Letter to a friend

I have had a unique situation while studying abroad, but aside from everything that went wrong I did manage to enjoy a lot of my time here. Although through experience, I do have some recommendations. Literally, NEVER let go of your valuables, even if they are right in front of you. Second, bring the most important toiletries even if you think they add to weight and you can just buy them here. I found that there is a significantly smaller selection and had trouble finding good conditioner & lotion that actually worked. Also, I thought I was packing well by not bringing as much, but I found that I packed a little too light and wished I had some more clothes. Another thing I regret is not planning ahead in the beginning. The first weekend a group of people went to Milan and Lake Como & my roommate and I had not planned anything so we stayed at home. Especially during a summer session that is shorter, you end up being away almost every weekend to explore Italy, which is very fun even though it can be tiring at times. You don't miss out on the nightlife in Florence either, because everyone goes out all the time during the week and the bars are usually packed like its a weekend. The bars here do not have a cover charge and never check ID, however the clubs or discotecas are usually a little expensive to get into, maybe around 10 Euro. There are however a couple clubs that are free including 21 or Twice and they are open late, usually past 4 A.M. Aside from the nightlife, Florence is crowded with tourists on a daily basis, which can get kind of annoying. Also what I really didn't like are the hours of stores here, which is pretty normal for a lot of places in Europe. A lot of stores & restaurants here close around 2 or 3 or will have a very limited menu, and then reopen a couple hours later. They also close very early here and are not usually open on Sundays except for downtown near the Duomo. Shopping is expensive downtown, especially shoes, so you have to find the good places that don't charge as much or go to the markets. As for food recommendations, I did really enjoy 'The Oil Shoppe' on Via S.Egidio, close to the Duomo. It had really good fresh sandwiches which are made right in front of you and then Owner is extremely nice. Also they take credit cards if you are running low on cash. For a significantly more expensive dinner, I went to La Giostra which was delicious but pricy. It is not in a crowded area, so you kind of have to know about it to get there, but the food & service is great and the interior is nice as well. For places to visit, definately Piazza Michaelangelo and Boboli Gardens. Piazza Michaelangelo looks over the whole city and is very beautiful, Boboli Gardens are huge and very relaxing, also a great place for photos. Outside of florence I would try Fiesole which is about a 15 minute ride on bus line #7, great view also and not as touristy.

Boboli Gardens:


Tourists Everywhere!

Weekend trips in Italy

I have taken a lot of weekend trips to different places in Italy during my stay, including Venice, Cinque Terre, & Rome. Below are some pictures from Venice. As most people know, I had a pretty rough start in this program. Between having my laptop & passport stolen, spraining my ankle, heat rash & having my car stolen back home it has been an interesting time. I felt like Venice was the real start of my trip, it was the first place where I was really excited about being there and in awe of how beautiful it was. It is such a unique place, where else has water for streets?? I also fell in love with the glass jewelry and probably bought more than I should have; it was so pretty.

Assignment 2: Street Photography

Assignment 2 was street photography, mainly of people and animals. It was less about posing, and more of just capturing all kinds of people in real life. I enjoy photographing people, but usually it is my family so this was fun. It is especially great in florence where there are just so many people visiting and enjoying the sites outdoors and around the city. Some people even requested for me to take pictures of them. These are a few of the ones I will print; for the assignment they will be black and white but these are the originals:

Monday we visited the Alinari Photo Gallery near the Santa Maria Train Station. It was interesting to see some examples of the techniques we learned about in the BBC Documentary. There were a few artists that we talked about that I was not familiar with before and some great images. Also it was fun to see all of the old equipment up until the first cellular phone with a camera. It had a slideshow with images that people had taken from it and it was cool to watch because it was more of everyday life.

Graffiti in the Underpass of Piazza Delle Cure

As an assignment, we were told to find the 'art show' involving graffiti in the Piazza Delle Cure. We started walking in the general area and on the way we came to an underpass that looked similar to those of the subways back home. Nancy and I had seen this tunnel before and decided to come back with our cameras, and it ended up being the show we were supposed to find. It is amazing down there, graffiti covers every inch of the walls and it is interesting to look at all the different words and images. We ended up taking a lot of pictures, below are my favorites. We are sending an image as a postcard to someone back home, but i decided to send three. I'm going to send one to my dad and stepmother, one to my mother, sister & practically stepbrother, and one addressed to my niece Ariana.

Finding the Alphabet in Florence

Once you start looking they're everywhere.......

Collage of my alphabet:

MAMbo: Trip to Bologna

This trip was the first time I had left Florence since we arrived, so I thought it was great to see a new place, and one that didn't have quite so many tourists. The museum had a lot of interesting work and the guide was very knowledgeable. As a personal preference, however, I enjoy wandering the museum freely and being able to choose which pieces I would like to spend more time on. I think my favorite piece was the group of clouds set on top of mirrors; the way that it was lit was amazing and because of the high ceilings in the room it was convincing when looking down in the mirror. Another piece I thought was interesting was the car that was made up of some type of glass, I can't remember what specific material she said it was. I also thought that the arrangement of flowers was beautiful as well as the way it looked from the reflection in the plaque on the wall. The John Cage exhibit was fun to see, especially the piano that had more than 200 sounds varying from key to key. The main part I can say was not at all interesting to me were the videos. With pieces like that I just can't see the artistic standpoint, it was basically like staring at the same picture for 5 minutes.

BBC Four: Genius of Photography

I thought that this show was very informative, and there were a lot of interesting techniques that were shown. For example, in the opening of the show they did a demonstration where they put a black tarp or some material covering all of the windows in the room so that it was complete darkness, and then cut a small hole in the shape of a circle. I don't understand how it works, but they were able to view the scene outside reflected on their wall, only upside down. It was amazing, and I even pressed rewind to see if I missed the explanation of how this was possible, but I couldn't figure it out. I also liked how it showed the different ways of producing negatives, such as the traditional and also the use of mirrors. Even though I have taken a couple photography classes and learned a lot about manual cameras, I still have a lot to learn and I think that this documentary was good in that aspect. I just wish it explained the process a little bit more than it did.