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!