The rest of Florence:
Our last day in Florence we went to Acacdemia where we were able to see David. I knew that it would be amazing, but I was actually stunned by the beauty of seeing it in person. I actually expected him to start breathing at any moment! The detailing is amazing, especially considering it was meant to be placed at the top of a building and not be seen so close up. Since photographs are not allowed in the museum I will settle for a photo from the internet. It doesn't give this beautiful sculpture the justice it deserves, but at least its something!
We ended the week with a tour of the Leather School of Florence. It was really cool! They showed us how they make handbags, purses, belts, etc. The students practice on cheap leather and the artisans use some of the finest leathers in the world. They had so many beautiful leather handbags! It was fascinating to watch the detail and precision that they place into just one piece. I got several gifts here, including an awesome one for my dad.
Foods from Florence:
Umbria:
We had two days
of class and had an overnight trip in Umbria, a region of Italy. We had cooking class on Monday
with Mary Lou, who had been out and is thankfully feeling better. We cooked
Matriciana, which is a simple pasta dish.
Tuesday we hopped
on a bus to Assisi and had a tour of the Basilica of St. Francis. The tour
guide was a monk at the basilica. The frescos in the church were beautiful,
although there are many that were ruined in an earthquake several years ago. After that we went to the “crumbling” city of
Civita di Bagnoregio. After quite the hike up to the city itself we had some
time to walk around and just enjoy the area. It is located high up and the view
from the top was gorgeous. The city is slowly falling apart because of natural
erosion and earthquakes. Several people still live in the city, but most of the
people are tourists visiting.
Wednesday
we went to St. Patrick’s well and walked all the way down and back up, it was
exhausting. We split into two groups and went to different workshops, I went to
the wood workshop of Bottega Michelangeli. They showed us around the shop and
told us about the history of their shop. We did see some employees working on a
table for a client. The shop still uses the original templates from when the
shop opened. We ended our day with a wine tasting at an organic winery.
They had so many little owls in the workshop
I found a giraffe made out of wood! So exciting!
Side note about this week. We had the camera crew from Auburn following us around to video and take pictures of everything we did over the week. The video will go towards promoting the abroad program I am on as well as promoting Auburn. This could be on the screen during football games!! Fun fact about our camera crew, the guy who was videoing is the voice of the Auburn Marching Band. He did the intro for this season for us! So exciting!
Last week there was no class so that we could finish all the
schoolwork due before mid-semester break and go to our Practicums. The palace was abnormally quiet as everyone diligently worked to get everything done. Not too much to talk about from this week other than my practicum that I did in Rome on Thursday. We spoke with the owner of an architectural firm in Rome about the differences between designing in the United States and Italy. It was very interesting to hear how similar, and how different, the two countries approach design and safety for clients!
No comments:
Post a Comment