Ciao Readers,
I feel very guilty about my last post, this in no way is meant to be a vent blog and really all i did in my last blog entry was vent minus my reference to the Botticelli's. Since this is a Travel blog i suppose culture shock and travels abroad go hand in hand my last entry is a perfect demonstration of culture shock. I came to Italy from a rural college in the middle of no where in a one street town and now i am in one of the busiest cities in the world and i am just getting my bearings. Also, within Florence i have already gone on two traveling trips one to Tuscany and the other to Naples and Capri. and both places are very different from Florence. more trips are in store and i am very excited for traveling but it does throw you off guard when you are slowly getting immersed into one surrounding  and suddenly you are in another culture. Luckily the transition within traveling doesn't last long but it is taking time.
I think the most difficult thing thus far about Florence is not adjusting to the city but to the people. I have great house mates and i mean nothing against them  but i am from a school where being a little bit dorky is a part of fitting in. its just so bizarre and i suppose culture shocking for me to me amongst such preppy non dorky people. I feel a little lost and have felt kind of out of the loop since i arrived here.  As mentioned in my profile i am a shy person, i just never knew how shy i was until i came here. A familiar face has made all the difference for me, i'm so fortunate to have my best friend from high school here with me. Its so great to have a fellow dork and culture enthusiast here with me to take in all the sights and culture. Since we have both been in Florence we have climbed two monumental buildings the Duomo and the citadel. having her here has made my experience thus far truly awesome i can;t wait to hit up the museums with her we are fellow culture buffs her in the classics and I with my art. I also am slowly but gradually branching out and making friends within my classes.
My favorite class by far is my fresco restoration class, the teacher has restored very famous works throughout the Uffizzi as well as some of the frescoes in Pompeii. The other students in my class really appreciate art and are either visual art majors or art history majors. we talk about art history for hours on end, Vermeer is one of the top favorites, the chieftains of the Italian renaissance are as well. The depth of what it takes to make a fresco is fairly simple: simply stencil the painting you want to rework , then create a  pattern by edging the stencil, once you have pattern set pattern by dabbing pigment with a sponge on plaster that will provide the outline for the work. the rest is pretty much a paint by numbers system and adding shadowing and transparencies where needed. OK so not that simple but in a fresco lab you can turn out a work fairly quickly.

My Fresco: Taken from Venus in Botticelli's Allegory of Spring

Since i have so much in common with my fellow classmates a few of us are going to the Uffizzi this weekend i am so excited one of my classmates as already gone twice and still has yet to see more. I am so excited for my i'm filled with anticipation i promise readers once i go to the uffizzi i will write you all about it. 

A presto, 

<3 Gianna