Browsing Tag

Italy

Field Trips!

Marble. Marble Everywhere

“Expecting much gunfire in these caves?” Not exactly, but I couldn’t help but wish to see some classic dynamite mining.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to crunch time in Italia! With very few days left, we’re packing it all in and getting oh so little sleep in the process. For example, today we took a trip to the marble quarry that Michelangelo got his materials from and then to Pisa for the famous tower.

Today started with another early expedition, and so we were all ecstatic about it. For around 1.5 hours we sat on the bus as the beautiful scenery of Tuscany flew by. It was then that we arrived at Cave Michelangelo, a massive and famous marble company. Our tour started with their cutting yards where they had massive multi-ton slabs all over the place waiting to be cut into perfect shapes. It was raining, as it often seems to do these days, so we rushed into their sculpting center.

A bit cluttered…

There were sculptures all over the place. Some of them were originals, others were replicas of famous works, but all of them were phenomenal. At the time there were a few workers happily working on their projects and packing up some to ship to customers. The building itself was fairly large and spacious, but they had art in every corner and covering every inch of the place, making it feel quite populated. Our guide led us around and explained some of the work and the processes they went through. I would repeat them to you but I’m afraid I’d mess them up and that I’ve forgotten some details since this morning. Promptly after that, the guide led us into the office where he showed us some of their sculptures locations across the world. These guys knew what they to say the least.

Since it was raining there was doubt that we would be allowed to head up into the quarry on the mountain, but we were given the go-ahead. We all expected to use some sort of off-road vehicle to get up there, but instead we discovered the bus would be our vehicle. If we thought the roads were a tight fit before, we were wrong. The mountain path was as tight as it could be, pushing our bus to the limit. At point we were doubtful the little bus could continue up the steep incline, but we were proven wrong time and again. That bus driver deserves an award for that display of skill.

So this is only one slice of their operations…

Finally we made it to the top and the view was impressive. Not only were we nearing the peak of the mountain range, but the marble cutting operations were a spectacle on their own. Layers upon layers of white marble with cutting machines and other vehicles all the way up. There’s not much I can do to express how impressive it all was. After a while of observation and some guidance, we hopped back on the bus for a bumpy ride down to get on the way to our next destination.

The main courtyard of Pisa and its tourist attractions

Some amount of time later we arrived at the outskirts of Pisa. From there we had to get on a bus that would take us right up to the main attractions. The moment we stepped off of the bus we were berated by salesmen trying to get us to buy watches, sunglasses, and handbags. We were happy to disappoint them all. Everyone made it onto the bus and over to the main square that contained a baptistry, a basilica, a graveyard, and the leaning tower itself. As per usual we received a guide who led us right to the graveyard. I must say that graveyard is probably the wrong term for what we were in. It was a spacious structure with a high ceiling and an inner courtyard. All over the walls were frescoes and in the ground were large, distinct rectangles of marble. It turns out that the Pisans were burying some of their dead in sarcophagi and others in the ground where they were marked by those large marble slabs. Each slab had some sort of inscription on it detailing who was there, and there were a ton of inscriptions all over the place. Pretty creepy…

Next came the baptistry. To be blunt, it was rather empty. It had two floors but we spent most of the time on the first floor. At one point an employee came along and gave us a demonstration of the acoustics. Every note she sung reverberated all over the building, so I’d rate it’s acoustics as super impressive. Outside the door and across some grass was the basilica. Its exterior looked like a large basilica and so did its interior. Compared to Rome’s basilicas, this was rather unimpressive to us, so it’s clear we’ve been spoiled. We took some time to meander and soon enough it was time to climb the tower.

It’s pretty impressive in person

From a distance the tilt doesn’t look like much, but up close it’s very noticeable. The tower was constructed in a couple of phases spread out by around one hundred years. It’s actually not completely straight because during the second phase the engineers tried to make it appear more straight by slanting the new floors slightly. To their dismay, the tower sank more and those efforts were all for naught. So now the tower has a banana shape to it if you look closely. For a banana tower, it was an awfully long way to the top, but we bolted up it nonetheless. Going up and down was a challenge because of the slant. Some of the steps were easier but most were more difficult to ascend. At the top there was a fantastic view of Pisa and the nearby mountains.

The view from the top of the tower was pretty impressive

We were only allowed to stay up there a short amount of time so we headed down after a half an hour. Retracing our steps we hopped back onto the bus and motored on back to Florence to prepare for tomorrow. Coming up we have our tour of Sienna and a wine tasting in the evening. It should be a particularly good day for all! Have a good one everybody!

– Chris Apfeld

January 22, 2015 by

Rome

Museums Galore

“Bold strategy Cotton. We’ll see if it pays off.” Our thoughts exactly 12 days ago when we first were put through the trials of Gino (similar to the labors of Hercules but with less physical requirements). Today marked the final day with our faithful guide as he led us through bits of the Diocletian Baths and the Roman National Museums. So here we go!

An early departure at around 9 in the morning, we all grabbed our headsets for what we hope was the last time. Those bulky tourist beacons have very annoying headsets. Our destination, the Diocletian Baths, were not far enough to justify a bus, so we headed off to the subway for a quick ride. It wasn’t long before some members of the group were left behind after not making it onto the tram in time. Eventually we reconnoitered at the appropriate stop and surfaced.

When the moon hits your eye like a big piazza pie…

Outside the subway station is the large, circular Piazza della Repubblica that had a fountain at the center around which traffic circled in the mad and unorganized fashion that is Roman driving. In front of us, the arching buildings. Behind us, a church. It wasn’t always that way, so let me explain. Way back in the days of Rome, that entire area was a part of the Diocletian Baths. The baths were a public area for Romans of all classes to clean themselves at any temperature they saw fit. The arching buildings I mentioned used to be walls at the entrance of the structure and the church was the tepidarium. As for the piazza, that, along with a massive square area on its sides, was a garden. Hard to believe, right? After the short explanation, Gino lead us into the church, properly named the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (let’s just call it the Santa Maria). As I mentioned before, it used to be the tepidarium, the room temperature baths of the complex. When the baths were in disrepair, Michelangelo redesigned the interior to be a large, highly decorative church which in later years was used by monks but is currently a regular church and tourist attraction.

The mouthful of a name for this church translates into the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs

But that’s not all. In 1702 a meridian line was placed in the floor and a hole drilled into the wall. That meridian line served the purpose of telling the date fairly accurately by having the sun hit the line at noon at varying degree marks corresponding to months and dates. At the end closest to the wall is an ellipse that was supposed to track and predict star movements, but unfortunately that one no longer works.

Some time later, we exited the building and walked around the block to the other side of the ruins to arrive at the entrance to one of the branches of the Roman National Museum. The first one we entered was the smallest. It had its own small security check but it was totally unnecessary. Inside were remains of statues, pieces of the original structure, and the frigidarium portion of the baths. There were two small squares that branched off but looked like they had received renovations. One had a well in the center and the other a fountain. The museum also had a strange modern photography exhibit for some odd reason. It didn’t exactly fit in with anything…

Around the corner was the frigidarium

We didn’t spend much time in there because there wasn’t a ton to see. About a block ahead of us was the next, larger branch of the museum. It had four floors with one of the four dedicated to coins. At that point, Gino took his leave and we all meandered through the museum at our own paces. There was a ton to see, but a lot of the same types of pieces like statue heads and mosaics. Some of the art stood out, but those pieces were few and far between.

Made by the quite impressive lost wax method

Impressive, no?

That pretty much wraps up our Saturday. Tomorrow is a free day, so nothing will be posted unless something extraordinary comes up. Monday marks a milestone in our journey. It will be on that day that we leave Rome, only to return on the night before coming back to the states. Now I don’t know how the wifi is going to turn out at our upcoming hotels, so I can’t guarantee posts will be regular, but we’ll do our best. Have a good one!

– Chris Apfeld

January 17, 2015 by

Rome

Villas and Aqueducts Abound!

Coo koo kachoo, what’s new with you? Why, thank you for asking! Yesterday we had been to the complete outskirts of Rome and back. First we went to a large, ancient Roman estate called the Villa Quintili and then followed it up with aqueducts and a massive food market. Sorry this is going up a tad bit late, I was one step away from completing the post last night and then the internet cut out on me. But anyways, let’s get to it.

The Villa Quintili is a large estate that contains everything a Roman could want like baths, personal water supplies, and their very own circus for racing. Sure, it may not sound like much to us today, but back then that was the top of the top and only the elite could own something like that. In fact, one of the emperors killed to obtain the property. Oh, what rascals those Romans were. So the villa sits right off of the main road, Via Appia, or at least the ancient portion of it. It’s on top of a small hill overlooking vast fields of wheat. From a distance, it doesn’t look any more impressive than, let’s say, everything else in Rome.

An interesting backdrop at least

Going up to the estate is a nice, brick and concrete pathway at a slant for small carriages and horses, which would be quite convenient to the wealthy. Up close inside the structure you can still see the mosaics and rooms that the main building of the estate covered. You could very easily get lost in it if you didn’t know where you were going. Since only a few rooms still existed somewhat in tact, there was little to no chance of actually getting lost since we could see across most of the area, but just humor my imagination, will you? I would have been able to paint a better picture for you if not for a certain photobomber *cough Cole cough*.

This would have been a great picture…

Anyways, the next portion of the villa was a distance aways since the estate was super spread out. The remains of the circus could no longer be seen, but the area set out for it was fairly clear. Trekking across the first large, open, grassy space we’ve encountered, we came upon the water storage. There were about 4 large stone “tanks” that an aqueduct poured into. They were each about 1.75 times the height of us and about as wide as jeep or so. Continuing further, there was a modern fence that guided us to Via Appia which was on the other side of a large set of bushes and a gate. Swerving to the right, the paths branched off, but in reality we could just see both directions to a loop that went through some building which for the life of me I cannot remember its purpose. I most likely can’t remember the purpose of that building because of a furry companion. While most of the group trekked ahead following Gino, another student and myself kept behind to get some attention from a local german shepherd. It was a shy dog, but eventually we got it to tag along with our group and play some fetch. I think sometime in the middle of our dog endeavors the tour ended and people started heading back.

Our furry companion in action

One brief bus ride and a coffee stop later, we arrived at a local park. It was relatively long, but short in depth with a strange concrete bump going through the middle. That bump happened to be one of the remaining working aqueducts and we promptly climbed it to discover the looming broken aqueduct in the distance. We had to reach it. Clambering down from the relatively small one, we hustled over to the massive one in hopes of scaling it. Alas, we could find no easy way to the top. But still, it was good looking.

Watery wonderland

Somehow in the midst of our adventure, Gino managed to find an ancient nail, mosaic piece, and some brick, or so he claimed. Good on you, Gino. We all marched on back to the bus and it was at that point Gino mentioned the affinity for drugs that park notoriously has. Some details are best left out my good man. Whatever, that couldn’t spoil our fun. The bus took us onward and upward to our next stop, Eatily! No, I didn’t spell that wrong. It’s really a play on Italy by using the english word for eat. It obviously catered to the english tourists. From a distance you would have thought it was a shopping mall because it was four stories tall and was more window than supporting structure. Well, it kind of was a mall, but everything inside was food! It was heavenly. On one floor they had breads and deserts, the next beers and pasta, the third fine drinks and spices, and at the top cooking schools and the fanciest of restaurants. In total, we spent an hour and a half exploring and eating our way through the building, but we could have easily spent far more time there.

Being done with the scheduled stuff, we trucked on back, had a small break, and then had our class. Mission accomplished. That’s all for yesterday my faithful readers! We’ll be back later today (or tomorrow depending on how late we’re out) with more chronicles on the adventures of our squad.

– Chris Apfeld

January 17, 2015 by

Field Trips!, Rome, Universities

Moving and Grooving

For not having traveled a very long distance, we sure did a lot of walking and standing today. The subject of today was, as some of you may know, the Vatican Museum and the John Cabot University. Luckily, the museum was about 100 yards from the door of our hotel, but the university was a mile south.

Around 10:30 in the morning, we all stumbled into the hotel lobby to away our infamous guide, Gino. Unlike usually, we did not receive headsets because we were required to use the Vatican’s brand. Out the door and up some steps across the street, we arrived at our destination. Directly ahead is a large, white, decorated entrance to the museum, but that’s not for the public. To the left of that pearly entrance was a set of glass doors and tons of line separators. Usually, those lines are filled all the way around the corner and then some, but today they were barren. Good omens, right? Well the inside was still full of people. To enter, we had to pass through a small security station like when entering the other sections of the Vatican. We then got our headsets and set off for the museum. Actually, that’s sort of a lie. Rather than going straight up the stairs into the museum, Gino led us behind the information desk to two stray statues to explain how they used to all be painted. Surely nobody ever looks at those statues because we received strange looks from the workers at the info desk.

A great view from within the museum grounds

Finally we made it into the museum plaza which had a plethora of branches and directions to go that were filled with rich pieces of history. Guess which one we went into? None of them. Since we only had about 2 hours and Gino liked to talk a lot, we headed straight towards the Sistine Chapel. Along the way we stopped in one side room where Gino took his time to discuss the marble. Yeah, pretty much just the marble. The passage to the Sistine Chapel is long and a bit crazy. It begins with a large, arched hallway that stretches forward for what seems like forever. That corridor is divided into sections covering art like sculptures, maps, tapestries, and more. Do you remember how I mentioned there were a ton of people inside the museum? Well 99% of them were in this segment, all on their way to the chapel. Most of the time spent moving through that corridor is just getting funneled along with the crowd. If you’re lucky you can jump out of the stream to the side of a door. Gino relied on our ability to do so a little too much, so soon enough our group was divided and conquered. Eventually we regrouped and moved forward through the crowd. After the corridor were a handful of papal residence rooms which had paintings from top to bottom that were quite impressive. We were still a ways away from the chapel. Members of the group got caught in the undertow of the tourists and so had to press on and hope for the best. I was among those poor souls.

Trust me, the crowds I mentioned showed up a minute later

After the papal residence, tourists are forced into the modern art section which, all in all, is about 30 rooms of content. Our focus was the chapel so I powered through those rooms. Along the way I noticed strange works of art with obscured faces and others made of some simple shapes. I don’t understand modern art. Finally, I made it to the Sistine Chapel, and soon afterwards the rest of the group made it in. Inside the chapel, tourists aren’t supposed to talk or take photos so there’s a handful of guards going around enforcing the rules. Ironically, those guards are the main sources of noise as they constantly shout out “No photo!” The Sistine Chapel, while not humongous, is impressive for it’s masterpieces of art covering every inch of the walls and ceiling. While the walls were painted by a handful of unmentioned artists, the ceiling and altar wall were painted by Michelangelo himself. His altar wall depicts the end of the world and the ceiling has various scenes from the beginning of the bible. It’s very hard to describe, so below I’ve included a link to a virtual view of the chapel (copy and paste it into your browser address bar).

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/index_sistina_en.htm

About a half an hour later, we exited the chapel and too the Vatican, broke off for lunch, and then reassembled in the square an hour later. Nearly one mile southwards along the Tiber in the Trastevere region was the John Cabot University, a small private college that caters to foreigners like ourselves. The entrance isn’t very recognizable among the surrounding buildings, but once inside it feels very college-like. It’s a multi-level, more or less modern school. Rather than it all being in one location, it has two campuses, the northern one (where we arrived) and a southern one not more than 1/4 mile away. Upon arrival we were led to a classroom where we were greeted by the president of the university. Previously we had been told he wouldn’t be able to make it because of some emergency, but apparently he had come back just in time. I don’t recall exactly what he said about where he had been, but I’m pretty sure he said the Italian president had just quit. Anyways, he gave us a riveting presentation on Italian politics. He covered politics from World War II up to present day, and it was all quite interesting. He even gave us an insider tip that around the 2oth, the Italians may be attempting an American strategy to boost their economy which may effect the value of the euro, bringing it down close to a 1:1 ratio with the US dollar. No guarantees though.

At the center behind the blinding light is the university’s president

Afterwards, we were split into three groups and given tours of the campuses by some students. Our tour was somewhat awkward since our guide began under the assumption we were incoming students and not just tourists. Whoops. That issue quickly became evident and we cleared the air. The two sites were nice buildings and the University looked like a great school, both sharing similar setups. We had arrived at a pretty fortunate time since they were setting up for the coming semester but had not yet begun class. Once all was said and done, the group split up and some students headed back while others visited the local microbrewery. The beer there was some of the best we’ve ever had, so we’ll be headed back.

That’s all for now! Tomorrow’s post will be short since we’re giving some class presentations after a lecture in the morning. Thanks for reading!

– Chris Apfeld

p.s. We’ve had t-shirt/light jacket weather here and after seeing weather reports for back home have no regrets about leaving the country.

January 14, 2015 by