the entire last week! oops

last tuesday, my mixed media class had the opportunity to go to the church of san pietro in vincoli where michelangelo's moses statue is located. san pietro in vincoli literally translates to "saint peter in chains," which have been housed there since around 449 AD - the chains that bound him when imprisoned in jerusalem.

3-photo stitch of the paintings and altar

peter's chains

on wednesday, we started a really intense packaging seminar put on by primo angeli. hes a famous designer that has mostly done business through his san francisco business, but hes designed and branded for companies, such as: ben & jerrys, coca cola, guinness beer, intel, nestle, xerox, general mills, hyatt hotels, at&t, banana republic, levi strauss, and the 1996 olympics. pic of him below.

he pretty much kicked our butts, but in a good way. we had to redesign an entire brand (as a group) in under 2 days, he was pushing us of course. it was sooo stressful because we began with a presentation of the current brand we were going to rework (buitoni pasta). then the next day, when we presented our final project he loved it. which was so relieving due to the amount of stress we had.

for art history on thursday, we revisited the pantheon. since i dont think i said much about it earlier, the pantheon is a building in rome, commissioned by marcus agrippa as a temple to all the gods of ancient rome. it was rebuilt by hadrian in 126 AD. it contains a central opening (oculus) to the sky. i hope it snows just ONE day here so i can run and take pictures of the snow falling inside. the pantheon even holds the "bones and ashes" - "ossa et cineres" - of the famous artist, raphael.

light shown by the oculus

we visited the temple of hadrian and the column of marcus aurelius on the way to the church of sant'ignazio. this church was dedicated to the founder of the jesuit order and was built in baroque style in the mid 1600s. the "dome" is technically missing from the church, but the tromp l'oeil (trick of the eye) paintings give the effect of a large, overhead dome. the paintings were done by andrea pozzo, and he worked to "open up, even dissolve the actual surface of the nave's barrel vault illusionistically." a marble disk set into the middle of the nave floor marks the ideal spot from which observers might fully experience the illusion.

the view of the dome from the ideal location

from a not-so-ideal location where you can see more of how your eyes have been tricked

gorgeous :)

thennnn we went to the church of santa maria sopra minerva, which is the only gothic church in rome and is considered one of the most important churches of the roman catholic dominican order in rome, italy. this is also where the father of modern astronomy, galileo galilei, recanted his scientific theses in 1633.

okay enough with history, look what we finally captured!! this happens quite frequently, but never get our cameras in time. and we come home to bird poop on our floors - so we know they are in there when were gone!

on sunday, ryan and i decided to take a trip to florence, italy for the night. we visited the uffizi gallery to see michelangelo's david, but failed miserably since that's located at the accademia. whoops. since ryan's  cousin is studying there so we had our own little tour guide while we were there. she showed us a little bit of florence and took us through the ponte vecchio bridge. 

the ponte veccio bridge ("old bridge") is a medieval bridge over the arno river. butchers initially occupied the shops, but medici prohibited them from selling there (i think because it smelled bad?), and gold merchants immediately took over and monopolized the shops.

next was piazzale michelangelo, which is a famous square with a magnificent panoramic view of florence.

the basilica di santa maria del popolo is also located up on the hill. annddd just looking it up now, i realized theres a bernini statue and rafael paintings within the church - we had no idea at the time.

the next morning we visited the basilica of santa maria novella, which is the first great basilica in florence (and also originally built gothic). When it was later finished, the architect attempted to bring in humanist ideals that would be in harmony with the existing medieval parts. this is where galileo galilei was first attacked (leading to his indictment).

finally, we visited the duomo (the basilica di santa maria del fiore) - which began in 1296 in the gothic style and was completely in 1436 (brunellesci engineered the dome). the church is covered in marble panels in shades of green and pink and white. the basilica is one of italy's largest churches and was the largest dome in the world (until the modern era), but remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

outside of the duomo

the dome!!

on top of the cupola

welllll thats all i have for now. weve had a crazzzyyy week of homework but were off to sorrento, pompeii, naples for a field trip and then a group of us is off to munich for OKTOBERFESTTTT for the weekend. ill update when we get back as long as im not swamped in homework!!

coliseum on fire - burning the roots of western culture

in front of the colosseum (coliseum?) and arch of constantine

on sunday night, a couple of us went to this 3 day exhibition. "coliseum on fire" is the title for this artistic gesture involving the "world's most famous ancient monument." thyra hilden (denmark) and pio diaz (argentina) are the artists responsible for the video-installation.

coliseum on fire is part of an even larger project - city on fire - which involves "creating virtual fires in important institutions, monuments, museums, and churches throughout europe. there were previously events in berlin, frankfurt, kiev, and copenhagen. the artists choose monuments considered to be part of europe's cultural heredity. the "symbolic inferno that the artists enact has the aim of making us think about what the loss of our cultural patrimony would mean."

i honestly had my hopes up when i heard about this exhibition. i kind of understood it to be more than just screen projections in the windows. i guess i thought there would actually be more pyrotechnics or something haha - lets get real though, like rome would let a couple artists burn down the colosseum...duhhh. okay, but it was still really cool - i forgot my tripod, so the pictures arent as clear as i would like, but i still got a couple good shots!

if you want to check out more information (or want to look at some sweet pictures of the other events - the trevi fountain one in 2005 is spectacular), you can go to http://www.cityonfire.org/projects/Coliseum/Coliseum.html

on fireeeeee

little bit of experimentation with light at the show

assisi

view of the bridge we cross everyday to get to studio

saturday was spent taking a day trip to assisi, italy. assisi is the birthplace of st. francis, who founded the franciscan religious order. around 1000 bc, immigrants (called the umbrians) settled in this area, then in 450 bc this area was taken over by the etruscans, and later by the romans. roman remains can still be found in assisi - the city walls, a theatre, and temple minerva. after a bunch of history later, rocca maggiore was built as the imperial fortress on top of the hill. and after the black plague and the remaissance and an earthquake in 1997, the city is beautifullly restored and recovered. restoration is still in progress but it only took 2 years to reopen the basilica of saint francis assisi.

roxie and i had a moment here. we were drinking our coffee and like whatttt this is our view. no way. moments like that happen a lot. makes me really happy to be here :)

in front of the basilica

the view of the city from the basilica, you can see the castle on the hill in the distance. we chilled out here for a little bit when our professor almost passed out in the church. she had a liver transplant due to a former accident where she was it by a car or something (?) and has lots of health problems from it still

the basilica of st francis was completed in 1253. there are many frescoes by medieval artists, such as cimabue and giotto (which we learned about in art history yayyy). frescoes are sweet because of how they are made. since paint is applied on (wet) plaster, the paint pigment soaks in. when frescoes need to be restored or taken care of, you just sand them down a little and the color is restored and bright once again!

we saw st francis' tomb in the basilica and were wondering if his body was really in it. according to rick steves: "the saint's remains are above the altar in the stone box with the iron ties. in medieval times, pilgrims came to assisi because st. francis was buried here. holy relics were the 'ruby slippers' of medieval europe. relics gave you power - they answered your prayers and won your wars - and ultimately helped you get back to your eternal kansas. assisi made no bones about prooving the saint's relics, but hid his tomb for obvious reasons of security. his body was buried secretly while the basilica was under construction, and over the next 600 years, the exact location was forgotten. when the tomb was to be opened to the public in 1818, it took a month and a half to find his actual remains."

we werent allowed to take photos in the church, but roxie did anyways. every once in awhile, a guy would come on the speakers overhead saying "silencioooooo." we thought that was funny since no one was really making that much noise (there were tons of people in there too) and yet he had to come on and yell in the church for everyone to be quiet.

after we sketched lots in the church and hung out with our professor while she recovered from her faintness, we had gelato in a nearby cafe. it was starting to rain so we attempted to pass time in the restaurant. i had lovely straccietella and caffe gelato - a mix of a cream and chocolate chip gelato and coffee flavored. yummm. then we ran into friends and did a little shopping on our way to find the castle. i bought an umbrella and it stopped raining 5 minutes later. so we headed through the city and up many steps to find the castle. we didnt know how to get there and we tried asking locals for directions. that was a major fail since no one spoke english. even though we were like one letter off knowing the word for castle, they couldnt understand us. but we finally came across someone with an english/italian dictionary (which i should really just keep in my purse from now on..duh) and she showed us how to get there.

some frannsss on the way up

some view on the way up. so pretty.

overlooking the city

overlooking the country

the castle. we didnt pay to go in, which we probably should have done. we had some crazy photoshoots instead. 

cute little artsy photography

the storm we could see from the castle

i got carsick on the bus ride home but managed to take this photo (unedited)

assisi was so so pretty. im sure ill say that about every single place i visit. sometimes i get sad that ill have to leave europe in 3 months. returning back to school in ames is not even going to compare seeing all these gorgeous views and colors. i think im addicted to traveling.

speaking of traveling, i just creeped hardcore on what my dad has written about being in american samoa. i literally read like 12 days worth of stuff. and he writes a novel every day. props to you dad!! because i definitely dont have the time to do that with school and homework and traveling. anyways, its crazy how similar some of our experiences are. they dont have their own way of transportation yet, and we only have walking/taxis/or bus/trains. we pretty much walk everywhere though. its different not being able to hop in your own car and take off whenever you need something. instant gratification is not in the vocabulary here. at all. we both have to deal with unwanted bugs in our residence. yuck. the only acceptable critters are the geckos. i want to buy one as a pet when i get home. well see what mommy has to say about that (mom - is my bamboo plant still aliveeee?)

there are also many differences when it comes to our experiences being abroad. apparently, in AS, there are many dogs that are uhhh not very nice. my sisters, step mom, and dad were advised to carry sticks to ward off unwanted, approaching dogs. here in rome, we also have lots of stray dogs, except theyre usually passed out on the sidewalk from the heat. one of our professors said that its common for people to abandon dogs on the highways of rome. so sad :( but i swear every homeless person we see has a dog. and sometimes we see the same people we different dogs. there are homeless people everywhere and it is so incredibly sad, but at least they have their dog companions. theres this one guy we pass everyday on our way to studio, and his dog is paralyzed in his back two legs. so his little puppy either lays in its bed or it also has the contraption-like thing with wheels so he can walk around a little. this guy carves these amazing wood things and i think i might buy one sometime. seeing cute little dogs makes me miss my buster at home though. it is quite funny how he responds when im skyping my mom though. he really doesnt understand why he can hear my voice.

anyways, now that ive written a novel and rambled about some random stuff, i gotta do homework. which by the way - it is so difficult to sit down and get homework done WHEN IN ROME. i want to be out exploring but also unfortunately have to get good grades. oh well :)

cinque terre adventures + a little more

IS THIS REALLLL LIFEEEE

alright, this is going to be more pictures than words. i find it harder and harder to update this thing as school progresses and travels during the weekend take up much of my free time. alsoooooo i cant even explain the views i am blessed to see, so enjoy the pictures!

when i made my last post, a beautiful sunset was approaching and i managed to catch it in time to take a photo or two. this was my view out of my window (unedited).

i also saw the pantheon finally! the sky was so amazing that morning. (by the way, if you click on the pictures, you can enlarge them - tip for those who dont know).

early saturday morning, after waking up at 6:07am for our 6:10am train, and not being able to take the 9:45am one since it was full, we finally caught the 12:10 train to cinque terre. we gave in and got mcdonalds (for the first time) while we were waiting.

i cant even describe how beautiful cinque terre was. so here are some pictures:

in front of riomaggiore (the first of 5 cities and also where we stayed overnight)

panorama of riomaggiore

the view of riomaggiore at night

we hiked the through all 5 cities, which was 11 kilometers long (about 7 miles), and the trail is called "sentiero azzuro." there is a total elevation difference of 500 meters between the highest and lowest points of the trail. this means that many "steps" (aka rocks that could reach up past my knees) lined the cliffs. we hiked on trails that were sometimes no wider than 1 foot. this made is especially difficult when people were passing from the other side.

via dell' amore
couples attach locks to fences, bridges, etc.
then throw the the keys into the sea
to signify their love
(like the bridge in paris)

the fourth of 5 cities - vernazza
we were up this high!

one of many jellyfishes we saw
jackie later got stung by one at the beach
no worries - the lifeguards had ammonia
so no one had to pee on her :)

an especially narrow part of the trail
with a cliff immediately on the left

this experience was unbelievable. while im not the hiking type, and definitely felt some complaints arising during the 6 hr trek (did i mention we had our backpacks and everything we had brought with us?), it was unforgettable and im so glad we accomplished hiking all 5 cities, even if we wanted to die at some points, or felt like we were going to fall off the edge. the views were amazing, the water was the clearest i have ever seen, and i did it with some of my best friends. and if i learned anything from the hike, i learned to ease my fear of heights. as one who gets uneasy while 50 stories up in a glass elevator, i was eerily calm while scaling the edge of mountains.

in the mountains
and loving it

an example of the "steps" we had to scale
going up was just as difficult as going down

monday was spent catching up on homework (as we already have much to do and not enough time!). we also happened to visit the trevi fountain during a tour my professor gave for my mixed media class today. i made a wish and tossed a coin in :) the fountain was wayyy larger than i imagined. the detail put into sculptures around here leaves me at a loss for words. sorry the photo is a little dark, it was still about 9am and a little overcast. i plan on visiting again though! next time with friends and a bottle of wine.

(still working on the nice video by the way! hopefully ill have it done soon - im running out of time to work on side projects!)

look at these opportunities!!!!!
heres our weekend schedules for the semester:

Sept. 17 - 19: Day trip on the 18th to Assisi, Italy

Sept. 24 - 27: Day trip on the 25th to Florence, Italy

Sept. 30 - Oct. 4: South field trip to Sorrento/Naples/Pompeii, Italy + Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest

Oct. 8 - 11: Staying in Rome (maybe?)

Oct. 15 - 18: Prague, Czech

Oct. 22 - 25: Book workshop (staying in Rome)

Oct. 29 - Nov. 1: Venice, Italy with my LOVELY grandma - how lucky I am that she gets to visit me AND show me around Venice

Nov. 5 - 8: North field trip to Basel and Zurich, Switzerland, stopping in southern Germany, and spending the rest of the weekend in Milan, Italy (probably)

Nov. 12 - 15: London, England

Nov. 19 - 22: Some famous cooking class in Rome

Nov. 26 - 29: Dublin, Ireland (still planning)

Dec. 3 - 6: Athens, Greece (still planning)

Dec. 10 - 13: No travel due to finals

Dec. 19th!!!!! HOMEEE

villa borghese

since we didnt have class on monday, we decided to go visit the spanish steps and villa borghese, which is a giant park - kind of like central park in new york. according to wikipediaaaaa, villa borghese is a large landscape garden in the naturalistic english manner in rome, containing a number of buildings, museums, and attractions. it is the 2nd largest public park in rome. the gardens were developed for the villa borghese pinciana, built by the architect flaminio ponzio. in 1605, cardinal scipione borghese, nephew of pop paul v and patron of bernini, began turning this former vineyard into the most extensive gardens built in rome since antiquity. pictures cant do it justice, but here are a few...

from top to bottom

1. spanish steps looking up

2. from the top of the steps with the vatican in the background

3. walkway in villa borghese

4. creeping on some couple on the lake

after getting back and getting all the roommates together, we decided to go out to dinner (all 10 of us - but we were missing 1). a lot of stores are closed mondays, so it was slightly difficult to find something that was open, especially since we were starving by 7, and most places dont serve dinner til 8. we finally found this cute little place a couple blocks from our apartment, we couldnt read/understand the name of it to save our lives. but i ordered a cacio e pepe spaghetti (cheese and pepper sauce over noodles) and it was probably the best thing ive had here. soooo good. i looked up some recipes and plan on making it for myself while im staying in rome.

interesting story...

so we were waiting to go to our 6:00 class at our apartment last night. i was sitting at my bed (which is right under a window) and heard tires screeching and cars colliding in the alley below my window. i justped up to see what was going on, and it definitely didnt seem like an accident since they were almost fighting at the corner. i also heard sirens coming from one of the cars. i saw a man jump out of his car with a gun when i yelled to my roommates. we saw one of the cars get away but the other one was still in the alley. we ended up calling our professor since we didnt want to leave for class when we had seen a guy running around with a gun. she called our landlord and the police for us, and class was cancelled. steph and i, which saw most of what happened, were supposed to give statements to the police but then we didnt have to. our professor said it was "police in plain clothes" - so undercover, but it was still scary seeing that. we never really figured out what happened but our professor let us know that crime like that never happens and that it had to have been something with the police involved. the crime here deals with tourists and pickpocketing apparently. our landlord practically laughed at our concern since compared to a city this size in the usa, rome is extremely safe. 

romaaaa

helloooo alllll. weve been busy these past couple days. between starting classes and daytripping to the beach, i havent had much time to update my blog.

we began orientation for classes on thursday, which was a bit overwhelming. i never really like to get an overview of every project for every class all at once. all in all, our classes seem fun and im excited to come up with amazing projects inspired by everything around me. we chose the "area" we get to "brand," and mine is campo de fiori. the people who also have that and i went to explore the area to learn more about it. campo de fiori is a rectangular piazza where capital punishment used to be held. in february 1600, the philosopher giordano bruno was burnt alive for his ideas on heliocentrism. i thought that was very interesting since i learned about him in my theatre class last semester. the surrounding streets are named for trades and even still include many shops that follow the street names. they include shops catering to tailoring, coffee, hats, keys, etc... after a demolition of a block of housing that enlarged the piazza, a vegetable and fish market was held every day. currently, the outdoor cafes are a popular meeting place for everyone and musicians are often found there. its a completely different environment based on the time of day youre there.

yesterday, about 13 of us daytripped to sperlonga beach. after getting up at 7 to take a 15 minute walk to the bus station, riding a 20 minute bus to termini train station, taking a 1 hour train ride to fondi-sperlonga train station, waiting an hour for a bus, and taking a 20 minute bus ride, we FINALLY got to the beach. it was beyond worth it though. sperlonga was like a miniature nice and absolutely gorgeous. we explored the city a little, which winded up and around a hill. it was crazy how far up these little side streets took us. we dreaded the journey back and wish we would have decided to stay the night, but after a lot of waiting and traveling, we made it back to our apartment safe.

some unique things we are learning to accustom ourselves to...

(and im not complaining at all - just sharing some interesting experiences)

1. siesta will be the death of us. stores close down from 1ish to 4ish and weve already wasted a lot of time walking to places only to find out oh yeahhh theyre closed til 4.

2. cooking for myself everyday is...an experience. food is not convenient here. there are no frozen dinners and food doesnt last nearly as long due to the fact that they dont use preservatives. i knew this in advance, but never realized that going to the grocery store every day would be normal. i need to gain the 8 pounds back that ive lost over the last 2 weeks, but i cooked myself my first whole meal tonight and it was really good! oh and it was a shock to see labels in italian - especially when we were trying to figure out which bottles were shampoo or conditioner or soap and mousse or hairspray or gel. labels are definitely not universal, kind of a duh moment. 

3. europeans must like exact change a lot. having large bills (from taking lump sums of money out of atms) is an inconvenience. i guess a lot of these little stores dont carry enough money to always give change back. one of the girls we are traveling with didnt get change back even - they told her she only gave them a 10 euro bill after they put her 50 euro bill in their register. not sure how to fix this one though... 

4. sustainability is enforced. i have yet to find ziploc bags and grocery stores charge you for using plastic bags for your groceries. you bag them yourselves. ive been trying to find a large canvas bag that i can use but no luck so far. there aren't dryers, everyone hangs their clothes to dry. faucets flowing with cold water are all over the place (as long as i carry a water bottle around its very nice to have cold free water) and bottled water can be up to 2.50 euros (3ish dollars for a 16 oz. bottle). the recycling system here is ridiculous - we have 4 trash bins each marked with labels that separate plastic, metal, food, non recyclable, organic material, etc. its quite frustrating to spend 10 minutes reading the labels to make sure youre doing it correctly, but police can fine us 250 euros for EACH bag that doesnt hold the correct material. (and they do go through them).

5. theres no air conditioning so our windows are open constantly. however, there are no screens. weve come accustomed to bugs/moths flying around and being woken up every morning by some nearby clock tower (the bells will go off for 10 minutes straight sometimes). we learned the hard way not to leave food or bread on the table when we found a pigeon in our apartment one day. 

6. there are no targets or supermarkets like were used to in the states. its nice not to see those enormous buildings everywhere, but that makes it difficult to find items you want to buy. it also takes much more time since you have to go to multiple stores (that are very item specific) to find what you need. the "electronic" stores sell anything from blow dryers to cell phones, blenders, alarms and electric razors. weve seen art supplies stores, shoe stores, hat stores, and little hardware stores (that carry small drills, screwdrivers, etc - nothing like a lowes). we need a mirror but havent figured out where to buy one yet.

7. we have yet to really find public bathrooms. there was a fee at the majority of the ones we have come across.

8. rome is built around ruins, and many buildings are built in ruins. it's crazy to think were walking around cobblestone streets that have been there for.ev.er. also, the cobblestone is difficult to walk on, especially when you dont have the right shoes. i dont know how they (the many people we have seen on 5 inch heels) do it. also, we need to be very careful in streets and side alleys. the side alleys dont look like streets, but cars zip through them and drivers dont care when they come pretty close to hitting you. 

9. everyone knows were tourists. we get honked at and some people automatically try to speak english when they see us. i didnt expect us to stick out THAT bad, but it's kind of creepy when someone approaches us speaking english. it is helpful when were at the grocery store or confused/lost though. weve encountered people who dont care about us at all, whether theyre bumping into us or (probably) making fun of us. weve seen people point and laugh at us or at our luggage. weve also come across people are completely over-willing to help, which i personally dont like. we were just walking home from the grocery store today when a lady approached us and asked where in the u.s. we were from. she wanted us to come to her house for dinner to meet other americans. she spoke english fairly well but it was kind of sketchy. basically, its hard to trust anyone after a couple of us have had bad experiences.

anyways, besides all of these interesting experiences, im absolutely loving rome and europe. all of our experiences will teach us many valuable lessons. the homesickness is subsiding for now. sometimes i dont want to go out and do things with the group but forcing myself to accompany them makes everything worth it. i love all ten of my roommates and hanging out with people that wouldnt normally choose to all hang out together. were all getting along and having a complete blast.