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I am going to be making my Italian Theatrical Debut this Thursday. I am a Roman Soldier in the local passion play here in Castiglion Fiorentino. This is my costume, but don’t worry there is a spear and a shield to go with it. Below you will find a group shot of my with the girls who are playing the part of townspeople.
We had practice last week, which turned into a comedy. There were several directors, one of whom kept on singing “Jesus Christ Superstar” every time we walked by. One of the other Roman Soldiers commented that their were too many cooks in the kitchen. So funny. This has been a great opportunity to meet some more of the locals. The language barrier is still an issue. It seems like there is always a lot of gesturing, and grunting. Go non-verbal communication! They invited us to dinner after the performance which I am sure will be wonderful. I am a little surprised that more people didn’t volunteer to participate, oh well. Gotta Make the most out of every opportunity. We go on at 9 pm. Wish me luck!
The title of blog is something Tony said to me after we both tried to relearn how to properly construct a one point perspective. Tony, I think you earned another potato chip for taking these picture for me. Thanks.
Today we helped unload 5 trucks full of pasta. It was bucket brigade style. We have to work to earn our keep around here.
Just to warn you now this is going to be a long post. If you just want to see some pretty pictures, I won’t judge you, but just skip to the end.
SPRING BREAK. . .
Tim, Aj and I leave the Lido (an island in Venice) at 6:25 am to catch a 7:40 train to Vicenza. We had to leave early because there was going to be a train strike. We arrive in Vicenza at 9 am, through a series of mishaps and missed buses we make it to the Villa Rotunda around 10:30, we sketch and document the building for the better part of an hour then head back to the train station to catch a 12:08 train to Verona.
Verona is a beautifully scaled city. They have some how modernized the city in a way to keep the medieval charm. Some streets were widened to allow 4 lanes of traffic, while other streets would remain narrow, and be reserved for pedestrians. In Verona we see a Roman Amphitheater, and the Castlevecchio Museum. Now on to Milan.
Milan. What is there to say about this place. It is beautiful. It is designed. The Milan Centrale train station is by far the most beautiful we have seen. Another reason why I love Milan. . . We were offered a free can of coke as we got off the train. We go to the Cathedral (which is a beautiful example of High Gothic architecture) and the Vittorio Emanuel Gallerie. We spend the night in Milan. Four cities in one day is absolutely exhausting.
Before catching our plane to Barcelona we go back to the Cathedral and Gallerie then journey to the edge of town to see the Fiero Milano (one of the largest exhibition spaces in the world.) We arrive in Barcelona and go to the Ramblas. This is an amazing boulevard full of activity at all hours of the day. The center portion of the street has been planted with trees and given to the pedestrian. There are little cafes and newsstands. Barcelona is full of life.
Our room is on the fourth floor, but it overlooks the Ramblas and we have a balcony. This is what we see:
- Caixa Forum (Done by Isosaki, Not Herzog and De Meuron. )
- Barcelona Pavillion (Mies Van Der Rohe)
- Botanical Gardens
- Park Guel (Antonio Gaudi)
- Forum (Herzog and De Meuron)
- Diagonal Mar
- Picasso Museum
- Cathedral
- Frank Gehry Fish
- Sagrada Familia (Antonio Gaudi)
- Casa Mila (Antonio Gaudi)
- Casa Botilla (Antonio Gaudi)
- Merecado di Santa Catarina
- MACBA (Richard Meier)
- Arch di Triomph
- Bridge by Calatrava
Our last night in Barcelona we ate dinner at an Irish Pub. Yes in Spain. They are actually quite popular. And of course it was called SCHILING’S. Cheap good Food. We ordered chips with Queso and Guacamole thinking we would get really good nacho cheese sauce. We forgot that queso is just cheese in Spain. It was great, but it was just some cheese sprinkled on tortilla chips with Guacamole.
We take a “Night” train from Barcelona to Madrid. We had heard that trains in Spain can be a little sketchy so we spend a little extra for the ‘Preferente’ class. We had to go through metal detectors and have our bags screened. We go to wait for our train and see these trains with little more than benches for seats. Are you kidding me? How am I going to sleep on that? Then our train pulls up the conductor tells us to go in the next car, and we find our seats in a private cabin designed for 6 people. The seats reclined almost fully into a bed. It was glorious. And so comfortable. They also had a snack bar in the next car, so we got a midnight snack before going to bed.
We arrive in Madrid at 7:15 am. I slept pretty well, but it is still early. We go to our hostel, and they let us check in immediately as well as give us free breakfast. Glorious. So far the trip has gone really smoothly. we never had to run to catch a train. We never got lost. We were able to see everything that we wanted to.
We go to see the Reina Sofia by Jean Nouvel and the new Caixa Forum by Herzo and De Meuron. They were both magnificent. We couldn’t find a good place to eat except McDonald’s. After we finish eating we get out our map and decide where to go next. All of the sudden Aj stands up and stares down this guy. He tried to steal Aj’s bag. Tim didn’t realize what happened and stood up also. Our hearts are pounding as the man runs out the door an across the street. That was our first close call. I could tell that Aj was a little on edge for a few hours after that. He said, “That guy had his hand on my bag. He had opened it and was ready to run with it.”
We meet up with my friend Jenn, who has been teaching English in Madrid since September, at the Puerta Del Sol. Which is not a gate it is more of a plaza. I really enjoyed the time spent with her, we were a little piece of home to each other I think. And we had our own personal tour guide.
We visit:
- Eco Boulevard (little bit more of an excursion than we thought it would be.)
- Mercado San Joseph
- Palacio Real
- Cathedral
- Plaza Mayor
- Plaza Santa Ana
- Thyssen Museum (had a wonderful Monet Exhibition)
- Retiro Park
- Crystal Palace
- Hexagonas Pavillion (a joke of modern architecture it was boarded up and falling apart. walked a mile through the ghetto/next to a prison)
- Matadero Madrid
- BiblioMetro
- Atocha Bombing Memorial
- Atocha Train Station (Rafeal Moneo)
- Olympic Tennis Stadium (Dominique Perrault)
- Usera Public Library (also a bit of a hike)
- American Hotel (Jean Nouvel)
- Puerta de Europe (Philip Johnson)
We get on a bus at 6pm on Thursday to go to Valencia for the Las Fallas Festival. We are staying with Jenn and some of her friends in a house outside the city in Buñol (where they have the giant tomato fight every summer.) The public transportation in Valencia is dumb. We wasted a lot of time waiting for trains that were late/ figuring out what train went where. We saw Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts and Sciences and David Chipperfield America’s Cup Grandstand. And then there was Las Fallas. It was crazy how many people were in the streets. There is another story about the last night in Valencia/ how we got back to Madrid. But I think I will save it for another time.
For now enjoy some pictures:
(I apologize for the delay in posting this, I will hopefully blog about Spring Break in the next couple of days as well.)
Venice. . .
A Private boat met us at the train station to take us to the Lido. (That is one of the neighboring islands.) Aj, Ian, and I were at a different hotel than the rest of the group. I laughed a little because some of them (who will remain nameless) were bragging about how nice their hotel was. We were going to meet them at their hotel, and we find out that there was no heat or hot water. I guess you win some and lose some. Both hotels were actually quite nice. We had a room that had two balconies, and overlooked one of the canals. The best part was that we had a normal size shower. (The showers at St Chiara are adequate, but not much more than 30 inches square.)
The weather in Venice was pretty nasty for the first two days, it snowed about 2 or 3 inches. Riding the vaporetto (water taxi) was interesting because of the weather the water was really choppy. I had fun, but a few people got a little sea sick.
We went into a lot of museums and churches because the weather was so bad. Most of the buildings had a rack or an area for you to put your umbrella. At the Stampalia Museum (by Carlo Scarpa) I left my umbrella by the door. Upon my return it was gone. . . I was pissed. I loved that umbrella. I got it for like $7, but it was really nice and sturdy. Gone. So somebody told me to just grab another one thinking that they had grabbed mine on accident. Sorry mom I may have took them up on their advice. I am currently borrowing a wobbly umbrella, and waiting for the opportunity to trade it for my own trusty black one.
Is it sad that one of my favorite parts of Venice was eating at a Chinese Restaurant?
The Last day we were there the weather turned out to be really nice. Here are a few of my experiences in no particular order. . .
We went to Regiros for pizza one night, and I wanted to order french fries, which are Patates Fritas. The waitress obviously did not understand me. She leaned all the way across the table and screeched,” HUH!?!?!?”
Spring Break is quickly approaching. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 7 am for Venice. The weather is not supposed to be very pleasant: cold, rainy, and possibility of snow. We will be there until Friday morning.
From there Tim, Aj, and I will be going to Vicenza, Verona, and Milan over the course of Friday and Saturday. Then we fly to Barcelona. We will be there until Monday, when we take an overnight train to Madrid. In Madrid we are going to be meeting up with my friend Jennifer ( who was been teaching English there since September). She will be our guide in Madrid, and she will accompany us on Thursday with some of her Spanish friends to Valencia for the conclusion of the ‘las fallas’ celebration. THINK carnivale with fireworks and burning the floats at the end. We end our trip on Saturday by flying back to Rome, and taking a train Sunday afternoon ‘home.’
I will be getting back to Castiglion Fiorentino the evening of Sunday 21st of March.
I will have access to a computer to check my e-mail and facebook, but I doubt I will have time to post much of anything. So I will leave your mouths watering for my next edition until then.
I hope all is well with you. I miss you all, and I can’t wait to share more of my travels with you upon my return.
So on Wednesday we went to Siena, and of course it was raining. The day actually turned out to be quite beautiful though. The rain stopped after lunch, but it was a little colder than it had been. We had the best tour guide for the day. He was quick and to the point, and allowed us to go at the pace we wanted to. No Andiamo or Rapido! Rapido! Did I mention that our guide was Tony? Sometimes I wonder why we are paying for guides when we have him.
Remember, NO hamburgers in the Cathedral!
We went to San Domenico which has Saint Catherine’s head and finger enshrined there. But as Tony put it, ” The rest of the church kind of looks like a barn.” I tend to agree, although it did have a pleasant simplicity to it. We then traveled to the corso (Via Di Citta Banchi ‘street of the city banks’) which is the main shopping street. It also houses the headquarters for most of he banks in Italy. (That is where Siena got its wealth from.) As we traversed down the corso we began to get glimpses of the Campo through arched openings in the urban fabric. And then it emerged mysteriously from around a corner in much the same way that the Duomo in Florence does. . .
The Campo was everything I had hoped for and more. It is one of the great urban spaces of the world.
Throughout history Siena has been in competition with Florence. After Siena completed there Cathedral they realized how much bigger the Duomo in Florence was, so they set out on a major expansion project that was never finished.
We found this sweet cafe that has an upstairs balcony that overlooks the Campo. I sat and sketched there for quite a while. As the afternoon started wasting away I decided to head back to the corso and wind my way back to the Medici Fortress where the bus would pick us up.
One quick note about the bus driver before I share some pictures. I think it was his first day. He did not know the way back, and either couldn’t figure out the defrost, or decided not to use it. It took us about a half an hour longer to get back because he had to stop and clear off the windshield, and call and ask for directions. A few curb checks and wrong turns later we made it up the hill to the Piazza Garibaldi in Castiglion Fno.
This weekend was great. We went to Lucca, Pisa, and Florence.
But first I have to say that I met the Mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino this past Thursday, and I was interviewed by the local newspaper. I am pretty much becoming a celebrity around here.
Friday was Lucca. We walked around with Tony in the afternoon, then climbed the Torre Guinigi, which was beautiful. The tower has trees on top of it and panoramic views of the city. Lucca was refreshingly authentic. Some of the other towns I have experienced have become ostentatious tourist traps.Lucca is a humble town with an amazing atmosphere. There are a limited number of cars allowed inside the Medieval walls. Most of the citizens use bicycles as their main means of transportation.
The main feature of Lucca is the fortified walls around the city. They are intact including remnants of the moat which once surrounded the city. The walls are wider than you would expect, and a linear park has been developed along its entirety. We rented bikes and rode around the walls early in the morning on Saturday before making a mad dash to the train station to catch the 10:40 train to Pisa.
Pisa and Lucca are stark contrasts in regards to tourism. It costs 15 euro to climb the tower. It is still striking in its placement within the walls and in a field of green grass. That tower leans pretty good, I find it odd that such an error in design has become so iconic. How embarrassing to be remembered best by your worst mistake.
The Cathedral and the Baptistery were also quite remarkable. Although the Cathedral is one of the only churches that had heat, and it was not well integrated into the design. You could see these hook shaped blowers dumping heat into the space along the second tier of columns. I sat and leaned against the Cathedral to sketch the leaning tower and before I knew it I had an audience watching me. I tried to ignore them until I heard a “Hallo” (no that is not a spelling error) This guy in an orange coat started talking to me. The interaction was welcome, but it was hard for me to continue as he and his friends were staring at me.
We left Pisa to meet up with some other people from K-state who are studying in Orvietto (which is about 2 hours south of Castiglion Fno.) They had come to Florence for the weekend. We met up with them for dinner, and to go to this disco-tech dance club. Don’t worry I did not embarrass myself too much. And remember that a disco-tech is just a club. I was disappointed to find that there was no disco ball or that particular music to accompany it.
Here are a few selected pictures of my journeys this weekend:
