Finale

As I have been preparing to leave for home tomorrow evening, I have felt so many conflicting emotions. I have been home sick for a little while now and am so looking forward to being home, but the departure date approached so quickly and I am also very sad to be leaving. I have made so many amazing friends here, had so many unforgettable experiences, and have learned so much. I am anxious to see how my experiences here will affect life at home and what I will continue to learn from them. I am antsy about the travel part of the returning home. I am looking forward to some of the little things I have missed from home and am already missing the little things here I know I won't have at home. I miss friends and family and home and I'm already missing people I'm with here. It is really hard to believe this semester is almost over. I was admittedly scared of coming to Riva at first, not knowing many of the people who were coming who already knew each other so well, but it was honestly the best thing I could have done for myself. I've decided I need to do a few things that scare me.

I look forward to seeing everyone at home and am so excited to be returning. I just wanted to write one last blog entry to commemorate the semester in a way. I hope everyone who has been following it has enjoyed reading and got to feel like they were experiencing the semester with me at least a little bit.

Exhibition and Lugano

On Friday evening, from 5 to 7:30, we held our exhibition to show the work we have done throughout the semester. It went over quite well; The Mayor, our travel agent and her husband, our Italian professor, two ladies from the post office, the owner of the local bar/restaurant San Giorgio, the landlord of one of the apartments, some of the students from the architecture school in Mendrisio and their professors, the family of one of the students here, as well as our staff here at the villa and the business students all came to see the work. It was nice that everyone seemed so interested in our projects; It is also not often that we explain our projects to other students who aren't in architecture, so speaking about our projects was a learning experience too. We will do another exhibition of our work back in Blacksburg this Spring Semester; It is actually a requirement for the travel groups to put on a display of their work.
Afterwards, we went to San Giorgio with some of the students from Virginia Tech spending the year at the Mendrisio school until it was time to meet at Frank's apartment for a late dinner. Three of the guys, Chris, Ryan C., and Matt cooked up the sauerkraut and sausage which was served with bread rolls and wine. I never thought I would like the sauerkraut, but the home-cooked version was wonderful! It was a very well done meal and a nice, relaxing way to spend the evening after setting up and putting on the exhibition.

Yesterday afternoon, we, Kristina, Ashton, Danett, Megan and I, went to Lugano. We just wanted to spend a relaxing day wandering, enjoying all the busyness of the Holiday shopping, and getting a nice cup of coffee and/or hot chocolate. It was a beautiful day and a perfect way to spend the Saturday afternoon of our last full weekend here!

Now we have only to finish up our seminar project, pack, celebrate a few birthdays, and await the surprise Frank has for us on the 10th.

December

As we near the end of the semester this week, we have been working on a number of miscellaneous assignments and have also had and will have a few celebrations. Our Italian class is now over; we took the final exam yesterday. We've been working on preparing for our exhibition, which will be held on Friday evening, to showcase the work from the semester. We've been cleaning out the studio space to use for the exhibition; the business students and people from the town are all invited. It should be a nice way to display and celebrate our competition boards, photos from our trips, sketchbooks, and preliminary work.

December 3rd, yesterday, was, of course, my Birthday! It was an amazing day all around, despite having to study for and take the Italian exam. In the morning, when I went downstairs for breakfast, there was a note for me saying "Happy Birthday Louisa! Go to the fireplace room." I was confused, but, when I went in, I found Chloe and Ashton with a fire in the fireplace and playing Christmas music. They had set up a wonderful breakfast of homemade granola (courtesy of Chloe), a yogurt from the grocery story my sister tried while she was here, swiss hot chocolate, orange juice, bananas, bread, and nutella! I obviously couldn't have everything, but stuck with the granola, yogurt, and hot chocolate. It was such a nice way to start the day and made the stress of the Italian exam that was to occur later in the day fade away. It was so Christmasy and warm; I couldn't have had a better start to my Birthday! When I came back to my room, my roomates had set up snowflake Christmas lights on my bed with some chocolates and the gift David sent with my mom; they, of course, also had Christmas music playing!

The rest of the day itself with dedicated to our Italian exam and cleaning up studio some until it was time for our fancy, belated (Italian) Thanksgiving meal. We all ate together in the main classroom and enjoyed a 'fall' salad, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a 'semifreddo' dessert. I wasn't expecting them to serve the individual ice cream birthday cakes that are normally given to people on their birthdays, as it was such a big and nice meal to prepare for so many people. I was definitely surprised when Kristina, one of the servers for the evening, came in with one; they had a single candle lit and sang Happy Birthday, the tradition here at the villa. It was a little overwhelming with so many more people at dinner, including our professors. I was glad that the Thanksgiving meal happened to be on my Birthday though; it was nice for everyone to be excited to get dressed up and enjoy a meal together.

After the dinner we had to do a little more work for the studio exhibition, but after went over to the girls' apartment to hang out and have some fun. Lindsey and Will had prepared a version of Jeopardy with questions all relating to us here in Riva. There were categories like 'Mi Casa e Su Casa' for things that happened in the villa, 'On the Road Again' for things during our travels, 'Shin' Diggin' for the celebrations we have had, a 'Miscellaneous' category, and one called 'Birthday Girl' with questions about me. It was so much fun to look back on some of the things we've done throughout the semester; even though we are all looking forward to going home at this point, it did make us a little sad to think that so soon we won't be living and experiencing this together.

Overall, it was an amazing Birthday! Everyone put so much time and thought into everything; I couldn't have asked for more!

The next few days we are finishing up the seminar project, of course having the exhibition, celebrating a few more Birthdays, and enjoying the rest of the time we have here as much as we can! Tonight, we get to roast chestnuts over the fire again!

Thanksgiving Break With Mom and Erin

Photos of Thanksgiving Break Travel with Mom and Erin.

I just returned this evening from a fantastic week of traveling with my mom and sister. They flew in on Thursday evening, arriving in Riva, where they stayed in the hotel here for two nights, mid-day Friday. We took it easy the first few days; I showed them around Riva on the Friday they arrived and the Villa as well and on Saturday, we spent the day wandering around Lugano. We left Sunday morning, by rental car, for Milan. Driving was certainly an adventure; Traffic and difficulty navigating almost made us skip Milan and continue to Florence instead. However, we fought on and felt accomplished once we made it to the hotel. We spent some time wandering around Milan, where we happened upon a marathon in progress, saw some of the original fort that protected the once walled Milan, went to the Duomo, and walked through the Galleria, an architecturally beautiful, high-end, covered shopping area. The next morning we left for Florence, where we spent three days. We went to a few museums, including the Uffizzi and Accademia (where Michelangelo's David is displayed); we saw the Duomo of Florence, went to the Ponte Vecchio, did a bit of shopping, and wandered of course. We ate at a "self-service" restaurant, which was a cool experience; it was almost like a buffet line, so we went through it and picked out a bunch of things to share. It seemed like a more local thing to do, so it was nice to break away from the more touristy side of things. We also ate gelato... really good gelato. There is a place called Festival del Gelato, where there are an unbelievable number of unusual flavors; we went there both on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, Erin had to head home. She was picked up at the hotel at 5:00 a.m. to be taken to the Florence airport. I am very thankful that she came considering she would have such a long day of travel and then have to work 'Black Friday' for 14 hours. Mom and I left later that morning for Venice. At this point we had dropped off the car at the rental place, so we took a train and then the vaparretto, the boat taxi, to the Rialto Bridge, near our hotel. It was a beautiful, though cold, first day; Mom and I walked to St. Mark's Square and down the main body of water to the Biennale Gardens for the afternoon until time for dinner. The next day we were not so lucky in terms of the weather unfortunately. It was not just cold, but rainy and windy. We did have indoor activity planned; In the morning we went to San Marco Basilica, the museum that is on the 'second floor' of the Basilica, as well as the treasury, housing many beautiful gold, crystal, and jeweled objects of the church. Despite the poor weather, we did spend the rest of the day wandering, taking a break part way through the afternoon to warm up in our hotel. The next morning, today, Mom took a transfer boat to the Marco Polo airport on one of the islands of Venice and I took the vaparretto back to the train station to head to Milan then back to Riva.

I really enjoyed spending the week with both Mom and Erin and was very thankful to have both of them come visit; especially over the holiday. I thank them both for the week of wonderful travel and look forward to coming home soon!

Mom and Erin!

Mom and Erin arrived yesterday, around noon, safe and sound, but tired. Last night and tonight they are staying in Riva; We are traveling around Italy, starting with Milan, on Sunday. I will probably not be updating until I return, unless I find an internet cafe.
Seeing them makes me miss home even more; I'm getting more and more excited to return on December 12th!

Vicenza to Riva

The next morning, we left Verona to stop by Vicenza, a city with many buildings and a history of Palladio. Together we visited the Teatro Olympio, a theatre space designed by Palladio. Its stage creates a perspective by having "streets" extend on an incline towards backstage and little "buildings" that get progressively smaller along the streets. It allows the actors to walk off stage as if they are walking down a street. It does a good job of playing a trick on the eye; we all wished we could have seen a play there to see how it does affect the play itself. It was very difficult yo photograph in the space they allowed us to sit though.

Photo of Teatro Romano.


We really just spent the rest of our time there wandering around the area. We wanted to have a relaxing last day and just enjoy exploring the city itself. After a few hours, we headed back to Riva, arriving in time to start unpacking before dinner. We all slept very well that night!

The next day it was back to work so that we could finish our competitions we've been working on throughout the entire semester; we sent them off yesterday!
I will post the scanned boards as soon as possible so you can see what it is I've been up to in terms of studio this fall.

Brion and Verona

Photos in Brion Cemetery.

We were picked up in Venice to drive to Brion cemetery and then Verona at 9:30 in the morning on November 13th. The weather on this day was the worst we had on the trip; it was so cold and rainy. While the Brion cemetery, by Carlo Scarpa, was another beautiful architectural work, it was difficult to enjoy it. Virtually all outside or open to the elements, we could not get away from the weather. I spent some time taking photos, but there was no sketching that day; Frank suggested that if we got to cold, to go to one of the nearby cafes and get a coffee to warm up and dry off. We all took this suggestion. It was a work worth seeing and studying, so I am glad we went, despite the discomfort during the visit.

We continued to Verona in the afternoon. We were excited to make it to our hotel so we could change out of the wet clothing and warm up a bit. After doing so, we were re-energized and decided to walk a bit to see some of Verona before dinner. 'The girls' and I walked around some of the main streets; as it was near the end of the trip and we were pretty exhausted from seeing so much and the travel itself, we decided to have a bit of a girly afternoon and shop some. It was a really nice break! As it was getting dark, we saw the arena light up; it is similar in look to the Coliseum, but tiny in comparison.



We had the next full day, November 14th, in Verona before we returned to Riva on the 15th. We met in the morning to see Castle Vecchio. It is a museum with pieces of ruins as well as paintings, mostly of Mary and baby Jesus, from earlier than the year 1000. Originally a castle, Carlo Scarpa renovated the building to create the museum. He creates moments which not only aid in the display of the artwork, but also display the castle itself as a piece of art. Frank tells us that his work is something that no one may fully understand, but we can still enjoy the things we don't understand and that sometimes we don't need to try to.

Photos of bridge and interiors at Castle Vecchio.


Afterward, we went to see Juliet's, as in Romeo and Juliet, balcony and house. The house itself was a kind of mini-museum; it held artwork that depicted scenes from various productions of Romeo and Juliet, fake books with passages from the play, interactive computers on which you could learn about the history of the myth and play, and a mail box where you could write letters to Juliet. Apparently, there are women who write letters back to those who leave them in the mail box. It is also possible to go out onto the famous balcony from the museum. In the courtyard outside, there is a statue of Juliet whose breast people touch for good luck while taking a photo; the color of the statue has changed where people have touched it because of the oils on their hands. The tunnel/archway that leads into the courtyard is covered in signatures and tags with messages of love; there was nothing left uncovered. Post-its and little bits of paper had also been taped onto the wall everywhere. We found out, after Ashton and I signed the wall for our boyfriends, that it is not actually legal to do so... oops.

Photos of the signatures, Juliet statue and the mailbox.


We then walked by a bank by Carlo Scarpa that Frank told us we should try to see if we could. We unfortunately could not go in, but it was nice to see another of his works. The way in which he produces details is very distinct, so it is easy to recognize his projects.

Photo of detail at Carlo Scarpa bank.


It was time for lunch at this point, so we decided to go to a kebab place we saw near the arena so we could go inside the arena directly afterwards. It was my first kebab, though everyone else has had one before and the guys have been obsessed because it is usually cheap and really good! They are called 'Doner Kebab' because the meat, similar to gyro meat, is shaved off of a very large kebab. They can be on wrap bread, a roll or pita bread, and have lettuce, tomato, cucumber sauce, hot sauce, and cabbage. They don't always look pretty, but they taste wonderful; plus it was only 3.50 Euro.
The arena was really well preserved and was pretty much exactly like the Coliseum on a much smaller scale. We played around in the arena and sat for a little while there. The weather this day in Verona was absolutely beautiful and a huge improvement on the day before, so we were determined to enjoy it as much as possible.

Photos of Doner Kebab, the arena and Ashton playing in the Arena.


We headed towards to tomb of Juliet after the visit to the arena. It was not really what we were expecting, though I'm not sure what it was that I was expecting. We stayed only a few minutes and then decided to try to make it to the Teatro Romano, another amphitheater, before it got dark. It was quite a walk, but it was worth it when we got there. We watched the sunset from the seats and met a very sweet cat. It just hoped into our laps and purred away.

Photos at the Teatro Romano.


In the evening, after dinner, some of us went to a piazza with a few cafes and bars where we could go in and get a drink then go back out to the piazza to chat with the crowd of local people. It had a really nice, relaxing atmosphere; it was perfect for our last night in Italy traveling all together.