Once again, apologies for the delay - this time it isn't travel that is holding me up - its work! We have less than three weeks left to crank out our project before displaying it for artsy folks, our clients, the city officials, Peter Greenaway (a famous film director), and many local architects. If time permits, I'll blog more about that under the project section.
But back to the story - Venice!
So we get to Venezia in the morning by train. Luckly, our hostel was already booked and close by San Marco. Grabbing tickets for the water bus, we headed around the island to our stop, passing by multi-colored boats, rows of houses, warehouses, and two huge cruise ships. Arriving back on land, we wound our way through a series of alleyways and small roads to the address for the hostel, only to find ourselves in front of a worn, old, and kinda sketchy building. A small sign next to the door first caught our eyes, saying that the key was in a hotel back down the road. Trekking back through the maze, we found the hotel up a very narrow and steep staircase, and found that some of us would be staying there, while the other half of the group would head back to the other building. I was one of the group staying there, so I dropped my stuff off, collected my camera, my pencil, and my sketchbook and head across the nearest canal in the direction of of Piazza San Marco where we would meet Tom, our professor. Meeting up with him after a short detour for panini and gelato, we proceeded to wander, sketching San Marco, then headed off to find the holiest of the holys - a Scarpa project. Scarpa taught a school in Venice and redesign the schools' entrance. After gawking and sketching for a hour around the school's entrance, we crossed a Calatrava bridge, another architectural beauty. We had a hour or so break on our own, so I took advantage of that time to get completely lost in a series of small alleyways and arched bridges over canals. My friend who'd accompanied me and I were so successful in this endeavor that we had some trouble finding our way back to the Piazza - only to bump into the group on our back. We then all traveled to another Scarpa project down another series of alleyways, however, this one wasn't as impressive, since it was closed. But we did have some fun taking pictures of the bridge to the project. I'll be excited to go back with the Rome program when, hopefully, the actual space will be open.
After our exciting time with the bridge, the group split up, with some of us going on another water taxi around the island, others going back to San Marco. I decided to go with a handful of others on an adventure to find cheap wine and our way back to the hostel. It had cooled off that afternoon and by that time dark clouds spoke ominously of rain. We ended up meeting half of the group back at the canal in front of the hostel, only to find that they had similar success with finding vino. Did I mention it was fourth of July and thus a proper excuse to drink excessively? Oh, well we certainly proceeded to fulfill our American duties. With three bottles passed around about 10 of us, we stood on the bride, looking down the canal to the horizon, where a great thundering storm cloud slow grew and approached us. Before we knew it the lighting was upon us and wine in hand, thunder clashing, we patriotically began singing the national anthem. Fireworks for the fourth? Try a thunderstorm in Venice. Just after completing our beautiful tribute to our home country and looking like stupid tourists for the local on-lookers, the rain hit, and hit hard, with a group of us running back to the hostel, while others when for a walk in the rain. Now, typically I would be more than ready for a good run in the rain, but being the end of our trip, I was out of clean close and on top of that, my shoes just broke that day, so rain + big hole in shoes = soggy shoes for the next two days. But at least I wasn't the only one to stay in. About five of us cracked open another bottle of wine and played a few drinking games, turning the one bottle into about four by the time the rest of the group arrived. Needless to say, I wasn't in the most coherent mindset at that point, but I was getting tired and was walked home by a two of my roommates. No doubt I slept well that night and was lucky enough to wake up the next day without a hangover and ready for our epic pilgrimage to Scarpa's ultimate project - the Brion Family Tombs.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Verona - Continued
As the crowd along the outer rim of the arena shuffled restlessly waiting for more news about the weather, another announcement came on saying the weather was looking hopeful, but they needed more info from the weather station. The crowd busted into cheers. Then the most American thing happened - people all around the ancient stone arena began doing the wave. After about 5 times circling around the old oval stadium, the wave died down, but the image of the event was firmly planted in my head. Laughing to myself, I settled back just in time to hear the announcement that the show would continue. The first act finished rather quickly, with a ten minute intermission (seemingly pointless) following. The second act, sadly, put me to sleep, as it was already almost midnight. Waking up each time to clap before falling back asleep, the second act didn't really penetrate my closed eyelids. By the time the intermission after the second act rolled around, I was definitely ready to head back to the room to sleep. Yet from the insistence of one of my classmates who needed my key to get into the apartment, I stayed. In the end, I was glad to stay and see that last act. The conductor of the pit orchestra was very exciting to watch, with his exuberance almost greater than the actors. Finally, I was able to get to bed around 1 o'clock, ready for Venezia (Venice) the following day.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Back to Storytime
Hello all again -
Sorry its taken me so long to continue my story of our last trip - I've been super busy on all of the trips we've been going on now! We spent the weekend exploring Ticino, the Italian region of Switzerland. We saw some cool Botta houses and my new favorite castle, which had an intervention by Swiss architect Galfetti. Good times. But, before I get ahead of myself, back to Verona!
Verona -
We arrived in Verona early in the morning from Milano as a small group of seven, all of us needing a place to stay for the night. Heading straight for the info booth, we were able to not only find a place for our group to stay the night, but it was cheap, beautiful, and right in the center of town less than a block from the grand piazza. Awesome! Its was definitely our easiest and best Ostello story. After getting to the apartment, dropping our stuff off, and paying up, we grabbed a bit to eat at the near by pizzeria. I had the best pizza with anchovies and capers. Perfecto!
But the pizza didn't even compare to where we went next - Castelvecchio. Only one of the holyest meccas for modern archtiects, this masterpiece was my first Scarpa. Carlo Scarpa, for those of you non-architecture nerds, is one of the greatest designers to live in the 20th century. His total design approach creates spaces that are hand crafted down to the smallest details, like a doorhandle, with each turn opening up to a different, unique glimpse of something beautiful and spectacular. What makes Castelvecchio so amazing is that it is a intervention of a 14th century (or before) castle. By carefully and delicately placing a new architectural language through the castle, the lines between old and new, modern and classical, detailed and master-planned, become skewed, creating a total experience that both accents the castle, the art it contains, and the intervention that facilitates its uses. Just jaw-dropping. One life tip - go see Castelvecchio. Its well worth it.
Hell, just go to Verona! Its an amazing town. After seeing Castelvecchio, we broke down the big group into smaller groups, generally based on which hostel each group was staying in. However, this breaking of the group lead to chaos. One of our professors, Enrico Como, wanted to take us to another Scarpa Project, Banque Populare, but my friend Kyle and I were behind the group and managed to walk all around Verona without finding the group or the bank. We did manage to find Juliette's house (from Romeo and Juliette), but of course it was closed by the time we got there. After walking the senic route back to our Ostello, we realized that we would need to hurry to get into the long line to pick up tickets for the opera that night. Quickly racing back to our Ostello, we bumped into a few other companions who teamed up with us in our quest to get tickets before it was too late.
We managed to get our tickets with little problem, but the next challenge was to find dinner that would be fast enough to still give us time to get to the performance. With only 45 minutes remaining, we were cutting it pretty short (remember, Italians don't eat fast, or cook fast for that matter). We managed to find not only our professors at a local bar, but also the bank we had missed before. After a few minutes of gawking, we ordered some pasta, ate, and left just as swiftly as we had arrived.
Let me describe Verona and the Opera a little before I go on. Verona is a fairly small town that was originally surrounded by walls and though most of the wall is gone, the city still fits primarily within its boundaries. The small town is centered around a grand piazza and the giant opera stadium contained within it. An old colosseum, the Opera is a stunning piece of architecture as well as an amazing venue for the opera. On the opposite end of the piazza, a large row of restaurants open out into the public space, behind which shops and gelatorias flourish. Our Ostello was along one of the smaller roads branching off from the piazza, only a two minute walk from the center of the action.
The Opera we witnessed was Aida, a tragic lovestory between an ethopian slave princess and an egyptian commander. But the story was not really my reason for being in the opera. The space itself was. Between the shifting weather around and the people watching, I was more entertained by what was going around the stage than on it. As the last rays of light drained from the sky, the opera proceeded into a full cast number, which suddenly caused the audience to become a sea of flashing lights as cameras went off with great gusto. It was quite a sight to see. However, it didn't last long, because before the lead got even half way through her next solo, rain halted the entire show as the orchestra ran indoors before their precious instruments got wet. Another interesting people watch experience as the entire crowd rose in a loud grumble and began flushing out of the oval space. Hope was not completely crushed, however, as a voice came over the loud speaker, saying that weather reports we being analyzed as a break in rain would mean the continuation of the show.
Sorry its taken me so long to continue my story of our last trip - I've been super busy on all of the trips we've been going on now! We spent the weekend exploring Ticino, the Italian region of Switzerland. We saw some cool Botta houses and my new favorite castle, which had an intervention by Swiss architect Galfetti. Good times. But, before I get ahead of myself, back to Verona!
Verona -
We arrived in Verona early in the morning from Milano as a small group of seven, all of us needing a place to stay for the night. Heading straight for the info booth, we were able to not only find a place for our group to stay the night, but it was cheap, beautiful, and right in the center of town less than a block from the grand piazza. Awesome! Its was definitely our easiest and best Ostello story. After getting to the apartment, dropping our stuff off, and paying up, we grabbed a bit to eat at the near by pizzeria. I had the best pizza with anchovies and capers. Perfecto!
But the pizza didn't even compare to where we went next - Castelvecchio. Only one of the holyest meccas for modern archtiects, this masterpiece was my first Scarpa. Carlo Scarpa, for those of you non-architecture nerds, is one of the greatest designers to live in the 20th century. His total design approach creates spaces that are hand crafted down to the smallest details, like a doorhandle, with each turn opening up to a different, unique glimpse of something beautiful and spectacular. What makes Castelvecchio so amazing is that it is a intervention of a 14th century (or before) castle. By carefully and delicately placing a new architectural language through the castle, the lines between old and new, modern and classical, detailed and master-planned, become skewed, creating a total experience that both accents the castle, the art it contains, and the intervention that facilitates its uses. Just jaw-dropping. One life tip - go see Castelvecchio. Its well worth it.
Hell, just go to Verona! Its an amazing town. After seeing Castelvecchio, we broke down the big group into smaller groups, generally based on which hostel each group was staying in. However, this breaking of the group lead to chaos. One of our professors, Enrico Como, wanted to take us to another Scarpa Project, Banque Populare, but my friend Kyle and I were behind the group and managed to walk all around Verona without finding the group or the bank. We did manage to find Juliette's house (from Romeo and Juliette), but of course it was closed by the time we got there. After walking the senic route back to our Ostello, we realized that we would need to hurry to get into the long line to pick up tickets for the opera that night. Quickly racing back to our Ostello, we bumped into a few other companions who teamed up with us in our quest to get tickets before it was too late.
We managed to get our tickets with little problem, but the next challenge was to find dinner that would be fast enough to still give us time to get to the performance. With only 45 minutes remaining, we were cutting it pretty short (remember, Italians don't eat fast, or cook fast for that matter). We managed to find not only our professors at a local bar, but also the bank we had missed before. After a few minutes of gawking, we ordered some pasta, ate, and left just as swiftly as we had arrived.
Let me describe Verona and the Opera a little before I go on. Verona is a fairly small town that was originally surrounded by walls and though most of the wall is gone, the city still fits primarily within its boundaries. The small town is centered around a grand piazza and the giant opera stadium contained within it. An old colosseum, the Opera is a stunning piece of architecture as well as an amazing venue for the opera. On the opposite end of the piazza, a large row of restaurants open out into the public space, behind which shops and gelatorias flourish. Our Ostello was along one of the smaller roads branching off from the piazza, only a two minute walk from the center of the action.
The Opera we witnessed was Aida, a tragic lovestory between an ethopian slave princess and an egyptian commander. But the story was not really my reason for being in the opera. The space itself was. Between the shifting weather around and the people watching, I was more entertained by what was going around the stage than on it. As the last rays of light drained from the sky, the opera proceeded into a full cast number, which suddenly caused the audience to become a sea of flashing lights as cameras went off with great gusto. It was quite a sight to see. However, it didn't last long, because before the lead got even half way through her next solo, rain halted the entire show as the orchestra ran indoors before their precious instruments got wet. Another interesting people watch experience as the entire crowd rose in a loud grumble and began flushing out of the oval space. Hope was not completely crushed, however, as a voice came over the loud speaker, saying that weather reports we being analyzed as a break in rain would mean the continuation of the show.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Ciao Tutti
Hello all -
Sorry to take so long to blog again, we've been traveling around northern Italy for five days now and just returned to our peaceful hill town in Switzerland. I haven't appreciated the tranquility of our small ostello as much as I do now. I've very tired to say the least and also very excited to share my adventures with all of you. The towns we hit this long weekend were: Milano, Verona, Venice, and Vicenza.
Milano -
To sum up Milano - hot, humid, sweaty, and way too much walking. Don't get me wrong, Milano is a great city. However, the pace of the day combined with the humidity and a few complications made the day too long and painful to really appreciate the city. We saw an amazing old castle - Castello Sforzesco - which was partially designed by Leonardo Da Vinci during his stay in Milano. Then we went to Il Duomo. This Gothic cathedral seemed almost like a Gaudi, with ornamentation literally dripping from the building. Clad completely in white marble, it was really quite a sight. Inside wasn't as structurally elaborate as the other catherdals I've seen, like Wren's St. Paul or St. Eustache in Paris. However, Il Duomo di Milano was quite dramatic and theatrical, with elaborate alter frames and huge paintings and frescos of past cardinals and biblical stories. To me it weakened the space, but I'm sure it held quite an important teaching potential from the massive amount of images. Next to Il Duomo, we stepped into La Galleria - the first glass covered shopping plaza in history. The elaborate ironwork in the trusses combined with the early industrial ornamentation in the space made the place breath-taking. After seeing an exhibit about Leonardo, I got the chance to see one of his best known works - The Last Supper. House in a temperature controlled vaulted space, the painting lay on the far wall and seemed almost alive as the reverberation of the tourguide's voice covered the space in a blanket of noise. What a eerie experience - eerie in a good way though. Then to a bar for dinner. They have the coolest system in the Milano bars! For 8 euro, I got a beer and as much food as I'd like from the best Italian buffet ever. They had everything from bruccetta to paella, cut fruit to fried chicken and potatoes. What a meal! We ended up sitting aroung for hours, just chatting and enjoying the first breeze all day.
The tour de force of the Milano experience happened after dinner as we tried to find our hostel. We had gone along one of the small canals in town to watch the world cup game in a floating bar (in an old tug boat docked to the canal wall). Before we knew it, Ghana was up and we only had half an hour to get all the way across town to get to our hostel before the 11 o'clock curfew. We quickly booked it over to the nearest metro station and tried miseribly to find a tram that would take us into the northern part of town called Greco. After finally finding the tram stop and making our way up the tracks, it slowly dawned on us that the Greco wasn't the prettiest part of town and soon, became a little sketchy. At this point, our group was only 6 out of the 23, as everyone had split at different times to the osetllo. Our group had received directions from another classmate, however, the directions were lacking between when we got off the tram and when we arrived to the ostello. After walking about a mile in the wrong direction, we decided to stop and turn around. At this point, it was half past midnight and after starting at 7 in the morning we were all exhausted and walked out. Yet we pushed on, finally getting one of our groupmates to find a map on his blackberry. After taking a left, a right, another two lefts and a right, we wondered down the alley only to find our entire group sitting out in front of the ostello. Picture it - 23 Cal Poly students, completely covering the front door steps of this tucked away hostel in the bad part of town, sweaty, dirty, dying for a shower and a bed, and all ready to be done with Milano. It turns out, the people staying in the room we were assigned the night before had completely destroyed the place, leaving us without a place to stay. Luckily, the ostello owner had a brother who had a hotel on the other side of town that had enough room for all of us. So at 1 in the morning, all 23 of us made our way back to the tram to get back across town. With some classmates passed out in tram seat, others drinking cheap wine (which in Italy is DELICIOUS by the way) and saying they want to go home, and others of us too tired and sweaty to do either, we made are way to the other hotel. We finally got our rooms around 2 in the morning and luckily, this hotel was quite an upgrade - for only 11 euro! And they had a shower - never has a shower felt so good. Ever. Period. The next morning we were off to Verona and unfortunately (well actually forntunatly, but I'll talk about that next), since I was in the group without a pre-planned place to stay, I had to catch an 8:30 train to find a place to stay. But I was too tired to think of how early the next morning would start - it was time for bed.
Verona -
To be continued...
Sorry to take so long to blog again, we've been traveling around northern Italy for five days now and just returned to our peaceful hill town in Switzerland. I haven't appreciated the tranquility of our small ostello as much as I do now. I've very tired to say the least and also very excited to share my adventures with all of you. The towns we hit this long weekend were: Milano, Verona, Venice, and Vicenza.
Milano -
To sum up Milano - hot, humid, sweaty, and way too much walking. Don't get me wrong, Milano is a great city. However, the pace of the day combined with the humidity and a few complications made the day too long and painful to really appreciate the city. We saw an amazing old castle - Castello Sforzesco - which was partially designed by Leonardo Da Vinci during his stay in Milano. Then we went to Il Duomo. This Gothic cathedral seemed almost like a Gaudi, with ornamentation literally dripping from the building. Clad completely in white marble, it was really quite a sight. Inside wasn't as structurally elaborate as the other catherdals I've seen, like Wren's St. Paul or St. Eustache in Paris. However, Il Duomo di Milano was quite dramatic and theatrical, with elaborate alter frames and huge paintings and frescos of past cardinals and biblical stories. To me it weakened the space, but I'm sure it held quite an important teaching potential from the massive amount of images. Next to Il Duomo, we stepped into La Galleria - the first glass covered shopping plaza in history. The elaborate ironwork in the trusses combined with the early industrial ornamentation in the space made the place breath-taking. After seeing an exhibit about Leonardo, I got the chance to see one of his best known works - The Last Supper. House in a temperature controlled vaulted space, the painting lay on the far wall and seemed almost alive as the reverberation of the tourguide's voice covered the space in a blanket of noise. What a eerie experience - eerie in a good way though. Then to a bar for dinner. They have the coolest system in the Milano bars! For 8 euro, I got a beer and as much food as I'd like from the best Italian buffet ever. They had everything from bruccetta to paella, cut fruit to fried chicken and potatoes. What a meal! We ended up sitting aroung for hours, just chatting and enjoying the first breeze all day.
The tour de force of the Milano experience happened after dinner as we tried to find our hostel. We had gone along one of the small canals in town to watch the world cup game in a floating bar (in an old tug boat docked to the canal wall). Before we knew it, Ghana was up and we only had half an hour to get all the way across town to get to our hostel before the 11 o'clock curfew. We quickly booked it over to the nearest metro station and tried miseribly to find a tram that would take us into the northern part of town called Greco. After finally finding the tram stop and making our way up the tracks, it slowly dawned on us that the Greco wasn't the prettiest part of town and soon, became a little sketchy. At this point, our group was only 6 out of the 23, as everyone had split at different times to the osetllo. Our group had received directions from another classmate, however, the directions were lacking between when we got off the tram and when we arrived to the ostello. After walking about a mile in the wrong direction, we decided to stop and turn around. At this point, it was half past midnight and after starting at 7 in the morning we were all exhausted and walked out. Yet we pushed on, finally getting one of our groupmates to find a map on his blackberry. After taking a left, a right, another two lefts and a right, we wondered down the alley only to find our entire group sitting out in front of the ostello. Picture it - 23 Cal Poly students, completely covering the front door steps of this tucked away hostel in the bad part of town, sweaty, dirty, dying for a shower and a bed, and all ready to be done with Milano. It turns out, the people staying in the room we were assigned the night before had completely destroyed the place, leaving us without a place to stay. Luckily, the ostello owner had a brother who had a hotel on the other side of town that had enough room for all of us. So at 1 in the morning, all 23 of us made our way back to the tram to get back across town. With some classmates passed out in tram seat, others drinking cheap wine (which in Italy is DELICIOUS by the way) and saying they want to go home, and others of us too tired and sweaty to do either, we made are way to the other hotel. We finally got our rooms around 2 in the morning and luckily, this hotel was quite an upgrade - for only 11 euro! And they had a shower - never has a shower felt so good. Ever. Period. The next morning we were off to Verona and unfortunately (well actually forntunatly, but I'll talk about that next), since I was in the group without a pre-planned place to stay, I had to catch an 8:30 train to find a place to stay. But I was too tired to think of how early the next morning would start - it was time for bed.
Verona -
To be continued...
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