26 ottobre 2005
on the road again...
Hello friends and family! Starting Friday, I will be on the road, so to speak, for 8 days, celebrating fall break. Katherine and I are traveling to Croatia, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Seeing as my internet access will be more limited, I don't imagine you will hear from me again- on here, at least- until our return on November 5.
In the meantime, please pray for safe travel and great weather!
Ciao!
In the meantime, please pray for safe travel and great weather!
Ciao!
23 ottobre 2005
Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the volcano that destroyed them both.
I don’t quite know how to describe what I saw and experienced in the last 3 days. It was at the same moment somber and fascinating. I walked on paving that was laid down 200 years before Christ. I toured the homes of people who, with little warning, were buried alive by ash and volcanic mudslides, and then left undisturbed and forgotten for 1500 years. I studied the architectural detailing, construction methods, and urban planning of these small cities and realized that not so much has changed from what we know today. Although these were a people of pagan worship and overtly self-indulgent lifestyles, you could see through the remaining traces that their day-to-day lives were not so different from ours. I spent one day in Pompeii, one in Herculaneum, and a morning walking around the rim of the volcano that destroyed them. I am going to let pictures tell the rest of the story.
entry hall of a typical roman house
public urinal and plumbing system
examples of intricate floor tile work
house in herculaneum with charred remains of wood structure
wall frescoes depicting grand architecture
the basilica (meeting house) of pompeii
peering into the volcano
the body cast of a pompeiian caught in the ash
entry hall of a typical roman house
public urinal and plumbing system
examples of intricate floor tile work
house in herculaneum with charred remains of wood structure
wall frescoes depicting grand architecture
the basilica (meeting house) of pompeii
peering into the volcano
the body cast of a pompeiian caught in the ash
22 ottobre 2005
EuroChocolate 2005
Last weekend I ventured south to Perugia and the International Exhibition of Chocolate. Seeing how it's the largest festival dedicated to chocolate in all of Italy, I must say I was quite disappointed. I expected chocolate madness: people drenched in it, masters sculpting with it, mobs screaming for it... instead it was only the city of Perugia turned into one giant chocolate store (which in itself is not so bad of a thing, don't get me wrong). And so, despite the lack of madness, I enjoyed myself. I bought a lot of chocolate (the bulk of which will be mailed home so I don't gain 20 pounds of cocoa fat) and I ate a little chocolate and I drank a little chocolate (has anyone had european hot chocolate??? it's fantastically thick) and I rolled myself onto the train to go back to Florence.
Actually, I was able to see quite a lot of historic Perugia as well, and it was stunning. The city center sits on a hill, and from the top you can literally see nothing but beautiful rolling hills and Italian villages for miles. Perugia's center is a fantastically well-preserved medieval district with picturesque narrow streets and quaint windows. Because of its topography, the streets turn into ramps and staircases in some areas, climbing up the steep slope of the hill. It would be a wonderful place to go back to without the crowd and chaos of the festival. Maybe next time...
19 ottobre 2005
the day-to-day in Florence
There's not a lot of space to run in Florence. The sidewalks are too narrow and the streets are too crowded, plus there are few parks or green spaces in the historic center. So I usually run along the river, just 2 blocks from my apartment. I run this route where I cross over a series of 5 bridges, back and forth from one side of the river to the other. It's not so bad, but it's getting monotonous.
Almost every day I ride to school on my Danish-style cruiser with a bell and basket. I need to post a picture, it's so cute!! I am so adept at biking now that I can ride in the dark, in the pouring rain, holding my umbrella in my left hand, and steering the bike and braking with my right!
Our "campus" consists of 3 buildings with a garden in between. Our studios are in a separate building 3 blocks away. Every day I am at school I end up having 2-3 caffelatte's from Bar Elia, inside the main building. The woman who runs it, Elia, refuses to speak any English, and knows me by my first name. She also knows I study architecture and that I am very busy.
My roommate, Katherine, and I eat dinner at home together almost every night. We also, without fail, go out for gelato afterward. We try not to repeat places, but of course we have discovered some favorites. Mine is the caffe-chocolata di noir combination at Grom. Heaven.
yikes. not a favorite.
Florence gets cold in the fall. I didn't really expect that, I guess. It also rains a lot, and when it rains, instead of smelling fresh and clean, everything seems to reek of garbage and animal waste. It's pretty awful.
My studio professor, Nieves Mestre, calls Florence a city caught between being a Renaissance theme-park and a department store for Italian style and taste. I tend to agree. The magic of Florence wears off pretty fast.
I finished Italian class today, so now I only have 2 classes and all my mornings free. I have a museum pass I haven't taken full advantage of yet, so I'm hoping to use that extra time for a little museum perusal and a little more Florence culture.
This week hits the halfway point of my time here in Italy. In two months I will be back home, wondering how time flew by so quickly. How does this always happen?
Almost every day I ride to school on my Danish-style cruiser with a bell and basket. I need to post a picture, it's so cute!! I am so adept at biking now that I can ride in the dark, in the pouring rain, holding my umbrella in my left hand, and steering the bike and braking with my right!
Our "campus" consists of 3 buildings with a garden in between. Our studios are in a separate building 3 blocks away. Every day I am at school I end up having 2-3 caffelatte's from Bar Elia, inside the main building. The woman who runs it, Elia, refuses to speak any English, and knows me by my first name. She also knows I study architecture and that I am very busy.
My roommate, Katherine, and I eat dinner at home together almost every night. We also, without fail, go out for gelato afterward. We try not to repeat places, but of course we have discovered some favorites. Mine is the caffe-chocolata di noir combination at Grom. Heaven.
yikes. not a favorite.
Florence gets cold in the fall. I didn't really expect that, I guess. It also rains a lot, and when it rains, instead of smelling fresh and clean, everything seems to reek of garbage and animal waste. It's pretty awful.
My studio professor, Nieves Mestre, calls Florence a city caught between being a Renaissance theme-park and a department store for Italian style and taste. I tend to agree. The magic of Florence wears off pretty fast.
I finished Italian class today, so now I only have 2 classes and all my mornings free. I have a museum pass I haven't taken full advantage of yet, so I'm hoping to use that extra time for a little museum perusal and a little more Florence culture.
This week hits the halfway point of my time here in Italy. In two months I will be back home, wondering how time flew by so quickly. How does this always happen?
13 ottobre 2005
Pictures from the Como/Torino/Genova trip
como in the early mist
casa del fascio through adjacent bulding
torino and the alps
roof test track at fiat lingotto
palazzo by gaurini- the original and the newer addition
combination of columns on the duomo in genova
medieval streets of genova
11 ottobre 2005
WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD
So it seems I am continuously running a few weeks behind. Oops!! I'll try to be better behaved. The last few weeks have been very busy with school- mainly studio projects, surprisingly (I say surprisingly because we students expect our study abroad semesters to be less work than home... it seems that may not be the case here). But, I have still managed much in the way of travel and cultural experience.
The weekend after Bologna and Fiesole, I returned to the magical land of the Cinque Terre. Those who have been there know what I mean. The towns nestled into the cliffs above the Mediterranean; the sailboats and fishing boats dotting the horizon; the smell of olive groves and salty sea and fresh fish and wine; the breathtaking views from the hike along the coast: it is all wonderful. However, it was more crowded than I remember on the trails. I suppose the word has been out too long about the beauty of this place... hopefully it will not be compromised as a result. We only spent a day in the Cinque Terre, with 4 other classmates, but it was a much needed break from the noise and congestion and stone and exhaust-filled air of Florence.
The following day I joined my entire class for a real European experience: a soccer match.
Fiorentina met Livorno in a rivalry game that turned into something more like water-polo. It began to rain hard in the first 5 minutes of the game, and it did not stop. Ever. Our class was die hard, though, and most of us stuck out the weather and stayed through the whole 90 minutes. We were, of course, soaked from head to foot and everywhere in between, but it was worth it. Fiorentina won the match 3-2, I walked home (still in the rain), and spent the evening drying out and warming up. It seems that with the rain fall arrived.
Another week of classes happened, with more studio, more work, more coffee, and less sleep.
Then suddenly it was the weekend again, and at 4:45 last Friday morning Katherine and I were walking through the streets of a very dead Florence to meet the bus for our latest all-class architecture field trip. The excursion was a whirlwind tour of northwest Italy- 3 cities in 3 days. First was Como, which sits at the foothills of the Alps, a mere 20 km from Switzerland. The town is on a famous lake, and it was raining when we arrived, so the place was blanketed in a thick mist. It was beautiful. Como was, at one point, the seat of the Fascist government, and some of the most famous buildings in the history of Italian modernism are located here. We spent the whole day touring work by one specific architect, Giuseppe Terragni- Italy's leading modernist (by the way, modernism started around the turn of the last century, and Terragni did most of his work between 1920-1940). He has at least 5 buildings in Como alone, including his most famous, the Casa del Fascio (now called the Casa del Terragni). We ended our day with a three-hour bus ride from Como to Torino, where we would stay for the next two nights in a 4-star Holiday Inn (I didn't know there were 4-star HI's).
Torino (or Turin, as we call it) is a large city, and very un-Italian in many aspects. To me it felt much more northern European- wider piazzas, wider streets, more green space, newer buildings. It will also be hosting the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in something like 120 days, and as a result half the city is under construction. Two of the buildings we were supposed to get into had scaffolding up and were closed to the public. One of the major piazzas had been completely torn up so they could lay new stone paving. But, we came to see architecture, and we prevailed. The morning was spent walking around the historic city center, and my favorite stop was the Church of San Lorenzo by Guarino Guarini (he has the best name)- very Baroque and very overdecorated, but the way your eye moves through the space- never stopping, never resting, always traveling from top to bottom and in and out of chapels- was amazing to me.
In the afternoon we toured another piece of modernism and some contemporary work, all in one building: the Fiat Lingotto Factory. This structure is amazing, with 6 floors and 16 million square feet of assembly line space. On the roof is a test track for the cars once they are built. The factory was closed in the early 80s and then infilled to become a hotel/mall/offices/conference center/museum/art gallery- yes, a little of everything. The track is still on the roof, though, and the view from their out over the Alps was spectacular.
The next day we started our trip with a short drive to Superga, a church built in 1730 on the top of the highest hill overlooking Torino. Again, amazing views. The church itself was not much to speak of architecturally, but one interesting thing was the back part. If you see it, it looks like it was bombed- maybe during the war. What I found out later when I bought this strange-looking postcard was that a plane carrying an entire soccer team crashed into the church in the 50s.
Everyone on board was killed, and the rear of the church was never rebuilt. A tragic event, but made slightly comical by the postcard. Yay for 60s graphic art.
Finally we arrived in our last destination, Genova. Another large city, Genova has made its fortune in trade and banking. It is a port city, almost a huge scale version of the Cinque Terre with buildings stepping up the cliffs from the water, but with industry and probably 100 times the population. Our tour guide was an American professor teaching in Genova. We started walking at 1:00 and we didn't stop until 5:30. Not even to sketch. It was a little much. Genova has some fantastic winding medieval streets in its historic center- some of the narrowest I have seen, actually. And being on the water it is also a city of bright colors and light. The stepped buildings allow for nearly everyone to have a view out to the water and to get ventilation, and there is a network of pedestrian streets and bridges that connect the levels to people's roofs and to the "real" streets below.
After Genova and all of our walking, 55 exhausted architecture students re-boarded the bus and slept all the way back to Florence. I finally got home around 9:30, with just enough time to unpack, eat, and do some laundry before starting into another week.
Can you see why this semester is going so fast? Each week just bleeds right into the next, with hardly any time to breathe or catch up with myself. I am grateful to be here and cannot believe how much I am seeing- but I hope I can soak it all in, and survive 8 more weeks of it!
The weekend after Bologna and Fiesole, I returned to the magical land of the Cinque Terre. Those who have been there know what I mean. The towns nestled into the cliffs above the Mediterranean; the sailboats and fishing boats dotting the horizon; the smell of olive groves and salty sea and fresh fish and wine; the breathtaking views from the hike along the coast: it is all wonderful. However, it was more crowded than I remember on the trails. I suppose the word has been out too long about the beauty of this place... hopefully it will not be compromised as a result. We only spent a day in the Cinque Terre, with 4 other classmates, but it was a much needed break from the noise and congestion and stone and exhaust-filled air of Florence.
The following day I joined my entire class for a real European experience: a soccer match.
Fiorentina met Livorno in a rivalry game that turned into something more like water-polo. It began to rain hard in the first 5 minutes of the game, and it did not stop. Ever. Our class was die hard, though, and most of us stuck out the weather and stayed through the whole 90 minutes. We were, of course, soaked from head to foot and everywhere in between, but it was worth it. Fiorentina won the match 3-2, I walked home (still in the rain), and spent the evening drying out and warming up. It seems that with the rain fall arrived.
Another week of classes happened, with more studio, more work, more coffee, and less sleep.
Then suddenly it was the weekend again, and at 4:45 last Friday morning Katherine and I were walking through the streets of a very dead Florence to meet the bus for our latest all-class architecture field trip. The excursion was a whirlwind tour of northwest Italy- 3 cities in 3 days. First was Como, which sits at the foothills of the Alps, a mere 20 km from Switzerland. The town is on a famous lake, and it was raining when we arrived, so the place was blanketed in a thick mist. It was beautiful. Como was, at one point, the seat of the Fascist government, and some of the most famous buildings in the history of Italian modernism are located here. We spent the whole day touring work by one specific architect, Giuseppe Terragni- Italy's leading modernist (by the way, modernism started around the turn of the last century, and Terragni did most of his work between 1920-1940). He has at least 5 buildings in Como alone, including his most famous, the Casa del Fascio (now called the Casa del Terragni). We ended our day with a three-hour bus ride from Como to Torino, where we would stay for the next two nights in a 4-star Holiday Inn (I didn't know there were 4-star HI's).
Torino (or Turin, as we call it) is a large city, and very un-Italian in many aspects. To me it felt much more northern European- wider piazzas, wider streets, more green space, newer buildings. It will also be hosting the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in something like 120 days, and as a result half the city is under construction. Two of the buildings we were supposed to get into had scaffolding up and were closed to the public. One of the major piazzas had been completely torn up so they could lay new stone paving. But, we came to see architecture, and we prevailed. The morning was spent walking around the historic city center, and my favorite stop was the Church of San Lorenzo by Guarino Guarini (he has the best name)- very Baroque and very overdecorated, but the way your eye moves through the space- never stopping, never resting, always traveling from top to bottom and in and out of chapels- was amazing to me.
In the afternoon we toured another piece of modernism and some contemporary work, all in one building: the Fiat Lingotto Factory. This structure is amazing, with 6 floors and 16 million square feet of assembly line space. On the roof is a test track for the cars once they are built. The factory was closed in the early 80s and then infilled to become a hotel/mall/offices/conference center/museum/art gallery- yes, a little of everything. The track is still on the roof, though, and the view from their out over the Alps was spectacular.
The next day we started our trip with a short drive to Superga, a church built in 1730 on the top of the highest hill overlooking Torino. Again, amazing views. The church itself was not much to speak of architecturally, but one interesting thing was the back part. If you see it, it looks like it was bombed- maybe during the war. What I found out later when I bought this strange-looking postcard was that a plane carrying an entire soccer team crashed into the church in the 50s.
Everyone on board was killed, and the rear of the church was never rebuilt. A tragic event, but made slightly comical by the postcard. Yay for 60s graphic art.
Finally we arrived in our last destination, Genova. Another large city, Genova has made its fortune in trade and banking. It is a port city, almost a huge scale version of the Cinque Terre with buildings stepping up the cliffs from the water, but with industry and probably 100 times the population. Our tour guide was an American professor teaching in Genova. We started walking at 1:00 and we didn't stop until 5:30. Not even to sketch. It was a little much. Genova has some fantastic winding medieval streets in its historic center- some of the narrowest I have seen, actually. And being on the water it is also a city of bright colors and light. The stepped buildings allow for nearly everyone to have a view out to the water and to get ventilation, and there is a network of pedestrian streets and bridges that connect the levels to people's roofs and to the "real" streets below.
After Genova and all of our walking, 55 exhausted architecture students re-boarded the bus and slept all the way back to Florence. I finally got home around 9:30, with just enough time to unpack, eat, and do some laundry before starting into another week.
Can you see why this semester is going so fast? Each week just bleeds right into the next, with hardly any time to breathe or catch up with myself. I am grateful to be here and cannot believe how much I am seeing- but I hope I can soak it all in, and survive 8 more weeks of it!
