The last leg of the Cinque Terre hike..

We rested for a little in Vernazza before continuing on to the last town, Monterosso. Christian and Juan Carlos comandeered a boat...and then we hike the longest, most difficult portion. After our swim, we rewarded ourselves with pizza con pesto e birra freddo!!

More Cinque Terre!

More pictures from the hike! I'm glad it was so lovely, otherwise the hike would have been a tad too brutal! There was great graffiti in the Via dell'Amore...Vernazza was definitley the most scenic town. I had my gelato fix there (red grapefruit and indian fig)

Cinque Terre!

I spent the weekend in Cinque Terre...it was so incredibly beautiful! I'll post more later, but here are a few photos for now...From the hike (of doom!), the swim and the pizza feast that followed, and the ferry ride back..


ciao!

Siena!

We went to Siena on Saturday! It was nice to get out of Florence for the day...we had a lovely lunch, perched on a steep alleyway..I had Tuscan ribollita soup, and rabbit! Also a little bit of vino...We ate gelato at the Piazza del Campo (I had ricotta and fig, and marscapone and nutella) and we visited a bunch of museums, and the Duomo! I saw so much beautiful art...We sampled some of Siena's famous pasteries and a caffe corretto!

It's getting colder in Florence...still on my quest for the perfect yet affordable coat...I did get some slippers from the outdoor market today! Our marble floors are very chilly. OK, time for homework and soccer game, and weekend planning...

End of exams

Yesterday was the last day of the Accademia exams. John and I were working in a printmaking room with some very interesting machines. The project was to create a painting to go on a wall inside a hotel reading room in Tuscany. We had to do a plan in color and scale, and then a "particolare" or large detail painting the next day. I'm so happy to be done! John and I celebrated by going to Vivoli's. I had blackberry, melon, and peach...it was wonderful. Now I'm trying to plan a weekend somewhere, but I am discovering that booking hostels last minute is not a good idea...I'm trying for Venice right now, hopefully Cinque Terre next weekend...we'll see!

Rosh Hashanah!

Last night we had a Rosh Hashana dinner at our apartment with all of the studio art people! Gaby made the most amazing latkes, brisket and kugel...here she is at the latke station. Sara was very excited about the latkes :)
Our oven was not working, but luckily we met our very nice neighbors and they let us use theirs. While we were waiting for dinner, we entertained ourselves with experimental camera art..
The dessert spread!!! Kugel, Tiramisu, chocolate torta, cookies, homemade fudge, plum cake....mmm...
(there's one of my paintings from class in the background!)
Jackie, Corrine, Ron, Finn, Maria Elena, and Laura get ready to eat dessert!
The only Jews at the dinner: Gaby, Marsha (our awesome art advisor) and me!

Accademia Exams

The past three days have been dedicated to taking the entrance exam to the Accdemia di Belle Arti! It has been very stressful and confusing. No one seems to speak any english there, and it's hard to relax when the pressure is on to produce a good drawing!!Here are the painters on the first day!
Jackie and John looking excited for the 2nd day!
Gaby and Mel wait in the sculptors line.
This was the quick figure painting I did yesterday. I wasn't too happy with my drawing....but one more day!!