Florence and Montone:Oh the Excitement!!

So, just thought I would update on the whole picture thing seeing as how we don't have too many of them up. :]  Below consists of ....interesting.. pictures from an evening in Montone, and also a few from Florence.  Enjoy!!

Below:

Kaci, Brian, and Kris touching the "creepy door." ....which is actually the door to an old prison in Montone where they beheaded their prisoners above!! Yay!!

Professors Denny and Bryce taking a delightful car ride back to Montone from dinner.  There wasn't enough room in the car, so we had to kind of.... squish, as you can see below.  Denny absolutely loved the entire thing.  No complaining whatsoever.  Haha! 

The Uffizi, which we toured on the second day in Florence.  I almost cried when I saw Sandro Botticelli's work.  I really got inspired in there. :]
The Gates of Paradise on the doors to the Baptismal.
The Dome of the Duomo.  Brunelleschi's Dome, to be precise.  Apparently it was a tough walk up.... of which I did not have the joy of experiencing.  Kaci and I assumed the line would be super long, so we took our time at what we were doing, and by the time we got there to meet some of the others, they were already inside.  Sad day.
The tower of the Duomo.  Which also looks like a tough climb, but none of us got to experience that joy either.
Me, Kaci, and Perry Jo standing in front of the copy of David outside the Uffizi.
Copy of Michelangelo's David.
And some other copies of which I have yet to look up the names for.  I knew them when I saw them, but..... forgot.  Sorry, guys.

OH MY GOSH!  This guy was hilarious.  He was dressed as cupid, and kept winking and waving at people to come over and drop money into his little basket.  I didn't do it, but I stole a picture of him anyway. :]
Well, that's it for now.  I'm hungry and we're going to the Pizzaria tonight!!!!! YAY!

Ciao,

Charity and Kaci

Update!

So, I know we're in Italia, and we seem to just be going and traveling and having a good ole time, but lets see... what was the real reason we're here? oh, yes! Classes, thats right. Well, I thought I would do a little update on just how our classes are going. I don't have a lot of pictures of our work, but I'm working on it. So, I'll show some more pics later.
When we first arrived, the classes... were... interesting... We had some issues getting started, well I did anyways. But now everything is coming together. I was very excited to see one of my paintings finishing up rather nicely today! We have been working hard though.
We have been working on print making that past two days, yeah... lets say thats been interesting too. Our supplies are limited for that field; so we're still trying to get some good prints.
This is our first couple of days when we were just drawing.
This is Bogi working on her bellisimo painting!
This is Isabella (Matteo and Rebecca's daughter) helping us clean off our printing blocks!
Oh, and heres a fun pic from Rachel's twenty-first birthday party! We all dressed up!

And this is Rachel on the phone with our beloved Gary of whom we miss so much! He called to wish her a happy birthday!

Well thats all for now, come again! We still have to post the pics of the rest of Florence so get ready!

Ciao!
Kaci and Charity :)

Oh, bella Firenze!

So we have been in Florence since yesterday morning, oh what a couple of days! When we first began our adventure in Florence we went to a walkthrough, or to us a marathon, of the Uffizi and Duomo... We stopped to take a few pictures of the city lifestyle; of which some of us had missed so dearly. As shown above! We went to many beautiful places such as: The Academia, Uffizi, San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella... But these adventures will be coming soon with pictures! We just wanted to let you know what we've been up to! We still don't have a good internet connection, blah!.... Ciao! Time for dinner!

Kaci and Charity

Si Si Assisi! Silencio!

So Saturday we went to the beautiful quaint town of Assisi.

We had many interesting encounters while we were there. It all started with Charity lusting after all the very, oh so cute Italian boys! Isabella on the otherhad (Rebecca and Matteo's daughter) decided to chase the pigeons instead of boys it was adorable! We had an awesome shopping spree while we were in Assisi! The first thing Charity and I bought were these amazing scarves to match our outfits! Then we found some leather bound journals that we had to have! I bought a knife and the man that sold it to me said that I speak perfect Italian! I was pretty stoked! At the end of the day we went to get some yummy yummy gelato! As we sat down to eat this wonderful creation, Perri Jo told us an interesting story that happened to her in this quaint town of Assisi.

She told us how they were trying to feed the birds, and an Italian called her an 'idioto Americano' for feeding the pigeons. Then later in the day she was called a 'stupid Italian' by an American. You might say she had a rough day, but it turned out for a funny story.

As we walked through the town we encountered both Jesus and a green monk. (These were two men posing as statues) We took pictures of the monk and gave him some euros and he blessed us with the ringing of his bell and by giving us a piece of paper with inspiring words written upon it, of which Charity had to fight desperately for. This monk had a sense of humor, which was quite entertaining to watch!

Now about the things we actually went there to see...

Church of St. Claire

The only pic I got inside...
The next was the church of St. Francesco (I forgot how to spell it)

I know there aren't as many pictures of the churches (that were amazing and beautiful) but we couldn't take any pictures inside... :( Oh, and they also had monks inside the Francesco that kept saying, 'silencio! shhhhhh.... silence!!!' into a microphone every ten minutes. Which we all kind of laughed at. But it was an amazing place!

Ciao for now!

Kaci and Charity :)

Orvieto and Arrival in Montone!!

So after being picked up by the adorable Italian bus driver, we proceeded to go to the town of Orvieto, where Kaci decided that she forgot her... oh no.... BELOVED SUNGLASSES! We hurridly purchased a new pair for 5 euro. Yay!

We then got on a tram which took us up a beautiful mountain/hill side thing, where we arrived at the Duomo (we forgot how to spell it). The wow factor was like.... BAM! times 10 billion. There is no words for it's awesome - seriously.

Afterwards Brian, Charity, and Kaci went to lunch. We frantically searched for a non-touristy restaurant where we could eat a "real" Italian meal. Brian then tried to order in Italian.... he did ok. Although, the woman couldn't understand a word and went to get her mother who spoke like.. 5 words of English if even that. We ordered some amazing stuff though, in the end. Brian liked his pasta very much. :] In the midst of leaving, the wind decided that the day the Americans came to Italy would be the time to blow the tram tickets out of Bryce's pocket and into the abyss of the Italian countryside. Sadly, we had to pay for new ones... the Italian woman was quite the crab about the whole situation. She clicked her pincers furiously at us.

The arrival of Montone: ORANGE.

That is all we saw as we approached our new home. Hotel Fortebraccio: friend of wayward American students looking for Italian adventure. We were greeted by the most "super" Italian, Super Mario (said in an Italian accent), and as Della calls him, Ratatouille.... he speaks 5 languages including French, which explains the name. Duh. That night we went to dinner and met the most amazing couple who would be our guides for the next month: Rebecca and Matteo. AWESOME.

Ciao for now, yo.

Charity and Kaci.

Don't be late to the gate! Yet the gate was late...

So finally our story for you can begin.... yay internet!

We arrived at the airport at around five am... eww! None of us had very much sleep so you can imagine how our day went! Luckily none of us got stopped at security, and we proceeded to the plane. Which boarded twenty minutes late. We flew from Tulsa to Newark. Which is in New Jersey I found out. Once in Newark we had a six hour lay over! even more eww. But we found ways to pass the time such as: moving walkways, gelato, and practicing Italiano! And of course making fun of Bryce Brimer, our wonderful papa professor! Who we had to wait on for like half an hour every hour, ha ha! Before the eight hour flight from Newark to Rome, Charity forced me to take a Dramamine, since she sat in front of me and did not want to be vomited on :) Lets just say I woke up for meals only. They told me that we were on the taxiway for an hour before we actually took off, but I was not completely aware of my surroundings at the time.... But we made it safely to Rome in about 7 1/2 hours. Once in Rome, Charity proceeded to throw all of our baggage at us from off the luggage belt. You must remember she is a boyscout! Yay Charity!

Once we had our baggage we were flagged down by our very nice looking Italian bus driver Amelio!

So for introductions we have:

Charity and myself (double perfection) who will be hosting your blog for the next four weeks!

From left to right

Della - Amazing! Shes so sweet!

Kris - Funny, sarcastic, and loves his music!

Bogi (Amanda) - Sweet with awesome purple hair!

Rachel - First time flying! Shes tiny and quiet but very sociable at the same time!

Me

Charity - Hilarious! So lovable! She gets excited about everything! Especially Italian boys!

Brian - Sweet guy, very intelligent!

Bryce (papa) - .... yeah .... no just kidding! Hes an easy going fun guy that is organized! And loves his air guitar!

Perri Jo - She has an amazing smile! Quite funny, and an olympic swimmer!

Carl - Technologically advanced, very creative, and a sweetie!

Denny - Sarcastic but nice. He has hilarious facial expressions! Taking pictures of Italy's amazing graphic design work.

Not pictured but coming soon: Nicole (Bryce's wife) - So so sweet, and quite funny :) She's momma there for us all!

Our first successful blog brought to you by Charity and Kaci at the front desk at the Fortebraccio!

Ciao!

Kaci and Charity :)

Ciao!

We are officially in Montone! It will be a little bit before I get to post a good blog; we are having internet issues :)... But the hotel is amazing!!! Brand new so its worth the wait for the internet :)
We are off to explore our new home, sorry its so short, til next time! Ciao! Kaci Alicia

Introduction and a little of this, a little of that.

My name is Kaci Scott and I will be posting from Italy in two days and counting. :) I am a Jr. at RSU in Business Administration, but I have a passion for art. I am super excited for this trip! And I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!

So, the finals are over thank goodness! Now it's on to packing, laundry, and saying goodbyes! I had an email sent to me saying my bag could only weigh 40 pounds... Lets just say I don't have a reputation for packing light... My suitcase minus the clothes already weighs 13.6 lbs.. I'm a tad nervous; I have my scale downstairs with my bag to weigh every couple of hours, ha ha.

I still am sad to leave everyone behind, but I know the trip will be worth it. The trip, I'm sure, will fly by. I will miss my two pup pups pretty bad tho...

This is my Tobi, with his big puppy eyes. :)

And this is my polar bear, Pokie :)
Also with my wonderful beaux Justin who I will miss so much!

But anyways, like I said, this trip will deffinately be worth it! So I'm signing off to go pack, and to go give Bryce some forms I got a threatening email about. Til next time, feel the love all, Kaci Alicia