ROMA, GIORNA 3

The third day in Rome seemed like it was going to be a bit of a let down since our first stop was the MAXXI Museum that was built by Zaha Hadid. I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong about that. Sure, I don't particularly Hadid designs (I'm a minimalist, what can I say), but in the general sense I think that this building was one that actually was successful in it's uses. Hadid had designed it as the sort of urban liveliness that the neighborhood needed, while also designing one of her abstracted shapes to still fit within the city block structure. That's not the part that I find successful (it's a bit subjective). The first part that I found successful was the courtyard in front of the museum. It's a paved surface, open to the public, and since we were there on a Saturday it was in use! It didn't matter that it was a paved surface, the children were running all over, playing on the outdoor art installations, enjoying the open space. It's probably even better that the space was paved because we saw children riding their scooters and skateboards, which isn't safe for the children to do over here like it is back in the states. It's a rarity that a space like that gets used for its intended purpose, especially since it was fenced it. Needless to say, that left me impressed.  

The second part that I found successful was the interior of the building itsself. It's a very odd configuration with a series of floating staircases and bending walls, but in actuality, and this is purely my opinion, it got me moving throughout the museum. Not only because I'm a curious architecture student, but because it just visually did that. She didn't create complex viewing spaces, but ones that let you roam and then entice you on to the next. But unfortunately we didn't get to see the "best view" out of the large window jutting out of the facade, so we didn't get to see what the hype was about in its entirety.

I was only told after I took this picture that we aren't allowed to take pictures in the actual galleries. Oops. Also, if you decide you want to come to this museum  note that they have a free coat check, and if your bag is deemed too big by their standards (as mine was, grrrr) then you have to put a €1 coin in a locker to keep your bag (you get the €1 back once you're done).

After the Maxxi Museum and lunch we headed just a few blocks over to Music Park Auditorium by Renzo Piano. It was designed with three interior halls and one outdoor theater space. Honestly speaking, the interior music hall look like three beetles, and not the famous band (that's funnier when said out loud). I wasn't too impressed by our tour, mainly because the guide continuously referred to everything as "perfect", such as the sound and shapes and use of materials, but I had no way to verify so I was just in a skeptical mood the whole time.

I did enjoy the way that Renzo created fantastic views to the city from essentially every spot in the complex. I also very much appreciated the use of materials through out, such as the cherry wood for the interior wall paneling and the 2mm thick lead that made up the shells on the 'beetles'. The intense amount of details put into these three buildings is also something to be commended. One of the halls actually was designed so that the seats on the floor level in the center can be moved to accommodate any type of even. Each seat has it's own AC/heating unit (while still being portable), plus the seats were from a company that designed them so that they have the same sound absorbency/reverberation when left empty as when someone is sitting in them, so that the reverberation time for the whole room remains constant continually. Details like this are so important in architecture, yet in schooling we rarely have the time to get down to these details because of the semester time constraints and number of projects to complete. 

Regardless of my skepticism, the whole complex was gorgeous, and I wish I was able to see at least one of the halls in action to verify how "perfect" it's design is.

ROMA, GIORNA 2

Day two of our trip to room started on a very good note, with a free breakfast from the hotel that we stayed at. (Are you starting to see the theme of how happy food makes me?) We made sure to eat a lot and take some fruit with us so that we wouldn't have to buy lunch.

After breakfast we headed out to the Roman Forum, which is located at the center of the city and was the heart of the Roman empire during it's time. It's mainly ruins now, but we had a professor from our school, who is an expert on all things Roman, come and give us a tour around. If you're ever thinking of going to the Forum, I suggest that you either research it quite a bit before you go, go with someone who knows quite a bit about it, or go with a guide. Otherwise it will all just seem like piles of rocks and you'll miss the importance of the ruins.

This is an example of said "pile of rocks". Trying to figure this out would be like trying to finish a 100 piece puzzle with only 25 pieces.

When you first enter you will walk right past this jewel, which was being restored when we went, but it's super fascinating, at least to me. It was a temple at one point, with the open structure and the colonnade surrounding the perimeter, but when the Catholic church became a larger power in Rome a chapel was built within the confines of the temple as a sort of statement.

Old rocks excite me, like these ones, which used to be the dining hall (archaeologist think) of  Nero's enormous villa.

Speaking of old stones, these are the oldest in the Forum in the Hut Village, dating back to the 5th century BC. BC people. That's unimaginably old, and I could have just reached out and touched them. But I didn't. I like to keep what I call a "National Parks" mentality of "Leave only footprints, take only pictures".

Finally for the Forum (alliteration alert) we have one of two triumphal arches. It's hard to see in this picture, but if you look straight down the arch, you can see the Colosseum. And the Colosseum was our next stop.

We walked through the bustling crowds towards the Colosseum, and as soon as our professor Eugenio (whose head is shown here) stopped and we looked up, this was the overwhelming and powerful view we had.

After climbing the steps...correction, the Roman steps (they are incredibly high and I will have buns of steel just from the one visit), we are once again welcomed with a powerful and overwhelming view. A camera can't take in as wide of a frame as we were getting in person. It was  a lot to see, and I'm sure that feeling was just what the designers were going for. But I digress. 

Here is the classic close-up view of the ruins that would have been the staging areas for the animals and gladiators. Fun fact: It also housed the rooms that the trap doors, located all over the battle area floor, lead to. Another fun fact: the wooden floor that covered these rooms was covered itself in sand to absorb all of the blood and sweat from the "games". (I hope none of you are squeamish.)

   

And finally for the Colosseum, this was the gorgeous last view we had before exiting (finding the exit is a bit of a adventure by the way.)

After we were done at the Colosseum, our professor and chaperon gave us the choice of either going on our own because it was our free time, or hanging out with them in a less formal format and having them show us interesting places in Rome and just getting to know each other. So Rachel and I, and a few other girls, took them up on the offer. We learned from Beatrice where to get native Roman food called Tramenzzino, which we absolutely got later, and we headed off to the large national monument. After the monument, which I don't have fond memories of because a pigeon "relieved" its self on my head, we headed over to a square that I had studied in school, the Campidoglio. 

We hung out here and looked around the square for a bit before taking a more scenic route back towards the hotel, where Rachel and I split off in search of our Tramenzinzo. Once that was acquired we were in for the night, and our second day in Rome was essentially over.

ROMA, GIORNA 1

While here in Italy, one of our required courses is called "Reading Cities", and it's basically a course where we meet every Tuesday before a weekend trip, then proceed on said weekend trip to a beautiful Italian city where we get guided tours to all of their beautiful monuments and architectural sites. From there we're supposed to turn in a sketch book of about two sketches dissecting certain buildings we've visited and how they relate into the fabric of the city.

Our first trip was a four-day trip to Rome. This means we got to miss all of our classes on Thursday to take one of the nice high speed trains to Rome. So I'll be breaking this trip up into separate posts from each of the days that we were there, and I'll try to get them up as promptly as possible. Please bear with me as studio work and other class work is picking up, and I'll be writing late at night now, if I get the chance to write at all.
Now that I've made that simple PSA, back to Rome.

When arrived, we went to our hotel to drop off our luggage (because we clearly needed to bring a lot to last us through four days of Italian weather and mishaps), and then headed off to see the neighborhood and get some lunch.

Our hotel was right down the street from Piazza Navona that has the very famous Fountain of the Four Rivers. 

I remember reading about this during class, and I'm in awe that I got to stand in front of it.

We had lunch at a small restaurant, and when I say lunch I really mean that we had delicious pizza. It did come with a coke, so I was pretty excited because I haven't had soda since I've gotten here. It's the little things sometimes.

My lovely lunch pals. Pam and Theresa were there too, just beside me.

After lunch we had our first real tour of the trip, which was of the Vatican Museums. You may remember this name from the post I wrote about our fancy book signing and the free steak. It's the same museums, but we unfortunately did not run into the Father from that night. We did get a pretty neat tour of some of the museums. And I say some because the title is plural, and they mean it. There are loads of buildings in the Vatican complex and most of them are being used now as Museums. But I'll just stick to telling you about the main ones. The two main places we visited were the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. 

We had stunning views while walking from one museum to the next.

Our guide mainly talked about the frescoes on the wall, but I mean, look at this ceiling. That deserves it's time in the sun. Literally. Because it's gorgeous when the sun hits it.

Ahh finally, St. Peters. Get ready for the roof and dome shots. 

But before the dome shots, look at Michelangelo's work. Stunning. 

Ok, here are the dome shots.

And again...

Enough of that. I got to see the Baldacchino! I've studied this in both and art history and an architecture setting, so it's a twice as exciting, right? 

I have plenty of pictures from St. Peter's, but unfortunately none from the Sistine Chapel because photos are forbidden in there. And for that I am really regretful, but I have a fun little surprise for you guys so that you can see the beautiful work done by Michelangelo, just as we did. Click here.

 

As we stepped outside, we were in the most incredible spot to watch the sun set.

But poor Rachel was a little chilly and tired. Can you tell?

So we set off to our hotel room to get off of our feet and work on our studio precedent studies late into the night. Oh the exciting lives we live. Wait, we actually do right now.

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!