Vicenza, Verona and the beginning of Milano

Hello there everyone!

I am on my last day of Thanksgiving break, which started Thursday. The weather here has been quite rainy, but my classmates and I have been enjoying our free time nonetheless. On Thanksgiving we had a gigantic feast for 15, complete with four Thanksgiving chickens (turkeys are ludicrously expensive here), mashed potatoes, stuffing (made by me), gravy, fish and vegetable tempura, carrots, green beans with bacon, spinach salad, and pumpkin and apple pies with gelato. Everything was made from scratch and was perfectly delicious.

I have some more photos I thought I’d share, since I have a little free time (although I should be working on my final history project, but that’s okay). Picking up where I left off, in beautiful Vicenza, Italy.

4 September, 2008
This day was all about Andrea Palladio, a famous designer who definitely left his mark in Vicenza in the 1500s.


Lyndon and Vivian, while we were standing around outside our hotel, waiting to leave for a day of walking.


Our hotel was on top of an enormous hill overlooking Vicenza, so we had to walk down this rock-paved road to get into town. The rocks are like a rather uncomfortable foot massage.


Outside of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico


Cheerful folks on a bench in the garden outside of the Teatro Olimpico. Kendall, Brandon, Lyndon, and Heath.


Inside the Teatro – this theater was built using forced perspective. The buildings in the far background are actually much smaller than those in the foreground, to make viewers think they are seeing further than they actually are. When this theater was used for productions, dwarves were cast to play the roles of villagers in the extreme background, so that they would seem normal height in comparison to the shortened buildings.


Some studenti americani enjoying lunch on the steps of something or other by Palladio. Heath, Lyndon, Caitlin, Sarah R., Kristin, Liz, and Jackie.


Palladio’s distinctive style.


I’m not sure where this is, but this guy was watching me.


Palladio’s famous La Villa Rotonda. It’s built in the round – it has four identical facades (just like the one seen here). It’s also the 16th-century version of sustainable. Back then, villas were the summer retreats of rich families who lived in cities for the better part of the year. The family who commissioned this villa wanted it to be very cool in the summer, with extensive cross-breezes. Palladio gave them just that.


Vivian and me by the Villa.


LJ and Vivian loving the columns at the Villa.


Caitlin and I joined them in column-hugging, hehe.


Walking across the Villa’s sweeping lawn. Brandon, Vivian, Kristin, LJ, Caitlin, and Jen.


After La Villa Rotonda, we walked along a (completely uphill) stone path to another villa by Palladio, Villa Cogollo. The man who commissioned this villa had a daughter who was a dwarf, so he had all of the garden statues made of dwarves, and told a fairy tale about them to his daughter so that she wouldn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed. Here are some dwarves lining a garden wall. My camera battery died soon after this, so I have no more pictures of this day, which mostly consisted of dinner and passing out from exhaustion anyway, so nothing really exciting.

5 September, 2008
This morning we woke up and hopped on our tour bus to Verona, home of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

We started our touring with the Basilica san Zeno, a truly gorgeous Romanesque church.


Here’s Brandon being a goofball in front of the church, while we waited for people to get back from getting cappuccino.


Inside San Zeno. I didn’t get very many good interior pictures, but I thought this one was cool because my professor’s stroller was being illuminated with a heavenly light.


This is the Museo Castelvecchio, which is an old castle in Verona that was renovated and added to by Carlo Scarpa and made into a museum of old Christian art.


Here’s a view of some of the Carlo Scarpa additions to the Castel.


These stairs were also in the Castelvecchio. One of the coolest staircases I’ve ever seen. That’s Ryan standing on them, by the way.


More Castelvecchio.


After the Castelvecchio, we were given free range to run around Verona. We ran into Verona’s Arena. Incidentally, all of the sidewalks in Verona are made of marble. Extremely cool, extremely lavish, but extremely treacherous when wet.


We also wandered into this tunnel which was full of people, and plastered with love notes in a hundred different languages.


This graffiti is tolerated because the tunnel leads to Juliet’s balcony, an icon of one of the most tragic love stories ever written.


A close-up of some of the notes – they are stuck to the wall with band-aids, gum, and various other bootleg glues.


Juliet’s balcony. I’m fairly certain it’s just a gimmick designed by some tourist-trapper in Verona, but it’s rather iconic.


Oddly, instead of the statue of Romeo we expected, there was a Juliet statue beneath the balcony. Apparently you will have luck in your love life if you touch her right breast.

We had some takers:

Mike


Brandon


That night we rode the bus to Milan and had dinner at a gigantic table in the basement of a fantastic pizza place. Here are Brandon and Caitlin laughing just after we sat down.


Everyone at the table looking over menus.


Everyone actually looking at the camera.


Sarah points exuberantly to the pizza-throwing guy on her take-out box.


Vino rosso! Our professor Dave and his wife Beth were eating with us, and they just kept ordering more and more wine.

That night, a bunch of people went to out to a bar together, and I went to a club with Vivian, LJ, and Kendall. It was a good time. We met a lot of Italians and danced the night away, four American girls in a sea of Italians. It was my first awesome Italian nightlife experience.

That’s all for now. I hope to post again soon, but, of course, I can’t make any promises. I’m still trying to decide how to best end the blog – I’m not sure if I should stop updating once I get back to the States or if I should continue to chronicle with all of my back-logged photos. Tomorrow is my 21st birthday, and I’m returning to the States exactly two weeks from then. It’s crazy to think I have so little time left to explore and buy Christmas presents!

Love,
Rachel

more Venice, plus Bassano and Vicenza

I’m sorry I make so many promises regarding blog updates that I never actually follow through with.

But here’s one for real. With photos! Starting where I left off, in lovely Venice.

First, let me say that I and my classmates just got back from a three-day trip to Torino to see our work in an exhibition. It was amazing to see our stuff displayed for people to see and appreciate. Now we’re back in home sweet Rome, working on our new project.

And here are the photos, the continuation of the North Trip.

2 September, 2008

This was a free day for us in beautiful Venice, and although the day started off rainy, it cleared up quickly. Several of my friends and I chose to spend the first part of the day visiting the nearby island of Murano, a place that is famous worldwide for its hand-blown glass. We took a waterbus to get there, of course. Adventure on the high seas.


We got to go to a little sneak peek of the glass-blowing process. These guys are pretty hardcore. It was fascinating to watch them work.


A close-up of the one glassmaker rolling the molten glass to get an even shape.


After watching the glassmakers and a bit of shopping through Murano’s hundreds of glass shops, we decided to wander around the island, and meandered through some back alleyways. This happy dog was in one of them.


Here’s the crowd ambling without clear purpose. Left to right: Lyndon, Caitlin, Vivian, Kristin.

After a morning in Murano, nearly all of us 22 ragazzi decided to go to the beach again, so we did. I didn’t swim this time, but nearly everyone else did, and it was lovely just to read on the sand in good company. Sadly, I don’t have pictures, because I didn’t want to bring my camera and have it be swiped.


That night we all got dressed up and went to dinner near the famous Rialto bridge. Here’s Vivian, Jen, and Sarah B on the waterbus to the bridge, with other familiar faces in the background.


A very blurry picture of the group on the bridge – some ladies from Georgia took this photo for us. Kristin, Jen, Jackie, Kendall, Kevin, LJ, Lyndon, Heath, Brandon, Liz, Sarah R, Vivian, Rachel G, Caitlin, Sarah B, Adam, Jeff, Me (being a geekwad).


Obligatory crooked photo with creepy lurker next to me, who no one knew, haha.

So we had pizza and pasta (yay Italy!) at a restaurant and it was delicious. That’s all I got for this day, haha.

3 September, 2008

The next day we woke up bright and early and boarded a large charter bus, headed to no-one-knew-where, because Cinzia, our program coordinator, often forgets to tell us where we’re going when we get on a bus. It’s okay, though, because we always end up somewhere awesome.

For example, on this day we drove to Bassano, Italy, to the Brion Cemetary, designed for the Brion family by Carlo Scarpa, a truly great architect. Here’s a picture of Cinzia, standing in the marital rings in the wall of the cemetery. The rings are a recurring theme not only in the cemetery, but in all of Scarpa’s work.


A view over the cemetery walls at a pretty little church.


Nash, my professor’s little boy, walking between the tombs of the matriarch and patriarch Brion, who commissioned the cemetery. The two tombs lean towards each other.


The cemetery has its own sanctuary/chapel, with these beautiful windows that have thin marble sheets instead of glass in them – they let in the light quite prettily.


Looking out of the hallway to the meditation area, at the bridge that arcs over the two main tombs. The four-step staircase you can see is interesting – each step makes a different hollow clunking sound.


Faye, my professor’s daughter, climbing in the chapel’s circular doorway.


One of Carlo Scarpa’s stipulations in building the cemetery was that he be buried there. His grave is supposed to be in a grove of seven cypress trees, but they were being replanted while we were there. Boo.


The marital rings from the inside of the hallway, looking out.


At the cemetery we had obligatory architectural sketching time – here are Adam and Jen doing just that.


The Brion family’s cemetery is adjacent to the town cemetery, which you can see here.


I was attempting to take covert pictures of Faye picking flowers, but she spotted me, and I ended up with a dandelion in my hair.


Caitlin sketching by the bridge.


Vivian took the opportunity to look super-keen while sketching.



After the cemetery, we walked back to the bus, past a vineyard.


We then drove to the corporate headquarters of the Nardini Grappa factory, which are located inside two glass bubbles, called the Bolle, that are perched on top of one another. They were designed by the contemporary Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas. Normally, there is a pool of water below the Bolle, but they were working on it while we were there, so it’s dry, as you can see.


Inside the Bolle, the light is totally blue like this. Regretfully, my camera died halfway through this visit. The Bolle are very cool though.


The Bolle are not stacked one on top of the other, but at angles, so there is a diagonal elevator shaft that connects the two. This is a poor picture, but it was a very cool, all-glass elevator.


Brandon.


Everyone rabbling around.


Once my camera died, I wasn’t able to recharge it until after we had had a grappa tasting (not really my cup of tea) and walked around the beautiful town of Bassano, sketched a bridge designed by Andrea Palladio, then drove to the town of Vicenza and checked into our hotel (which was run by a slew of happy nuns).


Here are Kristin and Rachel G at dinner in Vicenza.


Me and Vivian.




After dinner, Cinzia bought us all tiramisu in honor of the 21st birthday of Kevin, pictured here.

That’s all for today! I’m off to do Italian homework!

Love,
Rachel