Day 76 (6/5/11)

After beginning the epic task of sorting through the 9000 pictures (no hyperbole) that I took this quarter I took a quick nap facedown on the airport seats. Thanks to the exquisite level of exhaustion I had achieved, this was a lovely nap save waking up with my face stuck to the cushion. Once security had opened up we trudged upstairs to check in and get through security, both of which were extremely fast and pleasant. Once through, we came to a massive area filled with tons of duty free shops where we saw a Lamborghini and an Audi R8, both of which I love (the child climbing all over them appeared to share the same view). From there we took a large spiral ramp down into the bowels of Gatwick airport to find our gate.
Sadly, this quarantined area for the international flights was closed, so we had to sleep on the floor outside of our gate until they opened it up. Once it was opened we went through yet another security check before finally settling in. Of course, as soon as I sat down I realized that I had to pee, and of course, the bathroom was outside the gate. So in order to use the restroom I had to leave my passport at the security checkpoint and upon my return come back through the security line to pick it up. After some waiting and people watching it was finally time to board.
As we entered the plane, we realized with horror that this flight was quite literally the exact opposite of our flight out ten weeks ago. Not only was it completely full, the seats were a bit shoddy, the flight attendants were a bit mean, and there were no TVs in the headrests! Anyway, I ended up watching The Adjustment Bureau (from the entire way down the aisle because the TV for our region didn’t work), which was pretty good. For brunch we had chicken with delicious mashed potatoes and zucchini, bread, cheese and crackers, cantaloupe with grapefruit and grapes (the icky grapefruit juice ruined the cantaloupe), and a chocolate cookie bar for dessert.
After the meal I attempted to watch The Tourist (it was pretty cool because they were in Venice!) and made it about a half hour in before falling asleep. I ended up sleeping for a bout two hours before waking up to discover another bad movie on the TV, so I went back to bed until our lunch of pizza and ice cream. I relaxed for the rest of the flight and filled out my entry forms before landing on American soil once again. After yet another painless adventure through security and customs we played one final waiting game in the Atlanta airport.
Our final flight was very chill, I watched Despicable Me and played cards until we had arrived in Cleveland! As we disembarked, I realized how quickly this amazing quarter had gone, and although I will miss the amazing times I had during the past ten weeks, it was great to be back home once again.

Day 75 (6/4/11)

This morning we got up bright and early and said goodbye to our hotel for the last time before dragging our stuff to the train station. After a quick train to the station on the mainland we played the waiting game until our train to Termini. When we got on my hopes of a comfortable ride were dashed in an instant; the train was the same style as the night train (of terror) that we had taken before. However, the people in our cabin were extremely pleasant, there was no foul smell, and the cabins were air-conditioned. For the first four or so hours of the ride I worked on catching up on the blog for Venice as well as going through the 750 or so photos from the past few days.
At one point a lovely little old nun came into our car to talk. She was extremely kind and spoke to us slowly so that we could understand, and we actually ended up having a conversation with her in Italian! We talked about what we had been doing and where we were going, and she kept telling us “Bravi!” when we would respond, much to the amusement of the other Italians in the car with us. For the rest of the trip I watched a movie on my iPod and enjoyed the ride. However, no train ride would be complete without a little tension; towards the end of the ride two police officers came to our cabin and asked us for passports. We nervously handed them over and watched in silent fear as they scrutinized them in the hallway. After a few tense moments he called out Joe and then Josh and handed their passports back. Next he called Bridget, and we all looked at each other in confusion. After a little bit he started laughing and passed it back to us since we must have looked quite distraught at the time.
We made it to Termini with no further issues and took another fantastic taxi ride from there to the airport where we checked in and waited till it was time to drop our bags off. In the mean time I picked up my final McToast of the trip, and it was a fantastic final meal in Italy. Once it was time we checked our bags and made it through security in no time before taking the tram out to our gate. There I charged my laptop, changed my last Euros into pounds and read before returning to the gate to board. It was really weird being in the British Airways terminal because 90% of the voices we heard were speaking English, which didn’t even happen when we were in our apartments because we would always try (usually poorly) to speak in Italian to each other. Anyway, we got on the plane, which turned out to be extremely nice (my seat was offset from the one in front so I had a ton of leg room!), and the British gent I sat next to was very nice as well. We talked for a bit until we got our sandwiches (prawn and rocket!) before I conked out for the flight. When it was time to prepare for landing the view out the window to the English Chanel was gorgeous, especially with the sun setting in the distance.
Upon our arrival we painlessly went through security, customs, and our baggage claim, all greatly expedited by the lovely efficiency of the British people. One thing I had forgotten while in Italy was the feeling of being around consistently pleasant people, one of my favorite things about London. From the airport we had to transfer out to Gatwick for our flight back to the US, so we took a tour bus type thing out and enjoyed the beautiful city at night (JK, it was only highway driving). Once we arrived we checked into our last two flights and found our camping spots for the night. There we found a grocery store that was still open and that accepted dollars. I got a liter of chocolate milk, a triple chocolate pudding cup and a caramel frappe pudding (dinner of champions) for less than six dollars! Not only did this taste great, but my daily sugar intake was completed for today and set for tomorrow as well. After shopping we posted up in the café sitting area and I worked on the blog and relaxed until the morning.

Day 74 (6/3/11)

This morning we woke up bright and early to get on the waterbus before it got insanely crowded. Once we had found our tickets we hopped on what was more like a ferry than a boat, but the free movement inside was pretty fun. It was really awesome to be standing at the level of the water looking up at the buildings around us, and the movement of the boat (just like a bus but going to both sides) made the ride quite an adventure. We saw a lot of great architectural moments as well as some fantastic (and especially rare) green spaces scattered throughout, as well as the various important buildings that sit along the Grand Canal. Our trip ended abruptly with an unexpected departure from our boat (we picked the one that goes back and forth rather than the loop) onto the island of Lido, a small residential island just beyond the main lagoon of Venice.
We decided to walk around here for a little bit before realizing that there was not much to see, so we came back, bought ourselves a one-stop ticket (which we took for two stops…tee hee) back to St. Mark’s Square. Once we got there we immediately jumped in the line to get inside the Basilica, which gets awfully crowded due to its late opening time. After a half hour or so we were finally on the move and inside the church. Much like Hagia Sofia, the influences of Byzantine culture in the art, structure, and layout of the Basilica are quite present. The interior is almost entirely covered in gorgeous mosaics either depicting religious figures or plating the walls in gold. One of the most interesting moments occurs at along the main axis from the front door in that the main structural columns supporting the first dome start to angle out away from the center, which begins the transition from roof to large dome at the ground level rather than the clerestory level. After enjoying the first view and the way that a series of columns followed by a series of arches lead your eyes (and eventually feet) through the space, I began the sheep-herding march around the church. While entering is free, any specific area like the treasury, sacristy, or altar space require admission, and since no pictures were allowed I decided to pass and just enjoy the central space.
Along the narrow aisle there were fantastic moments where the space would suddenly open up to the height of the main dome in a rather confined section, causing you to pause and look up. These moments, similar to those beneath the other four major domes (while the central dome is still the most important, the quincunx plan of this church called for five in total) cause a momentary re-centering within the space, an odd feature in a (mostly) axial church that focuses towards the grand altar. Overall the space inside was much more enclosed and personal than most large-scale churches due to the solidity and general size of the structural elements as well as the darkness. While there was a little light coming from artificial bulbs scattered throughout the space as well as some from the clerestory windows around the domes, the majority of the space was very dark. However the two levels of light caused an interesting transition from the ambient lighting of the personal level, the semi-darkness of the middle level, and the natural lighting of the ceiling (or heavens if we are making an analogy). However the best lighting in the building comes from the front windows and spills onto the altar and the dividing portion of the bay.
After working my way around the one end of the transept and enjoying the beautiful rose window (the lack of stained glass was fantastic and different, but the presence of construction was not) I came to the bay that separates the main portion of the nave from the altar and apse that it sits in. Since this required payment to see as well, I just stuck my head over the gate and observed his space. The altar itself sat beneath a fantastic moment where one dome starts and three others (one in the nave and two on either side of the transept) begin. This space dictated great importance and provided a fantastic end point for the major axis. From there I walked around to the front of the bay to check out this separatrix and enjoy the area beneath the major dome. Sadly this was the last moment I enjoyed in the church because I got trapped within a giant tour group of spatially oblivious and horrifically wide tourists. After finally shuffling away from this mess I was able to look back on the altar from a great angle through the colonnade that separated the nave from the aisle.
Once I had finished inside we met up in the entrance space and took some quick photos of this area, since it was essentially a smaller scale design of the interior. From there we set of for St. Zaccaria again so that I could take a picture with the plaque that had my name on it. After that we came back to the hotel (not before stopping for another cherry cup!) to get ready for our train out to Vicenza. We decided that since we were out here we would skip the rest of the museums here in Venice to go to this small town where many of the works of Andrea Palladio, one of the great masters of Italian architecture, are located. Although we were discouraged by our teachers since there was so much left to do in the city, we all agreed that the opportunity to see another city and more famous architecture was too good to pass up (plus our train tickets round trip were less than the admission to one of the museums!).
After a pretty normal train ride through more gorgeous Italian landscape, we arrived at this odd little town. One of our first observations about it was about the people. The lack of obvious tourists in the area was expected since it was a tiny city and the work of Palladio is an architect’s thing, but the near emptiness of a great deal of the city was quite odd and at times disconcerting. It also seemed like the town was run by children and teenagers, as we only really saw adults at scattered moments outside or in the famous buildings we came to. Anyway, upon our departure from the station we walked along a major road that had some nice parks on either side as well as a great cross street that featured a fantastic axial perspective. From there we walked through a nice intersection (no cars) and to our first Palladio stop: Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare. The public interior space was pretty nice and it lead us into an exterior area in the back that gave a great view of the rear façade (Palladio specialized in façade ornamentation through symmetry and mathematic relationships). From there we walked to the Duomo that features a crazy tall apse and end dome as well as a massive façade plastered on the front (Palladio again, we believe). Sadly, it was closed so we had to move on quickly to a fantastic piazza. The space was very long in one direction, and the end was framed by a hugely tall but skinny tower on one side and a large building cluster on the other. At the far end sat two huge columns with statues on top acting as a very minimal gate (theory class nonsense). Here we met some nice Americans that asked for directions and made us chuckle with their awkward, touristy ways.
From there we continued on to Palladio’s Olympic Theatre, one of the focal points of our trip. We wandered through a pretty great sculpture garden that led into the building itself before buying our tickets (we used our Italian to get a student discount!) and met up with our friends (from Arkansas we learned) from the piazza, who made some funny jokes about Ohio State. Once inside we walked down through an odd little corridor that smelled strongly of urine before finding a great little secret door that allowed us to take pictures of the stage set. However, our discovery of the next door being the one to lead us into the theatre space made this little discovery less fantastic, since we were given a better view here. The main interest points of this building are the interesting design of the space and the forced perspective in the stage set. The space itself is extremely shallow and steep, much like an ancient amphitheatre. Complete with rickety wooden stairs/seats and a fantastic colonnade circling the back wall, the historical feeling of this space is maintained perfectly. The stage itself is also shallow, but capped by a massive façade-like structure complete with all of Palladio’s details including statues. The interesting part comes from beyond the three arched doorways of this wall where streets extend back into space using a fantastic system of foreshortening and forced perspective. We actually asked one of the people who worked there if he could walk back, which he graciously did, showing us that the far end (designed to be a large archway that caps the major street) was really no more than five feet tall.
After enjoying this space for a little while longer we left and ventured across the street to Palazzo Chiericati, another Palladio work that we studied in our history classes sophomore year. The front façade is pretty interesting in the way that a large section of the top floor becomes a solid wall with engaged columns while the rest remains as a simple porch capped by the same line of columns. We were able to get in using the same ticket from the Theatre, so we got to enjoy the fantastic art exhibit there for a little while. My favorite parts of the building were the retrofitted staircase placed in the center of a large room as well as the fantastic procession through the varying spaces (since it was not designed as a museum, the change in program leads to an odd repurposing of the many different spaces of the Palazzo). Once we had finished the exhibit we set off (through the now driving rain) for the train station to catch a bus.
On the way we ended up stopping at the Duomo again to finally see the interior. Although it was quite plain and a little disappointing, the odd single nave design mixed with the new style of raised altar on a major stage made it pretty interesting to see. And although the painted brick interior was quite hideous, the general scale of the space was enjoyable (and from a distance I could pretend that the brick was real!). From there we walked back to the station and had the most random encounter ever! As we were ordering our tickets for the bus (in our fantastic Italian of course) the guy behind the counter asks us if we were from Ohio. We tentatively responded yes, and as it turns out the guy had lived in Mansfield for a few years before moving back to Vicenza. Much like the folks from Arkansas, we got a few wisecracks about OSU, but the craziness of this encounter was too cool to care.
After waiting for a little while we hopped on the bus and rode a little ways until the main road leading up to Villa Rotunda, one of Palladio’s most famous works and one of the most over-referenced buildings in all of my schooling. Once we had come to the main entrance and paid the fee (since the house is privately owned, the resident just gets to make money all day off of people coming to walk around his house) we began up the fantastic entry axis lined by beautiful flowers. At the end of this street the space opens up quickly into a great lawn space with the Villa sitting right in the middle. We walked out along the edge of the property to see the great views back to the city and out to the mountains beyond before turning around to take in the Villa. I find it fantastic that a building so self-contained and stoic can somehow merge with the landscape it so starkly contrasts. The roof (domed, leading to the Rotunda namesake), porches (four at the cardinal axes) and lawn space are all fantastic and exactly how I pictured them, leading to one of the better moments of experiencing one of our studies even greater.
We walked around the building for a while enjoying all our nerdy architecture moments as well as the newly found sun. I loved how the void space between each protruding porch held something different like a well or a flowerbed, making the oppressive sameness of the exterior an interesting experience in spite of itself. My favorite moment came at the back porch and how the stairs came nearly to the end of the property, making this space quite jammed. After completing the walk-around we came together for some cheesy photos before reluctantly saying goodbye to go catch out bus. After the ride back we got our tickets, caught our train, and went to sleep until we arrived back in Venice. This day trip was truly a fantastic experience, and one last observation about the oddness of this city came with the realization that we explored an entire city without seeing a single vendor of any kind; how refreshing! Once we got back the whole group met up next for one last set of announcements and to say goodbye to Beatrice before heading to dinner. The majority of us walked (for something like the tenth time) out into the city to grab some pizza. A friend and I split a prosciutto and ricotta pizza that was pretty great, and we all sat and ate it on the infamous steps where our Italy’s Funniest Home Videos moment had happened the night before. After goofing around there for a while we walked back and got gelato milkshakes (I drank it way too fast because it tasted so good!), did some last second souvenir shopping, and came back to the hotel. This has been one of the best cities that I have been in here in Italy, and I while I am sad that it is coming to an end, this was a pretty great way for the trip to do so. After repacking for the final time it was time for bed before our travel adventure tomorrow!

Day 73 (6/2/11)

This morning we woke up and met Beatrice to take a walk through the city with her. On our way out we passed over a bridge and got to see the Venetian police on jet skis, which was pretty awesome. We walked first through the area of the city that used to be the Jewish ghetto, and much like the area in Rome where our studio was located, the density here was pretty great. We learned about how this density impacted not only the plan of the whole neighborhood, but also in the way buildings were maintained; because there was always a need for more space, existing buildings were renovated to allow for more occupancy by subdividing the floors and adding more in between the existing ones. This fantastic occurrence is visible from the outside in the quantity of windows on the façade, and when a building such as this sits next to a normal one, the contrast is pretty great. We walked through a series of streets that led us into a pretty fantastic piazza where we talked about how the seven synagogues of the neighborhood were raised off of the ground floor and hidden within existing buildings for safety reasons.
From there we walked down along a major canal and enjoyed the city in its natural, non-touristic nature. This walk through the “real” city was very refreshing and furthered my general love for this city. We walked along this canal for quite some time, enjoying the great variety in the buildings as well as the city at a very personal level until we emerged from the street to the edge of the lagoon. I found it interesting that we were able to feel the breeze coming off of the larger body of water the whole way down the canal. The entrance to this edge was pretty great since we were coming from such a tight space, the feeling of being jettisoned out of a canon into a massive space primarily composed of water was somewhat exhilarating, and the views were, as usual, fantastic. We wandered down along the “coast” for some time before coming to the main hospital of the island (the original design was by Le Corbusier, but the entry was scrapped for something (worse) else) where we got to see ambulance boats!
We stopped next in another great piazza with two fantastically juxtaposed churches: one was white, clean, highly articulated and of the Renaissance style, while the other was a clunky, overbearing, brick beast of the Medieval style. While both of them would have been nice on their own, the sandwiching together of such fiercely opposing styles illustrated one of the best parts about this city: the way that everything seems to “flow” (no pun intended) together to form one cohesive organism. The Medieval church was the primary focus of our stop as we were able to walk around the majority of the building. There we talked about this phenomena, and how it is odd that it is not engaged in the fabric of the city much like countless other churches. This discussion brought me back to the same experience we had in Pisa, and how the Duomo was open on every side. The rest of the church was quite fantastic as the apse and side chapels from the outside were very highly articulated and quite dematerialized by stained glass windows, leading to quite the contrast with the stark façade.
From there we continued walking along random backstreets (Bea made it a point to get us away from the major tourist avenues of the city) where we saw some interesting moments like a church façade that angled somewhat severely into the street, as well as a quick stop at one of the streets that remained a relic of the old Red Light District of the city (of the 300,000 inhabitants of the city at the time, somewhere around 22,000 where prostitutes!). We talked here for a bit about how this business was sanctioned by the government of the city and provided quite a bit of their income. Our next stop was to the Querini Stampalia, an old palazzo converted into a museum featuring a ground floor design by the “modern” Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. We were lucky enough to have Bea with us for this stop because she was able to get us in for free!! The ground floor sat at the level of the water so there was a point where a room was sat up slightly higher in order to avoid flooding. The design of these rooms was pretty fantastic and each one was slightly different. We came through a few of these before exiting out into a wonderful little courtyard. There was actually a point where we recognized a doorway that we talked about in our construction class fall quarter!
We enjoyed the peaceful garden for a little while before continuing through the downstairs for a while. Each room was extremely varied in both the overall aesthetic as well as the design of the ground plan. There were a series of levels to step up and down as we maneuvered through the spaces, and this interaction with the architecture was great! We stopped briefly in an exhibit on a higher floor of a pretty great artist who seemed to work primarily in portraits, as well as a few fantastic landscapes. Our way back down took us through a massive working library that had the squeakiest and creakiest floors of any room that I have experienced, so our promenade through the space was quite announced and the looks we got only added to the experience. Once we had gathered we stopped and saw a beautiful light well and a nice theatre with a great futuristic feel.
From there we continued through more streets until we came to St. Mark’s Square. While the space is quite crowded at this hour, somehow the air is lively and the experience is quite enjoyable, especially when compared to the cramped mosh-pit of the Spanish Steps in Rome. While we were there we took a moment to lay with the pigeons since they were bold enough to climb on you when offered food. I befriended one who ended up sitting on my shoulder for a while as we walked. After we said goodbye to the pigeons we walked along the main coastline until we came to a Traghetto, which is a small gondola used to carry people from one edge of the canal to the other for only 50 cents! The ride was a hoot, as the majority of the time we were in fear of capsizing as we turned around. Being in the middle of the canal at a level barely above the water was pretty great, and by the time we disembarked on the other side we were ready to head back over. Instead we continued walking through some streets until we came to the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute.
The exterior of this octagonal church was pretty fantastic as it was very highly detailed and featured many deep cuts into the mass of the building. Its placement at a point along the river provided a great relationship with the water, and its footprint allowed for a highly orchestrated and minimally obtrusive interaction with the pathways of the people in the space. The interior was just as fantastic as the outside, decorated in primarily grayscale and quite massive in size, it brought back memories of the Baptistery in Pisa (but way better!). We enjoyed this space for a bit and checked out the great side-chapels before coming outside to sit on the steps and just relax in the waterfront setting.
From there we continued out to the endpoint of the small peninsula where we enjoyed a panoramic view into the harbors and lagoon surrounding us, as well as some great yachts docked nearby. After some photos we set off to return to the mainland (using another Traghetto instead of a bridge less than a hundred yards away) for some lunch at a small little café. From there we just ended up walking for a great deal of time, and I think that I have never been in a city where aimlessly strolling through the streets with no purpose and really no major architecture moments to see was so much fun. Our path took us through a seemingly never-ending rollercoaster of hyper-narrow alleyways, crowded piazzas, empty piazzas, water front spaces and canals. We came back to the Rialto Bridge where I got a cup of the biggest and most delicious cherries that I have ever had.
From there we returned to the hotel and relaxed for a little bit waiting for the churches to reopen before getting some gelato at a cool place nearby (I got Snickers, white chocolate Kinder and amarena) before heading out through a series of new streets (purposely trying to get “lost”) until we came back to St. Mark’s Square. We were lucky to have come this way because the sun had finally come out and the façade of the church was infinitely better when lit up. The piazza was hopping just as it was earlier, so we enjoyed that for a little while before setting off. As we walked along the lagoon for a little while we saw some cool moments like the Palladio church on an island finally in the sun and a fantastic leaning tower (much smaller than the owner of that title, but great nonetheless). However we had some trouble locating the church we were looking for, so after some confused wandering through the back streets in this area we happened to stumble into a piazza with a random church sitting in it that happened to be the very one we were searching for.
While the façade and overall design of this church were somewhat unknown to us, the name is what brought me here: St. Zaccaria (pronounced like my name!). In spite of the painfully plain façade the interior was one of the better ones I have seen here. Nearly every surface of the walls and coffering was painted, and the light pouring in from the windows of the façade gave everything including the somewhat dark paintings a wonderful and ephemeral glow. The ceiling and dome were both quite plain, but this was ok because it kept my attention on the artwork and the beautiful moments at our level (I find that once I look up in most churches, I forget about the design of the human scale). The plan of the church was quite odd in that it was very compact in the entry/altar axis and filled with rather odd structural moments. My favorite part was probably the altar, mostly because of the way it sat inside an apse within a larger apse-like space. This interesting moment combined with the radiance it gained from the front windows made the space quite great. From there we went down into the crypt to see the space below that had been flooded with water. Once we had finished in this interesting but slightly creepy space I sat and wrote for a while accompanied by the singing of a troupe of old women, which was nice but a little creepy.
From there it was time to head back home to meet up with some more people for dinner, so we hiked the whole way back (for the fourth time today). Once we had reassembled and changed into shorts we set off (where else) directly back in the direction we came from. After a good deal of walking we came upon one of the greatest moments that I have ever witnessed. A man disembarking from a water taxi carrying a backpack and small suitcase provided the night’s entertainment, and much to our chagrin we couldn’t get a video of it (we are certain it would win money on America’s Funniest Home Videos!). As he began stepping up from the bottom level, he slipped and dropped his suitcase. At this point the entire crowd was rapt with attention to see how he handled this trouble and his suitcase’s precarious perch just above the water. He slowly shuffled down to pick it back up before slipping once again and dropping it further and slightly into the water. As the events picked up speed, he grabbed the suitcase from the water and threw it up to the dry stairs above him; however, this success was short-lived due to a third slip and the subsequent loss of his backpack onto the steps. As if by fate, when he picked up his backpack he slipped once again and dropped it directly into the water before scurrying to retrieve it and throw it back up as well. Sadly, there was one last act to this comedy: he had finally stabilized himself at this level, but upon his first movement to walk up he slipped one final time and fell (closer to a dive) headfirst into the water. At this point the crowd lost it, and although I felt bad for the guy he climbed out of the water and threw his arms up triumphantly, which made me feel better.
From the scene of this disaster we continued to the fish restaurant we were aiming for, which turned out to be more of a café-like place so we ended up finding a small pizza place to stop at instead. A buddy and I split two pizzas, one prosciutto and the other four cheese; both were fantastic! After dinner we wandered back home through the darkened streets (the only time we felt uncomfortable was when a flower vendor materialized around a corner, arms wide and a smile on his face. Upon our return to our hotel we stopped at the train station to check on tickets for tomorrow and got gelato (pear!) on the way back before going to bed almost instantly.

Day 72 (6/1/11)

This morning we finished up our last minute packing and cleaning before saying goodbye to our apartment and heading to the bus. On the way out of the city we got to see the EUR one last time, which was pretty exciting. The ride was very ordinary, filled with wonderful views of the landscape in between naps. We did see a few of the cities we had stopped in during our travel week, which made leaving Rome that much sadder since the speed in which this trip is ending is insane. We stopped for a break and got more gummies before continuing on (more nap) and stopping for lunch at a large stop similar to one you would see somewhere in Ohio. Although this area was pretty lame we did see a nice Maserati and a decent Ferrari, which made it mostly worth it. As we kept on trucking towards Venice we talked a lot about things to do there and how the city works, which was a little unfortunate because the common theme seemed to be that this city is not so great (super crowded, infested with mosquitoes, smelly, etc.). When we finally made it to the coast we saw some cool stuff like a shipyard where thy build cruise liners (there was a skeleton of one there!) before crossing the massive bridge onto the “island” of Venice (flashbacks of Cedar Point kept coming to me). After some tricky maneuvering by the bus driver we parked and disembarked to begin our walk into the city.
After crossing a truly awful bridge that was entirely stairs (not so great when you are carrying everything you own), we walked along the Grand Canal through crowded (but not unpleasant) streets filled with shops. When we finally made it to our hotel we checked in and came to the smallest four-person room that I have ever seen. However, the view out of our windows into the piazza below is fantastic and we don’t plan on spending much time here anyway, so it was ok.
Our first day in Venice began once we had dropped our stuff off in our rooms and reassembled in the piazza downstairs. We mostly just explored many small little streets while enjoying our first views of the many canals in the city. The density and variation in style, scale and color of the buildings along the water was fantastic and made every small little street that we looked down new and interesting (I began to wonder if by the end of the trip I would have more pictures of water-filled alleys than buildings). We did stop at a few buildings along the way including a pretty great little church that was tucked away in the fabric of the city. We continued along countless back streets that led to an infinite number of different bridges and piazzas (technically called Campos here but that’s irrelevant) before coming to the Rialto Bridge, which provided fantastic views down the river as well as great moments on top, very similar (but less crowded) to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. After some more streets we came to St. Mark’s square, home to the Basilica of the same name, which is the most famous building in the city and one of the best in Italy. We did not go in at this moment, however we did enjoy the pretty great and highly detailed façade. The church is much smaller than I anticipated, but the varying scales and designs of the different parts of it combined with the views of its multiple domes make it extremely interesting nonetheless.
We looked around the piazza for a while and enjoyed the view of the massive bell tower, or campanile (not original since the first fell down in the early 1900s) as well as the fantastic buildings surrounding the square beyond St. Mark’s. The three of them (the Basilica is the fourth side) are all extremely detailed but thanks to the flat light and oddly spaced perspective start to appear fake as they travel farther away. This moment was pretty great, and if it weren’t for the construction occurring on the side opposite the Basilica, I could have been fooled from where I stood. From there we continued out to the waterfront where we enjoyed this magnificent view out to the harbor, to an island with a great church beyond, and along the edge to the great collage of buildings that follow the curve of the land.
From there we walked down the major shopping street of the city and looked at the awesome masks that are the specialty here before stopping for kebab and heading home. I am coming to realize how drastically off base everything we have been told about this city was. The people are amazingly pleasant, the city is gorgeous, there are no mosquitoes that I have found, and the concentration of tourism in a select few spots makes navigating the rest of the city a blast. Once we got home we goofed around for a while waiting to buy football tickets (our shoddy internet made an already horrifying process that much worse) before heading off to bed.

Day 71 (5/31/11)

After a wonderful night’s sleep I woke up and proceeded to work on finishing off any food I had left (four eggs with a friends salami and the last of my cheese and some yogurt) before heading out to finish off any shopping that needed to be done. My first stop was out to the Vatican (the Piazza was turned into a parking lot today!) before heading back into the center of town to wander around for some splat-balls. I finally found one and was able to haggle him down from ten euros to two (he seemed desperate enough that I regret not trying for one). From there I walked back to the school before stopping to pick up some gummies.
Today was our last day at the Iowa State studio so we had to clean up and take pictures of our models (since we had to leave them) as well as give our keys back and get our deposits. Once all that mess was over we came home, got a final suppli from the kebab restaurant downstairs, and packed for a few hours. We decided that one last small group dinner to Pizza Ai Marmi, a famous pizza place right here in Trastevere. My buddy Brian and I split a suppli, fried zucchini flower, fried cod, and a sausage pizza. The food was absolutely fantastic but the best part of the meal was a street performer that came and did magic tricks for a while. He made a bunch of stuff like his tie and a string stand straight, swallowed a sword, pretended to chop his arm off, poured coke into a floating glass, and for his finale, took his toupe off.
Once we were finished we came home and palled around for a while to procrastinate cleaning our apartment for checkout tomorrow. We finally did get around to that (it took us until four in the morning!), and although it was sad to be finishing our last night here in Rome, it has been such a wonderful trip that I will be ok to leave. After a quick shower and some last minute packing it was time for bed for the last time!

Day 70 (5/30/11)

Once we had finished all of the compiling, cleaning and preparation we all went out to the terrace to eat some snacks that Lisa brought in before gathering for our final review. Everyone’s projects were pretty interesting and it was especially cool since they were all quite different. I thought our review went pretty well and it was pretty cool to get the opinions of Francesco and another juror as well as Lisa and Beatrice. They talked a lot about the decisions we made and the various impacts they had, and they seemed to appreciate the amount of work we put into it. I like to think that when they have a ton to say (good or bad) that means that the project was a success since it spurs some reaction or inspiration in the people looking at it, and I think that is the whole point of architecture. After a miserable five hours of sitting in a sauna-like room we were finally free and officially done with any academic activity for this quarter. We basically sprinted out of there (34 hours awake and counting made being there the least appealing activity possible) and came home to shower and finally eat some food. After snacking for a little bit I decided that one final kebab would be a fitting reward for surviving the all-nighter, so I walked to get that. The food finally made my body realize how tired I was so after struggling to keep my eyes open long enough to hang my clothes up after washing them, I laid in bed and fell asleep without even turning the light off.