Sunburns, etc.

Well, I just returned from a weekend in what might possibly be my favorite location in Europe so far: Cinque Terre!

Basically, my Saturday and Sunday were spent soaking up the mediterranean coast from the five little villages that make up Cinque Terre. We stayed overnight in a little apartment very close to the water, but the only time spent there was basically sleeping or showering to get some of the salt off of us.

Some of the beaches were very rocky, some were sandy, but all were sunny and fabulous! You probably wouldnt recognize me now that I officially have a tan. Actually, what I have right now is a bad suburn all over, but I have faith that it will soon be a great tan. Either way, I am definitely sporting the sun-kissed look (yay for no makeup!). The time that wasnt spent soaking up the rays by lying on the beach were spent hiking or kayaking along the coast. Hopefully soon I can put some of the pictures on here to show some of the views (and to prove that I do infact have a tan), but it just so strikingly beautiful. It was pretty amazing to know that even though we are seeing human masterpieces everyday, some of the most amazing works on earth, not a single one of them can compare to Gods artwork that I saw this weekend...

I still cant get over the incredible artwork and history and architecture that I am seeing on a daily basis. Today I went to the Medici palace as well as a chapel that is one of the earliest and most beautiful examples of progressive painting, done by the best painter of the 15th century. There is no way for me to explain how cool this is on here, but trust me, it was pretty unreal.

Other cool things I have seen lately: Da Vincis "Last Supper" in Milan, Michelangelos "David", Brunelleschis Duomo, the most beautiful portrait ever done by Raphael, Dantes neighborhood and church and the place where he saw and fell in love with the beautful Beatrice, Donatellos bronze statue of David... the list goes on and on and on! I walk by these places every single day and these are just a few highlights on an incredibly long list of mindboggling pieces of artwork that I am learning about in my classes. My teachers are quirky, knowledgable, friendly, and very interesting. This afternoon we are having a guest speaker (I cant recall his name right now) who is actually an expert historian on Leonardo da Vinci (the subject of one of my two classes), and he has a theory about the identity of Mona Lisa that he is going to talk to us about! Whether true or not, it should be very interesting, and all the teachers are ecstatic that he is taking the time to come talk to us, so it must be pretty cool, right?

Mom, Dad, if you read this, I cant thank you enough for letting me come here this summer. As much as I miss everyone, this is definitely the experience of a lifetime and every single day Carly, Caitlin and I will have some moment where we just look around and think, "this is unreal. our lives are ridiculously blessed. we are actually in Italy!!" So thank you, thank you, thank you.

I am going to take a nap before class, I am still wiped out from all the sun this weekend, but I will try to update a little more regularly and hopefully nexttime I will add pictures!

love you all,
allie