vineyards and olive orchards

After the first couple of days of the workshop had passed, I had already begun to familiarize myself with Siena and being in Italy in general. These two days were spent drawing exclusively in Siena, and the next part of the program would take us out and around other areas and towns of Tuscany. These locations were generally pretty close, about an hour long drive from Siena, and we traveled by bus. One of these places was San Gimignano, a small, medieval-like town, surrounded by rolling hills of grape vines and olive trees. We first went to paint and draw in this area, outside of the many tourists and commotion found within the city walls. This experience was amazing, as we were given the chance to wander around the fields, gathering inspiration to create our art. The whole experience would have been heightened even greater, had it not been for the cloudy, partly rainy, chilly weather. The fact that I didn't bring a jacket also made the situation more unpleasant, despite being surrounded by the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Nevertheless, the aspect of the rainy weather added to the adventure, even if it did hinder our time spent drawing outdoors.

Here's a location we visited in Siena during the morning of our second day. We tried to take advantage of these short moments of sunlight as the cloudy weather that would continue throughout the week began to set in.

The Piazza del Campo, the main plaza in Siena.

Some vineyards just outside of San Gimignano.

Another view of the endless vineyards! In this photo, you can see San Gimignano peaking out the top of the farthest hill. 

Many of our busy days would end similar to this; simply enjoying the gorgeous view of Siena from the B&B (with a glass of wine of course).

Benvenuto a Siena

(May 19th, 2015 - May 20th, 2015)

[ Welcome to Siena ]

The first day of my painting and drawing workshop was a pretty exciting one. That morning, the two other girls who I traveled with checked out of our hostel, and walked over to the hostel where we were supposed to meet the rest of our group and our instructor, painter Bruce Aiken. This proved to be very easy, since this new hostel happened to be directly next door to the one we had just spent the night at. We were the first ones to arrive, but soon after, Bruce and the other students showed up as well. In total, there were nine of us attending the program, all girls. To begin our time here in Italy, we were assigned rooms in the hostel where we'd be staying during our time in Siena. Since there wasn't enough room in the primary hostel, my two other travel companions and I were asked to room at a different place across the Piazza del Campo (the main plaza in the city), a B&B. We followed Bruce as he led us over there, and when we finally finished climbing the 4 or 5 flights of stairs up to our quarters, we were amazed by the view. From our rooms, we had a breathtaking panoramic view of the city that made all the stairs completely worth it. 

The first couple of days in Siena began early in the morning at 7 am. The mornings were spent walking around the town to beautiful locations that highlighted the character and charm of the city. Once there, we would take out our art supplies and draw or paint for a few hours. As far as art supplies goes, I brought along a variety of drawing mediums (watercolors have never appealed to me) including chalk pastels and graphite pencils; the two which I used most often over the course of the trip. Fortunately, these first two days proved to be great in terms of weather; however, this became a very different story as the week progressed.

All of these above images were taken from the B&B where I was staying. The last image captured the sunrise from an open window, which I got to witness every morning due to the fact that we had to wake up pretty early.

Probably my favorite panoramic view of Siena! It captures both the cathedral and the characteristic geometric buildings; various tones of 'sienna' with green shutters.

The first work of art I started during the workshop.

My first genuine Italian pizza!

Yet another photo taken from the B&B; this one shows just how close we were located to the Siena cathedral, and how beautiful it looks lit up at night.

Italy bound

(Sunday, May 17th, 4:30am.)

The start of my trip to Italy began early in the morning, as I woke up before sunrise in order to catch my first flight from Phoenix to San Francisco. The experience of flying by myself for the first time became even more stressful as my flight started boarding as I waited impatiently in the security line. Luckily, I managed to arrive at the gate with a few minutes to spare. I spent the flight listening to music and trying not to fall asleep, since I wanted to start adjusting to Italy time.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, I met up with two other girls who were attending the same program that I was. We decided to make good use of our ten hour layover by taking the BART downtown and wandering around the city. We walked along Market St. and eventually made our way to Chinatown, where we spent some time browsing the kitschy stores. After a few hours in the city, we returned to the airport to relax before our long flight across the Atlantic. By this point, I was beginning to get a bit sleepy, and I knew that falling asleep on the plane wouldn't be too difficult.

Once in the air, I started watching Interstellar, paused the movie halfway through to get some rest, and resumed watching later on. The rest of the flight was pretty long and uneventful. I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, where I had to get on my final flight to Florence. Once there, the two other girls and I made our way to the bus station in Florence's city center, where we bought tickets to take the bus to our final destination: Siena! Although we were pretty much on our own in terms of traveling and arriving on time, the whole experience went very smoothly. Jet lag began to kick in a bit on the bus ride, and I dozed off for the majority of it.

When we finally got to Siena after many hours and various vehicles of transportation, it was already dark outside, which made locating our hostel a more difficult task. Fortunately, after wandering around for about forty minutes, we settled into our hostel and were finally able to get some rest. The painting and drawing workshop would officially begin at 11am the next day.

The beautiful sunrise on the drive to the airport! I like to think that it was a pretty good omen for the start of my journey.

San Francisco's Chinatown.

Florence from the air.

A brief first glance of Florence from the bus as we headed to Siena.

The view from the window of our room at the hostel where we stayed overnight upon arriving in Siena.