A Different World to Tuscany, Italy

In their culture every one of their aspects is spent on sports, music, arts and food. The development of their country provides a unique religion insight. Since they are a former Spanish colony most of their food comes from a Latin American feel. You might not know but they demonstrate their heritage through art. The most common food that they have is "La Bandera" or "The Flag". In their culture that dish is made from meat rice and red beans. Their jewelry is made from bone, coconut husk, horn, and amber. As well as their artist uses clay, porcelain, hemp, and guano to make religious figurines. When you think of Italian people you think of a pretty accent, pretty hair type of person. Well that’s what I thought until my grandmother was telling me about my great grandfather. Being that he was mixed he only had the Italian hair but the American accent. At first I thought that he used to live in Italy but once again I was wrong. My great grandfather mother once lived in Italy. When she found out she was pregnant she soon moved to Virginia. Italy is home of the Roman Empire, its also a major part in the Renaissance. Italians take up 96% of the population in Italy. The remaining of the population is spreaded all over the world such as North African Arab, German, and more. My great grandfather mother was a full blown Italian where as his father was Italian but also an African American. Learning

My toes wiggling in the damp golden sand. The salty air invading my nostrils. Ocean waves are crashing up against the shore and receding back into the deep blue waters. The ultraviolet rays of the sun are heating my pale skin. William and the boys are building a large sandcastle. They cover the gleaming turrets with slimy brown seaweed and pristine white shells. The rolling hills to my right are a dark shade of green, having been healthily watered by the summer showers. Small feathery clouds move steadily through the gleaming blue limitless

For the photograph that I took, I decided to follow Weston’s theme and photograph an organic object with interesting features. I needed to find something with a vivid texture so that the photograph could allow the viewer to almost feel what I could. I searched throughout my room until finally, I found what I was looking for. It was a shell from the Pacific Ocean that I had brought back with me from Mexico. The shell had off-whites blended into browns and reds. It also had ridges running from the origin of the shell, to the outside. I found the situation to be somewhat ironic considering that Weston had lived in Mexico taking photographs, and also took pictures of shells.

After traveling for 3-hours, my family arrived at our beach house in Ocean City Maryland. After making a quick trip for groceries, we decided to go to bed and set alarm clocks for early in the morning. After a good nights sleep, I woke up to the pleasant smell of bacon and eggs. After feasting on a delightful breakfast, my brothers and I began to get ready for the beach. We went down the creaky wooden stairs of our beach house and unlocked the storage room located beneath the home. I decided to carry both of the floral umbrellas while my brothers took the portable beach chairs. After grabbing all of our gear, we headed back up the weathered stairs and towards the distant sand dunes. As we approached the entrance of the sand dunes, the satisfying sounds of the ocean's waves started to become closer and closer. Once we traveled closer, the vivid orange sun began to ascend from the deep sea. At this early point in the morning, the sand walkway enclosed by

Italy is very different then America. I didn’t picture Italy anything like that in my mind before I went. There wasn’t very many grocery stores, I didn’t find one until the third day that I was there. The buildings are very close together and I thought that everything looked the same from the outside and were very difficult to tell apart from one another. But when I happened to find the store, inside wasn’t big at all, the stores were called “mini marts.” It wasn’t really for kids but there isn’t many kids in Italy to begin with. Mostly it was an in and out kind of store. I wasn’t sure what kind of things were their popular items, so it was difficult to tell how they organized the stuff. One store that I went into, had lights around the selves

How many of you have heard of the Tuscany or Sicily regions of Italy? Or the bigger cities of Italy: Rome, Milan, Naples or Venice?

As I walk the vast stretch of beach my bare feet are mesmerized by the miniscule grains of tan colored rocks. With each step I feel my doubts and worries drift away as if a spirit came down and relieved me of them. I can reach down with my ever wanting hands and scoop up a mountain of sand and watch it in awe, as if I was standing at the base of Mount Everest, waiting in anticipation. I can feel its rough coarse texture on my warm weathered hands as the sand slips through my fingertips. I can see the various sand castles that the kids have made throughout the day. Most of them are simple with maybe one or two cylindrical towers and a shallow moat to keep out the attackers.

Out of the seven continents in the world, Italy; The seventy second largest nation in the world is located in Europe. Italy is a boot-shaped country that covers 294,149 square kilometers of land and 7,200 square kilometers of water, totaling 301,340 square kilometers and is apart of the eastern Hemisphere and located in Southern Europe. Located in the Mediterranean Sea is where this Peninsula lies and is surrounded by rolling hills, valleys, along with Alps and Apennine Mountains. Italy is accompanied by Croatia, San Marino, Slovenia, Vatican, Austria, Switzerland and France (Where is Italy). Not to mention Italy is home to some of the largest active Volcanoes in Europe.

The fresh salt smell from the ocean diffuses through the pure thick tropic air. When walking away from the beach you enter an almost mirage sort of eden, Natural Rainforest covers from where the sand meets the soil to far out into the country with every shade of green glowing. The emerald green trees sway calmly from side to side, Soon the sand turns into low laying grass, That tickles between your toes.Huddling into the exuberant verdure the beautiful waterfalls inland are like a sight of the bliss, watching them for hours would not be enough to satiate your desire to feast your eyes on that beauty of incredible merging of colours into a pool of cool crystal clear water. Nature finds a perfect way to collaborate with the buildings that look frozen in time with white and cyan coloured houses on each street, some with a slick of fresh paint and others worn down by time with chips of pain peeling of around the edges, each house with a white picket fence like out of an old film. Night brings a whole new sensory experience, as the tide comes in people leave the beaches and head to the main

During the medieval times, Florence and Siena were wealthy cities. This prosperity was shown to the neighboring towns and citizens through the arts and architectures that ushered in the new Renaissance era. Florence was a much more popular area, with many large sights to view. Even so, Siena endured the challenge of not being engulfed in the shadow of Florence by perfecting its’ own charm and splendor. Even though these cities were so close to each other, they did a great job of getting along while expressing their own individuality.

I was fortunate enough to grow up near both sets of grandparents, and I spent most of my summer vacations traveling to Italy with my parents and younger sister where we would visit great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins, and friends. Many of my fondest memories both Stateside and in Italy involve food. Regardless of which side of the Atlantic Ocean I found myself on, food has always been an integral part of my life, so much so, that it is a large part of my identity and plays a significant role in how I define myself, relate and connect with

So, we had been in Italy for over a week and we decided to go sightseeing to see some of the countryside and - believe it or not - not go birding. The small nation of San Marino, about two hours away from the Roberti’s house in Albinea, was our goal. This would be a new country for both of our life-lists and neither of us knew anything about it, other than they produced a lot of neat postage stamps. Located in the middle of Italy, we had to rely on our GPS to get us to San Marino as we had only rudimentary maps and no true ability to read or speak Italian.

This was our first time visiting Italy in winter, because as future part-time residents, we felt that it was incredibly important to experience Umbrian life in all seasons. Orvieto looked like a dreamy, fairy-tale village, uncrowded with tourists, and only a few locals milling around. The Duomo was luminescent against a backdrop of a crescent shaped moon beginning to climb the midnight sky. Regardless that Emilio’s and Patricia’s shops looked inviting and Cafè Barrique beckoned us to come in, we weren’t ready to interact with anyone yet and resisted the urge to stop in. Through the window of the Real Estate office, we saw Vanessa and Mandy engaged in a discussion, however, feeling too exhausted to be social, we walked past without saying hello. Before returning to the B&B for some well needed rest, we ate a quick casual meal somewhere nearby. Tomorrow morning we planned to “hit the ground running.”

Italy has been shaped by its history of constant warring and many rulers, which in turn has made Italians doubtful toward authority as well as giving them a strong ability to survive difficult situations (Welcome to Italy).

My grandparents live in Italy. I have visited them there three times know. I love it there it is so different from here. They live in the cutest town where there are no tourists and everyone knows each other. The town is on a slant it almost feels like you are walking down a staircase. The main part of town has three of the best Italian places I have ever been to. In the main part of town, there is also an old-fashioned parlor shop it makes me feel like I'm in a scene in an old movie. This town is so interesting and different and that's why I love it.