Gearing up to go home..

Yes, it has been a while. A lot has happened in the last 5 months, including several trips and the end of the year art show at Cal State, so let's get started!!

January 2007

Once Dad left and Christmas break was over, we settled back into school and finished up the last month of the semester. Finals were tough, but nothing we couldn't handle. And of course, the mid-January trip to Northern Italy was fantastic. :)

Northern Italy!

This trip was wonderful. I think for the first time the variety of cultures within this country became very real to me. Northern Italy has a lot of the money and influences from the bordering countries. Architecture is more worldly, in that different art movements from neighboring countries made a stronger impact. Every city up there seems to have a sweet
slur to their italian, making it that much harder to understand. :)

One of our first stops, and somewhere I've always wanted to go and never thought I would, was Paduva. The famous artist, Giotto, did some incredibly famous frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel. Unfortunately, we were only allowed inside for 15 minutes, only after going through some de-ionizing to protect the frescoes. And of course, no pictures inside, please.

Here's a shot of the outside of the Scrovegni Chapel.

Also, as we were leaving, it started snowing!

Verona!! The home of Romeo and Juliet and ancient Roman ruins! Wandering around Verona was lovely. Here's a few shots from there..




This is the Roman arena found right in the middle of town there...

They are doing some renovation so we didn't get to go inside :(









Here I am, adding John and my name to the graffiti outside Juliet's supposed home. The tunnel was black with all the names and hearts on the walls.

Verona's main piazza. There is an open market here. It's also close to the homes of some of the most influential Italian families, including Gran Cane (Big Dog) whose family harbored Dante when he was exiled from Florence.

Vicenza was beautiful! We stopped off there to see Teatro Olympico, which is one of the first indoor theaters, completely made of wood. It is entirely in-tact and really breathtaking.


Because of the shape of the theater, I didn't get a good full picture, but here is one of all of us listening to a lecture















Just a cool picture as we were getting off the bus













The whole trip to Vicenza was a little sketchy since the Italians up there aren't too happy with Americans right now. Apparently we are expanding an air base up there and they are really upset about it. They were pretty rude with us, so we were some-what happy to leave.






There were many other amazing points to this trip, but i'm only going to mention one more: CHEESE!!!! We had the fantastic experience to visit a Gran Padano cheese factory!! Gran Padano cheese is like Parmesean, but because it is made in a different area, they have to call it something different. Either way, it was GOOD!! There are all kinds of pictures of it on my Flickr account, but for now, here are a few of my favorites....




Me, Kelli, Courtney and Terri...
So excited about the CHEESE!!!














This is me trying to eat a very, very large wheel of cheese.











One of the many endless walls of cheese













Also in January, we got a new roommate!! Her name is Katrina and she is Russian. Her family lives in Portugal and she is here studying interior design. Cool!

Okay, so that was January!! Wow, right?? But wait!! There's MORE!! :)

February 2007

February was another eventful month because it brought another visitor from home: John!!

John came out to visit for about 10 days and we had an incredible time. We traveled up to Venice for Carnivale and down to Rome so he could get his gladiator fix. The rest of the time was spent in Florence hanging out and enjoying our free time. :)

Here's a few of my favorite shots from our time together..





In the Colosseum. Woohoo!!















John eating his first gelato. He always got the frutty flavors.

On top of the Duomo in Florence. It was a beautiful day!

Making the most of Carnivale at the top of the Rialto bridge in Venice.

There are, of course, more pictures from our trip on my Flickr, including lots of pictures of the costumes we found at carnivale and fantastic pictures of us jumping on the roof of Hadrian's Mausoleum (now Castello Sant'Angelo), but for now we must move on....

March 2007!

This month brought the greatest school field trip of them all: Southern Italy!!! Pompeii, Napoli, Amalfi Coast, Capri... beautiful every where you look with fantastic food and
wonderful culture!!




Here is the view from our hotel room in Amalfi. It was such a fantastic little sea-side town with the biggest lemons I've ever seen in my life!!

One night my roommate and I left the door to the balcony open and enjoyed the sound of the water on the rocks.. it was lovely :)









Kelli, me, Terri, Sincere and Courtney enjoying a nice evening on the roof of the hotel in Amalfi!













This is how they grow the lemons in the south there. The terraces go all along the hill side..












At the top of Mount Vesuvius with Big Dave, Sincere, Courtney, Kelli and me...













From the top of Mount Vesuvius... you can see Pompeii and Napoli down there...













Excited to be in Pompeii!!!

If the clouds weren't so thick that day, you would see Vesuvius directly behind us...











This is the whole school hanging out in one of the theaters in Pompeii..














From left to right: Damian, me, Amarie, Terri, Sincere, Kelli, Courtney and Lindsay. We are on our way to Capri!!











Beautiful sunset over Napoli at the end of a long day. :)












Okay, guys.. That brings you up-to-date through to March. There is much to tell about April, when Mom, Jen and Harry came to visit and the art show we hosted this week. This is getting to be a long post, so I will leave you with this and catch up on the rest in a bit, okay?

If I don't get back here in the next week and a half, wish me luck and pray for my safe return to the states!! May 20th and I'm home sweet home!!