Status!

Hey all!

First and foremost, Florence is beautiful and I absoloutely love it here. I have not quite figured how to upload photos on the Internet Cafe computers...but I hope to have some up soon.

My days have consisted of breakfast in the hotel, a museum, food, nap, class then eventually some sleep.

On Sunday Nick, Travis and I went exoploring all day and just walked until we got tired. We didn't go to any specific locations, but just roamed and got a feel for the city. That night we had orientation on the CSU Campus then were fed quite a nice dinner at one of the local restaurants. We all ended up in our hotel room playing dorky artist games well into the night.

Our breakfasts at the hotel are quite sad...but last time i checked free is fantastic, so we deal the best we can. We get cereal, twice toasted stale toast to hide the staleness, tang (not orange juice), really bitter coffee and some badass cappuccinos.

We get most of our meals at the Standa Market, a little grocery market around the corner of our hotel. We can get simple meals with fruit and veggies for about 3 Euros. Keep in mind the ats almost two dollars per Euro, therefore no eating out for us art students.

Monday was our first real day, at 8:30 Domenic took us to : Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. It was a museum across from the Duomo and consisted of mostly sculpture. The highlight of that museum was the Mary Magdalene Sculpture in wood by Donatello. It was quite exciting that a piece from 1450 was so powerful and almost felt modern. It is Mary Magdalene in a sick and thin state with her hair draping over her whole body. (photo soon to come) After that we got food then napped. Class is at 4:00 and goes for four hours. We are studying with Prefesore Granchi, who is a well known Fresco painter. We have been painting in high quality tempera and i have been struggling a bit.

Tuesday to the Capelle Medicee and the Firenze Villa Bardini. The Medicee Chapel was amazing, it had a good number of Michelangelos. His sculpture is breathtaking, but there was no photgraphy allowed, and whenever we tried to draw, the guards would kick us out. We took a huge trek up a hill to see the Fatori show at the Villa Bardini. It was an awesome show that had his paintings as well as his contemporaries. He had a show of Butteris, who are the Italian cowboys. It was one of my favorites and I hope to get to see them first hand later in the trip. We then went back to teh school to learn more about Fresco painting from Granchi and painted in Tempera for a while.

Today we went to the Basilica di San Lorenzo. It was a a beautiful church with vast ceilings and great frescos. We saw various tombs including where Donatello is buried.

Overall I feel safe and happy. The sights and smells remind me of Guadalajara, just a but safer and cleaner. I am here with a great group of people and i am having a blast, hope to share more as well as photos soon...

Ciao

Luis

On Tuesday

Arrival to Italy!

Hey everyone,

I have arrived safely after a full 24 hours of travel. Lax to Frankfurt, Germany was about 10 hours and 40 minutes. We had about a 3 hour layover the another hour and fifteen to Florence. As soon as the bus drove us to our hotel we checked in, showered and went exploring. I am beat for the day, but here are a few things i have encountered thus far...