Jul 31st 2007 09:00:00 pm

I am finally back in Eugene and I have spent the last two days uploading tons of photos and trying to catch up on emails and get unpacked. There is still so much to say about my trip to Italy, but I am going to try to cover most of it in this post.

The whole point of my trip was to participate in a historic preservation field school. We worked on documenting and conserving a historic sawmill in the town of Baceno. Below are some photos of me actually working… or, at least looking cute in a hard hat. The mill was very dusty and dirty, but I enjoyed working with power tools, stacking a stone wall, and taking inventory of all the old stuff.

As part of the field school we also had to create presentation-quality drawings of the mill and of many of the water-powered tools within it. Below is my in-progress drawing of the mortisser.

One of my very favorite days in Italy was when we hiked the Alps. We drove up a bunch of the way, but then hiked to the village of Salecchio and ate lunch at the refugio there. The views were awesome and I really love hiking. I would love to go on a all-hiking trip someday in the future. In the photo below I am posing in front of the view from the refugio.

Below are a set of stone stairs that we encountered on our hike. There are no roads up to where we went, so every visitor must climb these stairs.

One of my other favorite parts of the trip was when we went to visit a fresco expert at her villa and we were able to paint our own mini frescoes. Below you can see mine in progress. If it wasn’t painted on a 20-pound stone, I might have brought it home.

The couple who lives in the villa with their daughter were just amazing. The husband, Vince, makes incredible wood furniture and their whole property looks like a picture postcard. Below is the view from their garden. They have worked very hard on their property and home and it makes me really want to consider moving to Italy.

There are too many favorite days from the trip! On one of the last days we stopped by this amazing swimming hole. It is seriously the best swimming hole I have ever been to. I had so much fun exploring it and climbing around the rocks. The water was freezing (Alpine glacier melt), but I did not mind.

On the very last day (before our final festa), we had a stone arch building contest on the river bank. It was a lot of fun. My group went for broke and tried to surpass the previous record with a two-meter arch. We could never get the big arch to work, so we finally stopped trying and constructed a tiny one (seen in the foreground). However, the tiny arch was the only one to actually work out of the entire contest, so I guess we won. Afterward, we all jumped off a giant rock into the river. I wish I could swim there now…

I had such a wonderful time on the trip. I am very happy to be back in Eugene, but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to experience Italy. I would love to go back anytime with Travis to show him everything! To see all 600 Italy photos (the good ones out of the 2000 I took) see my Italy 2007 Flickr album.

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Jul 29th 2007 09:46:18 am

I am in the Kansas City airport waiting to get on my flight back to Oregon. The past month has been a whirlwind! When I get home I need to finish posting about my trip to Italy (above is a group shot from the trip on top of the Alps). Then, I will tell you about my short trip to Greece. Finally, I will post a bunch of photos from my brother’s wedding, which took place on Saturday. There is just too much excitement going on right now! It has been a wonderful month.

All of the flying and traveling and not sleeping has caught up with me and I am not feeling my best, but I am looking forward to getting home to my fluffy bed. Once I recover I have a bunch of home improvement projects lined up… For now, enjoy this picture of me checking out sausages in Italy.

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Jul 17th 2007 09:10:14 am

I have a little extra time on the internet today, so I thought I would post a few photos of me from the trip. I really am having a great time. I wish Travis could be here with me, but other than that, it is perfect. It is beautiful where we are staying and I feel good being a part of a historic preservation project that is benefiting the community. We only have 2 days left. Today we are working on our final presentation drawings which document the historic mill where we have been working. Tomorrow we have presentations and then a party – or FESTA, if you are Italian. It will be fun. On Thursday, I am leaving with my friend Erin for a few days in Greece. We are taking an overnight ferry there. It should be interesting and fun.

(Above is me out at night with friends, eating watermelon at the Tren dei Bimbi for lunch, and working on my final drawings.)

xoxo

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Jul 17th 2007 08:56:25 am

The trip was over a week ago, but I promised to post photos about my trip to Venice…

I left for Venice July 5th with Erin, Megan, and Kyle from my program. We spent four days there exploring the city, eating out, and riding the boat taxis. Venice is a maze and we got lost many times, but it was a lot of fun.

We rode a bus to Domodossola, then a train to Milan, and then another train to Venice. It was an easy trip.

That is me and Kyle in the Milan train station.

We visited the glass island, Murano, where they make famous glasswares, and the lace island, Burano. Burano was very colorful and cute – kinda like the tropics. We went to a glass museum in Murano which was interesting.

The two photos above were taken in the square outside Saint Mark’s Basilica. It was very beautiful… but crowded with tourists.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. I had a lot of fun with the friends I traveled with and no one got upset once! Even though I had a great time in Venice, I am so glad that the rest of my program is located in out-of-the-way Canova. It is wonderful to get to explore a more “back country” location and be away from crowds of tourists. The entire Italy experience has been awesome.

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Jul 10th 2007 09:16:16 am

Half way through my Italy trip and things are still going well. We are making progress on documenting the historic stone mill. (Above is me drawing a perspective of the mill from a rock by the river.) I am still having a ton of fun, but I am starting to miss home… and I am getting really tired of gorganzola cheese! I have a ton of photos to share! We’ll see how many I can get uploaded before I have to catch the bus back to our village…

That is me and Erin listening to her iPod on the side of the road after our professor’s car got a flat tire. Don’t worry, everything got worked out.

This is the oldest temple in the Ossola Valley. We toured it during a hike one day.

This is me and Megan and Erin during our tour of the rock quarry where all of the stone for the Duomo in Milan is harvested. We also visited the studio of the rock carvers.

That is me making pizza at the home of two of our tour guides/assistants. They are a young couple who have restored one stone home and are working on a second. They are very inspiring and fun. They hosted a big party at their home before our four-day break.

Speaking of the break… I will have to upload my photos from Venice on my next trip to town. I had a great time and Venice is beautiful!

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Jul 4th 2007 11:08:39 pm

Yes, I am still alive and living it up in Italy. Today is the first day of our four day break, and I am headed to Venice with three freinds from the program (Erin, Megan & Kyle). We have a hotel room booked and we are working on getting our train tickets. I think it will be a great time.

The program is still going great and I am having a lot of fun. Our restoration project on the historic sawmill is going well and we were featured in the regional newpaper!

Ciao!

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