Last day in Italy...

'Twas the day before departure

And all through the dorm

Not a student was screaming

Although that was the norm.

All the suitcases packed

Or still strewn across the floor

In anticipation of tomorrow

Which will end our tour.

Okay, I got bored with the rhyming. But it's true, today is our last day in Italia!! It's about 4 pm now. We had our "last lunch" at our beloved Chinese restaurant at 1:00, and then I went with Traci and Katie to the Colosseum to get some final pictures and then to Cavour to see Michelangelo's Moses. If we email Dr. Murphy a selfie with Moses, we will get extra credit! ;) But now we're back. And it's time to blog.

Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to our farewell dinner in Tivoli. It was a fantastic way to end our trip! We visited the Villa D'Este before dinner and it was so spectacularly beautiful I couldn't stand it. Then we had our dinner at Monteripoli at the top of one of the hills in Tivoli and we had a great time singing and dancing with the musicians who were playing for us all throughout our huge meal. Let me describe this for you. We started off with an appetizer with bread, meats, cheese and a tiny salad. Then we got what I guess was an antipasto with alfredo sauce and ham. Then we got some more pasta in red meat sauce, which we thought was the main course. But no, then they brought out some pork topped with olives and mushrooms and potatoes! By then we were so full we felt bad only eating part of it. Then, to top it all off, they brought out the tiramisu and some shots of limoncello, which I can't stand so I gave it to my friend. Throughout the meal we also had both red and white wine, orange Fanta, and water. All in all, it was a huge delicious meal and we were surrounded by friendly people and great authentic Italian music played on guitar and accordion with singing. As we went around our group and gave our final reflections on what our favorite moment of the whole trip was, the sun was setting out the giant windows, creating a beautiful backdrop to the finale of our grand adventure. (Pictures below, of course.)

The view from Villa D'Este!

One of many fountains there

Breathtaking!

The beautiful sunset out the window of Monteripoli :)

In my final reflection, I said that the moment that would stay with me most from the trip, if we could only pick one, would be the moment when we finally reached the top of the Duomo and we saw the aerial view of Florence. That was the first of many breathtaking sights that I saw on this trip, and it was so rewarding to see after the strenuous climb up. But it's really not fair to choose just one thing from the whole trip. For instance, basically every time I have walked into a cathedral, the sight has taken my breath away. Climbing to the top of St. Peter's Dome was up there too. The sights at Capri were so awesome too! And the views from our hotel in Massa Marittima were spectacular. Walking around that corner in Florence and then seeing the Florence Cathedral/Baptistery/Duomo will also be a moment that I will never forget. There are just too many breathtaking moments for me to name! I am excited to go back home and see my friends and family and doggies, but I think once I finally get home and get back to the grind of life, I will miss my time in Italy. I hope I can come back someday, and I'm so glad I was able to come on this trip now at this time in my life!

I have most of my stuff packed away, but I probably won't be totally packed until right before we leave tomorrow morning. We are departing St. John's University at 8 am on a charter bus to get to the Fiumicino airport, where we need to go through security and all that before our flight at 12:15 pm. Boarding begins at 11:20 am for me, I think. I'll have to check again. It's an 11 hour flight to Atlanta, and then I have about a 3 hour layover to go through customs and all that before departing Atlanta at 8:59 pm and getting in to Jacksonville at 10:15 pm. I'll basically lose 6 hours flying over the ocean, so it'll feel like it's 4 am. This should be fun!

I keep telling myself I'll be home tomorrow night, and I'm so excited!! So the next time you'll hear from me I'll be in the United States! Arrivederci, Italia!

~Dani

The Final Countdown

Hi everyone! It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Today is our second to last day in Rome! In about an hour we will be leaving on a bus to travel 45 minutes to Tivoli, where we will have our farewell dinner. It's supposed to be a beautiful place and we will walk through the gardens there and be entertained by some musicians. And I just realized I don't have any coins left over to tip them with besides 5 cent coins. Uh oh.

Yesterday I had a very boring day, but it was much deserved. We hadn't had a day to just chill in about a week, and I need that. After we got back from our walking tour of the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church and some surrounding monuments, I fell right back asleep. My sleeping habits have been messed up, and all of the walking and the rising temperatures and the people and the bus/metro system wears you out, believe me. When I get home I won't have to deal with that, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. After I woke up, I ventured out of the dorm to find some food, scavenging my options that took credit cards because I strategically used up all my Euros so I wouldn't have to transfer them when I got back home. I settled on the grocery store, where I decided to consume something that wasn't straight carbs and bought a salad and some fruit. WHOA. Those things are hard to come by in Italy. So I ate them back at the dorm and proceeded to be a total hermit for the rest of the day. There was free food in the lobby left over from a meeting so we all swarmed that, but then it was back to being a hermit. I watched so many YouTube videos. So many.

This morning I started packing up my stuff. At first I was worried about everything not fitting, but it looks like everything will fit. I don't even think my suitcase will be overweight... maybe only by a pound or two. It was 47 pounds on the way over. For every souvenir I've bought, I've thrown away something that is probably of equal weight. My carry-on, however, is going to be pretty heavy because of my laptop. But that was the case on the way over too. As long as I can get through the Atlanta airport without cutting off the blood flow to my arm from carrying the bag, I'll be good. :)

I can't believe these 6 weeks are basically over! It's scary how fast time is going. Before I know it, I'll turn 21 and my senior year of college will begin. Make it stop, I want to stay in college Anyway, here's a picture to make the thumbnail more interesting. You may recognize it from my Facebook. But it's artsy and stuff and works for every aspect of my trip. It was taken in Massa Marittima from the edge of the hill that our hotel was on, where the view was incredible. Looking back, I think Massa was my favorite city we visited!

As much as I'm going to miss Italy, I think I'm missing America more. Here's my tentative itinerary of what I'll do when I get home. At least food-wise.

Monday, June 20th
5:30 pm - Land in Atlanta (hopefully, if everything goes to plan). Go through customs, do all that nonsense, and then RUN to Starbucks. Purchase an iced coffee with cream, 3 pumps of classic and 3 pumps of white mocha. Savor and cry tears of happiness.
10:15 pm - Land in Jax (hopefully). Exhaustedly reunite with my family and then probably pass out on the drive home.
Tuesday, June 21st
Whenever I wake up - Get in my own car and drive to Firehouse Subs and get an Engineer with extra pickles.
For dinner - Go to Moe's and get a stack. Eat it messily.
After dinner - Andi promised me she'd take me to Yobe. So, go to Yobe and eat frozen yogurt :)
Wednesday, June 22nd
Daytime meal - PANERA. Oh Lordy, Panera.
Nighttime meal - Something with steak. I miss steak so much.
Thursday, June 23rd
Daytime meal - PDQ CHICKEN TENDERS AHHHH
Nighttime meal - Something healthy. Not pizza or pasta. Maybe my mom's meatloaf... hint hint.
Friday, June 24th
Daytime meal - A PUB SUB OMG
Nighttime meal -  I don't know. That's all I've got planned so far. Maybe I should have just organized this as foods I must eat when I get home.

I've clearly thought about this too much. But anyway, it's close to time to go. So CIAO! I'll be home really soon!!
~Dani

Three more days??

Buona serra a tutti! (At least here. Buon giorno for everyone back home.)

I'm happy because I'm officially done with my two presentations for my two art history classes! This morning our Art History on Site class presented St. John Lateran to the rest of our group and basically acted as guides through the church and the surrounding monuments, such as the Baptistery, the Obelisk, and the Holy Staircase. It was really cool! That doesn't mean I'm done though... when I get home I have until the end of July to complete my final exam for the Ancient Roman Art and Architecture class and I have to create a travel journal/scrapbook for the Art History on Site class.

The east facade of St. John Lateran!

The basilica of St. John Lateran

We only have three days left! Tomorrow the Art and Culture of Italy class is doing their presentations and our morning meeting place is at a church near the Pantheon and the name is escaping me right now. After that, we are basically done with actual "classes"! On Saturday we are going to Tivoli for our farewell dinner, and then on Sunday we have a free day for packing and farewells. We may also have a "last lunch" on Sunday. It feels like the last 6 weeks have gone slowly and quickly at the same time. The day we landed in Rome and traveled to Ostia feels like it was ages ago, but every day has been so full that the weeks have flown by.

We will take off from the Rome Fiumicino airport at 12:15 pm on Monday, and by the time we land back in Jax, it will feel like it is 4 am on Tuesday but it will really only be 10 pm on Monday. If I've learned anything on this, it's that time is a relative concept. But I have decided as soon as we touch down at the Atlanta airport for our connecting flight, I am bolting to the nearest Starbucks and getting the biggest iced coffee I can. I am so ready for that. :D

Today we also visited Centrale Montemartini, a power plant that was converted into a museum. It was cool seeing the industrial backdrop of the plant with the ancient Roman sculptures. So yeah, that was cool.

Centrale Montemartini

The floor mosaic in Centrale Montemartini

After tonight, I only have three more showers in these dorm showers! Huzzah!!

Hmm... Speaking of showers, I have made a definitive ranking of all of the showers I have encountered during my time here, and I feel like I should share them with you innocent bystanders. I've written them out below, #1 being the worst and #5 being the best (which may be backwards but I don't care, I run this). They've been real weird.

#1) The worst was probably the sit-down shower in the hotel in Massa Marittima. The "shower" itself was a small tub with a built-in slope that made it impossible to stand in, so you were forced to sit. And even if you could stand, the shower head couldn't attach to the wall in any way, so you had to hold it and deal with showering that way. The shower curtain was also too long, but you had to keep it inside the tub so the water wouldn't go everywhere, so you were essentially sitting on the shower curtain. The rod holding the shower curtain wasn't the sturdiest either, and I almost pulled it down multiple times. However, the water pressure was good and the water was pretty warm except for one especially cold night. The hotel didn't have the radiators turned on and the whole place was tile so I was already freezing cold, and the water just could not get warm enough for me. That night I slept with my jacket on. All in all, 4 out of 10, would not recommend. It was hard choosing the worst, but I think Massa won.

#2) If Massa was the worst, the second worst was definitely the shower in the Naples hotel. The shower itself was large and you could actually stand up in it, and the shower head was actually attached to the wall. The water pressure was okay, not great. It actually would have been fine, except the light in the bathroom was automatic (which was odd to begin with) and the shower was closed off in such a way in the bathroom so no motion was detected and the light kept turning off. So half of my shower consisted of me sticking my hands outside the glass shower door and waving them around to turn the light back on. It definitely could have been worse, but the whole thing was really strange.

#3) From here on out the showers are okay but still not the best. The next would probably be the Florence hotel shower, solely because of the water pressure and the position of the shower head. The shower head was on the wall, but it was on a pole on the wall so every position put it at a weird angle and made the pressure weak. The tub was large enough to stand in, so that was a win. All in all, not bad, but it could have been better. 6 out of 10.

#4) I think I need to put the St. John's University showers here. The water pressure is good, and they are definitely the most normal showers out of all of them, but they're communal showers, which makes everything awkward. Carrying all my shower stuff from my room to the bathroom every day is no bueno. Also, the shower stalls are just small enough to make changing in them really not okay. Long story short, I would not have lasted in a dorm with communal showers for an entire year.

#5) This decision for the best shower may have been influenced by the fact that the one and only time I used this shower I was just so happy to be taking a shower and I was so sleep-deprived I was delusional. This shower iiiiiis.... the shower in the Ostia Antica hotel. Coming in after a 9+ hour red eye flight and trudging around the dusty ancient ruins in Ostia Antica, that shower was the best shower of my entire life. It was a small stand-up shower stall, no tub. And the drain was partially clogged. But the Lord knows that shower and I formed a loving bond that will stay with me all my life. Congratulations.

ANYWAY... that was weird. But don't even get me started on European toilets. O_O

Okay, enough of that. Talk to you all soon! Buona notte!
~Dani

Free weekend?

Howdy y'all!

Welcome to our free weekend in Rome! You know what I'll be spending it doing? Sleeping, working on my projects for my two art history classes, and attending a Liszt concert and the La Traviata opera. And that's what separates me from a lot of other people... haha.

A lot of people are traveling this weekend. Their destinations include Venice, Milan, Sorrento, and probably others I'm unaware of. It would have been awesome to travel, but knowing who I am as a person and knowing how much my wallet is screaming at me, I decided to stay in Rome for these three days. I'll live vicariously through my peers' pictures and stories. I think there's seven of us out who opted to stay in Rome out of the 22 of us.

Here's a few thoughts I'm having today as I'm killing time before I walk over to Piazza Navona for my concert:
1) At this point, almost the five week mark of our trip, I'm actually pretty excited to go home and see my family, my friends, and my dogs. We have done so many things and I have already made memories that I will never forget. I've been saying since we got back from Naples that I would not be disappointed if we were leaving the next day. But on the other hand, I hate to rush the last ten days we have here, because I know as soon as I get back home I'll get back to the grind of work and life. At least I decided not to take the Summer B physics class, because if I did, I would be hating myself right now.
2) I'm a bit worried about stuffing all of my items back into my suitcase to take back to the US. I've bought souvenirs from every city we've visited, and I've gotten some gifts for my family (even my dogs). Bringing everything over here was a bit of a squeeze, so we'll have to see how I pull off packing for the trip back. It looks like it's $100 for an overweight bag... O_O we shall see.
3) Next time I travel, I'm bringing some BFFs. Everyone I have met on this trip has been super nice, but I feel like I would enjoy everything so much more if I had some of my good friends with me. But hey, that's what the future is for :) Dr. Murphy keeps saying, "When you come back..." and I hope to make that a reality!
4) I am going to be so glad to just get in my car and drive places when I get home. Walking and using the metro are fine, but I'll be glad when I'll be able to drive 15 miles to go a significant distance instead of walk 15 minutes to go a mile.
5) I miss Target and Publix. That is all.

So yeah, that's my life. I should probably begin the process of looking presentable and prepping myself for the 20 minute walk to this church. TTYL!

~ Dani

Alive and well!

Buon giorno!

I knew this would happen. It's been almost two weeks since my last post... and since then a lot has happened! I have been posting an excessive amount of pictures on Facebook and almost all of them have captions so if you follow me on there you're in the know, but obviously my poor blog has been neglected. So let's break it down into the important parts, both so you all can know and so I can remember later.

On May 27th we had an optional visit to the Castel Sant'Angelo, which I went to, and it was cool to see the magnificent half ancient-half modern fortress and all the rooms with the beautiful frescoes. The view from the top of the Castel was awesome as well! After we were done at the Castel, Dr. Murphy walked us over to Piazza Navona and showed us the fountain and the obelisk in the piazza. This part of Rome was very pretty, and I am actually going back to the church in Piazza Navona, Sant'Agnese in Agone, to see a chamber concert this Friday night! I'm very excited about it! After the piazza we walked to a nearby church that housed some Caravaggios, and what was interesting about it was it was free to get in, but you had to insert coins into a box to turn on the lights to see the actual paintings. Then we went to the Pantheon, which I think was the highlight of my day. It was beautiful to see in person and it was great to experience the artistic importance that the building holds. It was a very full day, followed by a delicious group potluck taco night at the kitchen in the dorm.

The view from the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo

The Pantheon! So awesome!

After a few relaxing less-full days, on May 30th we met at the base of the Capitoline Hill at 9:30 am for a tour of the surrounding area, including the Teatro Marcellus, some temples, a church, (I'm sorry the names are escaping me), the Circus Maximus, the keyhole at the Knights of Malta headquarters atop the Aventine hill, and the Rose Garden. It was another full and very tiring day, mostly because of the commute there. Our dorm is more in the Vatican City area, a couple blocks away from the Lepanto metro stop, and we had to get all the way to the Colosseum area. So we braved the metro ourselves and walked a good distance but we finally made it there in one piece! And I ended the day with some beautiful rose pictures, and I bought some neckties for my doggies. :)

My attempted picture of the view through the keyhole at the Knights of Malta headquarters. You can see St. Peter's Dome from it, trust me!

One of the many beautiful roses in the Rose Garden.

June 1st was a big day and my favorite day in Rome so far, because on that day we went to the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Roman Forum! Honestly, they speak for themselves. The Colosseum was incredible to see, being one of the most well-known monuments in Rome, and it was awesome to walk through the ruins of the renowned Roman Forum. I was having a lot of flashbacks to my Latin classes at Bolles. So here's some pictures!

The Colosseum and all its glory!

Dr. Murphy leading us in to the Roman Forum

June 2nd was a national holiday in Rome: the Festa della Repubblica, or Republic Day. It was the day that the people of Italy opted for a Republic in 1946 after 85 years of monarchy. We went to the parade that morning, which featured all of the military branches, military bands, horses, and a flyover with the Italian flag colors. It was great to be a part of the experience this year!

On June 3rd, we departed for Naples. Dr. Murphy warned us that Naples is a bit more "sketchy" than Rome and we needed to be extra aware of pick pocketers, and when we got to Naples we saw why. I honestly got a downtown Jacksonville vibe from the buildings. They were run down, covered in graffiti, and the town just looked poorer than Rome or Florence. We stayed in a nicer part of town, the Spanish Quarter, at the Hotel Toledo. We met up with our tour guide, Santiago, and he gave us a 3 hour walking tour of the city. The next day, we visited Pompeii, Oplantis, and Herculaneum, three sites that were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 AD. Santiago gave us a tour of all three sites, and it was amazing to see how everything was perfectly preserved. The technology that these ancient peoples used was amazing to see as well. After a long ancient excursion, the next day we had a free day. On that day, my roommate Trish and I took a ferry to the Island of Capri in the Bay of Naples and I had the best day ever. The water was so blue, the cliffs were magnificent, the people were so friendly, and the scenery was beautiful. Honestly, Capri has been the most beautiful place I have been to on this trip. I hope I'll be able to go back and visit someday. :)

Overlooking Pompeii!

Capri. Just Capri. It's so beautiful!

Yesterday was essentially a free day. It felt so great to sleep in, and I spent most of my day watching Netflix and not doing anything was GREAT. We went to the Zen Sushi place again for dinner. Today we are going to see the Ara Pacis, which I actually need to leave for right now. So for now I'll say CIAO, and I'll try to keep this up a bit better! 12 more days until iced coffee!! :)

~Dani

ROMA!

Buona serra a tutti!

We've been in Rome since Monday! I haven't posted in a while... it's been a little crazy between settling into our dorms at St. John's University and visiting St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums. Also, I just got the WiFi to work on my laptop (thanks Windows 8) so I can finally post things. There are so many people in this city, it is crazy. Both St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums were SO CROWDED with PEOPLE EVERYWHERE but the works and the buildings themselves were incredible! I went to the Vatican Museums with the group yesterday, so today I had a free day while the other group went. I mailed out some postcards at the Vatican post office (you have to lick the stamps here, I thought that was funny) and bought some things at the grocery store near our dorm (they were playing Dancing Queen very loudly and I was singing along, no shame), but for the rest of the day I didn't really do much besides exercise my very mediocre ability to heat up mushroom tortellini and red sauce on a stove and share it with my roommates. :)

But anyway, ROME. The Eternal City. On our first night here we ate as a group at a local Chinese restaurant (yes, Chinese in Italy, but it was actually really good!) and we got a walking orientation tour of St. Peter's Square. The next day, we went to St. Peter's Basilica, where we stood in the security line for like 45 minutes, got yelled at for not using the "authorized" listening devices (aka, the ones they make you pay for), and pushed our way through hordes of people who were apparently dying to take pictures of the beautiful art. (Side note: People, just enjoy the art. Do NOT push and shove to get pictures of the art. You will get them. You're just making everyone else angry.) But really, the basilica itself was beautiful. It literally took my breath away when I walked inside, it was so magnificent.

The facade of St. Peter's Basilica feat. members of my group looking derp

The interior of St. Peter's with the Baldacchino at the end

After we toured St. Peter's and even went underground to see the tombs of the saints, I climbed the St. Peter's Dome with two of my group-mates Christina and Katie. It's on top of the building, but you can't see it in the picture of the facade because of where it was built; it disappears as you move closer to the front of the building. It was not nearly as bad as the Duomo in Florence, but the stairs were not flat and the walls curved along with the shape of the dome, making the whole experience very claustrophobic. But the view was definitely worth it when we got to the top!

The view from the top of the St. Peter's Dome! We were just down there in the square (which is really an ellipse but ok)

The next day, we went to the Vatican Museums. That involved a lot of walking, a lot of people trying to sell you tours on the street on your way in, and a lot of people. We went into some of the less popular rooms, for example the Rafael rooms and the room with the only Leonardo in Rome, so those weren't as bad. But when it came to making our way to the Sistine Chapel, holy Moses there was literally a sea ten people wide moving down that hallway. I hardly looked up because I was so zoned in on not letting Dr. Murphy and the rest of my group leave my sight. Once we got in, of course we were not allowed to take pictures, but I must say it was a lot smaller and a lot less shiny and grandiose than I thought it would be. Nonetheless, the colors were so vibrant and it was incredible to see the Last Judgement on the front wall of the chapel and the Creation of Adam panel on the magnificent ceiling above me in person! Later that night after our crazy Vatican adventure we took the metro (with New York chorus trip subway ride flashbacks) to Spagna, where we saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. You're supposed to sit on the ledge of the fountain with your back to it, toss a coin over your shoulder, and make a wish. So of course I did that, and then we did some much-needed souvenir shopping in that part of the city on our way back since it wasn't so populated with tourists and no one was heckling me to buy their things. Then I went with Traci to Zen Sushi less than a block away from our dorm and had the best Japanese food ever. It was a full, eventful day!

The Trevi Fountain!

If I come across as being a little negative when it comes to the crowds, it's because I am. (#realtalk) That's the only thing I don't like about this city: all of the people. It's like Disney, the Atlanta airport, and New York had a baby multiplied by ten, but without the expert crowd control of a Disney park. I'm really enjoying myself and it's awesome that I'm here, but there's just too many people in this city for my taste, especially coming directly here from a small Tuscan hill town like Massa Marittima. I could live in Massa, I could not live here. You basically almost get hit by a Smart car every day trying to cross busy streets to get to your destination, and you are constantly haggled by street vendors trying to sell you selfie sticks or a pack of 20 postcards for one Euro. Today I'm pretty sure one of the vendors was talking smack about us "touristas" in Italian after we rejected his Vatican tour offer. But honestly buddy, if you're spending your time and energy hating on the tourists, you're in the wrong city. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Tomorrow starts our first "free weekend" in Rome with optional activities. Some people have already left to travel to Ravenna this weekend. But traveling within Italy on trains and buses that I am unfamiliar with doesn't really appeal to me and I don't know if I want to spend money doing that, so I'm definitely going on the optional tour of Castel Sant' Angelo tomorrow. :)

Ciao! Buona notte! TTYL
~ Dani

Visiting Marco Zeno's Home and Studio

Buona sera! Good evening! (Or still buon giorno to all of you in the States.)

Okay, before I start I have to say that there's a little old Italian woman who helps run the hotel and she is the most adorable thing ever. She only talks to us in Italian but she is so cute (molto carina!) and one of the girls on our trip just brought her a bouquet of roses. That was great.

Today we visited an Italian contemporary sculptor named Marco Zeno (and I really hope I'm spelling his name right). He lives in Grotto, about half an hour outside of Massa Marittima at his home/studio literally on the side of a hill. He makes sculptures out of wood from the olive trees on his land, and he has a fascination with the contortion of the wood and the designs created within the wood once it is carved. His work is displayed all around his home, and it is spectacular.

Marco talking to us about his sculptures

He makes the most interesting heads!

Before we had lunch, we all went into Marco's studio and he gave us each a slab of clay. He taught us how to sculpt heads and faces out of the clay like he does, and we all tried our hardest to follow his lead. A lot of our heads ended up looking alien-like... but watching him create a face out of the clay was so mesmerizing. In the end, drawing on my memories from my 8th grade sculpture and ceramics class, I came up with a sort of self portrait that I think truly captures how tired I am and how knotted my hair was from the wind on the side of the hill. (See below.)

After we made our sculptures, we had a delicious lunch prepared by Marco's wife. There was pasta, bread, sliced meats, delicious cake, pastries, coffee and homemade sweet tea (yessss) and lemonade. After lunch Marco brought us on a tour of the land next to his house and showed us all of the olive trees from which he drew his inspiration. He told us that he often goes up the hill on his land and sketches the olive trees, and some are better to sketch than others.

We had a wonderful time visiting this very talented artist, and it was fun to see the contrast between Marco's art and the classic Renaissance art that we were exposed to in Florence. Marco was fabulous, as were his wife and his son Akhenaton (like the pharaoh), and I am so glad we were able to meet them today! Also, there were two dogs, a cat, goats, chickens and roosters on their land so I was able to get my animal fix for the day. :)

One of the dogs chilling on the property!

I'm super excited because tomorrow I'll be able to sleep in! We won't be leaving until 2 pm to go see another contemporary artist's sculpture gardens. I'm excited! More to come after that!

Arrivederci!
Dani