The Best of the Best

Twelve days since my last blog post... not because I have little to write on at all. It has been jammed packed with a lot of my favorite days of the trip. 

To begin with, the Vatican took my breath away all day. In a strictly art history sense, the art there is incredible. But, my favorite was the emotional relationships between the people in the artwork. Michelango's relationship between God and man in the Sistene Chapel and in the Pieta held true to what I know and experience. Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ picks you up and puts you into his scene of Jesus' power and our weakness. Its replica is one the many mosaics in the massive St. Peter's Cathedral. Another highlight of the day was eating wine and cheese and watching the bachelor with Claire and Coco. We then ate dinner in the Piazza Novella with Italian guitar players and Bernini's fountain. We also saw Bernini's St. Teressa, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Proserpina. One girl in our group started crying when she saw Apollo and Daphne; it's incredible. We also chased Caravaggio around Rome. He is somewhat of the bad boy of art and his paintings show it. He has more passion and understanding of people and the Bible than any other artist I've seen.

The next morning, after much confusion of the meeting place and location of the car rental place, I met my parents in Rome and we were on the road. I got to show them my favorite Duomo so far, in Orvietto, then went to one of my favorite places I have ever stayed, a remodeled modern villa outside Orvietto. We had a three hour dinner on the terrace with a beautiful view and wonderful food. The next day we went back to Orvietto to my favorite pottery place, where Mom and Dad bought a backsplash. That night we met our spirited villa owner and had a wonderful dinner in a small town (I am in love with gnocchi). The next day, we went to a castle that's the Italian equivalent of Monticello. The second president of united Italy lived there and there are rooms dedicated to his science and armory. I stayed there and drew the castle and we reunited for a dinner in Siena. It was lovely at night. Most of the tourists left and we sat in the Piazza del Campo with gelato and talked and watched a parade practice for the Palio. 


The next day was my favorite. We drove around during the morning and ended up in the Brunello wine country and stopped in a town for lunch. We asked for directions from a lady, Giudy Parisi and she walked with us to her favorite restaurant. We asked her for a recommendation of a vineyard to see, and she told us that her family owned a small vineyard right outside the city and that she would take us over the right after lunch. It was just about the most Italian expierience I will ever be a part of. Her dad. Annibale Parisi welcomed us outside their house, “nostra vita,” which means “our life” and showed us his gardens of cherries, herbs, and of course grapes. They showed us their wine vats and explained everything about the art of making the wine. Italians prefer to know the land and work with it. They keep the best wine in seasoned barrels for three years before moving into metal vats for two years. My favorite part was seeing Annibale’s workshop. He makes  increcible furniture, with the natural shape of the tree. He bought the liscense to a book of local history and reprinted and bound copies of it. He has and seventy book collection of samples of seventy tuscan trees. His paintings are all over his workshop and he hand paints each label of his Brunello wine. They were hospitable in the most relaxed way and I enjoyed just being around them and seeing their life. Dad bought wine, but Annibale gave me a bottle as a gift and Mom an apron. That night was another authentic experience with dinner made by our villa hostess with other people staying there, including people from Utah, South Africa, Florida, and California. Mom and Dad dropped me off the next day in Castiglion. This may sound cheesy, but my parents and I's experiences and conversations together those days are some of the greatest gifts of this six weeks in Italy. I will have those memories forever.


Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I got to relax and draw in Castiglion. Then, we headed off to our last day in Florence. It included Santa Croce monastery and the Uffizi, where I loved Botticelli's paintings. Like the vatican, the Uffizi is masterpiece after masterpiece and it was really amazing to see it in chronological order and get a better understanding of the timeline of Italian art.


Cinque Terre might be my favorite place on earth. I got in late from Florence and met up with the A&M group that I stayed with. I wish I could describe well enough how kind they were to me. They welcomed me in as one of their own and put me at ease. They helped me and included me the whole time. Cinque Terre is a grouping of five small towns on the western coast of Italy, near Pisa. It has rock beaches with the most blue water I have ever seen and stucco, painted houses. My favorite part of the weekend was the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso. It took us about 2 hours but it was all gorgeous and fun. We then had lunch and rented kayaks and paddled over to a waterfall that you can only get to by boat. It has moss at its base that feels like green shaggy carpet. The weather was perfect so we sat in the sun there before we went back to the beach and sat in the sun some more. We went to a Jazz festival that night (last night) and walked around the La Spezia, where we stayed. Today we came back tired and a little sunburned. These twelve days have been days filled with relationships and getting to be with people, which has been my greatest joy so far.