Last week we had our final trip of the program, a four day tour of Spolato, Perugia, and finally ending in Assisi. Not knowing what to expect definitely resulted in a nice surprise, as all three destinations far exceeded my expectations. All three towns were very quiet and quaint, tucked away in the foothills of northern Italy. While it was a stark difference from our previous trip on the coast, it was equally interesting and relaxing. Spending the weekend sketching and painting was great for getting consistent practice with on site watercoloring. While I focused on monochromatic I'm excited to get to start working in color over the next couple of weeks.
One of the highlights would definitely have to be our morning spent in Perugia. Annie and I went out early to sketch and paint, posting up on a wall overlooking the city and across the valley to Assisi. We had just finished our first watercolors and were letting them dry on the ledge, when a gust of wind ripped my painting out of the watercolor pad and blew it into the chain link fence catchment below. Well after leaning over the edge in disbelief for a solid ten minutes we went to work trying to retrieve the painting that was obnoxiously just out of reach. After another thirty minutes of brain storming we finally came up with the wonderful contraption of two umbrellas from the uppity hotel up the hill, fixed together with my new purse, and a wad of three pieces of chewing gum at the tip of the second umbrella. We successfully retrieved the painting on the second attempt, and walked away not only with my painting, but with a fantastic memory to go with.

Annie with our rescue contraption and painting!