Tuesday, 27 January 2009
It's been a while...
Okay, I've done a lot since I wrote last! It's frustrating posting this because often times my Internet will cut off mid- paragraph and I'll loose everything! That's why I'm a bit behind! Anyway!
My Classes-
Batik- I have an old British woman named Iris as a teacher. She sounds and dresses like Mrs. Doubtfire and has this fascinating ability to be cold and abrupt and completely sweet at the same time. It is important to be on her good side, as far as I can see, and that I have done so far! I'm really excited about this class and I am almost done with my first project. I will post a picture when it is complete. I am doing a wall hanging of a Madonna and child floating over a sea of sunflowers. Our assignment was to incorporate a bit of Tuscany into our pictures, who could I ignore the images I see decorating every wall of every church! I hope I put enough of my own spin on it, although she seems to like it so far. Classes are three hours long, twice a week, but she always gives us coffee breaks. I am really enjoying the cappuccinos here! :)
Fresco- I have two old Italian men as my professors instructing me in the classic art of fresco painting: Mario and Luigi! Mario is short and has a mustache and everything! We spent the first two weeks layering the lime and sand and creating the colors we'll need from pigments. Our first assignment was to copy one of Michelangelo's images from the Sistine chapel. I am doing the blond sibyl who gazes down over her shoulder. I have fresco every Wed. for six hours, but it's like going to grandpa's house. Mario is so sweet and he makes us endless pots of coffee and gives us cookies!
Int. Drawing- My teacher's name is John and he is British man. He lives in Italy now and works as a sculpture. He seems very nice once you get past a somewhat snooty accent! lol We spend 6 hours a week (tues. and thurs.) drawing from live nude models. It is very peaceful and relaxing. Today, however, we went to the Academia and spent three hours drawing the David! It was my first time seeing him in real life and it was quite overwhelming, and a very enjoyable field trip!
Early Renaissance Art History-
This class is taught by an energetic, sixty something, run 5-7 miles a day, American woman. She never stops and so our field trips are exhausting! But, as tiring as it to be going 12 + hours a day, we learn and see so much. We've gone to local sites like the Duomo, the Baptistery, Santa Croce, San Miniato, and the Uffizi, as well as Ravenna, Pisa, and Lucca. San Miniato provided excellent views of the entire city as it located on the hill across the Arno. Supposedly, St. Minias was a Armenian king who was decapitated in a Roman stadium in Florence. he then carried his head up the Mountain to where his church is located now. Anyway, there we toured the church and listened to the Gregorian chants of the monks in the crypt there.
Santa Croce, the Duomo and the Baptistery were beautiful. I saw Michelangelo's grave there. The Uffizi was amazing. We didn't look at everything just Early Christian, Gothic, and Early Renaissance painting, however, I saw The Birth of Venus and many other works by Boticelli!
The day in Ravenna was long, but it is a charming small city. We saw many churches, and Theodric'c mausoleum. The highlight was San Vitale! The mosaics were amazing! I will post pictures of them! It was easy to see the otherworldly effect they were striving for!
The day we went to Pisa and Lucca, it was cold and rainy. This was unfortunate but it did cut down the crowds, and the umbrellas were a colorful addition to my pictures! The leaning tower was indeed leaning, and the pulpits by the nicola and giovanni pisano were amazing! One entertaining story from Pisa was a tradition we witnessed. When were about to enter the Baptistery, there were about forty Italian teenagers gathered around with their umbrellas. They were loud and excited and some of them were running around the Baptistery with their hands on the wall. When we left the Baptistery forty minutes later, strange events were taking place. The high school students were in groups walking forward and backward in between the Baptistery and the Duomo. Some were hopping on one foot, some were shaking hands, and then they hit our butts! We were all so taken aback before a guard explained that this was a good luck tradition that takes place before their finals! They have to run around, then on one foot, then count and walk forwards and backwards between the buildings, then shake hands and hit 50 butts! It was a weird event to witness, mayhem!
Lucca was beautiful as well, somewhere I would like to visit on a sunny day. It is very green and has many beautiful gardens. Some of the gardens are on top of towers. Full grown trees on top of Medieval towers!
About a week and a half back my roommate and I went to Fiesole (a suburb on the surrounding hills of Florence). There we watched the sunset. There is no way to explain this sight, so again, look to the pictures!
Back in Florence, there was a chocolate festival taking place. We went twice...it was glorious. Hot chocolate melted over fresh strawberries, dark chocolate covered almonds, and many, many samples!
Welp, that's all I have in me for now! Time to make dinner! I write again soon! :)
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
First Week
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 founder and went through a list of things to expect of 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 seemed 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 at from across the river! We reached the top (near the Boboli gardens) when the sun was low in the sky and casting dramatic4 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 may 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 where a man stands everyday and recites Dante's work from memorization (there you go aunt joan!). We did other errands that day including grocery shopping, phone shopping, and registering with the police. Florence had passed some interesting laws recently! For example, it is illegal to feed the pigeons, eat while sitting on a stoop, and you can be fined 10,000 euro for buying fake Gucci/Dior/Versaci handbags and such!
Saturday was quite an adventure! It was a warm and clear day and so we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo! It was a long and dizzying ascent but well worth the 8 euro and panting! :) Here again, we took pictures and remained there 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...you could tell it was a bar/club aimed for americanos/as, but regardless it was fun. The Italians are quite stylish! That is, except for the man wearing the "Duff" sweatshirt (from the Simpsons). Those seem rather popular here?
Ah, well that is all for now... I am in class this week but I will try to write again tomorrow! Ciao!
Monday, 12 January 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Well, it has been a very, very long day. I left Boston around 4:30 ish yesterday and met a boy from Northeastern that could pass for Andy Bernard from The Office. He looked like him, sounded like him, and even had the same expressions. Weirdest of all, his name was Andy! It was a very entertaining encounter.
On the way over to Germany I was seated next to a German couple and an American women who was going to a string quartet conference in Budapest. I asked her if she knew Ronald Crutcher the cellist and president of Wheaton but she did not. She was very enthusiastic about finding out who he is though. I hope she doesn’t think he is that exciting!
Seven hours later I arrived in Frankfurt. It was here that I caught the beginning of the sunrise. I continued to watch the sun rise as our plane crossed the Alps. By the time we had reached Florence, morning had broken into dreary day. However, the rain did nothing to dampen my excitement for I was fully prepared with an umbrella and the fog hung over the surrounding mountains in a very picturesque way.
My apartment is beautiful, and just about a ten-minute walk from the heart of Florence and the Palazzo Del Duomo. There are five living here on Via San Gallo and the large kitchen is practically begging us to host dinners! I will post pictures soon
I spent the rest of day exploring and on my own. Later on, my roommate and I got fresh Paninis from a woman down the road. She didn’t speak English, we didn’t speak Italian, and so she called her enthusiastic twelve-year-old son in to speak to us in both Spanish and English! Even with the communication issues the meal was superb!
And for your entertainment, I bring you pick up lines that should be avoided at all costs. This one was directed at my roommate while we were walking through the market.
Man: “Ciao!”
Girl: “Hello”
Man: “Miss, you dropped something!”
Girl: “Oh, I did?”
Man: “ My heart and it is breaking into many pieces on the ground!”
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