Athena Blogs

Ciao.

Sorry for the delay yet again, but this time I have a legitimate excuse: I've been battling bronchitis.  Let me make a recommendation here and now: bring cold medicine from the US. You'll miss it when it's not here.

Last week I had a great time just wandering around Florence once again.  My apartment is very near to Santa Croce.  I haven't gone inside yet, but considering it's the burial sites of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli I definitely will.  Another must see, but sometimes missed site in Florence is Piazza Michelangelo.  It's on the other side of the River Arno and a bit of a climb, but the view is simply breathtaking and absolutely worth it, particularly if you're an artist. 

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write again, but things have been so busy here. We're exploring Florence and trying to accept the fact that these are our last weeks in Italy.

I believe when we left off I was headed to London and Warsaw/Auschwitz. This trip ended up not happening. My flight to London was Tuesday morning out of Rome, so I was going to go to Rome Monday night and stay. However, there was a transportation strike all across Italy and no trains were running. I decided to take the earliest train I could on Tuesday morning (5:50 am). I knew that as long as I took a cab I should be able to make my flight.

Hello,

We've moved to our final city: Florence.  Although we've only been here for the weekend I already love the city.  We walk past “Il Duomo” everyday.  It's spectacular. 

We moved from Rome on Friday.  Thursday night we had several students over in hopes of eating all of our food before the big move.  We were somewhat successful, but it was a great time nonetheless. 

Ciao.

This was the “Week of the Churches.”  While it may seem comical in a city of more than a thousand churches, my professor did indeed chuckle at me, I am proud to say that I went to 10 churches this week.

The first church was the basilica of Saint Clement.  It was one of the most interesting.  The basilica was built in the twelfth century, but excavations more recently have shown that it was built on top of a fourth century church, which was built on top of a first century roman housing complex.  There was a mosaic there depicting the tree of life which was one of the most beautiful mosaics I've ever seen.  It was so rich with Christian symbolism. 

Ciao tutti!

My first week of classes in Roma has come to an end.  This past Friday I went on a trip with the school to a region of Italy called Umbria.  We met at school pretty early especially considering the transportation strike.  Despite the complications that that created, we all got on the bus and drove for about three hours. 

Our first stop was at an olive oil press.  The new harvest had just begun the previous day so we were able to sample fresh olive oil.  They also showed us how the oil is made.  This particular oil is taken from not very mature olives.  They're separated from the stems, washed.  Then there is a paste that's made.  The paste is separated into waste, oil, and water.  Only the oil is kept.  It's then washed again and bottled.  It was delicious.