Travel Week and one last Goodbye

                Now during her two month stay in Italy my girl was given a whole week to travel around on her own. . . . .though she didn’t travel to far from the Villa. During her travel week my girl opted to get an apartment with two of her classmates in the large college town of Perugia. Our apartment was a nice cosy little thing down a narrow, single (Italian) car street that had a massive wooden door that lead from the outside up a flight of steep stairs to our two bedroom apartment. The area was quiet and near a church so my girl and her friends were really safe and were able to sleep in and relax without a worry in the world.
                The apartment was very close to centro Perugia, which is a big shopping and food district of Perugia, it’s also very close to the international university of Perugia. My girl and her friends had to walk fifteen minutes up four flights of escalators, all of which went through Old Perugia. Now old Perugia was built back roughly in the 1500s, maybe the 1400s, but was covered with bricks and concrete by the Pope of the time. What happened was that the citizens of Old Perugia refused to pay a salt tax which angered the Pope and the church so to show the church’s power the Pope had the citizens chased out and had the city covered so no one was able to live there. However, around the medieval times New Perugia was built over the old city and only recently (30-50 years) was the old city opened up for people to enter into.
                Also during this long week my girl made some very good friends with a few bouncers, students, and bar tenders, all of which made sure that my girl was safe and well taken care of. A couple of her new friends even offered to help her find a permanent home (or share their home) and aid her in getting a job so she, as a college student, wouldn’t have to worry about a thing and just be able to stay in Perugia. One of the bouncers even offered to help her figure out how to transfer from Rocky to the International University if she so wanted. And yet again I had to remind her that she couldn’t just abandon her friends and family in the States simply on the grounds that she would be extremely miserable without them, especially since she wouldn’t have the funds to get home.
                My girl had a great time in Italy, an amazing time in Perugia and was so sad to leave her new friends that she nearly bawled when she had to leave at the end of the week.

                My girl had an amazing experience in Italy, we both want to go back to that beautiful country and take part in a lot more experiences that the culture and it’s people can offer. My girl found a new home in Italy and was very sad to say good-bye. Though she wanted to be back in the States to see her family and her friends she was also very sad and distressed with having to say good bye to her new friends and a new family. My girl would never forget this trip and would strive to make several trips back to Italy.

Ciao Italy, Vasta, Perugia. . . . . . . we’ll miss you greatly!!!

With sad love,
M.D. and Jazz

Venice

                A week before my girl’s travel week my girl took a weekend trip to Venice with two of her classmates. It took nearly a whole day on trains for us to get to Venice but it was well worth it. That city was extremely beautiful and the citizen were so nice that my girl was so tempted to stay and never return to the Villa or the States. It took a lot of coaching but I was able to convince her that she really needed to return to the States to finish her schooling and make sure that her father wouldn’t pull a Taken and come and get her. . . . . .cause trust me that would have ended very badly with Jazz more than likely banned from able to ever come back to Italy.
                During the three days she was in Venice my girl went to the Basilica di San Marco, a very beautiful church (though my girl says that Santa Maria is way more beautiful) that floods a couple of times of the year and well known for the thousands of pigeons that roam the square.
                My girl was also able to take the really highly praised gondola ride with her classmates, their gondolier was a man nicknamed Carota for his “once” orange hair and had been in the business for over 37 years, can you imagine? And during this 30 minute ride we were only able to find one female gondolier. During the same day as the gondola ride my girl was able to convince her friends to head out to Murano island, which as you know is the island of glass blowers.  My girl and her friends had to take a water bus, of course, to get to this little island and upon arrival to the first Murano stop my girl and her friends were immediately ushered to a glass factory where we were able to see a glass blower giving a demonstration. He made a multicolored vase, and a horse within minutes. . . . . I mean it barely took even a ten minutes for both pieces, that man was amazing. And my girl was able to get a Murano glass cat from the adjoined glass store.

With love,
M.D. and Jazz

Firenze

                During our stay in Umbria at Villa Pieve my girl and I went on two separate day trips to Firenze (Florence) with her class, once with her professor Mark Moak and the second with her painting professor Jim Baken. Both trips were amazing and extreme fun for my girl.
                The first trip was on a Sunday so my poor girl was starting to get worried that she wouldn’t be able to go into the Santa Maria del Fiore church (it’s her favorite church in the world, nothing compares to Santa Maria in my girl’s eyes). However, my girl’s attention was quickly taken up upon finding the bronze statue of Persus slaying Medusa, a piece of metalwork that my girl simply adores. My girl found a similar fondness for the piece in her classmate Cally who was just as eager and see and document such an amazing master piece. . . . . . they found it within ten minutes of arriving into Firenze. I swear those girls have a nose for master pieces. They even found the guild house (it houses the sculptures of patron Saints of all the guilds in Firenze) within a couple of minutes of leaving Persus and Medusa.
                During this time my girl was catching glimpse of the Basilica of Santa Maria and the Cupola on top of the Duomo causing my girl to get extremely excited and frantic. She took nearly a million photos once she found her church and the Baptistery.  Unfortunately, at the time Santa Maria was closed for mass and my poor girl was so disappointed. . . . . there was no time posted for when it’ll open, if it’ll open for that day.
                So bucking up my girl head to the Academia museum with her classmates were she laid eyes on Michelangelo’s Davide. . . . . and let me tell you that piece is twice as inspiring and amazing in person as it is in art books and history class. My girl’s one classmate was so enthralled with Davide that she left her backpack on the floor and practically floated to the colossal statue, completely unaware of her surroundings.

                The second trip to Firenze my girl was able to get into Santa Maria and also able to climb up to the Cupola. . . . . and let me tell you! That is quite the climb, 463 steps in fact and I do have to say I’m really proud of my girl for being able to climb up to the top of the Duomo. . . . . . she’s completely afraid of heights and I swear she nearly fainted at several different points, especially the section that opened up on the inside of the church (the walkway was barely three feet wide).
                Also on this trip my girl and a few of her classmates were able to go to the Uffizi museum, the museum was once the palace of the powerful Medici family and now housed a great many masterpiece, one of them being the Birth of Venus (which I personally thought was bigger that what it actually is). It was an extremely mind blowing place to be able to see.

With love,
M.D. and Jazz

Villa Pieve

                Well we really suck at these blog things. . . . . . like horribly so! Granted though once we arrived at Villa Pieve we just immediately jumped into classes. Meaning that nothing really happened excepted studying for Art History and learning Italian from our new teach Catia. However, since it was only classes during this time I mainly stayed in the bedroom watching Italian TV shows while my girl headed to class. . . . it was nice to be able to sleep in finally.
                Added to these classes we meet some new people (the Vasta family) and made them our new friends. And learned about the castle that laid barely a 100 ft away from the villa, we woke up every morning to the grand site of a once summer castle of the Pope. The castle is currently under restoration from the students in Perugia so unfortunately we weren’t able to get into the castle.
                The Vasta family is a very amazing and welcoming family. The family and the people who worked at the Villa were very helpful in any questions that we could come up with and aided us on all the trips we took as a class and as individuals. We mainly only saw Rossella and Davide of the Vasta family; and the amazing workers Paola, Ivan, and Antanella.
                During the second week or third week of our stay at the Villa my girl started her Clay class. My girl took a tour with her class to Deruta, the home of one of the oldest majolica factories in the world, the Grazia Majolica Factory. The factory had been in the Grazia family for 25 generations and though times have been tough for majolica merchandise they continue to stay strong and flourish. During their tour my girl and her class were able to paint one majolica plate and one majolica bowl, which basically took one whole afternoon but it was sooo much fun.
                My girl even had to help make the classes kiln since Villa Pieve didn’t own one and there was no kiln anywhere near Villa Pieve for her class to use. It was quite the experience especially since my girl was an over achiever and made a set of little replicas as well as a giant snake.

With love,
M.D. and Jazz

ATTENZIONE!!!

                My girl and I have thusly used up the free storage for photos and thus shall not be able to upload any more photos from now on
              Though we will work on finding more ways to get photos onto the blog it is not guaranteed.


With frustrated love,
M.D. and Jazz

Day 14

                Today was one of the best yet!!! It was a free day but my girl’s professor brought the entire class to Capri (though you didn’t have to go if you didn’t want to…….as if!!!). It was so much fun!!! I even took a dip in the sea even though my girl protested greatly.
                Right when we got to Capri my girl went on a boat tour of the entire island with five other classmates. One of the best aspects of the tour was being able to go into the Blue Grotto!! It was magnificent!! The water glowed blue from the sun light filtering through the water into the cave…it was like neon blue! Granted my girl was forced to….snuggle….with two passengers to get through the door it was well worth it to go into the cave. (The cave opening was only big enough for the boat to fit through so everyone had to lay down, even the rower so my girl ended up squish between a couple sitting behind her and the rower). After that we ended up going to the Green Grotto that housed a stalagmite that looked like the Virgin Mary and added to that the water reflection made the ceiling of the grotto glow a light blue color.
                The whole tour took little less than three hours (the Blue Grotto took the longest) and left my girl and her friends enough time to go swimming in the sea. I had already went swimming in the Blue Grotto so I stayed nice and warm on the rocky beach watching my girl’s knapsack. And on the way back I was able to sit on her lap and not on the floor!!! The floor is so smelly but sometimes that’s the only place I can fit! I hate it but oh well…mygirl didn’t have the greatest time on the way back to Naples, this Asian guy that sat next to her kept bumping her as he himself tried to get comfortable. And let me tell you my girl was too happy…she likes her space…..

With love,

M.D. and Jazz

Day 13

PHOTO BOMB!! 

               Today my girl remembered me and brought me with them to Paestum. Granted it wasn’t as exciting as yesterday happened to be but it was pretty amazing to see three of the most well preserved temples here in Italy.

A field trip was going on the same time we were there

Class time!! Now where is my girl?

                Since Paestum is several hours away from Naples we took a private bus which is a great change from the metro and the trains…..I wished we had that the entire trip, less smell and less crowds. Although we saw more of the darker side of Italy, we drove past slums and the more derelict towns and houses.

Non lo so if you could walk on these. .. . . but we did!

Everybody climbed on these ruins

Wasn't too sure what this was but it was cool!!

Look at that masonry don't see that too often now.

Great place for picnics

Don't follow that rabbit!!

                Then added to our slightly dourer mood we got to Paestum and were attacked by bugs!!! My poor girl had to wear me to keep the bugs from attempting to nest in her hair (we found this out when one of our friends stopped and pulled bugs out of her hair). Needless, to say that my girl was completely paranoid and was constantly checking her hair.
                The bus ride was actually longer than our stay at the temples.

Please ignore the crappy (cheap) shades.

With bug infested love,
M.D. and Jazz