Castello di Verrazzano

Today I got to go to a beautiful, historic winery in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. It was a free day trip that my program offered, so why not! There are only seven girls doing the 12 week program and 5 of them live in my apartment haha. Mac and I ended up being the only two of the seven to go today. I wasn't complaining though; I love some personal attention with stuff like this haha. We were taken there by a shuttle, with our "tour guide" Cristiana, who works for SAI- our study abroad program. She was super sweet and easy to talk to and us three gals had a blast. The drive there was only 45 minutes and was a beautiful scenic route of the countryside. I personally am not a city gal, so I love getting outside the city center of Florence. The tour was super fascinating. We learned about the actual vineyard we were on. The property is spread over the hills, it is 500 acres, and a beautiful castle used to be at the top.  There is only one tower left remaining from the original castle. The place was full of rich history and stories about Florence, Siena, and the wars that were constantly raging between the two. After seeing the castle remains we went to the terrace that overlooks the vineyards. We then proceeded to go down into the cellar and learn all about the wine making process and all the standards and regulations, etc. This particular vineyard was sooooo organic, I was lovin it. They are all about quality over quantity, and not adding any chemicals or excess sulfates. They make and use their own, all natural fertilizer, eek!! Italians are proud of their history, their products, and their culture. They want to preserve local traditions and standards, and you can not help but respect the way they view food, wine, and the consumption of both. After the tour, we got to go to the restaurant and eat and drink. The wine was incredible, as was the food and conversation:) Overall, successful day- and it's not even over yet!

The tower seen in this picture is the only part of the original castle

Find the lizard... hopefully it isn't too hard

Mac and I overlooking the vineyard

The entrance to the restaurant

The cellars! 

View from the upper terrace

Venezia

Yesterday my roommate Mac and I took a day trip to Venice. It was a really beautiful city. I want to describe it as quaint, and yet it is not quite the right word. It is colorful, yet aged. It is a good size, but is like a maize with all these small, secret streets everywhere you look. We went to all the important buildings and churches to see: Saint Mark's Basilica, Piazza San Marco, Doge's Palace, Rialto Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs, Santa Maria della Salute, Santi Giovanni, Scuola Grande de San Marco, and much more! We had a slice of pizza the size of our face for lunch and then went to a candy shop for dessert hehe. Then we visited the shops as well to purchase some Murano glass earrings, which Venice is famous for. I found a store having a sale- I'm always out to find a deal! A storm hit around 5ish and so we headed back to the train station and hung around that area until our train at 7:45. Overall, quite a successful day. Oh, and about my picture of the lady in the cheetah print pants. We saw her while we were taking a rest break on one of the many canals. She was such a trip. Just romping around smoking and playing/yelling at her three dogs. And the dogs were hilarious. Such a motley crew. The two black ones were super hype and wanted attention; one came up to me and played around the water and the other was begging its owner for attention. Then the golden one was so cute, but definitely the dumb/slow one. It was too funny. Anyways, I took some pics cause she was super entertaining and I wanted to remember the odd memory:)

We considered doing a water taxi but decided to spend our money on Murano glass earrings instead!!

This shot portrays the quaint beauty of Venice well

This lady was such a character. You do you cheetah print lady:)

Intense storm headed our way

Some Edited Pics and a Week Update

So we just today started learning Photoshop today in Photography. I don't have Photoshop on my computer cause it is so dang expensive, but I messed around on a free (and legal!) website that does editing. So these shots are pretty similar to my raw camera shot, but it was still fun to mess around witht the contrast and color vibrance and saturation, etc. 

This is my roommate Anna, she's a gem:) and yes, this is genuinely candid

This was a picture I took in Munich; bubble man!

Also, Saturday (after we got back from Munich around 10am) we had such a good day! Despite our utter lack of sleep. Roommate day:) I went for a lovely run, we went grocery shopping, then we went to our favorite pizza place for fresh Italian pizza. Of course, we ended our night with gelato and a straight chillin. Monday was a day full of errands and meetings. My roomie Mac treated me to a three course meal at our schools' restaurant (she had meal units to use and asked me to join her, I was not gonna say no haha). It was really yummy. I had grilled octopus for my appetizer, then zucchini salad, and for dessert, a chocolate tort! We left from lunch and walked across the city to buy our train ticket to Venice. Next, I had to meet with my Digital Photography professor, one on one because I missed my 2nd and 3rd day of class because of my Berlin trip. Whoops. Anyways, we met up and he quickly told me everything I missed in the two days. Then I forced my roommates to have a game night. All five of us participated and it was seriously one of my top favorite moments from my whole time here. It was a blast! We were all so hyped up and loud and goofy, eek, I just thoroughly enjoyed it.

Berlin Adventures!

Berlin was such a cool city! I traveled there Wednesday and left this morning, with my roomie Mac. We arrived Wednesday around noon and headed straight out to see the sights. We saw the Berliner Fernsehturm (TV station), the Berliner Dom, the Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten Park, and the Statue of Victory.  We took a boat tour of the city, which was super fun. It was nice to sit after our early morning and travels, as well as to hear about the facts behind the sites we would later see from land. For dinner we went to a beer garden called Prater, which was recommended to us by an employee at our hostel. It was perfect! Just what we wanted. Authentic German food and beer, outside/cafeteria style seating, and cute tea lights strung above us. Then I asked these two German girls, who sat next to us at Prater, where they recommend we get dessert. They told us about this really cute waffle/ice cream place and said to get the waffles. So we did, and it was delicious! Thursday we did a tour of the Charlottenburg Palace which was just insane. Such a huge home and property, and very fascinating to learn about. Then we headed to see the Olympic Stadium (from the 1939 Summer Olympics). We then metro-ed to Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful historic area of Berlin, worth just walking around and looking at the buildings. We took a little nap at the hostel, then headed to the East Side Gallery, which is what is left of the Berlin Wall. That was very cool to be able to see. That night we had a nice dinner at Brauhaus Mitte. I had this cheese/ dark bread thing. My menu had English translations, but after the dish I ordered it said "No translation. You must just eat it." So I did! It was strong, but very good. We ended the night by walking along the river, grabbing a beer, and people watching. Friday was museum island. The only museum we actually went inside was the Pergamon, which was very interesting and I enjoyed learning about all the history it held. We then walked down the river to end at Reichstag, the government sector of the city. There I dipped my feet in the river and then explored the beautiful buildings that surrounded us. GAME DAY! We ended our night by venturing to Tiergarten Park to join what must have been all of Berlin, to watch the Germany versus France World Cup Game. What a perfect last night! Everyone was so hype and it was just such a neat experience! Germany won, which obviously contributed to the night being a happy one:) This morning was rough. We had to wake up at 3am, to take the metro to take the train to catch our 6am flight to arrive in Pisa, to ride a bus to walk 30 minutes to our apartment. BUT WE MADE IT BACK AND IT WAS SOOOOO WORTH IT!!

Berliner Dom

Brandenburg Gate

Statue of Victory

Classic German sausage from Prater! And this baked potato, cheese thing. 

Waffle for dessert. Genuinely to die for. That topping is custard topped with raspberry preserves, yum!

Charlottenburg Palace- breathtaking  

We walked what is left of the Berlin Wall. Called East Side Gallery- it's filled with street art

Beer and Sprite- such a great invention Germany!

Reichstag- government buildings! Legit

GO GERMANY!! 

Digital Photography

     Today was my first day of session two classes, and therefore today was my first day of Digital Photography. Stoked! I have always loved taking pictures, and I just recently got a beautiful DSLR camera. I was most excited coming over here to take DP and now it is time. Yay! My professor is David Weiss. He is amazing. He grew up in the states. Both his parents were "science people" as he called them and therefore he thought he had to be. He made it through one year of med school when he decided, actually no. I'm not a science guy, I'd rather do visual media. LOL, would have payed to see the look on his parents face when he broke that news to them. Anyways, he dropped out and pursued a degree in visual arts from NYU. Since them he has done extremely well for himself and is quite a well-know photographer. Here is his website: http://davidandreweiss.com/. Right now he is working on Sportraits, which are pics of athletes. Anyways, he is a really neat guy and I'm super stoked to take his class. We will be learning a bit about the history of photography, a bit about mechanics and how to work a camera, a lot about landscape and portrait photography and how to capture the shot you want, and a lot about photoshop and the work/ art behind photography.    
      We learned about some important photographers, one of them being Henri Cartier-Bresson, who coined the term "defining moment." Our professor tried to de-mystify a lot of the myths about photography. For example, what we don't know about the pic of the little boy is that the boy walked back and forward toward Cartier 30-some times before Cartier got the shot he wanted! Photography, as an art form, takes a lot of work and manipulation. At first I was bummed as my professor de-mystified the ideals of photography. Rather than viewing the manipulation and trails as unauthentic (as my brain first did when we began discussion), I began to appreciate the effort and see the technique and art behind the photos. I guess it just depends on how you view it/art in general.

This is one of Henri Cartier-Bresson's most famous photos

Another of his important photographs! 

Siena: Almost time for the Palio!

Yesterday my roommates Anna and Felicity, as well as our friend Alston, decided to take a day trip to Siena. Getting there was a pain in the bootAAAA, but once there we did enjoy the city. And the weather was perfect which was a day brightener for sure:) Why was getting there such a struggle? Because we were told the best way to get there was by bus. And bus timetables are not online, so you just show up. Which would normally be fine, but apparently because it was a Sunday the buses were a lot less frequent. Lets just say we arrived at the bus station at 10:15.. we did not leave for Siena until almost 12:50. That was frustrating, but life happens and you just gotta roll with it. We made it there and just explored around. No map needed, the town is fairly small and somewhat a circle. We saw all the sites that Siena is known for (one being the place where the Palio- horse race- is held). I thought it was a cute little town. Last night there was a practice race at 7pm so the town was prepping for that which made our visit a whole lot more fun. There are a bunch of different contrado in Siena (they are pretty much like neighborhoods). Each contrada has its own area and own flag, so the horses in the race run for each of the contrada. All the locals were wearing their flags and singing and drinking and being wild, it was great fun to get to witness that. After all our exploring we ended up at Nannini (a famous cafe in Siena) where we tasted their Ricciarelli cookies. Ricciarelli cookies are almond cookies, they kind of taste like short bread cookies. You know, those yummy crumbly cookies covered in powdered sugar? Anyways, Siena is known for them and so we had to stop in and try one. I really enjoyed mine, probably because I was real hungry but regardless. Then we finally got lucky with the buses, and when we arrived at the bus station in Siena our bus to Florence was leaving in 5 minutes. Praise the Lord! We were stoked about that. After our day trip, Alston came over and we fixed dinner together because he is a six weeker so he actually flew home this morning. It was a really good day followed by a chill evening and finishing with a good-bye. 

Piazza del Campo: Where the horse races occur

The town is super hilly and really cramped but in a cute way not a crowded way

One Contrada ready to show their pride and celebrate!

Siena Cathedral 

"Whooah, We're Half Way There"

     Thursday I finished my session one classes: Beginners Italian and the Florence Food and Culture Experience. My emotions this weekend are bitter-sweet for sure. I met some really amazing girls in my classes: Gabby, Meg, Alyssa, and Taylor, all of whom are leaving Florence; therefore the end of this session is super sad. My roomies and I are all here for 12 weeks, but the majority of people studying at FUA (Florence University of the Arts) are only here for six weeks. So I had to say bye to these girlies, who head back to the states today. On Tuesday, session two begins and I will be taking just one class: Introduction to Digital Photography. I'm really excited about the class and know that these next six weeks will lead to many good memories and adventures (as these last six weeks did!). 

     Oh, and stories from last night. So last night my roommates and I went out dancing since it's one of my only weekends actually in Florence, not traveling. We went to this club called Space Bar, a place they had been two weeks ago when I was in Rome. It was really fun! We danced the night away, until about 2:40am!! Way way way past Kelsey's bedtime, but I told them I can make it out that late about once a month so they capitalize on that for sure. I want to go on record saying that I didn't drink any alcohol at all last night, mainly because my tummy was not feeling great. Also, because even though I can drink legally, and I think drinking in moderation is 100% fine, I don't need alcohol to have a good time!! Last night was a blast:) Okay, disclaimer over. THEN, we went on an adventure to find the secret bakery we had heard about. Apparently Florence has some "secret" bakeries that do not open till 2am and are kind of hard to find. I mean, you can google it... so I guess not that secret... but still, so fun. The instructions online tell you how to get there, and then say "take a right, it's in the ally, and you'll see a glass window with a sign that says 'Please Be Quiet.'" Well, we found it, as had some other late-nighters. You really do have to be quiet though, it was pretty great. People kept shushing anyone who was talking above a whisper haha. We got nutella croissants, and they were AMAZING!! Seriously so yummy.

     I thought I'd take time to do a half way assessment of the summer. Take some time to reflect. For this post, I will just reflect on Florence. Things I enjoy about Florence: the rich history of the city, the open-air markets open daily, the slower more easy going style of life- people have perspective here, they just aren't as up-tight as people in the states, the bakeries and panini shops that line the streets, the beautiful views and buildings I get to see daily, GELATO, PIZZA, great public transportation within Italy and to other countries in the EU, and fun places to go dancing. Things I'm not so much a fan of: creepy Italian men that have no shame in straight checkin you out as you walk by, the complete lack of green or any sign of nature (city life I guess though), persistent vendors who don't listen when you say you would not like what they are walking around selling, and dogs (and sometimes men) peeing or pooping in the middle of the cobblestone streets that I have to walk on:/ You really gotta watch your step here haha. 

Gabby, Meg, Me, our Professor, Alyssa, and Taylor. Miss um already!

This picture captures the wonderful weirdness of these sweet girls who made my last six weeks such a blast;)