Abroad in Italy: One Week Down

It has already been almost a week since I´ve been here and I´ve already seen and done so much. It is my birthday today and it is the first really cold, gloomy day, so I have been inside catching up on sleep and getting things done for school. At dinner, they sung to me and we all had cake for dessert.

Thursday, the group hopped on a bus and went to Cortona, the next town over. It is this small town on a hill and there is only one flat street. It amazes me how wonderfully Italian towns are laid out. It seems as though the buildings simply emerge out if the earth. They used the stone that they stood on as their building material and utilize shadow from the neighboring homes and buildings for cooling during the warmer summer months- what a great sustainable practice. As I walked through the streets, which are steep and narrow side streets open up to pockets of views.

The views were absolutely spectacular!

I went to Florence on Friday and visited San Miniato al Monte. We had a tour guide show us around and she spoke about the history of the church and town. It is on top of a hill that looks over Florence. The view was stunning!

I knew that the Duomo was big, but I had no idea how big it actually is...

We walked down the hill and went to Santa Croce. The amount of detail and thought that went into the design and construction is phenomenal!

Everything is so green here!!

The dome in the Pazzi Chapel by Brunelleschi constructed for the Medici family tombs.

The Duomo. It really is true what people say about it, that you just stumble upon it. It is huge!! (just look at the scale figures. On Wednesday, our group is going to go back for a tour of the interior.

This is a church that we visited in Arezzo on Saturday. It is such a charming little town. On the way to the bus station that morning, the locals we encountered in Castiglion all said buongiorno! and were excited to see all of us students. It is wonderful how everyone is so friendly here. Everyone smiles and greets everyone else.

The fun thing about this trip was the antique market that happens the first weekend of every month. Antiques and gadgets lined every street in town. Mom, you would absolutely love it!!! It is such a good thing that I don't have a reasonable way to get large items, such as furniture home. Our tour guide also told us that when Italians create replicas, they copy the exact way that the piece was actually made; those Italians... so smart...