Mars to Florence (WITHOUT a Spaceship): The Swiss do it better...

Almafi was certainly an awesome trip, but it was nice to be back into the swing of things back in Florence. The early part of the week went pretty quickly and the Wednesday following my trip to the Almafi coast, was a quick one.

I had Italian class in the morning, and then I went to row. After rowing, I had to quickly draw a chair using "Cross eetching"(Cross Hatching), as Andrea calls it, before my drawing class. Andrea (a man, pronounced Ahhn-dree-ya), is my drawing professor, imagine the most cliche of Italian artists, (yes skinny jeans, boots, multiple necklaces, chain bracelet, deep-v henley shirt, glasses, and perfectly-moused hair), and he is a very opinionated human being. The first day of class he went through his work experience and how many projects he has been involved in...so you could say that the intimidation factor is pretty high. When we get to class every day, we are presented with something to draw and then while we spend three hours drawing, each person gets an individual critique on his or her homework...only the critique changes from personal to public with the volume of Andrea's voice. Its a little game each class to see how much...how little...he decides needs fixing with my work. This class went especially well though! After only about a minute of changing my work, he seemed pleased. That coupled with the fact that we got to leave the classroom and draw something outside made this my favorite class to date.

My drawing for Andrea's class

Wednesday night was filled with graphic design homework and then some much-needed sleep. Thursday I woke up for graphic design class from 9-2:30pm. Here we had to reconfigure the current logo for LdM (Lorenzo de Medici, my school). After class was over, I was able to go back to the boathouse and row. I came back to the apartment and grabbed a shower and my roommates and I made dinner. That night, Nina, Sierra, Belinda, and my apartment shared some drinks together at our apartment and then we all went out. We got back kind of late so Friday was reserved for sleeping in.

When I woke up on Friday, I watched the new episode of Grey's Anatomy (that is a must) and then I went to the boathouse. After a quality workout, I decided to sit on the lawn and do my Italian homework. There, I ran into Massimo who was just getting to the club to row. He was excited for me because the following day I was traveling to Lake Como (Como, Italy) and St. Moritz, Switzerland. After completing my homework, I went to my apartment and took a shower and a solid nap while a few of my roommates went out to eat. When I woke up, they came back and we started to pack for our weekend trip.

On Saturday, we woke up and left our apartment at 5:30am for the 'Piazza Independencia'...there are so many Piazzas in Florence and sometimes they can be confusing. Needless to say, we got to the buses and were able to put our stuff underneath. This bus trip was possibly the best that I have ever had. Not only did I get the front seat (so no one can decide that putting their seat back while in front of a 5'10" female is acceptable) but no one sat next to me! Its the little things that get me so pumped. It took about 3 hours to get to Como, Italy from Florence. We made one stop at a "Ristop" just outside of Milan and then we got to Como. When we stopped in Como, we had to take a ferry across the lake to get to Bellagio which took about 10 minutes. I was surprised that people do not swim in Lake Como because it looks as if it would be perfect for that, but then I found out that the water comes from the Swiss Alps ice caps melting...so that makes sense.

In Bellagio...Sierra and I

Inside of a gorgeous church in Como

In Bellagio at the popular lookout point

The ten minute ferry ride to Bellagio was gorgeous, as expected, and we were given about 2 hours to explore. My friends and I went to lunch at a cute little ristorante and had a relaxing meal. Afterwards, we decided to try and find the lookout point, which we did, and it was pretty awesome.

Inside the same church

We had to catch the ferry back to the other side of the lake at 4:00pm so that we could take our bus to St. Moritz. The two our bus ride seemed to go pretty quickly, although it was semi-chilly because our bus driver (Bruno--who looks as if he could have worked in the Italian Mafia) had his window broken, and again, I was in the front seat. We crossed over the Switzerland border and about 20 minutes later, we stopped to take pictures of the landscape. I can honestly say that there is no place as gorgeous as the Swiss Alps. The sunset was literally that of a Photoshopped picture.

The crazy-awesome sunset in St. Moritz

When we got to the hotel, we were all settled into our room (I got to room with Sierra), and then got ready for dinner. The hotel made dinner for us which included pasta, tomato salad, turkey, and Swiss chocolate pudding. My group of friends decided to take a walk into St. Moritz-Bad (the town) which was about 30minutes each way, and it was in the 40s temperature-wise. I was LOVING it. When our hour-long search for a bottle of wine was a failure, we walked back to the hotel and got a small stein of beer, sat on the roof of the hotel (that we could get to from Natalie and Krista's room) and looked at the stars.

On Sunday morning we got up for breakfast at 7:45 and got ready for our 3 hour walking tour around St. Moritz. We got to walk around the lake so I will just let the pictures do it justice.

I also got to go into town and buy Swiss Chocolate! It is really good, as you would imagine. At the end of the tour, we met at the train station to take the Bernina Express from St. Moritz, Switzerland to Tarino, Italy in order to cut our driving time by a large portion of time. The three hour train ride went through the Swiss Alps and the views there were totally incredible.

After the train ride, we had an hour of free time to explore Tarino and then we got back onto the bus for our ride back to Florence. This trip was so much more relaxing than many others and the views of Switzerland were absolutely breathtaking. I am so glad that I went.

My Oil Painting thus far...

Monday consisted of Italian class, and rowing. After rowing, I got showered and sketched outside on the lawn of Societa Cannotierri Firenze for a few hours. The rest of the day was very laid back and spent doing more homework and grocery shopping. Tuesday I had class from 9am-5:30pm where I was able to progress further on my oil painting and I learned how to make homemade pasta for our homemade lasagna as well as a delicious Italian dessert. Wednesday I had Italian in the morning and I came back and took a nap and relaxed because I have still been feeling sick. Then I had drawing class where we were working on two-point perspective and I came back and worked on homework and watched Gilmore Girls with my roommates!

This morning, I woke up and went to my design class and then went straight to the boathouse in order to get in a good workout before this weekend. I was also able to contact someone who went to Oktoberfest the past two weekends and bum her Dirndl for the weekend...I am SO EXCITED. It is 8:35pm right now and my bus leaves at 11:30pm. As for now, I need to go pack and get ready for a crazy weekend! Get ready for my Oktoberfest post next week!