a stitch-travelouge

last week, i returned to fayetteville from a month-long study abroad in florence, italy! i was studying art restoration, and worked on cleaning a 16th-century oil painting in the classroom, as well as restoring the guilding on a massive alter piece up five floors of scaffolding in a church in rocca imperiale, calabria, southern italy.

needless to say, it was a whirlwind! i had every intention to blog while i was abroad, but it kept getting away from me while i was visiting the uffizi, the accademia, the pietre dure, the pitti palace, climbing the duomo, finding the best gelato in all of italy, and a fabulous yarn shop! time has a curious way of getting away from me...

so, here's a bit of a montage of my favorite things i did while abroad! i took over 1500 photos, but i'll share a few gems here:

the church of santa maria del fiore, and the iconic duomo of bruneschelli: right down the street from my apartment, i walked around this awe-inspiring architectural marvel every day on my way to class. if you turn right down this street, you'll get to the yarn shop. if you go right around the dome, and take your next right, you'll find the world's best gelato.

there's also good pizza and wine if you keep going around, right next to the swatch store.

view from the top of the dome: quite a hike, but absolutely worth it.

there are great vistas all around the city. this view is from the bardini gardens.

spent a weekend in rome, and my roommate for the night took this awesome picture of me throwing my coin into the trevi fountain. you can see the coin if you look straight up from my hand, it's right above the water/winged horse's head.

the town of rocca imperiale, with a 13th-century castle on the top. it was the height of apricot and tomato season while we were there, and i ate myself sick on citrus fruit. the food here was some of the best i've ever had! i spent a week here with my classmates and professor, doing restoration and laying on the beach.

the church of st francis where we worked on the guilding, matching the colors with tempera paints.

the painting, freshly cleaned.

on the flight back, my can of coke was only a little taller than my small ball of yarn.

and i spent the night in a 'cabin' hotel room in heathrow. it. was. adorable. the word i came up for it in my sleep-deprived state: adorablesome.

stay tuned for the yarn i brought back with me, and what i plan to do with it, as well as a post about all the things i've finished in the past months!