Day trip to Orvieto

We went to Orvieto today. It is an old city built upon volcanic fallout, that has a labyrinth of underground tunnels underneath, dug by the Etruscans. Many of the caves haven't all been excavated yet, but they believe they run under the whole city and were meant as a form of escape for the towns people during a siege. It was extremely nice to go down into the caves, cuz it was about 15 degrees cooler down there. This is where they made the olive oil and stored their wine, because of the temperature.

It was a pretty small town, there wasn't too much to see. The Duomo was very, very dramatic. The inside and the sides of the outside are all done in a black and white stripe, which was very striking. Also the rose window was quite intricate and beautiful.

Other that those two things, we didn't do too much more. We window shopped and my roommate, Sam, and I had a fabulous dinner at this little cafe on the main strip. It was very chic and the food was the best I've had so far. Plus our waiter was soooo Italian, we loved it. Then we made a gelato run and I had the best kiwi gelato of my life :) mmmmmm

I love Gelato!!!!

Assisi

Day trip to Assisi

Today we went to Assisi. This is where St. Francis ( of Assisi :) ) was from. We went to the Basilica of St Francis, which was absolutely beautiful. I tried to sneak in a few pictures, I got one of where he was buried and some of the intricate ceilings. We then walked around town, lots of beautiful arches, doors, walled in doors. Very Picturesque !! We also saw where St Francis was jailed. It was extremely tiny. It was about the size of an airplane bathroom.

After that we decided to hike up to the Rocca Maggiore, which was a medieval castle. It was a horrendous hike. It's about a 45 min hike straight up, but since we only had a half an hour before they closed, we had to speed it up a bit. I was dyin' by the time I got to the castle. Then when we got to the castle it was all stairs!!!!!!!! I thought I was gonna shoot myself :) You know it was only about, hmmm, 100+ degree's out (not exaggerating). I was the only girl to make it up :) whoo hoo!!

The views were amazing from the top of the castle. I could see the whole town and the valley below. Gorgeous!! On the way back down to town I saw an odd thing, it was a fence made of gum. It looked like years and years worth of gum, stretching the length of the walkway. I'm not sure why it was there, but it intrigued me for some reason, so I took a few pics ;)

All in all, it was a splendid day

Ciao!

some of my paintings

Some of my plein air paintings

So, many people have been asking to see some of what I am painting out here in Italy. Which makes sense, since this is what I came out here to do :)

We've all been practicing a lot, and we've all made lots of improvements. I find it's harder to do the landscape painting, because it's slightly overwhelming. I first get out to the site we will be painting at, which are always gorgeous, and then have to pick something to paint. There is so much to see and I want to paint everything :) I think it is harder to narrow it down. The cityscapes are better, cuz you already have a focal point.

Anyways, here are some of my works. It'll be interesting to compare these to those at the end of this trip :)

By the way the Academy has put up a blog if any of you are interested in seeing us paint

http://aauitaly.blogspot.com

Ciao

Well today was not much cooler, but we were lucky enough to have a slight breeze. Around 3 we went to the local gelateria and had some gelato, then did some sketching in the piazza. It was slightly annoying, cuz bugs kept on falling on us and in our paintings. I've found I do not enjoy this part of painting outside :)

Some of the local kids were having a balloon fight and I kept on hoping they would accidently hit me. So most of us wandered down to the pool in our villa to escape the heat. Some of the neighbors and kids were playing soccer in the pool, with blow up goals and everything. So Jeff, Theo and I joined in on the game. It was pretty interesting since we couldn't speak Italian and they couldn't really speak English, but we eventually figured out the rules. I had so much fun, and everyone was so nice. The kids were especially cute. I ended up being in the pool for a good couple hours, luckily it was shaded so I didn't get burned :)

It was a nice, lazy Italian day :)

Ciao

Today was extremely hot. It was in the high 90's and very humid. There is no air conditioning or fans in any of our houses, so we were melting :( All of us girls in our house were extremely lazy, just lounging around the house, waiting for a cool breeze.

Finally around 9 pm it started to cool off, so me and my roommate Sam decided to walk into town. We went to the local Gelateria and had some delicious gelato and watched the soccer game on TV with all the locals in the piazza. We watched the sun set over the hills and then wandered through the town, down all the little alley ways. Then we went up to the local music festival. Corciano does this once a year for 10 days. They have singing and dancing and tons of food. It was really fun. The dancing it really interesting, cuz it's all ballroom and line dancing :) And most of the music is polka.

We all had a great time and here's to hoping tomorrow is a bit cooler :)