Semester running out

Hey everybody, it is Monday night right now and our semester is winding down pretty quickly.  Our final review is a week from tomorrow so between now and then I'll mostly be working on getting ready for that.  Luckily all our other classes have ended, which kept everyone busy up until today but will be nice for this last week.  Today we turned in one final project, a short movie about the ghetto neighborhood in Rome.  Drawing class ended last Wednesday, my final project for that was a kid's story called "Viktor and the Statue" about a boy growing up in Rome who gets in trouble by talking to statues.  I wanted to illustrate the book but only had time to do five pages, but I think they turned out well.  There were a lot of good drawing projects and movies in our class, and we got to see everyone's which was really cool.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to a soccer game with some friends.  The match is Roma vs. Milan-International.  I'm looking forward to that a lot.  I might get a Roma shirt before I go.  Hopefully I don't get caught up in a riot.  Supposedly it's not going to be the most crowded game, so I should be safe.  Ok, with that I think I'm about ready for bed.  I should probably go to sleep soon since our building is having maintenance work done on it now and I know I'll be woken up at 7 by jackhammers.  Sweet dreams to everyone in America!

Monday April 4th

Hey, It's Monday the 4th today.  I'm in studio right now getting ready for class to start at two this afternoon. Since my last post a few things have happened.  The first was a concert that took place in our studio last Wednesday.  One of our professors for this semester who specializes in music, Miriam Zach, brought world-class opera soprano Agnes Klauder to sing in our lecture room as part of Miriam's symposium of women composers.  Agnes sang with Miriam accompanying on piano and one of our classmates played violin on a few songs.  Afterwards we were supposed to comment on whether we discerned a difference between the songs composed by men from women.  I couldn't, but the concert was really amazing.
On Thursday we took the final test in our history class, which I think went pretty well.  Afterwards Cory and I brought American rock classics to Piazza dei Santa Maria in Trastevere again, which was fun. Last Friday our class took a trip to Tivoli to see Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana.  Tivoli is a small town east of Rome.  It's about a twenty minute drive between the two towns, but our drive there lasted about an hour and a half due to a public transit strike in Rome.  Eventually we made it out of the city, but it took a little patience.
Villa d'Este is a big mansion with a huge garden out back.  It was built in the 1600's by a cardinal who nearly became pope.  The gardens are famous for their many fountains.  After that we had lunch in Tivoli.  The lunch was covered by the program costs so it was a pretty big meal.  After that we went to Villa Adriana, the old estate that was basically the personal village of the emperor Hadrian.  Hadrian built himself a palace, exercise areas, large and small baths, a theater and piazzas out in the country.  The villa was big enough to require its own fire department.  After Hadrian died the villa fell out of use and into a long period of deterioration, so not much of it stands now in its entirety.  Today it is a beautiful park, perfect for napping off a large lunch, which is what most of us did there.  After Villa Adriana we drove back to Rome.  By that time the strike had ended and the drive was much smoother than on the way out.
On Saturday a group of us went to Sperlonga beach, which is about an hour south of Rome.  It was a bright sunny day, and I did get a sunburn but not too bad.  We played volleyball against some Italians and it was close but they ended up winning.  Sorry, America.  Sunday and the morning today were spent doing homework.  The weather for the last week or so has been really sunny and warm, so hopefully it doesn't change too much from here on out.  Ok, well that brought me a little closer to the start of class.  Best wishes to everyone back in Iowa, ciao!

P.S.-  Congratulations Tim and Sara!  Dad sent me pictures of Kate, she looks great.

 Gardens at Villa d'Este

 Villa Adriana

Sperlonga.  Weird name, cool beach.

Nice Friday

Hello everybody!  Today is a very nice Friday.  It is about two in the afternoon and I am done with class for the day.  We took our last walking history tour class this morning, which was kind of sad because I like that class.  Today we visited all the big piazzas that we hadn't talked about yet,  Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  I also wrote a paper about the Spanish Steps this week, so I feel like a real expert there.  It helps that there's not a whole lot of history to learn about the Spanish Steps, they've just kind of always been a cool place to hang out and people-watch.
Not much else is new, we're starting our final project for the semester, a music school in an old industrial neighborhood.  No big plans for tonight or this weekend.  This afternoon classmate John and I plam to work on a movie about a neighborhood that we researched at the beginning of the semester, the Jewish Ghetto.  Our teacher advised us to go there at five o'clock on Friday afternoons to interview old women who sit on the street. So that should be interesting.  Until then, I guess I'll just relax and enjoy the nice day.  Hope everyone back home gets a chance to do the same.  Arrivederci!

More Trip Stories

So I've been back in Rome for two days now.  Thursday was a very rainy day where I did not do much, but Friday was bright and sunny so I went to the Spanish Steps to start taking notes for a paper I need to write about them.  I found Villa Borghese for the first time, Rome's largest public park.  Then I was looking through my pictures from the trip and realized there were some other things I wanted to write about.  We'll start back in Verona.  First is a picture of me and Adam next to a couple helping Verona earn the name "City of Love."  After that is me with the Juliet statue.  I know I'm not exactly being a gentleman in this shot, but supposedly it's good luck to rub Juliet's, uh, bosom.  There was no Romeo statue, which, now that I think about it, seems a little bit odd.  Probably he didn't want to hang around to see armies of tourists feeling up his girlfriend.  I think we can all benefit from the wisdom of  Pat Benetar when she said, "love is a battlefield."

Next is a picture of Castelvecchio, just because I didn't put up a picture of it last time.  The next picture, in between the scaffolding covers, is the Bridge of Sighs.  Underneath the scaffolding on the left is Doge's Palace, and underneath the scaffolding on the right is Venice's prison.  Doge's Palace was the home of the Duke as well as the courthouse.  The Bridge of Sighs gets its name because for any prisoner sentenced to life in prison in Doge's Palace, the Bridge of Sighs was the last place where they would be able to see the sun.  That'll make you think twice about taking one of those gondolas for a joy-ride.  The last pictures are from an art show that opened up our last day in Venice.  It was an exhibit of the best entries in an art contest.  The piece shown is an array of tiny paper boats (or maybe hats).  Visitors were encouraged to take one for themselves, so I did.  I'm not sure what the idea behind it was, but I thought it was a cool piece of art.  There as also a toilet filled with empty eggshells, and a tree made out of wires.  Make of it what you will.

Also, if any of you were wondering how I managed to get these pictures when my camera was falling apart, I realized I could fix it quickly with some masking tape.  So my camera now works though it slightly resembles an arts 'n crafts project.  Hopefully when I get home I can get a more permanent fix.

While I was Gone

So, this post is a bit overdue, thanks to my being busy finishing our second project for the semester and then the immediate departure for our second field trip and then a few days of extra travel after that. The last time I wrote I was just about to leave for Florence, which was a fun trip.  As I predicted, we saw the Duomo, which was an amazing climb, and the David, which is much bigger in person than expected.  After that I had a busy week with my group for project two finishing up that project.  It was a lot of work to do in one week but we were all pretty happy with how it turned out.  That was last Monday, after that we had to get ready to leave for our second field trip which took us to North Italy to see some old buildings designed by famous people, famous cities and a few things designed by a relatively new guy, Carlos Scarpa.  A few previous studio instructors had mentioned Scarpa's work as being very well-done, so I was mostly excited to see his work, though the old stuff was impressive in its own way.
On the first day we visited mostly buildings by Palladio, an old mansion called Villa Barbaro in a small town I don't recall the name of, as well as a theater and a basilica in Vicenza.  The best thing we saw that day, though, was a cemetery in Brion designed by Scarpa.  It's without a doubt the nicest cemetery I've ever been in, and much nicer than many places that are meant for living people.  We spent that night in  Verona, hands-down the cleanest Italian city we've seen so far.  The next day in Verona we visited Castelvecchio, (old castle), an old medieval castle that has been renovated into a medieval art museum by Scarpa.  It's a really amazing place, both for the art and the building.  After that we saw other sites around Verona, such as Juliet's alleged balcony and a Colosseum-like building known as Arena.  All in all, Verona is a very nice city.  Much cleaner and quieter than Rome, if not as exciting.
After that we went to Venice, hands-down the most confusing Italian city we've been in, and the worst to try to lead a tour through.  When we first arrived the schedule called for a class tour involving the major landmarks and another museum by Scarpa.  After pausing several times for the teachers to check their maps and wait for half of the group to catch up, everyone pretty much decided that we could see the major sites on our own, but that we would stick with the group long enough to see the museum.  When we got there, it turned out to be less of a Scarpa-designed museum and more of a boring Venetian museum where Scarpa had designed a garden and entrance staircase.  So that was a little disappointing, although the staircase and garden were beautiful.  After that everyone went to explore the city on their own.  From the people I talked to, it sounds like everyone independently got lost, but everyone also agreed that it was a very beautiful city.

 The cemetery at Brion.  My photography skills and equipment can't really show how cool this place is, but I'm giving it my best shot.

 A bridge in Verona, with a hill in background.

Canals in Venice.

 St. Mark's square at night.

When the scheduled part of the trip was over, I took a small side trip to Levanto, a town in the Cinque Terre area of Italy.  Cinque Terre is a string of five coastal towns on the Northwestern Mediterranean coast of Italy connected by a scenic network of trails.  The picture shows me with Cristin's horse poster and the town of Manarola in the background.  It was a  fun trip.  I stayed at a hostel and made friends with some guys who were on vacation from California.  We hiked two of the more difficult trails in the rain, which made for an exhausting and fun day.  Then we made friends with a Kiwi (New Zealander) and the four of us found the only two bars that were open on a rainy night in the off-season.  Cinque Terre is a really beautiful place, and I imagine very exciting in the summer when more people are there.  It seemed, however, that most of the trails would've been impossible to navigate with the kinds of crowds that would be there in the summer.  So if you go for the trails, go in the off-season, but if you're just looking for beautiful beaches to spend the day on, then this would be a great place to go in the summer.  That's all for tonight.  I still have a few empty days in Rome before class starts back up again, so maybe I'll go to some sights I haven't made it to yet.  To everyone back home, I miss you and look forward to being back in land of 20 oz Hazelnut roasts in a few months.

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.