Art and travel

So I splurged a tiny bit last night and bought a new small sketchpad and some good drawing pens for the trip. I am going to a region filled with some of the most amazing art I may ever see, not to mention fabulous scenery,  and I want to be sure that I am ready to capture the inspiration I am sure will strike.

I am staying 6 extra days, beyond the 2 weeks of the class. I will be heading to Tuscany, to stay in a small town called Montecatini Terme.

The great thing about this town, besides the relatively cheap prices of hotels (compared to Rome) is that it is central to a lot of places in the region. So I can hop on a train to Florence for one day, Lucca on another ... maybe Pisa too, we'll see.

There is a medieval town on the top of a hill there, with a funiculare (a sort of tram) that takes you up to the village from the modern town below.

It is a spa town too, because there are hot springs, so there are these resorts with amazing architecture that you can wander through.

Puccini was from Lucca so they have these concerts in his honor every night and I want to go there one evening after I wander around the town. I intend to continue blogging about my time there, sharing photos of the places I go after the class portion of the trip.

I cannot tell you how excited and amazed I am that I will be seeing and doing all of these things. Just over 6 months ago, I would never have thought I could do something like this. When I first saw the info for the Rome study abroad class, I thought "how nice ... I wish I could do that," with no real idea that I could. A month later I got another email from Dr. Weber mentioning and suddenly it struck me that it was something I COULD do. My mom supported the idea and lent me the money for the deposit (which I wouldn't  have had enough for since it was kind of at the last minute) I am so glad, because I could easily have let the opportunity pass me by.

Now it is creeping ever closer to the time when I will leave and so much of the preparation has taken place that it seems real now and yet I still can't completely comprehend that I will actually BE there, see the things that I have read about and seen in books for my whole life. The girl from South Texas who has never even been out of the state, except for a few border cities in Mexico, will stand in the Colosseum, St. Peter's Cathedral, the Accademia dell'Arte.

Non vedo l'ora! Ci vediamo.
(I can't wait. See you!)