The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Italy, well Cortona. It was quite a beautiful sight especially the stars up in the Italian sky. It was pretty spontaneous of us; Lynn, Angela and Sarah, when we decided to go for a walk and wound up on some random drive way and so there was our star gazing spot. Cortona is a little town that sits a top this hill and there is a magnificent view if you walk to the end of the street(strada) I enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere which invited all walks of life. Our tour guide Luca is a calm spirited Italian man who lives a simple life and he took us to the top of the hill where there is a Medieval fortress and a Renaissance church, Church of Santa Margherita, where her body of is on display. She is the patron saint of the falsely accused; hoboes; homeless; insane; orphaned; mentally ill; midwives; penitents; reformed prostitutes; third children; tramps. So anyways there is a wonderful cathedral that is filled with some wonderful paintings and the architecture is really a spectacular. So yeah I have to admit that the trip was unbelievable and having my somewhat unexpected roommate, Angela, was a great treat. I am loving these random times and I know that I have been blessed being here and being able and willing to go places and just see where I end up. The little towns were wonderful but towards the end of the trip after all the awesome food, I started to feel like I was seeing a repeat of the town before. That's when I knew that I wanted to actually engage myself with more than just the tourist tour but actually maybe have a real conversation with the locals or even spend some quality time with people from around the areas I was at. So that is the ramble about Cortona and Pienza and the other beautiful places I went. I have to admit this uploading of photos has proven to be the hardest part, and so I almost feel like I am just preparing a super cool slideshow for all those that would like to sit down with some popcorn and hear some tales from abroad, a world premiere if you will.

Ravenna

Ravenna, it was such a random trip but Melissa suggested it and I was pretty excited to just explore any part of Italy. Ravenna is a beautiful town on the east coast of Italy. It is most know for it's Byzantine Mosaics within several of the churches throughout the town. We had to catch an early train around 7 in the morning and even though we thought we were early, the train too was early and thus we had to sit around and wait on the next departing train. Luckily the trusty McCafe' was open and so we sat there for a couple hours and enjoyed some tasty coffee and pastries from McDonalds of all places. I know it's lame to go to McDonalds for pastries when we are in Italy but we just went for convenience and McCafe was the closest thing. It was actually nice to have a moment to collect ourselves and enjoy a time to sit before we embarked on our journey to Ravenna. To get to Ravenna from Firenze you have to stop and change vehicles in Faenze. The train trip there took about 2 ore and it was pretty pleasant. Sadly we had to switch to a bus which was not so pleasing. While in Faenza we went for a walk to catch a quick snack. Melissa and I purchased some cookies which turned out to be super dry and could have possibly cracked some teeth. I had never craved milk (latte) more than at that moment. Funny thing, as we walked back to the train station we passed a wall that had a vending machine like thing that dispersed latte by the litre. I had my nalgene and filled that sucker up, it was glorious. Even with the help of the latte, those cookies were staying pretty hard so I gave up and just enjoyed my latte from a wall in Faenza. I would love to write a story about such an invention. Denise was so determined to find McDonalds and we had zero luck following the signs to the nearest one, I guess it was good that we didn't find one personally I am not a fan of McDonalds/McyDs so I can always do without it, but Denise just had one of those days. Upon arriving in Ravenna Denise immediately strolled into the McDonalds attached to the train station while we collected ourselves after a horrible bus ride that just made us all sick to our stomachs and just put us in a funk. As soon as we began strolling through the streets we could feel a great difference in comparison to Firenze. Firenze is so busy and filled with tourists where as Ravenna definitely practiced Siesta and all things Italian. It was actually quite desolate and just about the only things offering much to us were the churches. We went into a total of 5 churches I wanna say and they were all equally stunning. One had some really odd set up of strange figurines which did not match and had such odd physical features. I had to stop taking pictures of them because they were so odd. I liked being in churches that still function as churches, not just a place to charge tourists for it's historic features. The streets were very inviting to our exploration and so we walked for several hours not knowing where we were headed. At one point we saw a sign for water meaning the ocean and we were so tempted to walk there but after inquiring about the distance we found it to be more than 10kil. away. Not cool. So we just continued toward the train station but wandered upon an old fort, it was renovated into a park with fun playground equipment. We had a good time reenacting our childhood by spending time swinging. Having done that it was safe to say that we experienced Ravenna. The funny thing was that the things that enticed us about the town was the one thing we could not see.
The Church which holds the more popular mosaics was holding a wedding ceremony the exact time we were there and it was going to last a while so we decided to continue on in hopes of returning before departing. Sadly those plans fell through and we just accepted that we will have to return if it really strains our heart that we did not experience those lovely Mosaics. I took a lot of photographs but the one thing I regret not taking a picture of was the meal we had in Faenza. We had a pit stop there on the way back to Florence and so we decided to catch a meal there. As we walked around, there was no sign of a good place to eat which was a bummer but we kept at it and wound up arriving just as this one place was opening for the night. The place was really large and it had an enormous menu. The name of it , Osteria del Mercato. We did not know what to expect but there is such an assortment of things to choose from and even a small buffet which I wish I got because the food looked so appetizing. The bread they gave us before the food was so spongy and delicioso, we finished off two baskets full within the small amount of time we got to stay there. We ordered pasta and when they brought it out it looked to tantalizing. The noodles were homemade and so fresh. It was pretty fattening because there was a lot of grease involved but regardless it was so good. Getting to the good part of the trip, we ran to the train station only to find that our train was a fiesta train meaning it only goes out every other oggi. Wow, so what were we to do.... While we sat there waiting we helped a small old man with his train issues, because he too was headed in our direction but he knew of how to get there with the use of a detour. We on the other hand did not put two and two together and wound up asking some wonderfully helpful African ladies. Getting back to the old man, his name was Giorgio and he was coming back from a senior citizen gathering where there was a poetry contest. The poem that he entered which won 4th place was entitled, I'm Not a Dog, and it talked of how getting old almost feels as if you become a dog. He explained that people tell him where to go, they feed him and think he is unable to take care of himself. He finished with how he is able to do things on his own and how he is much more capable than people think but if people want to baby him he has no complaints. Well that is what I think he translated it as. He had excellent English and told us of his life. Old people have wonderful stories which help with journeys because they have experienced a lot and have many things to teach us, the younger generation. He admitted that he really enjoys sitting and talking with young people and he said often when he looks in the mirror he does not recognize the man in the reflection. He said he has a very youthful mind but his physical state does not match up. It is so important to exercises your mind and to try new things in effort to stretch your mind.
So after learning of a practical detour we hopped on a train only to find that we had to pull the foreigner card and sweet talk our way out of a ticket and having to pay, Praise the Lord cuz that would've been awful, so we were given a foreigner stamp and he helped us find the next train once we got to Bologna. It was such a blessing to be helped in our time of need and so we just had faith that we were going to be guided home, that is very peaceful feeling stemming from the spirit. We were worried don't get me wrong but it almost seemed pointless to worry. The next train we had to take was called the night express or something like that and it was super ghetto. We didn't get a ticket but that was not a problem because there was no one in sight checking and just about anyone hopped on that creepy dark train. We had to cram into a little compartment and we instantly fell asleep the moment we somewhat spooned. There was a squeaking sound that eventually our ears just droned out, and so it was quite easy to pass out and just enjoy the ride. It was not an enjoyable ride by any means but it got us where we needed to go so there are no complaints.
The final part of our journey included the long walk home from the farthest train station from our house. What I thought was a shorter walk turned out to be a much farther distance than what I remembered from first arriving. We trekked home at an impressive speed and so in time we found the leading light to by the statue of David at the top of Piazza Michelangelo. It never felt so wonderful to make it home and just crash for the night.

"When you have eaten and are satisfied, Praise the Lord, your God." Deuteronomy 8:10.
So yeah as you can tell from that passage, I had some great meals here and I just want to say thanks to the Lord for his provision. It is pretty great to have a meal every time I go hungry. I joined a group of ladies for lunch yesterday and we ate at this wonderful little place that had phenomenal dishes to choose from. Personally I was not as hungry as I would have liked so I wound up getting an ensalata.(salad) The vegetables were so fresh and I had some really great Feta cheese on top. I had my fair share of free bread offered at the counter so I was pretty satisfied. I normally do not have large lunches so it hit the spot. I met these ladies through my wonderful friend Angela who I am going to to be traveling with after school gets out. We share many things in common and she just has an attitude about life that I could not agree more with. She is a go-getter and I really enjoy all interactions with her. So she lives with a host family that is affiliated with Agape (Campus Crusade in Italy) and through that she had lunch plans and invited me along. I also met a girl from University of North Carolina and she was a sweetheart. We shared a bit about ourselves but for the most part we were just learning about how the program is doing and what they plan to do in the future. It is crazy how the Lord is providing for this little ministry, and one of the ladies informed us of the cultural differences as far as religion is concerned. It is obvious that people are more prone to have a private religious life that does not correlate with their public life. It was definitely interesting to hear their point of view and to see how they respond to this dilemma.
I had two oral presentations both of which went well and I am glad I prepared myself for them. One was on a piece of art by Luca della Robbia who lived during the 15th century and produced many beautiful pieces of sculpture. He is known mainly for his glazed terracotta pieces majority of which depict the Virgin and Child. My other presentation was just in Italian and I had to describe Mi Famiglia.
Later on that day, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful musical performance at the British Institute of Florence. It is right around the corner from my house and I just strolled over there a little late because I wound up having to stand for the performance since the place was packed. It was held in the Library and I want to add that it was such a great combination of things within the room; piano and literature. The books really created an interesting atmosphere for the music to accompany and I was pretty inspired, enough to write a poem of some type. I am not much of a writer so I will spare you the time and energy and therefore not publish it.
I loved being there because I got my fix of listening to live music and people watching which was a blast because most of the people were British and it was a joy to hear their accents. I deffinately plan on hitting up that library and checking out their sellection of books. I hope I have the permission to take out books and so on even though I don't have a card or whatever is needed. I will look into that. So yeah to conclude my night I joined a sweet newlywed couple that attends church with me and we enjoyed a wonderful night of pizza. I think it was good to spoil myself as far as food is concerned because I have been holding back on spending money here. I don't think you can blame me with the economic crisis taking place back in the states. So yeah I guess I have been just busy doing random things and I plan on traveling somewhere away from Florence this weekend so I will keep you posted.