Snow and Florence!

A lot has happened since the last time I was able to blog! I had basically just moved in, eaten some delicious food, and gotten on to an Italian sleep schedule...that was Sunday, and today is Friday.


Monday was nothing special- we got introduced to our studio professor and projects we will be doing this semester...same old stuff, nothing fun to report there, except for the fact that we are in studio for 7 hours on Monday...I guess that's A&M's way of reminding us we are still in school and still have to slave away as students. Don't worry mom and dad- I will be getting plenty of work done here this semester with a total of 11 hours a week spend in studio :/

Ordering in Italian!

My first Cappucino!

Practicing Italian!

Giovanni our tour guide in C.F.

Tuesday we woke up a little early to walk to this little caffe to get pastries and cappuccinos. I had my first real cappuccino, and not only was it beautiful, but sooooo good (and you all know my obsession with coffee)- starbucks will never be the same again! We came back to the center and went on a small tour of the town we are in, Castiglion Fiorentino, with our awesome tour guide Giovanni. He was short, Italian, big ear and nose and hilarious! He took us the town library/museum which showcased ruins from the Etruscans, the first inhabitants of this town before the Romans invaded. After lunch we had our first survival Italian class, which if I do say so myself went pretty well since Chloe, Clara and I had been doing lessons on Chloe's computer Sunday afternoon. The rest of the day after lunch was our to roam around town and practice our Italian! As we stepped our front door it started snowing, but we really didn't think anything of it, so we embarked on our first journey further than up the "freaking hill". The one place we were determined to go to was basically a grocery store (we still are sure if it's called the co-op, coop, or cope) but we went! We got lost on the way and got to practice our Italian with a woman from her window (she was trying to get cat in the house which first attracted Mitchell's attention and that's how we saw her. p.s.- Mitchell is a little cat obsessed...he has renamed our town "Cats-de-lion Furr-entino"). We finally got to the grocery store and bought some snacks (best chocolate croissant's from a wrapper I've EVER had!) and we started to make our way back- note it's still snowing outside. On our way we stopped for our first Italian gelato, and to know ones surprise is was fantastic. We came home to another fantastic meal and after everyone headed out to one of the caffes for drinks. At that point the snow was sticking, and we realized this was more than just snow flurries. I order my first Bellini (a day full of firsts for me!) but it was a little weird- they put a mint cherry in the bottom...not my forte.


We somehow made our way back that night through the snow (the warmth from the alcohol may have helped) and we all crashed. Wednesday was spent with a "Intro to Firenze" lecture (that's Italian for Florence) and 4 more hours of studio work. It was a pretty quiet night due to the 10+ inches of snow and because we all had to be up at 6 a.m. to take the train into Florence!


The train ride was really cool, seeing as it was the first  time I'd been on a passenger train, and we got there in a little over an hour. Our day in Florence was spent walking and shivering, because although there was no snow there, it was still freezing (literally) outside and windy. We visited Piazza de Santa Maria Novella and saw the exterior of the church/museum and continued our walk around Florence to Piazza della Republica which is the exact center of Florence (and it use to be the Jewish center of the town- ohhhh haaayyyy). We then continued on to a smaller church (sorry, forgot the name!) and then onto the bridge where all the major jewelry shops in Florence are (pretty cool to walk across a bridge and see diamonds everywhere you look!). From there we went to Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, but before we stopped in to a restaurant, Rivoire for their famous hot chocolate- it's like hot hershey's syrup-mmmmm.


We then went into Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, which I believe was a house/fortress of an Italian duke. The walls and ceilings were lined with paintings a frescos, and while I took a lot of pictures, none of them capture how awesome it is to stand in front of these paintings that consume an entire wall. Unfortunately we only had 45 minutes to tour through before lunch, but after lunch was something truly amazing- Santa Croce.


Santa Croce is the church where a lot of famous artists/musicians/politicians were buried, and it was really overwhelming to be in this building where they all have tombs or monuments to them, but on top of that the church is GORGEOUS!

Overlooking Castiglion Fiorentino

Heading down the FREAKING hill!

Clara & I with our first gelato!

Me, Alli, Clara and Katelyn with Bellini's

Chloe, Clara & Me in the snow

Snow is so deep!

Castiglion under snow!

Santa Maria Novella

Piazza della Republica

Italian markets...can't wait to shop!

David replica outside of Museo di Palazzo Vecchio

Inside of Palazzo Vecchio

Leather workers as Museo di Palazzo Vecchio

Santa Croce

Interior of Santa Croce

Fun fact: the architect commissioned to build the basilica was Jewish, and to kind of "stick-it-to-Florence" he  put a star of David front and center on the church (which I guess makes sense since Jesus was Jewish, but I did chuckle a bit at that). I  saw the tombs/monuments of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante & some others, but it was just so amazing to be in one room with all these old, influential people's memorials.


After coming back from Florence I basically passed out, and woke up this morning 13 hours later to find out the snow will be here (and continue coming down) for about the next 7-9 days...so the internet will be sparse again but I will try and update you all!


Ciao!