I will miss you and the people I’ve known here these past three months more than I realized…

This semester was something else. I’m a completely different person than I was when I boarded that plane on August 29th…and I will carry this experience with me forever and always…I want to keep in touch with everyone I’ve met here…and I know some day that I have to return. 

♥

Last night the apartment all went out to dinner…just like we did at the beginning of the semester. It was delicious and pretty affordable…I felt a little sick so I wasn’t my normal bubbly self but it was nice to do something together. 

First dinner together…9/3

Last dinner, 12/15…we look so much older, even though it was only 3 months!

Then today…everyone was pretty hungover except me cuz I didn’t really drink much after dinner but Mickey, Lena and I all walked to Gusta Pizza across the river and Rebecca met us there…

It was a great last real meal in Florence (since I’m probably gonna be eating leftovers to clean out the fridge tonight)

Best roommate ever

heart-shaped pizza amazingness!

PURCHASE ROX!!!1! :D

It’s been a sort of gloomy day…Lena and I went to go print out our boarding passes and the library was totally deserted…it was sad…now we’re attempting to clean and pack but it’s proving somewhat difficult.

I can’t believe my semester is over!!! Words can’t even describe how incredible this experience was…I absolutely will never forget it and I hope one day I make it back to Florence…

FIRENZE, TI AMO! <3

now onto the real hurdle of packing all of my crap from this past semester…bought a second suitcase but I still hate packing.

So about an hour ago there was a shooting in Florence in Mercato San Lorenzo…and apparently a ton of people were just running from the Duomo to Piazza Signorina…

FLORENCE, WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!

Today I had a make up class for my Advertisement and Commercial class which entailed photographing behind the scenes of the annual LdM Fashion Show!

We got there at 2 and shot for about 3 hours…it was pretty draining, the environment was chaotic and exciting but by the end I didn’t have the energy to stay for the actual fashion show. 

I was extremely impressed with the pieces! Many were made from non-fabric materials and the creativity was neverending. I had a great time, I’d never shot anything like it before! 

Here are 8 of my 75 final images…I only had time to upload a few before the computer lab closed but I’ll be uploading more to my flickr next week. 

So I’m home in a week and Florence has done a great job of getting me in the Christmas spirit. 

“Do you smell carrot, too?”

In particular, the Christmas Market in Santa Croce is one of the holiday highlights…strudel and ornament vendors all contribute to the festive atmosphere. 

This past weekend I went on my last field trip of the semester to the magical city of Venice!

We drove by bus about four hours to a port where we boarded a boat and made our first stop: the island of Murano. It’s most well known for it’s glass blowing and we got to see a demonstration at the Gino Mazzuccato factory.

Needless to say it was fascinating…the glass blower made it look so easy, molding the hot glass like play doh!

After the demo we got to shop in the showroom of the store with a very good discount on all the products, about half off. I got my sister and I murano glass pendants. 

Then we got back on the boat and stopped at the island of Burano. Unlike Murano, it has preserved it’s ancient charm of a fishing island! 

The houses are all painted bright colors to differentiate from one another. It was so quiet and foggy it was almost like a ghost town.

Kelly and I

All the buildings were so eye-catching with their textures and colors. 

Lena, Kelly and I all got pizza, which was delicious and then we snapped a few extra photos before we took the boat to Venice. 

By the time we arrived in the city it was very dark and had started to rain a bit. 

The hotel was very close to Saint Marco’s square and after we got checked into the hotel we did a walking tour. We went into the inside of San Marco but it was very dark and hard to see.

I snapped a few pictures but the rain was just too much for me so I went back to the room to wait for dinner. I did walk around a little bit when the rain lightened up, though.

The dinner was good, we had pumpkin risotto followed by eggplant parmesan with fried calamari…I was excited for the calamari but it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.

After dinner Lena, Kelly and I went back to the room and watched MTV music videos before crashing. 

Sunday we got up around 8, had breakfast in the hotel and then walked to the Peggy Guggenheim house! It was so incredible to see such a massive private collection of contemporary art in such a beautiful place. 

Alchemy by Jackson Pollock. Peggy Guggenheim had a whole room filled with Pollock’s work.

Alexander Calder made this headboard for Peggy’s bed. It’s made of silver.

In the back of the house. Peggy was one of the last people in Venice to own a private Gondola and this is where she docked it.

There was a Joseph Cornell box and I of course thought of Parrino again. 

I don’t know who this is by but I loved it.

After about two hours of oggling art there, we went on a Gondola ride!!! It was a great deal, 10 euro each for 6 people. Our gondolieri was named Stefano and he was so cute and friendly. He told us that in Venice, because there are no cars, sometimes when the tide is very low that the ambulance boats aren’t able to make it through the streets when there are emergencies!

From left Brittany, Kristen, Elizabeth, Kelly

Stefano

Lena and I with Stefano smiling to himself

After the gondola ride we went to Saint Marco’s square and watched a little Italian boy feed pigeons and basically attack them. I ended up being handed a almost empty bag of crumbs and had a couple of pigeons jump up on my arms. It’s actually a really terrifying experience!

Brittany…priceless.

Then we grabbed a quick lunch and spent the next hour or two window/gift shopping. 

Venice really has the most beautiful shops. 

Of course we tried on (and in Stephanie and Kelly’s case bought) Venetian masks!

Then Kelly and I split up from our group of friends who all did a tour of the Duke’s Palace that was optional—we wanted to take more photos because it had been so dark and rainy the day before. 

Saint Marco façade

She took me to La Rialta which was absolutely gorgeous. 

View from the bridge

And before we knew it, it was time to collect our bags and head back to the mainland!

I’d say that this trip and the Capri/Sorrento/Pompeii trip were my favorites, the first and last. I think that’s appropriate as they will definitely hold the most sentimental value. 

It was a great final trip and one really can’t experience Italy without seeing Venice…it’s unlike any city in the world. 

The time’s flown by…it’s so hard to believe. 

I’m very excited to go home but I can’t really imagine leaving this place…it’s quite possible I’ll never be here again (though unlikely, if I can do something about it.)

I guess I’m just getting a little nostalgic right now. 

I also feel like I should have done more traveling, gone outside of Italy for a weekend to Prague, Berlin, London or Budapest. But I guess the one thing that I have to make myself feel less bad is to tell myself that now I just have reasons to come back to Europe!

I’m going to Venice this weekend, as soon as I get back (and finish all assignments) I’m making a vow to do as many fun things as I can for my last full weekend here.