italy overview
Jul. 14th, 2005 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perevisionI wish I were ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
petronia so I could make a soundtrack for this trip.
Italy was everything that anyone's ever said about it and more. I only took pictures on a film camera, but I dropped it off in a special shop to get CD's done, and I'll put the photos on the Web when I get them back so people can see them. The Vatican was a pain to get through because of all the tourists...but so worth it! I'm so glad I got to see the Sistine Chapel after it was restored. I stood there under the Creation of Adam with tears in my eyes. I still can't believe I was THERE.
(I did have to shoo away my cousins when they asked me what on earth was the matter with me. Standing in a chapel and crying isn't as common an experience as it used to be.)
No pictures allowed in the Vatican, so we got the book instead. I did take pictures of the Colosseum, the Palazzo Venezia of Mussolini (the biggest piece of kitsch in Rome--it's built like a Roman mausoleum, but it's so much newer it looks like a giant souvenir), the tomb of Augustus Caesar (!!!!!), Pompeii and a lot of Roman remains, as well as some lovely fountains by Bernini. But it was so hard to see anything, because there were so many strikes and holidays that most shops and museums were closed 3-4 days a week! Must have been the heat--it was 40 degrees Celsius every day. By the end of the Pompeii tour, we were covered in ash as well.
Florence had the best shopping. We were right by the open markets! They were selling mostly touristy stuff like t-shirts and fake masks, but my cousins and I got a good deal on leather jackets. I got a punk black jacket for 90 euro and Mig got a racing jacket for 180. 70% off!
The food market was enormous. A huge 2-story warehouse full of olive oils, wines, cheeses, meats, vegetables, fruits and spices. They even had dried porcini mushrooms which could be vacuum-packed on the spot and shipped to the US!
We saw David in Florence, and he was gorgeous and perfect, but not as intriguing to me as the marble "slaves" that Michelangelo left unfinished. I suspect he meant to leave them half-done as a sort of instruction manual, because you can clearly see every step of the carving in each work. My favorite statue in Italy wasn't any of these. He was a beautiful bronze Perseus by Cellini, and he was the first mythical Greek statue I'd ever seen; I saw him in my book of Greek mythology when I was small, along with a painting of Medusa that I was terrified of (which later turned out to be by Caravaggio!). He's holding up Medusa's severed head, and they have almost identical serene expressions on their faces. I wonder why.
We also saw the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge full of gold shops which bridges the River Arno and has a bust of Cellini right in the middle of it. We also saw amazing gardens in the Palazzo Pitti, which I took pictures of, including a modern art installation that had been set up there. We saw a huge church made of malachite, marble and gold called the Duomo, which is so amazing you're almost bored by its conventional interior. (Almost!)
But Venice was the best. As soon as I saw it I looked at my cousin Nic and said, "Ok, we have to go home now." He said "Why?" and I said "Because if I stay here any longer I'll want to live here." I DID want to live there. I also ate more gelato there than anywhere else, and that's saying something. Every day it was a big waffle cone of chocolate mint gelato, and a cappuccino or a hot chocolate. Everyday I walked down to the point of the Grand Canal and sat by an enormous rocket-shaped installation, just listening to the waves slap the marble steps and watching the water-buses pass by. The boys and I also went on a gondola ride, plus we visited the Accademia and saw amazing paintings by Tintoretto, Canaletto and Titian. The saddest one was one Titian did of the Virgin with two saints, because in the corner he'd painted a tiny picture of himself and his son kneeling before the Virgin, praying to be spared from the plague. They died soon afterward.
We also visited the Piazza San Marco (with arches that "throw themselves into a marble froth" according to John Ruskin), the Arsenale with some statues stolen from Greece, and the Rialto. I didn't get to take a picture of the Rialto, but I did get to take some *from* the Rialto of the canal views from the top. Also visited the island of Murano and took some glass-blowing pictures.
All in all it was a life-changing experience. I still find it a bit hard to take in. We saw so much in such a short time, and yet we didn't see nearly enough. I'm planning to go back with my friends, but I want to brush up on my Spanish first. Italians seem nicer when you speak in Spanish than in English; they're not unpleasant like the French, but they seem a bit more resigned to tourists, especially American ones.
There's one problem...I took so many pictures, I forgot to include myself! I think the boys took a few pictures with me in their digicam, but I only remember two pictures I'm definitely in. It was Nic who remembered to take my picture on our very last night in Venice. So I need to take some pictures of myself with my nice new tan for my profile; I look rather like a zombie in my current one.
When Mama and Lolo come next week, we're on assignment to take them to Bath, Stonehenge and the Tower of London. They're staying at the Sheraton Belgravia. The titas are coming back (with Tita Anj) a few days after that. So it's going to be a busy month.
School looks good as well. I'm taking Graphic Design 1, Animation 2 and Illustration 3. I've PROMISED my Illustration teacher, on pain of pain, that I will stay away from any artist, genre, technique or style that I have clung to in the past. I've promised myself not to buy any new art supplies, either. We'll see, ha ha! At least I know I'll have lots of inspiration and material for this term.
petronia so I could make a soundtrack for this trip. Italy was everything that anyone's ever said about it and more. I only took pictures on a film camera, but I dropped it off in a special shop to get CD's done, and I'll put the photos on the Web when I get them back so people can see them. The Vatican was a pain to get through because of all the tourists...but so worth it! I'm so glad I got to see the Sistine Chapel after it was restored. I stood there under the Creation of Adam with tears in my eyes. I still can't believe I was THERE.
(I did have to shoo away my cousins when they asked me what on earth was the matter with me. Standing in a chapel and crying isn't as common an experience as it used to be.)
No pictures allowed in the Vatican, so we got the book instead. I did take pictures of the Colosseum, the Palazzo Venezia of Mussolini (the biggest piece of kitsch in Rome--it's built like a Roman mausoleum, but it's so much newer it looks like a giant souvenir), the tomb of Augustus Caesar (!!!!!), Pompeii and a lot of Roman remains, as well as some lovely fountains by Bernini. But it was so hard to see anything, because there were so many strikes and holidays that most shops and museums were closed 3-4 days a week! Must have been the heat--it was 40 degrees Celsius every day. By the end of the Pompeii tour, we were covered in ash as well.
Florence had the best shopping. We were right by the open markets! They were selling mostly touristy stuff like t-shirts and fake masks, but my cousins and I got a good deal on leather jackets. I got a punk black jacket for 90 euro and Mig got a racing jacket for 180. 70% off!
The food market was enormous. A huge 2-story warehouse full of olive oils, wines, cheeses, meats, vegetables, fruits and spices. They even had dried porcini mushrooms which could be vacuum-packed on the spot and shipped to the US!
We saw David in Florence, and he was gorgeous and perfect, but not as intriguing to me as the marble "slaves" that Michelangelo left unfinished. I suspect he meant to leave them half-done as a sort of instruction manual, because you can clearly see every step of the carving in each work. My favorite statue in Italy wasn't any of these. He was a beautiful bronze Perseus by Cellini, and he was the first mythical Greek statue I'd ever seen; I saw him in my book of Greek mythology when I was small, along with a painting of Medusa that I was terrified of (which later turned out to be by Caravaggio!). He's holding up Medusa's severed head, and they have almost identical serene expressions on their faces. I wonder why.
We also saw the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge full of gold shops which bridges the River Arno and has a bust of Cellini right in the middle of it. We also saw amazing gardens in the Palazzo Pitti, which I took pictures of, including a modern art installation that had been set up there. We saw a huge church made of malachite, marble and gold called the Duomo, which is so amazing you're almost bored by its conventional interior. (Almost!)
But Venice was the best. As soon as I saw it I looked at my cousin Nic and said, "Ok, we have to go home now." He said "Why?" and I said "Because if I stay here any longer I'll want to live here." I DID want to live there. I also ate more gelato there than anywhere else, and that's saying something. Every day it was a big waffle cone of chocolate mint gelato, and a cappuccino or a hot chocolate. Everyday I walked down to the point of the Grand Canal and sat by an enormous rocket-shaped installation, just listening to the waves slap the marble steps and watching the water-buses pass by. The boys and I also went on a gondola ride, plus we visited the Accademia and saw amazing paintings by Tintoretto, Canaletto and Titian. The saddest one was one Titian did of the Virgin with two saints, because in the corner he'd painted a tiny picture of himself and his son kneeling before the Virgin, praying to be spared from the plague. They died soon afterward.
We also visited the Piazza San Marco (with arches that "throw themselves into a marble froth" according to John Ruskin), the Arsenale with some statues stolen from Greece, and the Rialto. I didn't get to take a picture of the Rialto, but I did get to take some *from* the Rialto of the canal views from the top. Also visited the island of Murano and took some glass-blowing pictures.
All in all it was a life-changing experience. I still find it a bit hard to take in. We saw so much in such a short time, and yet we didn't see nearly enough. I'm planning to go back with my friends, but I want to brush up on my Spanish first. Italians seem nicer when you speak in Spanish than in English; they're not unpleasant like the French, but they seem a bit more resigned to tourists, especially American ones.
There's one problem...I took so many pictures, I forgot to include myself! I think the boys took a few pictures with me in their digicam, but I only remember two pictures I'm definitely in. It was Nic who remembered to take my picture on our very last night in Venice. So I need to take some pictures of myself with my nice new tan for my profile; I look rather like a zombie in my current one.
When Mama and Lolo come next week, we're on assignment to take them to Bath, Stonehenge and the Tower of London. They're staying at the Sheraton Belgravia. The titas are coming back (with Tita Anj) a few days after that. So it's going to be a busy month.
School looks good as well. I'm taking Graphic Design 1, Animation 2 and Illustration 3. I've PROMISED my Illustration teacher, on pain of pain, that I will stay away from any artist, genre, technique or style that I have clung to in the past. I've promised myself not to buy any new art supplies, either. We'll see, ha ha! At least I know I'll have lots of inspiration and material for this term.
