With the exception of field trips, class and dinner I have sat in my bed or in my house all day long. That is not an ideal situation for me. I like to be out and about and enjoying as much of Italy as I can, ESPECIALLY because this upcoming week is my last week here.
So yeah, I have been kind of miserable this week. I think I have grown an ab muscle from how much coughing I have participated in. And I think my nose is going to fall off from how much tissue time it has had.
But my sickness has not stopped me from going on the field trips! This week the field trips were to the Tarot Garden on Wednesday and Florence on Friday!
Wednesday June 17
So the field trip was called the Tarot Garden field trip. But we spent most of the morning and day at Feniglia Beach. Usually when we drive to our field trips we stop at an AutoGril, which is like a glorified gas station, so we can eat breakfast and get a snack. Well we didn't stop this day for some reason, so I was starving... and sick! Not a good mix. When we got to the beach the restaurants were closed except for this little snack bar, so my breakfast was pringles. But I later had a pizza, so I did not die.
Since I wasn't feeling good I didn't really want to go swimming, so I spent most of my time there taking pictures for my photojournalism class with Alex and Brandi.
Boys who rub sunscreen on each other, stay together
The bartender was teaching this guy how to speak Italian, I thought it was pretty cool.
After spending time at the beach we headed over to the Taror Garden, which is one of the freaky weirdest place in the world. The Garden was created by Niki de Saint Phaile. Every sculpture or creation is a representation of a tarot card. She ended up dying from making her own art... which is dedication at its finest.
Booty booty booty rockin' everywhere
This is the face I get when I see a potential feature photo
After time at the garden we drove back to Orvieto and I slept the whole way home.
I was pretty proud of myself this night because I went to bar duomo with everyone for about an hour. But immediately went to sleep when I got home #progress
Thursday June 18
Oh how miserable Thursday way. My roommates told me I was coughing all night, which I believe 1000%. I didn't even get out of bed until 1 because I knew I needed to eat something. Then I had my miserable three hour long class, which is even more miserable when you are sick.
The best part of Thursday though was when my roommates made breakfast for dinner. We bought bacon at the market, and it looked like normal bacon but as soon as we started cooking it, it turned greyish brown. Danielle's friend said it looked like elephant, so that's what my conclusion was. I obviously did not try them, but neither Danielle nor Brandi liked them.... so we didn't eat them all. Brandi did make some bomb pancakes. Unfortunately maple syrup is not a thing here in Orvieto, but luckily nutella is.
Friday June 19
Our very last field trip of the semester #crycrycry, but it was probably my favorite.
We had to meet at the busses at 7:30 am, a whole thirty minutes earlier than we usually have to. Luckily, we did stop at an AutoGril so I was able to eat breakfast, a delicious chocolate muffin!
The itinerary of the day was a guided tour around part of the city (including a basilica, the main square, a museum thing (clearly I paid a lot of attention)) and then we went to the Academia to see the statue of David. We then had a lunch break, long enough for me to go shopping and bargain. After lunch we toured the duomo and toured around the city a little more.
I will go into some more detail as I have the pictures posted.
I am the master navigator... just kidding it took me like ten minutes to identify where we were located on the map... it took Danielle ten seconds.
During the morning tour, our tour guide talked about the significance of Pinnochio in Italy (I had been wondering about this for awhile since every single place I go I see Pinnochio everywhere). The author of the story was actually from Florence, so Italy is very proud to call Pinnochio Italian. They are especially proud that such a famous childhood story and movie came from Italy.
All of those statues are originals, not replicas! I thought it was really cool because this is in a public square. Usually to preserve statues they are kept inside museums and under tight security, but not these ones.
While we were walking around in the morning I noticed this awesome street art. Our tour guide said that Florence is kind of known for this artists street art. The guy on the sign is just a sticker so the government doesn't consider it vandalism or anything. It can easily be removed if a situation ever presented itself to do so.
This would technically be called vandalism. But the guy with the balloon, I have seen in multiple cities during my field trips here, so I wonder if he has any significance.
We walked past the duomo in Florence on the way to the Academia (but we didn't tour until the afternoon), I was amazed by huge it was. According to our tour guide, the people of Florence like to think it's one of the biggest religious buildings in the world, even though that is false.
This was in the Academia. This is a sculpture of Michaelangelo based off of his funeral mask. He believed that posing for portraits was a huge waste of time, so this sculpture is the closest thing we have to what he may have looked like.
Holy crap. The statue of David is HUGE and so amazing. I still cannot believe a human being could create something so cool with his own hands. The statue is FOURTEEN FEET AND THREE INCHES TALL (seriously guys, he is huge). His right hand is disproportionately large because he was apparently known to have really strong hands. He had a sling and a rock and is about to take down Goliath.
But if you ask me, the sling and rock is really unnecessary when you got a booty like that.
Like I said earlier, after the Academia we went to go eat food and then more importantly did some shopping. We found a flea market right next to the restaurant we were at and I was ready to put my bargaining face on.
Don't even get me started on how much I love the leather in Italy. Florence especially. There is seriously leather everywhere, Florence is the king of leather. I ended up bargaining for a small bag and got it for 15 euros, it smells SO SO SO delicious, I could smell it all day. They should make cologne like that.... actually that might be weird... but better than axe.
Bargaining for a bag is cause for celebration with gelato... but really what occasion is not cause for celebration with gelato?
This here is another mango gelato, and the best one I have had yet.
Our next stop was the tour of the duomo. If I had time I would have liked to climb to the top, but I didn't. I didn't take too many pictures besides these candles because it pretty much was very boring on the inside, so I didn't feel the need to take pictures. If you are very sad about this, I am sure google images will suffice.
I have no recollection of what this is, I just remember the tour guide saying the importance of perspective in this piece, so you can let your mind run wild with that.
Another outside view of the Duomo
We went by the golden boar during the afternoon tour. If you rub its nose you get good luck. Brandi was not about the germs with the boar, but I was pretty excited.
Lots of chalk artists around Florence, I think it's so cool the art that can be made with something as simple as chalk.
Our tour guide said the best chocolate can be found in this place. You get to choose the amount of chocolate ratio you want, which is pretty cool if you aren't into chocolate THAT much. I just loved the chocolate fountains.
Then our final stop was to view those famous Florence bridges.
Obviously we had to take a picture together... but I think this next one turned out much bettter....
LOL just kidding, but shout out to Marc for capturing such a gorgeous moment for the three of us.
At this spot they had one of those copy cats of the lock bridge thing in Paris. I think they're cool whether it's a copy cat or not.
During our afternoon tour we passed A LOT of expensive and fancy stores that were just so beautiful... too beautiful to be photographed. I could have spent a whole week just going shopping here. I think my wallet thanks me for not staying the whole weekend like 85% of the students did.
We then made our way back to the busses and slept the whole bus ride home to Orvieto.
I was really feeling down in the dumps for most of the night just because of general sickness, and home sickness, but I was able to facetime my family and talk to Zach and they both cheered me right back up. I am ready to make the most of this last week of mine here in Italy.
Saturday June 20
This is the first Saturday that the roomies and I are not in a different city exploring and having fun. But I think I am okay with that since we are all sick, we could use a day just for rest. We also have finals this week so that means I have a final project to work on... it's due Monday, so I should really start it. But instead of starting it Brandi and I watched a million Harry Potter clips (which I guess you could say is beneficial to my final project because my theme is Harry Potter lol) and it brought back a whole lot of emotions like when I watched the final one for the first time.
The rest of the day should be dedicated to my project, and now that I am just about done finishing blogging I think I will be able to get myself to work on it.
Wish me luck!
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