Artwork Highligths

So obviously I came to Italy for a reaosn, and that was to do some art!
Here are a few pieces that I feel are fairly resovled (most of what we are doing is sketching, and I dont have the patience to upload that many drawings either).


This is a charcoal frawing from the Roman Forums. Time: 20 min or so


This is the Composition that was supposed to summarize our experience in Rome.
I combined elements from the 4 rivers foutain (the fish), The Pantheon (the top bit of the circle), The Colosseum (The bottom bit of the circle), The Bourghesse House Sculptures (The chain), various organs (The pipes/fins) and some various achitecture seen arouns. The overall composition is to reflect the crazy fast paced nature of our experience in Rome, and how things seem to blend together when you have 3 days to see all the city has to offer (or something like that).


A sketch of a penthouse in Orvieto.

Peace!

Orvieto

So, today is somewhat of a free day.
I could be workingon a project due Monday, but instead I am taking some time to upload pictures for all of you folks so you can keep tabs with what exciting things I am up to.
Our time in Orvieto is almost up, but at least it will end with a bang.

Tonight after dinner, there are a series of horse races that will be happening in the city, I can only hope to witness those events unfold. Becuase of these races, and a series of concerts also happening tonight (and I saw kegerators there) I doubt that I will be working much tonight on our projects as well.

Tomorrow (Sunday) willbe a religious holiday. There is an elaborate setup in front of the Duomo and I have been told that fireworks and pidgeons are involved... hopefully not in conjunction... eww.

So this weekend will be a lot of big events, and the coming week will be rushed. Wednesday we will leave Orvieto for Firenze (Florence) and that will be a whirwind 4 days followed by a whirlwind 2 days in Venice. After that I will be meeting up with Stefania sometime in the 5 or so days following that to visit Massa Carrara where the Lambruschis are from!

In no specific order...
Here is the East side of the Duomo. Directly behind the Duomo is where we are staying in the villa Mercede.
This picture was taken from the top of Torre del Moro which is the clock tower you can see at the end of the last post in the middle of Orvieto. I dont remeber how many stairs they said it was to the top, but I swear is was no less than 8,000... ugh.


Hree is a picture of Il Gato, a cat that lives behind Villa Mercede that is 22 years old...


And here is a picture of caves beneath Orvieto... I will upload another better one later on:


Here is a shot of the caves (again). This is a dove cove as the tour guide called it. The people of Orvieto carved these caves into the faces of cliffs for 300 years to allow pidgeons to nest there. They were an ingenious design. The holes attracted pidgeos, the windows allowed the pidgeons to feed and drink on their own and return to their nest at their own will. Whats more, to the left of the door way, you can see a groove cut into the wall. This allowed rain water from above to be collected from the roofs above and drain into these caves. The water would pool into cisterns and the people would clean the pidgeon poo out of the caves with it. Then the people would sell the poo as fertilizer. Crazy!

Lake Day

So we just got back to Orvieto from our day trip to Chivita and Bolsena.

We headed out of Orvieto at 9am this morning and drove about 30min to Chivita.
Now before I get into Chivita, the vans we take are interesting, I need to take a picture of them sometime. They are 8 passenger vans, and I swear these things are the largest cars in Italy that I have seen. They are huge, and barely fit down the tiny winding roads, the drivers drive the heck out of them, recklessly... but somehow we have managed to not get hit, or crash, etc etc.
So, Chivita, This town is like the Centralia, PA (google it) of Italy. It is a town that is pretty much falling off a cliff.. but the whole town is on a plateau... so the whole thing is slowly falling apart. I think we were told that about 12 people still live in the town.


The town does offer amazing views, and it is absurd seeing doors and windows that go nowhere... and having those windows to nowhere right next to someones living room window...


The best part of the trip was the we got hustled by this really old lady. We were walking down the main path in the town and we were greeted by this old lady who promised an amazing terrazzo through a little doorway. We went through and sure enough there was an amazing terrazzo with an awesome view, and it was all groovy.
We went to leave the awesome terrazzo with the awesome view, and the old lady was blocking the door. She was demanding that we pay for being on her terrazzo! crazy indeed...

Me on the terrazzo:


On the way out of the town, we stopped by the bathrooms... and by bathroom, I mean hole in the floor...



So moving along, we left that town since it offers little but an awesome view, and we made our way to Bolsena.

Bolsena is a volcano (or Stromboli as we found out that means volcano in Italian) that blew a long time ago. To make a long story short, it is now a lake. A beautiful lake that you should all go to.


We first went to the duomo there and a small museum to get the scholarly stuff out of the way. At the Duomo were some catacombs we were allowed to peruse around and read the history of. Here is a shot inside, the catacombs were probably about 20' high walls full of niches where bodies were buried, the tunnels went back a lot farther than we were allowed to go, but the area we could wander in was minimum 150'-200' of tunnels in this manner:


We then we made our way down to the lake where we would spend a few hours.
My group of people wandered down the beach and found this nice little restaurant that was on the beach, so we grabbed some drinks, some lunch, and enjoyed watching the lake and stuff.
After that we all met up at the beach and enjoyed the lake like nothing else. I was wandering up and down the beach, and there were tons of pieces of terra cotta in the sand (I use that term loosely) under the water. Some of the pieces has glaze on them, some has grooves, designs, etc, etc.
My jeans ended up getting wet, and didn't quite have time to dry out before piling in the vans and heading back.

Here is me looking conteplative on the shore:


Here is Orvieto on our return so you can see what the city looks like!


And... "Its made of people"

Dum Diddy Dum Dum

Music...

Its bad enough in America to listen to the radio and hear the same 20 songs on every station interspersed with commericals that take up a large portion of the airwaves.

I could go on about the music machine in america, but thats not the point.

When I came to Italy last time, I remeber hearing new and innovative songs, that is where I first heard of the Gorillaz (who are amazing) and lots of other really cool songs.

This time, in Rome, our hotel had TV (no TV in Orvieto) and so I wathced some News programming in the mornings while getting ready for the day. Apparently music videos are news, because from 7-8am that is what was on. Sadly, I saw very very very few songs that I didnt already know. There were a couple that I will have to look up when I get back home, but other than that it has been pretty much like watching MTV in america (except that there actualy WERE music videos).

To add insult to injury, restaurants here play a lot of our top 40 songs. Last night we went to a very nice restaurant that was literaly down a few flights of stairs and inside some caves that date back to the ancient Eutruscans. Sadly, instead of some nice clichè Italian music, we heard Lady Gaga, Sting, the Police, and pretty much anything you could expect in the states. It was a weird mish mash of music, and it didnt really fit a dinner that was 25 Euros or about $40... (yea it was expensive, but it was amazing!)

Music I have liked here:

• Bastard Sons of Dioniso (need to wait till I have faster internet to bother figuring out which song I heard) check them out though!
• The random accordian dude that walks around and harasses you for change between songs
• The big ole pipe organ in the Duomo
• The dude that stands outside the Duomo that plays his violin for change
• The dude that plays the jazz sax outside of the Duomo for change (or maybe for fun, he was drinking beer...)
  

The moment is fleeting...

So since time here is short (in Italy and in the internet caffe) I wont be typeing too much today.. but I do have some interesting pictures.

First up is the duomo in Orvieto, this beatiful cathedral is only a few steps outside of our monastary that we are staying in, so I get to see it every day.


The entire builging is made out of beautiful white and black stone, on the sides there is a horizontal striping with these blocks that emphasizes curves and any niches and the such. The front is all about being vertical and the lines, the towers, everything about it screams a message about reachign towards the heavens (or so our tour guide explaind on the first day (in Italian mind you!)).

Inside the duomo is equally impressive, every facet of this building is ornately detailed, and they did not miss any areas at all when decorating this duomo. Words cant describe how tiny the details are that they paid attention to, but it is phenomenal.

Inside they also have the most impressive pipe organ pipe array that I have ever seen, it is rediculous...



This pipe box is cray! It is mounted 40' over the floor and measures (probably) about 20' deep 40' wide, and over 75' tall...
I consider myself lucky that I went to church this morning and got to hear that beautiful piece of art the way it was meant.

Next up,
We took a day trip to Assisi on Friday and I was excited because I remember going to Assisi last time I was in Italy, and I remebered the "huge field with the big cross" that I was telling all the Clemson folk about. When we got there, this field was the last thing we saw, so I had actualy started to doubt myself..



And lastly, we went down into the Orvieto caves this week and breifly, Orvieto was basically the Pope's bat cave in the days past. This mountain town was the prefect area to lay low because it is on a mountain, so its is easy to turn into a fortress, the caves attract pidgeons (and it is a local delicacy) as a food source, they well their own water... and pretty much is is the perfect caslte, un seigeable and it looks good also.
We were told that the Eutruscans had built this town and it was the perfect castle... to which I wondered.. if it is the perfect castle, why did they get the boot from here?



Thats me and Mardita sporting some hard hats to we didnt bruise our noggins!

Busy busy busy

So we are getting into our pace at Orvieto, the typical schedule is:
8:30 -11:30 Drawing
Lunch
12:30-2:30 Drawing
3:00-5:00 Italian
7:45 Dinner
9ish Freedom

Almost every night me and some of the girls have gone out on the town to fully experience this journey, and its fair to say that the Italians wait till night to come out. At about 11pm the streets are crowded and full of people have a great time.

Last night we met up with the waiters from our 2nd dinner which was at the Zepplin (great food). Of the waiters, interestingly enough, none are Italian. There is one Albanian who only speaks Italian and the other 3-4 are American and are living in Orvieto for free and being paid $5 a day. Anywho,s we met up with them and our teacher walked by trying to get minutes put onto his phone, Eris (the Albanian) took about 30s on the phone and it was working fine (amazing what one can do who understands the automated Italian message).
After that we wandered down the via and went to a nice wine bar. Many bottles of wine later I discovered that they had a bottle of Lambrusco wine, so I certainly got that and the table enjoyed it. I also found out sadly that the Lambrusco wine is not.. really favored over here... °sigh°

It was a good night, and hanging out with Italians is awesome, you can really learn a lot of the language that way.

Anyways, no pics today, I forgot to bring the card reader to the school, but I can assure you that this town is awesome.

What are the odds..

So, last night was the last night in rome, and it was a great time. We went out to the Yellow bar which we were at the night before as well, and this time decided to play a round of beer pong (yes, its in Italy as well and they advertise it at this particular bar).
We went downstairs to the pong room and against all odds we happened walked in to this batr on this side of the world in this huge town of Rome and found a USC fan who wanted to run his mouth.
I dont understand how exactly we happened to choose this bar in particular, but at least he was out numbered. Unfortunately... we did not help the Clemson cause because we ended up losing the game to the USC dude and his buddy... not a good thing, but it was a good time, and we were haging out with them later on that night as well...

And now time for something different:

On Saturday we went to the ancient forums, the pantheon, and the Colosseum. At the Colosseum, it was my turn to be a tour guide, so I lead the group around and educated them about everything from Nero to the jewish slaves (its true) and got a rousing appluase.

Plus to make thing better, the term dapper has been used to describe me again!

Im out for now, expect more later on, we are just settling into Orvieto, and if I never return to USA... I will be in this town.
Here is the view from my room, and yes that is a freaking castle!

When in Rome...

So these past two (one and a half really) days in Rome have been a blast. It all started quite negatively though with us waiting for about 2 hours in the airport for our ride that never decided to show up... fortunately for us though, this provided us with our first metro experience over here. While waiting at the airport we were fortunate enough to have time to snap a nice group picture (Clemson flag missing, but that will be in later pistures!).

From Blogger Pictures

The first day in Rome was whirlwind, we dropped out stuff off at the hotel and hopped back on the metro after our first akward and confusing lunch order at a local bar (yep, most in and out places over here are called bars... and they all have a bar in them, fancy that!). The lunch I got was not quite what I was expecting, but I did learn how to pronouce bruschetta the correct way (brew-skay-tah).

The rest of the day we spent wandering through some gardens, and went to the Burghesse house (sp?) to look at some fantastic sculptures and paintings and the such. After the museo and dinner at a lovely place that we took up 90% of their seating (with 14 of us) we went wandering about and made it to the Trevi fountain pictured below:



At the Trevi foutain, we continued past traditions and tossed coins over our shoulder into the foutian. The first coin is to return some day to Rome. The 2nd coin is to fall in love and get married, and the 3rd coin is fr that person to be Italian!

Later that night after we got back I helped myself to a €1 beer from the mart across the street (tall boy style) and crahsed from exaustion while watching Space Cowboys in Italian. Twas a good night and a good first day.

Enter Friday (today) I woke up bright and early without an alarm clock (phone store was closed Thursday night when I went to get one) at 7am. This gave me plenty of time to get ready for the day and make it to breakfast at 8 when they started serving. The hotel we are staying in has a deal worked out with a bar on the corner (really they are ALL over the place) so we can get a free drink and pastry for breakfast. Boun!

We set off at 9am to hit up some churches (woo woo). The first church was Santa Maria Victoria where I spotted anawesome organ balcony (wont bore you all with the scupltures and paintings), so this one is for you Dad:



Next up (gotta make this quick now) here is a picture of me this morning in front of Santa Maria Pupullo (the 2nd church we went to). I got called °dapper° which is why I wanted to post this (sorry its sideways!).



Laslty this one made me almost die laughing... at the bag return point for the Vatican Museo (more on that later... maybe) I noticed this item that someone checked!
Hilarious!!

Lower Case 't' for time to Leave

Well, its that time... More than a few months have gone by in anticipation and this past week has been a whirlwind of last minute preparations, but luckily, I seem to have not forgotten anything (to my knowledge yet).

In less than 10 minutes I will be walking out the front door not to return for 5 weeks, and that is amazing. I am still anxious to see what the last week of my trip will have in store for me since I have not made many formal plans yet and I have a whole week on my own to survive/have fun in a foreign country (Italy if you missed that memo).

So, look for more updates, I will try to keep people aloof of the shenanigans I am getting into abroad!

Get down with the sickness

First, click here, Listen!

This week I would appear to have come down with "the" sickness sometime Tuesday and defeating it this morning. That makes two nights of flu induced being cold, sweating, running a fever (only confirmed after Wed. night when I actually went out and bought a thermometer) and generally achiness. 

After Tuesday nights's rough sleep, I arrived at work and worked for a few hours before finishing up in the afternoon. I did a few things to prepare for Italy, and eventually took a nap. When I woke up around 8 or so I knew I was in bad shape, so I went to the store, picked up some chicken noodle soup, theremometer, OJ and theraflu! 

Upon retuning home I checked my Temp which was 100.6f which isnt good (I normally run a little low also!). I made up some chicken noodle soup and after downing an entire pot (serves 4... my ass) and soem OJ, I fixed some nitetiem thereaflu and went to sleep early. 

Wed. night wasnt much better, but the morning I only had a 100.4 temp. I had some shells&cheese that I made up the night before (just for this occasion) and took another nap. Apparently 1.5 hours of sleep + shells&cheese kills the flue because I was back down to my normal temps!

Take that flu (maybe H1N1..??) I made it into work around lunchtime and have been going strong ever since.