I don't know where the time goes, I've got one post to do about seeing the David and tourists, but right now I'm to angry over people eating my food to be angry about tourists taking pictures. I also bought a 60 Euro book that is gigantic, I can't wait to try and pack that for the plane ride.
Posts without me whining about something coming soon, maybe.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Stranger days
So other than the first surprise of my roommate's accident, the week seems to be turning out to be very strange. Today it actually rained. Which I have to say, is probably the most surpirising thing I've seen since I've been here. Not that weather in itself is wierd, it's just that the weather here is constant, blazing bright sun in a clear blue sky every single day I've been here; so imagine finally seeing, not just clouds, but actual rain coming down from them.
And the city becomes a lot more dificult to navigate in when you're holding an umbrella, trying to avoid soggy tourists and all the illegal immegrants trying to hawk umbrellas, while also trying not to fall walking on the slick paving stones. But I guess that's what I get for wearing sandals today. And it wasn't even a downpour, it only rained for about 20 minutes before the sun reared it's head back in the sky, although the clouds did manage to stick around for a while longer, making the day a lot cooler too.
Classes today were pretty easy, had the mid-term in my history class and didn't have to paint for today in painting, instead we went to a gallery showing and the art teacher's studio. He does some really interesting expressionistic stuff and doing a lot of paintings on plastic, which I haven't seen before but creates a really unique effect on his work. There was also a really unfriendly cat there, or it might have just hated art students in particular, I didn't ask.
The show at the gallery was interesting, but it was also on top of a really high hill we had to trudge all the way up to get inside, and by that time the sun was back out so it wasn't much of a fun time. But we got to walk by Galileo Galiei's house on the way there. The gallery was full of so-so oil paintings and incredible watercolors by a 19th century artist, Vincenzio Cabianca. There were these huge sheets of paper with the most incredible scenes painted on them. I'm not really a landscape person but I was having fits over how incredible this man's art was, absolutely gorgeous and I cannot figure out how he could do such poor work in oil painting. I guess it just reinforces the superiority of watercolor as a medium, in my humble opinion anyway.
And the city becomes a lot more dificult to navigate in when you're holding an umbrella, trying to avoid soggy tourists and all the illegal immegrants trying to hawk umbrellas, while also trying not to fall walking on the slick paving stones. But I guess that's what I get for wearing sandals today. And it wasn't even a downpour, it only rained for about 20 minutes before the sun reared it's head back in the sky, although the clouds did manage to stick around for a while longer, making the day a lot cooler too.
Classes today were pretty easy, had the mid-term in my history class and didn't have to paint for today in painting, instead we went to a gallery showing and the art teacher's studio. He does some really interesting expressionistic stuff and doing a lot of paintings on plastic, which I haven't seen before but creates a really unique effect on his work. There was also a really unfriendly cat there, or it might have just hated art students in particular, I didn't ask.
The show at the gallery was interesting, but it was also on top of a really high hill we had to trudge all the way up to get inside, and by that time the sun was back out so it wasn't much of a fun time. But we got to walk by Galileo Galiei's house on the way there. The gallery was full of so-so oil paintings and incredible watercolors by a 19th century artist, Vincenzio Cabianca. There were these huge sheets of paper with the most incredible scenes painted on them. I'm not really a landscape person but I was having fits over how incredible this man's art was, absolutely gorgeous and I cannot figure out how he could do such poor work in oil painting. I guess it just reinforces the superiority of watercolor as a medium, in my humble opinion anyway.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Venice trip or hell on the water.
Back from Venice, and I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. Super hot, really expensive, and crammed with tourists is pretty much the only impression I took away from the city. But the train ride there was pretty nice, and really well air conditioned. It can sink underneath that lagoon it's stuck in tomorrow for all I care. I took some pictures though, I'll post them soon.
In other news, my roommate got hit by a bus last night (she's relatively okay) and I am going to go to the swimming pool for painting class.
In other news, my roommate got hit by a bus last night (she's relatively okay) and I am going to go to the swimming pool for painting class.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Off on another trip
Alright, going to Venice on Saturday, so I may not be able to post for a while. Here's a majority of the pictures I've taken in no particular order. Enjoy.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Recap of the rest of the Weekend and playing catch-up.
So after getting back from Siena and being totally exhausted from walking all over the place, what do I do on Saturday and Sunday? Walk around a couple of the museums and gardens here in Florence, of course. Because theoretically I want to make the most of my time here, and for me this involves seeing as many museums as possible.
Saturday, I walked through the Palazzo Vecchio and Bargello Museum, then Sunday at the Uffizi No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but take my word that the stuff inside is incredible. Especially as someone who has taken enough art history classes to recognize a lot of the stuff, seeing it in person is so much more impressive, especially once you see the actual dimensions of a piece. Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" almosst takes up an entire wall, I was a bit shocked to find out.
But walking through the museums is a kind of torture, since most of the places were built before air conditioning, guess what? There usually isn't any, or else is used so faintly you can't even tell if it's on. Not to mention all of the stairs to climb up and down, and you're not allowed to take water inside with you either. Before coming here I read about Standahl syndrome, which is supposed to be an affliction from coming to Florence where an individual is leterally overcome by the art and gets dizzy or faints. I think it has a lot mre to do with the heat and the stair climbing and all, but that's just my opinion.
Sunday, after a bit of a rest from the Uffizi I went over to the Boboli Gardens, which were a change of pace from the museums, not as busy, big open spaces, and trees! It offers a more sedate lace to visit and some extrodianry views of both the city of Florence and the Tuscan hillside behind it. However, walking through it, it was so hot, and dusty, and did I mention hot? I don't know how the Florentines of the Renaissance managed to walk everywhere wearing wool and furs and tights, because I start sweating after 2 minutes of walking wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. But then again, I suppose if I had just sat in one shady spot for a while, instead of trying to cover the entire gardens in a few hours I would have been in better shape. Because of the heat, most of the grass was baked dry, but smaller gardens had been watered better. The gardens also had a lot of cats in it, for some reason; these were also the first cats I'd seen in Italy and I'm sorry to say, most of them weren't very friendly.
This week for classes I got to visit Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, two of THE churches to visit in Florence. Played a bit more of Art History notables, and there were a lot in Santa Maria Novella, but Santa Croce did have the tombs of Galileo Galilei, Michaelangelo, and Machiavelli. And a really tasteless monument to Dante Aligheri, even though he isn't even buried there.
For painting we went to Cascine park, and had to take a bus to get there. An important note about the Italian buses, people are just as lax about whether or not you'e paid the bus fare as they are about driving. Apparently, once in a while they go around and check, but I've got two unpunched tickets, and I"m not using them unless I have to. Cascine park was in much the same shape as the Boboli Gardens, that is, baked to a fine golden-brown, but it did have a nice view of the Arno river, a fountain filled with geese and turtles; and odder still, a monument to George Washington. There's probably an interesting story behind that.
More pictures up this weekend, they take a while to post, especially if I want to have them in a certain order.
Saturday, I walked through the Palazzo Vecchio and Bargello Museum, then Sunday at the Uffizi No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but take my word that the stuff inside is incredible. Especially as someone who has taken enough art history classes to recognize a lot of the stuff, seeing it in person is so much more impressive, especially once you see the actual dimensions of a piece. Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" almosst takes up an entire wall, I was a bit shocked to find out.
But walking through the museums is a kind of torture, since most of the places were built before air conditioning, guess what? There usually isn't any, or else is used so faintly you can't even tell if it's on. Not to mention all of the stairs to climb up and down, and you're not allowed to take water inside with you either. Before coming here I read about Standahl syndrome, which is supposed to be an affliction from coming to Florence where an individual is leterally overcome by the art and gets dizzy or faints. I think it has a lot mre to do with the heat and the stair climbing and all, but that's just my opinion.
Sunday, after a bit of a rest from the Uffizi I went over to the Boboli Gardens, which were a change of pace from the museums, not as busy, big open spaces, and trees! It offers a more sedate lace to visit and some extrodianry views of both the city of Florence and the Tuscan hillside behind it. However, walking through it, it was so hot, and dusty, and did I mention hot? I don't know how the Florentines of the Renaissance managed to walk everywhere wearing wool and furs and tights, because I start sweating after 2 minutes of walking wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. But then again, I suppose if I had just sat in one shady spot for a while, instead of trying to cover the entire gardens in a few hours I would have been in better shape. Because of the heat, most of the grass was baked dry, but smaller gardens had been watered better. The gardens also had a lot of cats in it, for some reason; these were also the first cats I'd seen in Italy and I'm sorry to say, most of them weren't very friendly.
This week for classes I got to visit Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, two of THE churches to visit in Florence. Played a bit more of Art History notables, and there were a lot in Santa Maria Novella, but Santa Croce did have the tombs of Galileo Galilei, Michaelangelo, and Machiavelli. And a really tasteless monument to Dante Aligheri, even though he isn't even buried there.
For painting we went to Cascine park, and had to take a bus to get there. An important note about the Italian buses, people are just as lax about whether or not you'e paid the bus fare as they are about driving. Apparently, once in a while they go around and check, but I've got two unpunched tickets, and I"m not using them unless I have to. Cascine park was in much the same shape as the Boboli Gardens, that is, baked to a fine golden-brown, but it did have a nice view of the Arno river, a fountain filled with geese and turtles; and odder still, a monument to George Washington. There's probably an interesting story behind that.
More pictures up this weekend, they take a while to post, especially if I want to have them in a certain order.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Siena and San Gimignano, with pictures, even!
So getting out of the city was a nice change of pace. For one thing, there was actual plants and trees to see, because outside of window boxes, I haven't seen any real plant life in Florence, just rows and rows of yellow buildings. So being able to see the famous Tuscan landscape was exciting, needless to say it's a big difference from Wisconsin.
First view of Siena's Duomo.
Closer exterior view of the Duomo. It was HUGE.
The bus trip, not as exciting, although the bus was made by Mercedes-Benz; I usually ended up dozing whenever we were on it. It was a lot nicer once we actually got off the bus at Siena. We were assigned a tour guide and sent off on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city. One thing about Siena is that it has a lot of hills, it can make for some pretty interesting views and very steep streets though. Our guide told us that the city is divided into sections and each has it's own mascot, some where like high school mascots, like the wolves or the eagles; but some were really odd like the caterpillars, the geese and the tortoises.
San Domenico, where the head of St Catherine is held.
Siena street, this was the neighborhood of the Goose.
One thing I didn't like was that for the tour we walked mostly on the main streets. Which meant there were about a million other tourists walking around as wel, and occasionally a car to walk around. But the tour was only about two and a half hours long, but it went by, fast. It also left everyone with an hour and a half to kill. We ended up going into Siena's Duomo, which wasn't as big as Florence's, but was twice as overdone with elaborate decorations on the facade. The inside was much darker, and striped, in stacks of green and white marble, again with lots of different artworks and statues all over the walls. The Piazza del Campo is the huge public square in the shape of a scallop shell, with a little fountain at one end, and big government biulding at the other. Unfortunately didn't have time to go to the Museum of Torture, but did manage to see the preserved head and thumb of St Catherine of Siena. No pictures of that, unfortunately.
Interior view of the Duomo. No Flash Photography Allowed. No Bare Shoulders allowed either.
Piazza del Campo. They hold a huge horse race in this thing twice a year. It's a realy big deal for the locals, this year the Geese were the winners.
Tower to building right by the Campo. I could see people climbing inside of it. No time for that unfortunately.
San Gimignano was smaller than Siena or Florence, but some really increidible views out onto the countryside. The town and it's setup looked like it hadn't changed since the 13th century. To enter we had to go up a huge hill and enter through a gate placed in this enormous wall that surrounded the town. It was also less packed with other tourists, So it was a nice change from both of the previous cities. Didn't go inside of any of the buildings or churches here, mostly just walked around and admired the view from various points.
One of the towers at San Gimignano. Built in the Middle Ages, there's 13 of 76 still standing today.
One of the views from San Gimignano.
That all for this post. Later I'll type about visiting some of the museums in Florence, and the Boboli gardens. Plus more pictures, when I have the time.
First view of Siena's Duomo.
Closer exterior view of the Duomo. It was HUGE.
The bus trip, not as exciting, although the bus was made by Mercedes-Benz; I usually ended up dozing whenever we were on it. It was a lot nicer once we actually got off the bus at Siena. We were assigned a tour guide and sent off on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city. One thing about Siena is that it has a lot of hills, it can make for some pretty interesting views and very steep streets though. Our guide told us that the city is divided into sections and each has it's own mascot, some where like high school mascots, like the wolves or the eagles; but some were really odd like the caterpillars, the geese and the tortoises.
San Domenico, where the head of St Catherine is held.
Siena street, this was the neighborhood of the Goose.
One thing I didn't like was that for the tour we walked mostly on the main streets. Which meant there were about a million other tourists walking around as wel, and occasionally a car to walk around. But the tour was only about two and a half hours long, but it went by, fast. It also left everyone with an hour and a half to kill. We ended up going into Siena's Duomo, which wasn't as big as Florence's, but was twice as overdone with elaborate decorations on the facade. The inside was much darker, and striped, in stacks of green and white marble, again with lots of different artworks and statues all over the walls. The Piazza del Campo is the huge public square in the shape of a scallop shell, with a little fountain at one end, and big government biulding at the other. Unfortunately didn't have time to go to the Museum of Torture, but did manage to see the preserved head and thumb of St Catherine of Siena. No pictures of that, unfortunately.
Interior view of the Duomo. No Flash Photography Allowed. No Bare Shoulders allowed either.
Piazza del Campo. They hold a huge horse race in this thing twice a year. It's a realy big deal for the locals, this year the Geese were the winners.
Tower to building right by the Campo. I could see people climbing inside of it. No time for that unfortunately.
San Gimignano was smaller than Siena or Florence, but some really increidible views out onto the countryside. The town and it's setup looked like it hadn't changed since the 13th century. To enter we had to go up a huge hill and enter through a gate placed in this enormous wall that surrounded the town. It was also less packed with other tourists, So it was a nice change from both of the previous cities. Didn't go inside of any of the buildings or churches here, mostly just walked around and admired the view from various points.
One of the towers at San Gimignano. Built in the Middle Ages, there's 13 of 76 still standing today.
One of the views from San Gimignano.
That all for this post. Later I'll type about visiting some of the museums in Florence, and the Boboli gardens. Plus more pictures, when I have the time.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Random Pictures
Finally, some random pictures in no particular order. Hopefully I'll have ones up from Siena sometime tomorrow, more in depth posts then, too.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Huh.
I just swatted a mosquito and a 50 Euro bill fell out from behind a tackboard. And there was ANOTHER 50 Euro still behind the board.
I AM MAGIC!!!!!!
I AM MAGIC!!!!!!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
News
Got the museum card today, now I just have to wait for the chance to use it, hopefully this weekend. I'm also going on the class trip to Siena tomorrow, with any luck I'll be able to see the head and thumb of a preserved saint and a museum about the history of Torture...fun times.
Today, I got lost in the city for a while, though technically speaking I got lost twice. Once on my way to the San Gallo campus, then on the way back, when I tried to use the same route. This is generally what happens when I refuse to look at a map and the street names change at every block. I got lost yesterday too, doing the exact same thing, but I try and look at these as learning experiences. Learn to look at the map once in a while or experience the sweltering heat of Italy some more. Though while I while I was lost I managed to find a vegetarian resturant I hadn't been able to find earlier, so it all did work out for the best.
Of course wandering around for an extra hour led to some incredibly grimy feet and a lot of sweating, and having to go to painting class right after didn't help. The extra four hours in the sun made me feel even grosser, partially because of the ridiculous amounts of sweating, but also now I'm starting to develop a farmer's tan. I don't think there is anything else in the world that could depress me more than this at the moment.
Still trying to figure out the picture thing, I'm using Eva's computer so I'm going to have to wait and ask for her help on this one.
Today, I got lost in the city for a while, though technically speaking I got lost twice. Once on my way to the San Gallo campus, then on the way back, when I tried to use the same route. This is generally what happens when I refuse to look at a map and the street names change at every block. I got lost yesterday too, doing the exact same thing, but I try and look at these as learning experiences. Learn to look at the map once in a while or experience the sweltering heat of Italy some more. Though while I while I was lost I managed to find a vegetarian resturant I hadn't been able to find earlier, so it all did work out for the best.
Of course wandering around for an extra hour led to some incredibly grimy feet and a lot of sweating, and having to go to painting class right after didn't help. The extra four hours in the sun made me feel even grosser, partially because of the ridiculous amounts of sweating, but also now I'm starting to develop a farmer's tan. I don't think there is anything else in the world that could depress me more than this at the moment.
Still trying to figure out the picture thing, I'm using Eva's computer so I'm going to have to wait and ask for her help on this one.
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