Sunday at the beach

We went to Urbino Saturday.  There was a palace there with a lot of art in it.  Afterward, we went to the beach.  I ate a lot of firsts.  We went to a seafood restaurant and had muscles, grilled sardines, mung fish, sole, octopus and giant squid.  Then we went swimming in the Adriatic Sea.

I'll have to post some pictures later.

Florence

We took a bus, then a train to Florence.  This place is so hilly and I don’t think there is a straight street in the entire country, so several of us were a little sick when we got to Florence.  We got over it pretty sick, though. 

I should have taken a picture of the front of our hotel.  I forgot.  It wasn’t that miraculous, though.  The room was, however, quite different.  Notice the color scheme.  It was enough to make a girl a little bit loopy.

You need to keep in mind that this building is hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more, years old.  They didn’t have running water like we think of it and I imagine they were still bathing in the local bath houses… with everyone else.  Anyway, this is our bathroom.  The red complements the green in the hall so nicely.  Next to the toilet is a badet and that is the shower rod hanging in the middle of the room.  Just pull the certain and don’t worry about getting water on the floor.

Front of the Duomo

Side of the Duomo

North Baptistery Doors

South Baptistery Doors.

A contest was help to decide who would create most works of art for the Catholic church during the Renaissance.  Lorenzo Ghiberti won the commission for these doors.  Michelangelo later dubbed them the Gates of Paradise.

The first thing we did was go to the Duomo and the Baptistery, then on to the Acadamia.  I didn’t get any pictures of the Acadamia because we were supposed to and I was too chicken to try.  I wasn't trying to get kicked out.

The next morning we went to the Ufizzi (HUGE museum), which has art from before Christianity.  It also has a lot of important Christian art from the Medieval and Renaissance era.  Renaissance is when we kind of perfected drawing the human figure, light and shadow and when we figure out how space worked and how to portray it.

This is a view from the third floor of the Ufizzi.  Both of those walls that stretch out for about two blocks are also part of the Ufizzi.  I was in there for the better part of a day.

.

We also had gelato

View from the River Arno.

Chain overloaded with bike locks?

Pizza!

Went to the Medici Palace.  The Medici's were a family of bankers and wool merchants.  Apparently, back then being rich was considered sinful and something to be ashamed of.  The Medici's weren't down with they and they decided that if they used their money to beautiful Florence and to educate people that being weather was okay.

At the museum that used to be their home we saw a Damien Hurst exhibit.  It was just won piece.  A skull covered in hundreds of diamonds.  He said the point is that you can't take money with you into the grave, but that a lot of people value it over life.  It's called "For the Love of God" because that's what his mother said when she saw it.

The last thing we did was going to the church of Santa Croce.  There are several famous people buried there and we got to see their... monuments.  Among them were Michelangelo, Dante and Galileo.  I'll have to post them later.  I'm pictured out.

Blacksmithing

The day before we went to Florence we visited a blacksmith’s shop.  It was very interesting and held many photo opportunities.

His name is Luca and his shop is build into the outside of the wall that surrounds the town.  Walking into it kind of feels like you are entering a dungeon.  He showed around and displayed the process for us. 

This is Luca putting a piece of iron into the forge.

This is part of his shop.  I love what he’s written on the cabinet.

Some of his tools.

When it’s hot enough he takes it out of the forge and hammers into shape.  When it starts to cool he has to put it back in the fire.  If he hits it while it’s too cold it can break. 

Some beautiful things in the shop.  I know it’s a little overwhelming to look at.  The whole place is like that, just packed with stuff.

He has to create his design here first.  This is half a fire place grate.   We got to see it almost done and it is beautiful.

I apologize for the lack of posts, but the internet is so slow here and it literally took me over 45 minutes just to upload these photos.  I don't have time to sit that long.  Not to mention, everyone else gets bent out of shape if I take up the internet that long.

the lack of posts

I've been super busy and not blogging.  I am leaving for Florence tomorrow morning and not taking my computer.  Therefore, I will continue to not blog.

fyi...

Thursday?

Okay.  Today is Thursday.  I don't know where this week has gone.  We are pretty busy.  I've started a couple paintings and drawings.  I did a linoleum print.  I've cut it, but haven't printed it.  I'll post it when I do.

My photography class marched down to this old broken farm house and took some pictures.  It was about 2 1/2 miles to get there, which was easy.  All down hill.  The walk back was less easy.  Lots of complaining.

Broken Farmhouse 

 Random Beautifulness

This is taken from a street above this little walk way/court yard place.

Piazza

It seems like I might have posted a picture of the Piazza already.  Sorry if I did.  This is the center of town.  To the left is the gelato shop.  In front, but toward the right is the post office.  Behind that is a restaurante that also sells gelato, bread, pasta, and some specialty foods.  I bought some olive pesto, millifiori (a thousand flowers) honey and acacia honey there.  Then there is the toy store.  Behind that funny little red truck is the bank.  One the left you can see some tables.  That is the tobacco store, which is also a little boutique.  I'm not sure why they have tables and chairs.  Above all those  businesses are people's homes.  Oh!  Back in the back, under the clock is the old jail.  I was told there used to be a head basket on the other side of it.

Well, my son just logged into skype and I want to talk to him, so I'm done here.

Entra

My blog page is in Italian again.  After much random link clicking I discovered that Entra means "Post New Blog".  I haven't been able to post much because there are five of us in our villa and one internet cord.

We didn't go truffle hunting that night.  It was too muddy.  We did get invited to dinner though.  Just about everything they made had truffles in it.  Well, not dessert.

 Truffle Farmers

 Farfalle with truffle sauce.  Yum.

 Truffles.

Truffles are a kind of mushroom. They grow from spores dropped from hazelnut and oak trees.  These wonderful little mushrooms grow underground and hunters/farmers use dogs and sometimes pigs to find them.  They are delicious and very expensive.  This is about 40 Euros with of truffles... about $60.  In the fall you can find white truffles.  They are even more expensive.  Yummier too, I am told.

Prosciutto

The truffle farmers also grow grapes, make wine, cheese and cure their own meat.  They probably grow olive trees and who knows what else.  This is prosciutto hanging in there garage.  It cures like this for about 8 months, then you can eat it.  What you actually see hanging here are pig's legs.  

Everyone has olive trees.  There are some at our villa.  They use them to make olive oil.

This concludes the food portion of this blog... Maybe.

Sunday

It's raining today.  We are supposed to go truffle hunting tonight, but I don't even want to walk to the bus stop...

I will attempt to upload some photos.

The Piazza in Montone.

View from the top of Montone.

Houses on the edge of town.

WOW

Holy cow!  Getting on this blog was rough.  All the links at the top are in Italian.

So... we are here.  We got here after a long and painful flight.  It was 7am here and midnight at home.  We got on a bus and drive through the mountains (I think Italy is pretty much all mountains) to Orvieto.  There we saw the Duomo.  It was dificult to get a good picture.  It was the first day of the Tour of Italy and it opened in Orvieto, so there were tents and people and trash everywhere.

Keep in mind, we did this with no sleep.  Then we went to a restaurant.  I have pasta in a cream sauce with truffles.  It was pretty amazing.  I should have taken a picture.  

Okay.  Back on the bus, more driving up and down hills and around winding roads.  Three of us are are the verge of extreme car sickness (myself included).  We finally get to our villa.  It's renovated farm buildings.  Not the kinds of farm buildings we think of, but beautiful old stone buildings.  It's very nice, but plain.  We are the first customers and have decided we'll all donate a piece of art to them.  I don't have pictures of it.  When we got here I was so tired.  I thought I would do it later, but now it's got all the junk of five women living it... so I don't want to take a picture.

We went to eat more awesome food, came home and went to bed.  We had to get up at the crack of dawn the next day because our professor is a drill sergeant.  We drew some stuff, went to lunch, then took lots of pictures.  More eating.  You get the picture.  

They take four hour lunches here.  It doesn't take that long to eat, but they take a nap after.  The restaurants open and the stores clothes.  Then the stores open back up around four.  Tomorrow is Sunday and nothing will be open.  We'll go on a truffle hunt.  I'm pretty excited about that.  There is a girl here that doesn't like mushrooms.  I'm buying her lunch and she's giving me or truffle.  Win!

I'll post more pictures later.  It's taking forever to upload them.

two and a wake up

I have to be at the airport Wednesday morning at 5:00am.  Sometime very late Wednesday night (Thursday morning there) I will be here.

http://tuscanyumbriavilla.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/a-visit-to-orvieto-umbria/

This is the closest "big town" to where we are staying.  Orvieto is the city, Umbria is the state.  From what I understand, we will spend the day there before going to Montone, where we will spend most of our time.

There are some pictures here of the house we will stay in while in Montone.

http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/it4941.htm

Ciao.