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.