Vatican Museum

5 March


Behold the glory of one of the greatest art museums in the world! 4 miles of corridors make up the entire Vatican museum but the real trick is finding all the good stuff. I think on whole we were in the museum for about 4 hours and I even had time to sit down and draw for a bit, which tourists seem to love looking at for some bizarre reason.

We kind of started backwards by going to the Pinacoteca first, which houses all the pre-modern paintings. This is a pic of Saint Sebastian getting shot with arrows (as usual).

So the largest portion of the museum consists of sculptures. Thousands of them. You could literally die from overexposure to sculpture if you stayed long enough. I sifted through my pictures to find the best ones just for my blog readers. You're very welcome.

The super-duper famous Laocoon, an original Greek statue. The story goes that Laocoon was a prophet in Troy during the Trojan War. He warned everyone not to let the horse in because it would bring about their demise. No one listened to him and furious at his warning attempt, the gods sent snakes to kill him and his two sons. Nothing beats Greek mythology.

Chances are you've actually probably seen this torso before without realizing. A large portion of Italian artists (Michelangelo, Raffael, etc...) used this hunk of stone as a model for paintings and other sculptures.

I literally know nothing about this one.

"The School of Athens" by Raffael. If you look hard enough, you can see the likenesses of Raffael's contemporaries, including Michelangelo and Da Vinci, in some of the faces.

One of the few pieces I liked in the Modern Art Gallery, which is placed right before the Sistine Chapel for some bizarre reason. I don't have the name of this piece but I can tell you that it's the work of Salvador Dali, and there's not even a melting clock anywhere. 

The Sistine Chapel! I was expecting some sort of insightful experience while I was inside but unfortunately the combined effect of hundreds of chattering people and guards shouting "No talking! No photo!" kind of killed the mood. Michelangelo pulled out all the stops on the ceiling though.

Couldn't pass up the chance to toss this in here. After all, this is usually the first thing that comes to mind whenever anyone thinks of the Vatican. I regret that it's kind of blurry though.

So.... yeah. I'm still a month behind on posts. Sorry.

Italian Gardens: Piensa

3 March

Allora, so I know I'm still a month behind but in my defense our internet has ceased to function, thus hindering my chance to get all updated. Anyways, this post was another one of our Italian Gardens field trips, in this case the gardens of Piensa.

Actually the gardens of Piensa are really quite boring but our teacher insisted on seeing them because they were one of the first examples of a Mannerist garden in Italy. The view above is from the garden itself looking towards the the cathedral next door.

We were given a tour of the palace which housed the gardens. This is our class looking out from the loggia to the garden and Tuscan hillsides beyond.

The facade of the church that I took a picture of in the very first picture. Overall, Piensa was a very quaint medieval town. We didn't get a chance to see a whole lot of it before we had to hop on the bus again but it wasn't that bad because...

On the way home we stopped at a extremely small town, whose name we never learned to see some spectacular hot springs. Honestly, the hot springs are the only thing keeping this perilously small collection of buildings alive.

This pond is the runoff of the springs at the bottom of the cliff, too cold to be enjoyed as a hot spring unfortunately.

As usual, I never fail to take advantage of the macro feature of my camera. This is a shot of some of the limestone deposits left by the hot spring water.

Slowly but surely I'm getting caught up with my posts. Maybe with a little luck and diligence I can get all the way caught up before I depart for Croatia on Spring Break.

Rome: National Roman Museum

25 February

Another Rome post! Seriously, I've been there like 8 times now and I see new stuff every single time. This particular visit, I decided to hit up the Roman National Museum, home to the 2nd best collection of Roman and Greek sculptures (the first being the Vatican). Quick head's up: most of the sculptures are nude.

It always amazes me that with the right light, they really do look like real people.

Now this guy, if I'm not mistaken, is actually a Greek original. No doubt he was the champion of some early kind of boxing tournament.

Back when sculpture was still a big deal, the test of a true artist was to create a discus thrower, same pose and all. There's a fractured copy right next to this one as well as some others in the Vatican museum.

The most intricately carved object I've even seen, and this is a tomb of all things. What amazes me the most is how intact it is. I've tossed in a close-up to illustrate my point.

All in all, I took pictures of almost every statue in the museum, bearing in mind that they all might be useful as reference for some drawing or painting in the future. After the museum, I went to a nearby church that had been built on Diocletian's Bathes, only to be disappointed by the fact that they don't actually let anyone below. Defeated, I met up with some friends and caught the train home.

Italian Gardens: Villa d'Este & Villa Adriana

24 February

Yes, yes I'm like a month behind. But cut me some slack, I'm living in a foreign country and I have little desire to sit on my laptop and sift through my pictures. I will however try to get at least one or two more posts up tonight.

Anyways, field trips- great stuff. For Italian Gardens class we were whisked away by bus to the outskirts of Rome to check out one garden (Villa d'Este) and one set of ruins (Villa Adriana).

 Long story short, back in the Renaissance, rich nobles and clergymen were looking for new and exciting ways to outclass each other, so after reading ancient texts, etc... they decided gardens would be a fancy way to show off. Villa d'Este is one of the fancier ones.

Shown above are 3 of the largest water features of the garden, in order:  the Fountain of Neptune, the Dragon Fountain, and the Oval Fountain. I could go into depth about how each fountain symbolizes some aspect of Greek/Roman mythology but the overall message was just to show how awesome and godlike the patron/owner of the garden was. They sure do like their fountains though.

After lunch, we hopped on the bus and drove to Villa Adriana, which isn't actually a villa but I doubt anyone is interested in semantics. Essentially, the town was built by the Emperor Hadrian in ...  long ago as a sort of summer palace, where he could enjoy himself. Obviously, the place is in ruins but the whole complex is so large that we were warned repeatedly about not getting lost. 

The model of the area doesn't quite do it justice. Walking through the tattered bricks walls though, you have to force yourself to imagine that everything was once covered in shining white marble. I'd give my left hand to see it it's in former glory. Still... 

The remains do have a charm of their own. This large pool sat directly in front of Hadrian's personal grotto so he could enjoy the view and the coolness of the water. 

You can see where they "restored" the pillars by using pieces of cement smaller than the actual pillar. I think it looks ugly but clearly the Italians and I differ on opinions of preservation and restoration.

I nicknamed this place "The Pillar Graveyard". 

And that's that. I'll keep working on getting back up to date.

Carnivale Weekend

Friday, 19 Feb

Pictured above is the lovely view of my fellow USAC students after waking up bright and early on Friday morning to catch our coach for the start of our 3 day Carnivale weekend through ERASMUS. After near 6 hours of travel, we were let off the bus to tour the charming town of Verona, once home to Romeo or Juliet (or so the town would like you to believe). FYI, 3 hours is not nearly long enough to get a taste of the town but we made do.

First stop was the superlative Roman Arena. It's a lot like the Colosseum except smaller and better preserved. My Italian friend/tour-guide Alfredo says that during the summer they host operas here. I think that might necessitate a return visit but we'll see. As it was Carnivale, there was a parade going on throughout the town and the arena offered an excellent view. 

As much I would've liked to watch the parade longer, there were still sites left unseen. Our next stop was the Duomo in Verona. I think I'm starting to get churched-out. 

With little time left to spare, we grabbed a coffee, crossed the river, and climbed all the way to the top of the hill for a better view of the town.

I've arranged the pictures exactly as I would've seen it from the top of the hill, that's Alfredo on the left and Katie on the right. 

Saturday, 20 Feb

Venice Day! Woo! This was my 2nd time to Venice but the wow-factor had not subsided. In addition, the excitement of Carnivale made the city crackle with life. First stop (after coffee of course) was the Scuola San Rocco, nicknamed "Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel". I've confirmed with Travis that I have actually seen this before but how I managed to forget it is beyond me. I think I've become exceedingly proficient at taking photos in places where you're not supposed to.

The next couple of hours kind of blurred by as we stumbled our way across Venice to find the right vaporetto to get to Murano, the island of glass. It didn't hurt to have Alfredo around so he could ask for directions.

One of my favorite shots of the day on the Grand Canal. Via one traghetto, one vaporetto, and a lot of walking we made our way to Murano just in time to picnic for lunch then go watch a glass blowing demonstration. 

Fast forward past buying glass trinkets, leaving the island, buying Carnivale masks (I somehow managed to avoid getting a picture with my mask on the entire weekend, go figure), and wading through the literal sea of tourists in St. Mark's Square to enter the Basilica. 

This is the best one of the lot, don't judge. After the church, Alfredo decided to go back to the hotel and sleep, leaving Katie and I to enjoy the real thrill of the day, the Gallerie dell'Academia, home to a fine collection of Venetian Renaissance art. 

Besides becoming a huge fan of Tintoretto, I've also started collecting pictures of St. Sebastian, pictured in the middle. Don't ask me why because I don't know why I started.

Sunday, 21 Feb

Glossing over the ERASMUS party on Saturday night, we were given the day to explore Padua... in the rain. Naturally, we ran to the nearest church for refuge, which we believed at the time was Basilica di San Antonio. Turns out it was only the church of St. Luke, so we looked at the map and found the right church. 

As it happens, we arrived during Mass during the Festival of the Tongue or something like that. In the glass cases are reliquaries, not the least of which were the tongue AND vocal cords of San Antonio. Had we stayed, we would've been able to see his jawbone being passed around. As exciting as that would've been, we left, found what Alfredo called "a gothic cafe" and drank ridiculously good coffee, with some sort of fancy mint foam on top. 

I snapped this guy on our way out of the cafe, after which we climbed back on board, passed out, and drove home.

A cold couple of weeks

Surely Mother Nature decided to throw a fit these past couple of weeks because this snow has broken all sorts of records. Public transportation was shut down for the 2nd weekend in a row so the trip to Pisa was a no-go, which really bummed me out. 5 days of school and 2 fieldtrips were cancelled in the process.

Trying not to let the snow ruin all of my fun, I still managed to escape my house to go to out and enjoy the nightlife, which led me to meet some very friendly Italians who took me sledding at 3 AM on Friday. We still managed Family Dinner Night on Sunday so that was fun as well. On top of that, Marco, one of the USAC coordinators/teachers has begun organizing volleyball games on Wednesday nights, allowing me to get my blood pumping at least once a week.

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Carnivale in Venice! Most of the USAC students paid for group  accommodations/transportation through the Erasmus Program, an international student group. Needless to say, I'm very excited.

Food Part 1

As promised, I have begun to takes pictures of food, some made by me, some from the restaurants. I only have 3 pictures so far but I'm working on it.

Homemade pizza with pesto, mozzarella, and garlic on top of focaccia.

Pasta from the world famous La Spaghetteria, world record holder for most kinds of pasta, over 300 in fact. This particular one is Paellati, essentially paella in pasta form and my favorite so far. Thanks to Lucrezia for the photo.

This tasty pasta I made last night. The official name is Pasta alla Carbonara but I like to call it breakfast pasta because ham and eggs are the two main ingredients.

As for the vino: frankly pictures of bottles are quite boring so I didn't take any. I do wanna talk about it though. In restaurants, if you ask for table wine or house wine, they'll bring you a pitcher with red or white wine mixed with sparkling water. Sounds gross I know but I've taken a liking to it. When I drink at home, I usually try to pick up a different bottle under 5 euros every time I go shopping. And without trying to sound like an alcoholic, I need to mention the "Wine Guy". Conveniently located only 10 minutes away, his store has these big vats of maybe 12-15 kinds of reds and whites which you can buy in 1.5, 2, or 4 liter plastic bottles for ludicrously cheap. They're great to take to dinners, like our Family Dinner Nights.

That's all I got for now but I will keep eating/drinking/snapping away as time goes on.

P.S. Special shout out to Lucrezia and Elena for showing up at my apartment on a Sunday morning to bring some pastries they had made. They were consumed within the hour. Grazie mille.

Update: Snow

So after the "mountain" of snow (6-7inches), 3 cancelled days of school, and some sort of state of emergency, things are finally returning to normal... At least until Friday, when it's supposed to snow again. We were planning on going to Pisa this coming weekend but if the trains shut down again, I'm might go crazy.

Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't snow. My sanity depends on it.

Snow Day in Viterbo

I'm sure in a direct attempt to spite me, the weather decided that Viterbo needed snow. None of my classes were cancelled but Studio Art was postponed for a whole hour. However, the postponement didn't stop me from having to walk to the other campus on the far side of town and get my poor socks drenched.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow and the day after. I might need to invest in some warmer clothes.

I left my heart in Orvieto (and some ruins)

Saturday was my personal day to brave Italian transportation and find my way to Orvieto. Actually it was super easy and I'm pretty sure I can get anywhere now. Anyways, Orvieto is about an hour north of Viterbo and it's an old fortress town on top of a hill. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and you have to ride the funicular to the top.

Right next to the funicular at the top is an old fortress with a commanding view of the countryside.

Panorama from the the battlements. A road zigzags down the face of the hill. It was very smoky because everyone seemed to be burning trash that day.

Next to the fortress was some monument, undecipherable to me but beautiful nonetheless.

On the other side of the funicular is the Well of Saint Patrick, built by a pope who fled to Orvieto after the sacking of Rome and decided that no one sieges a walled town, on a hill, with a well. And he was right. Alternate views from the top and the bottom.

And next to the well was some Etruscan ruins, which you can just walk up to and pretend like you're Etruscan, although no one really has any idea what they were all about. This used to be a temple. Actually a lot of the area surrounding Orvieto is rife with Etruscan ruins and artifacts, which explains why there are not one but TWO Archaeological Museums in town. Both of which I went to later in the day. 

But before the museums...

The Duomo of Orvieto, which I'm pretty sure is one of the most beautiful Gothic style churches in all of Italy. Each mosaic depicts some sort of the scene from the Bible, which I could read from the pamphlet and tell you but maybe another time. Pictures in the Duomo are strictly forbidden, so the ones I did take were from the hip, all incognito like. I felt like a Russian spy.

  Snapshot of the ceiling and one of the stained glass window behind the altar.

The real big sight inside the Duomo is the chapel of San Brizio, conveniently installed with camera detecting alarms. I only managed one or two blurry pics before the alarm sounded and a grumpy guard showed up to yell at the wrong person while I whisked away scot free.

After that it was pauso pranza and the only thing open besides pizzerias was the Museo Archaelogico Civico. The real highlight of the museum was a collection of Roman coins, which were displayed in a rotating case so you could see both sides.

Now the bad news. Pauso pranza still hadn't ended yet so I hoped I could head over to Pozzo della Cava, an Etruscan cave and get there in time for to open and get inside. As luck would have it, the only solid week that the cave is closed happened inextricably to be the same week I thought it a good idea to visit Viterbo. On top of that, I had missed the last tour to see the other Etruscan caves and the Etruscan Necropolis was at this point too far to get to and make it back for the 5:22 train.

Defeated, I grabbed lunch and headed back to the Duomo to visit some of the surrounding galleries. Oddly enough, included in the galleries for Renaissance art and pieces from the Duomo was a gallery dedicated to Emilio Greco. Click on this to see his work: Artwork.

I still had an hour to kill before I needed to leave to make it back to the train so I figured what that hell, why not another archaeological museum? Posing as an art history student, I got the reduced ticket price and geeked out over even more Etruscan artifacts. I'm quickly becoming a fanatic about a culture I know almost nothing about.

Besides an amazing collection of terracotta sculptures, jewelry, and household objects, they had these suckers. You might be thinking this is Roman, but nay, this is Etruscan armor. At least... I think so. Regardless, how awesome is that?

I have decided to return to Orvieto to spend the whole day doing nothing but visiting the Etruscan caves and necropolis. On the 4th, I depart for the weekend to Florence to stay with mia amica Vivian and try to cram in the top 6 sites within a 3 day period. Wish me luck.

Sidenote: Some people are hollering for more information about the cuisine in Italy. I have been eating on the cheap in order to have more money for travel. That being said, I've started making an effort to take pics of food, both home cooked and purchased. When I have enough, I'll dedicate a whole blog post to nothing but the gluttonous glory of food. And wine... lots of wine.