My Last Day

Today was a very busy day. We started at the Doge Palace which is in San Marco Plaza. The Palace was the home of all the Venetian rulers for a long time in history. Mostly, it was also the main place for meetings for the courts and important decisions that happened in the region. The grand staircase inside the palace has a ceiling that is painted with a lot of 24 karat gold on it. This was done to impress the important visitors that came to Venice. There was a greeting room that was very big on the 1st floor of the palace that had a map painted on the wall that was at least 50 feet long and 20 feet high. There were also two globes made of stone that were about 8 feet in diamter. One map was of the world and the other was of the stars. In Italy, they call the 2nd floor the first floor because you don't count the ground floor. It is the zero floor. Many of the walls were paneled with beautifully carved wood. The ceilings were painted with frescos. Connected to the palace was the prison. The two buildings are separated by a canal but connected by an enclosed bridge called the "Bridge of Sighs". It is named this because there are two small square windows that would be the last vision of the Grand Canal that the prisoners would see before going to prison, and they would "sigh" knowing this. It was part of the renovation so you can only see part of it. At the end of the prison was a display of the armory and arsenal. There were so many ancient swords and guns. It was really awesome. I would have like to see the torture chamber but it was not open on the public. I really enjoyed seeing the prison and how it was so secure with iron gates across all the windows and such small doors. After the palace, we went through the church next door. The entire ceiling looked like it was painted but it was actually made of very small tiles in a mosaic. There was a small group of people attending a service while a lot of tourists were walking through. After lunch we took a gondola ride throuhgh the small canals. It was fun but a little bit boring. In the afternoon, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. There were a lot of paintings by famous artists like Picasso. My mom and grandma could tell a lot of the artists names just by looking at the style of painting because they both have college degrees in art. My favorite part was the sculpture garden where there was a 3 sided glass triangle that had mirror on one side and a hole large enough to climb into on another side. After the museum we got ready for dinnner and the opera. We went to see La Traviata. In the US, many operas have a small screen with subtitles so the audience can follow along with the story, but not in Italy. Luckily, my mom was able to tell me what was happening. This day ended late and then we had to get up at 3:45 am. The "taxi" was a water taxi that took about 25 minutes to get to the airport, all by water. It was really cool. The last great thing about my trip was the airplane. We got to fly home on an Airbus 380 which is the largest passenger plane that flys today. There are two levels and each has about 50 rows. It was huge! The plane in this photo is not our plane but the sun rising over Venice this morning. Now I am home and back to school on Tuesday.

A Day Full of Glass

Today breakfast was not so great. The hotel had hardly any variety in food choices for breakfast. There was ham and cheese, yogurt, cereal and small croissants. I ended up having a half a bowl of cereal and two mini croissants. The cereal looks like cornflakes but it tastes like something else. It's not my favorite. After breakfast we got on the Ferry boat #41 and took it to a small island named Murano. On the way to Murano Island, we saw an enormous cruise ship. I counted at least 15 stories but there were probably more. It made the large ferry boat look tiny. Even the tug boat directing the ship into dock was bigger than the ferry boat we were on. The ferry boats here are much smaller than the ferry boats in San Francisco. It took about 45-50 minutes to get to Murano Island because we made so many stops. However, the island is only 3 miles away. We went to Murano Island because it is world famous for the glass blowing factories and stores. We stopped at the museum first. At the museum I learned blown glass has been around since the 1st century. I liked how the museum showed the time periods of blown glass. You could easily see how the glass became thinner, more colorful and more decorative as you get closer to current time. Unfortunately we could not take any pictures since we were in a museum. The museum was pretty small but had a lot of ancient bowls and bottles on display as well as glass from the 1700-1800's like dishes and art pieces from today. In addition to that, there were many modern chandeliers and sculptures from blown glass. After the museum, we visited some of the hundreds of blown glass shops in the town of Murano. Murano has canals just like Venice and you can't even tell you are out of Venice in some areas. My mom purchased a lot of different things including a Christmas ornament and a thermometer that has balls with liquid inside a water tube that float up and down depending on the temperature. The cool part is the degrees are in Celcius. One of the funny things that is sold in these shops are glass ants. They aren't exactly true to size, but they are extremely small. One shop was charging 3 euros for one ant! That's over $5 dollars. We wanted to buy 20 of them for an interesting souvenier, but it was way too expensive. Many of the shops would not allow us to take pictures, probably becasue the tourists lose track of where they are and bump into things and break them. We shopped for a long time and finally stopped for lunch. After lunch, on our way back to the ferry, we stopped in a glass blowing factory that had been owned and worked by one family for many generations. They had photos on the wall of the factory from a long time ago and it looks much more modern today with all of the high tech glass blowing and heating equipment. I was able to take photos here. Hand blown glass is everywhere in Venice. Even the chandeliers in our hotel room are hand made and colorful. The one in my room looks like a rainbow octopus. Tonight we plan to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. My mom has been collecting pins from all over the world and can't wait to get a Venice pin. It was 80+ degrees again here today and we continue to photograph the dogs we see on the street. I think we have already taken a picture of over 50 dogs and there are so many we miss because they hide in the crowds. I will be back on Tuesday next week and tomorrow will be my last post. What an amazing journey this has been!

Venice

The first day in Venice was great. We took the train from Florence to Venice. We rode on a new train that went very fast compared to the older trains we usually take. The trian was very smooth and very quiet. We went 1st class and it was much more luxurious and roomy than the other trains, even when we rode second class which is above coach. As we got off the train, we went immediately to the ferry. This is not a usual ferry. My first impression of Venice was awesome. I was impressed by all of the boats on the canal. We got on the ferry and the dock assistant on the ferry boat was very rude. He tried to close the gate as my mom was getting on behnd me. She started to tell him that we were together and he said something in Italian that seemed to mean "hurry up". She got on just in tme. Then, we were separated on opposite sides of the boat and he made me and my Grandma move down to the lower area when he knew we were going farther than some. But my mom was on the opposite side of the ferry and did not understand what was happening. When she tried to get to closer to us through the very crowded boat, the dock assistant yelled at her this time and she look straight at him and shouted back "I don't understand you" and he replied with something in Italian and threw his hands up. It was a very tense conversation and my mom got very stressed. The ferry boats and water taxis are the only way to get around Venice except by foot. There are NO cars in the main part of the city. I thought this was really neat. Navigating from the ferry stand to our hotel was crazy, and it was hot, and there were about 10 times too many people no matter where we were. It was 82 degrees and we are now on the Adriatic Sea. Venice is very close to the countries of Slovenia and Croatia. However, even though it was hot and crowded, I was excited to drop of our luggage and start exploring. The first thing we did was find a restaurant and had lunch. I ordered Calamari Fritti. It was delicious. After lunch we started wandering through the very narrow streets which are actually just walkways between the buildings, to find the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge). It was finally opened in 1591 and was the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot for over 300 years. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful and the most famous of the four bridges that cross the Grand Canal. It wasn't too far to walk but we decided to get on the water ferry to get back to our hotel. We are just near St. Mark's Square and Doge Palace. The palace is HUGE and built in gothic architectural style. Hopefully we will be able to get inside tomorrow. We got back to our hotel and rested until dinner. While she was resting, I was taking a lot of photos of dogs from the window. TThere has been so much activity every single day and my grandma is starting to slow down. This part of the trip is mostly unplanned and we hope it will be more relaxed. We went to dinner and had a great meal. I had Filet Steak with french fries. On the way back to the hotel, the city was much different. All of the tourists were gone or inside and it was very quiet and dark. It took a while for us to find our way, but finally we did. My mom took a lot of great photos. Tomorrow we are going to the glass blowing museum on Murano Island which is just a short ferry ride across the canal. It should be interesting and then we will wander all around Venice again.

The David

For the last two nights, we have heard a lady on the corner singing opera favorites on the street to make money. She has a beautiful voice, but since she is right under our hotel window, it is really loud. Even with the windows shut. After she left around 10, we were then serendaded by a group that played modern music with a strong beat that went boom boom POW. They played until after 1 am. It was very hard to fall asleep. We got up this morning and ate breakfast fast because we had to be at a meeting point for a bus tour at 9:30am. The tour took us to Michangelo Square which is up in the hills of the Southern side of Florence across the Arno river. We passed through the Roman gates to the city that had the original wooden doors from the 13th century. They were at least 30 feet tall and very thick. When we arrived at Michaelangelo Square, we could see the city skyline of Florence. It put a huge perspective on how large the Duomo really is. It was fantastic. We also saw a bronze version of Michaelangelo's "David". From the view we could see a castle that was constructed during Medieval times. You can tell fron the difference in the architecture. The castle is now the town hall of Florence. At the time of construction for th Duomo, Bubonic plague hit the city and killed half of its people. During this time, Florence was the most populated city in the World. We got back on the bus and came down to Florence to go to the Academie which is where the original statue of David is kept. The statue is very tall and made of a single piece of marble. The piece is weak at the point where the left ankle is which causes this point to be very fragile. This is part of the reason why it was moved. There are many features that are incorrect such as the right hand, head and feet are slightly out of proportion. There are a lot of theories why this might be so, but nobody knows for sure. It was moved in the 1700's because the people of Florence began to recognize it's imporance as a work of art from Michaelangelo and its importance as a piece of history. They also realized it was not protected at all out in the open in front of the town hall, as well as it was beginning to deteriorate from centuries of being outside. We could not take a photo since it is in a museum, but have a photo of the replica that was put in the original's place. After the tour, we had some lunch. My mom and I were supposed to go on the Segway tour but the reservation was signed up for the wrong date and they did not have any guides available. As we were leaving the Segway office, we noticed some people with TV filiming equipment at a small Pizzaria just a few doors down. As we stopped to see what was happening, my mom found out the cast of Jersey Shore would be having lunch there. We waited for only one or two minutes and they waklked right passed us. We took several pictures. From there we went to get a gelato and I was disappointed that we were not on our Segway tour. While we were getting gelato, and I had my usual, of course, we decided it would be funny to take a picture of every dog we saw until the end of our trip. I have seen a lot of them. After doing some homework in the hotel, it was finally time to go to dinner. My grandma and I decided to let my mom choose the restaurant and we found a great place that had delicious food. I had a grilled sirloin steak and a nutella cake thing for dessert. Both were very good. It seemed like a slow day since I did not really do very much. My mom and grandma loved seeing the David. I thought it was interesting that it was only one single piece of marble. We cannot figgure out how they moved such a piece of marble from the square to the museum, in the 1700's, which is about a mile away. Tomorrow we leave for Venice. I am very excited to see the city on water. None of us have been there before, but we are all looking forward to it.

Back to Florence

For dinner yesterday, we went to a bar/restaurant in Riomaggiore which is the first city in Cinque Terre. We took the train to get there. The restaurant was up on a cliff and had a beautiful sunset view of the Ligurian Sea. For the most part, the entire city was only accessible by foot. I had lasagne bolognese that was very good. When we went downstairs to pay, we saw a freezer full of packaged frozen food and no kitchen. Turns out, the restaurant was too small to make their own food, so they served microwave frozen food. What a way to eat dinner in Italy! After that experience, we got back on the train and went back to Monterosso. On the walk back to our hotel, we passed a Gelateria which is a gelato and coffee shop, and stopped for gelato. And I had only lemon gelato, yet again. This morning, we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and the owner was sad to see us leave so soon. We walked back to the train station with all of our luggage and got on the express train to Pisa Centrale station where we switched trains to Fiorenze (Florence). From the Florence train station we walked to our new hotel which is right on the Republic Square. Under the square is the original Roman Forum of Florence. We had some lunch on the square before we went on a boring tour at the Ufizi Art Gallery. Our guide was nice but the paintings from the Medieval period were dull and uninteresting to me. The Ufizi Gallery contains the prized collection of original statues that were donated from the last female of Medici family who had no heirs. This was not a common practice during the 18th century but she gave the collection to the city. After the Ufizi gallery, we walked across the ancient part of Florence, past the Duomo. Even though my grandma and I had already been there several times, we wanted my Mom to see how big it is. We also saw the Gates of Paradise which were beautiful. Finally we ended up at a restaurant called ZaZa that I had been to before, and I had the same exact thing for dinner since it was so good. It was grilled veal steak with roasted potatoes. My mom had a cappuccino that came with a heart swirled in the foam. I didn't even try it. When we got back to our hotel room, while I was writing this blog, there was a really good street performer singing opera with a man on an accordian. Since it was right outside our hotel window, it was intense and loud. She was making a lot of money in her tip accordian case. We are headed out to find more gelato!

Monterosso

Yesterday I had breakfast at the hotel in Viareggio which was a buffet. For breaksfast I had prosciutto which was cut and cooked to be like bacon, a croissant, and a slice of lemon custard cake. There was a lot of different food including cheese, toast and tomatoes which are very popular for breakfast here. They had Nutella to put onto anything you wanted and it came in individual serving packets. We took a taxi from the hotel to the train station where we waited 40 minutes for our train. We took the train from Viareggio up the coast to Monterosso which the 5th city in an area called Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is 5 cities along the Western Northern coast of Italy on the Ligurian Sea. These cities are built on terraces on the steep cliffs above the sea. They all have 15th century lookout towers except for city #3 which is 400 steps up from the train station. The people who live there have to climb the steps anytime they leave. Monterosso is the resort town. Once we checked into our hotel in Monterosso, we took the train back to Varnazza which is the 4th city, where we had dinner. Varnazza is said to be the most beautiful of the 5 cities. We had a delicious curry risotto with prawns for dinner. After dinner we took the 4 minute train ride back to Monterosso from Vernazza. This morning, we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel. For breakfast I had a waffle and scrambled eggs which I have not had in a while. This hotel is run by a family who owns , runs and lives in the hotel. After breakfast, we went to the beach. We spent the day until 3pm at the beach. At the beach you have to pay to rent a chair and an umbrella. It cost $15 Euros for 2 chairs and an umbrella. The water was really cold until we got used to it. Although it was cold, the water was very very blue and my mom and I stayed in it for a long time. I was skipping rocks on the waves. For lunch, we had focaccia bread pizza and coke. I layed in the sun for a while. As soon as the wind picked up, we left because it got too cold. Once we got back to the hotel, I did some homework. I'm not sure where we are going to dinner tonight, but we will probably find someplace here in Monterosso. Tomorrow we leave Cinque Terra for Florence.

Viareggio

I got up and went to breakfast at the Villa. My mom had rented a Mercedes E326 which is a model we don't have in the US. It was a diesel 6-speed. After breakfast we drove from the Villa to Viareggio. Once we were in Viareggio, we dropped off the car at the rental car place. We took a taxi to our hotel which was a 5 star hotel. It was the only one available for one night. After we checked into the hotel, we walked to lunch on the boardwalk of Viareggio. The boardwalk is 3 kilometers long and there is 7 kilometers of sandy beach. Most of the beach has private beach clubs that you have to pay to get a chair and umbrella. I was disappointed with my lunch because I was looking for a pasta dish I had when I was here before in fourth grade. When I thought I found it, it turned out to be a different dish that I ordered. Instead, I had a penne pasta with shrimp and tomato basil cream sauce. After lunch, we found a gelato shop and I had my usual lemon gelato. I don't think I've had any other flavor. The pool at the hotel was fabulous! It was on top of the hotel and had spa chairs built into the bottom of the marble pool. It was very shallow so you could sit right in them with your head out of the water. They had bubble jets from under your whole body. In addition, the pool had 3 different waterfalls. The entire pool was only about 3 feet deep. After swimming, the three of us walked to dinner on the same boardwalk that we had lunch. We went to a different restaurant than lunch. This restaurant was closer. For dinner, I had a very delicious breaded and fried veal cutlet with lemon. Again, after dinner, we had gelato. And, I had ... the same lemon gelato I always get. After we finished our delicious gelato, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Last Days at Villa Lucia

Yesterday morning I got up at 8:30 like usual. I had a glazed croissant for breakfast. Right after breakfast, we had a cooking lesson. For the lesson, we made a breaded baked tuna filet. And for dessert after lunch, we put together a lemon sorbet. We used fresh lemons. The tuna was really delicious with the olive oil and garlic in the bread crumbs. It was also nice and tender. The lemon sorbet was my favorite part of the meal because it was very natural. After lunch, the group went wine tasting but my grandma and I stayed back. Instead, we went to the pool at a nearby villa owned by the same person who owns Villa Lucia. The weather was nice but the pool was rather cold. I only took one dip in the pool. Once I got out, I played Backgammon with Drew and Oliver who work at Villa Lucia. We went to dinner at a local restaurant that is right next door to the Villa. I had four cheese white pizza. The restaurant, instead of serving bread, served fried pizza crust.

This morning started the last day at the Villa. I started the day with my usual pastry breakfast. We got on a train and headed to Cinque Terre. The train, because of all of its stops took 2 hours. Once in the first city, we found the walking path and took it to the second city. Cinque Terre means five cities in the cliffs. From the second city, we took a train to the fourth city. We did this because the third city requires a very strenuous hike. In the fourth city, we ate lunch at a restaurant on the edge of the cliff. We could not see much because it foggy. For lunch I had a fish fry with different fried fish including squid, shrimp and sardines. It was a long train ride back. Back at the villa, we made a delicious Tira Misu after dinner. Dinner was Oso Bucco which is lamb shanks. For a "graduation" we got a very large cookbook and a certificate. My mom arrived very very late at night. It took her a long time to get here because of a missed flight. I can't wait for next week. We'll be travelling to many different cities.

Villa Lucia Day 3

Today was a very eventful day. I started off the day with waking up at my usual 8:30 and went to breakfast in the villa. I ate a chocolate covered pastry for breakfast this morning. After breakfast, we went to a city out side of Florence named Pistoia. There is a very large market there that has all kinds of butchers, fresh produce, and herb shops etc. While we were there, my grandma and I went to a cheese shop to buy some italian parmesan cheese. We ended up buying 6 lbs. of cheese to bring home to family and friends. Once we got the cheese, we met back up with our group and went to lunch in a city named Monte Catini. It is a city on a hill that has a wonderful view of the surrounding cities. For lunch, I had a wonderful veal chop. After lunch we explored the city for about a half hour and then returned to the villa. We had 2 hours to relax or do what we wanted. I spent my time figuring out a math home work assignment and completing it. It took quite a long time to finish the assignment. At 6:30, we went to the kitchen where we have our cooking lessons and had a pizza making lesson. We cooked the pizza inan old fashion brick oven but first we made the pizza dough. All pizza dough is made of is flour, water, yeast, and a little bit of salt. Then we rolled the pizza into its round shape and put our desired toppings on. We made so much pizza it was crazy! Each one of us made 2 or 3 pizzas. I made 3 pizzas myself. The first one was with pancetta, pepperoni, and bell peppers. The second was a chicken, eggplant, and olive pizza. The third was a dessert pizza and was a huge hit that was gone within 5 minutes. I put no sauce or cheese. I only put sliced nectarine, honey, butter, and cinnamon. But I made it a little bit smaller and thicker so that it would come out a little bit gooey. Once it was cooked, I drizzled chocolate over it. I found it to be a very delicious dessert. Right after I tasted that pizza there was a commotion outside. So I made my way outside to see what the deal was and there was a forest fire on a hill about a mile from the villa. After some thinking, everyone decided it would be best to leave for a little bit until the fire died down. So we packed up and went to a restaurant in the nearby city of Lucca. About 2 hours went by until the fire was contained. Once the fire was contained enough, we went back to the villa and I typed up my days adventures. The fire is still burning but is under control. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Villa Lucia Day 3

Today was a very eventful day. I got up at 8:30 this morning and had breakfast at the Villa. For breakfast I had a glazed croissant and milk. The milk here is much sweeter than the milk in the USA.After breakfast, the group drive to the city of Lucca. Lucca is a walled city thatwas originally built by the Romans in the Medieval ages. TheWall that surrounds the city is approximately 25 feet tall and was originally surrounded by a moat. There was originally an older wall that can be seen in some places. Due to expansion, a different wall, larger in circumference was built during the renaissance. In the center of the city there was a Roman Colosseum, you can see some of the original walls of the colosseum incorporated into the houses on the street. An unexpected find was a labyrinth carved into a pillar of Lucca's cathedral. After we explored Lucca, we ate lunch at a nearby city called Guamo. On returning to the Villa, we struggled to send the last blog due to an internet connection failure. After I finally managed to post the blog, I played tennis with my grandma. I amstill working my serve as it is very difficult to master. We played tennis for about 45 minutes. After we finished playing we went to cooking class. Right before class I had a wonder conversation with Fred the chef. We talked about our dogs. Then the class started, we made deep fried parmesan cheese balls as an antipasti. The first course was black pasta with shrimp. our chef, Fred, colored the pasta with squid ink. The main course was beef roll ups with polenta. and finally the dessert was a nougat. Deep frying the parmesan ball was very exciting standing over the hot oil. I only burned myself once with the oil. Today was a great day, I made new friends.

Villa Arrival and First Day of Classes

We took one last look around Florencebefore we left for Villa Lucia. In the square in front of the Duomo, I wittnessed the cities flag throwers. The were there because the shoe company Ascis had just sponsored a big race. The Flag throweres were twirling the flags and throwing the flags to each other to the beat of drums. The flag throwers were also wearing costumes. After the performance ended we went to a nearby gelato shop. I ordered lemon geleto. After we finished, we walked back to our hotel, grabbed our suitcased, and walked to the train station where the head of the villa piced us up and drove us to the Villa. We waited for 45 minutes for the car to pickus up. The car was not late, we were just very early. Once the car arrived, we left the city of Florence. Getting out of city was a bumpy experience due to the cobblestone roads. The car ride took us through the Tuscan Hills of Italy. We were in the car for an hour before we arrived at the Villa. This is my second time at this Villa. I lucky enough to come to this Villa when I was in 4th grade as well. However, the first time, I did not take the cooking classes. The Villa is rather large and contains three buildings. Two of which are four stories tall and originally built in the 15th century. The third has only a few rooms and a very large kitchen where the classes are held. The villa also has 3 pools, a hot tub, a large field with two junior sized soccer goals, a large garden and a tennis court. The first day the chef perpared lunch and dinner for us.

When we woke up the second day, breakfast was a very simple fruit ad pastries. Right after breakfast was our first cooking lesson. For lunch, we made Fritto Misto which is a deep fried appetizer. We made squid, zucchini blossom, and rockfish Fritto Misto. For the first course, we had a red wine risotto with asparagus. Which is a rice made with parmesan cheese. It was delicious. For the main course, we made rabbit wrapped with pancetta. Rabbit tastes like chicken only sweater and tenderer. For dessert, we made sabayon. Sabayon is egg yolks and sugar whipped together to make a sweat cream with the consistency of whipped cream. It is usually served at room temperature over fruit. As you can see, we made and ate a lot of food. Every meal we make is a 4 course meal. After lunch, My grandma and I went and played tennis for an hour. Serving is a lot harder than it seems. Then, we went back to hour room and I did a night of math home work until dinner. For dinner we had another lesson and prepared another 4 course meal. For and appetizer we prepared fennel salad. For the first course we made chicken ravioli from scratch. To make ravioli, first you have to mix the flour, egg, and olive oil with your hands. Once that is done, you roll it slightly flat with a rolling pin. then you feed it through a pasta maker which is just 2 rollers that get gradually closer together. You feed it through enough times to make the dough thin enough for ravioli, then you put a spoonful of filling on the dough. Our filling was a chicken and spinach filling. Then I placed another piece of dough over the top and sealed it. Once it is sealed, you cut out the ravioli and cook it. The ravioli was very good as well. For our main course, we had neapolitan cod. Finally, for the dessert, we had Pana Cotta. We started dinner at 9:30 and did not finish until 11:30. Then we came back to our room and i wrote this blog post. Now I am going to bed. Enjoy the pictures.

Florence Pictures

Florence Day 2

Today we got up later than usual due to jeg lag. After we were both up and got ready for the day, we ate breakfast at our hotel. The hotel has a rather small room for breakfast and serves the same thing every day. Last night we went to find dinner at the Piazza Repubblica which is a square that was built over the ancient roman forum. Now it is used for a saocial square and there are resturants all the way around the edge. We settled at a resturant on the left side of the square. There was a man outside speaking in all sorts of different languages to try and get people to come and eat at his resturant. I had a delicious spaghetti. The pasta here is not cooked to the extent that we cook pasta. The center is chewy and almost crunchy. Now back to today, after breakfast we walked back to the duomo that we visited on the segway tour. It is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This time however we did not just look at the outside but we climbed the 463 steps to the top. There is no elavator just stone steps to the top. At first is a normal staircase that zigzags up for about 100 steps. The only difference is that it is a very low celing and narrow stairs. After that it goes into a spiral stone staircase that is about 2 feet wide and each step was about 8 inches tall. It was very steep and very tight. That was just getting up to the actual dome. Because the walls are so thick, they couldn't make the dome the same thickness or it would be to heavy. Instead, The built an outer and inner layer. In order to get to the very top balcony, you had to climb between the layers. It got so steep here that I could reach my hands out and touch the staircase while standing straight up. It was almost like climbing a ladder. Once at the top, There was a fantastic view of the city. Once we came down the dome and we were at the base of it, you had to walk around a cat walk on the inside of the cathedral. From there you could see The Last Judgement which is a painting by Giorgio Vasari and Frederico Zuccari. At the bottom of th painting was hell and at the top was heaven. From the cat walk you could also see down into the Duomo. It was very high off the ground. Then we walked back down the same style of stairs but on the other side of the cathedral and then we went and got lunch. After lunch we took a walk around. During the renaissance all the buildings were built the same way. They were built out of rounded blocks of stone. So a building that looks this way was buils in the renaissance. We also saw a small wooden door that was about 3 feet off the ground built into the side of the building. During the renaissance anyone could knock on the door day and night an someone would answer. The door sold wine. The door was about 1 foot by 8 inches. Last, the streets are made out of cobble stone and are uneven. It makes walking a bit harder. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Florence Day 1

Today was my first whole day in Florence. The city is over 2000 years old and was one of the early cities of the renaissance. It was a very fun day. When I woke up, I ate breakfast in the hotel that we are staying in. After that, we walked around the streets looking at markets and shops untill 10:00. At 10:00 we took a segway tour around the city. It was a fantastic tour. We saw many places including the Duomo which is a very large cathedral. We also saw the house of Dante who wrote the famous Divine Comedy. It is a very long book that all high school kids in italy are required to read. The book was also made into a play. Out in front of the house there was a man who knew the entire play by heart. You can ask him to act out a part of the play and he will. After the tour we came back to our hotel and I did some home work. Now we are headed out to dinner.

Arrival

I arrived in Florence about an hour ago. It is 3:15 pm here. The plane was a 10 hour plane ride to Frankfurt, Germany where we then got on a different plane that only took an hour to Florence. On the plane I did a lot of my math home work becuase I had a lot of time. and when I wasn't doing my homework, i was sleeping to make up for the time difference here. The Weather is nice here. It's about 75 degrees outside. The environment is very different here. The buildings are much closer together and there are shops in the most random places. It seems different to me but this is home to many people. I am having a nice trip and am ready to go see the city.

Pre-Trip Information

On May 4, 2011, I am leaving on plane to Italy. I leave on Wednesday from San Francisco international airport. From there I fly to Frankfurt, Germany and then to Florence, Italy. By the time I get to Italy, it will be Thursday. I am flying with my grandma to Florence. We will be in Florence from the 5th to the 7th exploring the city. Then we take a train to the cooking school in Vorno, Italy. The cooking school is in an old villa called Villa Lucia. It was built in the 1800's and is now in a city with approximately 300 people. My grandma and I will be there from may 8th to may 14. My mom will arrive later in the afternoon on Friday the 13th and will only be at one of the many cooking lessons. She is very disappointed about this. On saturday May 14 all Three of us will be in Viareggio on the Ligurian Sea. On Sunday May 15 we will arrive in Cinque Terre which is also on the Ligurian Sea. Cinque Terre is called the 5 cities and all of it is built into the terraced cliffs. On May 17 all of us will go back to Florence to see the statue of David by Michaelangelo. Then we go to Venice on Wednesday May 18. Finally we will leave on Saturday May 21 and come back home to California.