LARGO

Largo, in Italian, is a word that its self doesn't quite know the meaning, just like the largo that I am in the process of designing for my studio class. It is mainly just a large space that most would then just classify as a piazza. Except that it's not used as a piazza, or really at all. And thus our task. 

The project we've been assigned for this semester is to re-design the Largo Annigoni and also add (and design) a Gastronomy Center to the piazza. Site analysis for this project was crucial since we know nothing of the culture of the area or how it really works. And the very in-depth (and I'm serious about in-depth, we had to create an entire booklet) made sure that we were well versed with the area and the problems that we would have to find solutions for to make it a workable space.

Site analysis was the first step, and next we are into an in-depth version of precedent studies. Since we are designing two portions to the piazza, both types of projects we are unfamiliar with, we have to find our own successful piazzas and city buildings that can be related to our project constraints and conditions. These individual precedents are also going to give our teachers a sense of our styles and  stylistic eyes, since we're also unfamiliar with each other. 

Even simply the set-up of the studio is unfamiliar to me. Our University implemented inter-disciplinary studios for the architecture and interior design programs during the first year, but those started the year after mine. For the first time with our Florence program, they've also introduced inter-disciplinary studios, one of which I am in.

New city. New language. New studio.

Wish me luck!

A BRIEF TRIP TO NARNIA

...essentially.

This past Saturday, my roommate Rachel and I decided to make the short 2 hour train ride to a small town called Castiglione del Largo. Since it's primarily a vacationing spot, it was pretty barren of tourists, so we got to see it in it's natural beauty. And the day couldn't have been any more perfect for this day trip.

I'm not going to bombard you all with more pictures of the countryside, mainly because there weren't many good shots since we were in tunnels literally cutting through mountains most of the time. But I did get my first glimpse at snow capped mountain. The skier side of me squealed a bit.

It's not the best shot, but I think you all get the point.

Basically what we did all day was wonder around the city and marvel at how absolutely gorgeous every inch of it was.

We did stop and eat lunch at this small shop, in the part of the town walled in at the top, that had some absolutely delicious food for only €1. If you ever go there, find this place. And some of the workers there speak English, so they're very accommodating.

The rest of the time there we explored the city, and we wandered around it's massive tree grove. They had a little path, that was barely visible, but it took you down into the grove and away from the main paths.

 It was really a quaint, intimate, little place that we found. And then while wondering through these trees, we stumbled upon one lone light post. Rachel and I both stopped and giggled because we were both thinking of Narnia and the light post where Lucy met Mr. Tumnus. Which is also ironic because in the entry to our apartment there is a tiny boy statue that we've nick-named Mr. Tumnus.

Tangent aside, the scenery was gorgeous. And right behind the lamppost was a walkway that took us down towards the lake.

This is the view we had when we reached the bottom and looked back up at the fortress. 

This was our close up view of lake. I don't even need to say it, but it was stunning. 

And there was no one around so we kept our tradition of taking selfies in front of the places we go to visit. We were incredibly cold, so forgive us for how our faces look. 

THERE IS SUCH AS THING AS A FREE DINNER

My roommate, Christian, came home one Sunday after going to mass with some friends, and approached us about an event she was invited to. It was an supposedly a lecture on art in the vatican museums by a father who works in the Vatican and recently wrote a book about some of the art pieces and their religious relevance. Since I'm not only a Christian but an art history major also I was pretty interested, as was my other roommate, Rachel. The only stipulation was that we had to dress well. Christian had brought nice clothes, but Rachel and I hadn't, since we packed what we'd normally wear during a semester. So when the day of the lecture came around, our outfits were a bit...interesting.

We got there when the invitation had prescribed, but the first hour or so was essentially mingling time, and we didn't know anyone except a fellow architecture student who came by himself. So we entertained ourselves by reading the literature provided about the author.

Let me now explain a little more about what the event actually was. Sure, it was a lecture, but it was also for the "patrons" who are people, mostly from the US, who donate money to help restore the art in the Vatican museums and get special benefits for it such as this exclusive lecture (we had our names on a list and everything). We were even informed that we were currently in the previous residence of a former pope.  

There was also a fancy professor man who gave a lecture in Italian and then the father translates for us.

All in all it was a very interesting time.

Oh wait, the food. Ah how could anyone forget?! The even had been catered and we stuck around to see if the food after the lecture was any different from the food before. It was all served finger-food style, but it was beyond delicious. They were even handing out steak! There was also an open bar, but who cares about that when there's steak?!

Essentially I finally got my authentic Italian meal from a top-class chef, and it was free.

And then as we were leaving (the coat check gentleman put my coat on for me. *Swoon*) we decided to play around with the gigantic mirror installed at the base of the stairs that does a convincingly good job at creating the illusion of a larger room that is actually present.

I call this "Selfie Generation", although no one took selfies better than kings.

UPDATE

It's been almost a week since I've last written on here, so I figured I'd catch everyone up on what my week's been like.

So since my one and only Monday class was cancelled last week, I had it for the first time this week. Needless to say I'm super excited about that class. It's called Video, Media, and Architecture and it's essentially about how architecture can be showcased, explained, or displayed in different media forms. My teacher seems super passionate about it, which helps get me excited about it. Not to mention the first lecturer (we have a lecture series here that we're required to attend, but I'd still probably go because these professionals are going to be amazing) is an architect who turned...director? He makes a lot of videos about architecture now. I'm pretty excited to see what he has to say. I hadn't even heard of videos being used instead of renderings before coming here, so I'm really grateful for this experience.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, my day without any classes. I woke up early to do some laundry since it wasn't supposed to rain that day. And my roommate was going to put in a load after me. Because of that I decided to use the setting on the washing machine that excludes the last cycle that essentially just spins the clothes. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT LESSON FOLKS. Do not do this. Ever. I opened the door once my clothes were done and water came just pouring out. So I got to spend most of my morning moping up the floors and wringing out my clothes. At least it didn't rain.

We also stocked back up on groceries that day, which made me super excited because I'm really enjoying cooking for myself here. My roommate Rachel and I are always asking each other "What are you making for dinner tonight?" It's like a therapeutic relaxation time for us.

After Thurdsday classes it's the weekend here. So after dinner I went next door to my best friends apartment and we had Megan and Lizz night. If you have not seen "Just Friends" starring Ryan Reynolds, I suggest you do, and listen carefully to even background music. Because it's utterly hilarious, and not too cheesy at all. I repeat, this is not a chick-flick. Men can watch.

Then this morning we "slept-in", which was about 9:30/10 because who wants to waste time here by sleeping. Then Rachel and I set off on a mission. 1. We desperately needed to get here some waterproof boots; her poor feet have been suffering in rainy Florence since we got here. 2. I wanted a new satchel/bag as a souvenir and because mine broke.

The first place we went was the market by our architecture site. We wanted to compare prices for veggies and fruits that we buy, and just to look about. But we ended up buying other things. I was able to snag a pair of wool knee-high socks for only €3, while Rachel finally got a pair of slippers, which she had been yearning for in out apartment. Then we say a stand that had €1 shirts, so of course we couldn't pass those up. We each got two, which are in the wash as I write this because we're so excited to be able to wear them! Then I found the perfect bag at a stand (that literally only had male clothing items and bags; if you know me, this isn't surprising at all) that was only €35, which is really good for a quality bag here in Italy. But at this point we still hadn't found Rachel a pair of boots that she liked and that we inexpensive.

So we then headed to a part of town we had only briefly explored to buy groceries. It was loaded with shoe stores, but most of the boots were bedazzled or €50+. To add a bit of perspective that, it's about $75. So we kept walking, and finally stumbled upon a store with minimal bedazzling and shoes for €20 max. We actually found a pair of fully non-bedazzled boots and called it a day.

It was only 12:30 and we had a pretty successful morning. I'd say we're using our long weekends well.

Later tonight we're going to an architecture lecture, that I may or may not write about later. And then tomorrow some of us our taking a day trip, so you will all be well informed on that as soon as I can catch my breath this coming week.

I also hope to write a bit about what my studio project is specifically so that I can update properly on my progress. So, that should also be up shortly. For now, back to photoshop.

Ciao!

LEARNING THE ITALIAN BUS AND TRAIN SYSTEM...I MEAN, TRAVELING....

How many of you are excited for this one? Any one? Bueller? Ok cool, here goes.

So as I said in an earlier post, I was traveling outside of Florence this weekend for the first time. On Friday I went with my two roommates to Pisa, and then on Saturday I went with one of my roommates and three other friends to "Volterra" (I'll explain the quotations in the post about)

Getting to Pisa we had decided to take the train; and because my one roommate wanted to try, we scheduled the train that would cause us to switch between trains to get to Pisa. Now, Pisa has two different train stations, so I chose the station that was closest to the Piazza del Duomo (that's the big area where the leaning tower is for those of you non-technical termed folk). Little did I know that this station was a bit...how should I say this...janky. Regardless, we got to Pisa just fine, train switching and all, and head off to find the complex. Here are some pictures that I took, uber tourist style, of the train and ride into Pisa.

That's one of my roommates, Christian, on the left. Our train was actually pretty nice. 

 Finally leaving the station! 

Seeing the cities from outside of them was just so beautiful.

 Fortunately the station was literally right down the street, and it was a short walk. Unfortunately it was pretty much pouring. But most of the things that you would look at in Pisa are indoors. So as soon as we got there we headed for the ticket office to find out how much it would be for the museums and such.

They actually offer a pretty sweet deal for 7 Euro that gets you into two places of your choice and then the Cathedral. So we chose the Fresco Museum and the Baptistery. We hit up the Fresco Museum first, because that was attached to the ticket office. It contained the old frescos that (and this is just the jist of what I got) were all around the cemetery complex. A lot of the time the fresco was worn away, but I felt like that revealed some of the most interesting parts because when the top layer is worn away you can see the charcoal outlines of what the artist had originally done or test-sketched. It tells a lot more than just their final painting.

I also just found the building these fresos were housed in to be super interesting.

I tried to get all artsy with this shot.

So after we marveled at the frescos for a while, and I enjoyed the people being torn apart in the judgement fresco scene, we headed over to the increadibly monstrous and absolutely gorgeous Cathedral. And this was the first thing I noticed when I stepped through the door.

I mean, look at that ceiling. 

And this ceiling.

And this ceiling too.

This one too. But also the incredibly gorgeous pastel-like paintings that adroned the walls. I was taken aback as an art-history minor. My jaw dropped. Literally.

I just.....Do I even need to speak about the beauty of this?

And then the architect in me marveled at the groin vaults. The engineering in these things are fantastic. And they're so beautiful too.

This was outside the Cathedral looking up. The colonade was so beautiful, even under a dreary sky. 

Then we headed over to the Baptistery. It's a small building, but it's known for the domes acoustics. Not to mention it's yet another beautiful building, with great views, that probably gets overlooked because of the leaning tower. 

Bravo to whomever decided to add the lighting to the vaults like that. it was absolutely beautiful. 

And then we took this lovely dungeion-like staircase to the upper area, where we were lucky enough to hear a guard perform a vocal demonstation inthe center of the dome so we could hear the acoutsitcs of it.

Fantastic view from the top.

And there's the little nugget of the leaning tower. I, personally, was not all that impressed when I saw it. 

So after seeing everything, we still had super long before our train back to Florence, so we started off using our extra time to sit down and eat some good, authentic, Italian pizza in Pisa. We spend at least a good hour and a half in this small pizzeria, and still had time to spare. So we walked around the complex some more and then hung out in the Fresco museum and took advantage of the free video about the leanign tower of Pisa. Although the grumpy museum ticket man gave us some looks. I was cold, and wet, and going to utilize it as much as possible. So once the buildings started to close, we headed back to our train station and sat on a bench and read until our train got there. And that was basically the Pisa trip. I'd deem it a success because I very much enjoyed it. There isn't much to do there, and the people that work there are super grumpy, but there is no denyign the brilliance of the buildings there. 

The next day, we headed ona bus off to Siena. From there, we had heard that we would be able to get a bus to Volterra. But when we finally got to Siena and asked about the bus to Volterra (approx 11am) we were told that there wouldn't be a bus until about 1:40pm, and we may not get a bus back to Siena that same night. That was a tough blow for first thing in the morning. Thankfully, Pam had researched a town that was close to Volterra, and Volterra-like, called San Gimigniano. So we asked about that town, and luck seemed to be on our side! There was a bus in about 40 minutes that we could take, and buses were definitely coming back to Siena that same day. 

We bought our tickets, got on the bus, and were off to San Gimigniano! This bus ride gave even better views of the country-side than the train did. It was another gloomy day, but I did the best I could at capturing the gorgeous Tuscany expanse. 

This was one of my favorite pictures. I just love these trees, and I don't quite know why. 

The town was a walled-in fortress and once we stepped through the entrance, this was the quaint view that we saw.

Do you see that well in the center of the plaza? I was joking about them buring witches at the stake there, but this town had TWO torture museums, so I'm going to assume that I was pretty spot-on. 

LOTR: The Two Towers....Just kidding.

When we got to high enough points in the city and could step outside the walls, we were greeting with incredible views like this. They were mind-blowing and no picture could ever entire capture the beauty that we saw. 

So after eating some more delicious pizza, and wondering around a the souvenir shops (because the real shops were to expensive for us to even dream about) we were hoping to catch a 3:40pm bus back to Siena, so we could catch a 5pm bus back to Florence and be home in time to cook dinner and rest before church the next day. Unfortunately we read the schedule wrong, and since it was a Saturday the buses were running less. It was about 4pm and the next bus wouldn't come until 7:40pm, and even then we wouldn't get back to Siena in enough time to catch a bus to Florence for the night. It was cold and rainy and we couldn't just sit outside until 7pm anyways, so a few of us headed back into the city to talk to the lovely people that the tourist agency and figure out our best options. Fortunately the people there are super helpful and lovely and told us an better route to a different city, where we could then take a bus straight the Florence. The best part was that we could use the two return bus tickets we had already purchased. And within another 40 minutes we were on a bus headed back towards a bus that would take us back towards home. 

It is now well noted that trains can be planned in advance to outlying cities much easier, and that if a bus is cheaper, times and alternate routes should definitely be well researched. 

Then today, Rachel and I braved taking a Florence city bus to check out another church. It was later concluded that this was by far the simplest means of transportation to non-walkable areas. By far. 

Either way, I consider our traveling a success. We didn't die, get lost, or stranded. We got to see some amazing things, and just experience life a bit more. And I'd say we all gained a little bit of caution and felt the need for better planning. It was good to get the kinks out of the way while being not too far from our homes. 

HOW TO NOT ACCIDENTALLY BLOW 30 EURO

The weekend is quickly approaching, and with that brings the possibility of traveling. Not wanting to waste anytime, my roommate and some friend decided to make some trips to places close to Florence, as some sort of test-runs. We decided to just travel Friday and Saturday (since our school is super awesome and doesn't have classes on Friday for travel purposes), but our friends decided to skip the Friday plans because of the rain we're supposed to get. But my roommate, Rachel, and I are still determinded to head out! We fear no rain!

**Note I'm not putting names of places before we go there because this is the internet and there are creepy people lurking. Our family and school will only know beforehand. Pictures after the fact will clearly state where we went**

Rachel and I spent all last night researching the best ways to get to our two destinations, and set out today with an agendy. That agenda was originally mainly for finding art supplied stores around Florence, and a little bit of getting travel details situated. We needed to get bus tickets for the Saturday trip, and a train ticket for the Friday trip.

So we read that you buy bus tickets at any of the serveral Tobacchi shops around the city. After not finding any of the art supplies stores we were out looking for, we found ourselves outside of a Tobacchi shop and decided then was as good of a time as any to go inside and brave our minimal Italian vocabulary to buy tickets. The gentelman working inside was super nice, his english was good enough (he drew pictures when he couldn't think of the word) and after just a few minutes we found out that we had to go to the train station and find the bus ticket place by some big stone stairs (can you guess what he drew?).

That was no problem. We were planning on going there to get tickets for the other trip anyways. So we set of towards the train station. We saw buses entering and departing everywhere, but we didn't see anything that was about the specific line we needed, or that even sold bus tickets to places outside of Florence. We eventually got frustrated enough that we just ended up using the quick ticket machines to buy our train tickets. That process was super easy and successful.

With the confidence from that flowing through me, I approached a worker and asked where the ticket station was for our bus line. She seemed to know exactly what I was talking about and directed me simply "left and then right".

Cool! So simple!

Or not.

Her directions took us outside the other end of the train station where Rachel and I finally found the large stone steps we were directed to before. From ther we could see even more buses coming and going, so we figured that we were in the right direction.

But the only bus building we could find was for a different bus line. And I'm telling you, we looked hard. We walked EVERYWHERE. So we caved and decided on more awkward Italina-English interactions and walked into the wrong bus place and asked for the proper place. The lady here spoke excellent english and was again super helpful (most of the Flourentine people are) and simple directed us to "cross the street and second building on the left".

Once again confience was coursing through our veins, so we set out again, sure that we'd find the building this time! Unfortunately we jumped the gun on out exuberance and it took us a solid 20 more minutes to find the dingy other Tobacchi shop that sold the right tickets.

A few minutes and 31,20 euro later and we had a ticket there and back for Rachel and I.

Rachel, being who she is, was looking over our tickets as we walked away and stopped me. There was no date or tme stamped onto the ticket except for todays date. So we naturally started to panic that the tickets were date stamped for today and we could only use them today. And it didn't even say the name of the bus line.

I was hyperventillating to say the least. We supposedly just blew 30 euro and would then have to spend more to get a train and only spend a few hours at our destination, because clearly we weren't going to be able to find this bus line.

Seeing as it was already nearing 5pm and the rest of our day was a bust, we decided to at least stop by the school and find someone to talk to and see what we did wrong and what we should do instead.

The whole walk there I felt terrible for messing up, and kept telling Rachel that I'ld buy her the book we say in the vintage bookstore earlier (that place is amazing).

When we get to the school we were searching for who was still there, and found someone in the library whom I'd talk to before and who is always pleasant to talk to (though there isn't a worker there who isn't).

We started off by first asking if the line even existed, but as soon as we said the name of the bus, she immediately assured us that it was real. Then we showed her the ticket, and she so causally explain that we just go and validate them whenever we want to get on the bus and it would work. After quickly thanking her and scurring out of the library so she could get home, Rachel and I look at each other with the biggest grins possibly. Eyebrows raised as high as possible.

We did it right! It was the best thing to hear after walking around for 3 hours earlier (2 of them purely in search of these tickets) and thinking we had just wasted so much money.

With that weight off of our shoulders we were able to drag our aching feet home to finally relax and make outselves dinner.

Now we just have to get through all of our classes tomorrow an we'll be off on all new adventures!

Ciao!

SCHOOLED IN LAUNDRY

Today was the start of our classes, but not for this lucky lady. My only class for the day (which wouldn't have started until 3pm; goodbye 7:45am classes!) was cancelled for some unknown reason. So I'll just have to wait until next week to being studying video, media, and architecture.

My roommates and friends all started classes today, though. So I decided to get up at the same time as them and work on some necessary things while they were away.

First on my list was laundry.

Not only is the washer a completely different set up than the ones back in the states, but it's also in Italian, and has funky little symbols that are supposed to mean things.

I'm just thankful our apartment agency equips us with two different handbooks that help us work the appliances. That's probably more so they don't have to keep paying for washing machines broken by us silly Americas, but that's besides the point.

Once I had finally figured out which two slots to put the detergent in (yes, there are TWO slots, and even a third one for fabric softener) I kept on getting nervous because it was taking so long. Apparently it takes about 3 hours to do a load. And then you have to wait 5 minutes after that for the washer itself to decompress so you can open the door.

And then, as I'm sure almost all of you know, there is no dryer. Since we were blessed with an apartment that has a beautiful balcony, we were given a clothes line, but no indoor drying rack. This was a bit of a problem today since it was super chilly and not at all sunny. Since it's supposed to rain tonight an tomorrow, we were forced to improvise. We took down the line, strung it through our hallway, and hung what we could on it. And since we did a larger load we still had more. So currently we have clothes hung in various places all around our room, hoping that they'll dry eventually. But who knows, because our room is pretty chilly still.

The excitement for the day was getting our museum cards that will get us into almost any museum in Florence for free. The art history nerd in me is beyond excited! Especially since we live right by the museum that houses the David statue. We will be taking great advantage of our cards from here on in. Pictures will follow said adventures.

As for yesterday, we went to church twice: first was a morning Italian Catholic service in the Cattedrale di S. Maria dei Fiore (that's the Duomo). And then we went to an evening English Christian service. In between there we had quite a few hours to spare. My roommates and I decided to go explore some of the parks around our apartment, which ended up taking us towards the outskirts of the historic center. There isn't much else to say about it, so I'll just show you.

Florence seems to have a lot of Whomping Willows.

View out into the Tuscany Mountains (I'm assuming) 

Wee 'ittle 'obbit 'ouse

This river may have been small, but it certainly retained it's beauty (much like everything in Italy) 

I believe Rachel wanted to lay down in this hill indefinitely. It looked SO soft

We kept walking even closer to the mountains, and it got even more beautiful.

This little park seemed a little dingy too, but it had its jewels like the statue above and arch below. 

And this is what we got to walk towards as we trekked home before church again. 

I have my first official class stating tomorrow, and studio starts tomorrow as well. Wish me luck!

Ciao!