Rome 2008 – Day 16 (Northern Italy 01 of 04)

Sorry for the incredibly late blog updates, but I finally have a chance to sit down and get all of the photos up plus write a few things about the incredible four–day trip up to Northern Italy.

It was an early morning. We all met in front of the UW Rome Center with all of our bags packed for a four–day trip up North. We made our way to the bus, loaded up, and left for Cortona, Italy, about 200 km away. 

Our bus was proportioned funny and it had a door in the middle!

We arrived in Cortona a few hours later, a small town atop a mountain. There were a lot of opportunities of beautiful landscape shots, along with a few neat shots of people with the town’s more traditional architecture.

We visited the Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca. I also got a haircut! A little expensive at €20, but I got a head massage and TWO washes 3mm in length.

After Cortona, we left for Scarperia, a quiet, quaint little town more or less in the countryside, which was a huge and very much welcomed change to the vibrancy and intensity of Rome. We checked into our little resort hotel thingy, then headed into town to visit the Museo dei Ferri Taglienti which had a few collections of art AND hand–made knives and blades. The town is known for its three knife shops.

Afterwards, we headed deeper into the countryside and ended up at a small, family–run restaurant where we had a traditional Tuscan–style dinner. There were a lot of different meats, spreads, beautifully made pastas, breads, and wonderful desserts. It was also a great way to celebrate Lauren Jong’s 20th birthday! We found a park nearby also!

Birthday girl!

We sat outside and ate into the night. The cooler temperatures up north were very welcomed!

Here was the restaurant’s owner. Great guy!

Mel, the professional photographer with us, got pretty close to the meat.

Nicole liked the meat

Emily likes water.

The girls seemed to like my haircut.

Joey had a few glasses of wine and started posing for candid shots.

Rome 2008 – Day 15

We had a studio session today working on our revisions to our first impressions of Rome. I’ve moved away from the idea of identity and more towards the physical remains of Rome and how they carry the feelings of emotions of the culture and history through time.

Here was the first version.