We looked at more churches today with Caravaggio paintings, which were absolutely beautiful. He is by and large one of my favorite painters. After having taken an oil class, I think I can appreciate what he does with oils so much more.
Couldn't take pictures of these paintings, obviously, and I didn't think we needed any more images of vaulted ceilings laid in with gold. Mmyeah. I have images of a lot of them in my textbook, so I can show you all what I saw when I get back.
We walked around for a very long time today, shopping and looking around. We walked around the Pantheon area and then the Campo de Fiori. I ended up buying that leather bag that I've had my eye on for three weeks. It's beautiful and it's real and it smells wonderful and it's my one thing I'm bringing back. :)
Tomorrow we go to Tivoli to see Hadrien's Villa and a waterfall!! I am so extremely excited to get out of this city for a little while and see some nature. Yay! Don't worry, I'll take pictures on this outing.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Lightning!
SUPER thunderstorm tonight. Around 6:30 the clouds rolled in and all hell broke loose. Not really. But kind of. There was lightning lighting up the buildings every few seconds and the loudest, weirdest-sounding thunder I've ever heard. It was epic. The rain came down in torrents for a while, and people were running all over the streets to get out of it. Lots of people were standing in doorways just watching the lightning. It struck real close a couple of times, and I saw a couple forks come out of the clouds. I wish we had thunderstorms like that back at home. I just sat on the windowsill (inside, don't worry) watching it until it passed.
Tonight we went to the pumpkin place (one of our favorite restaurants) for Neenah's birthday. It was a lot of fun. I had thin pizza, and then we had this cool dessert : it had ricotta cheese and nutella on a crust-type thing. SO good.
When we got back, Hannah fixed my haircut, because it was getting nasty and long and weird in the back, and now I love it. I was starting to feel like a 9 year old boy. She's just wonderful. After that we sat in the hallway and watched So You Think You Can Dance on her laptop, because she gets better internet out there. Glorious.
That is all. I am going to bed. Tomorrow we're looking at Caravaggio!!
Tonight we went to the pumpkin place (one of our favorite restaurants) for Neenah's birthday. It was a lot of fun. I had thin pizza, and then we had this cool dessert : it had ricotta cheese and nutella on a crust-type thing. SO good.
When we got back, Hannah fixed my haircut, because it was getting nasty and long and weird in the back, and now I love it. I was starting to feel like a 9 year old boy. She's just wonderful. After that we sat in the hallway and watched So You Think You Can Dance on her laptop, because she gets better internet out there. Glorious.
That is all. I am going to bed. Tomorrow we're looking at Caravaggio!!
Baroque
Lots more churches yesterday (some pictures below), and a quiz that I think I did okay on. Extra credit covers a multitude of sins. :)
Big thunder and lightning last night! Like legit thunder. It went on for a while, and was really loud. It rained, but only for a few minutes, like usual. I got cold enough to stick on my jeans and a sweatshirt, though (I DID use that SPU sweatshirt, mom! Aren't you glad I packed it?).
Today we went to some Baroque churches, but I didn't take pictures this time. I wanted to try absorbing as much as I could, as opposed to hiding behind a camera all day. It was glorious. There was a beautiful white church that was simply constructed, but really interesting. There was a courtyard with white pillars and a mosaic fountain off of the main area of the church and a really cool mausoleum downstairs with a staircase that looked like a conch shell. It was pretty neat. The other two churches we went to were in the same area, but gilded and really overwhelming. The only think I like about the Baroque painting/ architecture style is the fact that it breaks the frame a lot and spills out into the rest of the room.
When we were getting off the bus, we met two girls who were doing the Semester at Sea program. They had heard us speaking English and asked us for directions, and ended up eating lunch with us at our favorite salad place. It was fun. One of them was from Georgia, and the other was from Hawaii (but she was going to school in Oregon). It was cool to touch base with other college kids after being in one group for so long. It made me miss my friends who live in Georgia and Oregon. Anyway, we pointed them in the direction of the Pantheon, and they left. They're going to Naples, next, then some really cool places like Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Morocco. I really want to do a program like that, but they were talking about how big their ship and their program is, and it's seriously like a cruise ship. With like...700 people. No thank you. That's just like a floating university. There are other programs out there that take only like 25 people and actually teach you how to sail. I feel like that would be more beneficial.
Yep, so it's Neenah's birthday today, so I think we're going to go out to dinner--a lot of us. Hopefully good food.
Some pictures from yesterday:
The tomb of Saint Ignatius: founder of the Jesuit order.
Big thunder and lightning last night! Like legit thunder. It went on for a while, and was really loud. It rained, but only for a few minutes, like usual. I got cold enough to stick on my jeans and a sweatshirt, though (I DID use that SPU sweatshirt, mom! Aren't you glad I packed it?).
Today we went to some Baroque churches, but I didn't take pictures this time. I wanted to try absorbing as much as I could, as opposed to hiding behind a camera all day. It was glorious. There was a beautiful white church that was simply constructed, but really interesting. There was a courtyard with white pillars and a mosaic fountain off of the main area of the church and a really cool mausoleum downstairs with a staircase that looked like a conch shell. It was pretty neat. The other two churches we went to were in the same area, but gilded and really overwhelming. The only think I like about the Baroque painting/ architecture style is the fact that it breaks the frame a lot and spills out into the rest of the room.
When we were getting off the bus, we met two girls who were doing the Semester at Sea program. They had heard us speaking English and asked us for directions, and ended up eating lunch with us at our favorite salad place. It was fun. One of them was from Georgia, and the other was from Hawaii (but she was going to school in Oregon). It was cool to touch base with other college kids after being in one group for so long. It made me miss my friends who live in Georgia and Oregon. Anyway, we pointed them in the direction of the Pantheon, and they left. They're going to Naples, next, then some really cool places like Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Morocco. I really want to do a program like that, but they were talking about how big their ship and their program is, and it's seriously like a cruise ship. With like...700 people. No thank you. That's just like a floating university. There are other programs out there that take only like 25 people and actually teach you how to sail. I feel like that would be more beneficial.
Yep, so it's Neenah's birthday today, so I think we're going to go out to dinner--a lot of us. Hopefully good food.
Some pictures from yesterday:
The tomb of Saint Ignatius: founder of the Jesuit order.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Yesterday
Yesterday we headed over to Trastevere to look at some early early Renaissance paintings. Trastevere has a little bit of a different feel than the rest of Rome; it's the only area of the city that has been consistently inhabited since the Middle Ages (and they're very proud of that fact). It's a little grittier and has more of a village feel. We visited a church built in honor of a woman saint who had been sentenced to beheading. According to legend, it didn't work (or like only partially? She had a slice in her neck). She died three days later. Apparently, saint's bodies aren't supposed to decompose, so when they found her tomb years later, her body had been preserved. An artist named Moderno saw the body when they recovered it, and he sculpted her as she supposedly looked when they opened the tomb. It was pretty interesting (picture below).
In this same church we saw the very first painting of the Renaissance. We piled into these tiny elevators and went up to the second level where there was a fresco on the wall by Cavellini (the first paintings of the Renaissance were originally credited to a man from Florence--Giotto--but his paintings were done after Cavellini's. But since the first art historians were from Florence, they were a little biased). It was pretty cool to look at--a style that straddled two different eras.
We went to another church that had some beautiful mosaics and domes. It's all running together now, we go to so many churches.
The last place we went to on our morning outing was a little palace with paintings by Raphael. I think my favorite part about that, though, was seeing the ancient graffiti that had been scribbled over the paintings when the Roman soldiers had barracked in the palace during the second sack of Rome (1527). They had very nice penmanship. :)
Last night we walked around before dinner and popped into a few shops. There was some intense thunder outside, and when we were exploring a little church, it rattled the windows. We visited the Pantheon again on our way over to get food. There were still so many people there, and it was 7:30 in the evening. Chinese food again for dinner! Sweet and sour pork for me.
I'll upload my pictures from today and post that later. We have a quiz tonight that I need to study for.
Pictures from yesterday:
Inside the Pantheon under the dome.
Moderno's depiction of that woman saint whose name I've forgotten.
In this same church we saw the very first painting of the Renaissance. We piled into these tiny elevators and went up to the second level where there was a fresco on the wall by Cavellini (the first paintings of the Renaissance were originally credited to a man from Florence--Giotto--but his paintings were done after Cavellini's. But since the first art historians were from Florence, they were a little biased). It was pretty cool to look at--a style that straddled two different eras.
We went to another church that had some beautiful mosaics and domes. It's all running together now, we go to so many churches.
The last place we went to on our morning outing was a little palace with paintings by Raphael. I think my favorite part about that, though, was seeing the ancient graffiti that had been scribbled over the paintings when the Roman soldiers had barracked in the palace during the second sack of Rome (1527). They had very nice penmanship. :)
Last night we walked around before dinner and popped into a few shops. There was some intense thunder outside, and when we were exploring a little church, it rattled the windows. We visited the Pantheon again on our way over to get food. There were still so many people there, and it was 7:30 in the evening. Chinese food again for dinner! Sweet and sour pork for me.
I'll upload my pictures from today and post that later. We have a quiz tonight that I need to study for.
Pictures from yesterday:
Inside the Pantheon under the dome.
Moderno's depiction of that woman saint whose name I've forgotten.
The bridge over the river on the way to Trastevere.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Weekends
Since it's the weekend for us, not much has happened--it's been a very chill couple of days. Yesterday was fairly uneventful, and today was more of the same. It's a welcome break from the daily outings and the classes. Most of the group has gone to Florence for the weekend, so it's been pretty quiet around here (and I have the bed to myself!). Today my friend Summer and I took a walk to the north of Rome to the Villa Borghese gardens--a park of sorts. We did a little studying there and then headed back. It was quite a hike, so we were pretty tired when all was said and done. I had calzone for dinner at the place that serves that pumpkin risotto. It was lovely. We did some wandering after that, and Travis showed us a fantastic gelato place tucked way into a tiny corner on one of the backstreets. I had tiramisu and coffee (one of my favorite combinations)--and the tiramisu was legit tiramisu. I think they just make it and then keep it cold. Delicious. They also sold a raspberry gelato there that had sage in it? It was a little strange, and when I tasted some of Summer's, it made me think of Christmas. We weren't sure how we felt about it.
After two weeks, everyone's having a little spell of homesickness, which will pass, I'm sure. I think it's worse on the weekends, when we have nothing to distract us. I'm missing the Seattle lindy scene, other people are missing girlfriends or boyfriends, and all of us are missing clean Seattle air. :) Yep, and talking to the parentals on skype tonight was really nice.
Tomorrow is the last day of our weekend, and when everyone comes back from Florence, so everything will liven up very soon.
After two weeks, everyone's having a little spell of homesickness, which will pass, I'm sure. I think it's worse on the weekends, when we have nothing to distract us. I'm missing the Seattle lindy scene, other people are missing girlfriends or boyfriends, and all of us are missing clean Seattle air. :) Yep, and talking to the parentals on skype tonight was really nice.
Tomorrow is the last day of our weekend, and when everyone comes back from Florence, so everything will liven up very soon.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saint Peter's
We got to sleep in (a little) today! Our tour of the Vatican was a little later in the day, so we left at 10am this morning instead of 8:30. We got to do an underground tour of the Vatican, which took us under the foundations of Constantine's church through the Necropolis (city of the dead) where a good number of mausoleums are being excavated. We got to see a few mausoleums and one Christian tomb with lots of beautiful symbolism in it. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it probably wouldn't have turned out anyway, since it was so dark. It was hot and stifling down there, since they have to keep everything the right temperature and humidity to preserve the frescoes and mosaics down under the Vatican. It was pretty exhausting. We saw Peter's tomb, and all the layers that had been built over it. First was the trophy of Gaius, which was built over the tomb to protect and mark the grave. Then Constantine, a couple hundred years later, built a church around it and stuck his altar above Peter's tomb. The basilica today still has its altar above the tomb. We got to go very close to the original tomb--which not everybody gets to do--and saw the bones of Saint Peter inside. Most of the relics we hear about in Rome are laughable at best (the cradle Christ laid in, the post he was chained to during his flogging, etc.), but the information surrounding these bones' location and surroundings sems pretty legit. It was a little crazy to think that those were probably the remains of someone we read about in the New Testament all the time.
When we were finally able to see the church itself, we were exhausted, and all of the ornamentation inside was a little overwhelming. There were so many tourists there, it was a little like a zoo. I don't think we appreciated that part of the visit so very much. We were definitely ready to get out of there to get something to eat. We found a little place across the river that had a painting on one wall of Snow White's cottage and all of the little Disney animals. It was a little weird, and there was the witch on the menu. Aside from that, the food was really good. I had lasagna for lunch, and linguine al pesto for dinner. Both good choices. Gelato from this really amazing place by the Pantheon (the kiwi stuff tasted like real kiwi. It was phenomenal!), and then home. We have a three-day weekend this week, and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in.
A few pictures...
When we were finally able to see the church itself, we were exhausted, and all of the ornamentation inside was a little overwhelming. There were so many tourists there, it was a little like a zoo. I don't think we appreciated that part of the visit so very much. We were definitely ready to get out of there to get something to eat. We found a little place across the river that had a painting on one wall of Snow White's cottage and all of the little Disney animals. It was a little weird, and there was the witch on the menu. Aside from that, the food was really good. I had lasagna for lunch, and linguine al pesto for dinner. Both good choices. Gelato from this really amazing place by the Pantheon (the kiwi stuff tasted like real kiwi. It was phenomenal!), and then home. We have a three-day weekend this week, and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in.
A few pictures...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
PS...
We had Chinese food tonight! So good. I had chicken in orange sauce on rice, which was wonderful. We were all dying for some food that wasn't pasta or salad, and this place is really close--near the bus stop and the cat sanctuary.
Yum.
That is all.
Yum.
That is all.
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