Villa Field Trip

I had a Villa Field Trip today and woke up at 8:10 in order to get to the train station by 9. I ran into Michelle and Michael on the way to the station and we walked together. When I got there it was only Gobbi Sica (our teacher), Iris (the chaperone), two professors that teach at NYU (married to each other) and then the 3 other coupls in our class. I was getting scared that noone else would show and I'd have to spend the day with like 4 couples. But thankfully the rest of the students eventually showed up and Ellie offered to be my date :). After around a 45 minute bus ride we finally arrive at the first Medici Villa - Villa Medici at Artimino. But unfortunately there was an event being held in the villa and even though we made a reservation we weren't going to be allowed inside. So we walked around the exterior and then our super awesome teacher barged into the building and the people in charge eventually caved and let us atleast see the 3rd floor of the building. It's a shame we weren't able to see the 2nd floor of the building because it is supposed to be magnificent but the 3rd floor is better than nothing. We then got back on the bus and headed to our second villa. There was a restaurant across the street from the villa where we all went for lunch. I brought a peanut butter sandwich and an apple and ate that while everyone else enjoyed a nice meal. The two professors bought us all wine (I had a soda instead). We thought the school would have treated us to lunch but instead we had to pay for it. But even so it was really cute going to lunch with the class. We then went to the next villa - Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano. This villa was incredible. It had a sun dial on both the front and back facades and it was just a beautiful building. On the inside there was a private theater for special performances. There was also an amazing art collection upstairs with rooms devoted to painting of flowers, cytrus trees, weird animals and much more. In the back there was a romantic style garden that sadly was not being so well maintained, but was still beautiful to walk through. We then got back on the bus and went home. I then hurried back to the apartment and got ready for shabbos. I don't have a watch so I set up my computer so that it would stay on all shabbos so I could see what time it is and won't start getting dressed for shul if it's 6am. Unfortunately as I was rushing my laptop fell out of the case and fell on the floor and the DVD drive broke :(. Now every time I turn on my computer the DVD drive makes really scary noises. Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon...
until next time!
-arrivederci