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 un
appealing 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.
appealing 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 sp
ace 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.
ace 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
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