Venice

San Marco Piazza.

As we arrived in Venice late and didn't have dinner until 9:00, the first night there we didn't go out to explore; instead we stayed in and relaxed, trying to make up some lost sleep.
The next morning, we all met to see a museum designed by Carlo Scarpa. His attention to detail is extraordinary; he also considered the nature of Venice and its flood waters, allowing them to come right into the museum by washing into some of the front rooms with their beautiful stepped "bridges" to walk around and through the water. This modern section of the museum contrasted highly with the rest of the museum, which was a in a very traditional Venetian style. On the upper level, Bernini's sculpture of Medusa was displayed beautifully with a circle of changing lighting above it. It was a very dark room otherwise, so it created quite an experience.


Photo in glass demonstration and in the gondola.

The now usual group, Megan, Danett, Ashton, Kristina and I, headed off together for the rest of the day after all of us met. We found a place, by chance, that would do a free demonstration of the making of Murano glass on the main island, rather than taking the boats to the island of Murano. It was a simple demonstration of a glass vase, but still very impressive!
As the weather forecast wasn't looking so great for the next few days, we decided that while it was just misty rain and not really raining, that we would go ahead and take a gondola ride. I wanted to make sure I did go on one this time around; it was something I had yet to do. We had a great time seeing the city from that point of view; our gondolier pointed out Casanova's office and Marco Polo's birthplace and also informed us that there are 430 bridges in Venice and that being a gondolier is something passed down in a family with training begining at age 5 or 6 in a small gondola.


Photo of Ashton and I doing ballet in front of a lighted wall in one of the pavilions and the Norwegian pavilion.

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day at the Venice Biennale, an International art and architecture exhibition where countries present the current projects and research in permanent pavilions designed for and by their country. We could only describe it as a Disney World for architects. There was so much to see I couldn't begin to describe everything!

The second day we went to see San Marco Basilica first thing in the morning. As it was raining and it was high tide, the square was slightly flooded, as well as the church itself, so we had to walk on the raised boards that went all around the square and into the church too. I really enjoy the eastern influence on the architecture in Venice, especially in the church.

Photo of flooded San Marco, the Rialto Bridge and the grand canal.


We continued to the area around the Rialto Bridge, just enjoying the wandering. We found the market, where a lot of fish were being sold as well as live crabs, and then went into a cafe for coffee and mid-day Bellinis (I just stuck with a cappuccino.). We then began a meandering walk towards the Peggy Guggenheim Museum for modern art, stopping in a church that was currently holding a mass along the way. The choir, enhanced by the acoustics, was beautiful. I lit a candle in honor of Aly's grandmother, who had passed away just a few days before, while there. After the church visit and the little museum, it was time to head back to the hotel for the evening.

Photo in fish market, the cafe and the little church we stopped by.


The next morning, an extremely rainy day, we left Venice to go to Brion cemetery and then to the fair city of Verona.

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.