"this is so much better than slides"

So I have reached the fact that you I am happier than ever to be in this beautiful place and the ones that I love are always in your heart so I can’t be sad and miss them. This amazing semester is going to fly by. I guess I will have to be ok with not getting naps like every other Italian and just spend it learning about Italian Fascism and all the beauty of art in Italy, or perhaps ill spend the extra hours of sleep I could get at night learning Italian from Nicole or Giacomo (if I’m ready to embarrass myself) over a glass of wine (this is vino ).

Tonight was one of those nights of learning Italian out of class. We met Giacomo and I felt like every time we talked about anything there I would go with “Como si dici” and fill in with the word we had just said in English. This helped me learn: shop, worried, clothes, doughnut, end, laugh, boring, night, try, strange, friend and fine. I find that pretty good for one glass of wine and some very good company of friends! I got to even teach Ciara something I knew in Italian. As we learned how to multiply in Italian (as if I don’t struggle with math enough) I taught HER that by using you’re 10 fingers you can find multiplications with multiples of 9, well up to 9!

Oh and about those slides. Well they don’t exist in the art history class here in Italy. We just get to travel and be RIGHT there, in front of the art. There was the Museo Civico, Sansepolcro first. There I learned that because of art restoration they can literally take a fresco from the wall and move it. When they do this they separate it from the stucco wall where they have sketched out in red charcoal the fresco. They do the fresco in sections using Plaster of Paris, giving them three hours to finish a section. Art restoration is a God send because then people SUCH AS (like was there John Rose) me can see these century old works. When we arrived at the Chiesa Di San Francesco I saw work by the father of Alberti who is connected right here to where I am living. As if seeing all of these things in person wasn’t enough, I wasn’t even ready for what was next. Our teacher and lovely helper Sara asked her father to let us in the church and he carried us under the large sanctuary and showed us the BODY of Beato Ranieri. Yes, I got to see the body of a man who preformed over one hundred miracles for the people of his time and even after.

I feel blessed beyond words today, and as the pattern for my writing so late develops, tired beyond words also! So ciao amicis (friends ) until the next beautiful adventure <3