My Free Day

So today they gave us a free day and some people went with Coach Burks to the Ferrari and Lamborghini factories today. They didn't think that they would be able to drive them, but it turns out they were able to for 100 Euro a piece! I think it would have been fun if Tyler had been here, but I didn't go. (Maybe if he brings me back someday...hint hint! Lol.)

My free day consisted of waking up pretty early and going into Florence to climb up the Duomo. It's 463 steps and gets pretty crowded, but it was totally worth it! You actually are climbing stairs between the inner and outer domes and end up being able to walk around 2 different areas to see the art on the inside of the dome very, very up close. I can definitely say that these artists' interpretations of Hell are totally creepy and demented, but Hell's scary so I guess it's a good thing??? You can't tell it from the ground, but they had to paint the figures sooooo huge so they'd look right from in the church below. I was standing next to a demon eating/torturing this dude in Hell and his foot was literally the length of my legs from the ground to my hip. Then the views from the top out over Florence were so breathtakingly beautiful. We could see everywhere we'd been - the different churches, train station, etc. It was a great view. Then we journeyed back down the stairs and then I needed to go to a modern art museum, so I chose to go to the Virtual Identity exhibit they have in the Strozzi Palace right now. It's all about technology and people using it. It was really legit. I expected to just go in and walk through and pick a couple of pieces to write about for my Humanities journal, but it was really cool. There was a mash up of youtube videos of people dancing that the artist had synchronized and put to music and it looked like choreography. Then there were these big white balls rolling around on the floor and talking to you. Apparently they're a type of packing material and each one is given a different voice or personality or motor that moves in unique ways. They're representative of the temporalness of human life. I thought that was really philosophical. Then there was a creepy, morbid one and it was about virtual suicide and I really didn't like it at all so I rushed through it because it was just disturbing. I liked the pictures of the faces lit up by different types of electronic devices - my favorite of that was this young girl who was under a blanket playing a Nintendo DS.

Then I got a pizza to go and they didn't cut it :( bummer so I had to wait til I got back to the villa to eat it. But I realized they had made it heart shaped for me so that was cute. Then I got back and cut it and nuked a few pieces of it and ate them while sitting in front of a fan (it was super hot today) then I took a shower bc I was disgusting and then took a nap for a couple hours since I woke up early and no one was here to wake me up :D Then I woke up and was getting ready and they rang the bell for supper - who knew they were making food for us? Def not me - I was just planning on eating the rest of my pizza, but now I have a midnight snack ;) So I had a sandwich that was delicious - they busted out the awesome bread and gave us pieces of pork with rosemary like they cook us to put on it. They also had pasta salad and bread salad too. I like the pasta salad they have here, but the bread salad was too onion-y for me to handle so I didn't try that.

Also I've discovered where they keep the ice here in the villa :D VICTORY!!!

I'm probably about to write my journal entries about the stuff I did today and then maybe read some or watch a movie. Who knows?

Love you guys!