Week 7 - A fairly unorganized but worthwhile trip to Pisa & Siena

This last week was a pretty busy week in studio, with a presentation for our piazza studies and our design presentation around the corner… Thursday we presented what we have so far for our two piazzas and got feedback for the final board that is due back in Moscow. 

That night was our second last group dinner. At that dinner four of us spontaneously decided to leave the town and go travel for two days. The plan was to leave Friday at 7am from Termini to Pisa and later that day to Siena where we would spend the night. Well by Thursday 11pm we had neither a place to stay nor did we know the train connections to either of our destinations. To top it all our internet decided to shot off and not work for the rest of the day. So we got up Friday at 5:30 (hoping the internet was back on) got some addresses for hostels in Siena and at least got a glimpse at the trains and left the apartment at 6:20 heading to Termini. We were lucky there was a train leaving within the next 8 minutes, the only thing was that the train was waiting at the 2 E track, what was about half a mile from the regular tracks, but that didn’t bother us for the next 5 min until somebody of our group asked out loud “hey what does 2 E mean?!” By now the it was 3 min before the train leaves and we started sprinting… (our poor girls were wearing sandals!!). Beside that little sprint in Termini everything else went pretty smoothly, if you consider the huge amount of time that we spend on organizing the trip… Pisa was very interesting, I heard about the leaning tower so often but never seen it in person, and I must say it is leaning pretty bad, more than I thought. So of course we took some “touristy” picture, we hit the tower leaned against it, hugged it, blow it over, caught it and tons of other random poses. After that giant photo shoot, we split up to explore Pisa for a little longer before we were heading Siena.Just a 2 hour train right and we got into Siena. And Siena is beautiful! I liked the city from the very first moment on. I have been to so many beautiful places here in Italy, and Siena is definitely one of the most memorable ones. I was impressed by the main piazza, piazza del campo (famous through the “Pailo di Siena", one of the hardest horse races in the world). The piazza is sloping down so at night there are hundreds of people sitting on it (almost like in an amphitheater, with the exception that there is no stage that they are looking at). The piazza is one of Europe’s greatest medieval squares. I have always heard about its beauty and architectural integrity, and now that I have seen it I can say that it is true.All in all it was a really worthwhile trip that we made, I was debating weather I should go or not because of studio that is due next week, but I know I would have regret if I wouldn’t have gone. Here is a panoramic photo of the Piazza del campo.

Week 6 - Field Trip to Umbria

The past weekend we had our second field trip of the program. We started Friday morning from Termini to Spoleto, later that day to Perugia, spend the night and the next day there and went Saturday night till Monday in Assisi.

It was an interesting weekend, one thing that I noticed was the change of pace . Termini was (as always) super busy, Spoleto was the complete different, life there was just moving with a way slower pace, it almost seamed kind of “sleepy” but not in a negative way but in a comfortable way. Late afternoon we moved on to Perugia were we spend the night. Perugia was again another pace; it was not as loud and busy as Rome but vivid in an other way. The people in the city were younger; you could tell that Perugia is a college town. At night we were hanging out around the piazza 4 Novembre, it was a really nice evening although all of us were a little tiered after that long day.

Saturday we had a short introduction tour with matt and after that we toured around the city on our own and got some worthwhile sketches in; it was a pleasure to sketch in such a great environment. In the late afternoon we moved on to Assisi, I was kind of sad that we already leaved Perugia, there was so much more to explore, experience and to draw.Assisi was just as beautiful as Perugia and Spoleto, but as I already said earlier again with another pace. Assisi was touristy to some degree, we saw many pilgrims, so it was touristy but in a more comfortable way. Sketching and studying the different cities helped me to experience them in a much more meaningful way. After all 3 places that we have been to I felt like I haven’t had enough time. Here is one of the sketches I did in Assisi, probably one of the best ones that I did on this field trip.

Week 5 - Vatican City

The weeks are flying by, this week we are already into the second half of the program…, I cant believe that we already been here for over a month. We started last week with a whole day in the Vatican. Tuesday morning we sketched at the Saint Peter’s square for 3 hours. I tried to tackle the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica. I was sitting in the shadow of the big obelisk in the middle of the square. I got all my line work done but when I wanted to add some watercolor the sun moved a round the obelisk and I decided to do watercolor the sketch later and tried to get some other drawings in.After our sketching session in the morning we broke for lunch and met up around 1 for the Vatican museums.The Vatican museums were definitely a highlight of the program so far. I have been already up at the St Peter’s Square a couple of times but never made it into the Museum, so I was looking for that for quite a while. The Museums are among the greatest museums in the world, the show parts of the work from the huge collection built by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries. Within the 5 hours we spent so many art masterpieces, on our way through the Museums we saw the Sistine Chapel, the Stanze della Segnatura and countless other artworks that I dreamed to see for a very long time.The only downside was that the walk through the Museums felt like they funneled us through like cows. It was hard to enjoy and experience all that artwork, because either somebody tried to squeeze through and you got an elbow in your hips, or people just positioned themselves right in front of you to take photos of the artwork or so… but that just shows how popular the museums are I guess…Later that week we went back to the Vatican to visit. St Peters dome. Matt gave us an introduction about the Basilica and after that we wondered around by our self. Before breaking for lunch we climbed up the dome and I must say, those were the best 5€ I spent in Rome so far! The view from up there was amazing, it was kind of a fight to get a spot at the railing, but once you stood there you had a beautiful view over the whole city!

Week 4

The weeks are flying by, this week we reached the half way point, I cant believe that we already been here for over a month. It is a strange feeling, because on the one hand it feels like yesterday when I was taking my finals back in Moscow and getting ready fore Rome; but on the other hand when I’m thinking back to the first days here in Rome and what I have seen, what I have sketched, what people I have meet and what I have done between then and now it feels like an eternity that I have been here. It is interesting how the perception of time can be so relative to the perspective you’re looking at it.
 After four weeks I can finally say that I start to understand the city. I can check off more and more sites of my to-do-list, but on the other hand that list is getting longer and longer with each day; so it almost seems like a race that I probably won’t win.This last week was a very important one for me. I had my first sketches that I am happy with. I noticed that I finally start developing my own style and carry that one style through all my sketches. Ofcourse there is still a lot to learn for me, and certainly not everything I draw looks amazing all of a sudden. But when I’m browsing through my sketchbook it’s first of all amazing how much we already sketched and then I can see how I became already a little bit better. This is a real motivation boost for me and makes me sketch even more. So although we did a lot of sketching this week I actually went out yesterday and today by myself to sketch for a little bit (and that in 95°F).
But the highlight of last week was definitely the second walking tour of Jeffery Blanchard, he gave us a tour about some of the Baroque churches around the Piazza Quirinale. The tour was manly about Borromini and Bernini; I say “mainly” because the topic was Borromini and Bernini Jeffery always put it into a larger context, so we covered way more then just these two artists. It was a great lecture/walking tour, Jeffery is definitely one of the most intelligent people I have ever met, he knew so much about everything, I was following him the whole 4 and a half hours of the walking tour trying to write down and remember as much as possible. (And that comes from a guy who usually falls asleep 15 min into the lecture).

It was another great week in Rome, I improved my sketching, I made some progress in studio, meet some new people and most importantly Germany advanced with 3 straight wins into the Quarters at the EuroCup so… I really cant complain…., allora arrivederci a la prossima settimana!

3rd Week - Field trip to Amalfi Coast

The highlight of this past week definitely was the first field trip to the Amalfi Coast; we first went to Paestum, then Atrani and Amalfi. In Paestum we saw some of the best-preserved ruins in the world, these greek temples were built more then 2000 years ago and they are still in really good conditions. If you see the temples you can easily imagine how they looked in they glory days. On the other hand it was also interesting to see how such an active place that once was so powerful was taken back by nature and then rediscovered at 1752 (roughly at the same time when also Pompeji and Herkulaneum). The ruins were everywhere and to see them in such good conditions was amazing, it was like walking through an ancient village.

Later that day we continued our trip to Atrani, where we stayed for the next 3 days. It is a 10 min walk from the more famous Amalfi. And the contrast between Amalfi and Atrani was like day and night. Amalfi was super touristy, you could barely move and you mainly heared people speaking anything but Italian. And just a 10 min walk away you are in Atrani and as I just said earlier it is a huge contrast between the two cities. Atrani is a little village and you feel like you are hundreds of miles away from any sort of tourism..., but actually it is within a stone’s throw...The village was built into the hillside so right behind the village there were some pretty challenging hikes. The runs up there actually were pretty hard and my calves were really sore afterwards... but it was worth the pain..., the view from Revello and the other overlook spot were both worth the pain. Here is a photo from our Monday rum with Amalfi in the background.

The Regata on Sunday was the highlight of the fieldtrip, it was a boat race between Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, and Venive; the most successful Maritime city-states back in the days. The race has been really close to the very end, but Amalfi ended up pulling off the win.

Later that night there was a big firework in Amalfi, it was the greatest firework show I have ever seen, it was a 20 min long show and here is the great finale of the show:

2nd week in Rome

The most fascinating part of the second week was definitely the walking tour through the forum romanum and the colosseum. In my 9 years of Latin we learned and translated a lot about the roman culture, the people and their wars; and now I am standing in the roman forum and walked through the colosseum. It was grotesque to think that we were walking through the streets and spaces where history was made all those years ago. It might appear that the Roman Forum is in ruins, but from history and Latin books I know the way it looked like, and even if just one or two columns are left of the building, it is enough to reconstruct the picture in my head. So that experience of retracing the steps of past Romans got a whole new dimension.

With that in mind it was very sad for me to see how thousands of tourists are channeled through those spaces. A place that once was the center of public life in Rome, used for triumphal processions and elections, venue for public speeches, criminal trials, gladiatorial matches, and now it is a tourist attraction. Back in the days it was the most celebrated meeting place in the world and today? Well today it is maybe not the most celebrated meeting place in the world, but it definitely is the most celebrated meeting place in history!

It is incredible how Romans were able to build structures that still stand these days; that makes me think, what do people look at in another 2000 years? Are they looking at our buildings that we build now? Or are the buildings and structures we build now long forgotten by then… Maybe it is a good thing that our built environment has changed; maybe it even had to change; I personally think it had to have changed, architecture always has to adapt to peoples lifestyle and our lifestyle clearly has changed toward the Roman time. But when I am seeing all these incredibly carefully designed buildings, structures or spaces I am wondering if we couldn’t incorporate more of that in to today’s architecture.

So that is something I want to get out of this summer, studying the history and trying to incorporate what I learned into my design. At the beginning of the week we went to the Piazza Fornese right across the Ponte Sisto, and I did this little axonometric:

Week 1 - "Patria est, ubicumque est bene"

“Home is where you feel comfortable”… Well if Cicero is right with that quote then I can definitely consider Rome as home… It is now the third time that I am in this beautiful city, but this time it was a little different: the last times I just came here as a tourist, didn’t stay longer than a week or so. The city appeared to me intimidating with all his history and all his sights, I didn’t really know where to get start. This time I came prepared and not as a tourist; this time I actually become a citizen of this beautiful city. (At least I will try my best to do so) The first week was kind of busy, we had classes every day, and I already feel like we already learned so much, although we probably barely scratched the surface…, especially since it is probably impossible to define what Rome is, but exactly that is what makes it such an incredible place to study. I can already feel my improvement in sketching and in Italian. In sketching we had some hard sketching sessions, hard because we’re in Rome and there are a million vanishing points in every perspective. But you grow with every challenge right? And so I already did I think. Last Friday we sketched Piazza di Spagna (the "Spanish Steps) it's a very challenging subject, I picked a spot on the steps and sketched for half an hour. The result of that sketching session is this perspective, a little traffic analysis and a pretty bad sunburn on my neck…

Today all of us went to the Pantheon for Pentecost (some of us got up earlier some later...) but all of us made it to the mass and the rose petals raining from the oculus. It was an incredible experience, it was a grotesque atmosphere toward the end of the mass, more and more people entered the Pantheon and it got very crowded, suddenly thousands of cameras and iPhones were wondering around, and this was still DURING there was a mass going on. Every once in a while a Italian security said “no camera! NO CAMERA!!” but there were just to many and there were just over-challenged… But it was definitely as I said earlier an amazing experience, definitely worth getting up and not sleeping in.

Of course just like everyone else that I just complained about also I took some pictures, but this picture not even close does justice to the beauty of that event.