AUSTRIA

ok so better late than never but I can finally recount our fall break adventures to you. And I updated my photo entry below with links to all the new pictures.

We left on Friday, October 26 from the Termini train station in Rome and took a 13-hour overnight train to Vienna, Austria. We hadn't spent the extra euro to get sleeper cars so the 5 of us slept/snuggled (haha) in our train compartment for the night. Upon reaching the station in Austria the next morning, I was so disoriented from lack of sleep, hunger, and finding myself in a country where we knew absolutely nothing about the language (German) and could not make sense out of any of the signs (I mean in Rome, we know the important phrases and how to get ourselves around). Somehow we managed to get our transportation passes, hop the tram into the main center, and find our hostel - the Wombat, which was really modern, funky, and caters to young travelers. After dropping our bags off, we found a corner cafe for some food and it is just a different experience from what we have in Rome: an elegant building with high ceilings, chandeliers, waiters in suits. Then we took the U-Bahn to the city center where we found Stephansplatz (the plaza) and Stephansdom (the cathedral) - a huge Gothic cathedral which unfortunately was undergoing restoration on the exterior. BUT the interior is amazing (very Gothic - tall columns that turn into the ribbed vaulted ceiling) as you can see.

And it gets even better when we took the elevator up the bell tower for a view over the city. Totally unexpected and unnoticed from the ground, but the roof is covered with a mosaic of thousands of tiles. And we got our first taste of the weather that was yet to come for the next few days: cold, overcast, and windy. Overall, besides the weather, I really liked Vienna - wide boulevards, nice green park spaces, elegant architecture - lots of nice stonework, wrought iron details, Gothic architecture... COMPLETELY different from Rome with its narrow back-roads, having to avoid being hit by cars, motorcyles, and other pedestrians, and every building is probably from a different era.


























There were a lot of historical museums that we didn't end up visiting, but I know there are some worthwhile collections to see; we did go to an architecture exhibit at the Museum Quartier for a few hours and I learned a lot about Austrian architecture just by going through. And the best part of Vienna: goulash, Wiener schnitzel, potato dumplings, and the beer!

photograph

just links to all my pictures so far:

Fall Break Trip
Austria (Vienna, Salzburg)
Prague
Germany (Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle)

Zaha Hadid site/photography exhibit

Hilltowns (1, 2, 3)
the Vatican/St. Peter's Square
Oliver/Rachele's birthdays
Colosseum/Palatine
Parco della Musica

Venice
Verona, Vicenza
Lucca, Genoa, Torino

Ostia Antica
Rome

more to come...

next

hmm okay, after we got back from the hilltowns we had to adjust to life in Rome again like when you come home from a vacation. The week was filled with more history, studio (our new design project is a Baroque art museum along the river), and we visited the Ara Pacis museum which now has the Valentino collection. A few pictures of the dress displays:












THEN a group of us (me, Chelsea, Brian, and Andrew) went to Florence over the weekend - forgot my camera battery in Rome so was camera-free for once - saw the David sculpture by Michelangelo, took contraband pictures at the Uffizi and Academia art galleries (not allowed to take photographs but Andrew managed to snag one of the David), visited S. Lorenzo, S. Maria Novella and the exterior of S. Spirito (ohh the days of BTA), crossed the Ponte Vecchio (the only bridge in Florence not bombed during World War II)... saw the Duomo (one of my favorite buildings) where we also climbed the bell tower for a great view down onto the dome and the city. We have seen so many different types of cities and towns in Italy and Florence seems to be a mix of all of them - hills like Urbino, waterfronts and bridges like Venice, and an urban center like Rome. I also bought a track jacket which had been on my to-do list, tried a liver pate appetizer one night, and we also had waffles with gelato. We packed a lot in the two days we were there and tacked on a quick 2-hour trip to Pisa to pose with the leaning tower; I am so happy we took the initiative to take the trip and my only regret was of course that I don't have my own pictures. but here are some from the others:













THEN this week was studio studio studio for our midterm review today. Late nights and all-nighters so I should be tired and sleeping now but I'm excited to pack and prepare for our trip over break week - we leave tomorrow night on an overnight train to Vienna! It's suppsed to be pretty cold and rainy throughout the whole week but hopefully it won't affect our plans. Our basic itinerary is:

10/26-10/30 - Vienna, Austria (possible daytrips to Salzburg and Graz)
10/31-11/1 - train to Prague, Czech Republic
11/2-11/3 - Munich, Germany (daytrip to Neuschwastein castle)
and flight back to Rome in time for history class @ 9 am Monday morning

so off to do some errands and packing, live through our review, have some fun tonight, visit the new Zaha Hadid museum building site tomorrow, and start the adventure. Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen!

catching up

Ciao ciao, well this is going to be quite the entry because so much has happened since the last update AND there is even more coming up in the next few weeks.

First off is my last entry from the hilltowns trip. After Siena, we went to an abandoned monastery at St. Galgnano and spent the afternoon in Arezzo seeing the Duomo (every city has one!) and frescoes at San Francesco and spending the afternoon in a park with this amazing view:

And some of the best parts of this trip have been just driving through the hills, listening to good music (some country, soundtracks – Lord of the Rings anyone?), and sleeping/reflecting. At night we drove up and around the hills to Urbino where we are staying at the best hotel – very
modern, comfortable, and even luxurious? Slept amazingly, took a nice warm shower (decent-size shower stall, perfect water pressure and temperature), enjoyed the best hotel breakfast so far (croissant, yogurt, cereal, fresh fruit, cappuccino). As a group we walked to the University of Urbino’s campus where the architecture/layout was planned by Giancarlo De Carlo. Due to the topography, the cement and brick dorms are built into the hillsides and have amazing views out into the valley and mountains. It was very Scarpa-esque and definitely reminded me of the Brion Cemetery -- it is hard to tell whether the architecture is imposing itself onto the landscape or vice versa.

In the afternoon we climbed one of the steepest hills thus far (seriously, probably a 40-degree incline) to a park at the top and then further on to the fortress. From the top you get one of the best views back onto the town and as you can see, it’s just the ideal medieval town – a castle stronghold built on top of a hill with fortified walls.

After a nap, some sketching, and an espresso we walked around the perimeter walls and just talked and admired the view. It was such a great afternoon and the best part was that walking around Urbino today was the most fall-like we’ve felt since being here. Because Rome is such an urban concentration, I haven’t felt like it was fall because there aren’t many trees to change colors and it hasn’t cooled down yet. But here we all wore jackets, scarves, boots, the works. On a side note, I loved how everyone dressed here and Urbino seemed surprisingly young – there were college kids walking around and people were out in the streets even late at night, something we had not seen in any of the other hilltowns.

Finally we ate at the recommended Taverna degli Artisti, had some delicious and well-priced pasta and bread, and ended the night by watching (and Jenna and Erica even participated in) an Aztec dance show – go figure!

che ora sono?

so it's pretty late here (or early, depending on how you look at it) and we're up studying for our history test tomorrow. For the past weeks, we have had these history walking tours and they have been interesting and we've listened, taken notes, sketched, etc. but now it's time to do the readings, buckle down on the facts, and be able to identify slides and write an essay. The material is really interesting, I just wish that I had started this earlier and that I wasn't doing this at 2 in the morning.

Anyways, last night we had a semi-family-style dinner together as a group of us compiled our history notes and as motivation to study. I made salmon and roasted potatoes and Joanne and Patty prepared garlic bread and a spinach/tomato/mozzarella salad -- so delicious and only about 4E/person. I just baked the fish in the oven with oil and rosemary but I'd love to try out recipes for different sauces in the future when we have more time (no idea when that will be though).

Later today we have the history test, desk crits/pin-ups in studio, and then we're going to the Ara Pacis Museum. This museum is one of the few examples of new modern architecture in Rome and it definitely stands out next to the historical churches and ancient ruins nearby. Right now there is currently a Valentino dress collection on exhibit (Chelsea, Erica and I went to see it on Sunday) and I love LOVED it - beautiful dresses and they're displayed very innovatively. Anways, we're going tomorrow as a studio more to analyze it as a museum organization (for our new studio project) but I'm sure I'll return to my old ways with fashion sketches. I'll post pictures later from the exhibit, it's not to be missed.

As annoying as it is to be up at this hour, it is actually very convenient to communicate with other people. When we're at RPI, these are the loneliest hours because no one outside of architecture students are awake (or semi-awake as the case may be) and we just work in studio, cut off from the outside world. But now that I'm in Rome with the time difference, this is the prime time to talk to people back home (-6 hours) or even to Morgan (+8 hours) in Australia! So it'll make these late nights/all-nighters more enjoyable knowing that I'm not the only one awake.

Well that's about it for now, just needed a break from studying - I hear the street cleaners out in the Campo so it's that time again. Hopefully another update and pictures before we leave for Florence on Friday afternoon, so excited! Ciao and buona notte.

another day in the hilltowns

10-09-2007 SIENA

We arrived in Siena last night and had to lug all of our bags up and down the streets (and I do mean up and down) in the dark to the town center and our hotel. Our bus driver Carlo led a group of us to a ristorante he knew and I had pasta w/ pesto (p.s. I now love pesto, tomatoes + mozzarella, bruschetta, and other Italian specialties) and of course, wine.

In the morning, we went as a group to the Campo which is a big fan-shaped piazza that slopes down to the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall). You know how they say that all roads lead to Rome? Well it seems like every road in Siena leads down to this space – any time you cut down a side street, you find yourself drawn down to the campo, which is one of the lowest points of the city. There are cafes and restaurants that line the outer edge and there were always people sitting in the piazza throughout the day and I thought it was a very effective urban space. Like St. Peter’s Square (the elliptical colonnaded space outside of St. Peter’s Basilica), it is a very simple solution that is different than just a rectangular piazza with a fountain as so many are here in Rome. There, we climbed the tight winding stairs up the tower to the top for a photo session and more panoramic pictures of Siena:

On the left of that picture is the Duomo, which is the other major center of the town. With all the churches that we’re seeing both on our trips and in Rome, it’s easy for them to all blend together but each of them has a certain quality or distinct color scheme that sets it apart. In this one, the interior was a collage of patterns and textures – the floor tiles were either checkerboard or Escher-like, the piers were black and white striped marble, the vaulted ceilings
almost had a textile pattern, and then the dome was coffered and decorated like the Pantheon. At one time the church was going to be even larger making it the largest Christian church (even after St. Peter’s), but this plan never went through because of the plague. Nevertheless, the interior space is just so impressive and dramatic as you can see:

Siena had a lot of shops and restaurants, mostly located around the Campo and surrounding streets and it felt somewhat urban like Rome. Chelsea, Andrew, Erica and I walked around for the afternoon and we also found the church of St. Catherine where Catherine’s head is kept in a bucket in a chapel as a relic (her body, we learned, is still in Rome). Then we picked up Jenna had a great dinner and good time together. I have yet to be disappointed by the food or company on these trips!

Here are more pictures from Montepulciano/Pienza and Siena.

Back to the present a few side notes:
- a group of us are going to Florence this weekend - taking the train on Friday afternoon, staying 2 nights in a hostel (from the website, it basically looks like a hotel), stopping in Pisa on Sunday, and taking the train back to Rome. Can’t wait to see the Duomo!

- from October 26-November 4 we have the week off to travel so a group of us are going to Vienna, Prague, and Munich. We’ve booked our train tickets and hostels but now we just need to fill in the gaps of what we’re actually going to do and see there.

- I need to write another Baroque thesis as the basis for our next studio project (designing a museum to house Baroque art/sculpture/architecture, lecture halls, exhibitions, classrooms, gift shop, etc), prepare an 8-minute oral presentation about our hilltowns trip for Italian on Wednesday, and read/study for our history test on Thursday. Ciao!

hilltowns recap

We got back from our hilltowns trip on Friday night and I had a great time - Tuscany is a beautiful area and so different from Rome, so the break was very much appreciated. I'll recap the trip over the next few days.

10-08-2007 MONTEPULCIANO, PIENZA

So we were off to the hilltowns today, which I am so excited for. The first stop was in Montepulciano where the bus dropped us off at the church of Madonna di S. Biagio and then we had the morning to walk up the hill into the main town. I sketched for awhile, took in the amazing panoramic views, and wandered through the residential parts which were mainly deserted; I always feel like I’m invading someone’s private property but these are the places that capture the real feeling of the town – lots of orange, brick, and stone here. As you walk up the winding roads to the town center, this is the view out onto the hills and down onto the church:

For lunch Chelsea, Joanne and I ate down in a wine cellar and enjoyed some wine. Then we wound our way down the hill and boarded the bus for our next stop in Pienza, a much smaller town than the previous – there were some shops and cafes on the main street and you could literally walk around the perimeter wall in 15 minutes. Again, being set on a hill there were some more amazing views:

There was a cathedral perched on the edge of the hill and in the front, the buildings on the side are skewed and mirrored like Michelangelo’s Campidoglio but it’s much shallower so you can’t really tell. The interior was beautiful with light streaming in from the southern windows in the apse and the space was very open except for the piers which supported this amazing vaulted ceiling:

The afternoon was just so relaxing and perfect; Joanne, Chelsea and I stayed in the cathedral for an hour and sketched (my sketchbook is getting great usage), walked around the town and ran into everyone else at least two or three times (found a few of them sleeping), and Jenna and I ventured to the co-op store for some fruit before rolling out to the next hilltown, Siena.

Wow, looking back and re-reading this entry I think I overused the words ‘amazing,’ ‘beautiful,’ etc. but I think that is just going to be the theme of this trip and I don’t think I’ll get tired or bored of it all because it’s so different from what we’ve experienced in Rome, it really feels like a nice vacation. Ciao!

I'm going on a trip and I'm going to bring...

Ok so, this entry is long overdue but we had the week of studio madness (read: no sleep) and our Internet has been out at studio since Thursday. After St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, we went back to the Vatican on Tuesday morning to see the Vatican Museums which includes Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. The museum is spread out in series of rooms that are beautiful, architectural, and museum-worthy as the artwork and sculptures on display. Finally we did see the Sistine Chapel but you are not allowed to photograph or even talk in the room because the gases/moisture will damage the walls over time.

Tuesday night, Wednesday day and night, and Thursday morning were all consumed with finishing up our studio projects for our review on Thursday afternoon. Christine and I worked really well together and even though we were designing and 3-D modeling right up until early Thursday morning, we were able to crank our presentation somewhat in time. We did have a history walk that morning but we had all just stayed up all night; at one point we stopped and sat and I think a tourist walking by took a picture of our teacher lecturing to a group of sleeping students.

The reviews went pretty well. We had a fantastic outside reviewer named Nino (I can’t remember where he’s from) and he was very perceptive to our individual concepts and what we were attempting to do. He gave us great feedback about both what we had produced, different directions we could have taken, and what we should look to do in future projects.

Saunders kept referring to it as a “good two-week exercise” and I agree but it was rough because had to interpret our Baroque analysis, apply it in a contemporary manner, learn the basics of scripting, script (easier said than done), design a landscape, and prepare our presentation in a relatively short amount of time. Christine and I had flip-flopped between scripting and designing “real architecture” and in the end we found the balance where scripting helped us design something we never would have come up with before. We had studied this curving staircase by Guarino Guarini in Turin so we used the idea of a step or module that follows a curve/path to create a landscape where the system forms retaining walls, seating, the bar and restaurant furniture, and an amphitheater. Right after the review, I went to bed and slept my 12 hours until Italian the next morning.

our Internet keeps cutting out now, so I'll post pictures later but we're gone from tomorrow morning until Friday night on our trip to the hilltowns (Montepulcio, Pienza, Siena, Urbino, Abruzzo, and Assisi). I absolutely cannot wait, the Italian countryside is going to be so beautiful, we're all going to whip out our fall wardrobes, and there will be time to wander and sketch. So I'll update when we get back, off to pack, ciao!

sono molto stanca

Si, I AM TIRED - we may have left our studio behind in Troy but the spirit of all-nighters lives on in Rome. We had our Italian midterm this morning and our studio project is due tomorrow (we have to be printed and pinned up by 2) so we're in the crucial hours here to get it all done. But I'm taking a fermata piccola (short break) right now for my sanity's sake and it was time for another update.

So Monday morning we had history and we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is across the Tiber River and is the pope's residence and ceremonial church (though interesting, it is not the OFFICIAL church of the Catholic church - that is St. John Lateran which we have not visited yet). St. Peter's Square (the piazza in front of the church) is actually a large ellipse/oval formed by 2 sets of colonnades that are supposed to appear as arms that embrace those who enter the space. It is a very simple idea and yet I found it to be an amazing space and the lighting on and within the colonnades is very dramatic throughout the day, so we want to go back to photograph the changing shadows.













I think St. Peter's is one of, if not the, largest Catholic or Christian church in the world. From the outside, it almost doesn't seem that large - probably because the piazza out front is also huge so they seem proportional to one another. But once we entered, I was blown away by how immense this structure is. We had learned about its history in BTA at school and all the architectural/structural changes it had undergone from its beginning as Constantinople's basilica through the Renaissance to today, but it was amazing to actually go from looking at images and plans and sections on paper to experiencing the continuous spaces and being aware of the scale. For example, in this is a plan of the church notice the piers that the support the dome - the "pier" in the church is probably bigger than our house.











And the interior spaces are so impressive with the columns, arches, vaults, domes, frescoes, sculptures - not to mention the layering and combination of all these colors, textures, and materials. Here's a brief representation but even the best panoramic pictures can only show so much - you really have to experience it for yourself! So I was surprisingly in awe of this space, both the church and the piazza.












Ok so... now back to work. Christine and I just had a productive afternoon working together but we have a ridiculous amount of work to get done, so ciao! Buona sera to all of you who will be sleeping tonight!

another fine settimana a Roma

Friday after Italian class, 9 of us headed over to the Villa Borghese and rented 5 single bikes and a quad (see below) and went around the park for an hour. It was exhilarating again to take a break from walking, get around at a faster pace to see more, and ride in the pouring rain at some points. I was a little worried about the slick pavement but we only had one wipeout and a lot of muddy backs and butts from the spinning bike tires.










Yesterday I baked my first Roman torta (cake). We have a few birthdays coming up in the next few weeks so I had to do a test run for buying ingredients and cooking here. First of all, no Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines here – there was pretty much one chocolate cake mix to choose from. At home you add water, oil, and eggs while here it recommends butter, milk, and eggs so I thought it would be much heavier and richer but it actually tasted lighter, like chocolate bread? After consulting the Italian dictionary and decoding the directions on the box, the cake came out pretty well and we just topped it with sugar, crushed wafers, and icing (an envelope of powder mixed with milk). Definitely different than what we’re used to at home, but still delicious. Now I just need to prepare myself to bake, sculpt, and decorate the next ones!

This morning we got up and went to Il Vittoriano, the huge monument in Piazza Venezia (craziest traffic circle and they’re starting to dig a metro station in the middle here) built for Victor Emmanuel who was the first king when Italy was united in 1870. Right now it houses offices and a museum but we went mostly for the view because it overlooks the forums and out into la citta (the city). We did not pay 7E to go to the top but still got some good pictures (great lighting with some light/shadows and the blue sky):






















In the front it also houses the Tomb of the Unknown Solider so you’re not allowed to sit on the front steps (which we learned on our history visit here), which is ironic because steps are just seen as open seating everywhere in the world so there are carabinieri officers around to keep people in line.

Then we went to the Palazzo Colonna which our history teacher had recommended. Unfortunately photography was not allowed inside so I’ll do my best to describe: a few rooms inside house an art collection but the interior architecture was the real work of art. The ceilings were frescoed and as we have seen in many buildings in Italy, the ceilings are painted to look three-dimensional and as if they extend out of the building. Walls were upholstered in fabrics (there was a Throne Room in red velvet and it has a chair turned to the wall in case of a papal visit) and many elements like moldings and bannisters were painted on the walls to look three-dimensional as well (good way to save money). My favorite part were the marble floors, so many colors and textures mixed together and stones cut to form the images of columns, leaves and acorns, and other patterns. There was a beautiful great hall (at least 3 stories high) full of marble, paintings, sculptures, chandeliers, tapestries…and a cannonball. Lodged in one of the steps is a cannonball that was apparently used as a projectile during an attack on Rome in 1849 and is still there today. check it out here.

Took it easy for the rest of Saturday, feeling tired and drowsy maybe due to allergies? But Chelsea had downloaded the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy so we watched that before bed. This morning Joanne made an amazing breakfast of blueberry waffles and French toast and now I'm awake, stuffed, and need to get a lot of work done because we have a busy week: lots of history walks, an Italian midterm, and a studio project due Thursday. AND we leave next Monday on our next field to the hilltowns for 5 days. Ciao!

P.S. more pictures from Parco della Musica and the Colosseum/Palatine Hill

rain, rain go away

Well not too much going on in the past few days except for working in studio. And my new Italian shoes don’t seem to fit as well as I had thought: they ripped up my heels, I bled all the way walking to Italian class, and I now have mega-blisters and the shoes are going back in the box for now :(

Also, it’s been rainy and cold for the past few days which is such a strange phenomenon for Rome. It has been sunny and warm every day since we got here (even unbearably hot and humid in the first few weeks) and the Campo outside our apartment is usually alive and bustling through the day. This was the scene last night:

Everyone’s breaking out the jackets and sweaters and people are even going out for cappuccino and hot chocolate now! [on this note – there is such a different coffee culture in Rome/Italy/Europe/not the United States: first of all, a café is not brewed like ours, it is literally a shot of espresso. If you want the coffee you’re used to at home, here it is café americana and I’m sure only American tourists order it. Like I said, I usually get a cappuccino which is a shot of espresso mixed with steamed milk, mmmm. I think Italians just down their shots of espresso in the morning for their caffeine fix [our Italian teacher is a prime example] and I guess it’s a really “foreign” thing to order a cappuccino after noon. Oh well, I say they’re delicious at any time of day.]

Another lesson in Italian dining culture: at our favorite Forno bakery, they bake really long pizzas, you point at the one you want and say questo (“that one”), they hack off a piece with a huge butcher knife and then you pay by the weight. Well today I did a poor job estimating how much pizza the money in my pocket would get me, so when our pizzas rang up for 6.40 and I pleaded “Ho solo 6E,” the woman was nice enough to waive me off. That’s another noticeable cultural difference here, interactions in the stores and restaurants and especially in the market are more laidback and friendly.

Because it’s a somewhat slow entry, I’ll throw in a flashback: the Friday night before we left for our northern trip was the beginning of a weekend festival in Rome and we went to an installation of 10,000 colored orbs in the middle of the Circus Maximus. It was such a surreal sight [these pictures look like they should be in a molecular diagram or something] and ironic to see how this ancient urban space, which is a really dead space now, could have a contemporary use [at least for one night]:

Well we have a really fun day planned out for tomorrow and hopefully all can go according to plan - if the weather cooperates. You’ll have to check back and see, ciao!

P.S. Ok something exciting just happened - someone drove their car into the fountain (water spigot) out in our campo:

the pursuit of happiness

ok so these past few days have been pretty amazing. I realized that I am so happy right now, really enjoying my time here and living a fairly balanced life. Between grocery shopping/running errands/cooking, maintaining a household in our apartment, working, playing, taking personal time, and sleeping (possiblemente) there are hardly enough hours in the day and the days are going by molto veloce (very fast) - already one month down.

So by some miracle (or lucky scheduling), we did not have class at all today so Andrew, Chelsea, and I took this opportunity to visit the Colosseum and Palatine Hill on a weekday to avoid the masses of weekend tourists. We bought tickets at the Palatine Hill, by-passed the whole line at the Colosseum, toured the interior and also walked around the whole exterior perimeter. The brickwork and stone/concrete forms are amazing, especially considering the whole thing was constructed almost 2000 years ago; it's really funny because it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in Rome and in the world but we barely touch upon it as architecture students because as amazing as it is to imagine how it was used in ancient times, I guess there are just better examples of architecture out there to study. It is still an impressive sight and very photogenic especially with today's perfect blue sky:











Then we walked up and around the Palatine Hill (one of Rome's 7 main hills) where all the emperors built their ancient palaces (most languages get their word 'palace' from the hill's Latin name: Palatium). Once again, we saw evidence of historical layers from the different eras of rulers and their building styles. The southern side looks down onto the Circus Maximus which is currently a barren field of dirt and dried-up grass but again, it's exciting to imagine it during a time when they raced chariots and held foot-races (we did witness one poor soul running around it today) and thousands of people flooding the sidelines to watch. The northern side of the hill provides a great panoramic view down into the Roman Forum, which we have walked through and explored with Jan in one of our 4-hour history classes (read: walking tours). Andiamo! Here is the view:





We still need to go back and photograph both the Colosseum and Forum at night.

After our expeditions this morning, Chelsea made the two of us a delicious dinner of chicken, potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. I've never really been responsible for making my own food and Chelsea and I have formed a dynamic duo where we take turns preparing/cooking dinner and it's worked out really well. It's almost always some combination of meat/chicken, vegetables, and pasta but there's many possibilites and we're trying to expand our repertoire. Finally, best part of the night, Aaron -- we played ultimate frisbee in the middle of the Piazza Farnese running around wearing our T-shirts and athletic shorts, sweating, yelling, dodging the macchine (cars) and pedestrians, and loving every minute of it. Until the carabinieri (police officers) asked us to move away -- NOT because they were worried about the Palazzo Farnese or the other people, but because they did not want us to hit their car with the frisbee. Mama mia. So we called it a night, got some gelato (fiordilatte and limone tonight), and I am finishing up in studio for the night, so ciao for now!

more site pictures

This is a panoramic image of the site as it exists now and our intervention is going to provide seating, dining facilities, park areas, etc:




It is going to be especially interesting to fit our buildings/projects in and around these highway overpasses:






Ciao for now!

P.S. I changed my settings so anyone can comment on the blog (hint hint)

P.P.S. And not to overwhelm you but here are all my albums from our northern trip:
Lucca/Genoa/Torino
Verona/Vicenza
Venice

beetles and armadillos

Yesterday started off the day and week right with a cappuccino and cornetto (croissant) at the cafe right below our apartment. The people there are so friendly and accommodating to all the studenti americani (in our apartment building there are other American students from University of Washington and University of Miami) and we get special deals for breakfast and lunch and 20% off anything else. The cappuccino is one the most delicious drinks I've ever had and paying 1.30E (about $1.75) for a good breakfast sure beats Starbucks, especially with a friendly 'ciao!' every morning.

Then I worked in studio in the mattina (morning) until our group pin-up/discussion where we reviewed everyone's work from the weekend. Right now we are working in partners to analyze Baroque architettura in Rome (mostly churches and piazzas) and our teacher hopes (key word here is 'hopes') to publish a book of all our work. Anyways. One of the focuses of our studio is "scripting" (using computer programming/mathematical equations to modify commands in our 3D modeling program) to generate shapes and forms that we would not be able to create otherwise. Needless to say, some of the stuff is unrealistic and fantasy-like but it will be interesting to see where people take it.

Which leads me to the next part of the giorno (day); after we finish work on our "analysis" for this "book," our first actual design project is to design a landscape/pavilion space over the next 2 weeks using our Baroque and scripting discoveries. We visited the site which is a long narrow triangular strip of land outside of a modern architectural feat: Renzo Piano's Auditorium Parco della Musica which is a complex consisting of 3 large concert halls and an open-air Roman-esque amphitheater. Take a look at these pictures and you'll see why they have been nicknamed the 'beetles,' 'armadillos,' 'computer mice,' etc:










Definitely some interesting architecture. The interiors are pretty amazing in brick though and this map on the right shows the layout of the complex and our site is the strip of land at the bottom:

paradise found

so for weeks we have been trying to find a nearby garden or green space to relax/work/read and there are none to be found right around us. However, there is the Villa Borghese garden which is a huge public park about a 30-minute walk away and yesterday I decided to check it out because it was yet another gorgeous day and I didn't want to lock myself away in studio as I usually do on the weekends at RPI. I actually didn't wake up until 11:30 which is the latest I have slept in since I got home from school in May and was trying to catch up on sleep. I headed out at about 1:00 along Vittoria Emmanuele and one of the first things I come across is the Largo di Torre Argentina. They say that Rome is made up of layers of history and it's so true: here you can see how this ancient theater/temple complex is literally 4-5 meters below the current street level. My guidebook says this is allegedly where Julius Caesar was murdered on March 15 but I don't know if that's true. The space is actually now a cat sanctuary for homeless cats and volunteers regularly feed, groom, and tend to the cats.











I continued along Vittoria Emmanuele, along Via del Corso (the main shopping street), along Via Tritone and then uphill along the Via Venuto to the park entrance. I had read that you could rent bikes so I rented a traditional one for 4 E/hr and biked around the park. I would never dare to ride out in the streets of the city with all the cars, buses, mopeds, bikes, and pedestrians but I was able to see most of the park during my hour and it was a decent workout. The only downside was the bike only came equipped with a bell and no gears, so pedaling up and down the hills was interesting. At one point I had biked to the other entrance to the park (Piazza del Popolo) and then realized I only had 10 minutes to bike uphill along the gravel/cobblestone road to return the bike in time; luckily I made it.


Then I sat in the park, wrote some postcards and relaxed and then made the half-hour walk back through all the back streets of the city, passing major monuments the whole way. We are literally a 5-minute walk away from the Pantheon (we pass it on the way to every Italian class), the Roman Forum, and other ancient/Renaissance/Baroque architecture - amazing.

I figured I should do some work so I went to studio from 6-11 and actually got a lot of work done in a short amount of time (relatively short, in our terms). This morning we got up and went to a large flea market that we had heard about. It was alright, mostly just a concentration of every street vendor we have ever seen in Rome selling bags, kitchenware, jewelry, antiques, basically everything. but instead of being spread out across a large field (like our at home), everything was compacted in rows along 2 streets with everyone trying to push past you while you stop to browse - crazy! But I bought a little leather backpack (I had been looking for something like that for awhile) for 5 E and then a cutting board for our apartment, which we have deperately needed. I walked back, ate some lunch, am now working in studio, and someone is looking into getting tickets to a Rome soccer game this afternoon, so we'll see how that goes. Ciao!

here we go

ok, so... a few people on the trip here have blogs and our professor recommended doing a blog as a good way of keeping a record of what we've been up to. So I'm going to try this as a way of keeping you all up to date with my life here and compiling stories, pictures, fun facts, etc. all in one place. And even though I've never really kept a journal, this will help me to organize my thoughts for myself and I can look back on it months later when I have trouble recalling all the small things. Now, I'm at an extreme disadvantage because as of today, I have already been in Rome for 4 weeks (so hard to believe!) and so much has already happened so it would be near impossible to recount everything. So I'll mostly pick up with recent events and possibly throw in some memories for y'all.

Today in our Italian class, our teacher asked us what our plans were for the weekend and then he encouraged us to use the weekends to travel and experience the Roman life, outside of our daily work and errands. I also had this thought last night and realized that if I don't plan out what I want to do and see when I'm here in Rome, Italy, and Europe then the time will slip away from me and be gone before I know it. We have already seen many sites and places - some of which I want to re-visit and some of which I can't - but I need to make a to-do list to make sure I don't leave this experience unfulfilled because it is and has been a great opportunity - architecturally, educationally, socially, personally. I want to visit every site that we studied in BTA, I want to see an opera, I want to make an absurdly expensive Italian purchase, etc => I gotta get on these!

It is a beautiful day here, it's much cooler and drier so a very nice fall day. It makes it easier to dress nicer; we passed a group of Italian students today and it still amazes me how well they dress - hair, makeup, clothes, everything. Everyone is so sophisticated, never looking scrubby. I spent some time this afternoon uploading pictures from our northern field trip, which I'll post later when I tell you about the trip. Now we're getting people together to scout out a good place to eat around the Pantheon - we've had great luck with finding delicious foods and good prices.

well that's all for now, more later this weekend. Ciao!