Perugia and Assisi

Last weekend, our group went to Assisi, home of St. Francis.

The best night, we hiked up to the Rocca Maggiore, or castle at the top of the hill, and enjoyed wine and cheese while watching the sunset. Assisi is a magical place. Not only is it the pilgrimage site for St. Francis, it is spatially and visually fascinating. In the 1920's most of the stucco facades were removed, exposing the stone structure underneath. A local rose-colored stone is used, mixed with white/yellow stone, and this lends each building its own unique charm.

The tourists are nicer and calmer, and everyone is more polite, perhaps out of respect to the presence of St. Francis. He is buried under the Basilica that shares his name in a quiet, dramatically lit chapel of the lower church. I thought a side chapel filled with relics was one of the more fascinating spaces in the church. The relics included St. Francis's robe, worn by him almost 800 years ago and pieced together with hundreds of patches upon patches, as well as a piece of calf-skin that was placed over his side to help ease the pain of the Stigmata which he received later in life. These relics did not look 800 years old, and were located in a brightly lit, non- air-conditioned room. I have trouble believing that they are the actual relics themselves, but I cannot imagine replacing the originals with duplicates, as that removes all the power of a relic in the first place. Nevertheless, I felt honored and blessed to have the rare opportunity to be in the presecense of such a great force of good in the world.

I imagine it would feel about the same as visiting Ghandi's tomb in New Delhi.

Also-as a side note- We had the BEST bathroom in Assisi. It's nice even by American standards (and, I've noticed, we really are too picky about the size/ quality of our bathrooms) For Italy, it was unheard of.

Re:

Gelato!

My most recent adventurous flavor conquests:

Ricotta Basil
Almond
Lemon Torte
Zuppa Inglese (cream English Trifle)
Rosemary
Chocolate chili
Tartufo
and

Nutella.

All were delicious, even if slightly little less than adventurous...

Update!

I've been so behind on my blogging lately, I don't think I can ever catch up! But I'll try for a quick summary. (It's still going to be long, though, so bear with me.)

I've been busy with class and school. The weekend was fun, if not hectic.

On Friday, after visiting the most amazing art gallery, Galleria Borghese, we browsed around town visiting several churches and monuments. Most noteable of these was probably the Capuchin Monastery, Santa Maria Della Concezione. While the monastery was being built, the brothers needed a place to bury their dead, so they piled them in a side chapel. The chapel now holds over 4000 bodies of monks, mostly broken apart and used for decorations, but some are whole. We also visited Mussolini's old Villa, although it has now been converted to a botanical garden for Sapienza. There was no mention of Mussolini's name anywhere in or around the Villa, not even on the street signs. I though it was interesting that, given Rome's massive history, it is this most recent period that they would like to forget.

We took a trip to Tivoli and Villa D'este on Saturday. These are beautiful gardens are designed around fountains, commissioned by Ippolito d'Este after he lost his papal bid in 1560. The villa was abandoned under the Hapsbrug family, and fell into disrepair. It passed through several more hands, finally becoming property of the Italian state in 1920. It was damaged again in WW II, but has been undergoing renovations almost constantly since the 1980's.

All the Fountains rely on old mechanics and water pressure to function, making this feat of engineering even more impressive.
I thought the best fountain was the organ fountain, which was originally powered by forcing oxygenated air through the pipes while someone manually played the keys. I'm not sure how it works now, but it goes off automatically every 2 hours. Luckily this coincided with the end of our visit, so we got to hear it play. The picture is of the "walk of 100 fountains".

On Sunday I went to the Porta Portese market as I mentioned before, and on Monday we managed to catch an exhibit of Monets, as well as some other impressionist work that was quite nice. They didn't have any postcards of my favorite paintings, otherwise I might have gotten some.

As a tangent, I read somewhere that, before tomatoes were really used, Italians put fruit on their pasta. I had some extra peaches lying around, so for Tuesday dinner I made up a recipe and it wasn't too bad!

et Alors: Pasta Pesca Balsamico!
Basamic peach pasta. Cosa molto Buona!

Tonight we have a group dinner, so I won't have to make up interesting pasta variations of my own. Tomorrow we have another mid crit for studio, and then we are going to Assisi, home of St. Francis, for the weekend. I hope it is as nice as Amalfi!

Ciao tutti,
A piu tardi!

Porta Portese

Today, despite the rain, I braved the crowded and infamous Porta Portese flea market. Literally miles of stands sprawled across the neighborhood, selling everything from pots and pans, discount clothes, and fresh flowers to... vintage dirndls? I'm not sure about that one, either...

I wandered all morning looking through the stands, and, although I didn't find much, it was fun to wander. The crowd, at least this morning, seemed to be mostly Italians, and it was fun to people watch and get some local flavor.

I met a man selling jewelry from Bangladesh. He looked to be about 24 to 25, and said he had just finished school in Rome. He said his name was Ashrav, "In English, Alexander", and he was going to Washington D.C next week to try and help with his cousin's business. Overall it was a fun day exploring some of the bustling, international culture in Rome.

And did I mention it was raining?

Piazza Propositions

Today, I was in one of my piazzas staring through a grated doorway looking into a mechanical room. I was trying to see if there were any doors beyond the boiler to finish drawing a floor plan, when I heard a question in Italian behind me.

I turned to see a young blond man sitting on a scooter. He repeated the question, and I thought he was asking if I was trying to get into the mechanical room. I tried to explain that i was just drawing, and gestured to my sketchbook saying, "no, no".

He laughed and repeated the question, smiling flirtatiously and gestured to his scooter. I think he was offering me a ride. I stood there dumbfounded, and he must have understood I had no idea what was going on because he laughed and made fun of my prostests. He blew me a kiss, said "Ciao, Bella" and drove off, leaving me flattered and flustered at the same time.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Last weekend I was sans internet for four days while we went to the Amalfi Coast. It was delightful! The coast line is peppered with houses clinging to the cliff-sides which cascade down to the water's edge. The stairs in this place are... creative. None are parallel, and most are over 8 inches tall. After a hike up to the town of Ravello involving hundreds of stairs, I was suddenly grateful for building codes in the US which prohibit stairs with a rise over 7 inches. Despite the calf-killing hike, the view was breathtaking. Pictures and sketches do it no justice, and words cannot describe.

Back down in Amalfi, I did some watercolors. I got a few compliments, and had an interesting conversation with a man from Naples who spoke no English.

He asked what I was painting, and I pointed to my subject. He asked where I was from, and what I liked to do for fun. I said "sto studio architettura", and he pantomimed running, so I think I might have misunderstood his question, but it was a good conversation nonetheless. He told me to see the Duomo, and said something about a boat, and then left me sitting on the pavement.

Flickr

Hey all, since sharing photos on here is a pain, I set up a flickr account. There's not much there yet, I still have a lot of organizing to do, but keep checking back!

Ciao tutti!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/50657046@N07/

A "Romantic" Day!

Today was an absolutely indescribable day of adventure! The map is annotated below...


I started at I, our apartment and walked to C, the Trevi Fountain, passing the Pantheon (B) along the way. There were hardly any people there at 8:30 in the morning, so I took the opportunity to linger, tossing 3 coins over my shoulder into the fountain, ensuring a return to Rome! Here a nice British lady offered to take my picture, if I would take hers.


Next, I walked down to D, the museum called Scuderie del Qurinale, where I waited in line for 4 hours to see and exhibit of paintings by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The picture is obviously not my own, but this was one of the paintings at the exhibit, known as The Taking of Christ c. 1602. Caravaggio's paintings have a sense of internal light that seems to emanate from the figures, especially Christ, that does not translate at all into pictures.

After this, I popped into Palazzo Barberini, E, for a quick look at the gardens, passing by Boromini's Quattro Fontane in the process. (sorry, no pictures...)

On the way to the Spanish Steps to see the Keats-Shelly House (F), we also stopped by Santa Susanna, the American church in Rome, as well as Santa Maria Della Vittoria, home of Bernini's
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa.


After the Keats-Shelly house we strolled down Via di Condotti, where there is lots of high fashion shops (Prada, Gucci, Valentino, etc.) We walked into Prada and it was fun to pretend I could afford $500 pairs of shoes... We also stopped into Cafe Greco, the cafe where Keats, Shelly, and Byron would drink and smoke while writing poetry. I had a caffe Corretto, which is a shot of espresso served with Sambuca liquor and a coffee bean for good luck.

We stopped by Richard Meier's contemporary Ara Pacis (G) museum, built over the site of an ancient temple, but it was closing for the evening and we couldn't get in.

Crossing back over the Tiber we found Ponte Sant' Angelo (H), named for its proximity to Castle Sant' Angelo, a fortress used to defend the ancient Roman walls during the emporer Hadrian's time. Angels decorate the bridge. There was a wedding party on the bridge taking pictures with a view of St. Peter's in the background. You couldn't ask for a more perfect setting, or a more perfect day!



P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I got you a present, but you won't get it until I get back :) Love you!

New Pizza place and other assorted adventures

I found a new pizza place called Pizza Pazza. Aside from the waitstaff being cranky, it was the best pizza I've had. I tried the potato and mozzarella. It was pretty much like eating scalloped potatoes on delicious, delicious toast.

Here are some "documentary" sketches from my sketchbook. I would post some more representational sketches, but I don't have any that I'm particularly proud of just yet. (Also, I had to take pictures, because the scanner in studio is woefully incompetent, hence the weird colors). Click to enlarge

Enjoy!

And Here's what I had for dinner. Carciofi alla Giudia or Jewish-Style Artichokes. They are cleaned and trimmed and then fried in olive oil with garlic. The sketch above is a recipie for Roman Artichokes, which are slightly different. In any case, it was delicious. It's too bad artichokes are so hard to find here...