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.

MILANO, GIORNA 1

Ahh finally, the Milan update. Hopefully no one in the other group reads this because I don't want to spoil the fun for them. 

Milan started out as another early morning and high speed train ride. Instead of having a bus take us to our hotel, we got to use Milan's fantastic metro system. It looks relatively similar to New York's subways, but it was definitely cleaner looking and smelled a lot less like urine. Over the next few days, I would become very familiar with this metro, because Milan has a totally different urban fabric than the other cities we've been to before.

So after arriving and dumping our stuff at the hotel we headed off for the city center, which was only about 20 minutes away from our hotel.

The first thing that I had noticed when we were walking to the center was that there is a lot of foliage happening on the buildings in Milan. And it's purposeful, as can be seen in the picture above (no, not Eugenio's beard, behind that) and it's wonderful.

Then as we continued to walk down a street filled with shops (much to expensive for me to ever dream about entering) I could suddenly see the outlines of an airy, enormous structure. And then it clicked, that was the Cathedral of Milan.

Even the back (apse) was gorgeous, with its flowery stained-glass windows. 

Since it wasn't raining we were able to do our scheduled visit to the terraces. After about 200 loving steps. 

Fortunately the view from the top was absolutely breathtaking and more than rewarding. So now I will just spam you all with snip-its of the beauty atop this Gothic masterpiece. 

After we spent a very sufficient amount of time on top of the Cathedral we actually went inside. Unfortunately they don't allow pictures unless you pay and get a wristband, so since I'm a struggling college student I think you can all forgive me for not having any pictures of the interior. You all know how to use Google anyways. 

Following the Cathedral, our next stop was the building just next to it called the Museum of the 20th Century. It was once a Fascist building that was transformed into a museum. It houses contemporary art, and well as being renovated in a contemporary style. I very much enjoyed the renovations done, but the art...well that's a completely different story.

I even enjoyed the exterior look of it, even through my dislikes of Fascist architecture.

This main interior ramp that takes you to the gallery was also quite beautiful, and maybe a little Guggenheim-esque.

Although some of the art was useful for selfies. *walks away in shame for this picture*

We took a lunch break after the museum, and then reconvened for our tour of the city center. It started by visiting the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Even if you don't recognize the name, you'd recognize it through images. It's filled with shops even more expensive than I saw before the Cathedral, but surprisingly it also houses a lot of charitable organizations, though those are on the top floors.

The architecture of this space is stunning, and if it wasn't so cold, I'm sure my senses would have been tricked into thinking that I was actually inside a building, instead of an outdoor space.

From here, our guide took us to many different locations, some simply on busy street corners. These chaotic locations and the added fact that it was raining pretty heavily didn't allow me to take copious notes or photographically note all of the places that we visited. But it was still an incredibly informative tour. When we initially stepped out of the Galleria we immediately entered another piazza that was explained to have just recent been pedestrianized, that is to say that no cars can drive on the road-like areas. Our guide then posed us the question: how much of a city can be pedestrianized before you kill it? Just something to think upon.

Another interesting point that he brought up had to do with the bombing of Milan during WWII. Although it is a somber thought, the fact that parts were bombed brought about great opportunities for architects. This really made more and more sense as I spent time in Milan, since it is a much more modern city than any in Italy that I had been to yet. And I couldn't help but also be glad for the modern buildings and what they have done for the feel of the city.

UPDATE : super quick edition

Hey family and friends, I've been in Milan all weekend with no internet access (they wanted €3 for 2 hours! preposterous!) so I haven't been able to get any sort of posts for that started. I'm also at a tricky part with my studio design and am a little stuck on that, plus our mid-reviews are coming up next week. So if I don't make a break-through in my thoughts for my design the Milan posts may not be up for a while. But have no fear, I am alive and well and loving everything here. And of course for my family I am always reachable by phone (since I actually have wifi here). Thanks again for all of your patience!!

SIENA

I see my posts getting less and less frequent, and being posted farther and farther after things happen. That's the problem with being as busy here as I am back at home. I even forgot to tell my family that I went to Siena this past weekend, which could have been bad if it wasn't a day trip with my Reading Cities class.

So we went to Siena on Friday with both sections of the class so tour around the city for the day. We had another one of our professors from the school come along to disperse his knowledge among us.

When we first got there we past by a ledge that was supposed to give you a view of all of Siena, but unfortunately it was extremely foggy (a situation that made all of the professors crack up). The fog wasn't much better in the city either. 

You can see the effects of the fog at the Palazzo Salembini (above) and the Palazzo Pubblico (below).

Fortunately the sun was coming out and quickly cleared out the fog. So while that whole scientific process was happening, our workout was starting. Oh, I meant to say we climbed to the top of the Torre del Mangia (the tall tower you can see as a shadow in the fog).

The staircase was very spacious, as you can see, and was very gentle to my claustrophobia. But honestly, it was a little tight at places, and going down was way worse than coming up, but it goes quickly and I don't think it's an opportunity to be passed up. Therefore everyone should climb it if they get a chance.

Just look at the rewarding view from at the top. I could literally see the fog dispersing from the city. It was like something you'd see in a sci-fi movie.

And of course it gives you a great view of the Piazza del Campo. (I'd love to have this view during the horse races in July.) 

*Note* Please be prepared for the copious different shots of the Cathedral. It's a basic fixture that you can always find in the city from the bunches of high places we went to. I'm not even sorry. It's gorgeous. 

And then I'm going to say that the thin air got to us, because we started to get a little silly. I present Megan's "smolder" as exhibit A.

So we tried to convince Rachel to smolder for my camera, but she clearly wasn't having it and just laughed at us.

Back to intelligent things; the building in the middle of the shot above is the only one whose facade is still what it originally was, which fit the laws that were put in place for the buildings surrounding the Palazzo to match it's facade.

Fun side-note (sorry intelligent things) there is confetti on the ground always. Why? I guess all the cool kids would know (so you're all out of luck here).

When we climbed up what would have been the facade of the Cathedral, I thought that this was as high as we could go, but we found stairs that took you right to the tippy-top.

Just for scale, so you can see the cozy size of the halls and staircases we were going through. Plus Megan is just lovely.

From that very top position you can see the city like you would on Google Earth or on a map. It was unreal how perfectly you can see how the city works when you're only seeing the roof forms.

Those little specks down there were the first half of the group that already went up the facade. 

After everyone went up and had their fill of the heights, we finally all entered into the Cathedral. I won't post any more pictures of the interior so I don't hurt everyone's eyes with all of the stripping in the interior, but I will give you a classic dome-shot.

After the Cathedral and lunch we entered the building directly across from the Cathedral, that was once a hospital and has now been partially turned into an archaeological museum.

Just passing through the building to get to the archaeological museum you are immersed in the archaeology of the site its self. Take this hallway for instance; it was once the 'covered road' that brought all of the supplies to the hospital but also to the city as a whole.

And then I of course dropped my lens cap, again, and almost lost it forever under the flooring. But I think the Italians chivalry is rubbing off because Aaron saved it for me (just kidding, he's always been a sweetheart).

The set up of this museum is basically an insert into the building. So we can walk through the space and experience it, but never actually physically touch it (unless you have to rescue your lens cap). It's a great way to allow visitors to view the space but also to preserve it.

This display case is a great example of how the museum works. It's also clearly a new addition, and this contrast between new and old is carried out through the whole design to further draw attention to the historic portions. 

Honestly, I just found this display case of old coins really cool. It was basically the only light in the room, and ramps down with the room, creating a great visual experience that pulls you in and allows you to casually experience the coins.

After the museum we were supposed to straight to the Palazzo Salembini, the oldest currently in use bank, but we were forced to wait outside for about an hour or so until our guide was available. The sun was setting and I had just wanted to get home to my gelato so I was a tad bit grumpy about staying and not just skipping the place all together. But after going in and seeing it, I'm definitely glad that we did. My gelato wasn't going anywhere anyways.

This gorgeous view is from the courtyard at the back of the building. You can see the reflection in the windows of the sky, which can give you a sense of the clear view of the city that one can get from those windows (which was the intention).

One of the biggest points of this building is the staircase that was added in its renovation in the 20th century. If it reminds you of the Geuggenheim then you get it. IT was definitely inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, but that's not the part that I found the most amazing. The exterior is composed of wooden glu-lam's, and the stairs themselves are concrete. And, you can kind of see it in this picture on the right, the underside of the concrete has been textured to emulate wood. It was so convincing that some people had to reach up and touch it as we were climbing the stairs, just to confirm.

This ceiling was in one of the main rooms that looks out onto the city and where larger, more important meetings would have been held (and probably still are held since it's still in use).

And then to cap off the day, we were allowed to go all the way up onto the roof, where we not only had another great view of the city, but we also go to see the most mind-blowing sunset. 

Thanks once again for bearing with me and my lazy posting practices. I will hopefully keep this pace, and not get any slower as the semester progresses and my work increases. Ciao!