Adventures in Italian baking!

Here's a "traditional" Italian ricotta cheese cake that I baked. My additions include the graham crust, and slightly more vanilla. Only slightly sweet, it works as both a coffee and a desert cake. I think next I will make one with huckleberries...

Final Studio Project

Here is my final studio project, done by hand in watercolor. Please excuse the awful pictures, the boards had been rolled and were warped by the water as well. Everyone's projects were done by hand and they were all fantastic!


As the program winds down, it's fun to reflect on how much I've learned here. In the beginning, eight weeks sounded like such a long time, but it has gone by incredibly quickly. There are things I will miss (and things that I won't) but I'm so lucky to have been given the chance to have such a great experience.

Leaving Rome

I'm leaving tomorrow. Here's a few lists:

Things I will miss about Italy:

fresh mozzarella
Tiramisu
Gelato
Teatro di Gelato
Gelato di san crispino
Giovanni
Cornetti
amazing sketching opportunities at every turn
the Pantheon
Piazza Navona
Fresh, clean, Free, Cold water
My piazzas
good wine
fresh bread
hanging out with friends in the piazzas
friendly Italians
shopping

Things I will not miss:

Mosquitoes the size of Texas
windows without screens
$23 bottles of sunscreen
being stared at. all.the.time
dorky shoes
sunburns
heat + humidity
feeling stupid for not being able to speak Italian
my camera "bling" when it turns on in a church/ museum/ other quiet place
the outrageous price of museum tickets

Visit to Venezia

For my last weekend in Europe, I took a trip to Venice by myself to explore and see sights. Venice truly is unlike any other city in the World. It was built on a series of marshy islands, with the marble building foundations raised on wooden pillars above the waterline. At the time, the depth of the canal was about 16 ft shallower than it is today,so these building were well above the water level. However, each year the average water level rises, compounding the problem of the sinking pillars.

This same system of canals also makes Venice extremely difficult to navigate, even for Europe. In Rome, if the building you want to visit is across the street, you cross the street. In Venice, if the building is across the canal, you find the nearest bridge (not always easy), and then have to return to the original spot. Some streets dead-end in canals, and no stretch of road runs paralell to the canals, even the Grand Canal, for any useful period of time. Sometimes a street will even dead-end in the side of a building that projects farther into the canal than its neighbors.

This meant that Venice was probably the best city to have visited without a set agenda. Sure, I saw the major sites; the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's, The Accademia, Ponte Rialto, but I didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time. I got plenty of time to sketch (paint) and one nice German man asked me if I was "painting to sell"! I was flattered, but told him no, only for school. Venice was probably one of my favorite places to paint so far because everything casts interesting reflections in the canals, even if the buildings themselves are fairly mundane.

I also enjoyed looking at the beautiful Carnival masks (played up due to tourism, yes, but still sutnning). I would love to return to Venice someday during the Carnevale.

The Gondole, also touristy, were decorated in velvets and gilts, and all dressed up for a romantic evening. They appear more sinister than I had first imagined, more like funeral boats or daggers slicing through the water than nostalgic, romantic modes of transportation. They are long and sleek and black, and reminded me of some kind of fantastic assassins guild. The fin on the prow, called a dolfin in Venetian looked more like a weapon than a symbolic representation of the islands and landmarks of Venice. I wanted to ride in a gondola, but it was 80 euro for a 40 minute ride. I took the Vaparetto, the water bus, instead.

There it is! My trip to Venice in a nutshell. With only four more days in Rome, everyone is buckling down on studio and piazza projects. I can't believe this trip is winding down so fast!

Ciao! a domani,
Laura

P.S. if I can't come home with a Roman cat, can I come home with a Vespa?

vittoria!

I made my final purchase today! And yes, they have less arch support than a piece of matzo, but they're molto carino, no?

Alright,

My last post was a bit of a novel and I apologize. So, succinctly put: I have more pictures on Flickr.

Ciao!.

Vatican Scavi

Today I got the great privilege to visit the Vatican Necropolis, or the excavated area under Saint Peter's Basilica. I wasn't even allowed to have a camera, so no pictures unfortunately. By some stroke of luck (or providence?) I missed the original bus I was planning on taking and got to the excavations office 10 minutes late for my scheduled tour. The office was kind enough to let me step in on the next tour, which only consisted of myself and an older couple from Virgina. The other tours that we saw passing us consisted of ten or 12 people. What luck!

A jolly Englishman lead us through the excavations after explaining a brief history of the various layers of the present St. Peter's. (The High Altar of St. Peter's is built directly over the Tomb of St. Peter). This tour tied together so much information that we've been learning so far, from the martyrdom of St. Peter and the persecution of the Christians, to the legalization of Christianity by Constantine, to the adaption of Pagan rituals and symbols by the Christians.

The tomb of St. Peter itself is visible only as a small, triangular pile of red burial tile from the front side. (St. Peter was given a poor man's burial in haste during the night after his crucifixion). However, I think this make the experience of seeing his tomb more worthwhile.

In all the gilt and pomp of St. Peter's, it is comforting to be reminded that Peter was just an "ordinary" man. His grave is surrounded by the graves of Roman citizens (one whose epitaph condones indulging in drink and beautiful women). Peter's supposed bones are described as belonging to a robust 5'7" man, those of a fisherman. While it is easy to utilize various Christian metaphors of fish and fishermen, the fact remains that Peter's was an honest and difficult profession, and his physical body showed signs of this difficulty. Seeing St. Peter's burial site reminded me that, every sarcophagi I've seen, every bust portrait or epitaph, belongs to a departed soul that once inhabited this same planet. Each of theses souls starts and ends the same way, each gracing the planet for a minuscule flash of 80 years.

Gandhi and Buddha were ordinary people. Einstein and Gallileio, Da Vinci and Raphael, President Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth ; all were ordinary people. What makes us human is the possibility that our life has the power to inspire others. While St. Peter's grave is the holiest of places for some, for me it represents the potential of life; the idea that a seed planted by a small , visually insignificant grave, may someday grow into a gilded basilica; the idea that one, plain life is poised to affect change is countless others.

Happy 4th, Roma!

Happy 4th of July from Rome! This is probably the quietest 4th I've had in a long time. This morning I went and tried to tour a church (it was closed), and went to Trajan's Forum and Markets. These are some old buildings that used to house, obviously, markets and are very well preserved/ restored. There are some very interesting spatial compositions due to the markets being reconstructed over the site of old Temples, as well as retro-fitted structural enhancements after the original structure started to collapse.

It was a neat day exploring the markets, and I got some time to watercolor, although it didn't turn out very well, so I won't post it :P.

On the way home I stopped and got some potato chips to celebrate, and although they are not as satisfying as my favorite "Sweet Onion" chips at home, they weren't so salty that they hurt your mouth, like Lays. (A good thing). I wish I had a delicious veggie burger and some state-shaped Jello to go with!

Tonight the roommates who aren't in Florence and I are going out to a fancy dinner, and maybe try to find some fireworks somewhere.

Love from Italy!
Happy Birthday America!

...

I know, I know,Vatican Museums and pictures... honestly I've been so busy and I don't think I'll have time to sort everything out here I might just post that stuff when I get home...

So instead, here's a stream-of-consciousness piece I wrote while sitting in Largo Febo contemplating the possibility of dinner...

I'm sitting in Largo Febo, wondering if I should eat dinner at St. Lucia even though I promised Mike we would go together this weekend, and watching tourist after tourist exclaim and snap photos of the ivy-covered facade of Hotel Raphael. The terrace of Raphael is too expensive (22 euro for risoto), otherwise I would eat there.

I'm watching a young woman wobble by in heels and I'm reassured about wearing my dorky Keens even while contemplating the wide-spread availability of cute sandals. I want to buy another dress (yes, another) and a cute pair of sandals, but I'm living on borrowed money as it is. The sales ladies here are not shy and will open the curtain mid-dress to see if everything is "ho-Kay, madama" no matter how many times you assure them it is.

A man with fake Coach bags draped over his arms wanders by and a woman is wearing a lace dress that I'm sure would be very attractive with a slip underneath, except that she's not wearing one and I've just seen more of her upper thigh than I would care to. Another, older, woman walks by with two women who I would like to think are her sisters. They are arguing in American Southern Drawl about which street to take and I'm reminded of how much I wish my sisters were here with me.

I have fallen head over heels for this city! I do not want to leave here, even though the nice waiter at the cafe, who asks me if I am lost because "it has been many times I have walked by" says that one of two months here is nice, but living here is hard. I want to sit and watch the beautiful women with their high heels and cigarettes carry their expensive designer lap dogs in their expensive designer purses. I want to plop down on he cobblestones right in front of a speeding Vespa and lay back and watch the Swifts chase each other through the fiery rays of setting sun, and eat gelato and drink wine forever!

I want to stay in Rome forever!
...

Yes, I am aware that this isn't the finest piece of literature. It's really cliche, actually. But that's OK because it's how I feel about Rome. Providing that I had the company of certain people and the luxury of a toilet with a seat, I really think I could stay here for a very long time and be quite happy.

Finally: St. Peter's!

I'm so exhausted I can barely write this, but I feel like I need to get it online before I forget everything. Today was our group trip to St. Peter's and the Vatican museums. I had never been inside before (having visited the exterior only once before), and I was in for a treat! Unfortunately I wore my "good" shoes (to be more respectful) and not my comfortable ones, and my feet are not pleased...

Asides aside, My favorite part of the Basilica was either the dome or Michaelangelo's Pieta (I was pleasantly suprized to find out you are allowed to take pictures anywhere inside the basilica). Unfortunately, the statue is behind a rope in a bulletproof glass box 5m away after someone attacked it with a hammer in the 1980's (?). It was still beautiful and awe-inspiring, nonetheless. (click pics to enlarge).

I also got to climb the inside of the dome of St. Peter's. (I should note here that I didn't get to, I paid 5 Euro for the "privilege". But why wouldn't I?! )

Here is a picture from the lower edge of the drum, on the interior of the church. It isn't very good because of the 1" metal mesh safety screen.




The stairs after this point are tiny and wedged between walls leaning at a crazy angle. This picture is taken parallel to the stair on which I'm standing. It was a little claustrophobic and, with my sense of balance, probably a little dangerous!

This picture is from the Verrry top, just under pinnacle swoop above the main dome, looking out over St. Peter's square. (Which, by the way, Dad, was designed by both Bernini and Michelangelo at some point...)

...aaaand here's me being a dork in St. Peter's square :)

I think the Vatican Museums deserve their own post, so I'll put more of that up tomorrow (as well as more pics on flickr if I ever get the chance!)

Ciao Vediamo, Buona Notte!