Since my last post, life has gone into hyper-speed mode, and it seems almost impossible to keep up with my blog (let alone my other work...). Since Paris, I've had a few fun trips. We took a day trip to Arezzo with Professor Mariotti (art history), and Professor Shank (Galileo). Mariotti gave us a great tour of the town, focusing on some amazing art by Piero della Francesca, Cimabue, and other masters we have studied. One of the greatest movements was seeing a crucifix done by Cimabue. The work sits above the altar of this completely deserted church. It was amazing to me to see this precious work of art in a church that people hardly visits. Italy is filled with lots of little treasures! This trip lasted the entire morning, and afterwards Professor Shank and his wife Carol invited us along with them to the town over called Sansepolcro. This town is the birthplace of Piero della Francesca, and had an awesome museum displaying more of his work. There were five of us that took Professor Shank up on his offer, which was amazing, because it was like we had our own private tour guide.
Arezzo
Cimabue's Crucifixion
Recently, I also took a day trip to another hill town called San Minato. My friend Sarah and I spent the day wandering in and out of churches, seeing the art museum, and had a nice sit down lunch of pasta with truffles. San Minato is known for their delicious truffle mushrooms! Another highlight of the trip was climbing the towns highest tower and seeing the view of the surrounding tuscan countryside. I swear this view will never get old!
The weekend of San Minato, the villa director, Helen, put on a cooking class for us. We learned how to make a basic red sauce, meet sauce, pesto, risotto, and this amazing apple cake. I have some amazing recipes that I cannot wait to impress you with when I get home!
Last weekend, our program had a scheduled trip to Venice, and let me just say, it was such a different experience from any of the other Italian town I have visited. Venice seemed like a dream world to me. You are constantly crossing over canals on tiny bridges, seeing gondolas pass by, and to top things off, the weather we had created a sort of foggy haze over the city that reminded me of a dream sequence in a movie. On our trip we visited the Academia Museum, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, had private boat ride, saw a glass blowing demonstration, toured the Palazzo Doge (The Dukes Palace), and St. Marks Basilica. The glass blowing demonstration was amazing! The man made a vase and a glass horse right in front of us, in a matter of minutes. It is crazy how quickly this man could create such intricate designs out of liquid glass; I will never look at a glass anything quite the same!
A bunch of us with Prof. Mariotti (in the middle)
Besides the glass blowing, the highlights of my trip included a lunch with my friends Hayley and Amanda alongside one of the many canals (great company, conversation, and scenery), and our private tour of the San Marco Basilica. The Basilica closes at 8pm, and we had the church all to ourselves after that (professor Mariotti has crazy connections!). When we walked into the main part of the cathedral all of the lights were turned off. As we walked down the aisle and took a seat in the pews, the lights slowly increased to reveal the detail of the surrounding space. The dim light continued to increase so slowly that when they were finally completely on, it took me a minute to realize it. As the light filled the massive space, it created this amazing shimmer on the gold tiles of the mosaic sealing, an experience I don't think words or pictures can do justice. There was something so spiritual and moving about this moment, and it's a feeling I will never forget.
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