Wishful Thinking....

After Italy (well, more towards the end of the Italy trip) life started to pick up, and my undivided attention was needed. Since my last posting I have completed my undergraduate degree (magna cum laude!) and have moved up to the city in order to pursue my dual masters in Architecture and Urban Design. The first semester was a tough transition from working at an amazing firm to a scholastic atmosphere with copious quantities of reading and the push to further my design to a new level, while simultaneous trying to figure out what urban design even is.
With that being said, I made it. And while doing so I have made a swarm of new friends and have been provided some amazing opportunities. These new opportunities, as well as many of the changes in life, have inspired me to start this blog up again. Instead of it simply being a way to communicate with friends, family, and the random reader about my time in Italy and it's architecture, my hope for this space is to really begin writing; about architecture, about the architecture school mentality, about the new things I experience...Ultimately, I want this to be a blog that evokes thoughts or conversations. I know that I will essentially be writing this to myself, but I think I need this blog for that reason as well. Also, I know that the format and layout is a mess, and I hope to address that as soon as I can as well...

We'll see how much I am able to actually keep up with this, but there is already so much that I've missed sharing that I want to share. Hopefully having actually written and posted this I will be motivated to follow through.

Cheers.

MY ENCOUNTER WITH ITALIAN HOSPITALS

Ahh. I wish I didn't even have to write this post. Partially because I wish that the occurrence never happened, and partially because I feel like I've creeped enough people out with my description of the event.
So here is your final warning that if you're squeamish, maybe stop reading here, it may get slightly gruesome.

Here goes nothing. Tuesday night my roommates and I got home from a very long day at school, with the thoughts of a very long night ahead of us lingering on our minds, because we had our final sketchbooks due for Reading Cities that coming Thursday. After making dinner I decided to clean up the dishes a little bit, so that we wouldn't have to do it later when we were totally exhausted (plus it's actually become a very relaxing practice for me). In our apartment we like to save as much as possible and reuse what we can, so we reuse jars a lot. My roommate had used one earlier in the day to take her lunch to school, so it needed washed. I was simply going through my normal washing routine and put the sponge into the jar, fut what fingers I could in with it, and was sweeping around when I looked down and saw that I was bleeding in between my pinky and ring fingers. I took my hand out of the jar and looked at the rim, which was no longer smooth but quite jagged. I looked back down at my finger and saw that it was bleeding quite a lot. I took a closer glance and saw it was also quite deep.
From there I was just thinking "Great, this is going to ruin my whole plan for the night."
I called my roommates, although I didn't quite know that to say so it sort of came out as "Shoot. Umm, guys, this isn't good."
My one roommate Rachel glanced over and cringed. My other roommate, Christian, happily rushed to her room to get her first aid kit. We got it rinsed off, got my butt into a chair, and Rachel was doing her best at holding some gauze in between the two fingers while applying ample pressure. Meanwhile Christian had been appointed the one to call for an ambulance, her Italian being better than Rachel's and all.
This is where is starts to get interesting.
They didn't pick up.
We were given a list of numbers to call in an emergency, and not one of the picked up.
So after getting in contact with some of the awesome people who work at our school, Rachel and I ended up walking to the Emergency room that was a few blocks away.
We had initially thought to handle it by ourselves. Even though we had a lovely lady, Beatrice, who is on-call 24/7 by the school to help us with situations like this, we were hoping it'd be an easy enough process that we wouldn't have to drag her out of her house at 10pm.
But we ended up having to be jerks and making her come down.
The ER's in Italy are just unrecognizably different from those I'm used to in the states (and yes, I can say that I'm used to them since I've been in them several times in my childhood. Klutz syndrome.) There was no one to be found, no one came up to us as we wondered in, but plenty of people staring at the doe-eyed and clearly confused English-speaking girls.
We decided to wait outside in the fresh air for Beatrice.
As soon as she arrived, the rest of the process was quite smooth. They usually rank you on the level of urgency, but it wasn't super busy that night and I'm fairly certain that Beatrice played my injury up slightly, so I got in right away.
They took off the gauze and disinfected the wound. And since I had said that I wasn't entirely sure whether or not there was still glass in there, the doctor had a bit of fun (and by fun I mean not for me) squishing the cut all around. Coming to that conclusion that it was probably clear, they then told me that I wouldn't be getting stitches, but they were going to use glue instead. My haunch is that because the cut was through the webbing of my fingers that they couldn't stitch it and gluing was the easier option. Either way, it was a pretty quick process.
Rachel made more grotesque faces pointed towards my hand, the glue stung a bit, I said things poorly in Italian, and the whole thing was over. I was just directed to keep the butterfly wrapping on for the next 7 days, to keep it out of water, and I was done.
We were given a piece of paper with a barcode on it and directed to a machine outside of the ER in order to pay. Now, when we travel abroad with my university we are required to buy insurance, which we were also told would cover our trips to doctors. But unfortunately nothing in Italy is that easy. Since my trip to the ER only cost €26 I was required to pay. But if the bill had reached over €30, my insurance would have covered it. I'm not complaining (too much) because I had the money and my hand wasn't falling apart anymore.

And that was basically my encounter with the Italian health system. I've had a few set backs in the healing of my hand since then, but at this point it's looking pretty good. Unfortunately it set me back in a lot of my school work, since architecture classes are almost all hands-on, thus my absence on here updating you guys. And I fear that it's only going to get worse, what with only a few weeks left of classes leaving me with finals and final-production. So you all may or may not get my spring break update before I get home. I also want to update you all on my studio project, but what I want to do and what I have time to do are often two separate worlds.

Anyways, sorry for my extended absence and sorry in advance for the absence that is bound to come. But thanks for all of you that stick with me!

VENEZIA, GIORNA 2

Our last day in Venice was, in my opinion, the best one. Why is it always the last day that seems to be the best? Regardless, it was a great day, which started off with us going to the Punta della Dogana.

Punta Della Dogana is a building on one of the points of the island that has been around for centuries. I was occupied and not occupied for years, until the Francois Pinault Foundation acquired it had Tadao Ando renovate the space to house contemporary art. Only the inside was really changed, with the exterior being kept more original than the contemporary style the interior was transformed into. 

Before we went in I got to snap a few picture of the awesome view this building has. The point may have given it an irregular shape, but I think the scenery makes up for it.

And I took some shots from the interior as well.

Being the typical architect, I asked Rachel to stand next to the "hidden" door for scale. Typical Italian hobbit door.

I call this room the "Indiana Jones Room" because of all of the crystal skulls...get it?
Fine, I'm not funny. But I'm keeping the name!

So the conclusion of the visit to Punta della Dogana is that the weird contemporary art work distracted me a lot from seeing Tadao Ando's design, but from what I remember it was pretty decent. But really, some of the art in there was just too weird.

So after we were done in there it was free time until we had to catch a train back to Florence. Rachel and I took this time to "lost" in the city (that's how the tour guide from the first day put it.)

Right when we started to "lost" we saw these guys pulling a Miss Congeniality and playing songs on water cups.

We honestly walked around an entire half of the map of Venice. It was exhausting but also wonderful.

One of the places we found was this "ghetto". Barbed wire and all it seemed a little sketchy, but most of this city can since it's entirely pedestrian and there are a lot of tiny alleyways. So I don't know the story of this place, but this is a good example of how much we "lost".

We even found a really empty church, entered on a whim, and found this beautiful little cloister.

We had basically walked from one side of the city to the other, and we could see the ocean! Well, it leads out to the open ocean.

From there it was basically the end of our trip, and thus the end of our reading cities trips. They were amazing in both a learning and tourist setting. Our teacher and chaperone we the greatest people ever to have on these trips, and I'm going to miss them so much (and seeing as I'm writing this post weeks late I can say that I already miss them). So a few of us got to take pictures with them.

It was great, they were great, these pictures are equally great. 

Ciao to Reading Cities!

VENEZIA, GIORNA 1

The first day in Venice started out a bit chilly and a bit hazy (literally, so don't get any ideas), but there was hope fun sunshine later on so I think we were all in high spirits. That and we could smell the ocean. 

We started off the day with a walking tour through most of Venice, but not hitting any of the touristy spots, which I was alright with since I'm trying to study architecture and not tourism. Of course we hit some regular tourist spots, it's a bit inevitable in Italy, but we didn't stay too long in those places.

This was the first view we had on the Ponte dell'Accadamia, spanning one of the main canals in Venice. Even with the haze it gave me excited jitters.

We had to move through the city pretty fast to follow our guide, but not fast enough that I couldn't creep on my friends. 

Back to serious architecture things, ergg! Our first real stop was the Querini Stampalia Foundation by Carlo Scapa (you guys will definitely get a comprehensive education on Scarpa from this trip). It was basically a palazzo that Scarpa edited so that when the waters raise too much, there is still a raised pathway to walk on. It also the creates an entirely different space within the building, since you're essentially forced onto this pre-determined island.

This is a view of a set of actually functional (at one time) doors, so a boat can pull up right to the palazzo and you can enter or exit. 

Next we stopped in Piazza San Marco on our way to the Olivetti Showroom.

Despite the signs to not feed the pigeons, people were taking picture with pigeons on their hands. I cannot even begin to tell you how gross that is. Yucky. (can you sense my distaste for pigeons?)

The Olivetti Showroom is yet another masterpiece of Scarpa's, done for the Olivetti typewriter company. We studied this building heavily in History of Architecture, so getting to see it was awesome and yet slightly disappointing. It's definitely a much smaller space than it seems in photographs and we technically weren't allowed to take photos but I was a bit past following the rules. Plus I had already gotten off about 15 shots before they even said anything, so their loss.

Scandalous photo.

After the showroom and more walking through the crowed Venice streets we hit a dead end where a gondola company is situation so that we could cross the canal to the fish market. I was pretty excited because I didn't want to pay a lot of money for a private gondola, but at the same time it's Venice and you basically have to ride one while you're there.

Needless to say, the view was gorgeous. But I wish the guy sang or something (too touristy? a girl can dream)

Once we reached the other side it was free time for lunch. We found a really inexpensive place right by and chanced it on the food, which turned out to be amazing!

Then Rachel and I each bought an apple from the market and spent the rest of our time in the sun and by the water.

Next we left the main part of Venice and road one of their waterbuses over to Giudecca, where it's significantly less touristy and more working class. There we saw the Redentore Church by Andrea Palladio, a huge name in architecture. 

It was cool, but I feel like the name impressed me more than the actual church. But then my feelings could have been influenced about the structure for other reasons, such as having to pay to enter...

After that we went to our final destination, also in Giudecca, that turned out to be one of the most architecturally and overall depressing places, strictly in my own opinion! To me it just seemed like an architectural graveyard. And the lack of people outside definitely contributed to this effect. But I enjoyed some of the more modern structures; it was just so barren and sad looking.

Maybe our professor and chaperone felt it to, because they bought us all caffe afterwards!

This clearly made Megan happy. Well, that and she shouldn't be given caffeine.

It was a bit of a long day for us, so we decided to treat ourselves with gelato. It didn't turn out to be that great, which just gave us the excuse to get more later on in the weekend. When in Venice, right?

VERONA

Our final Reading Cities trip took us to two cities this time, making sure we got our fill of Italy's finest architecture. Our fist day was spent in the lovely city of Verona, where we were able to soak up the great weather and great architecture simultaneously.

We started our day at Castelvecchio, which is known essentially for the incredibly and very different renovations that Carlos Scarpa made in order to turn the castello into a museum.

I feel like some buildings get a lot of hype because of who the architect is, but I think this one actually lives up to all of that. It could just be that I enjoy his almost minimalist style (and I say almost because he puts way too many details in to make it look so simple), but I think that this transformation really creates an experience and not just another building. As you walk through the building you are taken outside at several points, and these outdoor areas are absolutely gorgeous. It almost feels like an interactive museum than just a stoic and stationary, standard museum.

But then again Carlos Scarpa was insane and did 636 sketches just to figure out where to place this statue.

I don't usually get creeped out very easily, but this painting definitely did it for me.

After the Castelvecchio it was a relaxing lunch by the river, where Rachel and I sprawled out on a bench and attempted to soak up some sun (me laying there praying I wouldn't burn). Then after lunch we headed off to another very important Verona landmark, the Arena di Verona.

No, it is not the Colosseum, but it was built by the same people. In fact, it was built before the Colosseum; about 50 years before to be more precise. And unlike the Colosseum, this amphitheater is still in use today.

It's third ring of walls fell down in an earthquake and this is the only one left standing. They call it the "wing". Cute.

When we actually entered, we could see how it is still a completely functional space still. There were metal seats installed in the lower sections, and there was a crew working to set up a temporary stage for whatever concert was going to take place there later in the week.

After that we were free for a little while until we had to meet back up and catch our train to our next destination, Venice! So to pass the time we went with out professor to "Juliette's house". I use that name very cautiously because this area is literally just a ploy for tourists to get them to come and possibly spend some money. This obviously wasn't Juliette's old house. In fact, it used to be an old factory. Sorry to squelch the romance for any romantics out there, but you ought to know.

They did put in a little effort and add a balcony that you can pay and go up to so that you can get a picture like Juliette. (I'm sure this became way more popular after that movie Letters to Juliette.)

Regardless of how I feel, the place was swarming with people and couple putting their love locks on the gate or going up and touching the breast of the Juliette statue (which is supposed to bring luck. How? I'm not sure. Has anyone pay attention to the morbidity of that story? Who was lucky?)

After that we took a slightly more scenic route back to the bus stop, and from there headed to the train station, and even further to Venice.

MILANO, GIORNA 3

First off, let me sincerely apologize for having disappeared for the last week or so. Mid-crit production was tough as usual, and I wasn't able to get this last day of Milan up before the madness hit. And then right after our mid-crit's I was whisked off for school again. I have yet another busy week before me with some mid terms and then spring break, but I'm hoping to be diligent and get all caught up on updating you guys here. 

Alright, now to the last day of Milan. We had even less planned for the day, with our schedule consisting of just one building for the day, leaving the rest of the day for our own explorations.

Also, thumbs up to Milan for having a vending machine for books and slightly restoring my faith in this generation.

So after another short metro ride, we walked through the larger of the two public parks in the city, and ended up at la Triennale di Milano. It is yet another piece of fascist architecture in Milan, but despite its form it houses contemporary and modern art/exhibitions. It's layout is pretty simple, taking the form of a stadium, and allows plenty of room for temporary exhibits to be shown. We went into one such exhibit that was about food, which I thought was pretty appropriate considering our studio projects are gastronomy centers. And then I was scolded for pictures in this exhibit, but to my defense they used bubble wrap as ceiling decoration. They were just asking for it.

Although I wasn't too fond of the exhibitions in the building, I did like the upstairs and this simple little bridge (that we weren't allowed on. Frowns.)

Then it was time to do whatever we wanted (to some extent) until it was time to get the train back to Florence. Rachel and I hung out and waled around the large park for a bit with our friends Megan, Pam, Theresa, and Forrest.

It was the only sunny day we had in Milan and this park was a great place to soak it up.

Even the turtles were sun bathing. I can't really blame them, and if I wasn't a ginger I'd be tempted to have the same pose.

After breaking off from the group, Rachel and I decided to just get lost in the neighborhood and see the architecture. We both thoroughly enjoyed the architecture and layout of the city and we just wanted to see more of it on our last day. Needless to say, we definitely accomplished this goal.

This road was gorgeous; from the facades, to the bends in the road, to the regularity of the trees, it was lovely.

All it would take would be a glance down a side street and you'd get to see a funky or interesting building that sparked an interest in you. I'm not even a fan of colored buildings, but this one had awesome forms, and the green roof was a soft spot for me (no pun intended).

I'll just spam you all with pictures of the buildings that I saw and loved. Maybe I'll add some text in here and there, but don't get too excited. Just scroll through and appreciate how awesome Milan was.

Honestly, I know this building doesn't look like much, but it really was stunning in person. And the wooden sliding shutters...oh I died and went to heaven.

Whoever lives here definitely wins the award for having the best shutters. Just an observation. 

And that was essentially how Milan ended, in this beautiful iron cage of a train station.

MILANO, GIORNA 2

Our second day in Milan had a much less packed schedule, but it was raining all that much more.

We ventured out in the morning to Cenacolo Vinciano where we got to see The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Yes, we saw the real painting (well it was restored technically, but still) on the real wall of the church. It wasn't much of an architectural venture, but it was still really beautiful and amazing to see. Plus, Rachel and I had fun using our new skills from our Italian Art class to figure out who was who in the painting.

After our reserved time at the Cenacolo Vinciano, we headed over to the Castello Sforzesco, which was a medeival castle that was restored by BBPR into an Ancient Art museum. (Note: the Sforzesco family are the ones who comissioned da Vinci to paint The Last Supper.) It was very interesting because though parts of the Castle were restored, and it's not even as large as it was in it's prime, the building its self becomes a piece in the exhibit, while also housing historical pieces. The way that BBPR chose to display the pieces was also very interesting to see. I very much enjoyed the blending of the ancient art within it's original context while being displayed in very modern fashions.

This tapestry display is a great example. It would have been hung up against a wall originally, but BBPR created this stand to hang it in the middle of the room, out of it's context but still within it's context. It certain grabs your eye and allows you to really get to see all of it. 

I also really enjoyed their intertwining of modern pathways through the structure.

Those two places were our only scheduled visits, but we also decided to collectively got to Santa Maria presso S. Satiro, a church well known to us architecture majors. What makes this church so special is the fact that Bramante was able to take such a small space and make it seem so much larger with his illusion that makes the t-shaped church appear to be a latin-cross church.

As you enter, you can see the fake archway, and it admittedly looks very convincing, even when you know that it's not real.

But if you go off of the central axis that illusion is shattered.

Once we were finished at the church we were on our own to explore Milan however we wanted for that day. I chose to go with a few people to the Andy Warhol exhibit. It's a showing of a private collection, and since my friend from home is absolutely in love with Andy Warhol, I decided it justified going. I think some of his work is hilarious anyways, even if it isn't meant to be funny (that's my prerogative anyways).

After standing in the freezing cold and pouring rain for at least a half an hour and having to pay €9.90 to get in, I would almost say that this awesome umbrella stand makes up for it. Plus is was free. Along with the headseats we got to use (seen below) to take us through the whole exhibit.

I only got away with taking two shots in the exhibit before I got yelled at. One was the one you see here of Rachel and I, and the other one I'm keeping to myself (who knows if it'll come up on Google and I'll get sued. Eh, I'm not risking it) (I also got scolded quite a few times on this trip for taking pictures in places I'm not supposed to, but they don't put up clear enough signs, so I'm not apologizing for it. It's all because of who owns the rights to the works anyways.)

We spent a significant amount of time going through this super large collection of Andy Warhol works, and in the last room was his silk-screens and personal renditions of The Last Supper. I thought that was a fitting way to wrap up the day.

So we trudged back to our hotel to dry off and warm up.

Here's just a little fun picture to allow you to see how much it rained there that day. The tram lines even flooded.