On Saturday, it was raining the whole day, so my roommates and I stayed at the apartment had a low-key day sitting around the apartment working on drawings that were due for Monday. Then at night we went out to a Chinese restaurant and out for gelato afterwards.
Sunday was also really low key. We got up SUPER early (6:30 am! Go me!) to go shopping at the Sunday market again! We planned to go out for cappuchinos beforehand, but we were up before the café opened! The market was full of great deals, of course, but really cold. When our hands started to go numb, we looked for a place to go inside and warm up. The first place that we saw looked pretty familiar—a McDonalds! We stopped inside and were extremely impressed. The inside was decorated beautifully and there were long tables with outlets for laptops and little reading lamps (I might even go back there to study one day!) I also got something off the euro menu—a McToast. It is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich… delicious… the McDonalds in the US need to take a lesson from Europe! (side note: do not worry, I’m not going to start going to McDonalds regularly, I just thought I would share my amazement at the quality of the place, haha)
The inside of McDonalds
Monday was the easiest day of school so far. We had our drawing exhibition to show off our three weeks of the intensive drawing course. We hung up a sample of our sketches and then we were free to walk around and look at everyone else’s work. It was fun to compare the work of other people. At the end, we were supposed to meet one-on-one with our professor, but my meeting was moved to this week, so I was free to go home!
Tuesday morning we had our Italian final and we started studio in the afternoon. We took a tour around our studio’s neighborhood (the Jewish Ghetto) since this will be the site that we are going to work with for the next few weeks. It was a pretty interesting tour but extremely cold!
Wednesday morning we had our modern architecture class, and I wasn’t very impressed this time. They took us around to weird places in Rome and they walked us for 3.5 hours straight with no breaks. I think I was kind of bitter about it because I have been fighting a cold all week and walking around in the cold all day wasn’t making it any better! The afternoon was better though. We got our first studio assignment, to draw a section through our studio’s neighborhood, adding the sewer and water systems below ground. Instead of being exactly precise, we are just measuring things out with our body parts (alleyways are about 4 steps wide, stairs are about one hand tall). So we just walked around the neighborhood measuring everything! It should be a fun project.
A beautiful graveyard that we visited on the tour
THEN came Thursday, Day one of our field trip to Umbria, which was amazing! We started the morning with a brisk half hour walk to the bus station. We boarded a double-decker bus and settled in for a nap on the way to Bagnaia. When we arrived, the sun was shining and the weather was perfect. We climbed a hill and went into Villa Lanta, an enormous garden complex with amazing views, beautiful fountains, and gorgeous plants. I loved it!
A pretty fountain in Villa Lanta
Another pretty fountain in Villa Lanta
The gardens in Villa Lanta
A water feature in Villa Lanta
Then, we headed to Caprarola where we visited Palazzo Farnese. It was a huge fortress with beautiful paintings on every single inch of all ceilings and walls. It was pretty, but difficult to picture. They never really told us what the rooms were used for and there was no furniture in the rooms to help us figure it out. So, every room kind of ended up looking the same. Nevertheless, it was pretty and the views from the entrance were amazing!
The view from Caprarola
The Palazzo Farnese
On our way to the next destination, we stopped at a small little store for some food tasting. The ladies at the store had tables of food waiting for us when we arrived. We tried bread dipped in Olive oil, bread with artichokes, and bread with hazelnut spread, all of which was made in that region. We also tasted hazelnuts, wine and naturally sparkling water, also made there.
Then, we headed to Perugia. We checked into our hotel and walked around the town for a while before heading to dinner with the entire architecture class, teachers and all! They sat us down at 4 long tables and just kept bringing us food! It was definitely the biggest meal that I’ve ever had. We were there for 3 hours and I was eating steadily the entire time. None of us knew how much food there was going to be so we didn’t pace ourselves very well and we ended up eating three times as much as we anticipated. We started out with bread, cheese, and salami. Then they brought bread with hummus and rice. Then pitas and little pizza roll things. After that came a bowl of soup. That was just the starters. Then came a plate of spaghetti. And after that came baked potatoes and salad. And then sausage and pork chops! I think that all of that was considered the main dish. Chocolate pie came for dessert after all of that. There was also a steady stream of wine and sparkling water. I could barely fit it all. After dinner we went to our hotel room with intentions of leaving shortly after, but we all fell asleep from our full stomachs!
Our Hotel
The restaurant that we ate at
We woke up early the next morning (Friday) and went to breakfast in the hotel lobby (more food…) There was a ton of food, and you know how much I love continental breakfast, so of course I had to eat a lot even though I was still full from the night before! I have never been fuller in my life. Then we went out into Perugia for some sightseeing and sketching. We did our sketching assignment for the first half of the day and then went around to some cute little shops and we found another market! We also found some beautiful lookout areas (Perugia is a town up on a hill) with views of the mountains and of the town of Assissi. It was absolutely beautiful and definitely my favorite town in Italy so far (besides Rome, of course!) I would love to go back on a non-rainy day.
View from Perugia
View from Perugia
Meagan and me with the view in the background
We got back on the bus around 3:30 and arrived in Rome around 7. Now I am unpacking, uploading pictures, and packing for my trip to Valencia tomorrow afternoon! I get home Monday night and I will update you as soon as I can. I miss you all!
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