Assisi to Milano...

Well for the past two weeks or so I have basically been adjusting to living in Rome. So far it is going well for the most part. Where I left off is before we went to Assisi and Perguia. Assisi was amazing. It is that beautiful little town that you picture in Italy. The buildings range from before 100 BC to the new ones from the 15th Century. It is amazing to see how they take a Temple of Minerva and transform it into the Church that it has become today. I got a chance to really wander around the Basilica of Saint Fransisco, which was beautiful. To your right you can see the view of part of the town and the castle that sits above the town. I didn't get a chance to get up to it since I instead choose to wait and go to mass at the Basilica. From that we went to Perguia, which was a nice little town. Nothing amazing. There were some ancient parts and a pretty old Fortress but it really didn't seem that special to me.

Then classes started up the week after. I am taking Ancient Rome: Myths or Facts, which seems good were are learning a lot and next week we start our field studies for that class, not that I know what they are since we don't have a syllabus for the class yet. Hopefully I will get that today. Then I have Mystics, Saints and Sinners: The Medieval Catholic Church, so far it is pretty interesting, we have been studying Augustine who is interesting but too wordy for me. Italian Contemporary Politics is probably my favorite class so far, it is soo different from here and its really fun figuring it all out. Then I have Roman Architecture and Urban Design, which is going pretty well, its mostly a different way of approaching history that I am used to which is a nice change. We had class in the Roman forum last week and have it in the Coliseum this week which should be good. Then I am of course taking Italian which is going well. I am starting to learn more and more and can kind of use it. I'm working on it all and we will see how it goes.

This weekend I went to Milan. It was really great. Had a chance to really spend some time with Nurre and just talked a lot, which is something we haven't had time to do much lately. We also got to see a lot. The Duomo was amazing. It is the third largest church in the world and surpassed the Basilica of St. Fransisco as my favorite church so far. We also saw a lot of other little churches including the Church with the "Last Supper" in it, but not the actual painting since we didn't even plan are trip by the time we would have needed to make the reservation. We also just wandered and window shopped. Which was great being that Milan is the fashion capital of Europe. There was also this little canal area Navigli which was pretty fun to people watch and we stopped in a bar and watched the Milano v. Roma football (soccer) game. Sadly Roma lost. Hopefully I will get to a game while I am out here.

In between all of this I have been exploring a little bit around Rome. I am thinking I am going to do the Vatican Museums either Wednesday or Thursday and like I said I get to go to the Coliseum this week to. Just trying to hit a little bit at a time. Not sure if I will travel much this weekend but I am at least going to be going on a day trip to see the Roman Castles so we will see how it is all going to go. Thinking about maybe a day trip down to the Amafli Coast. Who knows. So things are basically good. Lots of possible travel plans that I just need to figure out at some point. But I am sure wherever I end up it will be amazing.