Cinque Cita

Wow.... Just wow... The last ten days and have been a complete blur. Starting from Genova a week ago last Saturday morning we trained to Venice. Ok, first thing about Venice, it is twice as picturesque as it appears in movies. We went to an architectural exposition there called the Biennale (you should look it up). It is a annual event that alternates yearly with art exhibitions, fortunately this year was the architecture focus. That was really cool and very applicable, as well as something I hope to go back to a few more times during my career. From there we moved on to Vicenza, which is home to a plethora of what we call Paladian houses, which is the guy responsible for what we Americans would consider the Montichello or White House look: very grand villas with large columns on the front, sitting on large manicured grounds and completely amazing. From there we moved on to Verona, which is most famous for Romeo and Juliet. They still have their Roman colosseum open and "fully operational" in which they were rehearsing for "The Barber of Seville - On Ice" oh yeah... Watch out Disney on Ice, this stuff is way more real. We also visited the oldest theatre in Europe (yes older than the Globe). From there we rolled on to Mantova where we visited a grand palace outside the city limits as well as several churches and wrapped Mantova up with some traditional Veneto region cuisine. Our last and fifth city (cinque cita) was Bologna (pronounced Bolonya) which was once known for all of its towers, but has since lost a lot of them. While there we toured the tallest and most leaning tower in Italy (yes more lean than Pisa) and during free time a couple of us took the train over to Modena: home of Ferrari. We did not have enough time to go to the factory museum, but we did make it to the home of Enzo Ferrari where they have built a smaller museum of some very rare and early Ferraris. thus how I have spent the last ten days of my life and have loved every single minute of it!! I have sketched until my hand almost fell off, but again it has been totally worth it, I am so fortunate to have been given this opportunity and it has not fully hit me until this trip.
Until next time,
Ciao!

Pisa e Carrara

Ciao!
So this post is to tell you about my travels before the first big trip, when we traveled to Pisa and Carrara. First off, Pisa was really cool, but extremely touristy. The tower was cool and we had a special ticket that put us at the top of the tower at noon as the bell was going off. It was loud, but not too loud, and even if it was a little too loud, it was worth it. Then we travelled to Carrara (of white marble fame). Here we went on a tour of one of the caves where they are still mining the white marble. We were exactly in the middle of that mountain 400 meters in and 400 meters down/up and I had the opportunity and took it: I sang my Italian aria which I know, in the echoey marble halls. That was an experience I will never forget, especially because some of my friends would have killed for that singing experience and won't soon let me forget it either.
Until next time,
Ciao!

If I Only Had a Car

Ciao!

I have posted some more photos today. (A lot more) So if you want you can go check those out at:

Where to Now?

Also, here is a big format image that I've been messing around with the lighting settings and such.  I've labeled it as "If I Only Had a Car."

Until next time.

Ciao!

Salute!

Salute!

Ciao, so I realize that it has been a few days since I posted last.  The first full week of classes here at the villa kind of threw a monkey wrench into the whole blog thing.  So, thankfully the weekend is now here, because I can now catch up.  Since last weekend when I wrote, there has been so much that has happened.  First off, the thing that is really messing with me right now is how chilly it is here now.  We went from 90's and no A/C to now 20ºC (about 68-70ºF)!!! Where did that come from?! We are all walking around the villa in sweatshirts now, it is wonderful compared to what has been the norm.

Oh, also, on Tuesday I attempted to cut off my finger.  I was slicing some focaccia bread and missed the bread and took of a little piece of my left middle finger right next to the nail.  It bled enough to drop my blood sugar enough and I also can't see my own blood in mass quantities, and then promptly passed out.  I assure you I am fine now, but still it was one of those things that just would happen to me and the luck I seem to have.  When I woke up 30 seconds later I drank a glass of sugar water and just sat around and ate a lot of energy and sugar rich things the rest of the day (oh darn.)  I have a sterile strip bandage on it now and it has lost all pain, even accidentally hitting it on things.  So, don't worry, I am completely fine.  Also now whenever I see the cleaning lady (who I discovered is also the nurse) and the cook now make a point of asking me how I am every morning which is nice to get to know them better.

Our first project is attempting to cruise right along.  It keeps hitting some bumps but thats what makes it fun and interesting.  The location is also super convenient since it is right outside the villa and down a flight of stairs.  The whole site has an elevation change of about 80 feet, so that is proving to be an interesting challenge.  That project terminates in a little over a week, and our first studio trip is the next week of the 15th - 24th to Venice and Milan.  For those of you looking for more photos I am sorry, the internet here is REALLY bad when everyone is on it, so I will be trying to keep the photos updated.  Until then, Ciao! We are grilling out tonight! Burger time! Oh and GO CLEMSON TIGERS!!! First game and first win of the season last night against Auburn.

Un Piccolo Gelato Per Favore!

Here is a small little post.  Mostly to send you all a link to my photos (if you haven't already seen them on Facebook.)
Italy Days 1-4
You will have to log into Facebook to see these but after that you should be good.
Ciao!
p.s. I will post again tomorrow a typed update, tonight its just pictures.

Ciao!

Well, I made it to the villa today! There is wifi here, but unfortunately there is no air conditioning.  For those of you not following current weather conditions for Genova, it has been 90 the last four days.  (Thankfully they said it should cool off by Thursday.)  The rooming situation allowed me to room with my roommate from literally a year now (since he also went with me to Buffalo this summer for our internship) so that is nice and familiar.  We have one other guy in our room, one of the three people not from Clemson, a guy from Illinois Institute of Technology or IIT.  Our room is on the front side of the villa, so we have a wonderful view of the port of Genova and the surrounding hills and mountainous terrain (see picture from last post, almost that exact picture.)  After we moved in, we had lunch, which consisted of rice (with tomatoes, ham, onions, olives and mozzarella) which was pretty good, but the best part of lunch (their big meal of the day) was the caprese (tomatoes, and mozzarella) and I have to say, which those of you who know my hatred of tomatoes, that it was REALLY good!! It was so fresh that it was amazing!! Definitely looking forward to the next time we have that!! After that myself and two others went on a jaunt across the city in search of this store named Saturn (or Saturna as the locals say) which is their equivalent of Best Buy.  We found what we were looking, which for me was a large occilating fan.  Twenty euros later, I had a fan that makes the lack of A/C bearable.  The rest of the day we just hung around the villa and I tried out the cappuccino maker, which I must say works marvelously!! So far, it is going well, and it keeps getting better! Looking forward to the rest of the semester.  For now though, Ciao!

Buon Giorno

Well, here it is, I blinked and three days have gone by already. Tomorrow we move into our villa where we will live and have classes, and we will have a few days to get accustomed to that before we start classes on Wednesday. The flights were ok, however the Paris airport was the biggest, most confusing airport I have ever seen!! It took us an hour and a half to get from one side of the airport to the other... Two not-connected terminals later we finally got to our gate, thankfully with some time to spare. We arrived into Genova midday on Thursday and met up with our friends for lunch. We then walked around the city the rest of the day and had a wonderful dinner. I now know what good Italian food tastes like. The next day, after some great debating over what the plans would be, we decided to travel to the nearby seaside town of San Margherita Ligure where we spent the better part of the day walking around and happened to come upon an Italian Opera school with a voice lesson occurring (Very Cool). After a delayed train back to Genoa, we arrived back to our hotel and hung around waiting for some more friends who were coming in that night. Once they arrived we walked around the port, which has been transformed into a pedestrian only area full of shops, restaurants and a cinema. Sunday morning we got up and were intending on meeting everyone for breakfast, only to find out the cafe in mind was closed on Sundays, so maybe we will get it another time. Also, today we were able to tour the cathedral across the street from the hotel, due to it being Sunday, which was very, very impressive. We continued walking around Genoa today and found the house of Christopher Columbus, a very cool way to spend 3 euros. We also went fountain hunting and found a very cool piazza and fountain at the Piazza Ferrari (no connection to the car, that I know of). For dinner we went to an outdoor restaurant again by the port that we had seen the night before and enjoyed being all there and appreciating the view up the mountains where you could see the villa and the rest of the city lit up in the night. Tomorrow night we will be enjoying the view from the other direction. Until I get a more reliable Internet connection to post pictures, I can only post the view that I've taken with my phone. So, until next time, ciao!!