Vatican

So it's Friday, and Mom and Dad just arrived back in Chicago, and I went to the Vatican again today with our art history class.  I'd been there before with Mom and Dad, but I learned a lot more about the building by going there with our teacher.  Mom and Dad, apparently that big red circle you pointed out was also where Charlamagne was crowned.  Maybe you knew that already, but I just learned that today.  What I'm not sure of is if that happened before or after they moved it to the front of the church and let everybody walk on it.  We also went into the grotto and saw John Paul II's tomb.  The only thing I have left to do at the Vatican is take the steps up to the cupola, but that can wait a little bit.
Tuesday was a very eventful day this week.  First, in our urban culture class, we visited Corviale, a kilometer long building on the south-southwestern outskirts of the city.  It was a low-income housing project that used to be a pretty bad place to live but now is a successful community.  We played a quick game of soccer there which was really fun, then headed to EUR to see some fascist-era buildings, one of which was hosting a convention about the "State of the City."  Some of the students there met Santiago Calatrava, a famous architect/engineer.  Patrick, I was telling you once that Calatrava should do something in Minneapolis because he almost always builds near water.  Renzo Piano, another famous architect, was supposed to speak that night, but when some other students and I went back to see him he turned out to be a no-show.  He thought it would be a conflict of interest since he had declined a spot on the Roman Olympic Council, or at least that's what I heard.  The night wasn't a bust, though, because after all of the speakers the convention concluded with a buffet of delicious Italian food and wine.  So we ate our fill and then went to see the jazz band downstairs.  In other news, we had a paper due in our art history class this week, which kept me pretty busy.  We had to write about art in two churches dealing with St. Cecilia.  I mention it because I really liked the sculpture of St. Cecilia.  You can see the photo of it below.  On that note, thank you to Adam for all of the photos below.  We have a shot of the Sistine Chapel, taken without the approval of the Vatican Museum guards, a shot of us playing soccer, the St. Cecilia sculpture, the Baldachino towering over the papal alter in St. Peter's, and St. Peter's dome towering over the Baldachino.  The last shot is me next to a golden ball sculpture in one of the courtyards of the Vatican Museum.  It looks kind of like a decrepit gold death star, and it's exactly the same size as that tiny golden ball on top of St. Peter's cupola.  So that was this week, tomorrow I'm going to Florence for the weekend with some friends, to see the David and the Duomo and possibly make a side trip to Pisa.  I have to get up really early for that, so I'll probably go to bed pretty soon tonight.  That's all for now, arrivederci!

 

Pilgrims

Hey everybody back in the states!  Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been doing school and spending most evenings with Mom and Dad.  I've been doing my best to be a good tour guide for them, or at least recommend good places to go.  I think I've been doing all right, they're enjoying their stay here.  On Saturday the three of us saw Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and our studio.  Since then, we've been to Vatican City a few times, and Mom and Dad have found their way around the city admirably on days when I'm in class.  Well done, chaps!
Today was a rainy day.  Only the second rainy day since I've been in Rome, and also the "rainier" of the two.  Early this morning I caught the #8 tram and #23 bus to Vatican City to hear the pope speak with Mom and Dad.  Thank you, Father Leocke, for helping us get the tickets, we had great seats.  So we went to the Vatican early and found our seats in the papal auditorium, or as Dad called it, the funny-looking building.  Like good pilgrims we got there early so we had to wait awhile, but the pope did come out and speak.  His speech was entirely in Italian so none of us have any idea what he said, but still, how many chances to you get to see the Holy See?  Afterwards priests and cardinals of different nationalities came to the mic and announced the groups present in their native languages.  We weren't mentioned specifically, but I think Benedict knew we were there.  He had a wiley look in his eye.  Some of the groups were schools or choirs that would sing after they were called up, which was pretty cool.
To close the ceremony the pontiff lead the crowd in the Latin version of Our Father, and then we went back out into the rainy piazza.  We got some pizza for lunch and a restaurant in Piazza del Risorgimento, then I left to go back to studio.  On the way I made a detour to try and see rain come through the opening in the Pantheon, but right after I got there the sun came out.  I kind of couldn't believe it, because it had felt like it was going to rain all day.  As sure as I'm standing here, though, it stopped right at that moment.  I was a little disappointed, but you can't call any trip to the Pantheon a bad trip, so it wasn't too bad.  Hopefully there will be another rainy day while I'm in Rome.  April's coming up.  My fingers are crossed.

P.S. - My camera is currently in need of some repair, specifically the replacement of a few screws which hold the casing together.  So until that happens the posts will be text-only, excluding some sketches if I remember to scan them.

Thursday Night

Thursday night seems like a good night to blog.  Things have been pretty calm since we got back to Rome.  We're starting a new project in studio, writing a program for a school of music and picking a site for it within a given neighborhood.  This is a group project and I think I have a good group so I feel good about it.  It's also a competition project, so for our final project we'll have to design the music school according to the program of the winning team.  Excitement!
Other than that not much is new.  Our survival crash course in Italian has come to an end, though some of us students who want to continue taking Italian classes are talking to one of the teachers about continuing class once a week.  In place of Italian we have started our drawing class, which is really fun because the class currently consists of going around the city and drawing.  We're practicing different methods of drawing so we can develop our own style to drawing ideas quickly.  It's really fun.  In the next few days I'll scan some sketches to post, but I haven't done that yet so you'll have that to look forward to.
Mom and Dad arrive in Rome tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that.  It'll be good to see them and hopefully they won't mind taking me out to some nice Italian restaurants.  I love you Mom and Dad!  Seriously, though, it's gonna be fun.  Ok, hope everyone back home is doing well, love to hear from you guys.  I'm about ready for bed now.  Buonasera

Back from the Mediterranean

Ciao tutti!  So Adam and I got back into Rome last night around six after a weekend in the Mediterranean.  The first place we went to was Baia, where we visited the ancient baths.  My favorite thing there was the echo chamber, a big dome where people took baths and everything you said echoed at least four times.  My second favorite thing there was the pizzeria where we ate lunch.  I got a Ulysse pizza, which had tuna, onions and tomato and was delicious.  That pretty much set the tone for eating awesome pizza the rest of the weekend.  That night we arrived in Paestum and the hotel served us a seafood dinner and then we hung out on the beach.  Friday morning we saw the ruins at Paestum, three of the oldest Greek temples and what remains of the original city.

After Paestum we went to Pompeii, one of two cities that was simply erased by Mt. Vesuvius.  Pompeii was the first site we went to that still felt like a city.  The city was so well preserved under the explosion that some of the frescoes are still on the walls.  That night we spent in Naples, well-known to be the birthplace of pizza.  What is less well-known about Napoli, is that it is also the birth-place of "The Bomba," a 4 euro burger that has egg, olives, tomatoes, a hot dog, prosciutto, cheese and comes with French fries.  The Bomba can be found at Napoli's famous "Black Out Pub."

Ok, so that brings us to Friday, which was entirely spent wandering up and down Capri.  That was also the day when the weather turned from cloudy and windy to bright and sunny, which was nice.  After that Adam and I went to Sorrento, where "off-season" means "no one else in town and all the scooter rental places are closed."  Still it was a beautiful town and we took the bus down to the Amalfi coast and wandered around those towns, which were also beautiful.  Then Sunday we left to come back to Rome, and on the way took a taxi up Mt. Vesuvius.  So that's our weekend in the Mediterranean!  Oh, I almost forgot, while we were site-seeing, we kept seeing this strange horse image.  It showed up under rocks, in gardens, and along walkways.  Not sure what it means, but it made the trip a little more interesting.

 What a find!

Fun fact, the 8th dwarf in this garden, is a horse!

Parting for Napoli

So tomorrow we embark on our first studio field trip.  I won't be bringing my laptop on this trip so I wanted to make sure I put a post up before I left, because I won't be back until Sunday and don't want to keep everyone waiting again.  Our bus departs at the impossibly early hour of 8 in the morning, our first destination is Baiae, where we will tour an archeological wonderland and eat lunch.  Then we depart for Paestum, site of many ancient Greek temples and some of the finest seafood in Italy (I hope).  We will then visit the ruins of Pompeii, Italy's sexiest ancient city (that's actually true) and end our travels in Napoli on Thursday and Friday.  Weather permitting, they may take us to Capri, and I really hope the weather permits because the alternative is to spend the day in museums.  On Friday we are released from class and from there Adam and I are going to Sorrento for the weekend, not sure what we'll do but we heard it was nice.  If scooter rental turns out to be affordable we'll probably do that.
In other news, Adam and I have self-appointed ourselves as the official wine critics of the apartment.  Our credentials are Adam's semester in a "Beer, Wine and Spirits" class and my being friends with Adam.  Actually I was inspired when, upon discovery that our bottle collection shelf was completely full, the apartment agreed to only keep unique bottles.  I decided to try as many types of wine as I could while spending as little on each bottle as possible.  That decision being made, it seemed like something that I had to include in my blog and I requested Adam's help to lend some legitimacy to my critiques.  Also, no one wants to drink alone.
So, this wine is a chianti, it cost 2.50 euro, and falls into the DOCG wine category.  Adam assures me that this means something, but not necessarily anything, from what I gathered.  In any event, this wine was a medium red with some fruity flavors, we guessed cherry, or some other dark berry.  It was definitely lacking in herbaceousness.  All in all, we concluded that it was a mediocre wine in every sense, smooothness, heaviness, brightness and economy.  Not a bad wine, but not good enough to warrant the expense when 1 euro bottles are available.  Ok, that's all for tonight, I'll get back to you on Sunday! or Monday!...one of those days.

Can you believe some people use these for books?