Week One - WOW.

First off, I want to apologize for being a complete failure at updating my blog. This first week has been full of orientation, travel, class, and exploring - i.e. pretty busy! I have been keeping a personal journal, so fortunately I can refer to that to update you on what I have been up to the past few days.

Friday: I arrived at the Villa Corsi-Salviati (my home for the next four months) after about 12 hours of travel. As exhausted as I was, I was amazed walking through the villa to get to my room. This place is unreal. It has been in the Corsi-Salviati family since the 15th century and is a beautiful mansion with gardens galore. I unpacked my things, strolled around the villa, and took a major nap. That night was our first dinner, made by Bruno the chef. It was the first of many delicious meals to come! I already felt SO lucky and fortunate to be here that night. 

Courtyard Fountain

Middle of the Gardens

Awesome Fountain and Mural Behind

                                                                          

My Home. Whoa.

      

Saturday: First day of orientation...which would have been great if all 50 of us students weren't so jet lagged. There were some presentations on Florence, the Corsi-Salviati Family, and just general expectations. I'm fairly certain everyone dozed off during these (myself included). This stuff was interesting, but come on. Jet lag is a legitimate excuse to be falling asleep. After a day full of orientation a few of us strolled around Sesto Fiorentino, the city I am living in about 5 miles outside of Florence. It is a really cute city, and some girls and I ended up going to a pub in town later that night to hang out and drink some vino.

Girls Out in Sesto Fiorentino

First Bottle of Italian Wine! Any relation Joe and Debby? :)

Sunday: The day I was looking forward to the most - FLORENCE! Although the bus ride made me a little nauseas and I had one of my migraines, I ended up toughing it out. I must tell you I am SO glad I did! We started our tour on top of a hill overlooking all of Florence and toured San Miniato al Monte, a gorgeous church there too. We walked into the city and on the way crossed over the bridge Ponte delle Grazie, with Ponte Vecchio to our left and Ponte Santa Trinita to our right. All three of these bridges cross the Arno into Florence – and are in sight of one another. Seems awfully similar to Sturgeon Bay! We walked through the Uffizi Gallery with tons of statues on either side. It was a beautiful passageway into the center of Florence. Little did I know what lied at the end – the Duomo. This extravagant building is probably the most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life. I literally lost my breath and got chills, it was so unexpected! We ended up eating our lunches on the steps (just an everyday thing, obviously) and afterwards broke into small groups to explore. I ended up walking around with three other girls for about three hours after already doing so for three with our professor as tour guide. We ended up making a gelato stop (necessary) on the other side of the Duomo. It was not only ridiculously delicious but the intricacies of the Duomo were right next to me! The whole day was so incredible and made me feel so fortunate to be here. I was pretty exhausted this night, but being the die-hard Packer fan I am watched the game with some people in the basement of the villa. Someone with NFL network hooked their computer up to a projector. I was struggling to stay away, but toughed it out and watched the Packers “be epic” (as Kobe signed on a jersey to Vick) until 2 AM. Well worth it!

Breathtaking, Hilltop View of Florence

Roomies :)

                                                                            

                                                                                                     

San Miniato 

Inside San Miniato

 

Typical Italian Street

Ponte Delle Grazie

        

  

Uffizi Gallery Entry

Uffizi Gallery

David Replica Statue in Main Plaza

 

In Front of The Duomo

SO stunning!

 

Steps of the Duomo (where we ate lunch)

 

GELATO! Mmmmm.

 

Statue imitation haha

                 

Classes started on Monday!!!( Note sarcastic enthusiasm.) In all seriousness though, I think my classes will be super interesting. But, it’s near impossible to sit and do homework when there is so much else to do. I’m taking a Florentine-Renaissance art history course, Roman Women, Italy and the Invention of America, and second semester Italian (with only two other students!). Things are going well so far, and all my professors seem pretty understanding we are here not only to study but also spend time exploring. Plus, they all have pretty awesome accents.

On Tuesday I went to my first rugby practice with the Florence women’s team called ‘The Rhinogirls.’ Pretty intimidating name, huh? The girls were all super welcoming and introduced themselves to me. Some spoke no English, some broken English, and some spoke it really well (like the coach). The fly half on the team is from New Zealand and fluent in both Italian and English - which is super helpful if I ever fell completely lost. Practicing and being back on the rugby pitch was so great! Our regular season ended 2 months ago in Madison, so I was definitely ready to play again. We did very similar warm up stuff and drills were pretty similar to Madison practices too. We did quite a few suicides (i.e. sprinting back and forth) and I didn’t feel too dead which was great! The only “kink” in practice was that it had been pouring literally all day…and the field was mud. Not muddy, but pure mud. I trudged through and got thrown into 2 inches thick of mud and practiced in rain the entire time. Which, to be honest, I was actually loving! …Until the end of practice, the last play, where someone caught my foot to tackle me on a breakaway and I ended up FACE FIRST into a huge puddle of freezing standing water. Go figure, had to end practice on a high note. I found out players actually shower there in the locker rooms, so I will definitely be bringing a change of clothes and soap for next practice! I already filled out the paper work to play with them, so it’s just a matter of waiting for the Italian rugby union to give me the okay (usually about 10 days).                          

  

Yay rugby!

Struggle.

Tomorrow we are going into Florence to a museum for my art history class, and then Friday is a trip to Sienna with the program. I am really excited and promise to update you on these things soon!  (All of my photos will be appearing on facebook soon, too)