Florence, Italy Trip Assignment 1

---

Florence, Italy Trip

Assignment 1

January 2, 2018

Jo Ann Smith



Hello, (Salve)

Family, friends, co-workers and past co-workers,



Some of you may not know that I've been taking Apparel Design and Merchandising classes at EKU, loving the classes and learning so much. (You're never too old to learn something new.)



In January, I have the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy. I'm so excited and can't wait for the adventure to begin. I've already started packing and learning Italian (well, listening to the CD's anyway) and picking up some of it.



Our first assignment is to blog about how we are preparing for the upcoming trip. It's my understanding that we will be learning about the Italian culture and to speak the language, visiting museums and a vineyard, taking a cooking class or two, an overnight trip to Rome, fabric shops, a fashion show, an opera, and so much more. Looking forward to checking out the fabric shops (hope I have room in the suitcase for all the fabrics I can't live without).



So to prepare I've been listening to Living Language Italian CDs, and reading books. I found one book 100 Places in Italy Every Women Should Go by Susan Van Allen. She writes about places to see and gives advice with tips. She also suggested other books to read like Uffizi, The Official Guide all of the works, this book shows the layout of the museum and describes the important details about the artwork. Another book that I found to be very interesting is A Catholic's Guide to ROME Discovering The Soul of the Eternal City by Frank J. Korn. He gives the history and mysteries of the churches in Rome. The third book is SPQR A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. I will not have time to read all of this book but I was intrigued by the initials SPQR that stand for Senatus PopulusQue Romanus (The Senate and People of Rome). Mary Beard says this is the slogan that can be seen throughout Rome on buildings, bridges, even on manhole covers. I'm challenging myself to see how many times and different places I can find SPQR when we visit Rome. (I'll let you know how many I find). The fourth book is A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome by Angela K. Nickerson, I just got this one so I will be reading it on the plane. I have also been studying the Rick Steves map of Florence, Italy. (Hopefully I won't get lost).



I'm also told that we will be doing a lot of walking, as the city of Florence is about the size of the University of Kentucky's main campus. That’s not very large to me as when I worked at UK, I walked all over campus. I guess that's the first of many culture shocks that I will experience as UK campus is in the middle of Lexington, Kentucky (where I live) and there is no way one could walk from one side of the city to the other.



The walking is not a problem as I work at Dillards and I've been tracking my steps and averaging about 10,000 steps per day. I also had to keep track of my steps for a week in December for the trip. I did the week of December 1st thru 7th as follows:



Monday - 13,123

Tuesday - 10,971

Wednesday - 13,381

Thursday - 6,768

Friday - 9,985

Saturday - 4,609

Sunday - 17,125



For a total of 75,962 steps, an average of 10,851 per day.



But the stairs could be a problem, so I've been using my stepper boxes. I'm up to 100 steps, but I don't think that will be enough to go to the top of the Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, to view the city of Florence. The Duomo has 463 steps.



I also had to keep track of my total time eating for one day:



1 hour & 5 minutes.



And track food intake for three days before leaving, the following is the results:



Day 1: oatmeal - cooked 1 cup

almonds - 6

cranberries - 1/4 cup



Animal crackers - 16

Chocolate cake - small slice

Apple - small



Chicken finger dinner - Zaxby



Day 2: oatmeal - cooked 1 cup

almonds - 6

cranberries - 1/4 cup



Sausage pizza - 3 slices



Cheez-it crackers - snack size bag



Day 3: sausage, egg mc muffin from McDonalds

Orange juice - small



Turkey on croissant sandwich



After seeing the time spent on eating and the list of food, I realized that I need to slow down when eating and stop eating fast food (carry out). I need to start cooking again, or at less eat more fruits and vegetables. That will be something to work on when I return.



I will be blogging three time a week, so look for my blogs at www.mytb.org/Jo-Ann-S as I post about my adventures, new experiences and photos.



Bye (arrivederci)

---

Comments

[Liz Kingsland]

Excited
So excited for you. Look forward to following your blog and hearing all the great details! After you return I hope you will share with us all!

[Carolyn]

Amazed
Wow! I am amazed what you have accomplished. Looking forward to hearing about your adventure. Love sis