A Room With a View: 2009

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

So it has only been a few days in the city and already I feel very comfortable. Here, with so many helpful landmarks at one's disposal, it seems impossible to be lost. Every couple of streets I run into something that looks familiar whether it is a street I have walked down before or one of the many sights I have seen in my art history books.

My first full day was spent meeting other students from my school. We met the president and the founder and went through what to expect from Florence. After that, one of my roommates and I wandered the streets looking for a better view of the city. jokingly we pointed to one of the hills that surrounds the city and said we would go there. After crossing the Arno via the Ponte Vecchio, and meandering through the winding streets (avoiding the speeding mopeds that seem determined to strike us down hah), we stopped. It was not until we turned to look in the direction from which we came, that we found we had climbed the very hill we had pointed to from across the river. We reached the top (near the Boboli gardens) when the sun was low in the sky and casting dramatic shadows over the river and houses. From there, the whole city lay before us and it was beautiful. We had a perfect view of the skyline; the Duomo, the towers, and the buildings that trimmed the Arno. The river was a greenish color,close to the shade of the statue of liberty. Of course, we paused here to take many pictures before we descended.

On Friday, we toured the city with a professor. She briefly showed us the museums , the churches, and Dante's residence (there you go, aunt Joan!). We did other errands that days including grocery shopping, phone shopping, and registering with the police. Florence has some interesting laws they've recently passed! For example, it is illegal to feed the pigeons, eat on a stoop, and you can be fined 10,00 euros if you are caught buying fake designer handbags and such!

Saturday was an adventure! Because it was the first warm and clear day, it was the day I climbed to the top of the Duomo! It was a long and dizzying ascent, but well worth the 8 euros and panting! Here again, we took many pictures and remained there for about forty minutes just absorbing the scene. I will definitely be doing that again before I leave! After that, I had my first real Italian pizza, prosciutto e ananas (ham and pineapple)! Delicious... Later on that night we went out to a club. The Italians were all quite stylish! That is, except for the one man where a "Duff" sweatshirt from the Simpsons...those seem to be popular here?

Ah, well that is all for now! I must go to class! I bid you farewell! :)

Sunday, 15 February 2009

Hadrian's Villa

Tivoli

The End of Rome

Vatican

More Rome

Rome

A couple weekends ago now I went to Rome with my Early Renaissance Class. We left at 6:20 on Friday morning and took a train to Roma! Our teacher began the tour as we arrived giving us facts about the train station ( it was too early to start in the train station, ha ha). We then checked into our hotel by nine and didn't stop the on site lectures until 7:30 pm! This woman is an energizer bunny! But, I will give her credit, we managed to see EVERYTHING in just three days! The first day we saw the Pantheon, Michelangelo's Moses, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and a couple Caravaggio's paintings. The Pantheon's overwhelming dome seemed like an optical illusion from our position on the floor, too immense to have been built in such early times. The Colosseum and the Forum were beautifully lit by the setting sun by the time we arrived in the center of Rome. It was quite and experience seeing all these sites I had learned about throughout Latin class in high school.

My intentions to enjoy Rome's night life were never realized as I was completely exhausted from our day of touring. I would fail again the following night, giving in to the comfort of my bed! On Saturday we continued this fast paced journey. If this trip were the Oregon trail our pace would be grueling! ha Anyway, went to several churches, the Vatican (where we saw the Laocoon statue and the Sistine Chapel!), various other things, and finally Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa. The Vatican was not what I expected. It is was bizarre that it felt more like an airline or massive museum-like amusement park with all of it's security and crowds of tourists than a religious center. It was beautiful there, and Old St. Peter's lived up to it's name. The Sistine Chapel was also amazing. When we finally reached the end of our day people were tired and grumpy, I'll admit that I could have like to kick someone, but the final site was definitely worth the wait. The small church that contains St. Theresa opened it's doors especially for us, so we were able to have a very intimate observation of Bernini's theatrical installation. Here, I lit a candle for Grandma, in front of St. Theresa. After a delicious dinner of pasta and clam sauce we hit the sheets.

On Sunday, we made our final stop in Rome at the Bourghese Villa, which contains a couple Caravaggio's paintings and two of Bernini's most famous statues (Pluto and Persephone and Daphne and Apollo). I think the Bernini's were one of the most memorable sites of the trip; the sensitivity with which he carved the flesh of these mythological characters is remarkable, you can see the pressure of fingers as they press against the bodies. After this, we left Rome and headed for Tivoli to the Villa D'Este. This remarkable villa contains over 400 fountains in it's garden including one large fountain that plays the organ with it's hydraulics (i think?). Pictures will do more justice for this place than any words so I will attach them.

We finished the trip by seeing Emperor Hadrian's Villa, an enormous complex of Ancient Roman ruins in superb condition. We wandered here until sunset and then headed back to Florence.

To my surprise and absolute delight my roommates had dinner waiting for me when I returned! :)