Spring Break and Such...

Well... I am past the halfway point here in Rome. We just finished our second project and took our test for our neighborhoods class. We are currently packing for our North trip to Verona, Vicenza and Venice. I also just finalized my spring break plans for this year. It starts in Venice after our north field trip ends and continues to London, Berlin, and a day in Milan on the way home. Drew Thorson and I have a rather packed schedule but we are traveling lightly and found very cheap lodging (free in London at one of his classmates). Going to be quite an adventure this time around, budget airlines inner city travel and going back to a country where everyone speaks English (really weird actually. Some guy on the train tonight talked to Drew and I in English and we were just blown away.) We'll see how it goes, I will try and skype most of you tonight if possible.

Enjoy some more Florence photos!

The David (a replica, Andy is sending me his pics)

My travel group.

Michelangelo designed the facade of this church, and never finished it.

The duomo of Florence

Yet Another Rainy Day in Rome...

More rain here in the eternal(ly rainy) city. It is a good thing though because we have a lot to do with our programming review coming up on Monday. Our reviewers are judging us on ideas for the development of the site, with prizes awarded to the top three groups. The winner of the project will have their criteria and site used as the final criteria for our last project after we get back from spring break. Lots of pressure!!!

In other news, I have been doing well and have enjoyed my classes immensely. Our neighborhood touring course finished its last tour this week and we only have a few art/architecture history courses left before the end of the semester. Time is moving way to fast! Once these courses are finished up we will only have studio and drawing to carry us to the end of the semester. So I will end up spending a great deal more time at my desk working on projects to end the semester. Thank goodness I have spring break first or I don't think I would be able to make it!

We are preparing to take our final field trip here in Italy. We are traveling North to the cities of Verona (the setting of Romeo and Juliet, even though the entire story is made up and Shakespeare never actually left England to visit it) as well as the sinking city of Venice (as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade plus The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) Both are beautiful places to visit and I will be sure to post lots of pictures of my adventures there.

After that we have our spring break. Right now Drew Thorson and I are planning on going to London right away to do things in England while staying with his friends he has in town there. After several days under the rule of the Queen we are planning on going to some other central European city on the way back to Rome just to make our trips shorter and cheaper. I will try and let you know the full itinerary when we actually know what is happening ourselves.

That is all! Arrivaderci!

A Rainy Day in Rome (One of Many This Week)

Not a lot of content verbally from me. I'll try and get some of that going tomorrow when I am not in studio. Spring is in the air in Rome because it has started to rain!

Trastevere Market during the day.

Window to an absinthe store. I have not tried it and I think I never will. It just sounds diabolical.

Santa Maria della Minerva

The Pantheon on a rainy day. They have the ropes up to keep people away from the wet part of the floor due to the hole in the roof.

The aforementioned hole in the roof.

The altar of the Pantheon

The Moment You Have Been Waiting For...

Beautiful Pisa, mainly the duomo, baptistry and that tower thinger that somebody screwed up building. Pictures can't really describe how tilted it looks in real life. It just is hilarious looking, just like most of our photos and our futile attempts to fix this ironic Italian Monument. Here she goes!

Those Italians are full of it! This tower does not lean!!!!! There is nothing wrong with it!!!

This left us in quite a bamboozled state. What a waste of a day! This thing was supposed to lean!

There it is! You just need to look at it from the right perspective. Notice the people at the top. Unfortunately when we arrived the ticket office for everything had just closed. To put even a bigger damper on the situation, it started raining!

The entire complex in the city of Pisa. Only one building had problems and it is really the most famous aspect of this beautiful cathedral.

Hordes of tourists!!!!

If you walk to certain angles, there appears to be nothing wrong with the tower...

The Duomo is gorgeous!!!!

Gotta fix it!!!

Proud to be photoed!!!

Fail! Andy Klein, you silly scoundrel!

Sarah and Dani are working on opposite ends of the problem...

Just think how stupid you look to people who aren't lined up with this perspective... Or just how stupid this still looks... But wait! It can get more ridiculous! 

High five over the campanile!

Oh ridiculous photos! That was a ton of fun, and a great way to cap an awesome weekend.

Florence (pt. 2)

Good times to be had by all on our trip to Florence. Not just pictures of buildings this time, or other sites to see. Now featuring the gorgeous faces of my traveling companions at these places and more!!!

Mike Vanderploeg at the Ponte Vecchio. (Ruining my picture? Just adding a little character.)

Andy Klein over the river Arno. He complains that people never take pictures of him... Not anymore!

Mike Noonan... If you follow this blog regularly, this is definitely a "Mike Photo Pose."

Alex Michl rubbing the boar's nose at the market, also featuring that guy pushing all the coins into the drain hole.

Sam Mulholland on the campanile.

Sarah and Andy at dinner in a basement restaurant. (Sorry it is blurry.)

John and Dani... John was chewing and Dani was excited to be eating traditional Tuscan fare...