Filed under: Studio Work
Here is my Folio submission for Siena Studio… hopefully everything works alright!!
Caitlin Palamara : Siena Studio Folio
Filed under: Newark, NJ
(I really wanted the title to say U.S.S.R. but I know that wouldn’t make any sense)
Back home!
The flight was long and a little boring, plus I was nauseous the whole time with a headache that wouldn’t stop. Wilson switched seats with someone to sit next to me, which was good since I hate flying (more specifically, takeoff and landing). A somewhat egotistic woman sat on my other side, and that was something I just had to tolerate (she was quiet most of the flight). I watched a ton of movies, attempted to watercolor (not enough light) and snoozed a bit.
Finally we landed (a bit bumpy, but it was ok). I was worried I might not be able to find my family, but also knew they would be doing something goofy. When we finally got done with all the official whatnot, we got ou to the waiting area. The first person we saw was Wilson’s mom, but right behind her were my mom and sister… holding a yellow sign that said “Welcome Home, Catalina!” that they decorated with patriotic stars and ribbons (left over from the fourth?). My sister made a necklace for Wilson out of one of the stars that said “Mi chiamo Wilson”. We got out of the airport, and immediately went food shopping. The running joke between me and my sister is that nothing of importance can happen in our family without my mother needing to go to the supermarket after. It wasn’t so bad, and the cashiers spoke English, yaaay!
New house
Then I got to see my new house (which also had a big yellow sign on it “Cait – Welcome back to the USA”). It’s very cute and small, I think it’s perfect for us. When I got in they had just done hardwood floors in the living room/ hallway, so all the furniture was kind of placed crazily in the kitchen (everything looks better with the furniture in place now). We’re slowly settling in — painting, fixing, replacing, planning. The cat is getting used to me again (she is a bit traumatized), I get brownie points for feeding her. Our backyard is very picturesque, with a set of stone stairs surrounded by ivy on a small hill with a tiny patio. Apparently our next door neighbor is a tiny old lady who speaks nothing but Italian, how serendipitous.
I am getting back into the hang of things, which is nice but also a bit sad. I have internet when I want, but still feel rushed to not waste time. I have about the same amount of things I left with… my life is in boxes, and I have no idea where my clothes are. Sleeping was a bit hard, and I woke up every three hours. I gave up at 6:30, and now it’s seven and raining lightly outside.
I’m beginning to work on my folio, which I am planning to make mainly for myself. I’m making a physical copy first and then going from there, if I make it all on the computer it’s going to look so ugly. I planned it out on the train from La Spezia, so I know what I need to do!
Filed under: Rome
Today’s the day! The very last day we spend in Italy. The last two days were a little exhausting, to say the least.
On Tuesday, we headed from La Spezia to Rome. The train wasn’t until 14:06, so we had some time to kill after our 11:00 check out time. We walked around for a bit in La Spezia, but it got too hot and we eventually headed to the station. Our train was a bit late, but once it got into the station we ran to carrozza 9, found our (corridor) seats, and sat down for a 4 hour ride to Roma Termini. It really wasn’t so bad… Wilson watched movies and I drew an napped a bit. When we got to Termini, we saw how truly huge it is!! The largest train station I’ve ever seen hands down. More stores and people than New York Penn. Totally crazy in there! We made our way to the Metro, hopped on Linea A and went to Garbatella, where the Hotel Derby is.
The Derby is where we stayed originally on this trip, and coming back here was a bit like coming back home. The people at the desk know us, the maid knows us, and they love us. We got a room with air conditioning this time, and a fridge! How nice! We went across the street for dinner, and it was a bit strange since they forgot us already. It just wasn’t as good, I think, and by the time we got our food we were so tired that we couldn’t finish and went to bed.
Today, we got up early to catch breakfast, and then headed to the Galleria Borghese. When we got there, it was 10:30 and our reservations were for 11. We walked as quickly as we could to the Museo, but once there found out your tickets are only reserved if you pay in advance (thanks, internet). So we got tickets for one and decided to wait in the park. We had seen a bike rental place earlier, and so decided to go back and rent bikes for an hour. What a good idea! It was so much fun. We covered the whole park in half an hour, zooming around as fast as we wanted, wind in our faces instead of blazing sun. It was so nice.
Inside the Galleria, we saw some amazing Bernini sculptures, incredibly detailed ceiling paintings (with interesting optical effects) and other things. Sorry I’m not being too communicative on it, I was impressed with about a quarter of it. At least that part I was deeply impressed by, otherwise I would have been a little upset about it.
Anyway, we left and got lost about three times in Rome, somewhat on purpose. We accidentally made our way to the Church of the Immaculate Conception – The crypt underneath is decorated with human bones and skeletons, and holds the bodies of the monks that once lived in the church. A good number of the bodies are above the surface, still in monk’s robes either standing or laying down. The walls are usually bones stacked on each other, with skulls at the top, and the ceilings are more creative, using spinal, rib, jaw, and skull bones to achieve very strange effects. Most of them are arranged like molding might be, but some of them make intricate patterns and designs. The very last chamber’s ceiling has a while skeleton, with a scythe in one hand and a scale in the other — made of bones – with the inscription “As you are now, we once were; As we are now, you will someday be.” They play what I’m pretty sure is a record of a choir. The crypt is surprisingly well lit, but that might be because it wasn’t designed as a crypt – the monks moved to the church from another, and moved their dead with them.
Galleria Borghese
After that, we went back to the Colesseo, to shop a bit, and ended up going to the pit of cats again. I’m sure it has an official name, but I prefer “pit of cats,” and I think it’s just going to stick. Anyway, going there only means one thing…. BEST GELATO EVER. And I got it. And it was still amazing. I tried to tell the man behind the counter but he had no idea what I was saying. I think I’m going to email him to tell him just how happy his gelato made me. Wilson liked his too; he got cinnamon and peanut butter, a strange but delicious combination.
After that was about where we kept getting lost. Getting lost means new opportunities, though, and despite it being sunny and hot (and my wearing pants for some reason), we had some fun.
We finally made our way back to the Derby, had a nice conversation with our favorite guy behind the desk (why don’t I ever ask people their names, I should start doing that. I still can, I guess), and headed upstairs to eat leftovers from last night (which our favorite maid kindly re-heated and plated!) and re-re-pack our suitcases. I hope nothing in there breaks!
I think I’m going to write a conclusion to this, but not here quite yet – it’s not over just yet.
See you tomorrow night!
Filed under: Cinque Terre
Today was not quite as exciting as yesterday, but amazing nonetheless. We started again on the 10:02 train (which was delayed, again, by 20 minutes) and made our way to Riomaggiare. Skipping the town (it’s really small and hard to figure out) we went directly to the Via d’ell Amore, to put up a padlock! The walk is famous for love notes and graffiti and what not, and there’s also padlocks everywhere… some with names on them, some without. Sometimes they’re in large groups, other times they’re alone. There’s a bridge somewhere in Italy that’s literally full of padlocks. You put them up as a couple to claim you love. We did it more as a goofy thing just for kicks, so of course we had to find a ridiculous spot that was a little hard to reach. Wilson hung it because it was my lock, and because he wanted to climb something.
Our padlock, how cute.
Then we headed to Manarola, where we went to the beach! It was the best beach we’ve been to here, hands down. Clear, ultra salty water; huge rocks to climb on and jump off; and our own little ledge spot that we claimed. I’ve perfected the “quick change,” which is when I hide under a towel to get into my bathing suit bottom. The guy in front of me didn’t believe in that, though, so I got a fully unwanted view. The swimming and sunbathing was great for a good hour or two until the jellyfish came in. They caught a few dozen with more in the water (Wilson stole someone’s goggles really quick to see under) so we had to stay out. An American kid near us had been stung, and it was just a huge welt.
The beach at Manarola
Anyway, so we grabbed some quick food and took the path to Coniglia… it says it should take an hour plus but it only took us 45. It’s a pretty easy walk, but no shade so it’s very hot. In Coniglia, we stopped for water (Wilson has this bottle cap that he’s in love with, he keeps switching it on different bottles) and bananas, and kept going on to Vernazza. The trail was mostly uphill this time, which made it a lot more difficult. Also it was a little after midday, which was even worse… you’re between the hot sun and heated rocks. That trail took us much longer. At some point we considered going to a beach along the trail, but in order to get to that beach you needed to climb down a rope on a steep steep incline. Our friends actually ended up doing that, but we didn’t want to. When we got to Vernazza, our objective was beach immediately; we didn’t even bother to put shirts on, just jumped straight in the water in our bathing suits. After that, we decided to take the train to Monterosso, which was probably the most disappointing place ever. It’s so touristy and modern that it’s gross. We were hoping to buy some souvenirs there, but Monterosso ruined it, just by being the way it is. Instead of pesto and interesting liqueurs, it sold t-shirts and magnets. Blah. Oh and, Monterosso? You ruined basil gelato, and will never be as good as Rome. Or any other place. Ever.
We ate what I thought was a mediocre dinner, but that could be because I hated it so much there. I just wanted to leave. During dinner we bumped into Zach and Andres (again, we bumped into them yesterday too), and we had actually bumped into Josh and Aris before, when we arrived at the train station. We took the train back to La Spezia, figured out the crazy night bus, and made it back to the hotel in one piece. I think tonight we’re going to have a beer and just relax… our train tomorrow is at 2:00, and we’ll have some time to kill.
Filed under: Cinque Terre
Today was terrific! It was probably hands down the most relaxing day I’ve had on this whole trip – can’t wait for tomorrow!
So we (Wilson and I) took the 10.00 train to Monterosso, realizing on the way we might be able to get off at Vernazza (which was where we wanted to go anyway). We couldn’t, so we skipped Monterosso and went back by train to Vernazza. We walked around for a while, looking around and exploring. Cinque Terre is comprised of five very small towns (“lands”) which are mainly fishing villages. All of the town’s layouts are clustered and somewhat random, looking like a series of houses grown from one. They are all (uniformly designed) multicolored beautiful towns.
Ok, anyway, so the hiking begins. We walked from Vernazza to Coniglia, about an hour and a half worth of hiking. It was pleasant, but largely uphill for most of the trail. Uphill means tons of rocky uneven stairs, which makes one tire quickly. It was also hot and humid, the trails being so close to the sea and so high up, but without breezes. Many of the people you pass are shirtless (men), in swim trunks, or in bikini tops, and you quickly realize why the higher you get up. We had brought our swimsuits just in case, so we changed into them at the beginning – what a great idea that turned out to be!
Coniglia seemed a bit larger then Vernazza, but not by much. It also seems to be the highest of all the towns, and there are some aspects of that which can be a bit crazy. We grabbed a foccia and a coke, the bread was so light and crispy, it was perfect; and went around to explore a little. We found a sign for the “Marina,” and figuring there might be swimming there, we headed down. Down a few hundred rocky steps, we started to think we were going nowhere when – sunbathers! And swimmers! We set up shop quickly and jumped in the water… the water in Italy is so salty that you never have a problem floating. Treading water is easier, and floating on your back is even easier. Wilson was happy because the water was so clear… you couldn’t see well when you were in it, but from above it looked so blue and you could see so deep.
We showered and headed back up and grabbed some bananas before heading to the next town, Manarola. Of course, with Coniglia being the highest town, there was a long flight of stairs down. I think it said 365 stairs, which doesn’t sound like a lot until they’re extra long and a bit winding. Thankfully they were also brick.
Manarola
The path to Manarola is a bit suspicious in the beginning… you feel as if you’re walking through a sewer outlet, and then on someone’s private property until the road splits and you need to figure out which way you’re going. We chose the right one. It was a little trickier than the first, but certainly not as steep, just more rockslides there recently. When we arrived in Manarola, we looked around briefly thinking of food, before we realized we weren’t hungry enough to eat yet. We watched some kids jumping from rocks ranging from heights of 5 to 30 feet into the water – the beach here was much busier than in Coniglia. Then we went further onto the trails, to the last town: the Via D’ell Amore. This is a very famous route, apparently, but it was paved, had handrails at all the edges, and had some manmade structures in it. Over dinner later, Wilson and I came to the conclusion it’s the most famous because it’s the easiest… it’s wheelchair accessible!
When we reached Riomaggiore, we thought we might find some food, but there didn’t seem to be much to the town. A little confusing until I remembered it’s the only agricultural village out of the five. Whoops. We bought some tickets back to La Spezia, headed back on a totally packed train, and took a guess at which bus to take back to the hotel. We showered, relaxed for a bit, and went to find food. We managed to find a place that was open (because it’s Sunday), and we were halfway through eating when Aris and Josh showed up! Small world (well, a few of us had planned on coming to Cinque Terre anyway, so we figured we’d bump into someone.) After dinner, we bumped into Zach and Andres, who had just arrived from… somewhere, and were wandering around. Of course all the gelato places closed early, so it looks like we’re calling it a night and waking up early tomorrow to do it all over again.
Oh – It seems like the cats of Cinque Terre have really got their routines worked out. They nap in public places, so that people can’t resist petting them. The cats sleep right through it, or else they wake up slightly and make little meows before going back to sleep. We saw cats in three separate places, all doing the same exact thing: napping and getting pet.
Walking along the trails, the views were incredible
Filed under: Cinque Terre
Group project in Siena is over with, and I just want to say thank god. We had this group tension sometimes that was palpable. It is a really interesting thing; working with people while you live with them… it opens you eyes to what kind of people they really are. Sometimes it’s good, but you never notice it as much as the bad.
Our group dinner was really fun, I have some great pictures if anyone likes (I don’t know if I was the only one taking pictures, so I don’t have too many) The food was pretty good, and the wine was strong which may or may not have been good depending on how loud I actually was. I usually think I’m louder than I actually am when I’m tipsy – I wasn’t drunk, just giggly. I think. I missed my last night hanging out on the Campo, because I fell asleep and wouldn’t wake up. It’s ok, though, Campo – we will meet again! Someday.
Presenting for my final... weird faces all around! 
Arrived in La Spezia today! It’s very metropolitan, noisy and busy. Saw a bunch of like 12-year olds smoking at the bus stop, ewww! Because we got to our hotel around 3, Wilson and I are spending the day recuperating (napping right now) and planning for the next two days in Cinque Terre. We’re going to be doing tons of hiking, which I am so excited about and which makes me glad I brought my otherwise useless sneakers. I’m not sure how far we’ll end up going, but it’s going to be beautiful and full of tourists, so it’s bittersweet.
I need to find out how frequently the trains run to and from Cinque Terre, how late the bus in La Spezia runs and how late the front desk at our hotel is open. Then we need to reserve a room at what will probably be the Derby and what not and so forth. I don’t think there’s much else to plan.
My sandals are beginning to break already, which makes me so mad (and makes it uncomfortable to walk in). I wore my last pair everyday for two years, after Ebeth got tired of them (for however long, a year or two) and this pair hasn’t even lasted me two months. Minnetonka seems to have skimped on quality recently, which is really no surprise anywhere anymore. These shoes are so comfy but I don’t think I’ll buy them again. And no I really don’t think it’s all the walking I’ve done over all this crazy terrain. I blame manufacturing ethics!
Filed under: Siena
Went to Santa Maria Della Scale today, it was really beautiful. It was once the hospital for all of Siena, located in Selva territory. When they announced they were building a new one, people rushed to get pregnant to have their kids in the old hospital before it closed. The museum’s exhibits are the hospital’s old rooms, covered in frescos. They are gorgeous and a good number of them still have brilliant colors. It was very calming inside. There was also a chapel in the basement with dedications to Saint Catherine of Siena – whose head I maybe won’t get to see, aww bummer.
I really liked this painting hanging in the gallery
I think in Rome we’re going to try and find the church decorated (covered) in human bones. That was related, since they’ve both got heads except one is preserved. Weird.
Group project is going alright, albeit slow. Can’t say much for what the project is turning out to be, since everyone is very intent on presenting their mapping in a clear and graphic manner… except that the actual mapping is only part of the assignment. They’re very focused on their own individual mapping ideas, not trying to combine them. I gave up trying to talk with them about it and am working on our proposal collage tonight — almost done! The mapping work they’re doing right now seems to be a mish mash of a few different group’s work… one group’s “strings from the ceiling,” method of presenting, another’s “carboard sections of the street,” method, and our previous collage techniques from Rome. It’s like there’s not an ounce of originality in that mapping. Although, I’m making a collage too, so I suppose it’s a little hypocritical of me to say that.
This project was particularly frustrating – we stayed in the same groups that we had in Rome, which was probably a terrible idea for the most part. I really hoped we would switch groups for every project… I wanted to learn something from more members of our studio, but staying in the same group for all of Italy kind of stopped that from happening. I can take guesses about how other people seem to work, but it’s not very meaningful since I’m not actually working with them. That’s probably the only thing I really enjoy about group work – learning from the other members in the group (even if it’s just learning how to deal with difficult people).
Hmm… seems like someone in our studio brought walkie-talkies all the way to Italy and is making excuses to use them right now.
I’m not sure if this is going to happen, but maybe the Enoteca tonight? I just want to be able to say to myself that I actually went. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to squeeze in St. Catherine (she is my patron saint, I guess) amid the other quick shopping I need to do (souvenirs and supplies). I know I mentioned this already, but I have to squeeze things in because we leave for Cinque Terre Saturday morning, and we’re having a big studio dinner on Friday night, and also there needs to be some packing going on… it’s a little hard to “pre-pack” for the flight, but I think I can do it. I plan to just drag along my carry-on.
Cinque Terre is going to be a little expensive, it seems (room and transportation-wise) but that’s alright since I’ve been really good with money this whole trip. I’m so proud of myself! But also I am not a big spender, and I am very frugal. We are staying in La Spezia; it seems like a good number of people from our studio are also heading up to Cinque Terre for the last few days (actually a lot of us are arriving in Rome on Tuesday, too). Not that I wouldn’t mind bumping to anyone the last week, but I think I need a bit of time away from people and studio work. Just a day to restart, I think. I’m getting a little burnt out.
Things that I am excited for in my last week here: Cinque Terre – beach, hiking, food, wine, views, some quiet time. Rome – Galleria Borghese, pit of cats, LEMON BASIL GELATO, that restaurant across from the Derby, potable water fountains always around.
Things I am excited for when I go home: seeing the new house, bothering Mia-cat, making food in the crock-pot, ped-egging my feet, taking a real shower.
I will not eat pasta for probably the first week I get back.
Ah, the Enoteca was closed and there was a huge Democratic Party convention in the fortress…. I really wanted to see the wine library! Oh, well.
Filed under: Siena
The Palio was great… we got in a little bit earlier, and managed to see the entire parade. A lot of pageantry goes into the Palio; they represent not only the contrada participating, but also the contrada who are not AND the five or so contrada that don’t exist anymore. So after about an hour of parading around, the sun begins to set and they bring out the horses. The horses are excited, the jockeys are nervous, and a crowd of thousands is out there yelling (or, at times, silent at anything). So the race didn’t start for about a half hour, and there were a few false starts. Mainly Aquila’s horse was acting up, and wouldn’t stay in his spot, and so was Leocorno’s a bit, too. They had to resort the riders maybe three times, and they had to false start about twice (the cannon goes off to set off the cue, instead of the ropes being dropped)
During all of this, I am there with Wilson, Alex, Zach; and Stacy joined us for the race. We are to the left of the Fonte Gaia, which turned out to be a pretty good spot. I could see about a quarter of the track, but that was mainly because of my height in relation to the people standing around me. We were standing for a good three hours or so, but we had plenty of water and a few snacks with us.
It was packed!!
ANYWAY, so they finally get themselves in order and the Chiocciola (the last rider, he starts the race by dropping the rope) begins the race.
Immediately, Civetta (the Owl) takes the lead. Giraffa sort of filps off his horse at the first sharp turn, and Onda started late because his horse stood backwards for a few seconds (he probably got the shit beaten out of him for that tonight). Civetta keeps the lead around the second lap, L’Aquila begins to close in on him (he was the one making so many problems at the beginning) and HE falls off his horse, rolls to the ground and almost gets trampled. Civetta keeps the lead, and suddenly everyone realizes he’s going to win. The crowd goes nuts!!
Once he crosses the finish, the cannons go off, the other horses slow down and contradaoli jump the fences to swarm the rider and horse. Turns out, it has been 30 years to the day that they last won (1979!) and they are overjoyed. The Civetta flags begin to wave, and the other contrada follow with their own flags (which I thought was a very nice gesture). They get the Pallium, which really is this ugly banner that you’d think would have some effort put into it (instead of being digitally designed and screen printed on vinyl) and they’ve been parading it around the city every hour or so. The city lit candles on the top of the Palazzo Pubblico and the bank building across from it later when it got dark, which looks so gorgeous at night.
The Palio was on TV, but they make it look a lot brighter than it was out there! The nice thing was I got to see some moments that I missed (but heard), like the riders falling off.
Right now, I think I’m going to stay in my room for most likely the remainder of the night… I think I ate something disagreeable and I’m feeling pretty nauseous. Civetta is probably having a party right now, but I don’t want to be the person barfing, haha.
My only problem right now is that there is a tiny lizard on the ceiling of my room, it’s too high for me to reach but I can’t go to sleep until he’s gone. I can’t even catch him if I do get him down (they are quick), so I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t want to wake up to a lizard falling on me.
Also I think the French girls are blasting those really bad mix tapes down the hall and singing. What the crap, it’s not even good music!
Filed under: Siena
Today, Wilson and I were planning to get away from Siena for the day and just head to the beach. We had a beach picked out, but we were a little iffy on the transportation schedules…. That problem fixed itself, since today seems to be (surprise!) a holiday, and there are very few trains actually running. I should have remembered that, but I just never thought it would be a problem. There are a lot of things you just get spoiled with in the States.
Then we bumped into Zach, and the plan was to try and go to a town in Chianti (that I totally forgot the name of) and, of course, that plan was foiled too since the busses are also few and far between as well. Zach and Wilson decided to go to San Gimignano, but by then I was so annoyed at my plans falling apart that I decided to stay behind. I think the truth is I’ve been cranky on and off for a while, and maybe I just need a day to myself.
So, my day today is beginning with laundry, since I am running low on clothes, the towels are so dirty, and I missed the bed sheet exchange, so they are gross. Hopefully they’ll dry before bedtime.
Laundry’s a bit different here, since the washing machines downstairs need to be manually turned to the next setting. So “lavaggio,” “risqueaquo” and “centrifuzione” are three different setting that you need to switch yourself. No dryers, so you have to set up your laundry on drying racks… I am almost positive that we stole ours from someone who actually lives here, whoops. It’ll find its way back eventually. The nice thing is that our room is big enough to keep the drying rack in here, which gives a nice breeze so clothes dry faster.
After laundry I am catching up on my blagging, which I already have done (plus this). I need to fix a few images and post them up, but otherwise nothing to it really.
After I am hoping to avoid some crowds (yeah right) and paint a watercolor hopefully, but truthfully it’s going on 5:30 and the provo begins at 7:30, so I might be in the Campo in about an hour… painting might have to wait.
Since today’s a holiday, it might be a little too hopeful to try and go to the Enoteca Italiana tonight, but I’d really like to check it out… I don’t know much about wines, but it’s been so interesting having different types every night. So I think I’ll have a try at a few kinds there. Any suggestions?
The provo was great… crowded, but great. I went by myself, and got a spot right by the sharp turn, second row. It was a great spot! The woman next to me was explaining to her children that the Torre di Mangia (Tower of the Eater) is called that because a phantom comes out and eats small children (I’m assuming there was a “who don’t behave,” after that) and when I started laughing she turned to me and asked me if it was true. I really didn’t know what to say besides “Si!” because I understood what she said but didn’t know what to say back. I told her later I don’t speak much Italian, but only out of her two boy’s earshot. There was a guy in front of me who kept hitting me with his book bag when he turned; I foresee problems tomorrow with this.
Then the cannons went off, and what looked like the cavalry rode by. They trotted around once, and then galloped right out of the Campo, it was terrific. The jockeys and their horses made their way to the start and BOOM! The race began. Immediately – and from where I was I couldn’t see how – two riders fell off their horses. The crowd went crazy, and when the riders passed me there were a couple of rouge horses running with them. I’m not sure which riders fell, but you can win the Palio without a jockey on your horse. I’m assuming the Tower won because they were walking their horse around and singing; I think actually their jockey fell off. I ended up following them for a bit before making my way through Onda, Tartuga, Pantera, Chiocciola, and finally into Selva to get back to the dorms. It wasn’t a long walk, but it got a bit confusing. I saw a few things I hadn’t though, like the escalators to the parking decks below parts of the city (only the one going up was working, ha!)
The crowd watching the Provo
Wilson had a good time in San Gimignano, and while it sounds like he did a few nice things, I’m still glad I had the day to myself.
I lent someone my hard drive and they tried to take all my Italy pictures from it. Wilson made them delete it from their computer (because I was being totally unreasonable, I was so mad), but I feel a little violated, since I only lent it to them to take movies. Taking my pictures is like taking my memories of this trip. If you missed the shot, tough luck; I can’t compensate for opportunities lost. That’s why I’m not really planning to share many of my pictures anyway; they’re just too personal to me.
Filed under: Florence
Went to Florence today, to tour with guides… Aris and our guest crit, Andre, showed us around. Florence is one of those places that, apparently, I knew a lot about already but just never physically put the things together.
The bus ride over was at 8 in the morning… busses in Italy are much different than in the states, depending on how far you’re going. For us, Florence is an hour bus ride away, so you take a charter-style bus – fabric seats, individual air conditioning, and curtains in the windows. The ride costs about 7 euro one way. Busses within cities are typical plastic seat, subway layout busses.
We arrived in Florence, and met at Santa Maria Novella… the piazza that I slept in for a bit on the way to Venice. The church was closed, but we studied the façade (done by two different architects), and kept going to San Lorenzo. The line was long, but we stayed in and made our way into the church. This church has somewhat of a schism between outside and in, mainly because the exterior was never finished. Michelangelo was in charge of it, but it was never actually built. The façade remained brick throughout the years.
The courtyard of the library at San Lorenzo
After San Lorenzo, we passed the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) and kept going to Piazza Repubblica, where we stealthily stopped for a quick talk about some of Florence’s history. It’s illegal to give tours without a license, and we just didn’t have one for a single day trip.
Next up was the Piazza Signoria, where there are copies of famous statues (where the originals once stood) such as Michaelangelo’s David. These are all presented much in the same way I’ve found Italy to be across the board… art and architecture history books never tell you how close one work is to another. Every corner you turn in Rome is another historical monument, or a famous work of art, and you never realize that they’re really in the same general space. So in Piazza Signoria, the statues were, for the most part, hosted under a loggia facing the square. It was a very strange experience. David, the statue that all the tourists crowd around, stood near the entrance of a museum, next to three or four other statues. We also stopped to look at Palazzo del Uffizi while looking around, and I got some really good mango gelato.
We walked for a while over to Santa Croce, and this is where everyone more or less split up. Santa Croce was huge, and also the only church I’ve seen with trusses in the ceiling in Italy (I know, I know, there are others… I just haven’t been in them). Milling around for a bit, I saw the tomb of Galileo, Michelangelo, Ghilberti, and “Dante,” but that was really just a claim and not his actual tomb.
Then we split up. I went with Wilson, Josh, Aris and Zach to get sandwiches (which were microwaved and that made them soggy and sad, haha) We decided to head to the Duomo, and the nice thing was that entry into the church was free. It’s humongous and very beautiful inside.
We headed down to the foundations, where they had discovered remains of the old (much much smaller) church, with some frescos and grave markers still intact. They found Brunelleschi’s grave marker there, but you can only see it through a grate in the wall in the bookstore (very strange).
Then, we headed up to Brunelleschi’s famous dome, and conquered all 643 (or something like that) spiral stairs. The dome was difficult to get around, since there wasn’t much room, and it was difficult to see much, since it was a little dark. The stairs going to the lantern were a little difficult to maneuver, they are literally cut into the inner dome. It was a bit scary, the steepness of them. The view up top was amazing, you could see out for miles and miles. After, we climbed back down and Aris and Josh ran ahead to try and catch the second Palio provo (trial). Zach and Wilson got down about five minutes later, and we just weren’t going to make the bus.
The view from the dome!
So we hung around Florence for a bit, checking out the street markets and making our way back slowly to the bus. The bus ride back was a “direct” (as opposed to a “rapid”) which sounds great but really just means that it makes stops everywhere. Still, the views were nice and I got to watch the sunset over parts of Tuscany (while the other two slept).
The view from the bus window.
