Art History in Vatican City

My apologies for not posting in the past few weeks. Homework took control of my life for a little bit, but now most of the stuff has been turned in! We are now over the half way mark, and I've determined that my assignments can move to the back burner a little bit allowing some more time for extra fun. I currently have A's in all my classes-- that includes a 100% on my Made in Italy test, which was possibly my first 100% in college! It only took until senior year. :-)

On Wednesday we had a review day for our interior studio. The project was to redesign a museum into a lighting showroom. We had to develop an 'atmosphere' or concept in photos and then carry out that idea through our design. I toyed the idea around of creating an oversized lamp object to become part of the two story structure of my face. I see it as a light-hearted, interactive design. As I was nearing the final stages of completing this project my computer got attacked with a virus this past Friday. The virus wouldn't allow me to open any of my programs and use them. It definitely created a major hiccup in the completion of my project. So, on Saturday and Sunday I worked at school on their computers. On Monday, the IT guy that comes in every other day was able to remove it manually. However, I discovered later that all my licenses to use programs like Adobe Photoshop and Revit were removed; thus, I still can't use the important programs on my computer. I'm hoping to get that solved tomorrow. Anyways, my critique went over quite well and now I just have to make some minor adjustments for Monday's due date.

This past Friday I went on a night tour of the Vatican Museum with my art history instructor. She had put in the time and effort to take us along this tour outside of class time because it didn't fit in with our schedule well. The majority of the class ended up passing up their typical Friday night to attend this tour together. I think that really shows how much we LOVE our art history instructor. She spoils us with baked goods almost every week! Oh right, and the information that she shares about the pieces of art are very enticing, too. She can definitely speak about art very well to keep the average person's attention (non-design people). Touring the Vatican Museum at night provided a nice ambiance and made for a great evening. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of the Sistine Chapel but I did get one of Raphael's The School of Athens, which displays a bunch of different philsophers like Plato and Aristotle in the center.

Do you notice how in the fresco the guy in the front and in purple stands out different from the rest of the figures? That's the philosopher Heraclitus. Heraclitus wasn't looked highly upon because he never finished a writing, was grumpy, and always kind of kept to himself. Raphael included him because he's actually giving a tribute to Michelangelo. At the same time when Raphael was painting his frescos in this room, Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. One night Raphael went into the Sistine Chapel to spy on Michelangelo's work, which was a big no-no. Raphael wanted to show that he, too, can paint like Michelangelo so he placed this figure by using that technique and show homage to Michelangelo's work in the Sistine. Raphael also included his portrait as a face peeking out behind people on the lowe right side of the painting. I could go on and on about this piece and Raphael, but I'll resist.

Today for Art History we visited St. Peter's Basilica. It was my second time being inside of it and still was quite remarkable to see. Some quick fun facts about it are:

• La Pieta is not placed in its original location and before 1972 you were able to physically touch it and admire it up close.
  
• Mary is shown as a young woman in La Pieta and not at the right age she would have been at the time (near 50 years old). She is also displayed in a much larger proportion than Christ to help emphasize his fragility.





• In the crossing, there are 4 large statues of saints completed by 4 different artists. Three of them appear to be cohesive while the last one done by Bernini appears to be softer looking. Upon closer examination one can see that he left his statue unfinished, without a polish placed over it.


• St. Peter's Basilica is 10 stories tall along the nave and 15 stories tall in the dome area, but there is still a sense of closeness due to the same materials and colors being used on all parts of the interior.

Things are now quite regular here. I have to remind myself that I'll be going home soon and I need to bask in as much as possible! On Tuesday we leave for our North Field Trip. We'll be staying in Milan for two nights and in Venice for another two. On Saturday Katie and I are extending our trip by going to Verona (the location of Romeo and Juliet). The weather is chilly here now with being in the low 60s. Next week might finally be the time where I'll have to start wearing a jacket. I've been okay in sweaters so far. I can't complain-- it's much better than the weather that is happening back in the Midwest. :-)

Happy Halloween! This is a picture of real children's bones and other human bones around it as decoration. Over 4000 friar bodies were placed in this crypt known as "The Bone Church". It was eerie but cool!

What do I want to do before I leave Rome?

Have you ever watched the show on MTV called "The Buried Life"? It's a TV show about 4 guys traveling across America to complete their list of 100 things they want to do before they die. For every item that they complete on their list, they help a stranger out with something that they want to do before they die. I love the show because it combines comedy and emotion in almost every episode. Their show has inspired me to create a list of things that I'd like to do before I leave Rome/Italy/Europe. In no particular order...

1. Learn how to make 10 different sauces for pasta. (I believe I'm up to 7.)
2. Visit Prague.
3. See the Pope.
4. Give money/food to the homeless man that I see nearly everyday twice-a-day on my walk to/from studio.
5. Leave a mark and/or message on something somewhere in Rome.
6. Become Facebook friends with Simona and Raphael. They're the people that work at my gelato place.
7. Get "swept off my feet" by an authentic Italian guy.
8. Find and purchase all my Christmas gifts.
9. Visit the Catacombs.
10. People watch on the metro for an extended period of time (without having a destination to travel to).
11. Make at least one over-the-top purchase on an article of clothing.
12. Finish my projects early (aka not have an all-nighter).
13. Start to establish where I want to look for a job and what type of job.
14. See rain come through the hole of the Pantheon's ceiling.
15. Get free gelato from the Frigidarium. With all the income that they're getting from me, I think I deserve it.
16. Attend an European football/soccer game. My family will disown me if I don't.

I talk about my weekends and travel experiences a lot in my entries, so you might be wondering how is my life in Rome is actually going. I've found that I have a lot of down time. If I'm not in class, then I'm at my apartment occupying my time by finding meaningless stuff on the internet. Typically in Ames, I go from class to work to sorority activities to club activities and then do homework for x amount of hours before bed. I'm jut not used to having so much extra time.

Classes are going well. In my mixed media class I am working on an altered book. Basically it is an artistic scrapbook about our time in Italy. I made my cover to look like a really worn out book and it is pretty cool! In my studio class we are currently redesigning a current historic museum space into a lighting showroom. We just presented ideas/atmospheres to our instructors today and soon will be putting them into Revit! I'm really excited to work with my idea; it is a bit extreme (like utopia architecture) but I think it'll come together nicely in the end. I've already mentioned that I love my art history class. Seeing what is being taught about in person is 100 times better than slides. And then my fourth and last class I have is Made in Italy; it's just a typical lecture class...nothing too exciting.

My time is Europe is just about half way over. This coming Monday will mark two months of being overseas. I've become real settled here in Rome, and I feel like I've lived here for much longer. I am just now starting to discover the things that I truly love about the area that I live in. There's a gorgeous giant fountain (2-3 stories tall) in the building complex next to my apartment. Via Governo Vecchio is my favorite street to walk along. It's quaint and filled with great shops and famous tourist attractions (only the hardcore tourists, the ones that have done research, come along here). The buildings all boast a lot of lively character. As much as I hate the 74 steps that I climb up and down every time I leave my apartment, I secretly love them since it is a situation that I'll probably never encounter again after leaving Rome.

I can't believe my time here is nearly half over; it has flown by. I imagine the next half will go by just as quickly. I do already think about what life will be like when I return back to the States. So much has changed and is changing at home and in Ames; it'll be interesting to see how things pan out. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that next semester will be my last semester in college! I can't believe how quickly that is approaching. As a child and teen, graduating from college always seemed so far away. Now that it is approaching, it seems like just yesterday I was that teen thinking about how long it'd be until I was out in the "real world".

Oh life. It's always an adventure full of successes and failures. And to think, at any one moment it can be over. I've really started to notice this with all of the deaths that have been occuring at ISU. So I have to ask you... What do you want to do before you die?

Cinque Terre-ific

When Katie and I travelled before heading to Rome, we used a Eurail pass to get around. Because of the type of pass we bought, we had 6 travel days to use within 2 months. During our pre-school travelling, we only ended up using 4 days so we had 2 left to use. Since time is winding down now in our 2 month limit, we figured it'd be best to use them. Thus, we decided on making two day trips-- one to Cinque Terre and one to Florence next weekend.

Cinque Terre stands for 5 towns and is located along the coast more north than Rome. It's attraction to tourists is the ability to hike between the 5 little towns. They offer different trails with some being more rigorous than others. We opted to take the scenic trail along the coast line.

The hike between the first town and the second was a quick and painless one. It merely lasted 20 minutes and had a paved sidewalk throughout. I was anticipating on this "hike" being a little more authentic than just walking along a paved sidewalk. So at this point I was a little bummed. I was also bummed that the second to third town hike was currently closed off due to a possibility of a landslide. Bummer. So this part of the hike turned into a crammed train ride and within being at Cinque Terre for 45 minutes, we were already at the third town.

Lucky for me, the hike between the third and fourth town was more authentic. There were steep inclines, narrow paths, crossing over little streams, branches in the way, etc. I loved every minute of it. I got to see spectacular views, reflect the situations I've been encountering, and get a great workout. (My legs are still sore 2 days later.) At the fourth town, Katie and I took a break for lunch. I opted to get a pesto lasagna since Cinque Terre is known for their pesto. It was decent; I think the restaurant was more of a tourist trap with overpriced items for what they distributed. Oh well... you win some and you lose some.

At this point Katie wanted to be done with hiking, but I wanted to continue since it was what we came here to do. Plus, I really wanted to make it to the last town for the thought of accomplishment. We decided to part ways, and I would continue to hike, turn around half way and meet her back in the fourth town. This part of the hike ended up giving me the best view yet on the trail so I'm glad I went! When I neared the time of when I'd have to turn around and make my way back, I really wanted to keep going and make it to the last town. I had already gotten about half way there. I would have cut it close with time though, and I didn't want to worry Katie, so I made my way back knowing that the fifth town will have to wait until another time.

While in Cinque Terre, I did notice one odd thing. I heard more American English in Cinque Terre than I've heard during the rest of my time here. Had I not known better, I would have thought I was in city in the United States with tourists from other countries coming there. It was a bit bothersome to hear so much; it made my head hurt. Cinque Terre is definitely an American tourist attraction.

I do recommend going. We saw people of all ages and sizes there! Therefore, anyone can complete it! Quite a few women were complaining to their husbands though about the trek and had to make frequent stops. Rather comical. MANY MANY uneven stairs, but the views and workout make it all worth it in the end.

This coming Saturday we're going to head to Florence for the day. On Sunday there are 6 people being canonized (becoming saints) in the Catholic church so I'm going to go scope out the Vatican City and hope to view the ceremony for that.

Katie DeSchepper, not Katie Ledin

To all my SK sistas:

It seems there has been some confusion regarding my blog posts. When I mention "Katie", I am talking about my roommate Katie DeSchepper, not Katie Ledin. Unfortunately, Katie Ledin lives quite a distance away from me and is another studio room so we don't constantly see each other. Katie Ledin, Lisa, and I are lucky enough to have our art history class together, so it is always great to see their faces there and chit chat about Sigma Kappa stuff. No worries, I keep them updated on things.

We miss you all! Best of luck with initiation and homecoming!

Part 2: Calm in Capri

Our field trip ended at about 3:30pm on Friday. This meant that we had the option to travel wherever we wanted to for the rest of the weekend or head back to Rome with our instructors. Katie and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity (we'd be reimbursed 20 Euro each) and planned a trip to Capri. It ended up being the perfect relaxing weekend that I needed!

Getting onto the island of Capri was relatively easy. A handful of other girls in our program were also heading onto the island so we travelled there together. It was a bit of a marathon to catch our ferry in Sorrento; thankfully we made it. Yes, there were more ferries coming through but I wanted to get onto the island ASAP and make it to our hotel before it got dark. The ferry ride over was quick-- only 20 minutes-- and very scenic. I couldn't help but close my eyes and smile as the wind blew through my hair. (Sorry for the cheesiness.)

Immediately upon getting onto the island, I wanted to check out this private boat tour stand that I had read about online. All of their reviews raved about how good it was and it sounded decently priced, too. I got there just as the shop was closing up but they were able to fit my group in for a tour the next day. It cost 100 Euro, but we got to split it 6 ways since there were 6 of us going on it. That's 17 Euro a piece-- a good deal in Capri! The next task was figuring out how to get to the hotel which was located in Anacapri. (The island is made up of Capri and Anacapri.) We were going to take the bus over there but we found out that our roommates were staying at the same hotel and had arranged for a car to pick them up! I don't know how we went without discussing this before we left for our field trip; I guess we need to communicate more. The car had enough space for us so Katie and I hopped in for what ended up being the scariest but most thrilling ride of our lives. Seriously.

There are no stoplights in Capri and the street is one lane in both directions. There aren't any divider lines. The road is made to travel up and across their mountain hills... aka lots of weaving on roads. Plus I think our driver liked to accelerate. At one point our driver turned off the main road onto the side street... or should I say sidewalk. The width of this "road" was literally no wider than 6 ft. This "road" also had a big drop to get onto it. All of our mouths dropped open and our eyes widen at the sight of this. Many giggles were shared on the ride and thankfully we made it safely. Our driver was a super cute old guy who wanted to assist with all of our needs. He pointed out things to us (as much as he could with the communication barrier) and pulled over THREE times for us to take scenic pictures of the city below us. After we got back into the car from the first pull over, we literally drove for 15 seconds before he pulled over again. Very comical.

The hotel we stayed at, Il Girasole, was beautiful! It had a wonderful view overlooking the ocean and had colorful flowers all around. The actual interiors of the rooms were rather basic and small (think Super 8 but smaller). The most exciting part about our room (in my opinion) was that there was a switch to turn on/off the main lights in the middle of our headboard! A bit tacky? Yes, but very convenient. To add to the setting, we had a real rooster crow "alarm clock" to wake us up the next morning! Okay, so the first rooster call was cute and so was the second one, but after that they kind of got annoying. It was like I was hitting the snooze button every 3 minutes. Katie and I ended up not making it out of our room until about 11am or after (Katie was the one who wanted to sleep-- not me for once!).

We decided to "hike" down to Capri. We thought it was going to be a simple walk but it was more rigorous than we thought and took over 1 1/2 hours to make it down to the port. Pedestrians walk on the side of the road since sidewalks don't really exist. Needless to say, we put our life in danger more than once. Fun fact: During high tour season, people aren't allowed to drive in Capri unless you have special privileges and what not. Down at the port Katie and I had were convinced to have lunch with this great server named Carlo. He was a charming and funny guy.

Next up was the private boat tour. We met the other girls at the stand and the owner of the boat tours said her tour guide was running late and should be around in ten minutes. We went off to grab some beers to take onto the boat and quickly returned. The owner seemed to be getting a bit flustered with the guide not being there. She explained that there had been a situation and that we had a different tour guide than scheduled helping us out. (At least I think that's what she said.) As the guide, Christian, was walking over, she pointed him out and well, we were all pleasantly surprised and got even more excited for the boat tour to begin! :-) I highly recommend going on a boat tour if you're ever in Capri. It felt rather special to be on a private boat tour. We got to bask in the sun while listening to tunes, hearing about the island, and asking our tour guide questions. Christian let us swim through one of the grottoes. Not all of the girls had swimsuits on, but Katie and I did so we took advantage of the opportunity. The water was so clear and pretty! And salty. As we swam through the grotto, I looked up at the rock formations above me and couldn't help but have a "I'm so thankful for this opportunity of a lifetime" moment. It was by far one of the coolest moments of my study abroad so far.

Katie and I ended up drinking wine on our hotel's terrace that evening with our roommates. I actually didn't drink because I wasn't feeling well but was around to join in the conversation. The next day we took a lift to the highest point in Capri. Once again, there were spectacular views to be seen! And just like that we had to start our journey back to Rome. One cool thing about the ferry ride home is that there was a swordfish jumping out of the water! Pretty cool. This day proved to be Katie's and my lucky day. We literally made all of our connections with less than 5 minutes to spare. That's one ferry, one metro, one train, and one final bus ride to our apartment. Then, when we got to our apartment we discovered that our exterior door lock had been replaced so our keys no longer worked. Someone came out of the door less than a minute after we got there. It's a rare occurrence to ever run into someone entering/exiting the building at the same time in our building so it was just another lucky moment.

Part 1: Flashback to 79 AD

This past weekend my class went on our South Field Trip to Napoli (Naples), Sorrento, and Herculaneum. We did a brief stint at the Archaeological Museum in Napoli to view artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. These two towns ended up being wiped out in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered them both with lava. The lava ended up perfectly preserving these towns' buildings, frescoes, and other such objects. Thus, the purpose of our field trip (to view these items) and the towns themselves. After visiting the museum we walked through some gallerias, ate some pastries, and wandered the streets before heading to the train for Sorrento.

Catching our train for Sorrento ended up being a more difficult and comical task than planned. We arrived at the platform about 10 minutes before the train was due to arrive, but it hadn't been clearly communicated what time our train was coming in. For anyone who knows the metro/train system, then they know that within 10 minutes two or three different trains can roll through the same platform. Anyways, I was dying for a drink so I went off to buy one because I had heard we had about 10 minutes. As I walked away from our platform and up the stairs to the sales stand, a train stopped at our platform. I had looked and saw that it didn't say Sorrento on it, so I was betting that it wasn't our train. At the same time, I saw two of our instructors walking down the stairs towards the platform. I asked them if this was our train and they said "Yes." So oh well, I was going to go without my drink. I walked down with them and mentioned that the train didn't say Sorrento on it. My instructors quickly looked at each other and then began to sprint down the platform. At this point, all my classmates had boarded onto this wrong train and now my intstructors were running by knocking on windows and yelling at them to get off. Everyone managed to get off except for four people. To where they went, I have no idea. Luckily, they had cell phones on them, and we were able to quickly contact them. Overall, it was a pretty comical sight to watch it all happen. I ended up getting a perspective of it that no one else had, and at the end of it all, I was able to get my soda. :-)

After getting onto the correct train, we took it to Sorrento which is where we stayed the night. We had some time to kill before dinner, so I went shopping with a few other girls. I ended up making my first clothing/accessory purchase of my European stay in Sorrento! I bought a long strand of real pearls for 5 Euros! For dinner, our instructors set up a group dinner at a restaurant they now referred to as "The Lemon Tree". There we got served a delicious 4 course meal and had 4 bottles of wine to split at our table of 8! After dinner, Pia, our instructor, had set-up a special deal at disco club to get in and get our first drink for 8 Euro. Unfortunately, not a lot of people decided to take part in this but it was a lot of fun for those who did! It was rather comical to see our instructors showing off their moves on the dance floor. We even got to sing and dance to Alejandro by Lady Gaga with our instructor Alessandro!

Early the next morning we caught the train to Herculaneum. The place was soo cool! Herculaneum is smaller than Pompeii, but the building walls that are preserved are larger than those at Pompeii. We got to walk into different domuses (houses), baths, insulas (apartments), and stores. It was an amazing occasion to see frescoes dating back almost 2000 years to still be filled with color.




In my opinion, the general concept of buildings have not changed much from this date. Dining rooms and kitchens were close to their outdoor space. Bedrooms were placed near the back. Retail spaces advertised their products through their windows and painted advertisements on their exteriors. Wood beams and brick were used to build walls and tiles were used for flooring. Walls were being decorated with colored plaster (more beautifully than how walls are typically painted today). They had roads with sidewalks; even had holes in the sidewalks to tie up their horses. It makes me wonder is it just simply amazing how crafted and wise these people were during their time? Or are we unwise to still rely on some of these basic concepts? The more I looked around the area the more I thought, "Wow. We haven't advanced much from this time." Sure we have computers, phones, electricity, etc. but that is all technological and not what I'm focusing on for this point. What about building structures? I think it is merely an expanded idea of what these former figures have created. Then again, that is common design. Different art pieces are typically an adaption of something done before. So, that statement alone brings me back to my initial thought. These buildings from 79 AD are worthy of appraisal just like some buildings are today. They've been created ingeniously by a designer who has decided to design it based of what they have learned and analyzed with a personal stamp. And that is what continues to make the design wheel spin.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post about my trip to Capri tomorrow so be sure to check back!