enjoy...
Friday, June 5, 2009
Frames can't catch you
So it's been a little while... i've been on the road A LOT and I deffinitly don't have time to fill in all the details - but I want to share some of my favorite photos (sketches to come soon) from my recent travels.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
La Prima Settimana
Lunedi
Filiberto took us up into the Clock tower, sadly I forgot my camera...but take my word for it, it's quite a view.
Martedi.
Started language class – it’s a strange feeling to be at the beginning of so many things – especially a language. What an incredible concept that by studying and repeating and practicing – in a few weeks – ill be able to understand (hopefully) a completely new language and a whole different group of people
Also, we had our first group dinner at La Volpe e l’uva (the wolf and the grape).
What a production: antipasta, homemade pasta, meat, and desert – I thought I was going to explode but I was so happy I couldn’t complain. The owners, an elderly couple who have the kind of back and forth dynamic that can only develop during many many years of good natured bickering, made fun of our pathetic Italian skills…a game which ended with the husband coming out of the kitchen buried under a mountain of pasta plates and saying/yelling CIAO! PREGO! GRATZI! PREGO! CIAO! …essentially the extent of our knowledge of the Italian language.
Mercoledi
Had our first taste of the Wednesday market today. White vans with the most elaborate cantilevered awnings you’ve ever seen fill the town from outside the walls, through the gate to Piazza Manzini, and all the way up to Piazza de la Liberta – mostly junky, lots of purple (color of the season I'm told), and more than enough lingerie to go around.
After class, went home for a quick nap and went straight back out – ended up at the Quattro Porte pub (which is conviently located directly beneath our studio), made friends with the band who was playing there, started a dance party – danced till 2 in the morning – and went home. Solid evening.
Giovedi
Needless to say it was a struggle to get out of bed.
Had another language class – still speaking at the level of a one year old baby – but it is getting better…I think.
Angelica (Filiberto’s wife) gave us an Italian cooking lesson – who knew you should use the water from your pasta to flavor your pasta sauce – and our own personalized Italian cookbook filled with all the basics and some of her favorites. AMAZING
Met my Italian tandem partner today – a guy who is also named Daniele…what are the chances. We got kebabs with the other Danielle (which as might be expected quickly got confusing). Decided to hit up the pub Daniele works at (he’s a magician) then met up with Sam, Jessica and Michelle and wandered around the city looking for the disco – which we eventually found after a group of Italians sang us 'American Boy." Sadly though, I ended up going home because I still had all my school bags and no money.
One of my favorite interiors i've seen so far
lunch with the group!
Urbisaglia
Filiberto took us up into the Clock tower, sadly I forgot my camera...but take my word for it, it's quite a view.
Martedi.
Started language class – it’s a strange feeling to be at the beginning of so many things – especially a language. What an incredible concept that by studying and repeating and practicing – in a few weeks – ill be able to understand (hopefully) a completely new language and a whole different group of people
Also, we had our first group dinner at La Volpe e l’uva (the wolf and the grape).
What a production: antipasta, homemade pasta, meat, and desert – I thought I was going to explode but I was so happy I couldn’t complain. The owners, an elderly couple who have the kind of back and forth dynamic that can only develop during many many years of good natured bickering, made fun of our pathetic Italian skills…a game which ended with the husband coming out of the kitchen buried under a mountain of pasta plates and saying/yelling CIAO! PREGO! GRATZI! PREGO! CIAO! …essentially the extent of our knowledge of the Italian language.
Mercoledi
Had our first taste of the Wednesday market today. White vans with the most elaborate cantilevered awnings you’ve ever seen fill the town from outside the walls, through the gate to Piazza Manzini, and all the way up to Piazza de la Liberta – mostly junky, lots of purple (color of the season I'm told), and more than enough lingerie to go around.
After class, went home for a quick nap and went straight back out – ended up at the Quattro Porte pub (which is conviently located directly beneath our studio), made friends with the band who was playing there, started a dance party – danced till 2 in the morning – and went home. Solid evening.
Giovedi
Needless to say it was a struggle to get out of bed.
Had another language class – still speaking at the level of a one year old baby – but it is getting better…I think.
Angelica (Filiberto’s wife) gave us an Italian cooking lesson – who knew you should use the water from your pasta to flavor your pasta sauce – and our own personalized Italian cookbook filled with all the basics and some of her favorites. AMAZING
Met my Italian tandem partner today – a guy who is also named Daniele…what are the chances. We got kebabs with the other Danielle (which as might be expected quickly got confusing). Decided to hit up the pub Daniele works at (he’s a magician) then met up with Sam, Jessica and Michelle and wandered around the city looking for the disco – which we eventually found after a group of Italians sang us 'American Boy." Sadly though, I ended up going home because I still had all my school bags and no money.
Venerdi
Turns out going home was a good call – the disco goers looked a bit haggard on the bus this morning to say the least.
Anyways, we had an all day field trip to the Roman ruins at Urbs-Salvia, the church of San Claudio/Maria, and the medieval town of Urbisaglia, which was built on the ridge above the ruins (hence the name).
Despite being half awake, the church left its mark on me. From the second you step inside its enormous wooden doors you are aware the space has been sacred for a very long time. It takes a few minutes to get used to the darkness since the tiny alabaster windows let in barely enough light to see, but when you do, its quite stunning. 
The ruins were intense – standing in the middle of a gladiator ring is intimidating, and it will certainly make you think about the incredible history you are in the presence of. People were brought here from all over the known world – in fact the Roman general who built the ring (or funded it) made all his money putting down the Jewish rebellion and destroying the temple. Today the town has a sister city/peace program with Jerusalem – what an interesting time we live in.
Finally, climbing the ridge of the hill, the medieval town of Urbisaglia may be the most picturesque place I have ever seen. The colored stucco houses with their wood shutters, the castle, the piazzas, the gates, and the tiny medieval streets made it feel like we had just walked into the middle of a fairy tale. Today was also our first (informal) town form study/treasure hunt - which was fun though we were all a bit out of steam - a fact proven by how quickly we all passed out on the bus ride home.
One of my favorite interiors i've seen so far
lunch with the group!
Urbisaglia
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Macerata!
Woke up, checked out, and left for Macerata.
Had a relatively peaceful ride until I got seperated from Sam when he got off at the train station and i got blocked by 30 high school girls who rushed the train and made it completely impossible to follow him. In short I was left with all of both of our bags and had to carry them ALL (seven bags total) from the train platform to the front of the train station - an ordeal that involved going down and then back up about fifty stairs. In the meantime, it turned out that Sam had actually gotten off at the wrong station, and he ended up walking for about an hour until he finally got to Macerata and found the hostel. Not knowing what to do, I waited for Sam at the station for a while but finally decided to get a taxi to the hostel and in the end we both got there at about the same time and had a pretty good laugh about the whole thing.
Asilo Ricci:
The weekend went something like this:
-Toured Macerata with Filiberto, our ex-track star director, who seems to know every nook and cranny of the town as well as everyone in it.
-Spent a good amount of time with my roomates (sam, matt, and mark) and the rest of our group, trying every gilato and pizza/pannini place we can find and comparing them (since apparently that is all Italians eat).
- Learned enough Italian to not TOTALLY disappoint all the people who are still very much convinced that im Italian, though after hello, thank you, and you're welcome i'm still pretty lost.
- Drank some delicious local wine and went out dancing at one of the local pubs.
- Moved into my apartment (which has an inordinant amount of desks in it but other than that is actually really nice and spacious) on the fourth floor of a building which has that wonderful smell of an old persons home that all European and Israeli apartment buildings seem to have - and the nostalgia doesnt stop there because the kitchen drawers look the ones we had in Bet Cherut and the market down the street looks and smells a lot like its Israeli counterpart too.
- Bought a soccer ball and planned a hike to take advantage of the beautiful weather...and then it started raining - so I watched Italian TV with the roommates instead.
- And finally...started classes again.
So… it’s been a week. Feels like a month. I can get used to this.
Had a relatively peaceful ride until I got seperated from Sam when he got off at the train station and i got blocked by 30 high school girls who rushed the train and made it completely impossible to follow him. In short I was left with all of both of our bags and had to carry them ALL (seven bags total) from the train platform to the front of the train station - an ordeal that involved going down and then back up about fifty stairs. In the meantime, it turned out that Sam had actually gotten off at the wrong station, and he ended up walking for about an hour until he finally got to Macerata and found the hostel. Not knowing what to do, I waited for Sam at the station for a while but finally decided to get a taxi to the hostel and in the end we both got there at about the same time and had a pretty good laugh about the whole thing.
Asilo Ricci:
The weekend went something like this:
-Toured Macerata with Filiberto, our ex-track star director, who seems to know every nook and cranny of the town as well as everyone in it.
-Spent a good amount of time with my roomates (sam, matt, and mark) and the rest of our group, trying every gilato and pizza/pannini place we can find and comparing them (since apparently that is all Italians eat).
- Learned enough Italian to not TOTALLY disappoint all the people who are still very much convinced that im Italian, though after hello, thank you, and you're welcome i'm still pretty lost.
- Drank some delicious local wine and went out dancing at one of the local pubs.
- Moved into my apartment (which has an inordinant amount of desks in it but other than that is actually really nice and spacious) on the fourth floor of a building which has that wonderful smell of an old persons home that all European and Israeli apartment buildings seem to have - and the nostalgia doesnt stop there because the kitchen drawers look the ones we had in Bet Cherut and the market down the street looks and smells a lot like its Israeli counterpart too.
- Bought a soccer ball and planned a hike to take advantage of the beautiful weather...and then it started raining - so I watched Italian TV with the roommates instead.
- And finally...started classes again.
So… it’s been a week. Feels like a month. I can get used to this.
Rome Antics - Day Two
I grabbed breakfast at the bar below the hostel with my new kiwi friend Ty, not nearly as impressive as the hotel but it did the job and then went out looking for Sam's hotel. Found it, found him, and convinced him to stay another day in Rome.
We moved him into the hostel, went to buy some train tickets to Macerata for the next day, and then made our way to the Villa Bourghese. Did some wandering in the park, got some lunch (and of course more gelato) and then realized we were thoroughly lost when we found ourselves walking towards a tunnel with speeding cars coming out it on our way to the Spanish steps.
We found our way eventually, and spent some time cooling off in the church at the top of the steps. On our way down we had Italian friendship bracelets forced on us by a super fast talking Italian man who somehow came to the conclusion that I was from Spain and Sam from Poland - it's still unclear to me how that happened.
With our feet starting to hurt we wandered back to the Piazza del Popolo and caught the subway back to the hostel for our now daily ritual - the afternoon nap.
We woke up, showered and headed back out toward the Vatican...but this time for DINO e TONY. What an awsome, quirky little hole in the wall! I did my best to speak a little Italian since Dino and Tony and pretty much everyone else in the restaurant clearly did not speak English, and got served up the best four course meal i've ever had in my life (not to mention the wine)...sooo THANK YOU SARAH! good call.
Caught the last train back. Met a drunk Frenchman who tried to convince me to go clubbing with him though he could barely walk, and watched some fired up American guy try to fight an Indian salesmen who was trying to sell him roses.
All in all a great day.
We moved him into the hostel, went to buy some train tickets to Macerata for the next day, and then made our way to the Villa Bourghese. Did some wandering in the park, got some lunch (and of course more gelato) and then realized we were thoroughly lost when we found ourselves walking towards a tunnel with speeding cars coming out it on our way to the Spanish steps.
We found our way eventually, and spent some time cooling off in the church at the top of the steps. On our way down we had Italian friendship bracelets forced on us by a super fast talking Italian man who somehow came to the conclusion that I was from Spain and Sam from Poland - it's still unclear to me how that happened.
With our feet starting to hurt we wandered back to the Piazza del Popolo and caught the subway back to the hostel for our now daily ritual - the afternoon nap.
We woke up, showered and headed back out toward the Vatican...but this time for DINO e TONY. What an awsome, quirky little hole in the wall! I did my best to speak a little Italian since Dino and Tony and pretty much everyone else in the restaurant clearly did not speak English, and got served up the best four course meal i've ever had in my life (not to mention the wine)...sooo THANK YOU SARAH! good call.
Caught the last train back. Met a drunk Frenchman who tried to convince me to go clubbing with him though he could barely walk, and watched some fired up American guy try to fight an Indian salesmen who was trying to sell him roses.
All in all a great day.
‘Rome Antics’
I feasted for breakfast – seriously i almost went back to my room to grab my camera and take a picture of the spread, apparently 100 euro is worth something.
Went out for a morning stroll and found a hostel - the M and J - nice place, and Mario, the multilingual genius who worked the front desk was extremely helpful. So i left my bags in the storage room since i couldn't check in till three, and got on with exploring Roma.
I took the subway to the Piazza del Popolo and spent a few hours there eating lunch and drawing.
Then spent the rest of the day wandering by myself from the Spanish Steps to the Pantheon, to Piazza Navona, to the Palazzo Medici, every corner you turn in this city reveals something spectacular, it's almost overwhelming .
I ate my second lunch on the lawn in front of the imposing Vittoria Emanuel Monument - which I found out the hard way is illegal, apparently the lawn is strictly for show - and ended my tour back at the Coliseum and the Arch de Constantine.
A sleepy ride back to Termini, and a short walk to the hostel ended in a glorious nap on the couches in the lounge.
After that and a hasty move in - I went to dinner with the my new roommates, John and Paul, followed by a 'quick' look at the Font de Trevi which turned into a two hour walk through Rome to the Vatican...these things tend to happen in Roma.
Went out for a morning stroll and found a hostel - the M and J - nice place, and Mario, the multilingual genius who worked the front desk was extremely helpful. So i left my bags in the storage room since i couldn't check in till three, and got on with exploring Roma.
I took the subway to the Piazza del Popolo and spent a few hours there eating lunch and drawing.
Then spent the rest of the day wandering by myself from the Spanish Steps to the Pantheon, to Piazza Navona, to the Palazzo Medici, every corner you turn in this city reveals something spectacular, it's almost overwhelming .
I ate my second lunch on the lawn in front of the imposing Vittoria Emanuel Monument - which I found out the hard way is illegal, apparently the lawn is strictly for show - and ended my tour back at the Coliseum and the Arch de Constantine.
A sleepy ride back to Termini, and a short walk to the hostel ended in a glorious nap on the couches in the lounge.
After that and a hasty move in - I went to dinner with the my new roommates, John and Paul, followed by a 'quick' look at the Font de Trevi which turned into a two hour walk through Rome to the Vatican...these things tend to happen in Roma.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
