Our Humble Abodes

Somehow I got lucky almost every place I stayed. The first room in our Paris hotel was a triple, which was twice the size of a regular room. I was not as lucky at the hostel in Florence, but in Venice my roommate and I happened to get the corner room, which was one of the biggest. When we went to Milan, our room again happened to be the one on the corner, where we got a wrap around balcony on the third floor, with amazing views of the city.

View from my Paris hotel room

Fashion Museums

We went to different fashion museums in each city, starting with the Madame Gres exhibit in Paris at the Bourdelle Museum. This woman was a master at draping and created many beautiful dresses, coats, and more. She gave her final dress to Givenchy, who financially supported her final collection. Her garments had a 17th century art work influence. You can follow the link for more information on the collection:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/madame-gres-paris-exhibit-is-ode-to-draped-fashion/

The following museums we entered were Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, which I mentioned previously. We then went to the Roberto Capucci Museum in Florence. We saw many great works on display, but unfortunately could not take any photographs so below is a copy of a postcard I bought in the museum of a dress on display. Capucci is one of Italy's most influential and imaginative artists, which you can see in the modern color, form, and silhouettes of his clothing.

Next we went to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence. Here we got to see many, many of his incredible shoes on display. I have also included a link for more information about this exhibition:
http://museoferragamo.it/en/mostre-incorso.php?id=28

Classic

Milan

Our final destination on the trip was Milan. Surprisingly, this was my least favorite city, as it lacked the beauty of the other places we had been and looked a lot more worn down, with graffiti covering many buildings. It was definitely not as much of a "city" as I had hoped it would be. It was our first day here, June 27th, that I turned 21, but it didn't matter anyways since you don't get carded for alcohol unless you are at least about 16 years of age.

I was lucky to have made such good friends on the trip who ensured that my birthday was amazing! We went to Corso Como after eating dinner at a delicious sushi restaurant. Corso Como is known for its fun club and bar scene. It was just too bad my birthday was on a Monday, the least popular night to go out in Italy.

Gondola Ride

Since we were in Venice, we just had to go for a gondola ride! Apparently the people who row these boats need schooling and are very experienced professionals. Our boat rower said he has seen many proposals while taking someone out. Wonder if he's seen anyone say no?

really liking to take advantage of tourists.. we all paid 20 euros for this

Venice

On June 24, we took a bus to Venice, which has a completely different feel than Florence. It is amazing how an entire city is surrounded by water, a place where a boat is required to get around. All of this water and the bridges made for a spectacular, beautiful city! One day, we even went to Lido beach, much like any beach in the United States, except that most women were topless and men wore speedos.

Leather Making

We went to the Leather School in Florence, where we got to witness how the leather is crafted into handbags. We also got to learn about the different types of leather and how to know when it is real. For example, calf leather is stretchy and I learned that alligator leather doesn't last a very long time because it dries out.

ALL kinds of leather

Creating..

Voila!

If you want to sign up for a class during your visit:
http://www.scuoladelcuoio.com/scuola-del-cuoio-about-us.html

A Trip to Piza

One afternoon my friends and I decided to take a bus ride to Piza. I mean, who doesn't want that epic picture holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza? It only took about an hour from Florence and was about 10 Euros. The tower was wider and smaller than I imagined, but pretty cool nonetheless. While we were in this small town of Piza, we passed a long street of shops, and had a pasta dinner where we had great view of the tower.