Day 6 and 7 in Arezzo

I am so exhausted, but this has already been an amazing trip and I still have 20 days left here! I feel like I had so many things to talk about, but when I started typing I forgot what it was!

We went to Florence yesterday and today by train. Yesterday we left a little after 8AM and took the 6PM train back to Arezzo, so I literally almost couldn’t walk when I got back to the apartment. Both of my knees are swollen, my right ankle is swollen (all where I have had gymnastics injuries…go figure. Lol), and I have blisters all over my feet from all the walking in the heat. For the most part though, the walking is getting easier for me. It is so fun to experience the different in culture here. Things are way different than they are at home. There are many places here where you can barter, which I found I am actually really good at, and it is kind of fun to do! I wanted to see if a belt I found would fit me, so the “booth” owner came over and like put it around me to show me it would fit. It was really awkward really! I bartered for almost everything I bought at the leather market and got some things for more than 50% off of the asking price. I am increasingly more and more aware of my surroundings and very cautious of people who are “too” friendly. For example, when the guy was trying to help me “try on” the belt, my hands went automatically to the pockets where my cell phone, wallet, pass port, and credit cards were in and I mostly keep my hands on top of the pockets so I know there is no opportunity for me to “lose” anything. 2 people in our group that I know of have already been victims of petit crime since we have been here and I REALLY don’t want to deal with losing any of my important stuff, so I am overly aware all of the time (not really a bad thing I guess).

Bathrooms are a really hard thing to come by in a lot of areas around here too. I had to pay to use a restroom this morning! It is interesting to me that something I always considered as a necessity for restaurants and stores to have, seem to be considered a commodity here. I really never thought I would find myself spending money to use a restroom, but if you get desperate enough… You definitely will!

There is just so much art in and culture wrapped up in all of these little towns we have been in (Rome especially, but definitely some in Arezzo and a lot if Florence as well). It is really amazing to me that have this opportunity to be here and experience all of these amazing things. I will be kind of sad to leave in a way, but I think I will also be ready to go home by the time the end of the month comes.  Yesterday while in Florence we got to go to the Ufizzi gallery. The art work there is so beautiful!! One of the other girls and I were discussing some of the pieces and realized that in many of the paintings baby Jesus was depicted doing a weird kind of hand symbol. It almost looks as if he would be holding a glass of wine in his hand, but there is no cup there. We decided this probably was not a coincidence and asked our OUA guide what it meant. He said that the Europeans used this symbol to mean they were about to speak and you should be quiet and listen, so the hand symbol is supposed to say that Jesus is about to speak. I thought that was pretty interesting. Today we went to the academia gallery (I think is what it is called) and we got to see “the David” and some other really neat sculptures. The coloring in some of the paintings I have seen really amaze me. They are so bright and I literally feel like they’re jumping out of the painting at me. It is truly amazing. I really have enjoyed seeing how art has changed over the years. I’ve seen a lot of stuff, from the older not so realistic types of stuff, to the era where realism became something important to portray in the works. I really enjoy the sfumato (which by the way is a term I recently learned...it is a type of type of technique used in paintings that blends shades together in a way to create depth in the paintings) pieces. I’m not really sure why, but I find them very appealing. The Mona Lisa was done with this technique, and I think the effect is just breath taking. The pieces that use the dark versus light technique (which there is a name for that I forgot) are really nice to look at as well, but I find myself most attracted to the pieces done with sfumato technique. I wish that I had more of a history type of brain, because I think there is so much here that I just don’t completely grasp because I have never really been very good at history stuff, and I tend to forget facts of this nature, while numbers (math stuff) I tend to retain really well.

I think I am going to go through the things I bought today and figure out where I can cram it all to get everything home. Haha. I have bought entirely too much stuff since I have been here, but I just can’t seem to stop myself from buying cool things, but anyways. I am done for now.

Caio! ~ Oh, that reminds me …. I have heard the term Caio bella SOOO much in the last few days! Its kind of funny, because I know they say that to any woman that comes to their booth… and yet, I guess they think it is flattering or something. Anyways. I just wanted to share that bit of info as well, because I find it silly. J