The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
PICTURES FROM LAST POST
Preparing for the Palio
A Franciscan Monk (Or dementor)
The holiest part of the Catholic Sermon - the transubstantiation, or when the wine and wafer turn into Jesus' blood and body
Assisi is a beautiful town
A nun giving directions. No big deal
The facade of the Upper Church of the Basilica of San Francesco
A 007 Monk
Me being artsy - Roses next to the Rose Window
The interior of the Upper Church - done by Giotto
More of the Upper Church. The Renaissance STARTED here
The decoration in the Lower Church
The tomb of St. Francis
Two classmates at dinner - Charlotte and Kate
Me at Dinner
Perugian Chocolates!
(Left to Right) Shannon, Kate, Hanna and Charlotte in front of the Perugian Fountain - an encyclopedia in stone
Dr. Wollesen giving a lecture in the Communal Palace of Perugia
Holly and Casey in front of the Castlevecchio in Verona
The opera in Verona
The Roman Arena, where the Opera takes place, and Casey and Holly
Writing on the Wall at Juliet's house
The famous balcony
Holly and Casey groping Juliet - it's apparently good luck.
The balcony again
The letters to Juliet
Holly and Casey writing their letters to Juliet (I wrote one too)
Casey in front of a Trenitalia train
The Torch Family! And a random waiter. At Restaurant Guido in Siena
Casey, Mom, and Dad enjoying Gelato
Dad in front of St. Dominic. The view from our Hotel Balcony
This is going to be a huge post... Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Siena, Verona, and my parents
So its been a good week and a bit since my last post, and I apologize. Life has just been insanely hectic: I had a midterm last Monday that I needed to study aka cram aka study for, and right after that, my class took us to the small(er) towns of Assisi and Perugia. So after that, I spent a night in Siena, then went to Verona with my friend and sister, Holly and Casey (respectively). After that, my parents came! They were in the southern part of Italy, just outside of Naples, and came to Siena for a day and night, so we went for dinner, and they left for Firenze (Florence) with my sister. So I'm all alone. =(
Ok, I promise. That's not my entire post. I just needed to have an introduction before I get into huge detail. So. Here goes nothing.
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But seriously. My midterm last monday was worth 35% - more than any exam I've had (save for my second year course when it was literally 50% midterm, 50% exam), and since I've had no background in FORMAL art history (hence the history/philosophy double major) I was kind of freaking out. Looking back on it, I know I didn't fail. That's always nice to know. :P I THINK we're getting our marks back on Wednesday, but we shall see!
So after the midterm (or the next day) we did our prep for the very very very religious Catholic town of Assisi! Assisi is a small town in the Italian province of Umbria, and it is the town where the REAL LIFE SAINT FRANCIS (or San Francesco) is from. Originally a rebel, St. Francis was converted from being a noble, knightly figure to becoming a man who gave everything material up and went to preach God's Word after seeing a vision of Christ come to life to say "Go forth and (re)build my church" (I think). A great saintly story - but with one big difference. Unlike the gospels, Mary, Jesus, etc, there is historical proof for a Francesco who walked in the streets of Assisi, preached the Gospel, and all the other fun stuff he did. Canonized two years (!!!!) after his death, the whole Franciscan order was founded on his principles: humility, chastity, obedience, and poverty. The basilica they founded in honour of him, the Basilica of San Francesco, is... well, being completely honest, the decoration, done by Giotto, is essentially where the Renaissance Style started. No joke. For an order obsessed with poverty and giving up the material world, their head church is visually stunning. Done in a proto-realistic style, the most contemporary and modern for the time, it manages to recall French Gothic images while creating a new style of art that is more "natural" and "real" than anything previously (save for the Greeks and Romans). Pictures are below of the Church.
However, Assisi (and Perugia) were also great because as a class, I find that the class I'm in, we all got much closer. Previously, we've walked through Florence, and sat in class in Siena, but this was our first REAL travel trip as a group, so (at least I feel) a bunch of people just got more familiar with each other - and that's always great. We went out for dinner near a church (so many churches and dementors aka priests in Assisi. No joke. The monks there wear robes that make them look like wizards, and with their hoods on, like dementors. It was entertaining, but I felt like a horrible person. I also saw a lot of nun's, and had to restrain myself from humming "SOUND OF MUSIC") and the dinner was great because it was getting to know the people in my class - and professor - in a non-academic environment. So yeah, the days and nights were a success.
So Assisi was all about the religious art being done in the late 1200's/early 1300's. Perugia (a small town right beside Assisi) was all about the SECULAR art of that period - something that apparently was brand new at the time. So we went to Perugia, which was beautiful, and saw the fountain, something John White (one of my readings) described as a "Perugian Encyclopedia in Stone". It was beautiful. What was really cool about it was that it didn't just depict religious figures, but also described (in allegory) the seven subjects of the Medieval University Curriculum, it pointed towards Rome, had the Zodiac, Old and New Testament figures, and most importantly, named and had a sculpture of the podesta (leader) of Perugia at the time of the actual creation of the fountain. It was so amazing to see - firstly because getting fresh water to the top of a mountain-town is apparently really difficult, so to see a working fountain is really cool, and secondly, the independence of Perugia, the way they strode forward with secular artwork in the whole communal government period is insane. It's what my professor focuses on - the secular artwork of the early fourteenth-century. I'm starting to understand how revolutionary it was, because artwork depicting the values of a communal government had never been seen before. It's so cool...
Anyways, after a lot of focusing on the fountain in Perugia, we went to the communal palace to see more of what the professor was describing, and had the rest of the day off (aside from the bus ride). I got chocolate. Perugian chocolate is DELICIOUS. So yeah, Happy Barry was Happy.
So after Perugia and Assisi - a VERY art focused trip - turned into a wonderful experience, and then I went back to Siena. I was supposed to go to Milan this weekend, but that didn't end up happening- so instead, Holly, Casey, and I went to Verona, the town where Romeo and Juliet is set. Its a beautiful small town, very romantic, so we stayed there for Saturday night and came home Sunday night (to see my parents!). More about Verona - it's a town in the province of Veneto - so essentially the "newer" version of Terra Firma, or the land territory of Venice. So the Stone Lion of St. Mark was EVERYWHERE (as were Masks). But Verona is a beautiful, if small, town. There's a Roman Arena where operas still go on (Romeo and Juliet is coming later in the summer :P), a medieval Castle which we booked through on a horse-and-buggy ride, and of course, Juliet's house. Being with my sister, of course, we went to see Juliet's house - and it was actually very nice. Being in Via Cappello (Hat Road), Giuletta Cappello's (as her name would have been) house is a beautiful medieval domus with (of course) a balcony. And a statue of Juliet with one breast exposed that you're supposed to rub. So we went, admired all the walls, as people would write their names and who they loved on the walls, and then went into a small knitting store - where we saw a TINY sign going "Juliet Club upstairs". So we went upstairs.
Enter Juliet's Clubhouse. In the middle of a sports store (no joke), is a place where a bunch of people meet and when they receive letters to Juliet (like the movie), they respond. Its very beautiful - with a view that looks immediately to Juliet's courtyard and balcony - and the letters they get are beautiful letters, from 14 year old girls who want a boyfriend to 65 year old women wanting to know where the person they saved during the war was, and if "he found his Juliet". Its poignant, beautiful, and romantic. So, in the middle of a sports store, all three of us sat down, and wrote letters to Juliet. If anything, it'd be nice to get a response, but it was a very relaxing, cool, and (again) beautiful experience. We ended Verona having a beautiful dinner right beside the Roman Arena, and then did a horse-and-buggy ride around all the highlights in Verona. We passed Juliet's house, Romeo's house, Sant'Anastasia, the Duomo, the Arena, etc, etc. In all honesty, I loved Verona - its a beautiful, albeit quiet, little town.
The next morning, me and my sister said goodbye to Holly (she was staying to see an Opera), and Casey and I tried to make our way back to Siena by 4. There's just one problem. The timetable we got told us that it would take 6:30 hours to get back to Siena from Verona - a journey that shouldn't be more than 4. I wasn't happy.
So we took literally the slowest train from Verona to Bologna. It stopped at every. single. town. on. the. route. No joke. It was so bad - and then guido's got on at one of the stations, and wouldn't shut up. Argh.
So - an hour and 50 minutes later - we got to Bologna. I looked at our timetable again, and saw that we had literally an hour and 50 minutes to kill in Bologna Centrale, so I refused to believe that, and Casey and I booked it from where the train let us off to the biglitteria (spelling mistake is mine alone) to see if there was anything else. Lo and behold, there was!... you know, 5 minutes later. So we ran across Bologna Centrale carrying our backpacks, and made it on the train with 2 minutes to spare. Amazing.
So that train ride (which was going to Naples, but we got off at Florence) took about an hour and a half, and we got off at Florence Santa Maria Novella to discover that the train we wanted was all full, and about to leave. That was at about 3 pm - but Casey reminded me that we could take a bus! So we RAN to the bus station, and managed to catch the 3:10 "Siena Rapida" bus to Siena... at 3:08. EPIC. WIN. FOR US.
I'm just gonna brag a bit. That was epic. We got on the train leaving verona at 12:26, and got home by 4:40. The woman in Verona who booked us 12:26 to 6:38 was LYING TO US. Bitch. But we beat her! HAHAHAHAHA by about 2 hours.
So when we got back to Siena, mom texted us to tell us that she was already in the hotel, and to go back to our residence to pack an overnight bag. Coincidentally, the hotel was right beside the bus station - but we walked back to our residence, then attempted to take the same route back. There was just one problem. Because it's the weekend before il palio (the big horse race) our route was diverted TWICE due to parades, so here's me and Casey, dying slowly due to heat exhaustion and sheer exhaustion from travelling all day, walking around the outskirts (but still in the walls) of Medieval Siena.
Eventually, we FINALLY made it to the hotel, and after a nice long shower, in an air conditioned room, we collapsed and just relaxed for the rest of the day. The family went out to Restaurant Guido in Siena, which was wonderful, then we grabbed Gelato and spent a good amount of time eating gelato in the Piazza del Campo, people watching. After a nice, amazing sleep in an air-conditioned room (!) and a breakfast buffet that WASNT JUST BREAD (!!!!!!!!!), we spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon just walking around Siena. They left at 3 with Casey for Florence, and here I am, just sitting in residence.
The palio trial is tonight at 7:30, and friends are meeting up to cook before then, so Imma gonna go join them. But tonight will hopefully be a nice, relaxing end to an amazing - but BUSY - weekend!
There are so many photos I need to post... X_X
I'll try and spare you all
Till next time! A PALIO POST!!!!
Arrivederci!
Barry
PS: No pictures are below. Internet is crappy enough here, so I'll do a post of pictures later. I PROMISE!
Ok, I promise. That's not my entire post. I just needed to have an introduction before I get into huge detail. So. Here goes nothing.
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But seriously. My midterm last monday was worth 35% - more than any exam I've had (save for my second year course when it was literally 50% midterm, 50% exam), and since I've had no background in FORMAL art history (hence the history/philosophy double major) I was kind of freaking out. Looking back on it, I know I didn't fail. That's always nice to know. :P I THINK we're getting our marks back on Wednesday, but we shall see!
So after the midterm (or the next day) we did our prep for the very very very religious Catholic town of Assisi! Assisi is a small town in the Italian province of Umbria, and it is the town where the REAL LIFE SAINT FRANCIS (or San Francesco) is from. Originally a rebel, St. Francis was converted from being a noble, knightly figure to becoming a man who gave everything material up and went to preach God's Word after seeing a vision of Christ come to life to say "Go forth and (re)build my church" (I think). A great saintly story - but with one big difference. Unlike the gospels, Mary, Jesus, etc, there is historical proof for a Francesco who walked in the streets of Assisi, preached the Gospel, and all the other fun stuff he did. Canonized two years (!!!!) after his death, the whole Franciscan order was founded on his principles: humility, chastity, obedience, and poverty. The basilica they founded in honour of him, the Basilica of San Francesco, is... well, being completely honest, the decoration, done by Giotto, is essentially where the Renaissance Style started. No joke. For an order obsessed with poverty and giving up the material world, their head church is visually stunning. Done in a proto-realistic style, the most contemporary and modern for the time, it manages to recall French Gothic images while creating a new style of art that is more "natural" and "real" than anything previously (save for the Greeks and Romans). Pictures are below of the Church.
However, Assisi (and Perugia) were also great because as a class, I find that the class I'm in, we all got much closer. Previously, we've walked through Florence, and sat in class in Siena, but this was our first REAL travel trip as a group, so (at least I feel) a bunch of people just got more familiar with each other - and that's always great. We went out for dinner near a church (so many churches and dementors aka priests in Assisi. No joke. The monks there wear robes that make them look like wizards, and with their hoods on, like dementors. It was entertaining, but I felt like a horrible person. I also saw a lot of nun's, and had to restrain myself from humming "SOUND OF MUSIC") and the dinner was great because it was getting to know the people in my class - and professor - in a non-academic environment. So yeah, the days and nights were a success.
So Assisi was all about the religious art being done in the late 1200's/early 1300's. Perugia (a small town right beside Assisi) was all about the SECULAR art of that period - something that apparently was brand new at the time. So we went to Perugia, which was beautiful, and saw the fountain, something John White (one of my readings) described as a "Perugian Encyclopedia in Stone". It was beautiful. What was really cool about it was that it didn't just depict religious figures, but also described (in allegory) the seven subjects of the Medieval University Curriculum, it pointed towards Rome, had the Zodiac, Old and New Testament figures, and most importantly, named and had a sculpture of the podesta (leader) of Perugia at the time of the actual creation of the fountain. It was so amazing to see - firstly because getting fresh water to the top of a mountain-town is apparently really difficult, so to see a working fountain is really cool, and secondly, the independence of Perugia, the way they strode forward with secular artwork in the whole communal government period is insane. It's what my professor focuses on - the secular artwork of the early fourteenth-century. I'm starting to understand how revolutionary it was, because artwork depicting the values of a communal government had never been seen before. It's so cool...
Anyways, after a lot of focusing on the fountain in Perugia, we went to the communal palace to see more of what the professor was describing, and had the rest of the day off (aside from the bus ride). I got chocolate. Perugian chocolate is DELICIOUS. So yeah, Happy Barry was Happy.
So after Perugia and Assisi - a VERY art focused trip - turned into a wonderful experience, and then I went back to Siena. I was supposed to go to Milan this weekend, but that didn't end up happening- so instead, Holly, Casey, and I went to Verona, the town where Romeo and Juliet is set. Its a beautiful small town, very romantic, so we stayed there for Saturday night and came home Sunday night (to see my parents!). More about Verona - it's a town in the province of Veneto - so essentially the "newer" version of Terra Firma, or the land territory of Venice. So the Stone Lion of St. Mark was EVERYWHERE (as were Masks). But Verona is a beautiful, if small, town. There's a Roman Arena where operas still go on (Romeo and Juliet is coming later in the summer :P), a medieval Castle which we booked through on a horse-and-buggy ride, and of course, Juliet's house. Being with my sister, of course, we went to see Juliet's house - and it was actually very nice. Being in Via Cappello (Hat Road), Giuletta Cappello's (as her name would have been) house is a beautiful medieval domus with (of course) a balcony. And a statue of Juliet with one breast exposed that you're supposed to rub. So we went, admired all the walls, as people would write their names and who they loved on the walls, and then went into a small knitting store - where we saw a TINY sign going "Juliet Club upstairs". So we went upstairs.
Enter Juliet's Clubhouse. In the middle of a sports store (no joke), is a place where a bunch of people meet and when they receive letters to Juliet (like the movie), they respond. Its very beautiful - with a view that looks immediately to Juliet's courtyard and balcony - and the letters they get are beautiful letters, from 14 year old girls who want a boyfriend to 65 year old women wanting to know where the person they saved during the war was, and if "he found his Juliet". Its poignant, beautiful, and romantic. So, in the middle of a sports store, all three of us sat down, and wrote letters to Juliet. If anything, it'd be nice to get a response, but it was a very relaxing, cool, and (again) beautiful experience. We ended Verona having a beautiful dinner right beside the Roman Arena, and then did a horse-and-buggy ride around all the highlights in Verona. We passed Juliet's house, Romeo's house, Sant'Anastasia, the Duomo, the Arena, etc, etc. In all honesty, I loved Verona - its a beautiful, albeit quiet, little town.
The next morning, me and my sister said goodbye to Holly (she was staying to see an Opera), and Casey and I tried to make our way back to Siena by 4. There's just one problem. The timetable we got told us that it would take 6:30 hours to get back to Siena from Verona - a journey that shouldn't be more than 4. I wasn't happy.
So we took literally the slowest train from Verona to Bologna. It stopped at every. single. town. on. the. route. No joke. It was so bad - and then guido's got on at one of the stations, and wouldn't shut up. Argh.
So - an hour and 50 minutes later - we got to Bologna. I looked at our timetable again, and saw that we had literally an hour and 50 minutes to kill in Bologna Centrale, so I refused to believe that, and Casey and I booked it from where the train let us off to the biglitteria (spelling mistake is mine alone) to see if there was anything else. Lo and behold, there was!... you know, 5 minutes later. So we ran across Bologna Centrale carrying our backpacks, and made it on the train with 2 minutes to spare. Amazing.
So that train ride (which was going to Naples, but we got off at Florence) took about an hour and a half, and we got off at Florence Santa Maria Novella to discover that the train we wanted was all full, and about to leave. That was at about 3 pm - but Casey reminded me that we could take a bus! So we RAN to the bus station, and managed to catch the 3:10 "Siena Rapida" bus to Siena... at 3:08. EPIC. WIN. FOR US.
I'm just gonna brag a bit. That was epic. We got on the train leaving verona at 12:26, and got home by 4:40. The woman in Verona who booked us 12:26 to 6:38 was LYING TO US. Bitch. But we beat her! HAHAHAHAHA by about 2 hours.
So when we got back to Siena, mom texted us to tell us that she was already in the hotel, and to go back to our residence to pack an overnight bag. Coincidentally, the hotel was right beside the bus station - but we walked back to our residence, then attempted to take the same route back. There was just one problem. Because it's the weekend before il palio (the big horse race) our route was diverted TWICE due to parades, so here's me and Casey, dying slowly due to heat exhaustion and sheer exhaustion from travelling all day, walking around the outskirts (but still in the walls) of Medieval Siena.
Eventually, we FINALLY made it to the hotel, and after a nice long shower, in an air conditioned room, we collapsed and just relaxed for the rest of the day. The family went out to Restaurant Guido in Siena, which was wonderful, then we grabbed Gelato and spent a good amount of time eating gelato in the Piazza del Campo, people watching. After a nice, amazing sleep in an air-conditioned room (!) and a breakfast buffet that WASNT JUST BREAD (!!!!!!!!!), we spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon just walking around Siena. They left at 3 with Casey for Florence, and here I am, just sitting in residence.
The palio trial is tonight at 7:30, and friends are meeting up to cook before then, so Imma gonna go join them. But tonight will hopefully be a nice, relaxing end to an amazing - but BUSY - weekend!
There are so many photos I need to post... X_X
I'll try and spare you all
Till next time! A PALIO POST!!!!
Arrivederci!
Barry
PS: No pictures are below. Internet is crappy enough here, so I'll do a post of pictures later. I PROMISE!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Florence
The Bargello interior!
The Palazzo Vecchio - seat of the Florentine Communal Government
AAAAAAH <3 <3 <3
Such an amazing unbelievable museum
Michelangelo called these the "gates of Paradise". I can see it.
The Florentine Leather Market
Our Apartment!
The Florentine Duomo
The Florentine Crest with a Lion
The ceiling of the Uffizi. Whoops, no photos allowed... ^_^
The club!
Left to right: Casey, Holly, Moi.
Left to Right: Me, Casey, Alex, Busi (on the bottom), Holly, Aminata
Florence. Capital of the province of Tuscany. Center of the Italian Renaissance - and, therefore, the centre of what some historians have called the modern world.
This is going to be a long post...
Spending a weekend there was absolutely amazing. From Thursday at 9:15, when my specific class left Siena, to 11:10 this morning (Saturday), myself and a few friends and my sister were both seeing cultural Florence, and living modern-day Florence.
My art history class took me to go see the Bargello (where the Chief of Police lived, known as the capitano del popolo) and we were in the Logge right outside the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) in the Piazza della Signoria, which is pictured above. Between these two palaces, Dr. Wollesen pretty much described to the class the entire situation of Late (late late late) Medieval Tuscany, in terms of the politics and the experiment in Communal Government that each city-state tried (I'll spare all of you details). But fun note - the Bargello is now a state museum, and has some of the greatest art. It has Donatello's David - the first Bronze sculpture made since antiquity - as well as 2 original plates from the infamous Gates of Paradise competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi; they have the two panels depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac, from Genesis.
Class ended that day at 2 pm, and as my group was STAYING in Florence the weekend, I just chilled in Florence until my sister and her class finished at the Uffizi Art Gallery. Unfortunately, there was a HUUUUGE clusterfuck which involved the Hotel not letting us in because the group we had didnt bring their passports. Looking back on it now, we were stupid for NOT bringing them, but at the time, it was a really stupid situation. So after busing back and forth between Siena and Florence again - a good 3 hour trip - the four/six of us end up in a really nice apartment-style room in the Hotel, and after going out for dinner that night at like 10 pm, we just crashed afterwards.
The next morning, however, I woke up earlier than the people I was staying with - and being VERY quiet, I removed myself from the hotel, grabbed breakfast, and wandered around Florence until my Uffizi appointment at 12. Florence in the morning is absolutely beautiful. It was hot, there were too many tourists (whom I may or may not have had SOME altercations with ^_^), but Florence is absolutely stunning. So after meeting up with the friends I had made plans with to see the Uffizi Art Gallery, we went in.
I have to devote a singular paragraph to the Uffizi. What. A. Museum. Originally the offices of the Medici Magistrates (The Medici lived in the Palazzo Vecchio for a while, so just like Louis XIV and Versailles, they wanted to keep their offices near them, so they linked their palace to a beautifully designed office building by Giorgio Vasari) the Uffizi has been gloriously transformed into the home of Late Medieval to Dutch Renaissance art. There are also, y'know... 3 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings in there: The Annunciation; The Adoration of the Magi (unfinished); The Baptism of Christ. Other than the Leonardo's, there is also a beautiful Michelangelo (Tondo Doni), a bunch of Raphael's (Portrait of Julius II, Portrait of Leo X, Self Portrait), Titians galore (Specifically the Venus of Urbino), Botticelli's (Birth of Venus, Primavera, etc) and a bunch of Giotto's and Duccio's. It... It was absolutely unbelievable. There are literally no words - I went through that museum all but mute, just talking about minute details as I tried to cope with the glory of the art in front of me.
The Uffizi exterior (which you ARE allowed photos of) is almost as beautiful as the art inside it, depicting most of the greats of the Italian Renaissance. Giotto, Dante, Cimabue, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Boccaccio, Macchiavelli, as well as the two most infamous Medici's, Lorenzo and Cosimo - and many, MANY others. I chilled there for a while - and got photographs - before me and my two friends met up with my sister and 2 others at the infamous Florentine Leather Market, where we ALL did very well. I got a notebook cover (with the fleur-de-lis on the cover), and most importantly, a satchel! Huzzah!
That night, we bought wine, and went clubbing at "Central Park" - an outdoor club located past the Santa Maria Novella train station. It was actually quite a lot of fun, a bunch of dancing, and we got home at like, 3 am. Pretty good for me, anyways.
This morning was just coming back to Siena, and just... well, relaxing for the rest of the day. It took me that long - from 12 pm to ... well, 12 am to just go over my experiences in Florence. It's such an amazing city, and I'm going there at LEAST twice more on this trip. Wow.
Sorry for the insanely long and rambling post. Pictures (a lot of them) are above because something weird happened.
Arrivederci!
Barry
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Quick Update
I want to get this down so I remember it fully.
We went for dinner with my roommates across the hall - Theresa and Carlos. We went to a restaurant that was recommended by our in-Siena Guide, Vincenzo (or Ninni). We've been to this restaurant before, and the food was wonderful. However, the main guy (who's name we never found out the night before) doesn't speak any english, and the crowd I was with never spoke any Italian, so we never really talked to the main guy there.
However, Theresa and Carlos both spoke fluent Italian, so we had a WONDERFUL night at I Maestri with the man - who's name is Umberto - and it was just a wonderful night with friends from UTM. It was great.
The rest of the night was spent in the Campo (it's getting to be a constant now) with gelato, and just roommate bonding. Again, a wonderful experience.
No pictures were taken.
Buona Notte!
Barry
We went for dinner with my roommates across the hall - Theresa and Carlos. We went to a restaurant that was recommended by our in-Siena Guide, Vincenzo (or Ninni). We've been to this restaurant before, and the food was wonderful. However, the main guy (who's name we never found out the night before) doesn't speak any english, and the crowd I was with never spoke any Italian, so we never really talked to the main guy there.
However, Theresa and Carlos both spoke fluent Italian, so we had a WONDERFUL night at I Maestri with the man - who's name is Umberto - and it was just a wonderful night with friends from UTM. It was great.
The rest of the night was spent in the Campo (it's getting to be a constant now) with gelato, and just roommate bonding. Again, a wonderful experience.
No pictures were taken.
Buona Notte!
Barry
St. Dominic
Today was an interesting day - as most days seem to be here.
Today in class, we did a huge overview of the birth and growth of the communes - a very interesting period for those who care anything about Renaissance history - and the effect that art, literature, and philosophy had on said growth. Wollesen is a great lecturer, I've said it before, but wow. As such, we focused a lot on Catholic history and theology - he managed to tie it in with such a secular subject somehow.
But once that was finished, after a nice lunch at a bar near my residence, Holly and I decided to go to the big Basilica in Siena - the Basilica of Saint Dominic. We did this winding path down to the basilica - where we literally ran into the house of St. Catherine.
We weren't allowed to take photos, but St. Catherine (1347-1380) of Siena's house is... well, its a beautiful shrine to her and her works. The paintings inside the chapel are beautiful, everything about it is serene. I managed to get a massive sculpture of her which will be below. It was a beautiful homage to a beautiful woman (yes, I wiki'd her story)
The basilica itself is absolutely amazing. First of all, its the only basilica I can think of right now that DOESN'T have a facade. It's built like a cross (surprise) but a small one. The windows inside are beautiful, but almost modern - not in the style of the famous French Gothic windows, but rather, almost Cezanne-esque. Again, pictures weren't allowed, but each Chapel was beautiful. One of the most amazing things about the place is the relics they have. I saw Catherine's finger and nail... and her head. It's remarkable how well preserved it is after apx. 700 years - the nose has caved in a bit, but all the skin is there!!!
Today was a very... thought-provoking day. Especially as someone who ISN'T Catholic, I'm.. mystified. I'll refrain from putting down my own opinion about Catholicism (those who know me well enough should know anyways), but regardless of belief and theology, what I saw today was beautiful.
IN OTHER NEWS! FLORENCE TOMORROW! We leave at 9:15, and I won't have my laptop - so expect a HUGE blog post on Sunday!!!
Ciao as always,
Barry.
A Sienese fountain. Clean drinking water, out of the mouth of a she-wolf (Symbol of Siena)
Yet another one of the beautiful shots of the Palazzo Pubblico
Left to Right - Holly, Busi, Alex, Casey
A statue of St. Catherine in her family home
Holly with a beautiful view of St. Dominic in the background
Tuscany
OMG THERE ARE LANES IN SIENA!!!
Two of the most famous sites of Siena - the Duomo (Right) and the Palazzo (Left)
Finally, a picture of me on my blog. I'm leaning against the Church.
Today in class, we did a huge overview of the birth and growth of the communes - a very interesting period for those who care anything about Renaissance history - and the effect that art, literature, and philosophy had on said growth. Wollesen is a great lecturer, I've said it before, but wow. As such, we focused a lot on Catholic history and theology - he managed to tie it in with such a secular subject somehow.
But once that was finished, after a nice lunch at a bar near my residence, Holly and I decided to go to the big Basilica in Siena - the Basilica of Saint Dominic. We did this winding path down to the basilica - where we literally ran into the house of St. Catherine.
We weren't allowed to take photos, but St. Catherine (1347-1380) of Siena's house is... well, its a beautiful shrine to her and her works. The paintings inside the chapel are beautiful, everything about it is serene. I managed to get a massive sculpture of her which will be below. It was a beautiful homage to a beautiful woman (yes, I wiki'd her story)
The basilica itself is absolutely amazing. First of all, its the only basilica I can think of right now that DOESN'T have a facade. It's built like a cross (surprise) but a small one. The windows inside are beautiful, but almost modern - not in the style of the famous French Gothic windows, but rather, almost Cezanne-esque. Again, pictures weren't allowed, but each Chapel was beautiful. One of the most amazing things about the place is the relics they have. I saw Catherine's finger and nail... and her head. It's remarkable how well preserved it is after apx. 700 years - the nose has caved in a bit, but all the skin is there!!!
Today was a very... thought-provoking day. Especially as someone who ISN'T Catholic, I'm.. mystified. I'll refrain from putting down my own opinion about Catholicism (those who know me well enough should know anyways), but regardless of belief and theology, what I saw today was beautiful.
IN OTHER NEWS! FLORENCE TOMORROW! We leave at 9:15, and I won't have my laptop - so expect a HUGE blog post on Sunday!!!
Ciao as always,
Barry.
A Sienese fountain. Clean drinking water, out of the mouth of a she-wolf (Symbol of Siena)
Yet another one of the beautiful shots of the Palazzo Pubblico
Left to Right - Holly, Busi, Alex, Casey
A statue of St. Catherine in her family home
Holly with a beautiful view of St. Dominic in the background
Tuscany
OMG THERE ARE LANES IN SIENA!!!
Two of the most famous sites of Siena - the Duomo (Right) and the Palazzo (Left)
Finally, a picture of me on my blog. I'm leaning against the Church.
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