New Post from Henry!

Ciao!

It’s Henry! Happy Thanksgiving!!  Today we took a 1 hour flight to Venice. It’s awesome! You get around by riding a boat in the canals or walking. As in most places in Italy they have gelato here to. Gelato is like ice cream but made with milk instead of cream. Also like most Italian food its better than a lot of American food. Many people here have gelato every day (that group includes us). Over the last few days  we have gotten a lot of pictures and Olivia hasn’t had time to post them so enjoy!

Arrivederci,
Henry!





PS it is Olivia's fault this wasn't posted sooner!
--Olivia

Day Dieci! Vacation is Finite :(

Buon Giorno from Roma!

 Dinner and the Trevi Fountain last night were wonderful! We all really enjoyed seeing Sister Gertrude before we headed out.

   It's nice being back in Rome! Yesterday after the train ride we went through a few churches, including Santa Maria della Vittoria. We saw a famous Bernini statue which made me happy :) Our family headed to 2 other churches here that were oval shaped--very interesting!

Well, we're catching the plane in a few hours, so I'll see everyone soon! I'm going to miss Italy...and gelato :(

Arrivederci,
Olivia

Day Nove!

Buena Sera!

   
Today we woke up early L It’s been fun though. We first wandered around looking for the David statue—that didn’t go so well. We found a replica of it outside the museum where the real statue is though. I found it very impressive! There was also an outdoor sculpture gallery of other replicas, which were very pretty!

   Later we went to a church that Sister Gertrude recommended looking around—Santa Maria Novella. There are just so many churches here named after St. Mary! The church was lovely. The art here never ceases to impress me. This particular church had many, many chapels. I still find that interesting—that families used to commission chapels with paintings and other art to be built in honor of a favorite saint for their family. There was also a Michelangelo crucifix in the church. I’m not sure if I’m right, but I believe that it was one of his earlier works, due to the fact that the body wasn’t entirely in proportion. I think that’s interesting because his other works are very anatomically correct. Of course, it was still beautiful! I was bothered that picture taking wasn’t allowed.

   I’m actually on the train back to Rome right now! I’m going to miss Florence. This train ride is very fun though! We’re riding through the more rural parts of Italy, with the mountains and farms and what not. It’s one of the most beautiful areas I’ve ever seen.

  Tonight we’re going to see the Trevi Fountain! I’m excited; I don’t believe we’ve seen anything by Salvi (I think that’s his name) yet! J We’re also going to meet up with Sister Gertrude for dinner, which will be very nice!

I’ll tell you how the evening goes tomorrow. Or not…we’re catching the plane at 11:50am Roma time.

Well, arrivederci! I’ll see everyone pretty soon J

Olivia

Day Otto!

Ciao from Florence J

   I really, really, like it here! We’ve been having a lovely time. Today we went to the Uffizi Gallery of Art. It was incredible. Words aren’t able to describe some of this artwork.

   We were quite lucky to get to the Uffizi early, because the lines became very long not 15 minutes after we’d walked through the gate! Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures of anything there. But I’ll tell you about some of the art works.

    The first few rooms we went through were very gothic in style. Iconography was big at that time (late medieval times I think). One of the coolest things was the layout of the gallery. The art works in the rooms were laid out in a chronological fashion. My family and I found it fascinating how art progressed through time, with the innovative techniques the artists discovered and employed.

   My favorite room was definitely the Botticelli exhibit. It was so exciting to see all the paintings I learned about in history last year. Two of Botticelli’s most famous paintings—La Primavera and The Birth of Venus—were on display. They were gorgeous, unsurprisingly. Leonardo da Vinci paintings as well as Raphael’s were exhibited. So many rooms had so many beautiful pieces of art, I could go on forever about them, but I don’t want to bore you. I’ll just comment that I absolutely adored this museum!

   After the Uffizi, we went to visit a church, Santa Croce. It was really pretty. I still haven’t become used to the great size of the churches around here. Oh, and of course the fact that there must be 15 church per square mile. Not kidding! Anyway, this church was stunning. First, I was amazed that people other than saints could be buried in a church! At Santa Croce, commoners were well, commonly, buried inside the church. It was quite interesting. Some very famous people were buried there also! By famous I mean Michelangelo Buonoratti, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei! I was completely blown away.

   Once we had toured the church, we stopped for hot chocolate. It was very odd. I thought it tasted like warm brownie mix. That’s how thick it was! It was then that we realized there was a mass at Santa Croce (literally across the street) in 15 minutes.

   We went to mass, but it was hard to pay attention because it was in Italian. It was pretty amusing; the priest smiled the entire mass. It was a nice service.

  After dinner we went back to the apartment, seeing as we were all rather sleepy. 

Tomorrow we’ll wander through more of Firenze, then it’s back to Rome for us! Then we go home L

Arrivederci!

Olivia J

Pictures soon!

Day Sette!

Ciao!

   Today we spent a lot of time outdoors--but it was nice and sunny, which a good change. Florence is a beautiful city, and probably one of my favorite things about this trip! Everything's much more laidback here.
 
 We walked around the city for a little while, and ended up strolling through the Florentine flea market. It is too cool! Some of the venders were pretty amusing, especially the ones who are really intent on selling you something. There were quite a lot of lovely things there to buy, but clothes, jewelry and leather were the most common items on sale. We had a very nice time trying things on and whatnot. Josie and I both found leather jackets, and Josie also found a ring :) My dad wasn't too happy about spending his time in the city shopping. The pizza here is also really delicious (just like the rest of Italy!).
 
 After we went through the shops, the family headed over to the Duomo, designed by Brunelleschi. The dome itself was stunning! Inside the church (Santa Maria del Fiore) was rather barren compared to say the Vatican, but I liked it. I think that the Vatican and the more ornate basilicas/churches/etc. feel more like art work than a religious place. It's preference I suppose. Henry, Josie, and my dad wanted to walk up to the top of the dome, so they did. My mom and I stayed down. The spiral stairs are nauseating! Apparently they had a really stunning view of the city though, and they were able to watch the sunset over Florence. From what my mom and I could see from the ground, the interior part of the dome was covered in pastel frescoes. I thought they were pretty, but the guide book described them as mediocre. Probably just in comparison to the Sistine Chapel.
  
   We (my mom and I) stepped outside for a bit while the others were in the dome. There was a riot going on! I should say protest, but riot seems more fitting. It did appear that the group had police escorts though, which I found interesting. They ran through a small-ish street then they all sat down! Josie, Henry, and my dad said that they even threw a big banner promoting their cause--I'm not sure what that was--off of the dome. The police weren't too happy about that.

   Tomorrow we're going to an art gallery called the Uffizi! I'm very excited :)

Buona sera,

Olivia :)

Again, pictures soon!
  
  

Day Sei!

Ciao!

  It rained again today, and unfortunately it didn't really let up. We tried not to let that get us down though!
  
   We then walked through Venice to Piazza San Marco, to the Basilica there. We wanted to walk around the church in the light--but it was raining, and cloudy. Oh, and it didn't open for another 20 minutes. So, we strolled around Venice for awhile, trying to find rainboots (which I did--yay!) there was 2-5 inches of water covering many streets. Luckily, Venice puts up temporary boardwalks where the flooding is really bad.

  After we found rainboots, we started walking back to Piazza San Marco. That didn't go so well. When I said Venice is  a terrible maze, I really meant it! We did eventually get back to the Piazza, but we had missed our tour of the Doge's Palace. Thankfully, the ticket lady let us go to the next tour. We toured the palace's inner chambers--the offices, the council room, and even the torture chamber. Doge's apparently had a lot of power! It was pretty interesting, except our tour guide was not very nice.

   Then we rushed back to the hotel to get our bags, jumped on a water bus and hurried to the train station. We were headed to Florence! Everyone was happy to be leaving Venice. The train ride was relaxing, especially compared to Venice. I was kind of disappointed it didn't look much like the train in a favorite book of mine. Our family enjoyed it though!

  When we arrived in Florence, it was considerably warmer (though still cold). It took a really long time to find a taxi, because most only took four people. We eventually found one though! After arriving at and checking into our apartment, we toured the streets of Florence. Apparently the Italians call it Firenze...pronounced fire-n-zay. We found a cute little restaurant to eat at, and it was delicious! Josie and Henry had calzones that were huge. Huge meaning bigger than the average plate. We all cleaned our plates though!

  We found ourselves semi lost trying to get back to the apartment--recurring theme, anyone? But once again, we miraculously arrived where we wanted to be! This was our first day sans gelato :( We still had a really lovely day, though. I think Florence is going to be a lot of fun!

Still missing everyone! Buona sera,

Olivia :)

PS pictures will be up eventually! :)
  

Day Cinque!

Happy Thanksgiving!

  Today we woke up very early to take a cab to the airport. We arrived in Venice (or Venezia as the Italians call it) not too long after the plane landed. I could get used to the really short flights. We then bused over to a water bus, which took us to the islands.

Venetian Airport. It was FREEZING.

   After we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we roamed around the city. Venice’s layout is like a really awful maze. We’ve gotten lost already! It didn’t make it better that the city floods (because of the canals) from about 8am-2pm. All the Venetians wear rain boots, and some of the tourists wear plastic bags with rubber bands around the ankles over their feet. From what we could see, San Marco Square was beautiful.

This is not a swimming pool. This is San Marco Piazza, under water. :(

Tourist with plastic bags over their shoes! :)

   We went to find lunch, and sitting down was great. Later we window shopped and saw lots of people selling blown glass art pieces. Everything in the city is gorgeous, especially the glass.

In addition to glass art, they sold lots of funny masks. I was partial to the duck. :)

   The best part of the day was the gondola ride, hands down. The gondoliers look just like the ones in the movies—straw hats and striped sweaters—but they don’t sing. However, they do know a lot about the city! Our gondolier told us about that there are 411 bridges in Venice, and over 100 islands that make up the city, which is pretty amazing.

Our gondolier! He was pretty cool :)

   After the gondola ride we walked through Saint Mark’s Basilica. The church was gorgeous! The ceilings and walls and even the floor was covered in mosaics. It was definitely a sight to see.

The Basilica was really, really gorgeous--even from the outside! :)

   We ate dinner later, and it was quite yummy. Not at all like a traditional delicious Thanksgiving dinner (hey there to everyone in PA!), but it was very good.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Tomorrow we head to Florence J

Buena Sera!

Olivia