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

Two birds with one stone.

Sorry for not writing a blog yesterday, or really having any contact with civilization. We had a site and vertical analysis of Genova due in studio today, so basically my whole day was sketching, scanning, and putting boards together. I got the blue screen of death, so that was fun, but other than that we woke up, we worked, we ate when the bell rang, and some of us slept. Me being one of those.


So as for today, we didn't have class in the morning, so most of us used that time to finish our boards, buy ink for the computer, and a variety of other pre-studio activities. We had the most delicious lunch- gnocchi al pesto, lemon chicken, and potato chips (?) which was exciting. Also, Lura and I were prepped for our job as travel agents for this coming 10 day trip, which is insanely exciting. So I don't have all the details on the trip quite yet, but here is a general idea of where we will be when....


January 30th- February 2nd--- Florence where we will be seeing a variety of museums and perhaps some architecture!


February 2nd- February 3rd--- Siena, which is supposed to be even more beautiful than Florence according to our train friend man.


February 3rd- February 8th--- ROMA! I don't know exactly what we will be doing what day quite yet, but I know that we will be hitting the Vatican on February 5th.

I won't be able to take my laptop on this trip, so if you get a blog it will be few and far between,, but I sure will have a lot to say when I get back!

So the rest of today was basically studio presentations, dinner, and now some catching up on The Office and Lost episodes for all of us, before we pack and head out around 6:30 tomorrow... So ---- A Presto!

~Heather

Pavia e Vigevano

So this is going to be short and sweet because it is late and I have had a long day.

Today we had our Tuesday day trip with Guiditta to Pavia and Vigevano.. We started out in the Certosa di Pavia which is a church and monastery in Pavia. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and out, and we had one of the 8 monks that are currently there give us a tour--- he was awesome and reminded me a lot of Morgan Freeman. We walked all around the church, saw a couple of dead people, then walked into the cloisters and dwellings for the monks, and did some sketching towards the end. Then we headed further into Pavia and went to a College and hung around in the columns for a bit. Then we had lunch in the main square onlooking the famous Dome of Pavia (which is currently under renovation so we couldn't go in). Next we went to the University of Pavia which looks exactly like the college except for on a smaller scale. Then we hoped back on the bus and headed for Vigevano.

We didn't spend much time here, but we went into the main square, Piazza Ducale which is basically surrounded by a castle (now it only has two towers instead of four), so we explored around there for a bit and headed back.

We left around 7:15 this morning and got back around 8:15, and after sketching and working on studio stuff for this week and catching up on picture posting, I am ready to head in. Over and out.

~Heather

Studio Architettura

In the following blog I am going to attempt to do justice to our weekend trip to Torino. It is going to be very challenging to recreate how truly amazing it was, but alas I shall try.

We woke up early Saturday morning to catch our 8:08 AM train from Genova Principe to Torino Porta Nuova. Everything was on time- which was surprising, so we had a fairly relaxing trip there, and we all decided that we love travelling by train. Once we got there, we hiked twenty minutes across the river to our hostel, Ostello Torino where we set our bags down in our three rooms, one for all the 6 girls, and the other two for the 7 guys. Then we headed back out into the city for a full day of exploration. I am attaching a map that shows exactly what we did in Torino, but I shall continue to explain it.

The first thing that I really enjoyed about this day was that I was travelling around with a bunch of architecture geeks with the same interests as me. We had a blast just randomly walking up to interesting buildings and studying them. First we walked down by the water and took in some of the beauty of the city, even though it wasn't the most beautiful day. We ran into an old medieval mansion where we of course had to use our studies of Art and Architecture History to attempt to imitate Greco-Roman statues,,, we used contrapposto in a sentence! Then we headed to some pretty fountains and found the underground parking lot that Jonathan and Graham were studying. We started by taking pictures of it through the window with a very large hungry looking black dog attempting to attack us through the window... then some guy drove up in a car so Derrick walked right up to him and said Ciao, studio Architettura! (Hello, I study architecture!) We have found that this phrase is the golden ticket which allows us into any restricted building we wish to enter, so he opened the doors and let Jon and Graham run inside and take pictures.

Our next destination was lunch, so a few of us split off, but dieci of us went to a delicious pizzaria. I got a ham calzone with an egg in it, kind of reminding me of some German dishes, but it was fantabulous. Also the hot chocolate was so thick that it didn't even drip off the spoon when you held it up!

After warming up our stomach's and ourselves (and having some rather interesting experiences with the hole in the floor toilets...) we continued our walk towards the location of the 2006 Olympics in Torino. On the way Katy spotted this really neat modern concrete and glass building that we headed towards-- it was the new University of Torino Molecular Biotechnology Center. After Brandon walked in like he knew what he was doing, the guard came up to us, so we used the magic "Studio Architettura" to which the guard instantly let us into the building to explore.

After some picture snapping, we continued on our trek towards the Olympics, and it started to schnee outside, which would have depressed most people but I we thoroughly enjoyed it. We came to the green park space that housed the olympics, which is now rather depressing because it has turned into a very large parking lot, but due to the condition of the roads (iced over) we decided to host our own version of the Olympics in Torino 2009. These Olympics consisted of a rather new sport, ice dancing, which is highly contemporary and very amusing to watch. We also participated in the precision sport of Snowball Throwing. After much fun, we continued on our way, and made a quick stop at the playground, where we decided that we indeed were not too old or big to play on it,,, regardless of the verity of that last statement. Needless to say I was laughing so hard during these ridiculities that I was crying. Continuing our adventure, we wound up at the Stadium of the Olympics. We saw the Olympic torch where the flame was lit a few years ago, and then we walked towards the indoor stadium which appeared to be hosting some sort of extravaganza. So Heather, Lura and I followed the lead of the all-knowing Brandon, and headed indoors, pretending to know what we were doing. Turns out it was a bridal show, and when we tried to get in the lady started talking to us and said that it was a "meeting of the marriage" so unless we were getting married we couldn't get in. So then we cleverly said "studio architettura" and were instantly let in to wander around. The dresses were interesting-- but we found a few that we thought were absolutely gorgeous. However, we soon headed up the elevator away from the crowds and wandered into the indoor stadium part and took pictures.

After this Olympic excursion, we headed down to a Cafe down the street called Cafe Roma III, where we warmed up with some hot drinks, and then we continued on our way home. We stopped at a ski shop for some last minute purchases and a grocery store for breakfast food the next morning, and then we continued on our way back to the hostel and stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant on the way.

When we finally got back to the hostel we all set up our beds (we had 4 bunk beds) and got ready for bed and then had time for a little girl talk before we all fell asleep! The next morning came all too quickly as we headed down to the train station around 6:30 AM only to find that our train was 25 minutes late. However, it did show up, and we headed to Bardoneccia... On the drive there, the snow kept on getting deeper and deeper, and soon enough there was 5 or 6 feet of snow in drifts covering houses, cars, and anything in its path. What I don't understand is how the people that live there can leave some of that gorgeous snow untouched! I guess you get jaded after a while, but all I could think of was jumping head first into it... We arrived in Bardoneccia and got our ski lift tickets and then headed up the mountain to rent our skis and drop off our bags for the day. We probably hit the slopes around 11, and split up into multiple groups for that. There were about 40 slopes, not all of them were open, but it was huge. I was skiing with Lura, Drew, and Derrick for the most part, and we started out on the blue (supposedly easy) slopes, which definitly challenged the black diamonds that I have been on in NC. It was such a different experience though! For one, they had just recieved about 16 inches of fresh powder which covered the whole mountain,,, so the slopes weren't icy and didn't end into dirt. There were millions of little kids skiing all over the place which made us feel bad because they would shoot past us in a row, but it was interesting because at points they would jump off the slopes and start skiing in the woods in the fresh uncompacted snow! Eventually we took some harder level courses, a black at one point and a few reds, which were the most challenging things I have ever had to do, but it was a blast! Drew was my comic relief during all this--- at one point he fell at the beginning of a hill and every time he tried to get up he would slip and slide even further down the hill-- he did this about 3 times before he finally got up and going again, and I at this point was laughing hysterically. Everyone who went skiing at least tried the blues even if they were first time skiers, which was impressive because the blues were very difficult. We made a full day of it and skied until closing at 5, and then we turned in our skiis and headed back down the mountain for a quick dinner before we headed back to Genova. However, our train was once again 25 minutes late, so we missed our switch at Torino. Instead we hopped on a train heading for Naples which stopped in Genova, and it was cabin style so we split up and found cabins of 6 people to sit in. 5 of us wound up sitting with this older man, who eventually started talking to us in English. So we introduced ourselves and told him that we were Clemson students studying architecture in Genova, and he asked if we lived in Via Piaggio! Apparently at the founding of this CAF school he was friends with Cesare Fera and became the original Luca, Friend of the Villa. He lived a couple of houses down in the pink building number 18 on Via Marco Polo (right beside the stairs of death) but now he lives on the other side of Genova by Brignole. He was extraordinarly nice, and made me a map of Genova with all the places that we should go--- the best pizza place in his mind, the best place for that Genovese chickpea bread, the best ice cream place, and the old fisherman's village with a pebble beach that we should visit. His name was Roberto Chiarici, and he made our train ride highly entertaining. With about 30 minutes to go, this couple came in who had reserved two of our seats in the cabin, so Lindsay and Jonathan had to move, but they were absolutely hilarious. They were travelling somewhere far for a long period of time, and the girl had packed 14 million bags,,, so the guy kept on piling them in and asking her if she was done, and she would pull out another one bigger than the previous one. At one point he locked her out because she had so much stuff, and we had no idea what they were saying, but it was abolutely hilarious. When he thought he was done then she walks in and pulls a dog out of nowhere which she then sets on her lap for the remainder of the voyage,,, to which the guy talked... They were funny. Well, we finally arrived at Principe, and said goodbye to our friend who had luckily informed us that we should take bus 606 back because it ran past midnight. When we finally arrived back we all basically crashed for the night, and that was the end of our wonderful Torino excursion.

Studiamo l'architettura, e siamo fantastico!

~Heather

Fermata del'Autobus

Today we started with Saverio's class on Giuseppe Terragni and his influence on modern Italian architecture. It was a very intersting class, especially with our coffee break half way through! I love Italy. Today was Bernard's (our professor) birthday, so we had an extra special meal for lunch. We had rissoto with various seafoods in it and some broccoli and potatoes for the side, along with Vermentino, my favorite wine in Genoa so far. Then Angela had made this really delicious fruit torte for a birthday cake and some cookies, so we had that with champagne for dessert. It was delicious! Then this afternoon we adventured onto the busing system here and went to Decathalon, a very large sports shop on completely the opposite side of Genova. After asking various people where to go in Italian, we finally got there and got us some snow gear for this weekend! Then we ventured back in the pouring rain, and ran into some very nice Italian people who enjoyed talking to us--- we would talk in Italian (or attempt to) and they would talk in English! We got back just in time for dinner that we heated up, and now we are all watching Snatch, which apparently I am terrible for not having seen. We have an early start tomorrow- we have to catch our train for Torino at 8:08! I probably won't be able to write any blogs this weekend, but it will surely be an eventful one so I will have a lot to say when I get back! Arrivederci!

~Heather

POPCORN

So I will start with the first this morning.

This morning started when I woke up at 4 AM to go down and watch the second half of the Clemson UNC game. So I got down, and we were only down by 5 and had an amazing first half supposedly, so I decided it was a good investment to remain awake for the rest of the game because we had the potential to beat UNC at home for the first time in about 50 years. However, I appear to be a bad luck charm, b/c as soon as I started watching, Clemson's streak ran cold and it ended up being a rather depressing game. So then I went to sleep again.

My second morning also started early, because we had to be down at a post office at 8:30 to do something with Sylvia dealing with legalizing us being in this country for an extended period of time. That didn't take too long, so afterwards Sylvia took us to a travel agency that gave us a discounted rate on our train tickets for this weekend. The cool part was, Sylvia let us do the talking --- so we ordered our complex train tickets for 12 people in ITALIAN! It was very bumpy I am not going to lie, but we got through it. Then we walked to a sports store where Sylvia's cousin works (apparently she knows everyone in Genova) and she gave us a discount on all the ski gloves we got. Then we headed back for lunch time and then studio.

In studio we presented our research proposal boards, and I am pretty excited about all we will be learning and finding out for ourselves this semester. After we were done with that, we were done for the day, b/c we did work rather hard the day before on those boards. So we did some wandering around this city and then dinner this afternoon with exciting conversations as usual.

Now we are engaging in LOST from last night, since many of us are highly addicted. We have just finished one, and we are hanging on for dear life until the next one! And once again, attaching a random picture.

~Heather