Howdy!
Today was peaceful and relaxing but still productive with activities and informative presentations from our student leaders. Now that we’ve spent a few days in town, we are all getting to know our friendly little Italian home Castiglion Fiorentino.
We started the day with a casual breakfast and split up into two smaller groups. The first group spent their morning taking printing press art lessons inside the walls of the old city. Rick Woodberry, originally from Colorado, graciously hosted us in his private studio. Everyone was given a pane of plexiglass which we decorated in our own creative way using the inks they provided, and sometimes leaves or flowers from outside to create natural designs. Once we finished, we placed our paper into water in order to soften it, then dabbed it dry with a towel before placing it onto the plexiglass. We then used the press to imprint our artwork from the plexiglass onto the paper. We all admired the creativity and beauty of our friends’ designs. When pressed onto the paper, the image imprinted backwards from what we intended, so it was tricky to visualize what we wanted our final product to look like and to apply that to our monotype print. He even taught us the proper way to to sign our print!
Afterwards, we enjoyed a group lunch together at the outdoor restaurant called The Gardens, the same place as Sunday’s lunch. We enjoyed our meals while absorbing the valley around us. We enjoyed the olive trees, palm trees and grape vines, the fresh mozzarella and olive oil, the crisp warm breeze, and the cheerful church bells singing noon. This is exactly how a Mediterranean summer should be.
The two groups then switched, and those in the art class then moved to the newly opened classroom right across the street from our hotel to get a presentation from our student leaders, while the second group moved to the art class on the hill. Afterwards, we all returned to the hotel to relax. Some of us took a dip on the rooftop pool, while others decided to hike to the archaeological museum at the heart of the city.
By the end of the day, we were planning for our trips to Florence this week, by reserving tickets to climb ‘il duomo’ of the main cathedral in the city. We also listened to student presentations about the history and culture of Florence and made plans to meet up at the train station tomorrow morning.
We had some fun with gelato tonight and danced and sung to some Italian (and English) karaoke, then called it a night to be well rested for tomorrow.
Arrivederci e buona notte,
Faris
