Monte Ceceri e Fiasole

Benvenuto al Monte Ceceri! I have to regretfully say I have few decent pictures of Ceceri and Fiasole, where the mountain is located, because many of the photographs I took were extremely blurry (for the fact that I didn't stay still to take any decent ones! Far too busy exploring!) I've been itching to go hiking in the mountains around Florence for a few days and we decided to take a bus to a little mountain town called Fiasole today in order to find one of the hiking trails. The day was foggy and cloudy, not the greatest for pictures, however perfect for running around in the mountains!

I did my best to take pictures when I wasn't running along the paths! The trails were very, very reminiscent to the trails in northern Minnesota (without the mosquitos!) aside from the fact that whenever you came to an edge in the trail you could see all of Florence below your feet!!! All of the red roofs were so cool to see from such a distance!

The trail was scattered with old walls that were crumbling and overgrown with moss and vines. Even the few stairways (made out of stone, the same as if you know how the trails in Minnesota are made out of the natural rocks and roots) were covered in the bright green moss. Everything on the trails was really pretty, with benches and picnic tables following a few of the routes. It's going to be exciting to return when it's sunny and warm! (I keep saying this of every place I visit, but it's really true how desperately I want to go sketch in all of these new, beautiful areas!)

One of the buildings at the end of the trail!! The trail
started with a more residential part of Fiasole and ended
at the edge of the city.

The houses outside of Fiasole were gorgeous! This was
just at the edge of the trail.

There were a lot of really great little places to scout out in the mountains; we even came across a hallowed out rock formation right on the edge of a trail. I've finally figured out the bus systems as well, and it looks like getting to the little mountain towns like Fiasole is much easier than expected! There are loads of trails circling Florence that I'm planning on checking out soon.

Elizabeth--I'm taking you to Ceceri when you come, I think you'd love it :) (Unless I find even cooler trails before then!)

Mercatone della Cascine

Hello friends! Very little to speak about as of tonight, I've been exploring the streets of Florence with little in mind as to what to see or do. Wandering and getting lost has been one of my favorite things to do in this city--it's exciting to find all of the piazzas that scatter the city and simply travel with the intent of adventure! I feel like I'm slowly getting to know this city well. The Arno remains one of my favorite parts of Florence... I can walk over Ponte alla Carraia and still want to stop and smile at the cityscape beyond the bridges. Even though I've been here over three weeks, I'm still amazed I get to live here!!

There are many things in Florence I've been told to see! The markets are always brought up in conversation and we found what might be the largest market in florence located in Cascine. I've been researching other markets in the city and I discovered a Rare Book market on Thursdays neighboring a Flower Market on the same day!!! I'm planning my Thursday trip as I type this :)

I didn't take many pictures at il Mercatone della Cascine, the market itself was fun to see however not entirely up my alley: the market was huge! however three-fourths of the booths set up were clothing and shoe booths. The sets that caught my attention the most were the few fruits and vegetable booths. There were also a couple of flower venders which I might have spent most of my time at! (In attempts to learn some of the Italian names of the herbs and perennials I grew up with!)

Although the market was great to see, I was far more interested in Cascine itself! After edging your way out of the crowds, you would see where the market is actually located... In an extremely beautiful part of Florence, the Cascine park which is the largest park in the city! I didn't have enough time to explore the park today, though I'm hoping to return soon (on any day other than Tuesday!) to hang out in that park.. It was right on the Arno which of course I absolutely adored!

That's all I've got for today! I'm going to be hiking in the mountains just outside Florence tomorrow so I'll post something interesting then! And something for the markets on Thursday! Ciao!

(We pass by walls like these, with simply stunning architecture, fairly frequently. It still blows me away!! The gates in the city are beautiful.)

I've been having a hard time deciding how I want to photograph the art I work on while I'm here seeing as how I do not have access to a scanner! My work tends to look much better when it's photographed at some silly angle, especially when it comes to pencil lines, so I might have to stick to that until I can sneak my way into the FUA Diva department (Digital Imaging and Visual Arts building... That should have a scanner, yeah?)

One of my main goals in Italy is to work on my drawing skill as a whole, mostly when it comes to the figure, anatomy, and human facial structure. I've never been comfortable drawing the human face in any form of reality so I'm attempting (emphasis on attempting!) to break new ground before I even start the figure drawing classes at the Accademia. Hoping working on a little "mask series" will ease me into the world of facial drawing before I start on anything too critical!

Verde

I really loved how green Lucca was, with vines and moss growing in areas you wouldn't normally expect but of course make perfect sense! It gave the town a ton of character. Needed to upload a few of the pictures I took specifically for the green I found scattered in the city.

The moss growing on the bricks was especially fun to see. Whitney has talked about moss paintings, that it's possible to paint with moss seed and let it grow so your image is replaced with a moss bed! It sounds really cool, I kind of want to try it.

Città di Lucca

There are a lot of places in Italy I've been told to visit, though Lucca might be the first on everyone's list when they begin to tell me of all of the towns and villages outside of Florence!! My two roommates and I have all been eager to see what the city was like so we turned today into a day trip to Lucca.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, aside from hearing that Lucca is a beautiful town and has fantastic, medieval buildings (which can describe a lot of Italy!) I hadn't looked into what the city had to offer at all, so I went with the intent to explore. I honestly had no idea it would be quite this stunning! I feel like after I visit every town in Italy I'm going to want to move there! I took more pictures than I'm sure I had to so expect a decent amount of camera-happy adventures in the next few paragraphs!

Lucca itself is contained within medieval city walls, much of which is still standing from what I believe to be the renaissance era. The wall supports a walking path much like you would see along the lakes in Minneapolis. I am having a hard time describing it any other way than saying it is like a roof-level park! It seemed like you were at a birds eye view for most of the walk around the city, something you don't see quite as often as I'd like! Italy is of course famous for the red rooftops and although my apartment has a pretty good view of a few of those red roofs in Florence, I've been wanting to get a better look at the roofs and Lucca offered that.

I'm already getting ahead of myself here, we didn't discover the roof-level park until we'd gotten fairly lost in the city. Let me back up a bit...

The city gates! The train station is a bit of a ways off from the wall, enough so where once we hopped off the train we sort of looked to each other and asked, "Is this right?" (Another fellow on the train asked me after we arrived, "Ciò è Lucca?" to which I very assuredly replied, "Sì!!," far too excited to have been mistaken for an Italian to think through my response. Good thing I was right! Phew!) I read that Lucca was once a fortress of some sort, a city not equipped for battle, but a sturdy defense and a popular trading town. I am not sure how much of the front gate is still from all those years ago, though it was phenomenal to be able to walk through those gates. The photo doesn't do it justice, the gates are much, much, much larger in person!!!

All of Lucca had really interesting architecture, still similar to Florence, though very unique in its own way. It feels older, almost. There is also a lot more green in Lucca, many more trees and vines and grass than there is in Florence! We were all pretty excited to see some green!

Another thing I wasn't expecting from this little city... How close the town was to the mountains! We haven't been this close to them thus far and getting so see them so clearly was very exciting! It was a cold day, though I am planning to head back when it's much warmer so I can stay outside to sketch. (It's only €14 roundtrip from Firenze to Lucca by train which is such a good deal.. I want to go back so many times if I can!!!)

Onto the roof top parks! The views were really amazing. Feels like I could come up with so many stories of birds living on the roofs of Italy from this perspective! (The gears in my head for senior thesis spin on.)

These roofs are so incredible!!!!

I hate to say I'm fighting off a cold, so I've yet to edit many of these pictures. The colors in person are quite a bit more vibrant! And if they're even more vibrant than this, I can't begin to describe what summer must be like. I can't wait for it to warm up!!

This is some of the architecture that is still standing from the renaissance era! I love how it's grown so green over the years! We visited on a Sunday and there were many families out walking long the roof top wall together. The kids were having so much fun playing in these areas... It must be such a blast being able to grow up in what looks like the remains of a castle!

There are three of these tall towers throughout the city!

Yes, that's snow down there. We thought we'd
escaped it...

Especially after having been to Lucca now, where it is so close to the mountains, I'd really like to find somewhere to hike and explore the mountains around Florence a bit more! I've heard so much about the castles out in the mountains that you can visit, I'm sure there are places waiting to be explored closer to home!

Lucca simply has a lot of character.. It has a different liveliness than Florence has, more trees, more grass, a lot more nature based than definitely the other parts of Italy I've explored so far (which is not much!!) It felt like a little town hidden in the surrounding mountains being protected by an ancient wall! Definitely something you would read in a novel!

Sons of Gondor, of Rohan!! My brothers!!

Fotografie supplementari!

A few photographs I've taken that I'm pretty enamored with for the subjects!

The gondolas were so much fun to see. Venice was very green
compared to Florence!

There were a few artists drawing on the streets last week,
their illustrations were incredibly detailed.

There are pigeons everywhere...!

Carnevale di Venezia

Let me introduce you to only a few of the stunning people I got to meet yesterday at Venezia Carnevale!! I've been wanting to go to the festival for years, and I finally go the chance--it was definitely one of the most amazing things I've gotten to see. Not to mention it was in the most gorgeous city on earth!!

    

The two men in the top two photographs here were absolutely perfect!!! They were super in character and very dramatic. I have so many photographs of them, but they were really one of the highlights of the day, you can tell they were having a blast being there!! Everyone wanted pictures with them!

As of now I am almost definitely going to base my senior thesis on Carnevale. I loooved the masks and costumes and this was a dream come true, I'm still really amazed I finally got to see it in person!!! Everyone was so sweet and completely in character and the colors you would see in this city... I don't know how to even describe it, I'm still in awe!!

Venice has many mask shops throughout the city and some of the masks in those shops.... I WAS GUSHING OVER THEM! They were really phenomenal and the craft of a lot of them were just simply amazing. I found a few running around €1000,00 which were just incredible! Granted, I couldn't quite afford those, though I did find a beautiful little silver and white mask that I'm absolutely in love with!

These gold masks were the ones that were quite a few euros!!

I took around five hundred photographs on Saturday.... I have so much drawing material!! A lot of the Venicians in costume were in couples which was such a great idea: they always complemented each other perfectly and it was obvious they were enjoying being in costume together. It was always very apparent where those in costume were in Venice because they would be swarmed with people taking pictures of them! They would always be posing and asking if anyone wanted a picture with them, everyone was so so sweet and in such a good mood all day! (It was Carnevale though, who wouldn't be in a good mood?)

Molto molto molto bello!

Voglio di vestire in costume uno anno! Forse con mia maschera nuova che ho comprato a Carnevale questo anno. Un costume oro e argento!! Bisogno fare un disegno mentre io sono qui. Voglio anche andare a Venezia ancora mentre sono in Italia se posso. La città è troppo bello!

Questi due erano il mio favorito!!

I forgot to mention: I took the train out to Venice for the day on Saturday. It was about a two hour ride and very smooth! I got to see a bit of the countryside. Maybe by the end of my stay I'll be able to understand what the five year old children were saying that were on the train! We booked our tickets just a day or two before we left which wasn't the greatest plan as it was fairly expensive by then. (Molto caro...) I've done some research and it looks like if I book a month ahead it's much much cheaper.. hmm... Might have to take another trip or two out to Venice :)