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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Bologna!

This last week went by quickly, and was again filled with torrential rain, but we still managed to have lots of fun despite that! Monday and Tuesday were filled with a mad dash to get projects finished, and presented. After that was over, however, the rest of the week passed quite peacefully!

On Wednesday the group of us went out to a little bar called Mayday. We had lots of fun talking to the co-owner, and promised to be back the next night to get some free cake! On the way to a club, we met three Spanish students and had great fun talking in a mixture of Spanish, Italian and English for the rest of the night trying to make ourselves understood...

Thursday my Architecture in Italy class toured the Instituto Delgi Innocenti (Foundling Hospital) in Florence. It's a beautiful building, and it was a lot of fun to see, especially after studying it at WSU! It was an orphanage back in the day, and what's fun is that the building has always been used by organizations for children. Even today UNICEF has a headquarters there, and it is used as a conference space for meetings about Children's rights. Up the top of the building is a Museum space, which just held a competition for the redesign of the space. We got to see all the entries, and although I don't think my favorite one was the one that was selected, I liked most of what they had decided to do. We were also able to go inside Santissima Annunziata, but mass was in session and I didn't want to disturb the service by taking pictures, so I'll have to go back at another time. It was absolutely over-the-top decorated, definitly baroque style!!! Funny that my Music Theory lessons are coming back to help me now....A nice old man let us into the cloister space, however, and I was able to snap a few shots in there! After classes on Thursday Karen and I went to family dinner, and then I met up with Mitch and Laelle from Abroadco at a cafe for coffee and Pictionary. After that I met back up with friends to go to Mayday, where we had our promised treats! We finished up the night at another favorite hangout of the architect crew here, the Joshua Tree.


On Friday Karen and I were up bright and early to catch a train to Bologna! A new friend Laura came with us and we spent the day exploring the city center. We visited two Basilicas, a giant Piazza, and these two towers! The Tower was my favorite part of the day, and I climbed the one on the right! It is 97.6 meters high (about 320 feet), and has about 500 steps to the top...Be very amazed. And it was only 3 Euro to climb! Completley worth the money, and the climb to see the view at the top. Quite a scary climb, however, since it was rickety old wooden staircases, with even more rickety handrails....We kept reaching the 'ceiling' climbing through, and realising that we had yet MORE stairs to climb!!! We all made it eventually, however, and managed to snap a few pictures before the rain and the wind forced us back down the tower. Incidentally, the picture isn't what is making the towers look like they are leaning -- they ARE leaning. Not too much, at least with the one we climbed, but definitely on a slant....We also found a colorful medival market, and Laura and I wandered off and found a giant head!!! See my pictures for more on that adventure...:) All in all I had a wonderful day out. I wouldn't necessarily choose to go back there again, but I had a fantastic time being a tourist for the day.


Next weekend Laura and I are going to Naples, and Pompeii!!! On Sunday i have an outting with Abroadco to Pisa again, where we are going to climb the tower (piece of cake after this!!!) and go horseback riding. Alright, better go and study for my Italian Quiz tomorrow!!!

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