Buon Compleanno a Mark

Another beautiful day in Italia. It has yet to rain on me here except our first night which only added to my inability to sleep which had much more to do with jetlag than the rain. Today is yet another sunny one, though it has gotten a slight bit hotter. I'm not one to complain though about heat when it is not accompanied by miserable humidity like in Tennessee. I recently heard a rumor going around that this weekend will be cooler; I'm hoping this is true because I'm planning on walking to Piazzale Michelangelo on the other side of the Arno tomorrow with FUA and then hopefully riding out to Fiesole with Emily on Saturday. The countryside will be a nice change from all this city. I love it - don't get me wrong, but some fresh air could be nice.

As far as classes go, I just returned from my last one, and for the most part, they will all be enjoyable. We even went on a sight visit in my architecture class today - the first day! We went to the duomo (just the outside unfortunately) and then to the Opera del Duomo Museo (or something like that - it's the museum that accompanies the duomo) and toured around. Since I had already recieved free entry to the museum through my class, I stayed for a while afterwards to look around. Michelangelo's unfinished "La Pietà" was there - beautiful, as well as the original panels to Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors for the Baptistry. I wish I'd had my camera with me, but seeing as how this was the first day of class and I had no idea we would do a sight visit, I did not bring it along. The bronze panel doors were incredible (Dad, you should be reading about or have read about them at the beach in the book I gave you before I left, Brunelleschi's Dome). They are these huge doors on the east side of the Baptistry next to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Each panel depicts a different scene from the Old Testament. I spent so much time in that room - they were incredibly detailed.

My other classes are alright as well. Writing about Florence will surely be an enjoyable class that will feed right out of my journals - most likely an excellent supplement to my own record keeping. The teacher is, well... British among other things. Bookbinding I don't even need to say anything about because it's called bookbinding. Graphic Design also has a British teacher who, though I think I'm the only one that found it funny, kept saying words like "clutter" with an American accent when no one understood his British. Italian is going to kill me. And Italian Regional cooking I absolutely love! The teachers' names are Fabbio and Duccio. Yep, that's right - Fabbio. I loved it.

Man, I promise I don't mean to make these things so long; it just happens. And, send me e-mails if you haven't already. I feel lost as to what's going on in your lives! So, send me beautiful updates.

And...

Happy 21st Mark! Spero che è bella e divertente. Let me know how it goes.