Benvenuto a Firenze!

Ciao from Firenze! Sorry it has taken me so long to get this whole blog started, we haven't be able to get internet at our apartment and have very limited access at school. But....I'm here, I made it! We arrived in Florence a week ago, have slowly been trying to get over the jet lag, and started classes on Monday.

Florence is absolutely beautiful! The weather here has been perfect and the city is so cute and charming. The duomo is like our north star guiding us back from everywhere we go. You can literally run into it without even trying. We have yet to climb up to the top of the dome, but it is definitely on the very long to do list.

I am living in a very cute apartment in the historic center in a very posh area (think of living near 5th avenue in New York). Our neighbors are Tiffanys, Prada, Gucci, etc. and a "lovely" bar beneath us that seems to have raves 6 nights out of the week. That has made sleeping pretty difficult, but I can't really complain (ear plugs are proving to be useful). My roommates are all very nice and we are getting along really well. We have done the first big meal out, some gelato runs (I've fallen in love with dark chocolate gelato), and of course a night by the Arno with a bottle of wine. I am hoping to get a museum pass soon and will begin frequenting them.

So far classes have been really good. I am very excited for my graphic design class. The class is small but will be very beneficial to me. We have already completed one project and have a bunch of field trips that we will be going on. We visited the Salvatore Ferragamo museum and have plans to go to Graphic Design Week in Bologna in October. In screen printing we have already begun drawing up ideas for our first project, and although I will be printing on paper our teacher has told us that if we provide the fabric we can print as much as we want. My 19th century art history class is interesting, a lot of information I've learned already, but I am still looking forward to it. My fourth class is painting conservation. Our professor is world-renowned in the field and once we learn proper techniques will be restoring real works of art!

My two roommates,my friend Sarah, and I just booked a trip with a travel group to go hiking in Chianti and visit a winery on Saturday. We are also planning to hike up to Fiesole on Sunday where you see gorgeous views of the city.

Plans are also in the works for Prague and Budapest over fall break, Cinque Terre next weekend, and countless other wonderful places.

Arriverderci!