Amo Firenze!

Buon giorno! (I've been getting a little better at these basic greetings, but not really)

It feels like an entire week has passed since my last blog post. This is only Day 3 in Florence and we have already done so much!! I've already taken so many pictures. I'm sorry that the pictures didn't show up in the last post, I was trying to post them on the Blogger app that I had to pay $4.99 for and then it derped with the crappy wifi on the way to Florence. And it looks like the same thing is happening now just on my laptop, so I'm sorry you're going to have to look through the pictures on Facebook :/ boo.

Yesterday we went to the San Lorenzo complex, which was commissioned by the Medici family, as was a lot of the art here in Florence. Among all of the things we saw were the beautiful Biblioteca in the complex, the Basilica of St. Laurence, the Chapel of the Princes, the Academia (we saw the David!) and the Florence Baptistery. You can see all of these pictures on my Facebook page or even on my Instagram (*cough cough* follow me @dani_zentz). Our hotel is literally two blocks away from the Duomo and the Florence Baptistery, Cathedral and Bell Tower complex. We can hear the bells from the bell tower in our hotel room!

Yesterday we also had a bit of free time after we visited the Academia and made friends with the statue of David, so we went and got pizza for dinner with my three roommates at a little place near our hotel and wandered a bit. We are staying at the Hotel Maxim, which is very centrally located and not a far walk from anything, really. We found a bookstore called RED, which stands for Read, Eat, Dream, and it was a cafe/bookstore that reminded me of a more modern Barnes and Noble that was three stories high. I got some really cool pens and a little journal! My suitcase will definitely be overweight on my way home... haha!

This morning we went to the Uffizi Gallery, where there are a LOT of famous works. We saw works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rafael, Caravaggio, and Leonardo da Vinci. We saw the Birth of Venus and the Primavera, as well as the Portrait of the Dukes of Urbino and multiple Enunciation paintings. At the top of the Uffizi there is a cute cafe out on a terrace with an awesome view of the Duomo complex. As we walk through the museums, I've been taking notes on my iPhone because I can write notes and insert pictures into the note for reference. It's so much information with so many works and artists to recognize and remember! I remember a lot of things from my AP Art History class, but that was three years ago now. 

After the Uffizi, we got in line to climb the Duomo! We waited in the line for an hour or an hour and a half, and then we climbed what seemed like a million small, steep, spiral stairs to the top. It was tiring, and my roommate had a couple asthma attacks on the way up, but when we finally made it, the view was incredible and the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the pictures are not loading for some reason... so look through my Italia 2016 album on Facebook! :) Ah, technology has been trying here in IT.

Florence is awesome and I love it (Amo Firenze!), but I'm starting to find that there are too many people here. It is a very touristy city, with street vendors selling bags and shirts that look like the same ones they sell in New York City except they say "Florence." The art and architecture of the city is beautiful, and the culture is awesome, but there are too many people here for me. There are tourists from all over the world. That's what was cool about climbing the dome; we were expressing our struggles climbing as well as our awe and amazement at the top with random strangers who did not even speak English. That kind of stuff is universal, as is music. I've heard "Time to Say Goodbye" played on the streets multiple times already... it's a beautiful Italian song that I sang in chorus at Bolles so it is special to me, and I'm sure it is special to everyone else in the city too. These common experiences across cultures are what is so cool about being over here in Italy. I'm sure I'll have more experiences as we continue our adventure. However, the introvert in me is really looking forward to Massa Marittima, a quiet hill town that will not have millions of tourists sharing the streets with us. We'll depart for Massa on Wednesday, so we still have 4 more days in Florence.

Tomorrow we have another packed day in store for us, and I'm sure Dr. Murphy has lots more amazing things to show us. Right now we're going to find food and cold/fever medicine for my roommate, who coming down with something. I just hope I don't catch it...

Ciao a tutti!
Dani

Thoughts as we head to Florence

Buon giornio a tutti! (I hope that means good morning everyone!)

I'm not really sure when I'll be able to post this, considering we've only been able to get wifi in the lobby of our hotel and now we're on the road again... But it will get posted eventually!

We got to the Ostia Antica Park Hotel without a hitch! Besides, you know, having to plow through the streets of Ostia in a bus. What everyone says is true: driving is ridiculous in Italy. It's a free-for-all and everyone drives their tiny Smart cars and goes wherever they want and parks wherever they can. I think the biggest car I've seen so far was a GMC SUV, and it even looked out of place. It's kind of funny because all the street signs say "fermata" to mean "stop" and the musician in me is geeking out. But anyway, we spent last night in the Ostia hotel after visiting the ancient Roman ruins at the Ostia archaeological park. I got some beautiful pictures, and we met a couple of cute cats there. 

 

 

 

Our hotel was very cute; I was in a triple and it was pretty small but it was good for one night. My two roommates were fascinated by the bidet but I haven't tried it yet... Haha! Oh, side note: European toilets are weird. The beds were small and not too fluffy but really, I was so tired I think I would have slept on a slab of concrete if I had to. I wasn't really able to sleep on the plane; I maybe got an hour of half-sleep collectively. So after being awake for basically 24 hours, last night's sleep was amazing and I took one of the top five best showers of my life in the tiny European shower.

 

We're currently on a really nice Mercedes Benz charter bus heading to Florence, where we'll check in to the Hotel Maxim. It's a three hour bus ride to get there, but that beats the crap out of that 9 hour flight we took over here. We're driving on a freeway and we're passing by these beautiful rolling hills. Cypress pines are abundant here, and they're beautiful. Everything is just BEAUTIFUL. It's a bit overcast today and it's probably in the 60's outside. Everything is in Celsius and kilometers and grams and I'm over here like "Help me, I'm American." I brought my rain jacket to wear today, so of course, it probably won't rain. Once we check in we'll get our orientation and walking tour, then we'll go to a grocery store, and then we're having a nice dinner tonight at 7:30.

It's really hard to believe that I'm in Italy right now... It's all kind of surreal, and the sleep deprivation and jet lag hasn't been helping. Everyone's using their fancy DSLR cameras but I've been taking pictures with my iPhone 6 and they're turning out really well, nice job Apple! Maybe I didn't need to buy a digital camera after all. But we shall see.

Update: Dr. Murphy just told us that we have been driving though Lazio (the region where Rome is) and now we're driving through Umbria. These views are breathtaking and my camera is not doing them justice, but here are a few of the pictures I've taken.

 

 

 

Ciao for now! See you in Florence!

Dani

Greetings from Atlanta!

Hello from the Atlanta airport! I'm in the middle of the three-hour layover before our international flight that departs at 6:27 pm. The flight from JAX to ATL was not bad at all, and it was over before we even knew it! It even looks like there are some good movies to watch on the plane... for $6 a movie... but that should keep me entertained on this upcoming 10-hour flight. I'm sitting at concourse F charging various electronics with the three UNF professors and about seven other UNF students. Everyone got some food and we're all happily taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi (or as they say in Italy, Wee-Fee).

This airport is so BIG! I've been in here a few times before from our Bolles chorus trips, but I guess I was never on the international side. Riding the train over to our concourse, I remembered running through this airport to catch our flight with the rest of the Bolles chorus, and then a kid got left behind when the train doors closed! I have made sure that I am not that kid, and I basically stayed glued to Professor Malcolm until we got to our gate.

Sorry, whoa, a midget couple just walked by me. That was interesting. Oh, and there was a guy on our earlier flight with a FANTASTIC mustache! I tried to get a picture, but it was a little too creepy even for me. But I appreciated that.

Landing in Atlanta!

So anyway, it's been pretty smooth so far, besides a bit of "rough air" on the landing in Atlanta. I was worried about major delays or inclement weather, but that's looking good. I got some iced coffee from Starbucks in the Jacksonville airport since there won't be iced coffee for six weeks, but I might get some more here in the Atlanta airport. Life is good, and it's about to get better!

Stay tuned for more scattered and random blog posts from me from ITALIA!

~Dani~