Beautiful.Broken.Amore: Oggi in Italia...

Oggi Piove...

Today it is raining here in Firenze..reminds me of home. While I miss my family and my friends a lot, I definitely do not miss Ohio's not so lovely weather!

This morning I went to Italian as usual, when I got there I was surprised to see that more then half of the class was missing. Gloria, my professor (who is the cutest & funniest little Italian lady who likes to laugh at things that Americans do that does not make sense to her, she really is funny) felt the same way and she sat down and sighed and asked out loud what are we supposed to do now. A girl spoke up and said we should go to a bar to get expresso somewhat joking but not really...Gloria smiled and she said hm that is not a bad idea. Then she started to pack her stuff up & said vado (to go, let's go) Ha! I'd like to see a professor at KSU do that. Once Gloria was done writing a note on the board (in case any students showed up so they would know where we would be) and drew her little pictures she is known for we left for al bar per un caffè. We enjoyed latte's and cappuccino's as Gloria showed up pictures of her family and told us funny stories. She is such a little sassy sweety pie I want everyone to meet her haha. Anyways, so that was not a bad way to start this rainy day.

Gloria & the note she left on the board

un bar

I just got back from touring the costume gallery at Palazzo Pitti....

Front of Pitti

Sidenote: a little background on Palazzo Pitti for those who might not know anything about it, thanks to Wikipedia...The Palazzo Pitti (Italian pronunciation: [pa ' lattso ' pitti]), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance Palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.

The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.

We visited the gardens here when I got to Florence...it is pretty amazing. The Medici family had a huge impact on Florence and I hear that name constantly here. Anyways, the gallery contains a collection of theatrical costumes dating from the 16th century until the present. It is also the only museum in Italy detailing the history of Italian fashions. In addition to theatrical costumes, the gallery displays garments worn between the 18th century and the present day as well as garments worn by Cosimo Medici & his wife Eleonora of Toledo. The pieces where awesome to see and I will definitely be using them as inspiration as I continue to work on a project for my Product Development class. My group is designing a collection for Valentino for the Fall/Winter 2012 season. We have to basically do everything product developers do in the industry today then we present our final project to our class and the class decides who has the best and so on...I love it so far. We have the best inspiration right at our fingertips here in Florence as well as when we where in Paris. Love it.

View of the back of Pitti Palace from the Boboli Gardens

After the visit there I stopped in a few stores then ventured home to escape the rain. I figure it is the perfect night to snuggle up, journal, sketch some designs, and relax with some tea and music. Perfecto!

Well there ya go, another day in Italia

I got some mail from my Grandpa the other day & I love hearing from people back home so I was really excited to get it and had to give him a shout out =] Since I'm not traveling this weekend my goal is to post at least two more times before I leave for London....here's to the weekend!