Hadrian's Villa, Gubbio and Moderna

Photos at Hadrian's Villa.

On our way to Gubbio, we stopped at Hadrian's Villa for 3 or 4 hours; it is a retreat that the Roman Emperor Hadrian built for himself in the 2nd century because he disliked Palatine Hill in Rome. It is more of a small city than what we would consider a villa. There are two baths, a theater, multiple reflection pools, a hotel, and many other public buildings. We had beautiful weather, which made for a really nice walk around the ruins.

From there we drove to the small medieval town of Gubbio. We arrived in the evening after hauling luggage all over the place to get there. After we walked through the town, virtually all stone buildings reminding me a bit of Ireland, going up the hill it is built on. Apparently, the hill becomes the world's largest Christmas tree when they wrap the whole hill with Christmas lights in December. The next morning we had a bit of time to wander, as we were leaving a bit later to get to Moderna cemetary when it opened in the afternoon. We decided to walk down to the amphitheater closer to the edges of the town; it is still used for some performances today.

Photos in Gubbio, including the amphitheater.


We continued to Moderna cemetary, the newest portion of which was designed by Aldo Rossi. He respects the nature of the traditional portion of the cemetery by continuing its axis and maintaining some of the original ideas of the cemetery. However, while the original section was much more traditional with a lot of very symmetric and well-defined garden design as well as symmetric buildings, the area designed by Aldo Rossi is very sparse and simple to fit with his idea of a "City of the Dead." Cemeteries are not often thought of in terms of their architecture, so it was both interesting and awkward to visit it for that reason; we felt odd walking past so many peoples' graves.

Moderna cemetery photos.


We continued to Venice, getting there late in the evening; More on Venice next time!

Rome: Part Two

Photos at the Coliseum.

Our last full day in Rome, we visited many of the ancient ruins for which Rome is known. In order to ensure we would not have to wait in a long line to get in, we went straight to the Coliseum in the morning. We waited about 30-45 minutes (not bad!). It was also good that we went earlier in the day, because after we left the Coliseum and went to get lunch before visiting the Roman forum and Palestine Hill, it began to rain, a lot. The Coliseum holds about as many people as Lane Stadium holds; it amazes me that something on such an enormous scale could have been built at a time when our modern machinery was not available. Stepping into it and thinking about what happened there when it was in use is really an overwhelming experience. Crosses throughout the Coliseum seemed a bit ironic to us considering how many people died in the arena for entertainment value alone.

After the Coliseum, we went to lunch; luckily, when it began to rain, we were in the cafe already. We waited it out a little bit, then decided that it would be a good time for an indoor activity. We went to a small church with relics of St. Valentine (his skull) and "The Mouth of Truth." This "Mouth of Truth" is a concrete wall sculpture of a face with an open mouth. The story behind it is that if you stick your hand inside the mouth and it doesn't bite you, you are a truthful person, if it does bite you, you are obviously otherwise. We all passed the test!


Photo of the military band.

At that point the weather began to look a little better, so we decided to head over to the Roman Forum. (We is Ashton, Kristina, Megan, Danett, and I.) On our way we passed by the Circo Massimo, once a race track for other games, but now an open green space. There was currently a military "fair" of sorts going on in the area. We never entirely decided what it was, but it was kind of fun to see the officers, the military band, tanks, the horses, etc...

The Roman Forum and other ruins surrounding it were much more expansive than I had imagined. I was glad to get to see them this time in Rome, as last time we tried to find them at the very end of our trip there and almost missed our tour bus. It continued to rain a bit while we were there, but once it had cleared up, the sky made for beautiful photography.


Photos at the Roman Forum.


It was getting into the late afternoon at this point, so we decided to slowly make our way back to the hotel, stopping in a church recommended to us by another student, Ryan C., who had been there his last time in Rome. It had one of the most incredible ceilings I have ever seen. You couldn't tell where the painting stopped and the structure and the walls began. It felt like you could walk, well float as its a ceiling, right into it. There was a large mirror which you could look into angled up towards it; the way in which it was placed made it feel as if there were no ground and that you were floating somewhere within the painting. It was impossible to get a good photograph, but we tried.

Photo into the mirror looking up at the ceiling.


The next morning we left Rome to see Hadrian's Villa and spend one night in Gubbio, a small medieval town in Italy.

Rome: Part One

The next four nights of our tour of Italy were spent in Rome; there we had apartments of 3 to 5 people each. We actually had all four apartments in the little building just of of Piazza Fiore, a piazza named after the flowers sold there in the market every morning.
We arrived on the evening of November 5th and, after settling in for a few minutes, went to see the Pantheon before dinner. It was really impressive to see it at night and it was exciting to see the piazza outside of it alive with people and music. As it was also the day after the election of Obama, there were also posters, newspapers, and magazines with his photo going up everywhere in addition to people shouting "Obama!" at us when they noticed we were a group of Americans. It was interesting to experience the election from a European view.



Photos of our piazza, Obama stickers, and Pantheon at night.

The next day we met with Frank to see a few churches, San Carlo alla Quattro Fontaine and another, whose name I cannot seem to find at the moment. San Carlo was a beautiful, virtually all white, church with oscillating, curved walls. Because of its scale, it was very difficult to photograph.

Photo of San Carlo.


When we branched off, Ashton, Danett, Megan, Kristina, Lindsey, and I decided to go see the Spanish steps and the piazza there than gives a beautiful view of at least part of Rome. From there we headed to the Trevi Fountain to through in our coins for good luck; it was amazingly busy. Many of the places we have visited have been much less busy this time of year. Rome may be less busy than it is in the summer, but it is definitely still very, very full of tourists. As we walked we happened upon a beautiful Galleria with a bit of an art deco feel. There we found Buddhist monks creating beautiful symbolic artwork by blowing sand through a metal "straw"; it appeared to be a protection wheel of sorts. If you donated a Euro, you received a protection bracelet which one of the monks tied on your wrist while chanting a prayer. Before dinner, Frank had us all meet at a restaurant to treat us to a glass of wine; we sat outside next to little gas fireplaces until it was time to head off to dinner. After dinner we went back to the Trevi fountain to see it at night and get some gelato.


Photos of Spanish Steps, Buddhist Monk, Megan and Danett at Trevi Fountain, and a bunch of us lined up at Trevi Fountain at night.

The next day was all one our own, so many people decided to go visit the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica in the morning. As a few of us had already been to the Vatican, we decided just to revisit St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. We then went to see a nearby castle turned museum; we didn't go in, but enjoyed walking around the exterior space and following some of the old city wall. We, Danett and I, met up with those who went to the Vatican in the piazza, but as they had not gone into St. Peter's yet, we decided to re-meet them in the Piazza del Popolo. Danett and I then went to get lunch in the meantime at a little restaurant, where we could order real Italian pizza. We had little choice of food, because at dinner we received the menu of the day; often we got similar dishes from restaurant to restaurant. We then walked toward the Piazza del Popolo, stopping at a museum designed by Richard Meier along the way. He created an incredibly accessible and seamless building with a great public space, through the use of stairs and a water fountain running the length of most of the space.

Photos of St. Peter's, the castle and the Richard Meier Museum.


Later that evening we went to see the Coliseum at night before we went to tour it the next day!



More Rome later...

Lucca and Florence

On November 2nd, the second day of our tour of Italy, we left Torino to spend a few hours in Lucca, a small town, and then make our way to Florence for a few days. It was to our surprise that in this small town they hold a comic book and cartoon convention every year that was currently in progress. Lucca was packed with huge number of people, most of whom were dressed for the occasion in quite a variety of costumes. The reason for visiting the town was to see and walk on the paths of the city walls that surround it, to see the amphitheater turned into a piazza near the center, and to have a nice place to stop for lunch on the way to Florence. I only wish I had taken more photos of the costumes, but I felt a little rude doing so.

Photos of the crowds of people and of the amphitheater turned piazza.



We arrived in Florence on the evening of November 2nd and spent the 3rd and 4th there leaving for Rome on the 5th with a stop in Pienza. Sadly, it rained the entire time we were in Florence, but we all had a great time and loved the city nonetheless.
On the first day there, Frank showed us a few small churches that are some of his favorite spaces in Florence, as he said. After he led us to them and we both sketched and photographed them, we were off on our own. We decided to go to the Ponte Vecchio and the surrounding area from there; the Ponte Vecchio is a bridge lined and created by shops, currently almost all jewelry shops. Needless to say, I think the girls enjoyed it more than the guys. Depending on what each person wanted to do, we split off into groups to check out what we were interested in seeing that day. Ashton, Kristina, Megan, Danett and I, who spent most of our time together during this trip, decided to continue to see the Duomo, to get lunch and to wander. We travel well together! Later, we did split again when Megan and Danett needed to take naps; Ashton Kristina and I walked to see an orphanage we had learned about in History of Architecture by Brunelleschi. We walked a lot just to see the city. Later, Frank and Regan, the Virginia Tech graphics teacher joining us for a few days, took us on the merry-go-round on the piazza outside of our hotel.


Photos of the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, part of the orphanage, me on the Merry-Go-Round, and Lindsey and Will dancing to some live music in the piazza just outside our hotel.



On November 4th, we went to see the Uffizi Museum with Frank and Regan in the morning, after which we were once again on our own. Many of us went to see the Laurentian Library, another building we had learned about in History of Architecture, before it closed at 1 pm. Ashton Kristina and I spent the rest of the day doing a little souvenir/gift shopping and exploring the area across the Ponte Vecchio. We went to Michaelangelo's Piazza, from where you can see the whole city and a bronze imitation of the statue of David. By the time we did all of this, it was almost time for dinner, so we headed back to our hotel. After dinner, we all went dancing.

View of Florence.


I'm sorry to put so much information in one post! It is easier to do a few long ones than to break it into each of the days. I will continue to update later.

Back in Riva... Again

We all just got back to Riva an hour or so ago; We are all safe and sound though a little worn out after 16 days of travel together. I will do as I did on the last trip and update on what we did over the next few days as best as possible. I will probably start with that a little later tonight or tomorrow.
I can't believe there is less than a month left and one week of that is for Thanksgiving! I look forward to seeing you in less than a week now Mom and Erin; Dad and Cathy, I got the CD of photos!

MIA in Italy

As we have had little luck with internet service, I have been unable to do much updating. I am currently in Venice and am having a wonderful time. (Five of us took a gondola ride today, something I have yet to do in Venice even though its my fourth time here.) I will update more when I return to Riva and tell all about what we've been up to!

Italy Tour Begins!

We left Riva at 9 a.m. for our 16 day tour of Italy! The destination was Torino, Italy, but we stopped at two churches along the way. Unfortunately traffic was bad, probably because of the wet weather, but we made fairly good time considering the delays. We first stopped at a much older church, Basilica of Superga, that was under construction at the moment in Chivasso, part of the region of Turin.
We then continued to a church by Mario Botta, also in Turin, but a little outside of the city center. It is a very unconventional looking church, but beautiful and moving. It still has the characteristics that he includes in all, or at least most of his buildings, things like circles in both the plan and details and brickwork in "stripes" are the two most notable design features.
We made it to our hotel close to 4 p.m. and then headed out to wander until dinner time at 7:30. We left the hotel following a guide-map of sorts that showed a nice walk that would allow you to see a few key places of interest throughout the city. We didn't make it to all of them and strayed from it every now and then, but we did see San Lorenzo chapel, a few interesting piazzas, an interesting exhibition in Piazza San Carlo of photography from African and Middle-Eastern countries and some less populated areas of China showing life, death, various struggles and emotions throughout life to represent the path of Buddha.
Tomorrow we spend the day in Torino; nothing is scheduled as a whole group, so we have all done some research into places we might like to go see. The group of us who walked today may go back a few places to see them during the day, as it was almost dark when we saw a lot of them.
Unfortunately, this internet connection doesn't seem to want to let me load photos onto the blog, so it will have to wait until later; At least I was able to update it some!