooms used to be quarters of the pope many years ago, and Rafael painted all over them over periods of 3-5 years. This is where I saw the painting I was dying to see: School of Athens. This is the famous painting showcasing all of the famous philosophers of ancient Greece. I stood there in awe for a long time in that room. Afterward we went to the Sistine chapel, and again I couldn't believe my eyes. That ceiling is phenomenal! Its very interesting how they run the chapel...There are officials in there that are constantly clapping their hands as loud as they can to shut everyone up, and going "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" every five seconds and "SILENCIO, NO PHOTO!!!" I snuck some pictures anyways. One of the guys Nick got caught and kicked out, but nothing happened to him and he got to just meet us outside. It has been the talk of the trip so far lol. Next we went to St. Peter's Basillica and saw the Pieta, it was  completely shut off by glass and just looked amazing. Afterward we got to walk around the square and I bought Billy and his mom a gift! I'm real excited to give them to them =) So that, in a nut shell was the Vatican and I'll attach some pictures at the bottom of what I think were great shots. Today, we took a bus to Florence (or in Italia, Firenze) and stopped off above the town to get a great group shot, I'll post one of me below from up there. We then walked a long walk to the Uffizi. The Uffizi was a city hall of sorts during Renaissance times where very important people worked. The Medici family was very invested in embelleshing the Uffizi with art and archetecture. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed. I snuck one shot of the ceiling, but wished I could have taken so many more. We got to see the Birth of Venus, and one of the only movable Michelangelo paintings every made (because they were mostly on walls and ceilings) we also saw DaVinci! Next we walked alllllllll the way to the Academia to see THE DAVID. When I walked in the room I literally started getting giddy and giggly. I snuck photos in there too. I love love loved seeing the David and completely understand why the whole city of Florence idolizes him so much. SO many shops are called "David" something. Another thing about Florence is that it is so rich in its own unique culture. There are no high rises, no fast food, just old art and architecture everywhere. Its just beautiful. Tonight we got a hotel here and I'm sitting in the little cafe using the internet (not alone, with my roommates). And tonight we went to a little restaurant, had calzonis and cheesecake. It was yummy! Ok y'all gotta get up early for a train to Venice tomorrow so I'll post again soon. Ciao!
PS. I just tried to upload a few pictures of the past two field trips and its not letting me right now, but you can see them all on facebook.

First school day...

Buonasera everyone!!! Today was the first day of classes...so we woke up around 7 and went down to the cafe for a quick cappucinno and made it to class 45 minutes early lol. It was a long school day but I enjoyed the classes and felt like I already learned a lot. For my first class from 9-11:30 I am taking comparative world justice systems which focuses on comparing international legal/judicial systems with ours. We had a break and walked up to a pizzaria for lunch and split a HUGE salami pizza between five of us..I think I forgot to tell you that I have three roommates...but introduced them in the tour of my apartment video...Mary, Rachel, and Chelsea. David Mary's boyfriend hangs out with us too!  After our break we went back to class and that is when I go to history of Rome. It was packed full of information and I was intrigued but felt soooo tired after climbing the hill to lunch. After our class ended at 3:30 we had a group meeting held by the program director Dr. Harper (we call him Harps) and he was preparing us for our two field trips this week! We are going to the Vatican City tomorrow along with the Sistine Chapel and all that other good stuff. I am really excited to see THE statue of Octavian Caesar and everything in between! I finally got an SD card! Anyway, after class we walked down to the grocery store Conads and bought some snacks and things for lunches. Which is good because you can spend money real quick here. We then proceeded to go to a travel agency and asked about taking a train to Venice from Florence on Thursday (because that is where our feild trip is and we will be leaving for the weekend from there) and then they sent us down the hill again where we just came from to the train station. So we went to the train station and asked how much it would be and then she mentioned how expensive it was, so we decided that we would buy our train ticket after we figured out the hotel situation. So then, we go back to the travel agency, (back up the hill) and he quotes us these outrageous prices for Venice and the surrounding cities. Finally as soon as we walked outside we realized, hey why dont we just stay in Florence and go to Venice for a day? So FINALLY we made a plan, bought a hotel for two nights in Florence (thursday night and friday night) and decided to travel to Venice early friday morning and stay there all day. It was the biggest ordeal and then had to walk back down after we booked our hotel and get our train ticket then walk back up, but this time all the way up to our apartment only to realize we had an hour before dinner. HAHA it was a tad peeved by the time we got to the top because it was the biggest work out I have had in a long long time. I felt really amazing and accomplished by the time I got back though. I don't know why I shared that entire pointless story but I guess I needed to vent it out! haha, so YEAH! Im going to go to Venice! Its going to be so amazing to ride in a Gandola! Soooo back to today, tonight at dinner at the:

where we always eat, and started off with bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese as usual. Then we had the BEST lasagna I have ever had, there was no ricotta cheese (which I do love) but it was just so yummy. Instead it was a different kind of yellow cheese. The meat was really well seasoned and it was just perfecto! So the "main" course was vhicken breast, french fries and salad, so I guess they decided to have an "American night" and give us something that we are used to. The fries were actually good! After dinner Mary, David and went up to the Piazza Grande and relaxed and caught the beautiful sunset. Im adding a link to show the video of the Piazza Grande. FYI, the Duomo is like the city hall and every Italian city has one. Ok going to bed, I have to get up at 6am for the bus! Heres the tour of the Piazza Grande! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQXWRrueJo

Lazy Sunday

Today was a great day! We got up and walked down to Cafe Polizianno and had a cappucino and enjoyed the beautiful view they have and then walked up to a ristorante for lunch. Today I had pici alla carbonara con asparagi...which was the best thing I've had so far! The pici is like a thick spaghetti and is supposedly a tuscan specialty...the sauce was peppery and delicious. Tossed in it was bacon with very fresh and crispy asparagus. Later on we went up the the wine cellar and checked out all of the wine and had a tasting... next was gelato again (not that I needed anything else lol) and this time I had chocolate with chocolate chips. We sat and ate in the town square and people watched for a little while.  Oh, and we also went into the duomo where Edward from Twilight walked out of.  This town is eating the Twilight stuff up! They have special "Twilight" menus and posters everywhere showing where they filmed. Tonight we went to dinner at the regular place we meet Sunday through Thursday and started off with some pasta con pesto, then had green beans, pork, and peas with marinara sauce. To finish we had a cake with banana cream and nuts.  I'm fat and happy but know I will work it off tomorrow walking to our first class tomorrow! School is at the very bottom of the hill and and we are pretty much at the top.  I can't complain though because we have it pretty good at this apartment and its right next to our restaurant.  I cannot wait to get an SD card tomorrow! Pray that they have the right one for this camera! If they don't I will probably shed a tear because we are going on our first trip to the Vatican on Tuesday and I know Billy will want to see many pictures, and everyone else! Well ciao for now! I'll write later if I think of more to share...I am posting a picture of my pici and a link to a video I took before dinner. The video is of a parade going through the town's main road (the road we live on) and from what our director told us, I think it was a parade for a patron saint of Montepulciano. I think it was ok to film, but some of the people walking looked like they were stabbing me with their eyes.

Ciao!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XxLGCy2n_c

First days!!

Hello everyone! Bonjourno! or Ciao! Anyway I'm going to try and post as much as I can on here but have no idea how much I can update. We are REALLY lucky to have internet in our apartment. I am pretty sure we are the only apartment to be able to access it. The first couple of days have been awesome! The trip was really long and it is a task to get here but its so worth it when I look out my window! We are so lucky to have 3 views from our apartment that look straight out to the rolling hills of tuscany. Its really unreal. I've seen pictures but its just unexplainable. My roommates are awesome and we had a lot of fun tonight. We got up this morning and took a tour of Montepulciano, we saw where twilight was filmed at the Piazza Grande lol, and not gonna lie its pretty cool. Its a 2 minute walk from our place and at the very top of the town. For lunch we had some authentic margarita pizza and then GELATO! We went out to dinner tonight to a little quaint place that this lady has owned for a long long time. She apparently makes the best picci (sp?) in town and has taught a bunch of the top chefs in town how to make hand made pasta and italian cuisine. I got ravioli with meat sauce and it was phenoms.  After that we came back here and tried Limoncello (Italian liquor) and then went to this place at the BOTTOM of the hill to meet up with the rest of the group and hang out. Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll thats all for now I'll try and update soon! Tomorrows agenda is the Montepulciano wine tasting and whatever else we can get into before class on monday! We hope to go to Venice this weekend. I'll update pictures as soon as I get an SD card that works with the camera I have!
Ciao!