5/23/10. An epic trip.

We can hardly believe that this day is already here! Our last night in Italy. For now. Many of us gave the bronze pig a pet while in Florence, and it is said that those who do, will return. We also visited the Trevi Fountain while in Rome, and tossed a coin over our left shoulder-we will return here too, so the legend says! So, we can only hope! Today was a free day so we went in and out of a few shops and soaked up the intense sun outside of our convent. There is a fountain just out the door that many of us have spent a few hours sitting at taking in the last bit of the Italian atmosphere! It's fun to sit and people watch all of the different things that are happening and listen to the ocean of languages surrounding you!

Tonight we had our group meeting at 6:00 to make plans for our flight home tomorrow. Think about us, we are scheduled to arrive in Cedar Rapids at 5:35, see you all then! Ciao!

5/22/10

This morning Kathleen and Barbara took a small group early to Santa Maria Maggorie, which was just right up the street from our apartment. We met everyone else in the lobby to move our things to our new hotel, about fifteen minutes away. We all settled in and then toured a few smaller churches. The first stop was Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, designed by Bernini. His rival, Borromini, designed San Carlino Alle Quattro Fontane which we visited next. Both were very similar in their integration of sculpture and painting. Santa Maria Della Vittoria was our last stop. It houses the famous "St. Theresa in Ecstasy", which was gorgeous! The paintings in the church were also cool because the overflowed over onto the sculptures in a way. The churches were all a little less overwhelming and a good finish to our class tours in Rome. The rest of the day we had time to finish our sketches for our last turn in and then we went our to dinner together at a restaurant near the Colosseum. We had a very rambunctious waiter who kept the evening interesting. We are all enjoying a little time to relax before we leave on Monday!

5/21/10

Our morning off was very relaxing and gave us time to prepare for the catacombs! They were so different from anything we could ever see in Iowa. We had a tour guide who led us through the labyrinth while filling us in on some of the history. It was amazing how many tombs were actually in the walls and how deep the levels went! There were even sarcophagi to see and frescoes decorating the walls of family tombs. After our underground tour, we stopped at the church St. John of Latrine, which was very beautiful! The inside was not as overdone as most of the other churches here and it really helped for us to appreciate the displayed pieces. We had some free time to enjoy the sun before supper at the hotel. The cooking was done by our hosts and it was excellent! We had meat, salad, potato sticks, lasagna, spaghetti, fruit, bread, and baked cucumbers. Between our pizza last night and our buffet today, I think we should be set on food for the rest of the trip!

Here finally are some brie descriptions of the days we missed!

5/17
We travelled from Assisi to Rome, and checked into our new hotel, which is kept by nuns. After a little time to settle in, we took off in the pouring rain for the Colosseum. It is just one of those things you see in movies all the time and never think you will in person; it was incredible! We had fun exploring all the different aisles and levels of it. We decided not to begin our walking tour because of the rain and had the rest of the night to find supper ad of course visit the supermarket across the street.

5/18
We started the day at St. Peter in Chains. Michelangelo's "Moses" was the ghighlight of the artwork there and it was neat to see the chains in their intricate case as well. We next explored the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Each one of us could have spent a full day looking around and sketching the ruin easily! We visite Piazza Navona and the "Fountain of Four Rivers", the Pantheon (breathtaking!), Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, the St. Louis Church of the Frech to see Caravaggio's work, and last paused at the Trevi Fountain to throw coins over our shoulders. Barbara and Kathleen took a smaller group of us to Santa Maria del Popolo to see a few more Caravaggios, and by that time we were spent. out of all the wonderful things saw, the best part of the day was definitely the sunshine!

5/19
We toured the Borghese Museum first. It holds quite a few Berninis, Titians, and a couple of Raphael's paintings. The muserum used to be a palace, and the frescoes on the ceilings were almost just as interesting as the pieces being displayed! We stopped quick for some lunch, and then made our way to the Vatican. Most of us students were not expecting such large crowds, but we made it into thethe museum, an dispersed to look around at our own paces. Every Gallery was amazing on the long walk to the Sistine Chapel. The rooms were covered ceiling to floor in art! One particular highlight was Raphael's "School of Athens". Finally, we made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was awesom to se such a highly reveered piece in person! We were all bummed it was the only room that did not allow photos. After pulling ourselves out of the Chapel, we left Vatican City t go around and enter on another side at St. Peter's basilica. Once inside, it was almost impossible to decide where to look first between the many chapels and domes! Paintings, mosaics, and sculptures adorned every nook and cranny of the huge interior. Bernini's baldachino captured themost attention, expertly designed with unique twisting coloumns. We tried to look at as much as we could whil still appreciating the church as a whole. After such a big day, we were all ready for some rest and supper! Maggie has been wearing a pedometer during the day, and on that day we walked a record of over 14 miles!

5/21

We have Internet issues again, so sorry for not putting up more posts! We will type one out with all the days we missed asap!

Yesterday was a long day, but definitely worth it! We are in Rome now and we took a day trip to Pompey and Naples. Barbara and Kathleen had never visited there either, so we were all in for a treat! It was a lot bigger than most of us expected, and we took a good five hours to explore the ruins and sketch. Everywhere you went there was something to look at or climb through! It was amazin to see the leftover frescoes, pottery, and store fronts. There was even still an ampitheatre and a stadium still standing! The thermal baths were highlights as well. There were a few bodies to see with bones and teeth still intact; it was amazing how well they had been preserved.

We finally made our way back down to the train station and stopped at Naples to wait for the final train back to Rome. We walked through just a few blocks of the city, but that was more than enought for most of us Iowans! We had to of course go to a pizzeria, wince the original pizza was created there. We were not sure how big our pizzas were going to be, so everyone ordered their own, and some of the guys ordered two! They ended up being a lot larger than expected, but the pizza was so good most of us made sure to clean our plates. We were a little uncomfortable without knowing the city and only having a few maps, so we went straight back to the train station until it was time to leave. We made it bak to Rome a little after 11 and were ready for bed.

Today we have a free morning to recover from the night and this afternoon we plan to visit the catacombs!

5/16/10

It has been way too long since our last post! We'll just give you a quick run-down of the past few days; we've been very busy!

5/12

We toured San Apollinare and San Marco with our excellent guide Elizabeth. There were many frescoes, not just in the library and cafeteria, but every cell even had its own painting to inspire those living there. We met back up at 3:45 and Barbara took us to the Strozzi Palace, which has been turned into a museum. She gave us all dark textured paper and white conte to try, and then we had time to sketch before a short critique at the end.

5/13

We had the morning off and took advantage of the time to sleep in! We needed the rest before heading to the famous Uffizi Gallery in the afternoon. With works by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Tintoretto, Botticelli, and many others, we took our time looking at the different pieces! It was definitely an awing experience for us all!

5/14

Friday we met at Santa Croce which had many neat frescoes, but some construction was taking place so we didn't get to see it all. We did get to see the 260 tombs, including Galileo's and Michelangelo's in the floors in the floors and on the walls. In the afternoon we had the choice to visit Piti Palace with works by Raphael, or the Boboli Gardens, which sat on a mere 110 acres of land. Many of us enjoyed the sunshine outside in the garden and did some sketching there as well.

5/15

Yesterday morning we pulled all our luggage back to the train station and headed for Assisi. We took the train up to our hotel and unloaded everything in our new rooms. They are quite small, but the place has a fun character about it, and the hosts are great! On top of that we have a great view of the valley below us. After getting settled in we toured the Basilica of St. Francis with a guide who is a Franciscan lay person. He really helped us to understand the religious connotations of the artwork we saw in the catacombs, lower, and upper church. We all also tried Kathleen's favorite sandwiches at the nearby square, she definitely knows her food! Unfortunately it was rainy and cold all day, so we were all happy to head back to our rooms for the night.

5/16

Today we had time to just relax and look around before we head to Rome tomorrow. There was talk of a hike this afternoon, but the rain left it too muddy. Most of us took the time to explore Assisi and take pictures since it was too wet yesterday. There was a peace march that ended at the basilica we toured, which brought crowds of people with flags and scarves. It was really neat to experience!

We leave bright and early tomorrow for our last city before we come home!

5/11/10

The Bargello Museum was our only tour today, but it was more than enough! The three story building was packed with sculptures, reliefs, paintings, ivory carvings, coins, dishes, and anything else you could imagine! This caused our first glimpse of Stendahl’s syndrome. We all made sure we got a good look at Donatello’s “David” and Michelangelo’s pieces, and then did our best to navigate the rest of the art pieces. Some had time to do a few quick sketches before leaving for lunch. We met back up at 3 to sketch a garden, but it was raining so instead we had small group meetings with Barbara to talk about our progress and the trip in general. We had the rest of the afternoon off to sketch indoors and to work on our journal entries.

5/10/10

We had a big day today, travelling to the small town of Siena. We all met at the school and took the bus from there to Siena. The views along the way were pretty; lots of green vineyards, but it was a little difficult to appreciate them on our bumpy bus ride. The layout of the town was more like Venice, with the streets moving along the landscape, unlike the grid pattern we’ve gotten used to in Florence. It was very small and without vendors, which was very nice! We first walked to a small church to see the head and finger of Saint Catherine that were on display. From there we walked to Il Campo, the piazza known for horse racing. We were given free time to eat, shop, and sketch. Many of us chose to sit in Il Campo to sketch because it was sunny and open there. Many other groups sat there as well and kept things pretty lively. Barbara got our class back together to go to Il Duomo later in the afternoon and it was gorgeous! Finally we were able to take some pictures of the interior of a church, and it happened to be one of the most interesting churches we have visited. The walls and pillars inside were all striped black and white, the ceiling was dark blue, and the floors were covered with carvings. When we finally finished there, we walked to the outskirts of the town to get a few pictures of the country. Barbara gave us instructions for the bus, and we were allowed to do our own thing for the rest of the day.