5 countries, 4 days, 3 cars, 2 hostels, 1 unforgettable weekend

So this past weekend our whole group rented 3 cars and took to driving through 5 different countries to see as many architecturally significant buildings and structures as humanly possible in 4 days. Needless to say, we covered a LOT of ground, which I will try to sum up as much as possible in the following blog.

On Friday we left around 1 after Saverio's class and headed toward our first destination, Switzerland. We had 2 vans and 1 car, and all were stick shift, so we only had a couple of people who could effectively control these cars at top speed. I am SOOO thankful for our drivers this weekend and all the stressfull driving they had to do,,, through snow, high speeds, and crazy European traffic. Our first stop was Isler's Garden Center which is a reinforced concrete shell that made some breakthroughs with the use of concrete in roofs. Next we started our ascent into the alps, and had some absolutely gorgeous scenery to keep us occupied. Some of the roads that we were driving around,,, we were litteraly driving right under a frozen waterfall in a couple of parts!!!!!! Also, we have decided that the Swiss know how to make public restrooms,, according to my friend Amy. Just a side note. Next we went to a few bridges in Switzerland, but had to stop our treks due to some snow problems we ran into along the way.... Anyway, we got to our hostel outside of Bregenz and stayed the night there.

In the morning we woke up to a beautiful serene lake right outside our hostel, and then had to go play in the snow and drained swimming pools before we left in the morning. Our first stop on Saturday was Kunsthaus Bregenz by Peter Zumthor, which is basically a glass box museum with some very well thought through details. Next we drove to Munich and saw the Olympic Stadium of 1972, which is basically a tent roofing structure made of glass. However, my favorite building of the whole trip was the BMW World museum by Coop Himmelblau in Munich. It had great lighting so every picture I took in there was perfection, and the whole project works so well to emphasize the main function,,, the selling of the BMW vehicles. Next we went to Stuttgart and saw the airport there which is basically supported by tree-like column structures, and then we headed to our hostel which had a great view of the city and settled down for the night.

Sunday we started out at the Werkbund Village and in particular the two family house built by Le Corbusier--- This was neat because we could really see his 5 points on architecture expressed throughout the building. Next we saw some footbridges in the surrounding area as well as a pretty cool park for the landscape people. We saw the Outlook tower at Stuttgart, and then had lunch, which was very German. I had a Doner which I have been craving since last Germany trip, a danish for desert, and some Milka chocolate--- very German. Then we went to the Mercedes-Benz Arena and Museum and then got to see the New Porsche Museum which just opened the week before we saw it. After this we all went out to a mexican restaurant, which was a lot of fun, especially once the live American music started playing! THen we headed back to try to make it an early night....

On Monday we left by 6:45 to drive to Ronchamp, France. This was my research project by Le Corbusier ,,, it is Notre Dame du Haut Chapel. This building breaks all of his previous design styles, and it is one of the most sculpturally gorgeous buildings he has designed. The roof is a large concrete shell meant to immitate a boat sailing off to heaven, and the inside is filled with color and light which very didacticly focuses peoples attention to where they should be placed. Next we went to Vitra, which houses many significant architectural buildings... The Geodescic dome by Fuller, a building by Siza, a firestation by Zaha Hadid (who I have now confirmed that I dislike because she distorts perspective way to much for her buildings to actually be lived in comfortably), a museum by Frank Gehry, and a pavilion by my new favorite architect--- Tadao Ando. He is known for his perfection of concrete, and his entire project has uses the smoothest, most beautiful concrete I have ever seen in a very reflective, interactive way. After this we stopped for another outlook tower and another Hadid building (yay.), and then headed back to Italy through a variety of very long tunnels.

All in all the weekend was exhausting, but it was a blast,,, you don't get this kind of opportunity very often. Well that is all for now!

~Heather

A Grand Day in Milan

This week we restarted our Tuesday day trips with Giuditta, and we travelled to Milan. Our morning started rather early because we had to leave by 6:15 to give us time to walk/get lost/finally make our way to the train station for our 7:19 train, don't ask me why I remember that. Anyway- we hopped on the train and then immediately passed out for the next hour and 45 minutes until we arrived at Milan Centrale, where we hopped on the Tram and then arrived at our first location- Santa Maria Delle Grazie. So in case you didn't know--- we have to sketch on these day trips, or really we should on any of our travels, but especially the day trips and 10 day trips. Anyway- I started out my sketching very solid and optimistically at this first church, and then continued to slide downhill throughout the day. My goal was to do a quick sketch at every destination we reached, but that ended up failing. Continuing on our journey we saw Sant'Ambrogio which had two very uneven towers, and then to Torre Velasca which is a tower with a hideous bulbus form sticking off the top like the Hunchback of Notre Dame for Milan. Our next destination was Ospedale Maggiore which is now a public university that has the appearance of a jail due to all the highly intricate gates and the impossiblity to enter the courtyards or anything good in life. Next we made our way to the most famous part of Milan, the Duomo. Outside it kind of looks like a cake with a bunch of needles sticking of the top, and is really rather unappealing to me from the outside because of its exaggerated grandeur and the millions of hidden sculptures who are just constantly staring at you.... Anyway, we went inside which is also rather intense--- The columns are huge and seem to be exaggerated for their load, even though the church is rather tall. But,,, what was absolutely fantastic was the light streaming in through the stained glass that hit onto these over emphasized columns and made one or two columns out of the whole forest light up like a disco ball with millions of glorious colors. So the church was great, but there was one column in particular where I spent all my time and about 40 of my pictures,, and that is what I will remember about the Duomo in years to come. So after our inside excursions, we ventured onto the roof to get some quick views, and then we headed down into the piazza for lunch.

After lunch we hit Santa Maria Presso S. Satiro which had this crazy false perspective behind the alter to give the impression that the church was in the shape of a latin cross when it really wasn't. And this is when I decided that I absolutely despise false perspectives because I couldn't even look at it it annoyed me so much. It might be talented, but its not magical and it presents a falsehood that you can't interact with, so I now I am most assuredly against false perspectives. Next we hit the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is basically a large open market space that connects the Teatro to the Duomo which is covered by this glorious glass roof and dome. Supposedly, the engineer/architect jumped off the top of the dome into the center soon after completion,,, but regardless, it is a gorgeous place with some very high end shops and a rather snazzy McDonalds. Next we headed through to the Teatro, which I remember because there were people hanging from the roof on bungee cords and doing interpretive dancing on the side of the building--- it was absolutely amazing and I want to do that someday-- put it on the list. THe afternoon included Palazzo Marino, Uffici Montecatini, Hotel Duca Di Milano, Uffici Pirelli (by Nervi that was actually ran into by a tourist plane a few years back but has since been restored), and our personal favorite, the Ca' Brutta (the Ugly building). I mean it was ugly, but part of that was because it was in such a state of disrepair because no one cared enough to restore it that it was all black and dirty all over, but we had a good laugh about its hideousness, even though it was one of Italy's first modern buildings. Then we headed back and got back to Genova around 9.

We have since been working on our site model, or updating the pitiful remains of a site model left for us by previous years and trying to make it look decent so we actually don't feel bad putting our own designs in it. It actually was a lot of fun although it has consumed our past couple of days here in Genova. However, now we are done and moving upward and onward. This weekend we are heading out to Switzerland and Germany for a weekend full of building seeing, but I am also pretty excited about this-- if only to see my building,,, Le Corbusier's Ronchamp-- which if you don't know you should. I have been researching it a lot for my project, and am ready to see it in person,, and I guess the other buildings we are seeing will also be exciting, but it will be a lot of travel so our days will be booked. We leave Friday afternoon, and we won't return until Monday night, so I might be out of touch for a while. Ciao!

~Heather

J'ADORE NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we just got back from our too short weekend trip to Nice, France. I have been there before, but I didn't remember much at all except going down onto the rocky beaches and swimming in the salty Mediterranean... But this trip, made Nice potentially my favorite destination ever, and definitly my favorite trip of this study abroad experience so far. So Saturday morning we left by train and arrived around noon at the train station. After eventually finding our way to the tram without the help of that lady yelling at us telling us to go to the train staiton,,, we hopped on the tram and got to our British led hostel, which was pretty awesome. Even though the hostel was kind of far away from the city center,,, the tram system (which I am a HUGE fan of) took us a ways up and then the hostel drove a shuttle (a very dung up silver VW van) up to it. SO we had absolutely no problems....

We started off our Nice excursions by eating lunch in the Vieulle Ville (old town) and then split off into various groups,,, the girls did some shopping, the boys wandered around aimlessly, and we had a few attempted museum goers as well. Anyway,,, we met back up in time for the Carnavale that night,,, which was so absolutely amazing. You get down town and there are these really creepy floats circling around the city with masses of people crowded around it absolutely lost in a mesh of silly string and confetti... We quickly worked our way into the crowd and were likewise covered with these highly colorful pieces of paper and whatever silly string is made out of. They played a lot of American music, which made it that much more fun for us, and we just danced around and had a good time until pretty late at night, when we headed back to the hostel and went to the hangout space on the lower level and had all in all a great valentines day.

The next day, Sunday, today, we woke up and had a very great breakfast--- many cereals (which I miss desperately)! Then we checked out, went and stored our bags at the train station, and then went back into town. Some people went to the Museum of modern art, but I and some others headed up to a park situated on a large hill that overlooks the town of Nice. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was warm and the sky was blue, and we were just so used to rain that that immediately put us in great moods. We got to play on this playground contraption that was made of rope entwined around a pole in kind of an eiffel tower like fashion with a bunch of french kids, which was very exciting. THen we headed back down and met up for lunch, and some more Carnavale action,,, I even got a butterfly mask for the "Masquerade Parade"! After this we went down to the coast and had our Nutella crepes on the rocky beaches as suggested by my good friend Jon Fritz,,, and then some of us rented roller skates and skated around the boardwalk. Funny thing is-- most of us haven't touched skates since elementary school, so we were all rather rusty and had a few crashes into various trees, trash cans, poles, and in some cases small children. However, it was so much fun,,, the parade ended up coming right beside us, so we got to skate along side of the floats and the american music. After this, we unfortunatly had to head back to catch our train back to Genova, but we all wanted to say so much longer,,, Nice definitely left us with a great impression. This trip was Leslee's (a girl here at the villa) birthday present, and I think it was a great way to spend a birthday, and we certainly all enjoyed ourselves.

Unfortunatly we must go back to work tomorrow, but tonight there shall be no more thoughts of architecture and we'll try to continue to let the awesome adventures of this weekend sink in. Au revoir!

~Heather

When in Rome...

This week we have basically been catching up on updating pictures from the trips, blogs (as you can tell), and then doing some studio work as well. It is odd to actually have classes after so long of not even thinking about school, just sketching beautiful buildings which doesn't even feel like work at all. We are working on our tower designs, which has been really interesting and frustrating at the same time, which always happens at the beginning of a project while you are sifting through millions of ideas. Soon we will be building a new site model so we can start physically representing our ideas, but not really thinking about that right now....

This weekend we are going to Nice, France, which I have been to before. We are going for absolutely no architectural purpose, which will be relaxing for once--- we will be shopping, celebrating a birthday, and enjoying the Carnavale which is starting there this weekend. Tonight we actually have a wine tasting, which should be interesting since most of us know little to nothing about the wine here. SO we will leave for Nice Nice tomorrow morning and stay the night and come back on Sunday night. I'm excited to actually try using my french! We shall see how incompetent I sound... I'll fill you in upon our return!

~Heather

Roma- 08 February 2009 THE END

On our last day in Roma, we went to the part of town where the architecture was highly influenced by fascism. We saw the Palazzo Dei Congressi, the Palazzo Della Civilta Italiana (where we saw a model of the entire city of Rome from the 15th century that was made by the aliens in just one year), a few others, and of course the Square Colosseum, a perfect model of fascist architecture. Then we enjoyed a nice lunch and gelato one last time before we headed back to Genova via a highspeed train. This trip was a blast, and we saw so much probably more than I could even begin to describe here, but we were all ready to come back home to the villa and have a little down time--- it’s called school.

~Heather

Roma- 07 February 2009

Today we took a day trip from our 10 day trip to go to Tivoli, the place where the Romans used to do most of their digging for tufa and travertine. In Tivoli we went to the Villa Adriana which is now in ruins, and despite the pouring rain which Giuditta brought with us, it was very interesting to walk around the ruins and see what this palace of a Roman emperor used to be like. Then we quickly rushed to the Villa d’Este to see the vertical gardens behind it, which were definitely worth it. This garden is very well organized and filled with amazing waterworks that we couldn’t even begin to see all of it in the 30 minutes we had. But we had to leave so that we could get back to Roma in time for some people to visit the Colosseum, but what we did instead was a little shopping and rest before our last night in Rome. For our last dinner, we went to a restaurant suggested by our favorite Terry Kirk, Da Francesca. This was definitely a local’s restaurant, and had great food and we enjoyed great company there as well, followed by our gelato visit to the gelateria by our hotel with millions of flavors

~Heather

Roma- 06 February 2009

Today we were back with our fearless, restless tour guide Giuditta so you know our day was filled to the brim. The first and most exciting building of the day in my opinion was Renzo Piano’s Auditorium Parco Della Musica, which consists of three auditorium spaces which look like bugs from the outside, but become very beautiful, acoustically and functionally perfect spaces on the inside. The largest hall was my favorite, and it is set up like a big musical instrument,, it has thick heavy wooden panels that provide great resonation as well as velvet curtains that can be placed for the proper amount of absorption. This building has made me seriously interested in theatre design, especially because it provides a happy median between my two greatest interests.

Next we visited my research building for this semester- the Palazzetto Dello Sport by Pier Luigi Nervi, where me and my partner sketched and photographed like crazy. It was interesting to experience the space that we have been researching about for so long, and some of what we found was very surprising. Then we saw the Maxxi Museum by Zaha Hadid which is under construction, and then the Ara Pacis museum by Richard Meier.

Then we went back in time to do some other buildings,, the Sant’ivo Alla Sapienza by Borromini which plays with convexity and concavity in the façade design, the Piazza Navona, the Chiesa di Santa Maria Della Pace, and the Palazzo Spada which has Borromini’s false perspective gallery. After all that was over, we looped around the city to go to a sushi restaurant named Fish. This was an interesting experience because I have never had sushi, but I was in good company and we definitely picked a great place to try it. So after they order rolls for me, I have decided that I am definitely a sushi fan! And that was our exciting night

~Heather

Roma- 05 February 2009

Today we woke up, you know just a normal day, and headed down to the Vatican City, no big deal. It was a gorgeous day, so we got to spend most of it inside of course going through the Vatican museum and St. Peters. The first thing we did was go through the museum, of which the most significant things were the School of Athens painting by Raphael and of course, the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel was unreal, it seems so impossible to us for one man to paint that entire ceiling so elaborately and so perfectly scaled and proportioned. It was recently restored, so everything was as clear as the day he painted it, and we spent a lot of time just looking up with our jaws dropped. Technically you are not allowed to take pictures, and there are guards that walk around and yell “Silencio!” every 5 minutes, but it was the Sistine chapel so we all managed to capture a shot here and there, to prove that we were actually there. Next we were walking around the Vatican wall to go up in the dome, and on the way we experienced one of the most terrifying events of my life. We were just walking on the sidewalk when literally right beside us on the road a motorcyclist lost his balance and slid going at a high speed down the road. I heard the crash and then saw him sliding and immediately turned away,,, but luckily he wasn’t hurt in anyway, and he just picked up his motorcycle, got back on it, and kept going while the traffic drove around him (including an ambulance!) NO one even stopped to see if he was okay! Anyway- then we climbed up into the dome of St. Peters which was a very similar experience to that of Brunelleschi’s dome in Firenze, except for this time from the view you could see ROME. Next we headed back down and spent many hours inside St. Peters. Here is my account of St. Peters, you can probably skip over this part if you wish, but this is what I wrote down while inside the church.

“St. Peters is so big it is overwhelming to the point of being oppressive. There is absolutely no reason why I should feel heavy and bogged down, it is huge, light, and the marble is perfectly chilled… but the mere scale with consistent intricacies is overwhelming all of my senses to the point of shortness of breath. I wish I could have stood under Brunelleschi’s dome, so I could compare the size to this cupola, but I can already tell this church is bigger. My peripheral vision can’t even see the top of the church but makes you physically look up to see the most intricate, mesmerizing designs of the entire church. No wonder I missed the Pieta the first time! Trying to imagine myself n this building is nearly impossible. There are too many people around whose scale I can relate to for me to feel miniscule, but if you look up, you can almost get there. Also the fact that you can’t take it all in one view skews a true scale. But if all the people were gone I would be like an ant against giants, a speck against titans- which brings up another interesting point… even though this is an incredibly heavy grounded building it seems so animate and dynamic as if it could pick up and move at any point. That feeling, I believe, has a variety of different sources—one is the dynamic, intricate architecture, the second is the presence of the Holy Spirit well symbolized by the dove glory over the altar, and the third is the oppression that is making my knees wobble and me quiver just looking at it. I shall also briefly mention Michelangelo’s Pieta which I never thought could be paled by anything, but the church has done just that. The thing that really stands out to me about this masterpiece is Mary’s face… with what seems to be very little facial expressions Michelangelo perfectly captured the absolute grief of Mary—it is not an angered torturing grief, but instead the purest saddest grief of which only Mary could achieve. There is no accusation, no denial, no vengeance. The only kind of music that can fill this space is the slow, tension-building, sweet melodies that resonate throughout the entire church, low and high, far and wide.

Towards the end of our walking around this church, the mass started, of which the most beautiful part was the sound of the organ which I previously mentioned in my notes. After this we walked on back to the hotel, and ate in and had a movie night after our long filled day.

~Heather

Roma- 04 February 2009

For our first real day in Roma, we started off with the morning free. Since the Colosseum (potentially one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Rome) was not on our list of things to see while here, we decided to go and visit it on our own. We progressed towards the Colosseum how people would have in ancient Rome, through the forum. Now the Forum, however, is in such a state of disarray that it seems more like a junk yard for compiling old columns and various other remnants. However, it was very interesting to try to imagine what the Forum would have looked like in that day and age, especially because the signs were in Italian so we had no clue what each ruin was supposed to be. Once we got through this we headed into the Colosseum, surpassing a huge line to buy tickets. Inside the Colosseum wasn’t anything I didn’t expect, I guess because I have studied it soo much, but what was very interesting is being able to see the hallways and caverns that normally would have been covered up on the main floor and housed all the animals and such that the gladiators would fight off. We stayed inside photographing and sketching for about 2 hours, but I still didn’t even come close to finishing a sketch because there was just too much information to capture.

Next we met up with a professor from the area named Terry Kirk for our afternoon tour of Roma. I am going to preface this by saying that Terry Kirk is potentially the coolest guy ever and I thoroughly enjoyed his highly dynamic speeches and acts. Put that guy in a musical- that is all I have to say. So we started in the Piazza Del Campidoglio which is a hill upon which the Senate building (mostly designed by Michelangelo) sat. This hill became a big deal for papal processions as well as the welcoming of any persons of significance into the city,,, and it can be accessed using the long, thin, angled stairs which “float” you up to the top of the hill in Terry Kirk terminology.

On our way to our next visit, we went by Il Vittoriano, a large national monument of Roma which is often referred to as the wedding cake, and it turns out Mr. Terry is writing a book about this building, so even though it didn’t fit into our baroque topic, we took a detour into it. This building is interesting, because by the time you climb the fourty million monumental stairs flanked by personifications of action, thought, strength, concord, sacrifice, and justice, you are already higher than all the roofs in Rome, so most of the building is just an exterior progression to get you up and above the city.

Next we saw the Forum of Trajan with of course the famous tower which depicts Trajan’s two major military exploits in no sort of chronological order. Then we hit the Chiesa di Sant’Andrea del Quirinale which is a chapel attached to a college dormitory which is used for morning prayer before the kids head off to school. Bernini is famous for his theatricality, which he definitely taps into in this church which through the use of paintings, sculpture, and architecture, helps depict the crucifixion of St. Andreas, the release of his spirit, and then his ecstasy as he ascends to heaven (the dome at the top of the church). This was probably my favorite church because it did present you with an upfront theatrical story on a stage. Next we went to the Palazzo Barberini (their coat of arms is three bumble bees,, I think we all should have coats of arms) which has two sets of stairs, one by Bernini which is straight and filled with sculptures, and the other by Borromini, his counterpart that created an ovular stair case which varying tread widths and heights to make you flow up the stairs but little other decoration (these two stairs are the perfect example of how these two architects differ, after you see a church by each of them). After this we went to the Chiesa di San Carlino Alle Quattro Fontane by Borromini who contrasted Bernini by emphasizing dramatics of architecture alone. This church has his famous billowing façade which has its own theatricality, and the interior has deep overemphasized niches which provide a simple building with a heavy rich sense. The Chiesa Di Santa Maria Della Vittoria was next, which is significant for the “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa d’Avila” which depicts the moment after St. Teresa is stabbed in the heart by the fiery arrow of an angel, which she said actually happened to her in her diary and wishes that everyone could experience the same horror and ecstacy that she experienced at that moment, thus Bernini creates that exact moment on a theatrical stage for everyone to experience.

After this we stopped for a gelato break at the supposed “best” place in all of Rome which is known for its unique flavor combinations. I got the meringa e stracciatella (Meringue and chocolate chips) which was absolutely phenomenal. Next we hit the Fontana di Trevi, designed by Nicola Salvi which explores the natural sciences of water, rock, plants and seasonal statues in a thrust theatre formation that spills into the audience and forces them to interact with it. This design is very interesting because he juxtaposes natural rocks with a refined building so that they interact and either reminds the audience that the building comes from nature or that Nature trumps all and will eventually wear down every building in turn. For the sake of superstition, I threw one coin over my left so that I will some day return to the Eternal City of Rome. (Just so you know, supposedly if you throw two over your shoulder you will soon be married, and if you throw three your marriage will quickly end in divorce).

Our final destination with Terry Kirk was the Scalinata di Trinita’ dei Monti, aka the Spanish Steps. Now this is an interesting story, because the steps are actually French, but due to some drama dealing with a statue of Louis the 14th that was supposed to be placed on the steps and which the Pope couldn’t handle because that was like a smack in the face,,, the Romans refused to call the steps or the square below them “French” and have ever since them been calling them Spanish due to the Spanish embassy right down the street. Poor French. Anyway, these stairs are very interesting because they had to conquer the design challenge of a lack of symmetry and awkward angles,,, so this was accomplished by using many many curves. And as Terry said,, you caress these stairs on your way up, and they are graceful that it makes you just want to dance up them (then he proceeds to trip while mid-dance). So here we said our fairwells to Terry and watched him fade out into the distance and then we headed back to our hotel for another night of dinner and gelato.

~Heather

Siena- 03 February 2009

This morning in Siena we went to the Duomo there, which was supposed to be one of the biggest churches in Italy, but it was never completed. We went through the church, a museum which housed the old sculptures and paintings found in the church, and then climbed on top of it to get a good view of the city of Siena, which made us appreciate this dreary city a little more. That afternoon we caught a train to Roma through Chiusi, and arrived at our luxurious 3 star hotel right behind the Pantheon in time to wander through the city for dinner and yes, gelato. We were right down the street from this hotel called Minerva, and while we were walking past it about 6 cars came through with flashing lights and then stopped in front of the hotel and all the body guards got out and delivered someone to the door,,,, we have no idea who it was, but they had to be famous! SO I am going with Johnny Depp. I stayed in a hotel in Rome beside of JOHNNY DEPP.

~Heather

Firenze- 02 February 2009

Today was our last day in Firenze (which was definitely my favorite city that we saw in this whole trip). The first thing we did was climb Brunelleschi’s cupola of the Cathedral Santa Maria Del Fiore (the Duomo of Firenze) but in order to recount this experience I must first explain a little bit about how this dome was constructed. So for a brief period in time, Firenze was the capital of Italy, and they decided that they need the biggest church in Italy to celebrate this. Makes sense. So they go about building this gigantic church which was the largest church in the world until Milan and St. Peters, and then realize that it needs the largest dome in the world of which they have no idea how to construct. Obviously they can’t do it like the usually do, and build wooden supports to hold up the masonry until it is finished,,, one because that would take more wood than the entire region could supply,, and two because the masonry would be too heavy to stand up on its own in the end anyway. So they had a competition to see who should build it. Brunelleschi and Ghiberti ended up being the final contestants, and eventually Brunelleschi was given the job for a variety of reasons which we are not sure of their validity. Anyway, many people think he is crazy and he won’t really tell anyone how he is going to build the dome, he just convinces them that he can do it if they trust him. What he ends up doing is creating a double shell so that he uses less masonry and the outer shell is supported by the inner shell which is in turn supported by a drum wall the size of the pantheon below it. This drum was placed to resolve the loads before they hit the 4 major piers which finally distribute the force to the ground. SOOOOOOOOO… When you are climbing up the dome you climb up the space between the two shells,,, which gets progressively narrower and more slanted as you begin to reach the top. Overall it was a very exciting experience that would make a great action scene for a National Treasure film. Anyway, we made it to the top, had some decent views of Firenze despite the cloudy rainy weather. After this we headed to the train station and travelled to our next destination, Siena.

I feel bad for Siena because we were only there for one day, and it was pouring basically the entire time we were there, so we didn’t have the greatest experience with it. That plus the hotel roof was leaking onto peoples beds…. Anyway, once we got to Siena we went to what is said to be the most beautiful square in all of Italy, and I really liked its drainage system. Then we did some shopping in the rain and had a large group dinner at this quaint little restaurant right off the piazza which was absolutely delicious. One of our plates that he served us was pasta in a sauce which was like half tomato sauce half olive oil, and it was absolutely fantastic. And now I am craving it again.

~Heather

Firenze- 01 February 2009

Today Giuditta joined us for a full day of Firenze intake. First we went to the Museo Dell’Accademia where, of course, the David is the main attraction. However, I also enjoyed Michelangelo’s Prisoners, which lead up to the David. Even though there were paintings in this room, the prisoners dominated them all. I know that these were meant to be finished (Michelangelo only finished about 1/3 of his full volume of work in his lifetime) but for some reason these statues seem more alive and complete than most of the sculptures I saw during this entire trip. Anyway--- moving on down the hall or nave if I may say so, to the David.

David is placed in an apse like setting of a church, and I feel like this is the most suitable setting for him. I think that under a dome is the perfect setting for him because his stance evokes you to move around him… His views are also terraced- you start with the contrapposto feet and then move up to his highly intricate back, and then eventually make it to his curly head and furrowed brow at the top and opposite side from which you started, thus he spirals you around him and up into the dome. Anyway, enough art and architecture speak,,, moving on.

Today we saw Ponte Vecchio (which also reminded me of Erfurt, Germany because of all the shops along the edges of the bridge), Palazzo Pitti (which was only memorable because of the gardens behind), Chiesa di Santo Spirito, Palazzo Rucellai (another significant family in Firenze whose coat of arms is a sail as opposed to the dots of the Medici), Chiesa di Santa Maria Novella, the train station of Santa Maria Novella which we came in on, and the Stadio Comunale Berta by Pier Luigi Nervi (who is famous for his use of concrete in a completely structural manner that results in highly sculptural buildings). On the way to the Nervi building we were all crowded in this bus, and unfortunately Giuditta (basically the only Italian on the whole bus) was pick-pocketed so she lost her wallet and passport, slightly putting a damper on the day. After this we went back to the hotel and went out for guess what? Dinner and Gelato!

~Heather

Firenze- 31 January 2009

Today we had a professor from the area show us around the city of Florence, Jane Zaloga, but you can call her Joan because she was an exact replica of a blonde Joan Cusak.

We started off the day with a little Brunelleschi and his Hospital of the Innocence where he utilized simple proportions of a square in 3D to create an arcade with a sail vault which reintroduces classical language to the city of Firenze.

Next we went inside the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata where we cleverly used “Studiamo Architettura” to be taken into the Chapel of San Luca, a meeting place for a lot of artists.

Today we also saw the Convento di San Marco (which has famous frescoes by Fra Angelico), the Palazzo Medici (the medici family was basically like an ancient mafia that was kicked in and out of power in Firenze way too many times to count, but nonetheless had a significant effect on the art and architecture of the time), the Basilica di San Lorenzo (the church without a façade! But two very significant sacristies, one by Bruneleschi and the other by Michelangelo which houses some dead Medici), the Battistero di San Giovanni (the baptistery of the duomo there which was highly impressive because of the time of day we went with light streaming in), and the Chiesa di Santa Croce (which houses the tombs of Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, and Machiavelli). After this our full days tour was complete, and we headed to San Miniato across the river and on top of the hill as suggested by our tour guide to hear the Gregorian chanting in the crypts at sunset. This was perhaps the most rewarding experience of the entire trip. As soon as you opened the doors to the church, you heard the chanting and were drawn to it not by guided signs or following other people, just by simply following the music. There is really no way to describe the experience, I can only describe the place which was a vaulted space where columns interrupted your full view of the service going on in the “front” of the crypts. After we got our fill of chanting, we headed back to our awesomely situated hotel and went out for dinner and gelato as usual.

~Heather

Firenze- 30 January 2009

So I am going to try to split my blog up into days for the last 10 day trip that I just got back from…. I have a lot to say and I definitely won’t remember everything we did, but at least I can cover the main adventures of our trip!

We left early Friday morning from Genova Principe train station to start our voyage to Florence. We had to change trains in Pisa, and unfortunately our train was late so we missed our exchange,,, but we caught another one pretty smoothly. We arrived in Florence (Firenze in Italian which is sooo much cooler than Florence and I will thus be referring to it in the Italian way from here on…) and headed for the Duomo because our Hotel was situated right in front of it. We dropped off our bags at this cute little family run hotel, and then grabbed something to eat before we spent the afternoon at the Museo Degli Uffizi.

This museum (which houses so many famous works it makes my head spin) has been placed in an old building that they upfitted to serve their function. Because the original intention of the building was for dwelling instead of exhibition, the museum was interestingly snaked between rooms. This resulted in a kind of uniform treatment of all the paintings alike, and thus some of the most significant paintings were not well emphasized. Here were the paintings that caught my eye….

Filippo Lippi- Adoration of the child with SS. John the Baptist

Botticelli- The Birth of Venus- of course a famous painting and I was thoroughly impressed by the color and beauty, but the faces still lacked emotion.
- The Calumny of Apelles- I enjoyed this painting because of the personifications present--- King Midas is surrounded by Suspicion, Ignorance, Truth, Penitence, Anger, Calumny, Fraud, and Peril--- and it was very interesting to see how all of these were represented.

Leonardo da Vinci- Annunciation- of course this one is crazy famous as well. However, it was not nearly as impressive as this next one, in my opinion.
- Adoration of the Magi- This painting was very sketchy in quality, it looked unrestored and incomplete. So even with this minimized color and decoration, it was so much more dynamic than the annunciation and it left more room for personal emotions and imagination to filter in.

Luca Signorelli- The Holy Family- This painting was interesting because of its presentation of God, who ends up looking kind of dead with the “silvery” quality he gave him.

Lukas Cranach!- Self Portrait and Portrait of Martin Luther and his wife—I liked these obviously because of learning about Cranach on the Germany trip. Portraits are not really my thing, but I did find one tiny painting by him that I really liked.
- St. George frees the princess from the dragon- It is crazy small but very interesting and the landscape seems to swallow up the objects.

Sala Della Niobe- This was a room in the Ufizzi which contained many sculptures depicting Niobe and the death of all of her sons and daughters after she boasted herself for having more children than Hera.

There was so much more that I didn’t mention in this museum, which we were in for many hours just staring down all of this history. Afterwards we did some shopping, from which I successfully found yellow pants, and then we went out for dinner and gelato.

~Heather