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Birdman in Venice.....

Here is a photo of Scott and I in Venice. Before this photo was taken I dared Kim to pick up a pigeon, and without hesitation she snached one off the ground. Following the intial pick up, she then did some type of bird sleeper hold that clamed down the bird so we could touch it. After the effort put in by Kim so that we could touch the "rats of the sky," Kaylee realized she had a package of crackers. We then put the crackers into our hand and let the mangy birds with their hot feet eat from our hands. It was a fun time. The piazza must have had thousands of birds. Other than the birds being nasty....it was an awesome sight.

Birdman.....

From Rome to Venice

We have not been able to blog since leaving La Romita because the hotel in Rome charged to use the internet and we were just too busy in the big city to find any free moments to look for Internet cafes or other means of communicating... but here we are in Venice and it is our last full day!

Everything has gone so quickly here at the end of the trip. In Rome we saw the Colliseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, several musuems and churches, and many other sights along the way. We rode the Metro and ate lunch all over the city, but our dinners were at the hotel. I have no way to upload pictures now but I will add some to this entry when we return in two days.

After Rome we arrived in Venice and took a boat across to our hotel... we are staying on the island Ledo just off the coast of the main city. The island is nice, very vacation-like with small shops and a few larger stores. We went into Venice yesterday for the first time and saw the Accademia and the Guggenheim Collection! The Guggenheim was amazing... Picasso, Cornell, Tanguy, Dali, Ernst, Pollock... the list goes on and on as to the contemporary greats we saw yesterday. Personally, I was in awe.

I would write more but we are going out to find the church where Indiana Jones was filmed. Yesterday we saw where Casino Royale was shot... Venice is both culturally rich and very surreal. I keep using that word to describe the cities we visit... but this time it really applies. I mean, we are in a city that is on the water and the roads are made of water. It is pretty amazing. Tonight is our farewell dinner at the hotel, and then we are off to the airport in the morning. Flight from Venice to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Indianapolis... and we will all have stories from our own unique experiences to share when we get back.

Today we went to Todi, a nice little town that you actually have to ride in a glass case to take you up to the city. It was really cool, many of the towns here you have to use other forms of transportation to get into the main city area, like for instance in Perguia we rode up a series of escalators underground. The night before we went out to Terni. We took some group shots before we left and tried to get Marilynn in the photos, she does particularly like being photographed, so she kept hiding her face and closing her eyes...shes too cute. Leaving La Romita in the morning and heading off to Rome!!

Yesterday we stayed at La Romita and worked in the studio. It was one of our last days to spend in the studio. Some of us went to Terni to do some shopping. Today is our last day at La Romita and then we are off to Rome!!! We went to a little hill town called Todi. We were only there a couple hours so we got to see the Duomo and went inside a church. We came back here and everyone is resting and getting ready to leave tomorrow. We have a 2 hour bus ride to Rome, then we are there for 3 days. We then proceed to Venice which is an 11 hour bus ride!! I am not looking forward to that at all. Before we know, we are going to be back home!

La Romita Tour!!

Guess what!? I made you a quick little tour of La Romita so you can see where we have been staying for the past 2 weeks! Now you can get a better idea of this wonderful place. It ends a little abruptly because I ran out of memory space, but it is still fun! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

sempre pace! (pah-chay) <-peace out!

Italian Graffiti

We're only a couple days away from Rome. When we get there, I'll be doing my presentation on graffiti in Italy. We prepared the presentations before leaving for the trip, including pictures we found online to go along with our topics.

Since arriving, I've found plenty of images to reference for extra material. I had yet to upload any of these pictures, but thought I'd go ahead and share some with everyone. The top two images are from Terni, the middle is from the waterfall, and the bottom two are from Orvieto. I'm fascinated with how many pop culture references are included in graffiti here... the Darkness and Maggie Simpson make quite a combination. I also found one that simply said "Coldplay Clocks."

Down in a hole!

So as it turns out Orvieto has this huge well (248 steps down or 203 feet to be exact) into the ground that leads to a cool center and an impressive sight. It was pretty cold down there, but a lot of fun to explore. Here is a view from the bottom looking up, doesn't seem as tall, but believe me, we were down there a bit.

slide show, wine, family guy

Tonight after dinner we watched a slide show of the history of La Romita, then an episode of Family Guy. The slide show told an interesting story about how this place has become a studio/school for artists. I am so apprechiative of all the efforts it took to create it. The Family Guy episode that followed made me feel back at home! I'm a little sad that we only have a couple nights left here at La Romita.