Wandering is good......

Yesterday we had to go to go to the study abroad Italy to pick up some housing paperwork and sign up for some free field trips. In addition to the field trips that you can pay for (i am going on the Rome and Italian lakes trips) they offer a few really cool free trips. The trips that they offer are; Fiesole lunch and olive grove excursion (Come relax in the hills of Tuscany ant the charming Villa la Rustica di Pomarico, a 10th century villa that overlooks the breathtaking towns of Fiesole and Florence. The afternoon will start off with a guided tour of the olive groves that surround the villa and will end with a light meal. The tour will include an explanation of how olive oil is made, as well as details of the villas bineyards) Forza Viola (Come with us and root for the Fiorentina, Florence's soccer team. The game will be held in the soccer stadium near compo di marte, northeast of the city center. The team is playing Juventus, our chief rival) A chianti experience (Spend a day with us in the Tuscan countryside in the wine growing region of Chianti. We will visit verraazzano castle where we'll tour the vineyard and winery. Our english speaking tour guides will give us a tour of the vineyards, a lesson on wine growing techniques, an explanation of the Chianti Classico wines and the Gallo Nero label, a history of the Verrazzano castlem and a tour of the grounds. We will then visit the wine cellars where the classico, Riserva and dessert wines are stored. The tour will be followed by a sampling of first courses and anti pasti, as well as a guided wine tasting. Verrazzano's wine experts will explain how to truly taste a wine by evaluating the shades of color, smell and taste. The primary wines explored will be Ser Chiaro white, Chianti Classico DOGG and Chianti Classico reserve. The light meal will include: Antipasto:salami, prosciutto, finocchiona, salamiona di cinghiale and white bean crostini. Primo: Pasta al pomodoro with fresh basil. Vegetable course: Cannellini beans with Tuscan olive oil and salad. Cheese course: Pecorino and parmigiano cheeses with balsamic vinegar. Dessert: Cantucci with vin Santo.) The Vasarian Corridor ( Tucked between buildings and high above the street lies the Vasarian Corridor, a raised secret passageway that extends one kilometer forming a link between the palazzo pitti and the Ufizzi gallery. The corridor was built in 1564 by Giorgio Vasari under the order of Cosimo 1 De Medici. It was primarily built to give the Medici the ability of escaping, unnoticed, should an uprising occur. The corridor houses more than 700 paintings along with a prestigious collection of self portraits of some of the most famous artists from the 16th to the 20th century.) I signed up for all of those. That was kind of long but I think they sound great and though all of you should hear the official descriptions. The Study Abroad office is right on the Arno river, which i hadnt seen since the first day. After signing up for the trips me and my roommates and brittany walked along the Arno for a while, taking pictures. The Arno was pretty wide, wider than the Chena river in my hometown and made a kind of natural break in the cityscape. On one side was dense city streets while the other side quickly turned into open hills with large Villas and stone buildings. After walking for a while (Still hot!) we turned back into the city. We made the turn about where the large city library was and quickly found ourselves in an open roof huge stone building. Spaced every twenty feet or so on both sides were statues of famous scientists, artists, writers and other people of note. Included were, Gallileo, Dante, Nostradamus, Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo. The building was about four stories high and had a large museum, the Uffizi, connected on one side. Towards the end of the building there were people dressed and painted to look like statues. When people put money down for them they came to life. It was pretty cool. As you came out of the building we were faced with a huge piazza filled with statues. It was like the lion and the with in the wardrobe where things were just turned to stone, statues were EVERYWHERE. Directly in the line of sight was the statue of David (the outdoor version, there's another inside the medici) a huge Poseidon statue and about 20 others, all perfect and lifelike. To the left there were steps that let up to a marble building that was filled with all kinds of statue. I cant really describe everything because its so amazing but ill include some pictures. Its really cool to be wandering around, finding a new way home or looking for gellato and just walk into the most beautiful things you've ever seen. After taking about a hundred pictures We went and stopped by a market to grab some food for dinner. It was Steele and Mario's turn to cook and they were making roasted chicken and potatoes. Their dinner turned out great, the smell of the expertly seasoned food bringing over our neighbors to ask for food. After dinner we went and got some drinks, since we had decided to all go out together. We had heard that the drinks were really expensive at clubs so we wanted to drink some at home. When everyone was ready we headed out to Mecano which was supposed to be really fun. International students usually get in for a discounted price. On thing about Florence is that everyone walks everywhere. I have blisters on my feet from walking so much. Anyway we waled to the club which took about 15 minutes and when we got there we were given a "drink card" which got you one free drink. You had to have it when you left as you got it stamped each time you got a drink and paid when you left. If lost they charge you 80 Euro. The club was very nice and there were alot of beautiful people. It took about 20 minutes to get a drink because there were so many people there. After I got mine I went to the dance floor (which was outside and covered by a kind of gazebo type thing with marble columns on each corner) and danced for a while. The music wasnt that great but it was still a cool place. Everyone was very dressed up. We stayed there for a while before going home.

This morning was the first day that i slept in past 7. I got up around 9 and went to the fresh market down the street. I got another peach and some pesto, feta, bell pepper, bread, onion and some spices. All for only 7 euro. I walked over to Brittanys to use the computer and here i am now. Its good to be in the present tense for once! Hope you all are doing well.
SW