Assisi/ Art Class

Amazing pool!

Where we had our "light lunch" consisting of 4 courses!

Awesome sculptor

His drawings before his creations!

His workshop!

At the fortress in Assisi!

Tiny stairs!

Rocca Maggiore

Cute streets!

Beautiful Umbria

San Francesco entrance!

Outside San Francesco

Such a pretty town!

San Francesco!

So my art history class in Arezzo is basically the coolest class I've ever taken! Each Thursday we travel to sights to learn about Italian Decorative Complexes and a new part was just added where we learn about the actual process of making the art itself so we can appreciate it even more.

Two weeks ago we headed out to Assisi in Umbria to see San Francesco and all of its greatness. We hoped on a train early in the morning then took a bus up to the top of the hill where the basilica sits and we grabbed a light lunch before Kirk took us through telling us about Cimabue's attempt at perspective with the example literally right in front of you! So amazing. Then we went up to the second floor where there were all of the freezes of the life of San Francesco and learned that supposedly when the earthquake struck 3 people ran to the altar and 1 to the door, guess which ones lived?

After our tour the rest of the class wanted to go home but 6 of us wanted to stay and explore so we walked around up the hill towards the huge fortress, getting gelato along the way obviously! I did not have my hiking gear on, but when we made it to the top and had the huge view it made everything so worth it. I cant even begin to describe the colors and the views from the tops of the hills in Italy but it is one of those experiences where you just can't speak and have to pause to really remember that I live here in one of the most beautiful places in the world!

This past week we were able to learn about the creative process of making sculptures and frescoes by experiencing it for ourselves. First we went to the studio of a very famous tuscan sculptor who still uses the traditional bronze making process and uses granite for his work. He was a total nut but so fun to watch and learn from. Listening to his inspiration for his pieces and realizing the work that goes into them.

Our next stop was at an agricultural tourism site where they had vineyards, farms, and a hotel with an amazing pool! We had a lecture on frescoes then were able to paint them ourselves. Before I never realized how much work went into them till I was trying to lay the background sand and cementish mixture before i could even pick up a paintbrush! I now realize how all of the great artists felt and how much time and dedication these things take. Needless to say I do not have the attention span for it! But I was able to finish mine and it turned out fairly decent, I'll post more pics later!

We were supposed to have a "light lunch" which turned into a 4 course meal consisting of appetizers, pasta, chicken, and apple pie with wine made from their vineyard. Needless to say it was a good school day and I learned more from experience than I ever would have just sitting in a classroom at ou!

Venice/Verona

Flooded Venice!

Doge's Dungeon!

The wishing tree at the Guggenheim!

Venezia!

Gelato in verona!

On Juliet's Balcony

Oh hey Will!

In Verona!

An italian bachelor party, the bachelor has to wear a crazy costume!

Finally in Venice!

Doge's Palace

St. Marks Square

Some of the group!

On our way!

On a boat ride!

So we just got back yesterday from Venice and Verona! Friday we had class and a meeting at the U.S. Consulate in Florence so we woke up and took a train there, then got off and walked all over the city with Kirk (our professor) who described all of the architecture and significance to us which was really cool. After that we stopped for a short lunch and gelato (we have a new appreciation for the gelato in Arezzo which was better and cheaper than Florence!)

We next had an appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Florence where they took us on a tour and then had a meeting about being safe abroad and what the consulate can and can't do for us. It was a really small place in comparison to Rome so I will be interested to get my first tour of the embassy next semester to see the comparison! I decided that I am glad I'll be stationed in Rome because there will be more going on there than there was in Florence. The speaker was really cool and told us about working for the State Dept also.

After our appointment we had a train to catch so we headed back to the station and got on a regional train to Venice with 9 of my other classmates. When we got to Mestre, we had 2 different rooms booked, so the other group thought they were close to this station and left to find it. We figured out how to get tickets into Venice then waited 30 minutes... ate mcdonalds (I know it's bad but it was late and we were starving and stuck at the station!) then I navigated with a handmade map to find our hotel, but we weren't staying in the actual hotel, we were staying in an apartment closer to the Rialto bridge, so we just picked up the key and then I had to navigate down to the bridge at 10:30 at night, but I can't complain because Venice was beautiful by night and the location of our apartment/hotel was great!

When we got to the area we found our street which had an irish bar in front of it with a lot of locals that were so excited to see 5 girls together that they literally did a spirit tunnel for us when we walked by to the next road, it was really funny. Our apartment was on the top floor, but still not as many as to my own apartment! That night we just chilled and went to bed early for an early morning in Venice.

Saturday we woke up, got a coffee (or coke for me) and headed out to the sights! We took the water ferry to St. Marks, which was so great to be on the water without paying for an 80 Euro gondola ride! We hopped in line for the basilica right away and it was so beautiful inside! It was definitely Byzantine which was interesting to me since I've mainly only seen Gothic up to this point.

Everyone wanted to go the the Doge's Palace next but the line was really long so we found a double pass at another museum close by that had no line, walked around this museum for awhile and then were able to later skip the line to get into the Palace.

After the Correre museum we found the other 4 girls and headed down some random streets to find a good place to eat. We stumbled across a very cute trattoria where I ordered seafood and all 10 of us chatted about what we had been up to all day. Next I found this store with some great old maps of Italy so I bought one and it is now hanging in Kara's and my room in Arezzo!

Then we headed back to St. Marks to go to the Palace and when we got there it was completely flooded! They aren't kidding when they say Venice is sinking I guess. We all had to take our shoes off and wade through to get to the other side, so obviously we had to stop and take 100 pictures! Some are above. The palace was cool and everything was basically how I remembered it from last time.

Next we wandered our way over to the Academia bridge to go the the Guggenheim modern art collection which was really cool because it had a lot of famous pieced that even I recognized and it also had a wishing tree which was a gift from Yoko Ono where you write down your wish and then hang it on the tree! It would definitely be a cute idea for a wedding or some sort of shower we decided.

When we left, we got lost which is what you are supposed to do in Venice! I just put the map away and we wandered till we were on the complete opposite side, then I found the main streets again and navigated us back to the Rialto. While we were lost we found the only dance club in Venice, along with a lot of residential areas and small stores that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. I obviously had to buy one of the murano glass penguins too!

That evening I went and made reservations at a small restaurant by the canal and we all met there for dinner which was my favorite one so far. Everything was homemade and our waitors were so nice. The owner even came out to chat with us and he was so sweet, it was definitely the mom and pop kind of atmosphere I was hoping to find when I booked our apartment in the Venetian residential area!

The next morning we all got up really early to get on a connecting train from Venice to Mestre then to catch our next train from Mestre to Verona. I have also been to Verona before so when we got there I was able to find our way back to the main square (with a little help from Rick Steves) and then find Juliets house. We did the whole picture thing there and toured the house then had lunch at a cute cafe overlooking the 3rd oldest amphitheater in all of Italy. After this, we were kind of ready to leave because there wasn't a lot left to do, but our train wasn't for awhile so we basically all just spent the day relaxing, doing a little shopping (don't worry I didn't buy anything!) and people watching.

It was definitely nice to get out of Arezzo and see another area, but I also decided that I'm ready to start traveling out of Italy in general to experience other places!

Next weekend one of my best friend Kylie Bohanan is coming to Florence with the Engineering program so I will be able to see her and Ashley Zumwalt! Then the next weekend, I will be getting out my dirndl (traditional german dress) because Kara, Kate and I will be going to the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest in Munich!!

More Pics and Videos from La Giostra!

Some of the Procession People

With one of the neutral Arezzo guys

Had to Kite!

The Representatives of the Quartieres

The Arezzo Band

Beautiful Flags!

My friend had a fancy cam!

Flag Throwers

During the Procession

The "Student Section"

Crazy amount of people!

La Giostra!

On our way to the Joust!

Just when you think you're in Europe it's like you're back at OU/TX!

After Starting the Chant

Learning the Chant

So much fun!

The Arezzo Crew!

Before the tables filled with HUNDREDS of people!

My Roomies!

Ready for the Dinner!

Antique Market

Random Parades!

Some of the Arezzo Girls

Old Etruscan road Under Piazza San Francesco in Arezzo!

The Tuscan sun is amazing!

The Duomo

Arezzo!

So I’ve officially been in Arezzo for a week now and have been loving every minute of it! Today was the joust which only happens twice a year and it was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced in my life. Living here during this time is like living somewhere between medieval times and the present and I love it! Starting from the day I came the different quartieres of the city were having parades through their streets and shooting off canons. I am not a proud member of the Porto Santo Spirito clan or as my roommate and I have preferred to call it “Gryffindor” even though we are not the colors I feel like I’m in Hogwarts mixed with OU/TX weekend!

Our classes are at the University of Siena in Arezzo and it is basically like every other school except you walk through beautiful tuscan trees to get there! There are also only three buildings which makes it a bit different than OU. My class there is the advanced italian class which is basically 2 semesters to 5 which is a bit confusing but our teacher is great so I’m excited for it. My other class is Italian Decorative Complexes with the director Kirk Duclaux and our first day of class was so wonderful! He brought in experts in the Arezzo area to talk about the city from the time of the Etruscans to present and we were able to go under the city to look at excavated etruscan streets and houses which were still in great shape. It is funny to think that basically by digging down a few feet anywhere in Italy you are likely to find some sort of ruins is amazingly cool and also a bit difficult for them to get building permits! Next we had an architect take us around describing what Arezzo used to look like compared to now and explained a lot of the structures. This definitely gave me a new appreciation for the town I’m living in.

Since the actual courses at UNISI don’t start until October I am only taking 2 classes at the moment which is pretty amazing! But I’m trying to fill my time learning more italian so that I don’t die on my first day of classes taught only in italian! What’s even crazier is that there isn’t even a schedule up for what the classes offered are or times yet, so I’m basically just waiting and hoping that two classes will work out with my schedule and transfer!

Saturday there was a great antique market at the top of the city by the duomo where I was able to find some great stuff like antique wooden boxes, earrings, coins, etc. Then that evening was the joust dinner where we all went to my quartiere for a huge feast with all of the locals. This could not have possibly been any more fun that it was! We all wear our colors (blue and gold) then find our spot at the table and are served a 3 course meal by the young people of the area. At first we were at the wrong table so it was quite funny having to move all of our silverware and cups and food to a different table when we got kicked out of ours!

At our new table there was a rowdy group of italian guys next to us who came and taught us our “talking smack” song about S. Crucifero quartiera. When they came over they taught me and when they realized I had it down they were lifting me out of my chair and onto the bench to lead the chant. At this point I had no choice so I was yelling out our italian chant followed by the other OU people and our new italian friends, it was the funniest and greatest thing I’ve done in a long time!

That night after the dinner each group has a huge party and I was able to visit 3 out of the 4. This was a great way to meet new italian and practice my communication skills. Arezzo isn’t exactly a large city in Italy, but for the joust I’m pretty sure the population more than doubles for awhile which was crazy but also fun!

The next day is the actual joust where the streets literally flood with people decked out in their colors and cram into the piazza grande for the biggest event of the year. It is seriously like an OU student section, but with 4 teams! Each section is full of lots of hyped up young people with noise makers, smoke machines, flags, and all sorts of other stuff. Next there was a huge procession of all of the medieval people in their costumes with the band following. After them were the flag throwers which were amazing! There must have been 60 or more of them and they came and did their routines starting with the oldest going to the youngest. They jumped, flipped, threw and all in multicolored tights! I was very impressed with their skills, especially when a man that had to be at least 60 jumped over another mans flag and rolled on the ground. Next each quartiere came out with their jousters, men with bows and arrows and other costumed people.

I was prepared with my Santo Spirito scarf, feather earrings, and whistle so Kara and I cheered on our quartiere proudly! After around an hour and a half of processions and flag throwing the jousting began and it is really a short but stressful time. There are 8 jousters total (and no they don’t hit each other, I was a bit disappointed too). Each jouster only gets one chance to strike the Saracin (this large dummy with a target and a weapon in the other hand that spins around and can hit them after they strike the target). The target has a bulls-eye and then other areas which determine the score 1-5. 5 being the best and the hardest the achieve, only to be outdone by someone breaking their lance on the strike which means double points. But if you are struck by the weapon of the Saracin you lose all points!

The first to go was S. Anrdrea, the winner from last joust. After the first run everyone thought he had a 5 but it was determined by the judges as a 4. Next was my team S. Spirito who also got a 4, proceeded by S. Crucifero who astounded everyone by getting the perfect score of a 5. This was when the energy in the piazza rose substantially and it was great! S. Laurentino went last with a 4 so no one was completely out of the game yet.

What happened next was stunning and no one could believe it! S. Andrea took their 2nd (and last turn) and only scored a 2! You can imagine the “student section” at this point where they were yelling back and forth between Crucifero and Andrea, all I understood was that Crucifera was making fun of them and Andrea kept pointing to a sign stating that they won last time, it was seriously just like a football game!

Spirito was next and received another 4 which made us happy to have beaten Andrea, but Crucifero scored a 4 which meant they won unless Lorentino got a perfect score. The intensity at this moment was nuts since Lorentino is definitely the underdog of all of the teams here. The crowd got quiet as the jouster ran and hit the bulls-eye perfectly. The crowd erupted from all sides with either excitement or stress! This mean a Joust Off which is not a typical thing because normally ties are uncommon.

Things really got rowdy at this point and some of the horses were even a bit spooked. So out came Crucifero for their last attempt at the win. Instead of silence at this point their was crazy noise from all sides, either cheering on or attempting to distract, but the jouster didn’t seem to notice and went as hard and fast as he could so what do you know? He BROKE THE LANCE! People were going nuts and it took awhile just to clear the men out of the running area so that they could announce and bring out Laurentino. Since his score was doubled he received an 8 and everyone basically knew it was over, but Laurentino still had a great run receiving a 4, but not enough to win.

After the final announcement of the final scores the “student section” of Crucifero broke lose like at bedlam and climbed the walls to receive the golden lance. And I swear if their had been a goal post there they would have taken it to the ground within seconds! We all stayed and watched the madness for a good while before retiring home to have dinner and reflect quite possibly one of the top 5 best things I’ve ever done in my life!

On a side note, one of my best friends Azure Kirby was offered a job at Devon for after she graduates and she accepted!! I'm so proud of her!!