Come state?... STO MOLTO BENE!!!!

It's the small things here that make me fall more in love every day. Like when there are clothes hanging out to dry and all the buildings are such a muted color that the clothes pop out as if a piece of art on a wall. Like the courtyard that my bedroom door opens up into and the sun that floods in through the windows by 5am every morning. The days are so long here. It's the laid back atmosphere of the italians who take a siesta every day from 1-4 just to rest. Everything closes down and everyone naps. How awesome is that? It's the fact that I only have four pairs of shoes here (as opposed to my 60 pair at home) and they each serve their purpose. It's all I need. Life is just simple. At home buildings are just buildings. Every once in a while Ill find one that strikes me and that I feel something for but here I fall in love with the structure of their city, the colors of their walls, the plants that grow up the side of villa, the cobblestone streets, the narrow alleys, the terraces covered in olive trees, and the fact that a right angle doesn't exist anywhere here. It's like one huge modge podge that was carefully constructed to be beautiful and to look like no thought was put into it at all. Even the people are beautiful. I've never seen such beautiful skin and these striking faces that make you want to stare. It makes me wonder why in the world they are enthralled by our appearance. We are so boring in comparison. I haven't straightened my hair once since we have been here and I've only been able to blow dry it twice... this sounds petty but at home I wouldn't dare leave the house without running a straightener through. Here, it doesn't matter. I don't care. My surroundings are so beautiful, why try to keep up? haha. They use every beautiful aspect of the landscape to make their cities even more beautiful. I love the cities that are on mountain sides like here in Cortona and like Vico Equense. The view is just absolutely amazing. 

I started my classes today. I had ceramics this morning. It was amazing to watch my professor throw on the wheel. I could have just watched all day long. It was very relaxing and beautiful to watch her hands work. She made it look so easy. Our first assignment is to choose an animal to sculpt that we feel we identify with. She ask, if we have a animal spirit what would ours be? Kind of weird... but you know art people. So I've been trying to think of that all morning and I think I'm going to choose some sort of bird. Im not sure which kind but if I could be anything right now it would be a bird so that I could fly above and see all of Italy at one time. It just seems like it would be so free and wonderful to be able to fly.