All Hail Milan! Wonderful, beautiful city who's origins date back to 400 BC & they have so very much to show for it! Clean, thriving with art & business (not to mention tourism on a HUGE scale) with happy, I mean HAPPY people....despite the heat. It's hot here, I'm talkin' EQUATOR hot. Steaming, sweltering hot :D! It's been around 40 Celsius, I'm withering. One of the things that has surprised me a great deal was the vast unbelievable number of tram lines. You'll notice these in my photos. Bus, metro & tram-public transportation is BIG here. It really isn't any wonder [View Full Entry]

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Having seen Michelangelo's David before, I was unsure whether I would be as awestruck as I was the first time. In an unexpected turn of events, I actually found myself even more spellbound than I was four years ago. The sheer scale of this masterpiece (which he completed when he was only 29!) is what struck me first, but once I got closer and studied the perfect form of what I had to keep reminding myself was stone, not flesh and bone, I could only marvel at Michelangelo's knowledge of the human body, such as how certain muscles are tensed in [View Full Entry]

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Lunedi (Monday) 11 August 2008 The trip to Venice has, admittedly, been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. One minute I’m flying high, sitting in front of Titian painting that has been in situ (in its original designated AKA holy site) since its creation, marveling over this work of beauty I had seen so many times in books. The next, I feeling lonely, overwhelmed, and truly worried that my poor grasp of Italian would eliminate my ability to do any real dissertation research. One of the nicest personal self-affirming things I have done in Italy, which seems silly, has been [View Full Entry]

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Rome well where do we begin. Half of rome know me after puking everywhere in like 5 main spots . being carried home. Now this was completely the boys fault (no it wsnt jas was completely up for it in fact she was the onewho was like lets get the 2 LITRe bottle rather than then the 1 litre acually ). making me play drink poker something we had learnt from Croatia with the canadians. Well anyway we decided to get the shittiest cheap wine which is what i blame for being so il after 5 bottles. Our campsite was amazing [View Full Entry]

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Words alone cannot express how MUCH I love this little village! Population, just a few thousand-under 3 I think. Slightly over 1000 homes & SO many of them GORGEOUS! I'm not much of a shopper, but here I SHOP ;D! Bellagio is one of the most distinguished & famous holiday destinations in all of Europe. It deserves to be so. Quiet, peaceful, serene & yes, it should probably be said a celebrity haunt, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Personally, I'm not. Well, I did manage a look @ George Clooney's house, heh, took a tad of effort, but [View Full Entry]

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(Venerdi) Friday, August 8 Today Cheryl and I took the train to Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel- a basic in Art History 102 or any Renaissance course. The ride to Padua was too short- only about 30 minutes- and I thought it odd that after only two weeks in Venice, the sight of cars seemed foreign to me. Our reservations for the chapel weren’t until 7:20 pm, so we paid 5 Euros to enter the Civic Museum, the “Eremitani” which was the “regular” art museum. The museum was a complete and unexpected delight, although the guards herded us like border [View Full Entry]

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We had one weekend off during camp, and so a bunch of us counselors drove to a lake in the very northern part of Italy, with a fascinating history. I was going to write some of it here, but I will just take the shortcut and give the link to the Wikipedia article if you want some background on this cool place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Resia [View Full Entry]

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Il fine settimana (Sabato e domenica) Saturday and Sunday, August 9th and 10th After the long day in Padua, I was ready for a rest this weekend. After a little sleeping in on Saturday, I made a short trip to the supermarket and had a quick chat with some German tourists over lunch. We were sitting next to each other in an outside café when a group of African vendors, spying trouble around San Vidal church where they were camped out, grabbed their goods and ran like on fire. They were screaming in their native language, and they were in such [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 31 July Bristol to Pisa After an outrageously early start (getting up at 2-30am) we were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of EasyJet's 'speedy boarding' system at Bristol Airport which gave us a very nice hour or so in the Lounge. I had my usual coffee and (large) brandy and Rob had a beer (very restrained of him since we were picking up the car at Pisa airport!) We got exit seats on the plane and munched a couple of WH Smith sandwiches on the short flight. I started reading 'Lollipop Shoes'...the sequel to 'Chocolat'. We arrived on time and [View Full Entry]

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ROMA Day 1 Rome Aug. 7th, 2008 I arrived in Rome on Thursday Aug. 7th at 2:30pm. After entering the airport I was curious to observe if my luggage (my internal frame backpack) would arrive or not. Since I have been in Europe I have heard horror stories of lost luggage at Italian airports. I have been told that is because Italians are lazy and enjoy going about their days in a leisurely pace. I waited for my luggage for 25 minutes and then some started to arrive…but not mine…needless to say I began to get worried. After waiting another 20 [View Full Entry]

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