Week 1

We've been to Rome and Florence for several days each. My days started by waking up at 6 or 6:30am (i know, hard to believe) and i got back to the hotel before dinner usually around 7pm. We had set morning plans and then many options and some requirements in the afternoons. I'm inspired seeing so many famous paintings, sculptures and architecture. I'm actually sketching and enjoying it, probably because last semester I drew a lot and got better at drawing so I feel more comfortable sketching in public now even when every person who walks by peeks over and gives a nod of approval or a blank look which isn't very reassuring. This afternoon I drew two guys on the steps in front of Santa Croce in Florence and they knew it so they started playing guitar and staying in the same position and smiling, it was funny, I showed them the sketches later and said thank you so I wasn't such a creeper haha.
I won't include every single thing I've done because every day is so packed but maybe some highlights...
I spent the longest I've ever spent in a museum at the museum that included the Sistine Chapel. I've been waiting to see it since last time I came and it was definitely worth all the hype haha. I got to the museum at 9am and left at 5pm (8 hours but it wasn't nearly enough) to make it to St Peter's before it closed at 6pm. I was in the Sistine Chapel for 2 and a half hours out of those 8, sketching 2 of the figures on the bottom of the Last Judgment and making friends with the guards with my broken Italian. They seem to be excited about people who are really interested in it. One of them, Giuseppe, talked to other guards and had them let me into the pope's Crying Room, right under the Last Judgment wall, that was off limits. It's where the pope goes after he's chosen to change his clothes from the red cardinal robe to the white pope robe, pray and often to cry. There were decaying frescoes on the wall from centuries ago. Giuseppe called his brother who works in St Peters, so that he would take me up in the dome for free but the museum took me too long and I didn't make it out in time...too bad.
We went to see David by Michelangelo in Florence and it was SO much better than photos. Obviously everything is different in person, but this was much more different than I had ever seen in comparison to a photo. It's 17 feet tall on top of an already tall stand. In case you look up photos, David looks out of proportion if the photo is straight on but since Michelangelo's a genius he made the proportions perfectly skewed so that he would look correct from below, since the sculpture was originally meant to go on a buttress of a cathedral (very high up). I'm learning lots and lots of interesting things. I feel much more curious than I've ever been, about pretty much any subject even outside of art.
There's a whole range of different people on the trip, a lot from the midwest and south which is interesting. There are maybe 2 people from socal. The group is mostly art majors but there are a few Art Education and English majors too because they added English to the trip.
Overall it's been a wonderful week and i often feel like I must be dreaming.
Another side note, I've noticed how closely my emotions are tied with my interests, unless I'm just being emotional haha. For example, this morning there was a Renaissance musical instrument exhibit in the museum we went to and a Stradivarius was in a glass case and it made me upset and my eyes teared up. How could it be put away like that, never to be played again when it's one of the most rare and beautiful violins ever made!! I wanted to take it out and play it.
This is so long already. We arrived in Cortona early this evening. We have to take a 5 minute hike up a steep hill to get to the place every day for dinner or out to town, it'll be a good little work out whenever I go out. The view from our building is just like whatever image of Tuscany you find online, lots of green open land and some old houses, it's like we were placed on a movie set.