assisi

view of the bridge we cross everyday to get to studio

saturday was spent taking a day trip to assisi, italy. assisi is the birthplace of st. francis, who founded the franciscan religious order. around 1000 bc, immigrants (called the umbrians) settled in this area, then in 450 bc this area was taken over by the etruscans, and later by the romans. roman remains can still be found in assisi - the city walls, a theatre, and temple minerva. after a bunch of history later, rocca maggiore was built as the imperial fortress on top of the hill. and after the black plague and the remaissance and an earthquake in 1997, the city is beautifullly restored and recovered. restoration is still in progress but it only took 2 years to reopen the basilica of saint francis assisi.

roxie and i had a moment here. we were drinking our coffee and like whatttt this is our view. no way. moments like that happen a lot. makes me really happy to be here :)

in front of the basilica

the view of the city from the basilica, you can see the castle on the hill in the distance. we chilled out here for a little bit when our professor almost passed out in the church. she had a liver transplant due to a former accident where she was it by a car or something (?) and has lots of health problems from it still

the basilica of st francis was completed in 1253. there are many frescoes by medieval artists, such as cimabue and giotto (which we learned about in art history yayyy). frescoes are sweet because of how they are made. since paint is applied on (wet) plaster, the paint pigment soaks in. when frescoes need to be restored or taken care of, you just sand them down a little and the color is restored and bright once again!

we saw st francis' tomb in the basilica and were wondering if his body was really in it. according to rick steves: "the saint's remains are above the altar in the stone box with the iron ties. in medieval times, pilgrims came to assisi because st. francis was buried here. holy relics were the 'ruby slippers' of medieval europe. relics gave you power - they answered your prayers and won your wars - and ultimately helped you get back to your eternal kansas. assisi made no bones about prooving the saint's relics, but hid his tomb for obvious reasons of security. his body was buried secretly while the basilica was under construction, and over the next 600 years, the exact location was forgotten. when the tomb was to be opened to the public in 1818, it took a month and a half to find his actual remains."

we werent allowed to take photos in the church, but roxie did anyways. every once in awhile, a guy would come on the speakers overhead saying "silencioooooo." we thought that was funny since no one was really making that much noise (there were tons of people in there too) and yet he had to come on and yell in the church for everyone to be quiet.

after we sketched lots in the church and hung out with our professor while she recovered from her faintness, we had gelato in a nearby cafe. it was starting to rain so we attempted to pass time in the restaurant. i had lovely straccietella and caffe gelato - a mix of a cream and chocolate chip gelato and coffee flavored. yummm. then we ran into friends and did a little shopping on our way to find the castle. i bought an umbrella and it stopped raining 5 minutes later. so we headed through the city and up many steps to find the castle. we didnt know how to get there and we tried asking locals for directions. that was a major fail since no one spoke english. even though we were like one letter off knowing the word for castle, they couldnt understand us. but we finally came across someone with an english/italian dictionary (which i should really just keep in my purse from now on..duh) and she showed us how to get there.

some frannsss on the way up

some view on the way up. so pretty.

overlooking the city

overlooking the country

the castle. we didnt pay to go in, which we probably should have done. we had some crazy photoshoots instead. 

cute little artsy photography

the storm we could see from the castle

i got carsick on the bus ride home but managed to take this photo (unedited)

assisi was so so pretty. im sure ill say that about every single place i visit. sometimes i get sad that ill have to leave europe in 3 months. returning back to school in ames is not even going to compare seeing all these gorgeous views and colors. i think im addicted to traveling.

speaking of traveling, i just creeped hardcore on what my dad has written about being in american samoa. i literally read like 12 days worth of stuff. and he writes a novel every day. props to you dad!! because i definitely dont have the time to do that with school and homework and traveling. anyways, its crazy how similar some of our experiences are. they dont have their own way of transportation yet, and we only have walking/taxis/or bus/trains. we pretty much walk everywhere though. its different not being able to hop in your own car and take off whenever you need something. instant gratification is not in the vocabulary here. at all. we both have to deal with unwanted bugs in our residence. yuck. the only acceptable critters are the geckos. i want to buy one as a pet when i get home. well see what mommy has to say about that (mom - is my bamboo plant still aliveeee?)

there are also many differences when it comes to our experiences being abroad. apparently, in AS, there are many dogs that are uhhh not very nice. my sisters, step mom, and dad were advised to carry sticks to ward off unwanted, approaching dogs. here in rome, we also have lots of stray dogs, except theyre usually passed out on the sidewalk from the heat. one of our professors said that its common for people to abandon dogs on the highways of rome. so sad :( but i swear every homeless person we see has a dog. and sometimes we see the same people we different dogs. there are homeless people everywhere and it is so incredibly sad, but at least they have their dog companions. theres this one guy we pass everyday on our way to studio, and his dog is paralyzed in his back two legs. so his little puppy either lays in its bed or it also has the contraption-like thing with wheels so he can walk around a little. this guy carves these amazing wood things and i think i might buy one sometime. seeing cute little dogs makes me miss my buster at home though. it is quite funny how he responds when im skyping my mom though. he really doesnt understand why he can hear my voice.

anyways, now that ive written a novel and rambled about some random stuff, i gotta do homework. which by the way - it is so difficult to sit down and get homework done WHEN IN ROME. i want to be out exploring but also unfortunately have to get good grades. oh well :)