Halloween fun

So last week it being Halloween and all, Stefani and I decided to have a little celebration with some of the things we had been sent by our loved ones back home. We made a little Halloween shrine and enjoyed the evening. Here are the pictures of the event. Thank you so much to those who sent us wonderful packages full of wonderful goodies, you don't know how much we appreciated it! I will be blogging soon about our recent trip to Assisi and San Gimignano but I unfortunately forgot my camera so I am waiting to receive some pictures from a certain someone….hint hint Stefi dear!

Stef hanging up some pumpkins

Wishing everyone a happy Halloween even though it happened a week ago

Our little display. The cute little ghost, witch and pumpkin had to be put together with glue, we didnt' have any glue so we used toothpaste. They're still holding together today :)

This is about as scary as I got this Halloween.

Some of the best and worst places to sleep….a monastery and tents

   So i know that it's been a while since I've blogged but I promise that this one should satisfy everyone's hunger for an update. It will be nice and long with lots of pictures!

 So Friday October 14th, early early in the morning we meet at the bus station to take our LDS history tour of Italy. You may be asking yourself, what significant history does the church have in Italy. Well I am still asking myself that very same question. We started our tour in Genoa which is a pretty cool city, and went to visit the cathedral there. We met up with another BYU professor who flew out especially for this trip which is kind of funny.  Anyway he talked to us about how Lorenzo Snow came to Italy in the 1800's and viewed the Cathedral in Genoa and he read us this little passage that Lorenzo Snow had said. Anyway it was kind of cool and the church was beautiful. We then headed up to this little place called Piedmont, or foot of the mountains. We were right at the base of the Alps and it was incredibly beautiful! We stayed in this adorable little hotel which was warm, and clean and delightful. This area is extremely small and actually not very catholic, which is why we visited. This area is known commonly as the Waldensian Valley. The Waldensian people are a protestant group that branched off from the Catholic church and were exiled to the mountains for years! in 1850 Lorenzo Snow and his companion decided to go to this area because they believed that the Catholics were impossbile to teach and that they were never going to make any progress with them. Anyway this is the area where the mission of Italy was officially dedicated and opened. We were able to see the peak that they climbed up to where they offered the dedicatory prayer. In this area they really did have very limited success with only about 170 people joining the church in about 10 years. About half of that number apostatized but the other half immigrated to America and many of them became important leaders in the church, especially in Italy. So there's a little Italian church history for you :) probably more than you ever really wanted to know haha. It was fun being up in the mountains and it made me miss home. It was pretty chilly up there but the crisp air and the smells of the trees made me a little homesick. 

  The next day we hiked a little up in the mountains to see some Waldensian historic sights like caves they held church in when they were being persecuted. It was pretty interesting actually. Then we hoped on the bus and headed to Torino, or Turin. We got there later in the afternoon and took a tour of their Duomo and the royal apartments that are attached. We all knew that we were going to be staying in a monastery that night but much to our surprise and delight the monastery was in the Duomo complex. The actual rooms that we stayed in were in the basement and were classic hostel style but the monastery was completely open to us. I mean all doors unlocked and opened. So we kind of did some exploring which was a little creepy but really fun. It was just so interesting to be there. We were in the complex of this huge church and all these royal apartments and it was crazy. Stef and I went exploring when everyone was down in the rooms and the old man that seemed to be the coordinator of it all walked passed us. We tried to look super innocent because we weren't a hundred percent sure we were supposed to be where we were and he just walked by us and whispered "whoooo" like a ghost haha it was such a funny moment.

  The next weekend was also busy but a really incredible experience: 

We went to Florence yesterday and I absolutely love that city! I like it more than Rome I think as far as cities go. It just feels smaller but still immense. I don't know it's hard to explain haha. We went to the Uffizi and saw some incredible things! We saw things like Botticelli's Primavera, Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation and many others. It was absolutely incredible. I remembering walking into the room specifically for Botticelli's work and gasping audibly as I spun around myself and saw some of the most beautiful works of art. I don't know why the Uffizi, and the museo Accademia where the David is touched me so much more than all the places we went in Rome but it did. The people of Siena say that Florence is a very masculine city, and perhaps the layout is in comparison to Siena but I just can't agree. There's something about Florence that is just….how can I say it best, refined. I don't know it's a wonderful place and I think you would love it! We went to an opera that night in a church and that was incredible as well. We saw the Marriage of Figaro and it was so fun. Not going to lie, opera has never been my favorite. Listening to it on CD's or what have you has always made me cringe a bit with how intense it is but this was absolutely wonderful. The two men who played the protagonist and antagonist were absolutely incredible! It was a really amazing day. That night was sort of another story. So the opera was sort of a last minute thing and our professor needed to find us a hostel. Well for some reason the school and she decided that we should all stay at a campground, in OCTOBER! There were three of us to a tent with a wooden floor and there were some actual beds. The only problem is that it was freezing! So we pushed two beds together, got probably 10-12 blankets and all piled under and snuggled close to keep the heat in. Oh my goodness it was an adventure haha. The good news is that because we all just cuddled on one big bed we stayed fairly warm haha. Florence is incredible but I wouldn't recommend Michelangelo's Campground past August.

   Well there you go there's your update, now I'm all caught up :) Italy is amazing and I am so incredibly glad to be here!

On the way to Florence In front of the Cathedral in Genoa, oh Natalia how cute are you? We toured a prison and had to wear hard hats to make sure we wouldn't hurt our heads when we hit them, yes everyone hit their head. Our cute little hotel in Piedmont The Duomo in Turino, yes this is where the monastery was Clara and I on top of the Dome Stef sneaking in the monastery On top of the double dome in Florence, 400 stairs up and 400 down The opera

The moment you've all been waiting for…Cinque Terre exposed!

Ok so I know that this is probably a cop-out but I honestly don't have time to write a whole lot. We leave early tomorrow morning for the whole weekend to see Genoa and Turin and then next week is midterms, and we all know how those are. So anyway I am going to post a bunch of pictures and I am also going to give you the link to my dearest of friends, Stefani's blog and then you can get all the details of how our trip went and even more pictures! Italy really is amazing and Cinque Terre was one of the most naturally beautiful places I've ever seen. I've never had a desire to live by the Ocean but for the first time in my life I haven't wanted to live anywhere else. I think you'll see why with the pictures that follow.

Our very first view of the sea from our train

The first of five cities

The view from our Hostel window

Down by the sea

View walking along the Via Dell'Amore (the first hike from city one to city two)

Via Dell'Amore is famous for people coming and writing your name and a loved one's name. People also come with their significant other with a padlock of some kind and lock it along the trail.

A quick shout-out to Daniel Busick, there are people all over the world praying for you to recover quickly

View at the end of Via Dell'Amore

View from city two

View from city three

We took a ferry back from the fifth city to the first after hiking to all of them, the views were spectacular!

We also went to Pisa, I know kind of anti-climatic build up but the tower itself was anti-climatic. It was for sure a lot smaller than I thought it would be but it's sort of a must when you're in Italy.

Here's the link to Stef's blog, hope you all enjoy!
stefanijoschramm.blogspot.com/

I blog post will be coming your way soon…I promise

So I know that my MANY followers are probably wondering what has happened to me. I'm still alive don't you fret and I promise that a blog post is going to be coming your way in the next few days. There's going to be a bunch of incredible pictures as well seeing as I went to one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen , Cinque Terre, so hang on to your hats!

An update through pictures

Ok so I don't have a ton of time to blog right at the moment but I am going to post a billion pictures for you all to enjoy!

Cute little alleyway with cute little Stefani

Our wonderful host parents Angela and Viviano

View from our window, the lighting was horrible so I'll try and get a better pic later

Another view from our apartment

Pilazzo Publico

Piazza del Campo people just come and hang out everyday it's pretty awesome

Duomo

View from the top of the unfinished part of the Duomo

View over Siena

View of Siena

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Baptistry Ceiling

View from a lookout at San Gimignano

Here at last, here at last!

Ok so this is going to be one of those boring blogposts that people hate because I don't have any pictures yet. However, I promise that there will be pictures soon!

  So we finally made it to Siena and I absolutely love it here! It is so much better than Rome in so many ways. Don't get me wrong Rome is an incredible city where it seems that with every corner you turn you see some bigger and better monument but I love Siena. It has such a medieval feel to it and it is jut absolutely beautiful, and can I just mention that it smells way better than Rome….WAY better.
  We got to Siena on Saturday afternoon and we all stood around at the bus station looking like a group of orphans as we waited for our host families to pick us up. Some people got picked up right away and others of us were shipped off in taxis to brave our new adventure alone. Stefani and I were in that category, and not going to lie it was a little nerve racking. We arrived at our destination which is a good thirty minute walk from the city center and were greeted by a darling old man at the top of a lovely staircase. Well right away it was very apparent that he didn't speak any English, nada, zip, zero, zilch. It was also apparent that he had no intention of helping us get our bags up the stairs. Stefani went first, then myself, then her again, than me again, we managed to do it in four trips luckily, in his defense it was obvious that the man who we found out his name is Viviano had some knee trouble.
   His wife, Angela, arrived a few long, quiet and awkward hours later and we discovered that our last hopes were being destroyed as she didn't speak any English either. That first day was really stressful but I think now we have gotten in the swing of things and can communicate fairly efficiently, at least I think I may be interpreting everything they saw entirely wrong. We have since that first day discovered that they are the sweetest, most patient and loving elderly couple ever. It really does feel like home even though there is a language barrier. I think that we are probably the luckiest students in the study abroad because it really does feel like we are living the Italian experience; we are having to speak Italian as much as possible, our shower is cold with no curtain, and we are going to have to hang our laundry out to dry haha. The view of from our little home is spectacular and I really am glad that we are a ways out of the city because we get to see it in all it's glory every morning and evening.
   It hasn't been all sunshine and daisies though. The first day of classes was really stressful. I was signed up for Italian 201 but I was the only student in the class who had not already taken 201 so after evaluating us by talking some he automatically jumped to the other students level and I spent the first hour and a half of my school experience here in Italy trying to hold back the frustration, the good news is I think I will be able to change classes into repeating 102 instead if I can just get around the add/drop deadline issue at BYU. However, besides that hour and a half things have really been wonderful and I am having so much fun. I promise that pictures will be coming soon!

Awesome things to see…horrible pics

Ok so can I just say that I have seen some of the most amazing pieces of art the last three days? It has truly been incredible but I also have to say that one none of my pictures do any of it justice, and two most of the time you can't even take any pictures! So I am doing one blogpost for the past three days and I'll be inserting quite a few pictures from the internet. On Monday we went to the Vatican Museums and Sistine chapel which is insane, Tuesday we went to the Capitoline Museum which is huge and Stefani and I actually got lost for a good 30 minutes and today we went to the Borghese galleries which were by far my favorite.

The famous giant pinecone at the Vatican, why is it famous I don't know but I do know that Dante mentions it in the Inferno

A women representing winter

A women representing fall, we weren't sure where spring and summer were

Some amazing ceiling, the ceilings are incredible here

Sistine Chapel

Rafael painting

This is Cupid and Psyche Stefani and I did a project on them for our prep course and then we actually saw it, that was pretty awesome. We just had to be lost for a little while before we got there.

This is a statue of Marcus Aurelius it's super important because it's kind of one of the only ones like this left and that's just because the Christians thought it was Constantine so they didn't destroy it.

The following pictures are all of Bernini's work they were all located in the Borghese galleries and were by far some of my favorite pieces I've seen the entire two weeks

This is Bernini's David which I absolutely love as it is the first  one I've really seen where David is in action. 

This is Apollo and Daphne, and is by far my favorite of Bernini's. Daphne is a water nymph who Apollo is chasing after  she isn't interested so she prayers to her father a river god to save her and he turns her into a laurel tree. The laurel tree from that point on is one of Apollo's symbols. If you look close there are roots coming from her toes.

This is also a favorite of mine. This is the kidnapping of Persephone by Herod. It is a really dark piece but the movement and emotion that Bernini created is so amazing. Pictures really don't do any of these justice.