Tivoli-Hadrians Villa and Villa D'Este

Tivoli was amazing too. Hadrians Villa was amazing I cant imagine having a place like that as a summer home. Its a huge palace with lush gardens and fountains. Villa d'este had one of the most amazing fountain systems ive ever seen.

Southern Italy

Southern Italy, although shorter than the other two we were on, still packed a punch. Napoli was awesome and incredibly cheap; Had lunch for under 3 euro and a good dinner for under 5. Casa Mala Parte was fantastic, such an inspiring house. Pompeii was incredible, it bewilders me how such a vibrant city can be desolves so quickly.

Paris!

Paris was an amazing experience. I've never been to a city like it. The meshing of contemporary architecture with Gothic and renaissance architecture is impeccable. So far out of all of the cities, Paris is the one I would live in. I had creme brule but no escargot. I had a Parisian crepe and it was delicious! The falafal was delicious.:-D. When and if I go back I would see a show at the Old Opera House. These are some of my favorite pictures from Paris.

the day trip to assissi was amazing, it was one of the best times ive had in rome. There were five of us who went, we got up early, at 645 to catch a supposed 745 train, which in reality didnt leave until about 8. The trip to assisi was also quite nice, we passed by the city of Narni which is what cs lewis based narnia in the chronicles of narnia after. When we finally got to the city, it was amazing, so beautiful! It was a nice day, so we decided to walk to assissi from the train station. heres what we saw.

We got into the city and the church was moving. The church of Saint Francis Assissi, ive never seen a church have 2 beautiful churches stacked on top of eachother like this church was. After going to the church, we decided to heat to the castle in assissi. It was like any other typical castle in rome, awesome. We were able to get a 360 view of assissi and beyond, it was incredible. I have never seen a place as beautiful as assissi is since ive been to Italy. We moved from the castle to our hour and a half or so long hike up a mountain to find the cave of assissi, the palce where he did much of his prayer and ministry. We found a sweet little structure along the way that appeared to be a well and water source, it was completely dark and actually contained a small sleeping bat inside:-D. So we moved on from there, trecking higher and higher, we thought we couldn’t get better views of assisi, and then we would walk for another 20 minutes and bam, we could see more and more of the land. Finally, after a 1.5 L bottle of water, we were at the monastery and the cave. It was so peaceful. The way the architecture blended in with the side of the mountain was perfect. One could feel the harmony between nature and manmade. As we prayed in the chapel which overlooked the mountain, the sun was setting, as it hit a point of about 40 degrees in the sky, thus creating a golden glow to the west facing chapel, one could hear the beards chirping and trees rustling. Serene is the only word to describe the feeling one gets when in prayer in that chapel. As we left, tired and relaxed, we knew it was getting darker, but luckily we had a downhill treck the whole way, thank God. As we approached the bottom of the hill, we looked back up at the mountain as the a full moon ecplised the mountain. Assissi, one of the most beautfil places ive been to, will always be in my mind for years to come.

The first project

These are some photos from the nine day tri

The order is

1. Como, it was snowing ridiculously hard there, so cold and so much fun!

2. This was at the supposed balcony of Romeo and Juliet, the walls were covered in love notes and names.

3. The third was a cool outdoor stadium in verona that we passed by on our way to the Scarpa museum.

4. This is the fish market in Venice. They had everything from rabbit, to salmon, to squid, octopus, and any type of fish you would want to eat.

5. This is Palladio's Villa Rotunda. One of the most beautiful buildings I have seen this whole trip.

So the 9 day trip was amazing. So many cities in such few days. Unfortunately now its back to work and actual class...Italian today. :-(. we get to miss it on thursday to get fingerprinted and entrapped in the italian system! We just got assigned project 2. I think its going to be a lot of fun. We have a great site to redevelop. I cant imagine how someone can take such precious property and just throw it away like that. A junk yard, really? its water front property in trastevere...ridiculous. This upcoming weekend is going to be a catch-up on sleep weekend and relax weekend. I can't wait. I havent slept in after 11 once since ive been in rome. Surprising I know! Alright, time to get to work!