This picture looks rather gloomy, but in actuality a rainy day on Wednesday was a glorious retreat time. The break from glorious blue skies and non-stop activity gave my brain a day of recuperation. All of my synapses are on overload so a few hours respite has not been enough to sort through all events much less make a grand meaning of them all. This will be a series of moments which stand out this past week.
After the photo class on Tuesday I turned off the auto setting on my camera and slipped it over to manual. That’s the equivalent of taking off training wheels, folks. I am falling and failing at capturing pictures – but it is me failing not the elves at Nikon making those errors. We also had an overview of the power of photoshop. Trust me, you cannot trust any picture to show the truth of any situation. I really think all you need are a few pixels and you can create anything. On a rainy day inside you can take a lot of pictures of stairways, ceilings, and corners. You can also take a one hour nap!
Mondays in Florence are delightful. Fewer tourists blocking and clogging the streets is a good thing. The bad news was the cafe I wanted to dine in was closed. Then I walked all the way to the Academie to see the David and discovered it too was closed. No wonder there are no tourists. Churches aren’t closed so the group saw two more in the morning. One of which had a brass line marking the heighth of the flood waters in 1966 – it was above my head and this was many blocks from the river. Amazing how the world rallied and saved and restored so much of the art work.
Pisa was a delightful excursion on Thursday. Beautiful grounds for the cathedral complex and lots of crazy tourists doing their best to make fools of themselves….some of us succeeded. Best recollection was lunch. The best eve 6 grain foccacia bread with truffles, parma ham, and young pecorino cheese washed down with white wine – all for 6 euros! Returnng to the villa to the most spectacular sunset that lasted seemingly forever. The villa emptied of everyone except those of us with west-facing windows. Cameras clicked from windows and the grounds making a counterpoint to all of the oohs and aahs. I’m sorry I didn’t use my tablet to take any of the pictures to share with you. I won’t be able to access the card with my camera shots until Paros, so you will just have to trust my belief that the time was gorgeously magical.
Friday was our last excursion into Florence and besides the last two churches I finally got to meet David in person. The line was only 45 minutes long and I was fortified with gelato, so all was good. Even his toenails were perfect. This completed a week of my cheesy but lovely touristy photos.
We are now packing up for Rome and the rest of this holiday. Imagine if you will 19 female students, 2 males, and 4 faculty members fighting for a single washing machine. It is a European machine that is energy efficient but each load takes 2 hours and 13 minutes. No dryer, so each clothespin is fought over. The best part of waking up before anyone else is my ability to sneak my clothes in. Yesterday there was an episode of two girls chasing each other around the villa because one had moved hers into the washer while the other was in the restroom! Can you see why everyone is antsy to get to Paros where we have single rooms and two washing machines?
Off to Pistoia and market day to see what last minute bargains can be found – actually to the chocolate store to make a run for supplies needed on the bus trip tomorrow!
Lisa Oberreuter 
What a place! You even have adventures in your laundry room! But that’s a poor substitute for seeing David, the café you wanted and the Academie. We imagine Rome, Athens, and Paros will be very exciting. We can hardly wait to hear about them.