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.

Day 69 (5/29/11)

This morning I forced myself to get up at a reasonable hour so I could still be a productive person. After a much-needed shower and some breakfast I worked on the blog and made some lunch to bring with me before heading to the market for another personal souvenir and then back to studio. We worked for a while before setting off for Campo di Fiori to find some lunch, but nothing was open so we just toughed it out at the studio for a little while longer. After a while we returned home and made lunch and dinner before hurrying back to the studio to continue working. The digital model got pretty frustrating once small details and landscape had to be designed, but we finished it by midnight and thus began the long process of production.
My primary responsibility was the model, and even though it took until eleven the next morning, I am pretty happy with how we made it work. My favorite part of the production was that the renderings we made were actually just screen-shots from the model rather than actually putting together a real image since we were running out of time and they actually looked better! It was a little odd pulling an all-nighter here in Italy, and even though I would have done almost anything to have slept, it was still a little fun to take part in this tradition once again (the worst part was not having 7-Eleven or Buckeye Donuts for food late at night). However, we all worked diligently and finished our presentation at two in the afternoon the next day, right on time for the review.

Day 68 (5/28/11)

Today was one of the last days we have to explore the city, so first things first I went out to the Colosseum to finally see it. After a bus ride and a great walk along the Imperial Fora (no one is out that early), I came to the line to get in. After a bit of waiting they let us in and thanks to the lack of understanding of how the ticket system works by the people in front of me, I was one of the first people in! The walk along the outer ring after buying the tickets was pretty great and after a devilish set of stairs I was on the main level looking out into the stadium. Once I exited the covered section of this level I was able to walk along the inner ring that gave fantastic views into the arena as well as up to the higher levels. While the space was impressive and it was pretty great to finally be in this famous space, I was a little disappointed by how much smaller it was than I thought. The height of it from the outside was mostly recognizable here, but the amount of structure holding what used to be seating really ate away at this space.
Regardless, being able to see into the sub-levels that were covered by the arena floor was pretty awesome, and the amount of this structure that still stands (still imposingly too!) is unbelievable. There was one awesome moment where the stair-like seating structure was still visible (the marble was gone nearly everywhere else), which provided a pretty great moment of contrast between the bright and regal marble and the ruined and pedestrian brick. After I walked around this upper level taking tons of panoramas to try to capture the space I came to some fantastic views out to the space around the Colosseum to where the Pope was at Stations, to the triumphal arch, and out to the Fora. After enjoying the views inside and out I went down to the main level.
The views here were also pretty great, especially being at the level of the original floor. I was also excited to find that the scale of the structure seemed to grow here, making the space a much more intimidating one from this level (which may have been the intention I think!). There were two rings to walk around here and crossing back and forth between them was nice, especially where the roof of the tunnels that used to be here was still partially intact. Once I had finished this level I walked back up those awful stairs to check out an exhibit on the construction of the Colosseum as well as the history of the site with regards to the Emperor Nero, which was pretty fantastic (I liked the renderings of what it used to look like!).
Once I had left I had a bit of time to kill so I wandered around the outside again before taking the Metro out to Termini to meet some friends to head out to Villa Giulia for our third (and final regardless of whether we see it or not) attempt to get in. I ended up getting there a little early so I wandered around the streets outside of Termini and ended up finding the Basilica Sacro Cuore, a small but pretty great little church that was hidden amongst the unassuming façades of the random buildings along a busy street. The interior of the church was pretty nice and the wood accents combined with the surprisingly fantastic light coming in gave the area a very peaceful and warm feel. One interesting feature came in the aisles and how they were topped by a series of small domes rather than the typical vaulting system. This plus a rather large structure that sat directly below the dome rather than back in the apse (I couldn’t explore behind it but the space back there looked great!) made this church a nice little find!
Once we had made it out to the Borghese Gardens we started joking about how knowing our luck it would be closed on Saturdays, but thankfully it was open. On our way we stopped at a pretty neat exhibit on the various vehicles that the Italian military and police force have used, including old motorcycles, sailboats (how they were of any use is beyond me) and even a fighter jet! They were letting people get inside the jet, but we didn’t have time right now for me to take a picture so I planned on stopping on the way home. While this Villa is not really one of the most impressive that we have seen, we talked a bit about it in our Theory class last quarter so seeing the spaces we discussed was awesome. Once we made it through the entry space and ticketing area we came into a very skinny, U-shaped colonnade that gave way to a great courtyard. I am quite a fan of these U-shaped spaces because of how the buildings look like some great force has affected them. The courtyard gave way to two smaller and more private gardens on either side beyond the main walls, both of which were very nice (very vanilla: nothing bad but nothing great). From there we came to a nice enclosed area that cuts the main courtyard off completely. After enjoying the views back to the first building (it looks like a T-Rex took a big bite out of a sandwich as our professor would say), we turned around to find a big hole.
This hole was very nice and articulated quite well, but it was still a little bit of a shock to step this far down (at least fifteen feet) within the gardens of a Villa. Within this recessed space was another, smaller hole (inception?) filled with a fantastic little courtyard surrounded by lots of plants and water, which provided a nice contrast to the very plain stone and stucco of the building around us. After enjoying this little nook for a little while we came back up and walked around to another side garden and back to the final courtyard behind the recessed space. This garden was quite nice again, and after enjoying it briefly we came to a fantastic development: in the side garden on the far side there was a large temple structure sitting there. Although we couldn’t get inside, it was still quite interesting due to how both ends were articulated as the “front,” even though one side had the door and the other only had a porch.
When we had finished with the grounds of the Villa, we went into a pretty fantastic museum of various artifacts and a lot of information on tombs and their architecture. The exhibit turned out to be absolutely massive, occupying various parts of four different floors inside the Villa (the basement had two tombs put back together!). We wandered through here looking at all kinds of pottery, jewelry, weapons and other artifacts as well as an awesome room dedicated to the Villa itself; there were the original plans and sections as well as a great model that let us see the way that the series of spaces leading away from the entrance seem to have been pulled from each other like a telescope. Once we had finished here we went outside and sat for a little while just enjoying the day and waiting for everyone to finish up.
Sadly, when we came back to the bus stop and the adjacent military exhibit, the fighter jet’s cockpit was closed so I couldn’t get my picture. After another comfortable and restful bus ride back to Trastevere, I made a lunch of pasta with pseudo-vodka sauce and pancetta before our studio group went in to work. From then until the next morning we worked on final decisions for our design, the digital model, our presentation, and the site model. It was a very productive evening/morning, and we should be able to just sit down and produce the drawings and renderings we need tomorrow with ease. The only bad part about the night was the stopping of the trains when we came home so we had to walk the whole way back in the early morning (what is this, Knowlton?). Once I got home I was too tired to even shower, so I pretty much just threw myself in bed and was asleep as I hit the pillow.

Day 67 (5/27/11)

This morning we woke up bright and early to head in for studio so we could throw some stuff together at the last minute, per the usual. Our meeting with them went well and we even got 100 euro back from the program for our stay in Venice! After we finished that and pretended to work in studio for a while, it was time for our final group meal together. We went to a pretty swanky place near the school for what would turn out to be one of the best lunches I have had here! The first course was an appetizer plate with a gigantic prawn basted in a sweet orange sauce, duck and fig pâté, and eggplant parmesan. Aside from the initial shock from seeing the whole prawn (beady little eyes and creepy feelers in all) sitting on my plate, everything was fantastic! Next up was a pretty sizeable bowl of truffle, peas, and pancetta. This was also delicious, and the peas were as big as blueberries! For our third course (I was already starting to get full) we had a plate of rigatoni with a spicy tomato sauce and basil. Big surprise, this was great! Finally came the main course: two small beef fillets with mushroom sauce, which was fantastic. By this point I was full to bursting, but then they told us that there was sour cherry crostada (like a torte) for dessert, so I sucked it up and wolfed it down.
We sat there for a while reveling in the amount of food we had just eaten before struggling to get out of chairs. From here we split up for the day, so I set off on my mission for souvenir shopping. Although I cannot disclose the stores I went to, the route I took was quite extensive so I will just describe that. First off I walked out to the Colosseum to catch the Metro out to Termini Station where I switched to the other line to get out to the far east side of town. After a little bit of maneuvering around the streets here I found the store I was looking for and after my purchase set off back into town. I ended up taking a pretty fantastic road that led through a series of great intersections and seemed to cross a ton of massive boulevards before I came to another Metro stop. I only ended up taking it for one stop to Piazza de Spagna where I made change at McDonalds before heading through the Trevi Fountain to scope out the street vendors.
Nothing really caught my eye here, and as usual it was a very unpleasant space so I skedaddled out toward the Vatican for my next stop. On the way I ended up stopping in a church called Sant’Andrea della Valle that I had noticed a few times. The front façade looked like it had just been slapped on after the rest was built, which was pretty interesting, and the dome behind it was nice and really visible from multiple angles. Upon entering the church I was greeted with a fantastic space filled with beautiful golden light. After some examination I found that this was from the light pouring in above refracting off of the gold decorations that were on nearly every square inch of the interior. When there wasn’t gold, there were beautiful paintings covering the rest of the surface. I continued down the main nave and stopped at a mirror table that had been placed in the center to provide a good view of the entire ceiling at once, which was awesome. Some things I found interesting were the lack of aisles, the large scale of the side chapels, and the way these chapels all have their own mini domes that provide fantastic light inside.
After a bit of strolling I came to the moment where the space opened up into the transept to my left and right, the dome above, and the apse in front. The effect of this instant growth in scale was pretty great, and it took a while to take everything in. The small chapel-spaces at either end of the transept were pretty nice and the walls of the apse were covered in paintings telling the story of St. Andrea with his crucifixion directly behind the altar. From here I explored two side chapels placed at this intersection; both were pretty fantastic! They were very dark and intimate spaces with their own domes of surprising scale, which made the light coming in above me almost eerie in the way that it didn’t quite reach the space below. The contrast between the bright, open space of the main church with these hidden spaces was pretty great, especially when registered by looking out into the church from the darkness.
After I had finished exploring this fantastic church (it may be my new favorite in Rome!) I continued on my way to the Vatican. Sadly, I forgot that I was wearing shorts so I could not get in to the church proper, so after some exploring of the shops in the area and coming up empty-handed, I set off for a gelato place we heard about. The line to get into the tiny shop was down the street, but the wait was well worth it; for two euro I got two flavors (pistachio was decent but the amarena was the best I have had!) piled to about the size of a bocce ball on top of the large cone. Seeing as I am more of a quantity over quality kind of guy, this was heaven! From there I set off for Piazza Navona, which is notorious for its vendors and street performers. After the rather long walk I finally made it and found some good stuff before setting off for my final stop of the day: the Pantheon.
Sadly, the one time I actually wanted to be bothered by the ever present and never pleasant street vendors, there were none in sight! However the day was a pretty great success so I had no problem giving up and dragging myself and my weary feet home. The rest of the night consisted of relaxing and goofing around, and before I knew it I was falling asleep in my chair so I decided to go to bed; I didn’t even have dinner because I was still full from my gelato feast!

Day 66 (5/26/11)

Today we had our final exam in Italian, so the day was mostly spent studying. We worked on the vocab, practiced conjugating verbs, and read back over all of the situations we had learned for most of the day. I ended up taking a break to watch a movie, which was an odd feeling but for sure worth it! When the time finally came, we set off for our last Italian class of the trip. The test was again pretty straightforward and focused more on applying our knowledge rather than simply spitting it back out. After we finished we learned and sang one last song before playing charades for a little while until the other two groups came over so we could practice talking to each other in Italian. Once that was over it was time to say goodbye and head to the studio.
On the way we stopped at Campo di Fiori for some pizza, which was fantastic as usual! At studio we pretty much just made a plan for what we wanted to do and came right home. Dinner was left over sausage and potatoe goo and after a bit (too much) of goofing around it was time to do work. Our first priority was using the favorite of the models to set a plan by tracing a picture in autocad; this will be used to make the 3D model that will give us sections for today and renderings and perspectives for the final review. After a while we had gotten that taken care of and we split up for the night and went to bed.

Day 65 (5/25/11)

Today we have an audience with the Pope so we got up bright and early to head out to the Vatican. When we got there it turned out that the audience was outside in the square, which was at the same time cool since the space is great but awful because we were all in jeans in the crazy heat with the sun directly above us. After a bit of waiting around the Popemobile finally arrived (sans Tupperware lid) and drove around the where we were sitting for a little while (we were like ten feet away!). After an introduction there was a reading done by a series of Cardinals in all kinds of languages, and then the Pope spoke for a while. Next they introduced all of the groups that were in attendance and the Pope spoke to each set in their language! We though it was funny that his French was pretty great and had the right accent but his English had a pretty heavy German accent to it. Once that was done he blessed us and told us that it applied to friends and family, so you’re welcome!
Once the ceremony was over we took the bus back home to the apartment, ran to the store for a few things for dinner tonight, and went to the studio. We worked for a little while before meeting with them to show the various models we had made over the past week. They seemed pretty excited about what we had so now it is pretty much go time! Once we finished we decided gelato was in order, so we set off for Frigidarium again! This time I had tiramisu and another specialty flavor that tasted like a milkshake with giant fudge chunks in it; amazing yet again! After that we came back to the studio, pretended to do work, and set off to try to see Villa Giulia again.
This time we took a mini bus out, which was a blast because the size makes every little bump we hit quite an event, and the route took us through back streets and around some precarious corners. When we finally got there we walked through the gardens a little bit before finally arriving at the Villa. Of course, the time we found turned out to be an hour off, so it was closed. So, dejected and annoyed, we hopped back on the bus (we got on at the first stop so we had seats the whole way home) and slept until returning to Trastevere.
For dinner Brian and I made sandwiches with sausage, peppers, onion, and hash browns (with odd oatmeal consistency), which were amazing and incredibly filling! After finishing that I worked on the blog and studied some Italian before heading off to bed.

Day 64 (5/24/11)

This morning I woke up and left for the Vatican to send out some postcards! I have heard varying reports on the time it takes for them to get out, so hopefully they will get there before I come home! After that adventure I stopped at the studio to get a bit of work done until a few of us met up to try to see Villa Giulia. We had to run back to the apartment first to grab some stuff, and this turned out to be our downfall. The most accessible means of transportation to get us there from Trastevere was by bus; sadly, most accessible also meant least effective and least pleasant. We spent about an hour on the slowest, hottest and smelliest (I tell myself that it could never be worse but every time it is) bus in all of Rome, so by the time we got there we were grumpy and had no time to see the Villa because we had to get back to class. We did get to walk through the Borghese Gardens for a little bit to try to find the Villa, but we ended up being unsuccessful so we walked back to the Metro.
When we got back to Piazza Spagna we stopped at McDonald’s for a quick lunch before heading to class. Today was our last day before the final, so we reviewed the past tense briefly, made up the biggest and best dialogues yet, and finished up by studying verb conjugation. After class our studio group left for the school to do some studio. On the way we decided to stop by the Trevi Fountain, which finally turned out to be somewhat calm. After a tourist picture of us throwing our coins in, we continued to studio. We ended up doing a lot of discussing about the models we had made already before making a new one. Our goal is to show these four to them tomorrow and make a final decision about our direction so we can really start to produce. After working for a few hours we came back home, I had my left over carbonara for dinner, and went to bed!

Day 63 (5/23/11)

Thanks to the near all-nighter last night, today became one for recuperating and general laziness. We woke up to come to the school and turn in the files for the Travel Log and got fantastic pastries from Lisa as a reward. After a quick logistical meeting we all ran away from the studio as fast as possible. After a run for some groceries and a quick lunch, I decided to watch a movie while working on postcards. Watching a movie turned into watching another movie and folding some laundry, and by the time I noticed it was dinnertime!
I decided to take a chance and try cooking something on my own, so I picked my most favorite dish: carbonara pasta! The recipe I found seemed pretty simple, and although it was a little stressful at times trying to prepare the pancetta and garlic at the same time as the pasta at the same time as the eggs and cheese, it was a blast! When I first started I was befuddled that there was no cream used in the recipe, and even though this is the traditional Italian way, I still think this lead to some of the failure of my meal. It tasted pretty great, just not like carbonara! But that’s ok, because it’s the adventure that counts, and I can just try again with a recipe with cream soon! After dinner we all decided to watch a movie together (on a computer since the TV in our apartment is actually smaller than a typical laptop screen), which was pretty great. After that it was time for bed after a wonderful day!

Day 62 (5/22/11)

This morning we woke up nice and early to take a trip to Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza (third times the charm!). Since it is only open today, it gave us a perfect excuse to not do work in the morning! The size of this church in plan is surprisingly small considering the scale of the dome above, so the experience of being inside is very vertical. The shallowness of the space causes your eyes to instinctively move up the back wall until you are staring straight up. The plan appears to be a football shape, which is very interesting especially because the entrance and altar rest on the short axis, meaning the space extends out from where you sit, rather than along where you sit. The walls are a series of odd corners and sharp angles that flow back and forth around the center, not only causing a dynamic space inside, but also creating a fantastically different dome above. The beginning of the dome comes from these varying edges, which makes it much more a part of this space than just a big cap on top. This odd wall system also creates some interesting moments with the column capitals as they become inverted and reduced along some corners and extended along others.
The ornament on the dome specifically was pretty good, just enough to keep it interesting but done so that the form of the space becomes the primary focus when you are looking at it. As usual, the light coming from the clerestory level is great and the simple solidity of the masses inside become very soft and personal when light falls on them. The altar is also pretty interesting in that since it is along the short axis of the football it has to start to push back into the wall to create a small apse around the beautiful painting. After enjoying this space for a little while longer we had to leave before mass started. After a quick walk home it was time to start working on the Travel Log. Instead of developing a new idea, I decided that there would be nothing better to display the way I have explored and understood Italy than this blog, so the majority of my work involved creating a template and formatting everything I have written into the size of a book. I pretty much worked for the entire day aside from quick breaks for dinner and dessert (amarena ice cream with panna!), so by the time I was finished I was completely exhausted and ready for bed.

Day 61 (5/21/11)

Today a few of us decided to do some quick traveling to try and see some sights on what might be our last weekend to do so, so we woke up bright and early to catch a train out to Pisa and later back to Florence. The train ride was pretty fantastic, between napping, working on postcards, and enjoying the beautiful landscape outside, it was very relaxing! We stopped at a ton of different places and cities on our way out, and I really enjoyed looking at how the areas we were in varied so dramatically. We also saw a ton of dense hill towns, which were especially cool since we were riding through mostly wide-open farmland. Finally we had arrived in Pisa, and after a quick stop at a café, it was time to go to the Piazza del Duomo!
The city is quite odd and somewhat refreshing: the buildings are a hodgepodge of random shapes and sizes and even though this is tourism central, it’s a pretty calm area. We walked through a pretty nice circular space with curved buildings surrounding a large roundabout before heading down an awesome street towards the river. The banks of the river are framed by a great collection of different colored buildings, and following it around the curve is pretty great. We came to a very small church called Santa Maria della Spina, a fine example of Gothic architecture. It seemed like someone dropped it next to the river accidentally and forgot about it; the way in which it sits directly on the edge of the street so only three sides are accessible is an oddity, and the lack of its own courtyard or piazza reflects its odd site. However, the ornament of this building makes up for its other oddities: the extreme detail of the statues making up the majority of the decoration give the edge a fantastic three dimensional quality that takes a bit of observation to register. It cost money to get in and we had heard that the outside is all you really need to see (and three euro for a church with a floor plan as big as our apartment seemed silly), so we crossed the bridge and continued our mission.
As we walked along the street we finally saw the Duomo poking up above the buildings around us, and combined with the sudden influx of noise and street vendors we knew we had made it. At the end of the street the space suddenly opens up into a fantastic green space with the three main buildings of the Piazza dominating it: the Duomo, the Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery. The space here was pretty amazing, especially the contrast between the green grass, the (blindingly) white buildings, and the very blue sky. We enjoyed finally seeing the lean of the Tower in person, and as it turns out it is much more dramatic than I had thought! We took the typical tourist photos here for a minute before setting off for the ticket office to try to get up on top. Along the way we stopped and looked at the Duomo for a moment, which was oddly placed so that your initial approach from either entrance was to either its side (our approach) or its back (the main entry). It was pretty neat being able to walk completely around the church, since more often than not the backside is hidden in the dense city fabric it sits in.
We were sadly unable to purchase tickets to get on top because the next available time was at one, and our train was fifteen minutes later, so we just got the pass into the Duomo and Baptistery. Since we had a few minutes to kill we came to the far corner to take some more goofy pictures and enjoy the Piazza in a very complete view. One oddity I noticed here was that the more of the Duomo I included in my photos, the less the tower looked like it was leaning. I figured that the addition of something not-leaning would only highlight the angle of the Tower, but it was the opposite! After some self-timing magic for an OHIO picture we set off down the main axis to check out the Duomo. The front façade is pretty bland but interesting because as it gets taller the wall turns into a series of columns supporting each level with wall behind it, which creates a cool dematerialization as it moves towards the sky. The interior was somewhat disappointing, mostly because it was really anything we hadn’t seen before. The lighting was still quite nice and the scale (as always) was impressive, but other than that it was a pretty normal basilica. The roof was a great gold grid that helped highlight the perspective when looking down the central axis. The colors of the space were the highlight of the interior since a ton of the surfaces here were painted including the entire dome as well as a giant painting of Jesus in the apse above the altar. One feature I found interesting was how at the second (technically third or fourth story on a normal building) level the wall punches through the intersection of the transept and the aisle, cutting off this normally fantastic moment. However, the incorporation of columns at this point seems to place a special importance on this moment, rather than deny it due to the small glimpses given of the space beyond it, seeming to act as a teaser to bring you off of the main axis. One final odd moment cam above the altar just below the end of the dome: there was a v-shaped staircase rising up from the corners where the nave and transept meet towards a small door directly under the dome. This is something that I have never seen before, so it was pretty interesting to speculate as to its use.
After exploring the rest of the interior and being disappointed in the touristy atmosphere inside, we exited to walk across the Piazza to the Baptistery. Our first glimpse of the Baptistery made us realize that it, in fact, is also leaning! The exterior is pretty fantastic and the way that each level is articulated slightly differently (plain, columns, heavy ornament, etc.) adds an interesting layering effect to the rounded form. Once inside, however, any interest I had in the building was lost. It was one of the most bland and empty spaces I have been in, and aside from the awesome scale when looking up to the top of the dome, there was nothing happening. We made a quick circle around the bottom level before enjoying the second level (we came up for a view out of one of the windows towards the Duomo, not the Baptistery). I think the roof is the worst part: brick covered up with truly awful yellow stucco that flattens the space and sticks out horribly.
After we finished inside we made a quick lap around the outside edge of the Piazza to see the awesome view back of all three buildings before heading back to the station to catch out train to Florence! After milkshakes at McDonalds we were on our way, flying through some more beautiful countryside. It was an odd feeling having just sprinted through one of the most famous cities in Italy like we were just running an errand, and while it still amazes me that we have the ability to just take a quick trip to places like this, it is a bit unfortunate that we only got to experience it in the most touristy way possible. Anyway, the train was pretty fantastic, mostly because it was air-conditioned (I wrote refrigerated in my notebook because I had forgotten the words to describe the feeling). After a power nap we had arrived in Florence and it was time to continue our mad dash through the sites of Italy.
After walking through some pretty great streets and through some markets we came to the Accadamia, home to Michelangelo’s Prisoner statues and, most importantly, the David. After about an hour wait we were in and finally got to see him. It truly is a fantastic experience, and the craft of the marble is unlike anything I have ever seen. The emotion and implied action expressed by the work is phenomenal, and the space he sits in is great too! I snuck a picture of him but the security guy pounced and gave me a good scolding (but I kept the picture!), so we moved on to enjoy the Prisoner sculptures in a different room. We left soon thereafter to head to the Duomo (it seems like every city has one!), priority number one being a trip to the top! We stood in line for a while waiting to get in, until suddenly people started yelling and we turned around to see my real priority for coming to Florence: the cast of Jersey Shore!!!! Snooki and Sammi walked right past us in line to get to a café, causing quite a commotion among the Americans (a drastic majority) in the area. Once they had gone in we finally got through the line and started the climb.
The trip began with a series of pretty great spiral stairs, only made better by the accompaniment of the musical stylings (singing hymns and ringing a tiny bell) of one very religious and quite possibly homeless man. Once we had made it up to the beginning of the Dome and walked around the inner edge to look at the fantastic paintings, we began the second section of stairs that were quite possibly the most arduous of any I have been on. The stairs themselves were never regular, there were odd edges and corners poking into the space everywhere, and we were slanted along the edge of the dome itself. However, the spaces were pretty fantastic and the many small windows made for some awesome moments. Finally the time came to climb up the dome itself, which involved some of the steepest stairs I have climbed! I was instantly corrected, however, as the next set up to the cupola were so steep that I could stand on one and rest my chin on another without leaning forward! But we finally made it up, and it was so worth it!
The views out (as usual) were unbelievable, and I once again marveled at the incredible density of this city. We saw tons on famous buildings like Santa Croce and San Miniato al Monte, as well as the great river and the train station (slicing into the city like a giant metal splinter). We circled the small platform a few times enjoying the views and observing the awesome moments like when a small green space pops up from within the sea of orange-brown roofs. The edge of this dome is also fantastically steep, looking more like the beginning of the first hill of a rollercoaster than a gentle slope. Once we finished here we started a descent that made our climb up seem like a cakewalk. Thanks to the inclusion of only one staircase, we had to dodge not only the many obstacles of the stairways up, but also the impatient people using them! After a dizzying descent down the spiral staircases, we were back outside and getting in line to see the church itself.
We stopped again to look at Michelangelo’s doors to the Baptistery as well as the fantastic front façade before going inside. As with many churches here, the interior simply could not compete with the exterior. While the scale of the thing is impressive, the emptiness and the lack of good light (too artificial) combined with the swarms of tourists hogging all the good photo spots make it one underwhelming space. One interesting moment was how when you look down the axis you can see a small portion of the exquisite painting on the dome. This moment is the “happy” portion, and we noticed that when you go around the cupola, the majority of the art is made up of horrifying images of torture in Hell. Once we had escaped from this madhouse we stopped at a Lindt store for some chocolate (I got Stracciatella and Strawberry Panna Cotta!) before setting off for a gelato place that Lisa recommended.
We ended up coming to the piazza in front of Santa Croce where we got to enjoy the space without the structure for the concert that was being set up last time before finding (for the third time) some of our friends who travelled here separately. After enjoying the space for a while we left for gelato, which turned out to be very good (a little pricy though). From there we walked back to a cool market we found with lots of leather goods and returned to the station for our train. On our way my day was completed in excellent fashion: we saw Pauly D, Vinny, and Jwoww of Jersey Shore in a 99-cent store. Finally we came back to the train and returned home with little hassle and a lot of sleep. After another smelly and sauna-like bus ride back home I had a little dinner before dragging myself to bed after our mad dash through Italy!

Day 60 (5/20/11)

Our final Rome Walk began at Termini Station bright and early at 7:45…ugh. There I purchased my tickets for this weekend’s trip to Pisa and Florence, so it was not all bad, and before I knew it we were on our way! We took the subway out to the INA Casa housing projects that we saw exhibited inside Meier’s Ara Pacis Museum. Three of the projects are out in Tuscolano, and unfortunately it turned out that these three were not any of the interesting ones we learned about. When we got there we talked as a group for a little bit before walking down a major road filled with tons of awful buildings. We did pass a pretty great market on the way, and the streets themselves were pretty interesting so it wasn’t all bad.
We then came to the first project (actually number II if we are keeping track), which acts as both a gate and a pathway. We talked a bit about the mentality of these housing projects and how they were built to incorporate amenities into the countless residences in order to create a self-sustaining city (within a city). This first (II) project was actually pretty good; the beginning was a large V-shaped medium height block that was the cap of the zone as well as the primary entrance. Perspectively it was pretty interesting, since the kink in the form really started to cause the form to diminish rapidly. Plus the brickwork looked great in the morning sun. As we passed through the entrance to the major street of the project we stopped and saw some pretty great graffiti before continuing. The buildings down along the axis, while laid out in a similar bent V fashion, are much less interesting and look quite discombobulated. However, much like the first form, the perspective down the street was pretty interesting, especially because the view changes drastically once you make it to the end of the road. One last observation, this area has a pretty great mix of heights and sizes of the housing blocks, creating a dense but highly varied landscape.
When we made it through Tuscolano II we came to III, which acted as an end cap to this street. The layout of this project is an enlarged palazzo, with a pretty fantastic public green space in the center surrounded by single-story residences. An interesting point that we discussed was how since these projects were designed to be cities, this green space thus embodies the “city center.” However, the space has an inverse relationship with its surroundings compared to typical centers: rather than being a place of extreme public and high energy movement, this area is extremely private and peaceful; even the noise of the city nearby is lost in this oasis. We were given a few minutes to explore this area, and I really enjoyed the density of the low-rise housing here, especially the series of identical alleys radiating from the green center all painted different colors. These “districts” seemed to have slightly different character, even though they were all the same and within twenty feet of each other.
After finishing here we walked down another major road filled with more colorful but truly unfortunate buildings. Aside from the nice streetscape, this area is actually a little sad, seeing as how these ambitious goals and unified efforts have fallen so far. We eventually came to Tuscolano I, and this one somehow was worse than the rest. Designed as a series of mini palazzos crammed into one large district, this one had the potential to be interesting. However, the advent of the parking lot and the general disarray of the spaces really denied this typology from being recognized as the interesting and often impressive space it is. We were given more time to walk so we ended up wandering around aimlessly before coming back to the market. Inside was one of the more impressive markets that I have been to, filled with some of the best looking produce that I have seen so far!
Once we had met back up we set off for the nearby aqueduct park, where we would see some architecture done right (no matter how decayed, the mastery displayed by the Romans always impresses!). The park was a whole lot of green and a little bit of aqueduct, but the state of the space with extremely active people coupled with the stoic ruins provides a fantastic juxtaposition. We walked around here for a good bit exploring the two aqueducts plowing through the space (one was pretty intact and the other very ruined) and just enjoying the beautiful scenery. I think that the nature here was more impressive than that of the Appian Way from our earlier walk, although the ruins were a bit less impressive based solely on quantity (type of ruin goes to the aqueduct). Once we had finished here we began our walk back towards the city for our appointment at Cinecittá, one of the most famous movie studios in all of Italy.
After a ton of walking through an extremely varying cityscape filled with both interesting and awful buildings, we made it to the studio. Once our tour guide arrived we learned a little about the history of the studios and how it began as the propaganda studio for Mussolini! We walked around for a little bit and saw a couple sets with fake houses from some very famous Italian shows. I really like walking around these “buildings” and seeing how it transitions from a skeletal structure to a full-fledge imitation. This façade characteristics, although I already understood it, is still a lot of fun to experience first-hand. From there we came upon a fake street that makes my comment about those houses being only facades seem silly. These were literally walls propped up and supported by an immensely dense web of steel piping to create a very odd, ghost town-like space down the center of the street. The state of ruin of some of these “buildings” was quite spooky, and the ability to see through some of them to their bones behind was both interesting and odd.
From there we came upon what they called the most expensive set design in the history of cinema, and although it was pretty fantastic, I found this hard to believe. The set was essentially highlights of ancient Rome jam-packed together in one small area. It was pretty great to see these mostly recognizable architectural monuments like a pseudo-Pantheon all fixed up and squished next to other great buildings. The best part of this was touching the surface of these buildings, as they are all paper-thin and hollow. We continued walking around these various sets and saw one dedicated to Medieval Florence, which we got to go inside of (climbing the paper-mâché stairs was pretty harrowing). Once we had finished our tour of the various relics of Italian film sets we came to a pretty fantastic film and prop museum where we saw a cool movie about the process of editing and filming a specific scene as well as a bunch of cool relics. My favorite part was the sound effects guy because at one point he was using coconuts to mimic horses, just like in Monty Python!
Once we had all gathered back up it was time to take the Metro back to Termini, where I helped my newly acquired travel-buddies get their tickets for this weekend before coming home and going grocery shopping. After a quick lunch it was off to work catching up on the blog and going through pictures. For dinner I made meat ravioli with the make-believe vodka sauce with onions and chopped up leftover hamburger, which was pretty fantastic if I do say so myself! After dinner it was back to work before heading to bed to prepare for a long day of traveling and sightseeing tomorrow!