Friday, 2/21/03
I'm in the Piazza Vittorio, a little park around a Roman ruin. Rome is a beautiful city, even more so when I am alone and with a map. I decided not to go to Pompeii this weekend because there was a very unstable hostel situation here and I wanted to stay in Rome one more day, so I'm going back to Castiglion tonight.
Rome seems a city without a time, or a city for all times. There is new and thousands of years old architecture all packed together. This city captures the essence of what building in context should be. Am I in a rift in the time space continuum? This makes me want to travel by myself always. As soon as I get my travel guide I'll be completely at liberty to do so.
Before I came here I visited St. Pietro in Vincoli. It's where Michelangelo's "Moses" is. That statue didn't impress me like some other did, but it's a beautiful church.
It is now 6:15 and I'm on the train home. (It is now 7:15 and I'm still on the train home.) This morning we planned on going to the Colosseum (for the third time). Be the time w got there (which is easy now that I had a good map from the hotel desk) there was a huge line to get in and neither of us wanted to wait that long. I headed over to Santa Maria Maggiore which was big and beautiful. Next I headed to Trevi Fountain and threw two coins in because I want to fall in love in Rome. And I did! I fell in love with Rome and with Bernini. Last of all I went to the Borghese gallery which was quite a hike, but I'll write about it later. It's time for me to get off the train.
Saturday, 2/22/03
It's a good thing I decided to come home yesterday because we found out that there's a train strike all weekend! This morning I've been studying my feeling of homesickness....
Wow! I just spent two hours writing a scene in my fantasy tale (it's only two pages long, but writing takes a while). I'm excited because I actually like it...
I should finish writing about yesterday before I go down to dinner. It took me 45 minutes to get to the Borghese from Trevi Fountain. I stayed in Rome on Friday solely to see the Borghese, even though no one wanted to go with me, because it houses Bernini's three most famous statues. The David, Apollo & Daphne, and The Rape of Proserpina (Pluto & Persephone). When I was in a room with one I tried to look at the other art but I just couldn't take my eyes off Bernini's work, it was so beautiful. I probably stared at each one for a good 15 minutes. I don't know why Michelangelo's David is so much more famous than Bernini's. Sure, he is beautiful, but Bernini's David is in the act of pulling back the sling. He is bent, his brow is furrowed, and his muscles are all tight. He is amazing.
Apollo & Daphne were in the next room. I was a little disappointed with Apollo's daft expression, but other than that it was absolutely astounding. The details of Daphne's fingers and toes, the energy of the frozen moment, the theatricality, were wonderful. The three dimensionality is mind blowing. It is a different experience at every angle, all his sculptures are. How could someone conceive such a thing?
Pluto and Persephone was just as good, too. His hand is grabbing her thigh and the imprint on her skin looks so real that it hurts to think about it. I wanted to touch the statue to make sure it was really stone, her skin looked so soft.
After staring at those three statues for a while I rushed through the painting gallery then came back down to stare at the statues some more.
I planned to take the 7:14 train home and walk around the park and sketch for a while, but by the time I was through that gallery I felt possessed by art, and needed socialization. I rushed to the train station to catch the 5:14. I got there just in time and when I jumped onto the car, there were Carmen and Valerie! There were quite a few of us on that train and we made it home for dinner, yay! I didn't write much on the train home because I was looking at my Lord of the Rings magazine.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Roma #2: The Vatican and other adventures
Thursday, 2/20/03
I didn't finish writing last night because I knew I would have a little time on the bus today. One thing we did that I forgot to write about yesterday was go to the prison where Peter and Paul were both kept before they were killed. It was a chamber first, then a hole under it (the cell) that was only about six feet high. It was extremely claustrophobic. It really impressed me because the New Testament is all about the good news of the Gospel. When I see what conditions they had to bear and still they wrote of Jesus Christ and hope, it makes their words all the more real to me.
Right now we are on a bus tour of Rome, looking at post war architecture so I must switch between writing and listening to Peter talk. We are back in the bus now from visiting a memorial for a group of Jewish people who the Germans took into a cave and blew up (during WWII, of course). Kate and I were studying pine cones at the top of the hill and when we came back down the group wasn't there. I couldn't freak out as Kate did, because I knew that if they had left they would realize very soon that we weren't there. But Kate was really scared and tried talking to a man who didn't speak English and he communicated to her that they had left in the direction of the Catacombs. We walked in that direction, and voila! the bus was parked a little further around the bend than we thought. The group was just sitting there waiting for us. So here we are.
Back to yesterday: It was a long walk from the hotel to the Vatican and I have become a rubbernecker, looking at magazine stands for that Il Signore degli Anelli (Lord of the Rings) magazine. It finally payed off. I caught the corner of it passing by and somehow recognized it. I shouted for Kate and luckily there were two left, one for me and one for her. So now I can stop looking for a book in Italian to take home. I love the English language and even if I knew Italian, English literature wouldn't be the same through translation.
When we got the Vatican we went to the museums, which the Sistine Chapel is part of. There is a large courtyard at the beginning with the most fascinating modern sculpture of a giant sphere (the most perfect shape) but with chunks taken out of it, like pieces of the layers of an onion. I didn't get to look at it up close; Marco talked forever before we went into the museum and I thought it would be rude to wander.
The interesting thing about the Vatican museums is that in addition to Christian art they have a huge collection of Roman art and contemporary art. The first part that really impressed me was a relatively small octagonal courtyard (after a hall of Roman busts) with a fountain in the middle that was so mossy and plant grown that it looked like the water was shooting out of the greenery itself. There were roman copies of original Greek statues in each corner (the Greek ones are long gone). The only one I remember by name is Apollo [Apollo Belvedere. In retrospect, the Laocoon group is also there].
Now I am sitting in front of a spherical monument at a Fascist Sports Center by Mussolini (if the people were busy with sports after work, they wouldn't lounge in cafes as much, plotting how to liberate themselves). I think it is wonderful that the Italians respect the history of their Fascist architecture enough not to tear it down. I guess they learned their lesson from the Christians destroying so much Roman stuff. The sphere is at least 12 feet from the ground and a group of people just pushed Maari up to the top. It must feel a lot more stable up there than it looks, because she is jumping around and trying to get someone else to come up with her.
A while later... We just visited an auditorium, actually 3 auditoriums linked together (3 beetle shapes above a common foyer) by Renzo Piano. It was very impressive. I loved staring at the acoustical ceilings; each auditorium has a different kind. We had the weirdest looking tour guide. He looked almost like he had stepped out of the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He had long sideburns and his hair was poofy with what looked like the whipped topping finish on a dessert (a swirl coming to a point) on the right side of his forehead. Except his hair was the typical Italian dark brown. He spoke very nice English.
We are sitting in front of the Colosseum being disappointed. We got here ten minutes too late to get in. But we saw a group of Polish soccer fans who sang songs, and a man dressed up as a Roman soldier working in the square joined them.
Now I am back in my hotel and can finally finish this entry. It's shortly after six, and I have no idea what I'm going to do this evening. After the Renzo Piano building the bus dropped us off back at the Piazza del Popolo, where we dispersed. We were going to visit a firm but Peter's friend is sick so we had the rest of the afternoon off. Marie, Kate, and I were on our way to the Colosseum for quite a while, in and out of shops and things. I love the street musicians here. There was one group with an accordion, bass violin, clarinet, an tambourine. I always want to give money to them, but there are so many that I would be broke.
At this moment I really don't feel like writing about myself. I want escapism, but there isn't anything on TV, I have no novels, and Valerie and Carmen are gone so I can't see if they want to go to an English Cinema. So I thought, now would be a great time to whiz out a little cheesy fiction. But no one has any notebook paper! I can't write fiction in here, because the space is too precious, and it involves a lot of scribbling and crossing out.
So, I am going to start journal games. But first I must finish yesterday. After the courtyard at the Vatican museums we came to a long, barrel vaulted hall full of sculpture. I don't remember anything. In order to study any of them I would have had to study all. But I loved the mood of the room, off-white sculptures with a bluish ceiling. After that was a room with huge maps on the walls. Then we went through the frescoes, one of which was Raphael's "School of Athens". We passed a lot of contemporary art. One was a painting of St. Peter's, but Bernini's piazza was so lopsided. I wonder if they did it on purpose. Finally, we came to the Sistine Chapel. A lot of people were disappointed: one, because it was so small; two, because it was jam packed with people; and three, because no one was giving it the reverence due to any chapel. There was too much painting for me to be in awe. I like details. That is why I have a poster of the fingers of God and Adam.
After the chapel everything was pretty much down hill. Another twenty minute maze of halls, and we were off to St. Peter's!
This building is the single thing that made my heart beat faster about coming to Italy, and it lived up to my expectations. First of all, it is twice as big as Florence Cathedral. The size is nothing in itself, but the quality of the space seemed to expand with the size. The first thing I looked at as I entered was Michelangelo's "Pieta" on the right. I had already loved it from the postcards, but they are nothing to the real thing. There was a glass wall between us and the statue and I could feel Mary's utter loneliness as she cradled her son. Cady says she looks resigned, but I also see in her serenity of countenance a river of emotion on the verge of bursting out. It's like those feelings that are so painful that you can't cry, you only sit with a blank look on your face. That statue was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.
There was so much to see in St. Peter's. There were three dead saints that looked like they had been bronzed. I didn't linger at those. The sculptures were all wonderful, though I wasn't particularly interested in the Popes. There were visible sun rays coming through several windows. Carmen and Valerie stood where the sun from one window touched the ground, and I took a picture of them. They radiated; it was like the light would carry them right through the window. I think it was partially those sun rays that gave the church such a heavenly feel. Then there was Peter's statue.
It was a bronze statue and I gathered that it is good luck to touch his feet, so his feet were so worn down I couldn't believe it. And his tomb was there, of course, marked with a huge structure of Bernini's behind it [the Baldacchino]. When we left the crypt below (I was with Kate by this time) we came outside to the ticket box to climb the dome. We payed €4 to climb the dome (it was €5 to take the elevator, what wusses). My legs were about to burst by the time we made it to the top. It was fun on the inside of the drum, but there was a fence around so it was hard to take good pictures. Then we discovered more steps up to the lantern. That was the best. I got good shots of the whole city. I am so glad I didn't climb Florence Duomo because then I wouldn't have wanted to do it all over again at St. Peter's. The spiral staircases were scary and frustrating, but it was so worth it.
We had to rush to the Piazza del Popolo to meet Peter and were 25 minutes late. He took us to a Bernini Chapel next to it [Santa Maria del Popolo--Bernini only designed the facade], up the hill, past the French Architectural Academy, then down the Spanish Steps. By then it was dark; Peter talks a lot. Kate and I then made our way back to the Pantheon and had McDonalds on the steps of the fountain in the middle of the piazza. Aren't we sad? It's not that we crave American food, it's because I don't want to pay a lot, and don't want to waste time. Today was even worse. We were shoveling pizza down our throats while trying to get to the Colosseum in time.
I love Rome. I wish I could spend more time here to actually learn my way around the city. The traffic is great; you just have to step out and go. The motorcycles and cars at stop lights look they are line up for a race. And I love the feeling that the more I see here, there is still more to see. What there is to see is more astounding than anything in Florence.
Now for the journal games: Kate made a list of all the good love lines in songs she could think of. I am in a romantic mood so I'll do the same.
[you're not seeing this, boohoo!]
Maybe I'm not in such a romantic mood now. If I think of any more songs I'll write them, but now I'm going to dinner.
I didn't finish writing last night because I knew I would have a little time on the bus today. One thing we did that I forgot to write about yesterday was go to the prison where Peter and Paul were both kept before they were killed. It was a chamber first, then a hole under it (the cell) that was only about six feet high. It was extremely claustrophobic. It really impressed me because the New Testament is all about the good news of the Gospel. When I see what conditions they had to bear and still they wrote of Jesus Christ and hope, it makes their words all the more real to me.
Right now we are on a bus tour of Rome, looking at post war architecture so I must switch between writing and listening to Peter talk. We are back in the bus now from visiting a memorial for a group of Jewish people who the Germans took into a cave and blew up (during WWII, of course). Kate and I were studying pine cones at the top of the hill and when we came back down the group wasn't there. I couldn't freak out as Kate did, because I knew that if they had left they would realize very soon that we weren't there. But Kate was really scared and tried talking to a man who didn't speak English and he communicated to her that they had left in the direction of the Catacombs. We walked in that direction, and voila! the bus was parked a little further around the bend than we thought. The group was just sitting there waiting for us. So here we are.
Back to yesterday: It was a long walk from the hotel to the Vatican and I have become a rubbernecker, looking at magazine stands for that Il Signore degli Anelli (Lord of the Rings) magazine. It finally payed off. I caught the corner of it passing by and somehow recognized it. I shouted for Kate and luckily there were two left, one for me and one for her. So now I can stop looking for a book in Italian to take home. I love the English language and even if I knew Italian, English literature wouldn't be the same through translation.
When we got the Vatican we went to the museums, which the Sistine Chapel is part of. There is a large courtyard at the beginning with the most fascinating modern sculpture of a giant sphere (the most perfect shape) but with chunks taken out of it, like pieces of the layers of an onion. I didn't get to look at it up close; Marco talked forever before we went into the museum and I thought it would be rude to wander.
The interesting thing about the Vatican museums is that in addition to Christian art they have a huge collection of Roman art and contemporary art. The first part that really impressed me was a relatively small octagonal courtyard (after a hall of Roman busts) with a fountain in the middle that was so mossy and plant grown that it looked like the water was shooting out of the greenery itself. There were roman copies of original Greek statues in each corner (the Greek ones are long gone). The only one I remember by name is Apollo [Apollo Belvedere. In retrospect, the Laocoon group is also there].
Now I am sitting in front of a spherical monument at a Fascist Sports Center by Mussolini (if the people were busy with sports after work, they wouldn't lounge in cafes as much, plotting how to liberate themselves). I think it is wonderful that the Italians respect the history of their Fascist architecture enough not to tear it down. I guess they learned their lesson from the Christians destroying so much Roman stuff. The sphere is at least 12 feet from the ground and a group of people just pushed Maari up to the top. It must feel a lot more stable up there than it looks, because she is jumping around and trying to get someone else to come up with her.
A while later... We just visited an auditorium, actually 3 auditoriums linked together (3 beetle shapes above a common foyer) by Renzo Piano. It was very impressive. I loved staring at the acoustical ceilings; each auditorium has a different kind. We had the weirdest looking tour guide. He looked almost like he had stepped out of the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He had long sideburns and his hair was poofy with what looked like the whipped topping finish on a dessert (a swirl coming to a point) on the right side of his forehead. Except his hair was the typical Italian dark brown. He spoke very nice English.
We are sitting in front of the Colosseum being disappointed. We got here ten minutes too late to get in. But we saw a group of Polish soccer fans who sang songs, and a man dressed up as a Roman soldier working in the square joined them.
Now I am back in my hotel and can finally finish this entry. It's shortly after six, and I have no idea what I'm going to do this evening. After the Renzo Piano building the bus dropped us off back at the Piazza del Popolo, where we dispersed. We were going to visit a firm but Peter's friend is sick so we had the rest of the afternoon off. Marie, Kate, and I were on our way to the Colosseum for quite a while, in and out of shops and things. I love the street musicians here. There was one group with an accordion, bass violin, clarinet, an tambourine. I always want to give money to them, but there are so many that I would be broke.
At this moment I really don't feel like writing about myself. I want escapism, but there isn't anything on TV, I have no novels, and Valerie and Carmen are gone so I can't see if they want to go to an English Cinema. So I thought, now would be a great time to whiz out a little cheesy fiction. But no one has any notebook paper! I can't write fiction in here, because the space is too precious, and it involves a lot of scribbling and crossing out.
So, I am going to start journal games. But first I must finish yesterday. After the courtyard at the Vatican museums we came to a long, barrel vaulted hall full of sculpture. I don't remember anything. In order to study any of them I would have had to study all. But I loved the mood of the room, off-white sculptures with a bluish ceiling. After that was a room with huge maps on the walls. Then we went through the frescoes, one of which was Raphael's "School of Athens". We passed a lot of contemporary art. One was a painting of St. Peter's, but Bernini's piazza was so lopsided. I wonder if they did it on purpose. Finally, we came to the Sistine Chapel. A lot of people were disappointed: one, because it was so small; two, because it was jam packed with people; and three, because no one was giving it the reverence due to any chapel. There was too much painting for me to be in awe. I like details. That is why I have a poster of the fingers of God and Adam.
After the chapel everything was pretty much down hill. Another twenty minute maze of halls, and we were off to St. Peter's!
This building is the single thing that made my heart beat faster about coming to Italy, and it lived up to my expectations. First of all, it is twice as big as Florence Cathedral. The size is nothing in itself, but the quality of the space seemed to expand with the size. The first thing I looked at as I entered was Michelangelo's "Pieta" on the right. I had already loved it from the postcards, but they are nothing to the real thing. There was a glass wall between us and the statue and I could feel Mary's utter loneliness as she cradled her son. Cady says she looks resigned, but I also see in her serenity of countenance a river of emotion on the verge of bursting out. It's like those feelings that are so painful that you can't cry, you only sit with a blank look on your face. That statue was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.
There was so much to see in St. Peter's. There were three dead saints that looked like they had been bronzed. I didn't linger at those. The sculptures were all wonderful, though I wasn't particularly interested in the Popes. There were visible sun rays coming through several windows. Carmen and Valerie stood where the sun from one window touched the ground, and I took a picture of them. They radiated; it was like the light would carry them right through the window. I think it was partially those sun rays that gave the church such a heavenly feel. Then there was Peter's statue.
It was a bronze statue and I gathered that it is good luck to touch his feet, so his feet were so worn down I couldn't believe it. And his tomb was there, of course, marked with a huge structure of Bernini's behind it [the Baldacchino]. When we left the crypt below (I was with Kate by this time) we came outside to the ticket box to climb the dome. We payed €4 to climb the dome (it was €5 to take the elevator, what wusses). My legs were about to burst by the time we made it to the top. It was fun on the inside of the drum, but there was a fence around so it was hard to take good pictures. Then we discovered more steps up to the lantern. That was the best. I got good shots of the whole city. I am so glad I didn't climb Florence Duomo because then I wouldn't have wanted to do it all over again at St. Peter's. The spiral staircases were scary and frustrating, but it was so worth it.
We had to rush to the Piazza del Popolo to meet Peter and were 25 minutes late. He took us to a Bernini Chapel next to it [Santa Maria del Popolo--Bernini only designed the facade], up the hill, past the French Architectural Academy, then down the Spanish Steps. By then it was dark; Peter talks a lot. Kate and I then made our way back to the Pantheon and had McDonalds on the steps of the fountain in the middle of the piazza. Aren't we sad? It's not that we crave American food, it's because I don't want to pay a lot, and don't want to waste time. Today was even worse. We were shoveling pizza down our throats while trying to get to the Colosseum in time.
I love Rome. I wish I could spend more time here to actually learn my way around the city. The traffic is great; you just have to step out and go. The motorcycles and cars at stop lights look they are line up for a race. And I love the feeling that the more I see here, there is still more to see. What there is to see is more astounding than anything in Florence.
Now for the journal games: Kate made a list of all the good love lines in songs she could think of. I am in a romantic mood so I'll do the same.
[you're not seeing this, boohoo!]
Maybe I'm not in such a romantic mood now. If I think of any more songs I'll write them, but now I'm going to dinner.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Roma!
Wednesday, 2/19/03
I am pooped! This is the reason I didn't write last night, and it'll be a struggle now. To finish up pre-Rome: I regret to say that I hardly remember Monday. Oh yes, I had my first mixed media class and it was frustrating. I guess I'm just not very good at abstract design. It went okay, though. After lunch I finally started compiling my magazine cutouts in studio, but still don't have a lot of substantial work done.
I had only about 15 pages of I Capture the Castle left before dinner, and I was in agony. I told Karin that if I hadn't read the book before, I wouldn't have come down for dinner. After dinner Kate came into out room wanting to use the secret door and she grabbed my book and ran off! Before I could put my shoes on and run out after her she was back in, had circled out the secret door to the fourth floor, then back down the regular stairs. I ran out with her and we explored the entirety of secret passageways. Then I walked on the catwalk from Sean & Eric's window to Andrea & Rory's balcony. It was a little scary, but I did it because the boys said that Dixie had stolen all their food from their outside windowsill (we call them refrigerators) via the catwalk as a joke.
I finally finished I Capture the Castle an hour after I was supposed to and the ending still broke my heart, even though it was my third time reading it. I can't express how wonderful that book is.
I actually fit everything I needed for Rome and Pompeii in my normal backpack. Good thing too, for I haven't any other. So when we got to Rome we walked by the Colosseum but didn't go in, then through the Roman Forum which was awesome. Morgan and I stopped for a few seconds to take pictures and when we looked up the group had vanished! We ran up two exits at the other side, up to the Wedding Cake [Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II], and back to the Arch for about 20 minutes. Then Morgan called Omar's cell phone, and the group was still in the same place they'd been before! They had just moved into a corner for a few minutes. We felt pretty stupid, but it was funny.
We walked through the square of the Capitoline Museums [Campidoglio] with the statue of Marcus Aurelius (not destroyed, because the Christians had mistaken him for Constantine) then to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is always our landmark to get back to the hotel.
In our free time in the afternoon a lot of us planned on going out to the catacombs but we were slow in getting our plans together to get a taxi, so by the time we would've gotten there it would be closed (it turned out that it was closed on Tuesdays anyway). So then we were going to see the Colosseum inside (this whole time we were losing people from our group, and gaining some. It was confusing). But apparently we couldn't read maps, because by the time we figured out where we were, we were on the other side of the forum and it was getting dark. We went to the museums instead. They were really neat, with paintings, frescoes, and sculptures. I am desperately in love with sculpture, particularly Bernini and Michelangelo. Cady got a beautiful Bernini book at the museum. I am going to have to search for it on e-bay some time. Bernini: the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, by Rudolf Wittkower.
When we got home in the evening Valerie and I watched Ghost in French. I didn't have the energy for anything else.
I am pooped! This is the reason I didn't write last night, and it'll be a struggle now. To finish up pre-Rome: I regret to say that I hardly remember Monday. Oh yes, I had my first mixed media class and it was frustrating. I guess I'm just not very good at abstract design. It went okay, though. After lunch I finally started compiling my magazine cutouts in studio, but still don't have a lot of substantial work done.
I had only about 15 pages of I Capture the Castle left before dinner, and I was in agony. I told Karin that if I hadn't read the book before, I wouldn't have come down for dinner. After dinner Kate came into out room wanting to use the secret door and she grabbed my book and ran off! Before I could put my shoes on and run out after her she was back in, had circled out the secret door to the fourth floor, then back down the regular stairs. I ran out with her and we explored the entirety of secret passageways. Then I walked on the catwalk from Sean & Eric's window to Andrea & Rory's balcony. It was a little scary, but I did it because the boys said that Dixie had stolen all their food from their outside windowsill (we call them refrigerators) via the catwalk as a joke.
I finally finished I Capture the Castle an hour after I was supposed to and the ending still broke my heart, even though it was my third time reading it. I can't express how wonderful that book is.
I actually fit everything I needed for Rome and Pompeii in my normal backpack. Good thing too, for I haven't any other. So when we got to Rome we walked by the Colosseum but didn't go in, then through the Roman Forum which was awesome. Morgan and I stopped for a few seconds to take pictures and when we looked up the group had vanished! We ran up two exits at the other side, up to the Wedding Cake [Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II], and back to the Arch for about 20 minutes. Then Morgan called Omar's cell phone, and the group was still in the same place they'd been before! They had just moved into a corner for a few minutes. We felt pretty stupid, but it was funny.
We walked through the square of the Capitoline Museums [Campidoglio] with the statue of Marcus Aurelius (not destroyed, because the Christians had mistaken him for Constantine) then to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is always our landmark to get back to the hotel.
In our free time in the afternoon a lot of us planned on going out to the catacombs but we were slow in getting our plans together to get a taxi, so by the time we would've gotten there it would be closed (it turned out that it was closed on Tuesdays anyway). So then we were going to see the Colosseum inside (this whole time we were losing people from our group, and gaining some. It was confusing). But apparently we couldn't read maps, because by the time we figured out where we were, we were on the other side of the forum and it was getting dark. We went to the museums instead. They were really neat, with paintings, frescoes, and sculptures. I am desperately in love with sculpture, particularly Bernini and Michelangelo. Cady got a beautiful Bernini book at the museum. I am going to have to search for it on e-bay some time. Bernini: the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, by Rudolf Wittkower.
When we got home in the evening Valerie and I watched Ghost in French. I didn't have the energy for anything else.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Going to Church
Monday, 2/17/03
Tomorrow we go to Roma! Yesterday a set of missionaries met me right as I got off the train. I don't remember their names but one was from Georgia, and one was from California. Oh yes, at the train station in Castiglion when I was waiting to to to Arezzo an elderly man said something to me. I said I spoke English, and it turned out that he was from Wales and had lived in Italy for several years. He at first thought I was English but at last he understood that I was from America. He had a very thick Welsh accent even when he spoke English so I had a little trouble understanding him. He and his wife were going to Florence to meet his daughter flying in from London.
So back to church. It is in an office building right at the intersection where we were hunting for the McDonalds. I really didn't expect a translator but one of the elders did translate for me. Only they both had to teach lessons, so I was on my own for Relief Society. At first there were only two sisters there, one who taught the lesson. At first she looked at me as she spoke, as well as the other sister, but since I couldn't understand Italian she drifted to just talking at the other sister. Little by little, 4 more came in, 2 with children. The kids were really entertaining when I got bored with trying to analyze the tones of the teacher's voice.
Sunday school was better. The Elder (I knew I should've made mental pictures of their names) translated for me and the teacher actually asked me a few questions. There were about 10 in Gospel Doctrine, and the lesson was on miracles. The Elder translated again for me in sacrament. I regret to say I was very drowsy due to the sun coming in the window I was next to, and didn't get a whole lot out of it. Presidente Cascone was the main speaker. He is Italian, but he's a missionary too. Afterward, the Elders walked me back to the station because I got turned around on the way there, but I know the way now. When I got home I spent the rest of the day doing nothing more productive than reading I Capture the Castle and sleeping.
Tomorrow we go to Roma! Yesterday a set of missionaries met me right as I got off the train. I don't remember their names but one was from Georgia, and one was from California. Oh yes, at the train station in Castiglion when I was waiting to to to Arezzo an elderly man said something to me. I said I spoke English, and it turned out that he was from Wales and had lived in Italy for several years. He at first thought I was English but at last he understood that I was from America. He had a very thick Welsh accent even when he spoke English so I had a little trouble understanding him. He and his wife were going to Florence to meet his daughter flying in from London.
So back to church. It is in an office building right at the intersection where we were hunting for the McDonalds. I really didn't expect a translator but one of the elders did translate for me. Only they both had to teach lessons, so I was on my own for Relief Society. At first there were only two sisters there, one who taught the lesson. At first she looked at me as she spoke, as well as the other sister, but since I couldn't understand Italian she drifted to just talking at the other sister. Little by little, 4 more came in, 2 with children. The kids were really entertaining when I got bored with trying to analyze the tones of the teacher's voice.
Sunday school was better. The Elder (I knew I should've made mental pictures of their names) translated for me and the teacher actually asked me a few questions. There were about 10 in Gospel Doctrine, and the lesson was on miracles. The Elder translated again for me in sacrament. I regret to say I was very drowsy due to the sun coming in the window I was next to, and didn't get a whole lot out of it. Presidente Cascone was the main speaker. He is Italian, but he's a missionary too. Afterward, the Elders walked me back to the station because I got turned around on the way there, but I know the way now. When I got home I spent the rest of the day doing nothing more productive than reading I Capture the Castle and sleeping.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Valentine's Day, The Project Site, and Finding Church
Saturday, 2/15/03
I am totally in an Enya mood. I am sitting in a sunlit hallway on the fourth floor of the hotel, sort of a conservatory space even, where the entrance to the roof porch is. It's beautiful outside, 45° Fahrenheit, but still a little too chill to be sitting out there. It is a wonderful change from the 20° weather we've been having, though. I hope it stays this warm for Rome next week, or even warmer would be wonderful. I just came in from a nice walk to the Tobacci to buy a Happiness phone card. I'm going to call Dad in an hour (9am there) to see if he has been able to find out anything yet about the Arezzo branch of the church.
So, to catch up. I really hardly remember Thursday at all. Oh yes! I got up in time for breakfast. Yay! After that I went to the Co-op to get some chocolate for Karin. All the TAMU girls drew secret Valentines out of a cup. Cady organized it, and I think it turned out great. I had gotten a little wooden Pinocchio figure in Siena and set him on top of the box of fancy chocolate, and wrapped the box and Pinocchio up to the neck in pink napkins and red thread. These are the nifty supplies I found at the Co-op.
We exchanged Valentine's gifts at lunch because so many people were leaving that evening and would be gone on the actual day. Marty gave me a little stuffed elephant and a Kinder Egg whose toy inside was a rolling suitcase. I put the inner plastic egg shell on the elephant's head and the suitcase on his back and said he was going traveling.
In studio time we drove out to our site, which was a field with canals running through, an old abandoned building, and a bare vineyard, but it was so bitterly cold that we couldn't do more than talk a little about the steel and cast iron bridges over the canals. Then we came back to studio (I had never driven into the city in a car and let me tell you, those steep roads are really scary) and reviewed our projects again. It was incredibly humiliating because my ideas are crap. I am going to do a very simple 1-3 pages of my book on the key, and find a new shape to develop into architecture. The key is hopeless as a building. Of course, studio went right up until dinner time, when it is supposed to end at 6. I got I Capture the Castle back from Valerie (which she loved) and started reading it. Then I went to bed.
Yesterday we had studio (first we had to carry boxes up the very very steep street from Santa Chiara to the studio. Thank goodness it's a short distance) and talked about the main project for Peter's half of the semester. I didn't get much out of it. I was spacing out because I was thinking about the poem I started writing about my key. After studio I took a short nap then went to Arezzo with Kate and Morgan. I wanted to see some of the sites, but we shopped the whole afternoon, which was fine with me because I wanted to be social. I didn't buy anything, but there was definitely a reason to go--I talked to the lady at the info center and am a tiny step closer to solving the Arezzo branch mystery.
Something wonderful has happened! Dad called the Rome Mission Office and got the address where the Arezzo branch meets and the number for the new branch president. Now my only dilemma is getting a decent map to find the street it's on. I've tried calling the branch president but didn't get an answer. So if he's not home after dinner I will have to go to Arezzo and see if I can get a map anywhere. I am so happy and so excited!
So, back to yesterday. Shopping in Europe is a totally different experience than in the states. It's so easy to scope out a shop from the streets, see their price range, and decide whether you want to go in. Yesterday was the last day of the pre-spring merchandise sales so the prices were really good. I still didn't buy anything though, because there was nothing that would fit me and still be appealing enough to part with my money for. But I still had fun though, giving my opinion to Kate on a lot of things she tried on. So we went to find the McDonalds to satisfy Morgan's craving but we don't know what was up with the sign that said five minutes with an arrow pointing down the road, because it wasn't there. So we ate at the little pizza place from last time, for the lack of cheap options.
Then, of course, we got the best gelato in the world at Gelateria Paradiso. When we came home I read for a while. I wish I could be as entertaining a journalist as Cassandra Mortmain. But it's time for dinner.
It's 12:30. After dinner I called the Branch President and he was there! It went very well. He spoke good English but I had to speak slowly. They are actually going to meet me at the train station tomorrow morning. I'm really excited!
After that I went downstairs to play spoons with a bunch of people. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't talk that much. It's kind of hard for me to join in a conversation which consists of throwing perverted insults at one another. We played a long game where each person spells out S-P-O-O-N and I won! It was quite satisfying.
I am totally in an Enya mood. I am sitting in a sunlit hallway on the fourth floor of the hotel, sort of a conservatory space even, where the entrance to the roof porch is. It's beautiful outside, 45° Fahrenheit, but still a little too chill to be sitting out there. It is a wonderful change from the 20° weather we've been having, though. I hope it stays this warm for Rome next week, or even warmer would be wonderful. I just came in from a nice walk to the Tobacci to buy a Happiness phone card. I'm going to call Dad in an hour (9am there) to see if he has been able to find out anything yet about the Arezzo branch of the church.
So, to catch up. I really hardly remember Thursday at all. Oh yes! I got up in time for breakfast. Yay! After that I went to the Co-op to get some chocolate for Karin. All the TAMU girls drew secret Valentines out of a cup. Cady organized it, and I think it turned out great. I had gotten a little wooden Pinocchio figure in Siena and set him on top of the box of fancy chocolate, and wrapped the box and Pinocchio up to the neck in pink napkins and red thread. These are the nifty supplies I found at the Co-op.
We exchanged Valentine's gifts at lunch because so many people were leaving that evening and would be gone on the actual day. Marty gave me a little stuffed elephant and a Kinder Egg whose toy inside was a rolling suitcase. I put the inner plastic egg shell on the elephant's head and the suitcase on his back and said he was going traveling.
In studio time we drove out to our site, which was a field with canals running through, an old abandoned building, and a bare vineyard, but it was so bitterly cold that we couldn't do more than talk a little about the steel and cast iron bridges over the canals. Then we came back to studio (I had never driven into the city in a car and let me tell you, those steep roads are really scary) and reviewed our projects again. It was incredibly humiliating because my ideas are crap. I am going to do a very simple 1-3 pages of my book on the key, and find a new shape to develop into architecture. The key is hopeless as a building. Of course, studio went right up until dinner time, when it is supposed to end at 6. I got I Capture the Castle back from Valerie (which she loved) and started reading it. Then I went to bed.
Yesterday we had studio (first we had to carry boxes up the very very steep street from Santa Chiara to the studio. Thank goodness it's a short distance) and talked about the main project for Peter's half of the semester. I didn't get much out of it. I was spacing out because I was thinking about the poem I started writing about my key. After studio I took a short nap then went to Arezzo with Kate and Morgan. I wanted to see some of the sites, but we shopped the whole afternoon, which was fine with me because I wanted to be social. I didn't buy anything, but there was definitely a reason to go--I talked to the lady at the info center and am a tiny step closer to solving the Arezzo branch mystery.
Something wonderful has happened! Dad called the Rome Mission Office and got the address where the Arezzo branch meets and the number for the new branch president. Now my only dilemma is getting a decent map to find the street it's on. I've tried calling the branch president but didn't get an answer. So if he's not home after dinner I will have to go to Arezzo and see if I can get a map anywhere. I am so happy and so excited!
So, back to yesterday. Shopping in Europe is a totally different experience than in the states. It's so easy to scope out a shop from the streets, see their price range, and decide whether you want to go in. Yesterday was the last day of the pre-spring merchandise sales so the prices were really good. I still didn't buy anything though, because there was nothing that would fit me and still be appealing enough to part with my money for. But I still had fun though, giving my opinion to Kate on a lot of things she tried on. So we went to find the McDonalds to satisfy Morgan's craving but we don't know what was up with the sign that said five minutes with an arrow pointing down the road, because it wasn't there. So we ate at the little pizza place from last time, for the lack of cheap options.
Then, of course, we got the best gelato in the world at Gelateria Paradiso. When we came home I read for a while. I wish I could be as entertaining a journalist as Cassandra Mortmain. But it's time for dinner.
It's 12:30. After dinner I called the Branch President and he was there! It went very well. He spoke good English but I had to speak slowly. They are actually going to meet me at the train station tomorrow morning. I'm really excited!
After that I went downstairs to play spoons with a bunch of people. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't talk that much. It's kind of hard for me to join in a conversation which consists of throwing perverted insults at one another. We played a long game where each person spells out S-P-O-O-N and I won! It was quite satisfying.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A Trip to Siena
Wednesday, 2/12/03
Yesterday was an interesting day. I slept in, took a cold shower because the hot was out, then went to class at 11. Marco lectured on Rome because we are going there next week. After lunch we had a meeting about the arts classes, finally. I am in mixed media, which includes watercolor, thank goodness, after I spent €50 on the supplies. I took a little nap then, as usual. I missed the group of architecture students going up the hill, but I caught up with Kate and Morgan who were also running late. We went to Santa Chiara, moved out desks to go to our new studio (we moved from the town library to a new place), and moved tons of towels, sheets, and furniture from one room to the second floor of Santa Chiara. That building sure is beautiful but the dust is terrible. I had to wash my mouth out over and over again afterward and I could still taste it!
Our new studio has a great view, though I don't know if we are going to be in it more than a week since we are supposedly moving into Santa Chiara the week after our Rome trip. But maybe the studio is in the south wing, which will still not be open. After dinner all I did was work on my crappy drawings. I am really getting anti-inspiration as far as studio goes. I'm scared about next year because I haven't had a decent studio in a year. I am glad we used balsa wood in my beginning 105 class because I really haven't built any models since then.
So today! We went to Siena. First we went to a basilica, then to the gigantic fan shaped square there. That is what Siena is known for. The Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) is on the square and it was really neat inside, with a museum of completely painted walls and vaulted ceilings. Next we went to the Duomo which was also completely painted. It actually had ribbed vaulted ceilings (I think they were groin vaults, but I'm uncertain).
Next we went to the single standing facade next to the Cathedral (apparently the church to go with it was never built, or something) [Actually, they ran out of money while building the facade. What was to be the transept of the church became the nave of the existing church, cutting its size down to about a third of what it would have been]. Through a museum, then we climbed up two teeny tiny spiral stone staircases (the steps were about 2 ft wide, very scary to climb) up to the top of the facade. We had views of the entire city, but it was bitterly cold with the wind up there. And the ledges weren't quite high enough to make me feel comfortable with the height. It was really cool, though.
We were on our own after that. Kate and I went to a pizza place on the square, then browsed around shops (the ones that were open during siesta) all afternoon. The most interesting were the bookstores, the first real bookstores I've been in in Italy. I was debating whether or not to get a Jane Austen novel in Italian, but decided it wouldn't be worth it because one of the reasons I love her so much is because of her use of the English language. We found a book about all the films filmed in Tuscany, which included La Vita E Bella, A Room With a View, Gladiator, and many others. Then Kate found a travel guide to Texas. It was such a joke! It recommended learning Spanish before coming to Texas and listed a bunch of "Texas phrases."
The rest of the afternoon we looked through magazine stands for a magazine on The Two Towers. Kate saw it in Milan last weekend and regretted not getting it. We never found it.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I slept in, took a cold shower because the hot was out, then went to class at 11. Marco lectured on Rome because we are going there next week. After lunch we had a meeting about the arts classes, finally. I am in mixed media, which includes watercolor, thank goodness, after I spent €50 on the supplies. I took a little nap then, as usual. I missed the group of architecture students going up the hill, but I caught up with Kate and Morgan who were also running late. We went to Santa Chiara, moved out desks to go to our new studio (we moved from the town library to a new place), and moved tons of towels, sheets, and furniture from one room to the second floor of Santa Chiara. That building sure is beautiful but the dust is terrible. I had to wash my mouth out over and over again afterward and I could still taste it!
Our new studio has a great view, though I don't know if we are going to be in it more than a week since we are supposedly moving into Santa Chiara the week after our Rome trip. But maybe the studio is in the south wing, which will still not be open. After dinner all I did was work on my crappy drawings. I am really getting anti-inspiration as far as studio goes. I'm scared about next year because I haven't had a decent studio in a year. I am glad we used balsa wood in my beginning 105 class because I really haven't built any models since then.
So today! We went to Siena. First we went to a basilica, then to the gigantic fan shaped square there. That is what Siena is known for. The Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) is on the square and it was really neat inside, with a museum of completely painted walls and vaulted ceilings. Next we went to the Duomo which was also completely painted. It actually had ribbed vaulted ceilings (I think they were groin vaults, but I'm uncertain).
Next we went to the single standing facade next to the Cathedral (apparently the church to go with it was never built, or something) [Actually, they ran out of money while building the facade. What was to be the transept of the church became the nave of the existing church, cutting its size down to about a third of what it would have been]. Through a museum, then we climbed up two teeny tiny spiral stone staircases (the steps were about 2 ft wide, very scary to climb) up to the top of the facade. We had views of the entire city, but it was bitterly cold with the wind up there. And the ledges weren't quite high enough to make me feel comfortable with the height. It was really cool, though.
We were on our own after that. Kate and I went to a pizza place on the square, then browsed around shops (the ones that were open during siesta) all afternoon. The most interesting were the bookstores, the first real bookstores I've been in in Italy. I was debating whether or not to get a Jane Austen novel in Italian, but decided it wouldn't be worth it because one of the reasons I love her so much is because of her use of the English language. We found a book about all the films filmed in Tuscany, which included La Vita E Bella, A Room With a View, Gladiator, and many others. Then Kate found a travel guide to Texas. It was such a joke! It recommended learning Spanish before coming to Texas and listed a bunch of "Texas phrases."
The rest of the afternoon we looked through magazine stands for a magazine on The Two Towers. Kate saw it in Milan last weekend and regretted not getting it. We never found it.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Life in Castiglion Fio, a trip to Pisa, and a Pride & Prejudice Party
Thursday 2/6/03
I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night but nevertheless, I still went back to bed after breakfast. Then we met Paolo at the town hall at 11 and toured the local art gallery. I sketched, but didn't take pictures. We came back for lunch which, for a change, was tuna salad instead of meat and potatoes. After a course of pasta, of course.
We had a meeting after lunch to discuss the Santa Chiara situation and we are now scheduled to move in the last day of February. We took a tour of it today, and it is gorgeous. The courtyard has a breathtaking view. Then we had studio and Peter demonstrated to us how to watercolor. I am going to try tomorrow. We then met officially with the Mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino in the town hall. I ate all my junk food while reading Persuasion in the 30 minutes we had between that and dinner. Tomorrow I am going to the Co-op to get some major grape juice because seeing wine makes me crave it. We had good chicken for dinner. I have also become very grateful for the fruit afterward.
A lot of people went out tonight, and several played a crazy card game and got drunk downstairs in the bar.
Sunday, 2/9/03
I am in a very somber mood at the moment. I just went up to the roof to get away and it was very nice but a breeze was blowing just too cool for comfort, and there was no where to sit outside the path of the wind. I don't mind being here, but I don't want my roommates to think I just sit in bed all day when I don't have anything else to do. I still haven't found out where church is, so I just have to make the most of the Sabbath on my own.
Now, to catch up on the rest of the weekend. What did I do on Friday? I slept in, for one. After lunch Karin and I attempted to get our train tickets to Pisa from the ticket machine, but it didn't work. Then we wen to the Co-op and I got apple juice, because I guess Italians use all their grapes for wine. I also got a cake thing for breakfast on Saturday, and some chocolate. They are both gone now.
Friday afternoon I couldn't find anything as a watercolor subject in my room and I didn't want to go outside so I was going to do a storyboard type thing for a scene in my story. I couldn't draw anything remotely to be identified with fire in pencil though, so Karin and I went to the Tobacci and I got some cheap colored pencils. She got markers. My storyboard didn't turn out too well because I just can't draw things worth anything that I'm not looking at. It's a beginning, though. I even wrote a little bit. It's terrible, but at least I got my ideas on paper in two mediums. Visualizing my stories helps me to think more creatively about them and will, I think, improve my writing.
The next morning Karin and I got up for the 6:54 train to Pisa. We ran to the station worrying that we wouldn't be able to get our tickets (we had talked to someone and straightened out the problem with the machine) but it worked fine and we had five minutes to spare. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there, with changing trains in Florence. We took the early train because we thought there would be more to do in Pisa than there really was. We planned on meeting someone in front of the tower at noon and so we just wasted the morning in the drab, uninteresting town. But she didn't show up. So, using Karin's "Let's Go" book we hunted for a little sandwich place to eat. It wasn't there. There was only a broken down plant shop. So much for travel guides.
We crossed the Arno again (which, being near the mouth, was very dirty and un-beautiful) for the third time to make our way back to the restaurants that we knew were near the chapel/tower/baptistery complex. After grabbing a sandwich we got our tickets to the Piazza del Duomo. It was €8,50 for everything but the tower. We went to a museum first where we saw models of the buildings, statues from them, and all kinds of other artifacts. Then we went to the Baptistery because the Duomo was closed for lunch. The Battistero was absolutely beautiful, round with two stacks of arches around the inside, but I won't attempt to describe it further. We climbed to the third level inside the roof, which I didn't know you could do, and realized that we were as high as the leaning tower. My legs were shaking with fatigue by the time we got down, so we decided not to pay the extra €15 for the tower. It sure is amazing from the outside, though. It looks so much more unsettling in real life than in pictures. No matter how long I stared at it, every time I came out of another building, it struck me again. It just looks so wrong. It really looks like it's going to fall over.
After the baptistery we went into the Camposanto (cemetery), a beautiful rectangular building with a courtyard in the center. The frescoes on the walls were burned in WWII so the walls were just blank, but the statues and marble grave tiles were gorgeous, as well as the marble walls that divided the hall from the courtyard. The walls were intricate, looked like they should have stained glass windows in them, but they didn't. The interior, if you could call it interior, was very much linked with the inner courtyard.
The Duomo itself was more beautiful than either the Duomo at Florence, or Santa Croce. The walls were all painted, there was a double row of arches in the side isles with vaults, and the ceiling, though flat, had a gold square pattern on it. We went to one more museum after that but all it was was an attempt to reconstruct the ruined frescoes. It would have been interesting if there was enough left of them to able to tell what they were depicting. After that museum we were out of Pisa. So, let it be known that there is only one site worth visiting in Pisa and it only takes half a day.
So the question after Pisa was, "Where to now?" We didn't want to go back to Castiglion early so we could either hang out in Firenze or stop in a town called Lucca. Lucca won because we won't have another chance to go there, even though the way the trains worked out, we could only spend an hour there.
The cool thing about Lucca was that, unlike many Tuscan towns, it isn't on a hill, but has a thick wall and a moat around it. The wall is 4km in perimeter and is wide enough for a small road and jogging paths on either side of it. The inner side just has a steep slope of grass going down where the wall itself is visible from the outer rim. Karin and I walked up the wall, down on the inside, and went into the town. We saw hardly anyone until, suddenly, the streets were packed with people shopping. What the heck was going on? We had no idea the town even had that many people, and why were they all shopping at once? So we made our way to the center of town, the Piazza Amfiteatro, which really was dead. It was a square that really wasn't square, but oval, with all the surrounding buildings touching, except for the four arches which accessed the piazza.
So Lucca has an oval center, with a ring of buildings surrounding it, then circular streets and plan, a moat around that, with a wall around that, then the newer part of the city surrounding, and on top of that, the beautiful night silhouette of mountains all the way around. We walked to the opposite side of town and then circled back on top of the wall We went by the garden district which was very pretty, though we could hardly see because it was dark. All this in one hour!
I forgot to mention that in Pisa we saw a nun riding a bicycle! I wanted to take a picture but I thought it would be rude.
Monday, 2/10/03
To finish up yesterday, I sketched a key for my studio project then attempted to watercolor it. Ate dinner and was going to finish my painting, but I found out that Kate was having a Pride & Prejudice party. So we pulled all three of their beds together and me, Kate, Morgan, Dixie, and Cady started watching P&P on Morgan's laptop. We only meant to watch the first half but part 4 was on the first DVD and I thought that would be a better stopping place than right after she rejects him. But the ending of part 4 is so wonderful that Morgan insisted on watching the rest. Kate and I practically have the movie memorized but the others hadn't seen it. So I didn't get to bed until after 3. I slept in, went to lunch, and went to studio to build a model of my key. After dinner I was going to improve my project but Morgan wanted to watch P&P again so much that we did, this time with Marie. We were sensible though, and only watched parts 1 and 2. Morgan is in love with Colin Firth now. It is quite hilarious. Buona notte.
I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night but nevertheless, I still went back to bed after breakfast. Then we met Paolo at the town hall at 11 and toured the local art gallery. I sketched, but didn't take pictures. We came back for lunch which, for a change, was tuna salad instead of meat and potatoes. After a course of pasta, of course.
We had a meeting after lunch to discuss the Santa Chiara situation and we are now scheduled to move in the last day of February. We took a tour of it today, and it is gorgeous. The courtyard has a breathtaking view. Then we had studio and Peter demonstrated to us how to watercolor. I am going to try tomorrow. We then met officially with the Mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino in the town hall. I ate all my junk food while reading Persuasion in the 30 minutes we had between that and dinner. Tomorrow I am going to the Co-op to get some major grape juice because seeing wine makes me crave it. We had good chicken for dinner. I have also become very grateful for the fruit afterward.
A lot of people went out tonight, and several played a crazy card game and got drunk downstairs in the bar.
Sunday, 2/9/03
I am in a very somber mood at the moment. I just went up to the roof to get away and it was very nice but a breeze was blowing just too cool for comfort, and there was no where to sit outside the path of the wind. I don't mind being here, but I don't want my roommates to think I just sit in bed all day when I don't have anything else to do. I still haven't found out where church is, so I just have to make the most of the Sabbath on my own.
Now, to catch up on the rest of the weekend. What did I do on Friday? I slept in, for one. After lunch Karin and I attempted to get our train tickets to Pisa from the ticket machine, but it didn't work. Then we wen to the Co-op and I got apple juice, because I guess Italians use all their grapes for wine. I also got a cake thing for breakfast on Saturday, and some chocolate. They are both gone now.
Friday afternoon I couldn't find anything as a watercolor subject in my room and I didn't want to go outside so I was going to do a storyboard type thing for a scene in my story. I couldn't draw anything remotely to be identified with fire in pencil though, so Karin and I went to the Tobacci and I got some cheap colored pencils. She got markers. My storyboard didn't turn out too well because I just can't draw things worth anything that I'm not looking at. It's a beginning, though. I even wrote a little bit. It's terrible, but at least I got my ideas on paper in two mediums. Visualizing my stories helps me to think more creatively about them and will, I think, improve my writing.
The next morning Karin and I got up for the 6:54 train to Pisa. We ran to the station worrying that we wouldn't be able to get our tickets (we had talked to someone and straightened out the problem with the machine) but it worked fine and we had five minutes to spare. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there, with changing trains in Florence. We took the early train because we thought there would be more to do in Pisa than there really was. We planned on meeting someone in front of the tower at noon and so we just wasted the morning in the drab, uninteresting town. But she didn't show up. So, using Karin's "Let's Go" book we hunted for a little sandwich place to eat. It wasn't there. There was only a broken down plant shop. So much for travel guides.
We crossed the Arno again (which, being near the mouth, was very dirty and un-beautiful) for the third time to make our way back to the restaurants that we knew were near the chapel/tower/baptistery complex. After grabbing a sandwich we got our tickets to the Piazza del Duomo. It was €8,50 for everything but the tower. We went to a museum first where we saw models of the buildings, statues from them, and all kinds of other artifacts. Then we went to the Baptistery because the Duomo was closed for lunch. The Battistero was absolutely beautiful, round with two stacks of arches around the inside, but I won't attempt to describe it further. We climbed to the third level inside the roof, which I didn't know you could do, and realized that we were as high as the leaning tower. My legs were shaking with fatigue by the time we got down, so we decided not to pay the extra €15 for the tower. It sure is amazing from the outside, though. It looks so much more unsettling in real life than in pictures. No matter how long I stared at it, every time I came out of another building, it struck me again. It just looks so wrong. It really looks like it's going to fall over.
After the baptistery we went into the Camposanto (cemetery), a beautiful rectangular building with a courtyard in the center. The frescoes on the walls were burned in WWII so the walls were just blank, but the statues and marble grave tiles were gorgeous, as well as the marble walls that divided the hall from the courtyard. The walls were intricate, looked like they should have stained glass windows in them, but they didn't. The interior, if you could call it interior, was very much linked with the inner courtyard.
The Duomo itself was more beautiful than either the Duomo at Florence, or Santa Croce. The walls were all painted, there was a double row of arches in the side isles with vaults, and the ceiling, though flat, had a gold square pattern on it. We went to one more museum after that but all it was was an attempt to reconstruct the ruined frescoes. It would have been interesting if there was enough left of them to able to tell what they were depicting. After that museum we were out of Pisa. So, let it be known that there is only one site worth visiting in Pisa and it only takes half a day.
So the question after Pisa was, "Where to now?" We didn't want to go back to Castiglion early so we could either hang out in Firenze or stop in a town called Lucca. Lucca won because we won't have another chance to go there, even though the way the trains worked out, we could only spend an hour there.
The cool thing about Lucca was that, unlike many Tuscan towns, it isn't on a hill, but has a thick wall and a moat around it. The wall is 4km in perimeter and is wide enough for a small road and jogging paths on either side of it. The inner side just has a steep slope of grass going down where the wall itself is visible from the outer rim. Karin and I walked up the wall, down on the inside, and went into the town. We saw hardly anyone until, suddenly, the streets were packed with people shopping. What the heck was going on? We had no idea the town even had that many people, and why were they all shopping at once? So we made our way to the center of town, the Piazza Amfiteatro, which really was dead. It was a square that really wasn't square, but oval, with all the surrounding buildings touching, except for the four arches which accessed the piazza.
So Lucca has an oval center, with a ring of buildings surrounding it, then circular streets and plan, a moat around that, with a wall around that, then the newer part of the city surrounding, and on top of that, the beautiful night silhouette of mountains all the way around. We walked to the opposite side of town and then circled back on top of the wall We went by the garden district which was very pretty, though we could hardly see because it was dark. All this in one hour!
I forgot to mention that in Pisa we saw a nun riding a bicycle! I wanted to take a picture but I thought it would be rude.
Monday, 2/10/03
To finish up yesterday, I sketched a key for my studio project then attempted to watercolor it. Ate dinner and was going to finish my painting, but I found out that Kate was having a Pride & Prejudice party. So we pulled all three of their beds together and me, Kate, Morgan, Dixie, and Cady started watching P&P on Morgan's laptop. We only meant to watch the first half but part 4 was on the first DVD and I thought that would be a better stopping place than right after she rejects him. But the ending of part 4 is so wonderful that Morgan insisted on watching the rest. Kate and I practically have the movie memorized but the others hadn't seen it. So I didn't get to bed until after 3. I slept in, went to lunch, and went to studio to build a model of my key. After dinner I was going to improve my project but Morgan wanted to watch P&P again so much that we did, this time with Marie. We were sensible though, and only watched parts 1 and 2. Morgan is in love with Colin Firth now. It is quite hilarious. Buona notte.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Firenze #2
Wednesday, 2/5/03
Mercoledi! Another Firenze day! We took the train this time. On the way I heard ----'s story about how his roommates can't hold their liquor, and one couldn't hold his stomach, either. He had to use the bathroom downstairs because of the mess. We went into Santa Croce again and had a lecture on it by Paolo. After lunch we went to the Duomo. It was beautiful, though simpler in decoration than I expected because of how elaborate Santa Croce is. The outside is patterned with white, green, and red marble. And it is so big that it's impossible to get an entire face full in one camera shot. I really wanted to go up the dome to the lantern, but instead I went with some architecture students to see the Boboli gardens.
Those gardens are the stuff that dreams are made of. I could have spent 5 hours exploring them, but as it was we were there less than an hour. Then we went back to the art supply store to get watercolor supplies. Oh yeah, I nearly got left behind at the gardens because I was tired of waiting for slow people and went exploring on my own. After the supplies I went back to the Duomo to go to the lower level and check out the ruins of the old cathedral they built over, but it had closed at 5 so I just walked around the perimeter for 15 minutes.
After dinner I came upstairs and sort of read my Art History book, just as an excuse to listen to music. I have missed music! I'm dancing in my head now to Fiddler on the Roof.
Mercoledi! Another Firenze day! We took the train this time. On the way I heard ----'s story about how his roommates can't hold their liquor, and one couldn't hold his stomach, either. He had to use the bathroom downstairs because of the mess. We went into Santa Croce again and had a lecture on it by Paolo. After lunch we went to the Duomo. It was beautiful, though simpler in decoration than I expected because of how elaborate Santa Croce is. The outside is patterned with white, green, and red marble. And it is so big that it's impossible to get an entire face full in one camera shot. I really wanted to go up the dome to the lantern, but instead I went with some architecture students to see the Boboli gardens.
Those gardens are the stuff that dreams are made of. I could have spent 5 hours exploring them, but as it was we were there less than an hour. Then we went back to the art supply store to get watercolor supplies. Oh yeah, I nearly got left behind at the gardens because I was tired of waiting for slow people and went exploring on my own. After the supplies I went back to the Duomo to go to the lower level and check out the ruins of the old cathedral they built over, but it had closed at 5 so I just walked around the perimeter for 15 minutes.
After dinner I came upstairs and sort of read my Art History book, just as an excuse to listen to music. I have missed music! I'm dancing in my head now to Fiddler on the Roof.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Arezzo and Colle di Val D'Elsa
Monday, 2/3/03
I am on the bus home from today's trip, so now I am virtually 3 days behind. It is just so hard to take my eyes off the Italian landscape. Saturday morning we went to Arezzo. I was with Kate and Morgan and at first we just walked the streets looking at antiques tables. It was market day. There was anything from china to silver, to doors, furniture, chandeliers, keys, paintings, furs, etc. Next we actually went shopping. I wasn't too excited because I didn't want to spend money, but it was actually a lot of fun. Kate, Morgan, and I ended up all getting the same denim skirt [I still wear that skirt, by the way]. Then we ate lunch at a pizza place (very good spinach pizza) and wandered around town, missed the 2 o'clock train, and had the richest, most divine ice cream ever. We went back home at 4, and while I was laying down for my nap Cady found out that the space shuttle Columbia crashed. What a shocker! After watching the news I got my pre-dinner 2 hour nap.
This morning us architecture students knew the bus was leaving at 8, but we had no idea where to. We went to the outskirts of Florence where there actually was a settlement of modern apartments--'60s and '70s. They were concrete, but the craftsmanship was still very detailed. Then we visited a church, a beautiful organic looking church with a curved roof and finger-like pillars inside [San Giovanni Battista church]. Kate, Morgan and I ate McDonald's for lunch at a mall. I think we will not crave American food again for a long time. The mall was neat--all the shops were closed for lunch, but the escalators are long shallow ramps instead of stairs.
Last we went to another medieval town outside Siena called Colle di Val D'Elsa. The interesting thing about it was that, unlike Castiglion Fiorentino, the old town is not sloping up the hill. There are some extremely steep streets up to the top and the old town sits flat on the top. In a way, it had an even more medieval feel than Castiglion because there are no tourists there. There were lots of mysterious streets and dark tunnels--my imagination ran wild. I loved it! We came back, went to the Co-op (grocery), and went to dinner.
I am alone in the hall now and it is 1:13, I only got 5 hours of sleep last night (I woke up so late that I got hyper last night--I ran up our secret staircase but got scared so I ran back down and accidentally banged on someone else's door), and I will only get 6 1/2 tonight. Buono notte.
Tuesday, 2/4/03
Today has been a good day. I woke up at 8, took a shower, ate breakfast, then went to bed again and slept until my 11 o'clock class. I really like Marco's lectures. He is very entertaining and he focuses more on the cultural implications of art than the details of the art itself. Then we had lunch. During studio I sketched an Etruscan carving of a dragon's head several times from different angles. I really like my dragon. I love dragons!
After dinner. I started reading Persuasion, then got so excited about it that I couldn't read it anymore. [what the..?]
I am on the bus home from today's trip, so now I am virtually 3 days behind. It is just so hard to take my eyes off the Italian landscape. Saturday morning we went to Arezzo. I was with Kate and Morgan and at first we just walked the streets looking at antiques tables. It was market day. There was anything from china to silver, to doors, furniture, chandeliers, keys, paintings, furs, etc. Next we actually went shopping. I wasn't too excited because I didn't want to spend money, but it was actually a lot of fun. Kate, Morgan, and I ended up all getting the same denim skirt [I still wear that skirt, by the way]. Then we ate lunch at a pizza place (very good spinach pizza) and wandered around town, missed the 2 o'clock train, and had the richest, most divine ice cream ever. We went back home at 4, and while I was laying down for my nap Cady found out that the space shuttle Columbia crashed. What a shocker! After watching the news I got my pre-dinner 2 hour nap.
This morning us architecture students knew the bus was leaving at 8, but we had no idea where to. We went to the outskirts of Florence where there actually was a settlement of modern apartments--'60s and '70s. They were concrete, but the craftsmanship was still very detailed. Then we visited a church, a beautiful organic looking church with a curved roof and finger-like pillars inside [San Giovanni Battista church]. Kate, Morgan and I ate McDonald's for lunch at a mall. I think we will not crave American food again for a long time. The mall was neat--all the shops were closed for lunch, but the escalators are long shallow ramps instead of stairs.
Last we went to another medieval town outside Siena called Colle di Val D'Elsa. The interesting thing about it was that, unlike Castiglion Fiorentino, the old town is not sloping up the hill. There are some extremely steep streets up to the top and the old town sits flat on the top. In a way, it had an even more medieval feel than Castiglion because there are no tourists there. There were lots of mysterious streets and dark tunnels--my imagination ran wild. I loved it! We came back, went to the Co-op (grocery), and went to dinner.
I am alone in the hall now and it is 1:13, I only got 5 hours of sleep last night (I woke up so late that I got hyper last night--I ran up our secret staircase but got scared so I ran back down and accidentally banged on someone else's door), and I will only get 6 1/2 tonight. Buono notte.
Tuesday, 2/4/03
Today has been a good day. I woke up at 8, took a shower, ate breakfast, then went to bed again and slept until my 11 o'clock class. I really like Marco's lectures. He is very entertaining and he focuses more on the cultural implications of art than the details of the art itself. Then we had lunch. During studio I sketched an Etruscan carving of a dragon's head several times from different angles. I really like my dragon. I love dragons!
After dinner. I started reading Persuasion, then got so excited about it that I couldn't read it anymore. [what the..?]
Friday, January 21, 2011
Intro to Firenze
Saturday, 2/1/03
I'm going to try to never miss a day again. If I can stay awake, this will be an extremely long entry. Yesterday we went to Florence and today we went to Arezzo. And it is so important to get everything out because every day here is going to be so jam packed with memories that I won't be able to remember them for long.
Thursday night people came in at 2 in the morning and woke me up. I couldn't get to sleep for another four hours. That might have been because I took an allergy pill, not realizing that it was non-drowsy, and it had the hyper effect on me. Cady came in and said that when they got back Dixie jumped up and got in the shower thinking it was 6:30 in the morning! Then Kate came out and said something like, "What is going on? My hair is still wet!" because she had washed it before she went to bed. She told me the story again at breakfast and it was even funnier the second time.
While I was awake in bed I started thinking about the story I developed over the summer. Everything about it became so much more vivid and detailed after seeing with real eyes these glorious Italian buildings and landscapes.
So I went to Florence on four hours of sleep and for the first time in my life, sleep deprivation didn't destroy my day. It was an hour long bus ride to Firenze. First we went to a Benedictine church [San Miniato al Monte] on the hill away from the city, where we could see the whole cityscape. We toured the church and Marco gave us a lecture on the history of Firenze. Modern architecture in Florence means less than 500 years old. And Firenze is actually a relatively new city. It was founded by the Romans, not the Tuscans. The Roman wall is still around part of the city. The Arno is beautiful. We next went by the Santa Croce squere where that pivotal scene in A Room With a View was filmed. We saw the Bargello, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Loggia de Lanzi, and the financial district where the Peruzzi family house is. We ate lunch (pasta, pork, salad again), only we had ice cream for dessert. After lunch Peter took the architecture students to Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents, then back to Santa Croce where we actually went inside. We walked by the Duomo, but only got to see the back. I really really really want to go inside next week. It was so big. More tomorrow.
Sunday, 2/2/03
On the way back from Firenze, I still didn't sleep on the train. I took an hour long nap after we got back before dinner and I wanted to sleep through dinner too, but I knew if I didn't eat I would be too hungry at the concert and I was not going to miss the concert. So was a little but of a zombie during dinner. The concert was divine. It was an orchestra from all over Tuscany and they were amazing. First they played a really fun Schubert piece, then a Mozart violin concerto with a guest violinist. She was Asian and only 19 or 20 and she was wonderful. Then they ended with Beethoven's 8th symphony, which was really good too, but I can understand why it isn't one of the most famous. It isn't as singable, or memorable. The concert hall is beautiful, too. Red velvet curtains, white walls, painted to look like they have carvings. The shadow work is perfect. All right, it is already time for bed so I'll have to write about Arezzo tomorrow.
I'm going to try to never miss a day again. If I can stay awake, this will be an extremely long entry. Yesterday we went to Florence and today we went to Arezzo. And it is so important to get everything out because every day here is going to be so jam packed with memories that I won't be able to remember them for long.
Thursday night people came in at 2 in the morning and woke me up. I couldn't get to sleep for another four hours. That might have been because I took an allergy pill, not realizing that it was non-drowsy, and it had the hyper effect on me. Cady came in and said that when they got back Dixie jumped up and got in the shower thinking it was 6:30 in the morning! Then Kate came out and said something like, "What is going on? My hair is still wet!" because she had washed it before she went to bed. She told me the story again at breakfast and it was even funnier the second time.
While I was awake in bed I started thinking about the story I developed over the summer. Everything about it became so much more vivid and detailed after seeing with real eyes these glorious Italian buildings and landscapes.
So I went to Florence on four hours of sleep and for the first time in my life, sleep deprivation didn't destroy my day. It was an hour long bus ride to Firenze. First we went to a Benedictine church [San Miniato al Monte] on the hill away from the city, where we could see the whole cityscape. We toured the church and Marco gave us a lecture on the history of Firenze. Modern architecture in Florence means less than 500 years old. And Firenze is actually a relatively new city. It was founded by the Romans, not the Tuscans. The Roman wall is still around part of the city. The Arno is beautiful. We next went by the Santa Croce squere where that pivotal scene in A Room With a View was filmed. We saw the Bargello, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Loggia de Lanzi, and the financial district where the Peruzzi family house is. We ate lunch (pasta, pork, salad again), only we had ice cream for dessert. After lunch Peter took the architecture students to Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents, then back to Santa Croce where we actually went inside. We walked by the Duomo, but only got to see the back. I really really really want to go inside next week. It was so big. More tomorrow.
Sunday, 2/2/03
On the way back from Firenze, I still didn't sleep on the train. I took an hour long nap after we got back before dinner and I wanted to sleep through dinner too, but I knew if I didn't eat I would be too hungry at the concert and I was not going to miss the concert. So was a little but of a zombie during dinner. The concert was divine. It was an orchestra from all over Tuscany and they were amazing. First they played a really fun Schubert piece, then a Mozart violin concerto with a guest violinist. She was Asian and only 19 or 20 and she was wonderful. Then they ended with Beethoven's 8th symphony, which was really good too, but I can understand why it isn't one of the most famous. It isn't as singable, or memorable. The concert hall is beautiful, too. Red velvet curtains, white walls, painted to look like they have carvings. The shadow work is perfect. All right, it is already time for bed so I'll have to write about Arezzo tomorrow.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Intro to Castiglion Fiorentino
Wednesday, 1/29/03
It is 9pm and I am so ready to go to sleep. This morning we had a nice big roll for breakfast. Yay! I didn't think it would fill me up but it stuck for a surprisingly long time. After breakfast we went on a nice long tour of the town. This town is awe-inspiring. It didn't seem very remarkable at first because we were on the main roads at the bottom of the hill. But once we got up into the old part of town, every cobblestone wanted to claim my fascination. The streets are very narrow, yet cars drive through just like they have all the room in the world. We had to stand flat against the walls several times to avoid being run over. The walls are high, the tiny gardens beautiful. And the streets are the steepest I have ever seen. The ones that had steps in addition to being very steep were the scariest and most beautiful. There are arches everywhere, each door is a work of art, and the scenery of the hillside is gorgeous.
We got back in time for lunch, which was (as well as dinner yesterday and today) pasta with Parmesan, then sliced meat and potatoes of varying forms (mashed or roasted). After lunch we had orientation info on trains, then studio, etc., then the history and culture of Italy.
Karin and I went back into town after that to retrace our steps and take pictures. We went into the city library and city hall, then went up to the top of the hill to the castle ruin. The castle was great, full with those narrow arrow holes in the walls. The only problem was that we couldn't get inside anything other than a courtyard. Then, on the way back down we couldn't find Santa Chiara, which we had passed this morning, and we got a little lost. But you really can't get lost in Castiglion Fiorentino, so we made our way back to the main road pretty quickly. We never found Santa Chiara. I'm going to bed. Jet lag is extreme.
Thursday, 1/30/03
A lot has happened today. First of all, I woke up at 3:45 in the morning. For the life of me, I coudn't go back to sleep. I'm sure my biological clock is completely jacked up. I set my alarm for 7, but didn't get up until 8:15. Cady had even more trouble than I did, and finally, we made it known to each other that we were both awake. She said she needed medicine (a lot of the other students' digestive systems, we found out later, were going beserk) and suddenly a voice piped up, "I have some!" It was Karin, who we had accidentally woken up. When she said that so unexpectedly I just couldn't stop snickering. The entire time while I was awake I just wanted to burst out in guffaws to release some repressed energy, even though I was still dead tired.
We ate our trusty roll for breakfast, and hot chocolate in my case, then we went back up into town for a lecture from Paolo. We went inside a beautiful Catholic church and he talked about the religious symbolism of the architecture. We came back for lunch, which began with the traditional pasta, but lo and behold the second course, instead of sliced meat, was a delicious tuna salad! It had tomatoes and celery in it.
After lunch we again went back up into the town with Peter and went up to the tower at the top of the hill were he pointed out our project site, talked a bit about Etruscan architecture, and what types of buildings would and wouldn't fit in the setting and be allowed by the community. We also toured the Etruscan museum in the community library and Peter talked about how much Americans waste. 4% of world population, 20% consumption of energy and natural gases. He also gave an assignment to sketch the objects there and become obsessed with the shapes.
Directly afterward, us architecture students met with everyone else at a bar where they were welcoming us with hors d'oerves. The bar was neat--its lower portion of three rooms was all underground. Then I went with Dixie to the cell phone shop and we came back for dinner (I haven't had a drumstick in forever! It was great). And that brings me to now, where I am sitting in the lobby with a silly television show and a handful of smoking Italians.
It is 9pm and I am so ready to go to sleep. This morning we had a nice big roll for breakfast. Yay! I didn't think it would fill me up but it stuck for a surprisingly long time. After breakfast we went on a nice long tour of the town. This town is awe-inspiring. It didn't seem very remarkable at first because we were on the main roads at the bottom of the hill. But once we got up into the old part of town, every cobblestone wanted to claim my fascination. The streets are very narrow, yet cars drive through just like they have all the room in the world. We had to stand flat against the walls several times to avoid being run over. The walls are high, the tiny gardens beautiful. And the streets are the steepest I have ever seen. The ones that had steps in addition to being very steep were the scariest and most beautiful. There are arches everywhere, each door is a work of art, and the scenery of the hillside is gorgeous.
We got back in time for lunch, which was (as well as dinner yesterday and today) pasta with Parmesan, then sliced meat and potatoes of varying forms (mashed or roasted). After lunch we had orientation info on trains, then studio, etc., then the history and culture of Italy.
Karin and I went back into town after that to retrace our steps and take pictures. We went into the city library and city hall, then went up to the top of the hill to the castle ruin. The castle was great, full with those narrow arrow holes in the walls. The only problem was that we couldn't get inside anything other than a courtyard. Then, on the way back down we couldn't find Santa Chiara, which we had passed this morning, and we got a little lost. But you really can't get lost in Castiglion Fiorentino, so we made our way back to the main road pretty quickly. We never found Santa Chiara. I'm going to bed. Jet lag is extreme.
Thursday, 1/30/03
A lot has happened today. First of all, I woke up at 3:45 in the morning. For the life of me, I coudn't go back to sleep. I'm sure my biological clock is completely jacked up. I set my alarm for 7, but didn't get up until 8:15. Cady had even more trouble than I did, and finally, we made it known to each other that we were both awake. She said she needed medicine (a lot of the other students' digestive systems, we found out later, were going beserk) and suddenly a voice piped up, "I have some!" It was Karin, who we had accidentally woken up. When she said that so unexpectedly I just couldn't stop snickering. The entire time while I was awake I just wanted to burst out in guffaws to release some repressed energy, even though I was still dead tired.
We ate our trusty roll for breakfast, and hot chocolate in my case, then we went back up into town for a lecture from Paolo. We went inside a beautiful Catholic church and he talked about the religious symbolism of the architecture. We came back for lunch, which began with the traditional pasta, but lo and behold the second course, instead of sliced meat, was a delicious tuna salad! It had tomatoes and celery in it.
After lunch we again went back up into the town with Peter and went up to the tower at the top of the hill were he pointed out our project site, talked a bit about Etruscan architecture, and what types of buildings would and wouldn't fit in the setting and be allowed by the community. We also toured the Etruscan museum in the community library and Peter talked about how much Americans waste. 4% of world population, 20% consumption of energy and natural gases. He also gave an assignment to sketch the objects there and become obsessed with the shapes.
Directly afterward, us architecture students met with everyone else at a bar where they were welcoming us with hors d'oerves. The bar was neat--its lower portion of three rooms was all underground. Then I went with Dixie to the cell phone shop and we came back for dinner (I haven't had a drumstick in forever! It was great). And that brings me to now, where I am sitting in the lobby with a silly television show and a handful of smoking Italians.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Preparation and the Journey
Thursday, 1/23/03
Today is my last day of work. I'll be going to College Station in two days and leaving for Italy in four. I must say I'm neither excited nor nervous. I'm trying to suppress the second, and to indulge the first would be risking loss of control over the second. So I'll proceed with everything like it is perfectly normal.
Last night Dad bought me a camera. I took an entire roll of pictures when we got home so I could develop them today and make sure everything turns out okay. I started packing this morning.
Tuesday, 1/28/03
It's sunrise and I see a sea of cotton balls. I saw a strip of white where there was a break in the clouds that I believe was the ocean against the cliffs of whatever European country we are passing over. I wish I knew. The floor of clouds in the sky is a grayish white except for the pink tips that are beginning to be more numerous. I don't feel tired, although in my time it is about 1am. I'm sure the fatigue will catch up with me later.
Last night, yesterday, how can I describe my first real ascent into the sky? The plane took off and the structure of neighborhoods suddenly became clear. The plane tipped, turned, and raised higher and I could see a new level of organization of the city of Houston. Then we flew into the clouds and all was a white blur. But then we magically entered a white cave, with the ceiling trying to meet the floor, streams of connecting clouds between two flat layers.
We ascended higher and I saw a soft white prairie, very flat but rolling. As we rose, the rolling clouds seemed to be packed tightly in rows, like sardines. It seemed to be a plain of ice, with the sun setting behind and making it sparkle. Then the clouds ended and it was dark below. Nothing is more beautiful than city lights at night, looking like the gold mine of the earth. My ears and head are throbbing with our descent into Frankfurt. I will continue later.
We're in the Frankfurt airport now. The city certainly is gorgeous from up above. One of my ears now refuses to open up; I can't hear out of it. I think the most glorious sight I have seen yet was waking out of my, maybe two hours, rest and realizing it was sunrise in Europe. The ground was still dark and there were no clouds so I saw an unknown European city glowing like a web of veins of the richest gold in the most abundant gold mine. The greatest thing was knowing that, though I could see the city delicate in the detail of its entirety, it was larger than I could imagine if I was in it. What frustrated me about the whole flight was being able to see things and not really knowing what size they were.
I have a great group of friendly people to travel with. We have over three hours before we depart for Rome. Rome! I wonder if I will be able to see St. Peter's from the sky. No, it doesn't do to get excited. But I can calmly anticipate more wonders to come.
I'm only in the airport so I haven't come into contact with what will give me culture shock, but I'm in awe that I'm on the other side of the world. Somehow it doesn't feel as foreign as I expected it to.
I'm in the plane, waiting for takeoff to Rome. This one is much roomier than the last. While in the German airport I played Yahtzee while Morgan and Kate planned a Sound of Music music video. Then I played Speed with Omar, and Rummy with more people. I won of course, as I always seem to win games.
We are above the sunny cloud desert one more time. Amazing how it can be so overcast and suddenly the sun isn't blocked anymore. But now I can't see the land. Just as well, because I am so drowsy.
We're passing the Alps, snow capped and sturdy. The land between the mountains looks like fudge marble ice cream. There is also a dark blue trail of a river. Here is a huge valley with a big city, lots of tiny white squares. I can see the coast as well as the beginnings of more mountains. They look like crumpled paper bags. I'm dead tired but I can't stop looking.
Today is closing. Since Santa Chiara study center is being renovated we are staying in a hotel for the first two weeks. Our room is tiny (I have two roommates) but we have a door that goes to an outside balcony and winding stairs that lead to all the different levels. It is awesome and I'm going to explore it again in the light tomorrow and take pictures.
Only a few people have been able to call their parents--they had to walk to a phone. I was going to email mine, but since the email access is at Santa Chiara, I can't. I guess I'll try to call tomorrow.
Roma was amazing, driving from the airport. I'll have to describe some of the intriguing sites another time.
Today is my last day of work. I'll be going to College Station in two days and leaving for Italy in four. I must say I'm neither excited nor nervous. I'm trying to suppress the second, and to indulge the first would be risking loss of control over the second. So I'll proceed with everything like it is perfectly normal.
Last night Dad bought me a camera. I took an entire roll of pictures when we got home so I could develop them today and make sure everything turns out okay. I started packing this morning.
Tuesday, 1/28/03
It's sunrise and I see a sea of cotton balls. I saw a strip of white where there was a break in the clouds that I believe was the ocean against the cliffs of whatever European country we are passing over. I wish I knew. The floor of clouds in the sky is a grayish white except for the pink tips that are beginning to be more numerous. I don't feel tired, although in my time it is about 1am. I'm sure the fatigue will catch up with me later.
Last night, yesterday, how can I describe my first real ascent into the sky? The plane took off and the structure of neighborhoods suddenly became clear. The plane tipped, turned, and raised higher and I could see a new level of organization of the city of Houston. Then we flew into the clouds and all was a white blur. But then we magically entered a white cave, with the ceiling trying to meet the floor, streams of connecting clouds between two flat layers.
We ascended higher and I saw a soft white prairie, very flat but rolling. As we rose, the rolling clouds seemed to be packed tightly in rows, like sardines. It seemed to be a plain of ice, with the sun setting behind and making it sparkle. Then the clouds ended and it was dark below. Nothing is more beautiful than city lights at night, looking like the gold mine of the earth. My ears and head are throbbing with our descent into Frankfurt. I will continue later.
We're in the Frankfurt airport now. The city certainly is gorgeous from up above. One of my ears now refuses to open up; I can't hear out of it. I think the most glorious sight I have seen yet was waking out of my, maybe two hours, rest and realizing it was sunrise in Europe. The ground was still dark and there were no clouds so I saw an unknown European city glowing like a web of veins of the richest gold in the most abundant gold mine. The greatest thing was knowing that, though I could see the city delicate in the detail of its entirety, it was larger than I could imagine if I was in it. What frustrated me about the whole flight was being able to see things and not really knowing what size they were.
I have a great group of friendly people to travel with. We have over three hours before we depart for Rome. Rome! I wonder if I will be able to see St. Peter's from the sky. No, it doesn't do to get excited. But I can calmly anticipate more wonders to come.
I'm only in the airport so I haven't come into contact with what will give me culture shock, but I'm in awe that I'm on the other side of the world. Somehow it doesn't feel as foreign as I expected it to.
I'm in the plane, waiting for takeoff to Rome. This one is much roomier than the last. While in the German airport I played Yahtzee while Morgan and Kate planned a Sound of Music music video. Then I played Speed with Omar, and Rummy with more people. I won of course, as I always seem to win games.
We are above the sunny cloud desert one more time. Amazing how it can be so overcast and suddenly the sun isn't blocked anymore. But now I can't see the land. Just as well, because I am so drowsy.
We're passing the Alps, snow capped and sturdy. The land between the mountains looks like fudge marble ice cream. There is also a dark blue trail of a river. Here is a huge valley with a big city, lots of tiny white squares. I can see the coast as well as the beginnings of more mountains. They look like crumpled paper bags. I'm dead tired but I can't stop looking.
Today is closing. Since Santa Chiara study center is being renovated we are staying in a hotel for the first two weeks. Our room is tiny (I have two roommates) but we have a door that goes to an outside balcony and winding stairs that lead to all the different levels. It is awesome and I'm going to explore it again in the light tomorrow and take pictures.
Only a few people have been able to call their parents--they had to walk to a phone. I was going to email mine, but since the email access is at Santa Chiara, I can't. I guess I'll try to call tomorrow.
Roma was amazing, driving from the airport. I'll have to describe some of the intriguing sites another time.
Reminiscences
This blog is the result of my spending two hours on the phone with an old college friend, a large portion of which was spent reminiscing about our travels in Italy. We discovered with a shock that our fateful study abroad trip was a full eight years ago! My friend started bringing up memories that I had long forgotten and, remembering that I kept an uncharacteristically detailed journal for those three and a half months, I looked up those particular incidents. There they were, with more detail than either of us could recall. So I decided I need to type up my journal.
My entries, of course, will be edited for privacy--for both my own, and for the others involved. I will use first names, though. If, for some reason, you stumble across a reference to yourself in this blog and don't want your name mentioned, please let me know and I will remove it.
Cheesy blog name, yes. This is a cheesy journal, but I've been laughing my head off rereading.
Let the reminiscing begin!
My entries, of course, will be edited for privacy--for both my own, and for the others involved. I will use first names, though. If, for some reason, you stumble across a reference to yourself in this blog and don't want your name mentioned, please let me know and I will remove it.
Cheesy blog name, yes. This is a cheesy journal, but I've been laughing my head off rereading.
Let the reminiscing begin!
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