Buonesera,
Two mondays ago the class went on a trip to see the out skirts of Orvieto, as well as, visit our client for our project, and then visited the home of our beloved professors Don and Carol. The views outside Orvieto were spectaular with buildings designed to frame views of Orveito, especially the Duomo when it was possible. The weather was clear, after a rainy day and the brisk, northwind clearing the skies. Don was certian to make sure everyone had enough time to get the perfect photo as he is a huge supporter of lighing and framing in photogarphy although he was never a profesional photographer himself.
Later we made it out to Cinzia's place after waling up the step sloped drive way, the "mini" bus could not make it up. She has little house with original stone out front and timber beam stucture inside. Its a lovely little cottage for two and adjacent to it is the remnants of an old stable. Our project is to redesign the space into a Bed & Breakfast for a few people to stay durring the warm months. The design process has been interesting as everything gets recycled here. The stone last forever as well as terracotta roofing tiles. The rules seem to be constantly changing as far as maintining original design vs. a new imprint of a building it the same location. After several pictures finding an old cave for wine storage, realizing she has a whole walls worth of bay leaves, and walking thru what might have been the leach field, we bumbled back down the hill to head to Civita where Don and Carol live.
A little bit about Don and Carol before I continue. Don and Carol are both architects and professors who teach at K-State. Carol was our history of architeture teacher for three semesters and usually filled the class time with interesting stories and little Carol-like comments about the architecture that casued many of us to become regualr attenders. Don also teaches but does mostly studio. The two are an addorable older couple, with children married off. Carol is definately full of knowledge and always has an extra tid bit of information for you about the site, she very energetic and probably holds up better on some of these trips than my mother would. She is a trooper. Don on the other hand is the other half of Carol, he is very relaxed about things and sees the other side of things, he is ususally the one who heads up the back and enjoys spending individual time with his students and always full of witty comments and enjoys our class's humor. The two of them together is wonderful, Don always has a comment and Carol finishes it before he probably even thinks it, lol. Truely they have been a complete joy to have as professores. And now we were getting to see their house here in Civita!
Carol bought the little two stort cottage when she was in college, she was studying archiological ruins and her professor lived in Civita. Her professor encouraged her too look into the real estatate there and a few months later she bought a run-down old cottage, no electric, no plumming. Civita is a hilltop town that is actually called "The Dead City", right now Don and Carol are 2 of 10 residents in Civita, I don't even think the priest of the local church lives in the town. One of the reasons it is so unoccupied is becasue of the cliff edges falling off, but also the only way to get to Civita is by taking a huge steap bridge across the valley, and not by car, it is pedestrian only. The area is starting to grow now as it is becoming a popular destination for tourists.
So after we missed the bus we walked thru the town next to Civita to reach the bridge. We were all ready for a break when we finaly reached the bridge. The view is amazing. After the 15 min hike and I do mean HIKE across the foot bridge we enterd the gate into the little city. The place was mostly inhabited by cats an the only other people we saw were at the resturaunt we ate at for lunch. Carol showed us the house. It has a small little entry with an old working fireplace. Rounding the corner you climed some steap stairs to enter the main space. There was a little eat in kitchen with a pitched roof with two adjacent bedrooms. One door was so short that only 5' 1" Carol to enter the room without ducking. Both rooms had small windows and a slanted ceiling. The few steps up lead to a little outdoor patio, just big enough for two chairs and a gril. Forchunately, across the street Don and Carol had another space which was just recently turned into their living room. They put $10,000 worth of windows in to allow for amazing views off the cliff edge. The bathroom had a view to kill for. Right outside the little living space was a terraced garden and caves from the medieval age that they are using. They have a lovely little trelace with vines growing on it and flowers and trees fully green. The place was amazing. Not too bad to have a town to your self with spectacular views out over the hillside, especially when you compare it to my loud, thin floored apartment with 10,000 other occupants in town to keep you up at night.
As a whole the trip was great, we got to know a little bit more about Don and Carol when we vistied Civita and got some great views of Orvieto as well.
Orvieto
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Florence
Buena sera,
Sorry it has been so long since I have last blogged. This past week I was in southern Italy for three days getting several large doses of Roman ruins, but I will save that for later. I figured it best to start from where I last left off which was Florence. I went to Florence for two consecutive Fridays a few weeks back. It was mostly rainy and to say the least no one really wanted to be wet all day, forchunately I was hoping to fall in love with Florence.
Our first stop was the Duomo of course. It is not too far from the train station but relatively speaking nothing it that far from the train station. The Duomo was grand with the baptestry directly across from it in the piazza. They both have the same style or zebra stiping layers but they were built in completly differnt time periods by different artists. Our guide and teacher Marco was certian to point it out the doors of the Baptesty which are famous in the architecture world, solid bronze doors with 8 Biblical stories depicted on it. Also the Baptestry had 8 sides and Marco was certian to point out that 8 was a very important number for Christains, which I always thought was reserved for the number 7, anyone know the real anwser? In side the church was rather empty but had some points of interest, the rose window, and of course the dome itself. The dome was designed by Brunellesci and was an engineering feat and took decades if not a century to fully complete. The dome has now been painted with frescos of the end times if I recall correctly. However, you have to pay a few euros to see the frescos and climb the Dome. There is also the option of the bell tower or Campinille for the Duomo that has only a few over 400 stairs for a cheaper price. I have yet to do either, but intend on it next time it is actually sunny in Florence.
After that stop we stoped by Donte's Chaple and residence. If you dont know who Donte is he was a writer who was very much against the politics of religion and wrote "The Divine Comedy". Following Dante we walked the Courso and arrived at the Piazza della Signoria which is the heart of the city and know as the piazza of the people. On the square is the Pallazo vechio which is the Town Hall and the Uffizi gallery.
The Uffizi gallery was visited the following Friday, also known as the COLDEST day of winter. The gallery was beautiful it had all kinds of wonderful paintings from different periods. The majority of the early paintings were of Mother Mary and Jesus. I do think I have ever seen so many Jesus's before. As the paintings progressed the improtance of the art or what was depicted changed to the improtance of the artist themselves as is with Michalengelo, Giotto, Raphael, or Leonardo da Vinci. It was very intersting non the less, but lots of naked people, lol.
In addition to the Uffizi gallery I have seen Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, unforchunately after awhile all the churches seem to blend together especially in Florence because all the churches are predominately Renaissance style and look alike in design. But someting interesting about Santa Croce is that it is the largest chruch in Florence and that many famous families are burried there becasue they could bribe the clergy to let them be burried there. Well I thought it was interesting at least, the "holy" men being bribed.
After that I wondered to Ponte Vechio which is a bridge with shops on it over the river, the concept was really cool but all the shops were jewelry so I found it a bit disappointing.
Overall, I still did not love Florence, mostly because of the weather. I will be going several more times I imagine over the semester to see all the sites and hope to like it the more I am there.
Ciao,
Renae
Sorry it has been so long since I have last blogged. This past week I was in southern Italy for three days getting several large doses of Roman ruins, but I will save that for later. I figured it best to start from where I last left off which was Florence. I went to Florence for two consecutive Fridays a few weeks back. It was mostly rainy and to say the least no one really wanted to be wet all day, forchunately I was hoping to fall in love with Florence.
Our first stop was the Duomo of course. It is not too far from the train station but relatively speaking nothing it that far from the train station. The Duomo was grand with the baptestry directly across from it in the piazza. They both have the same style or zebra stiping layers but they were built in completly differnt time periods by different artists. Our guide and teacher Marco was certian to point it out the doors of the Baptesty which are famous in the architecture world, solid bronze doors with 8 Biblical stories depicted on it. Also the Baptestry had 8 sides and Marco was certian to point out that 8 was a very important number for Christains, which I always thought was reserved for the number 7, anyone know the real anwser? In side the church was rather empty but had some points of interest, the rose window, and of course the dome itself. The dome was designed by Brunellesci and was an engineering feat and took decades if not a century to fully complete. The dome has now been painted with frescos of the end times if I recall correctly. However, you have to pay a few euros to see the frescos and climb the Dome. There is also the option of the bell tower or Campinille for the Duomo that has only a few over 400 stairs for a cheaper price. I have yet to do either, but intend on it next time it is actually sunny in Florence.
After that stop we stoped by Donte's Chaple and residence. If you dont know who Donte is he was a writer who was very much against the politics of religion and wrote "The Divine Comedy". Following Dante we walked the Courso and arrived at the Piazza della Signoria which is the heart of the city and know as the piazza of the people. On the square is the Pallazo vechio which is the Town Hall and the Uffizi gallery.
The Uffizi gallery was visited the following Friday, also known as the COLDEST day of winter. The gallery was beautiful it had all kinds of wonderful paintings from different periods. The majority of the early paintings were of Mother Mary and Jesus. I do think I have ever seen so many Jesus's before. As the paintings progressed the improtance of the art or what was depicted changed to the improtance of the artist themselves as is with Michalengelo, Giotto, Raphael, or Leonardo da Vinci. It was very intersting non the less, but lots of naked people, lol.
In addition to the Uffizi gallery I have seen Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, unforchunately after awhile all the churches seem to blend together especially in Florence because all the churches are predominately Renaissance style and look alike in design. But someting interesting about Santa Croce is that it is the largest chruch in Florence and that many famous families are burried there becasue they could bribe the clergy to let them be burried there. Well I thought it was interesting at least, the "holy" men being bribed.
After that I wondered to Ponte Vechio which is a bridge with shops on it over the river, the concept was really cool but all the shops were jewelry so I found it a bit disappointing.
Overall, I still did not love Florence, mostly because of the weather. I will be going several more times I imagine over the semester to see all the sites and hope to like it the more I am there.
Ciao,
Renae
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Internet
Hey just to let you all know, I have very crappy internet here, I do not have it at my apartment and the student center is only open till 6pm italian time. Also, the speed of the internet is slow, about 5.2 megabites split between at least 21 people- that is pretty slow. So for now I can not get pictures up, I tried to get two pictures up today and it took over an hour, and even photobucket was slow, I tried to download 30 pictures and it took over two hours to be only 21% complete, so for now no pictures.........sorry.
Cooking with Chef Lorenzo
Buonasera,
Today we had our cooking class with Chef Lorenzo from Zepplin's. The twelve of us showed up at 8:30 am to go to the market and pick up some fresh food. On our way we stoped at what we call a "drug store" but actually they sold wine and chocolates. We got a s
weet grappa to start the day and choloclate hearts, since it is close to Valentine's day. As a side note, I would like to inform you that Valentine's day is an improtant holiday here as it is where it originated from, i.e. St.Valentine was Italian. Anyways, after some sweets we went to the market and tired 3 types of cheese, local small apples, blood oranges (they have a red color inside them) , and some amazing dried figs, all organic too! To say the least all the local farmers know Lorenzo. After that we ran into a little cafe and got some cappucinos and some pasteries made particularlly for carnivale, which is the multi-week celebration before lent. Eventually we made it back to Zepplin's and were greeted by the other chefs, most of them are studying under him for few months. My favorite two are Doug and Ryan, Doug from North Carolina and Ryan from California. Both of the guys remebered me from a few weeks ago when they invited me in one everning after freezing outside trying to get internet across the
street. Anyways, the twelve of us got divided into goups: bread, pasta, ragu (meat), wild boar, potatoe flan, fried artichokes, and doci (dessert). I of course volunteered to make dessert. I made 4 cakes with a lemon, vanilla flavor then I cut the cakes into three layers and put a hazulneut custard cream in between each layer. It turned out amazing! I also got to cut the fresh pasta and kneed some bread. By 1:00 we were finally eating. We had about 5 courses, all of which we prepared that morning, followed by a wine tasting. Mind you that when you cook in Italy wine is always around. Now everyone is trying to keep from passing out from a food coma. I had a great time with all the people there and the memories will be remebered forever. And perhaps now I can make my own three layer cakes and perhaps my own pasta. :)
Ciao!
Renae
Today we had our cooking class with Chef Lorenzo from Zepplin's. The twelve of us showed up at 8:30 am to go to the market and pick up some fresh food. On our way we stoped at what we call a "drug store" but actually they sold wine and chocolates. We got a s
weet grappa to start the day and choloclate hearts, since it is close to Valentine's day. As a side note, I would like to inform you that Valentine's day is an improtant holiday here as it is where it originated from, i.e. St.Valentine was Italian. Anyways, after some sweets we went to the market and tired 3 types of cheese, local small apples, blood oranges (they have a red color inside them) , and some amazing dried figs, all organic too! To say the least all the local farmers know Lorenzo. After that we ran into a little cafe and got some cappucinos and some pasteries made particularlly for carnivale, which is the multi-week celebration before lent. Eventually we made it back to Zepplin's and were greeted by the other chefs, most of them are studying under him for few months. My favorite two are Doug and Ryan, Doug from North Carolina and Ryan from California. Both of the guys remebered me from a few weeks ago when they invited me in one everning after freezing outside trying to get internet across the
street. Anyways, the twelve of us got divided into goups: bread, pasta, ragu (meat), wild boar, potatoe flan, fried artichokes, and doci (dessert). I of course volunteered to make dessert. I made 4 cakes with a lemon, vanilla flavor then I cut the cakes into three layers and put a hazulneut custard cream in between each layer. It turned out amazing! I also got to cut the fresh pasta and kneed some bread. By 1:00 we were finally eating. We had about 5 courses, all of which we prepared that morning, followed by a wine tasting. Mind you that when you cook in Italy wine is always around. Now everyone is trying to keep from passing out from a food coma. I had a great time with all the people there and the memories will be remebered forever. And perhaps now I can make my own three layer cakes and perhaps my own pasta. :)Ciao!
Renae
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Rome
This past friday, our group took a train to Rome for the day. We hit some of the main sites of Rome with our Italian History Professor and Native Italian, Marco. He can be pretty aggressive when it comes to tours, he doesn't stop for anything. With bags locked and protected we boarded the 6:55 am train to Rome and met Marco there at the station.
We first visted the Colosseum, we actually didn't walk through it but just viewed its exterior, as well as put Rome into context with the rest of the area. We walked by the Roman forum. The Roman forum was originally a swampy area that people disposed of remains. Later on the Romans turned the area into a market place for trade. Unforchunately, a busy street runs through the Forum and ruins effect. However, the ruins are impressive, even tho they are mere pieces to a once dominering facade. We visited Palatine Hill, the detailing was beautiful and the lighting enphasised the space. We got a history lesson of Rome on our walk and learned a bit about t
he familes that "founded" Rome. We later visited the Pantheon which was breath taking and followed by St. Peter's , or the Vatican Church. The detail was impressive. Chris and I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's we paid 5 euro to climb 512 stairs. Half way up we cross a catwalk along the base of the dome, there you can see all the mosaic detailing. Reaching the top of the dome, required overcoming fear of heights and claustrophobia for the last 200 steps, but after a few heavy breaths, I got to enjoy the view. I hadnt realize that the Vatican, is its own state and has its own property surrounding the Church. After St. Peter's it started to rain so we called it a day and headed back for the trainstation.
As a whole, Rome is too busy even in Feruary for me to enjoy the city. There truely is so much architectualy history in Rome it is overwhelming in itself, but the congestedness of it just ruins the atmosphere. I imagine I will return to visit the last few important sites: Vatican Museum, Spanish Steps, and Sisten Chapel, and the Trevy Fountian. Otherwise, Rome is to crazy, much like New York City.
Well that is it for now, I am headed to Florence this friday and hope to love it a bit more than Rome.
Ciao!
Renae
We first visted the Colosseum, we actually didn't walk through it but just viewed its exterior, as well as put Rome into context with the rest of the area. We walked by the Roman forum. The Roman forum was originally a swampy area that people disposed of remains. Later on the Romans turned the area into a market place for trade. Unforchunately, a busy street runs through the Forum and ruins effect. However, the ruins are impressive, even tho they are mere pieces to a once dominering facade. We visited Palatine Hill, the detailing was beautiful and the lighting enphasised the space. We got a history lesson of Rome on our walk and learned a bit about t
he familes that "founded" Rome. We later visited the Pantheon which was breath taking and followed by St. Peter's , or the Vatican Church. The detail was impressive. Chris and I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's we paid 5 euro to climb 512 stairs. Half way up we cross a catwalk along the base of the dome, there you can see all the mosaic detailing. Reaching the top of the dome, required overcoming fear of heights and claustrophobia for the last 200 steps, but after a few heavy breaths, I got to enjoy the view. I hadnt realize that the Vatican, is its own state and has its own property surrounding the Church. After St. Peter's it started to rain so we called it a day and headed back for the trainstation.As a whole, Rome is too busy even in Feruary for me to enjoy the city. There truely is so much architectualy history in Rome it is overwhelming in itself, but the congestedness of it just ruins the atmosphere. I imagine I will return to visit the last few important sites: Vatican Museum, Spanish Steps, and Sisten Chapel, and the Trevy Fountian. Otherwise, Rome is to crazy, much like New York City.
Well that is it for now, I am headed to Florence this friday and hope to love it a bit more than Rome.
Ciao!
Renae
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