La Pausa

I just got back from break and it was a wonderful week spent with Mom and Dad. I met them in Florence and about 90% of my time there was spent lounging. We had a couple of great dinners and enjoyed beautiful weather!

Mom and Dad outside the linen shop

Entombment by Pontormo- one of the many pieces I have studied so far

View of the Ponte Vecchio from the Ponte Carraia

Santa Maria Novella

Last Sunday we flew to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is one of the most gorgeous cities I have ever seen. The canals are reminiscent of Venice, but the bike traffic is a little intense. Although from living in Isla Vista I'm pretty used to bicyclists flying by, I am not accustomed to that with the addition of mopeds and scooters (in the bike lane mind you) combined with car traffic. One really needs to watch out when walking the streets. The tram system was fairly easy to navigate and we made all the usual tourist stops, the first being the Anne Frank house. This was my favorite sight in Amsterdam, I have always wanted to go there. The annex is unfurnished but there remains pictures and writings on the walls, such as a segment of wallpaper that has the ages and heights of the children marked.

We also toured the Amsterdam City History Museum and, of course, the Rijksmuseum. Dad was in heaven at this point, "Man, those guys could paint!" Apart from the beautiful scenery and artwork, the food was a little expensive and not quite up to par (compared to Italy). We ended up going to the same Uruguian steak house twice, which was delicious. However, all was not lost in the food department since we made a couple of trips to Leonidas! Chocolates galore.

I definitely hope to return to this beautiful city sometime this summer!

Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson"

BIKES

Inside the Nieuwe Kerk

After our return to Florence we made a day trip to Piacenza for lunch with Valentina and her family. We drove about twenty minutes outside of the city to a small town where many city-dwellers have summer homes. The

The restaurant where we ate lunch

View of the town and river from the giant hill we climbed

Il fiume

The Paderni and Gibb clans

Valentina opening her gift from the office ladies!

Beautiful park

Bella

All in all the break was great, restful and fun, and seeing my parents definitely curbed some of my latent homesickness. I was able to shed some of my winter clothes for Mom and Dad to take home as the weather is much warmer now. I plan on enjoying this time where the weather is nice, because before long it will be unbearably hot and I'll be missing the winter...

Fino alla prossima volta, ciao ciao!

I’ve been shamed by certain family members for not updating this thing regularly so I promise to try and keep on top of it for the remainder of my time abroad!

My tribute to the Buckeyes

A lot has happened over the last two weeks, namely, a lot of school, some awesome site visits, Carnevale, midterms, and of course, break (la pausa).

To celebrate the end of Carnevale, the city set off fireworks above Piazza del Popolo, a really good show surprisingly. It certainly put Eureka’s Fourth of July festivities to shame!

It took me a few minutes to realize they were representing the Italian flag...

I got to visit Pompeii with my Ancient Roman Art class and it was amazing. Although getting up at 6 AM and climbing on a freezing bus was less than desirable, the day turned out to be extremely rewarding. First we toured the Archaeological Museum in Naples, which houses one of the largest collections of ancient Roman art and artifacts. There is even a room dedicated to ancient erotic art… very interesting.

The famous Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii

Roman wall painting

A marriage portrait

Mailale!

After the museum we traveled to Pompeii, stopping for some famous Neapolitan pizza before entering the site. Our professor had told us on the bus that the looming Mount Vesuvius was overdue for an eruption, not a very comforting piece of knowledge at the time. Upon entering the excavated city, the volcano’s presence is daunting and certainly ominous. 

The city had just about everything you could think of, hundreds of homes, places where you could buy food to go, even a brothel. The city was also inhabited by several dogs, which were tagged and could even be adopted. I took about a million pictures of the ruins, here are just a few:

A welcome "mat"

Ancient wall drawing!

The blue shutters would have provided an ocean view

It was actually quite sad seeing these plaster encasings of bodies- many of them show the exact position people were in at the moment of death. It's easy to forget the tragedy that occurred here along with the history.

Forum

Stone bed in the brothel

A private fountain

Best backyard ever

Food vendor

Check out her right leg...

My class in the stadium