Family in Rome

My parents and brother were awesome enough to come visit me in Rome. Here are some photos of our adventures this week:

At the Mediterranean:

Close to the Circus Maximus:

On top of the Duomo in Florence:

More when I have time!

This week: Wedding cake monuments and more riots

The last three posts have all be done in the past hour, but its easier because blogger sucks at placing images.

This is the Vittorio Emanuele II (Victor Emmanuel II for those who like real words) monument, up close and personal. It's huge. I posted a further-away shot in an earlier post ("Walking the streets") but Google is probably the best way to find a good image of it. It's built on the side of Capitoline Hill, almost cannibalizing it, right in the center of Rome. It was constructed to commemorate the unification of Italy under this King, where before it had been a bunch of kingdoms under foreign rulers (Napoleon being one of them). Although stark in nature, this was built before the era of Fascism, the last monument before Mussolini took over.

Here's a picture from inside an Episcopalian church on the Via Nazionale, the street that leads directly to the Vittorio monument. Interesting if only for being a non-catholic church on a main city street. It's decorated much differently from Catholic churches, being a hell of a lot less ornate and more direct in its approach.

America, take note: this is how you tell your government you're pissed. Not by voting in rigged elections where you have the choice between two corporate-backed candidates, but actually hitting the streets and marching on your leaders (this demonstration was headed toward Silvio Bersculoni's place, the Italian Prime Minister). These were mostly students and teachers angry with the proposed cuts in educational funds. We walked through marching crowds of tens of thousands of people in order to get back home this day.

Halloween:

Me as Terry Kirk, next to a ninja turtle. That's a real 'stache.

Here's a photo of the real thing, for reference. I didn't go as far as shaving my head, but we'll just say I was a young Terry.

BRB, gotta go grow a beard (again). Next time I'll hopefully have an "everyday walk" post ready.

Churches, Fountains, and Riots

These are from before and after my weekend in Amsterdam, so I'll let you know which is what.

Two weeks ago for Art History (with the one and only Terry Kirk) we visited some more churches here in Rome, one designed by Bernini (a big deal) and another by Borromini (a rival who was economical in his geometric designs). The image that follows is the actual sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, a saint who felt the spirit of god being pierced into her heart like an arrow.

At the end of this lecture we made our way to Trevi fountain, a popular attraction for tourists. The sculptures are magnificent, and the water that flows from here is from the oldest water source in Rome. The pope that renovated the basin wished to promote the idea of abundance and good health, personified in the feminine sculptural allegories standing to either side of (what I think is) Neptune. I forget.

 

This next photo I snapped while walking around the Campi de Fiori area. Demonstrations seem to be a national pastime here in Rome. It's refreshing to see a populace that makes demands of its government instead of taking what it's given and being told what's good for it (America: HI).

Amsterdam

It hasn't been my intention to make this a "only when I feel like it" blog, but time is a limited resource around here, apparently. So I'm sorry! On with pictures and stuff.

Last weekend, I made the train/tram/bus/plane/taxi trek to Amsterdam with my roommates Garrett and Tim. This was my first trip to Europe proper outside of Italy (Britain doesn't count, it's an island). Getting there involved a bus to Termini train station in Rome, another bus from there to Ciampino airport, a RyanAir flight to Eindhoven in the Netherlands, another bus to the train station there, a one-hour train ride to Amsterdam, and a few hours of confused walking around and giving up to take a taxi to our hostel, which sent us to another hostel since they had already booked our rooms. End result: we were worn out but upgraded to a place to stay right in the center of the city, about a two-minute walk from the main train station.

Amsterdam is a giant tourist trap, this I am now sure of. We were also located right next to the more touristy parts, so that wasn't so good. There was some sort of carnival/dance scene going on the night we arrived (Saturday), but we were too tired from our escapades to find it.

Canals everywhere here. That big red building in the background is the train station.

This is what most of the center of the city looks like.

Sunday we had planned to hit some museums and go on a bike ride in the countryside, but the weather chose not to cooperate with us that day. Instead we walked through the rain, and did get to a couple of the major museums. Those being the Rijksmuseum, home of The Night Watch by Rembrandt and the Vincent Van Gogh museum. The Rijks was interesting but kind of small, whereas Van Gogh had a large collection of Vincent's work, which I thought was impressive. The rain continued on through the night, and there wasn't much going on for a Sunday Night, despite it being Amsterdam, vice capital of Europe.

One of the busier roads. The trams go a decent ways but we didn't use them.

Monday morning was set aside for buying souvenirs and getting some photos, so all these you're seeing on this page were solely from this day. It was fairly chill that morning, somewhere in the 50s Fahrenheit. Thank god for fleece.

This train took us back to Eindhoven. Pretty sweet.

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...

Alright, first, apologies: haven't made a post in about two solid weeks. That's mostly because there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot going on, no trips or whatnot to talk about. I did get to see St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday as a part of my art history class, so I can share some pictures here:

Outside the Basilica. This is where the Pope comes out and gives Big Deal speeches.

The only decent indoor photo I could snap with my G7. I wish the other ones had turned out better, but ISO 1600 is just crazy grainy. The basilica is enormous; it's designed to make you feel in awe of the power of the Catholic church, and it works.

La Pieta, one of Michelangelo's sculptures (might have been his first?). It shows a serene Virgin holding a dead Christ in peaceful solitude, a private moment that never actually occurred in the Bible. Mary's serenity speaks to her precognition of Christ's future rising from the dead; her demeanor is meant to tell viewers that the best way to deal with calamity is to be serene. 

View of the Basilica from down the street. Check out the dome!

That's all for now. Going to Amsterdam next weekend (super psyched), so be ready for photos! I hear they have amazing canals.

South Side Represent…

I'm not sure if I'm still in school or not. It's been a week since I've had class. Do I go on vacations for a living now? What a living that would be... Anyway, it started as a class trip to Naples on Thursday morning, about a two-hour train ride. We stopped at a couple museums there. Some nice paintings. Some perverted crap in the other. Good job, Naples. You're the armpit of Italy.

Nice.

From Naples, it was a bus drive to Sorento, which was much cleaner and picture-esque in comparison. And both of these are coastal cities! In Sorento, we stayed at a convent for the evening. The elder nun there is about 4'6", but don't let that fool you. The way she played that piano, it was like she had the energy of a teenage girl on Red Bull. The sisters there were very nice though, and served a delicious breakfast the next day.

Picture of the convent. I wish I had taken some photos of the sisters there.

Before that though, we went to a class dinner at a restaurant called The Lemon Tree, Thursday evening. This was a full Italian meal, the whole five courses and wine to boot. Best meal of my life, thus far. I am continually surprised by the quality of the food in this country, so I can't say for sure. Bruschetta followed by spinach and seaweed puffs (delicious, believe me) followed by pasta followed by one hell of a fish dish, finished off with a rich white cream cake, all interspersed with some damn good white wine. It's gonna be hard forgetting a meal like that.

The next day, we said our goodbyes to the sisters at the convent and took the tram to Pompeii, famous for being lava-steamrolled by a belching Mount Vesuvius. The city ruins were larger than I had expected, but it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be. A decent tour guide (like I dunno, maybe Terry Kirk) would have made it a lot better. Plus, lunch was a giant bend-over operation in terms of costs and getting to something when the only restaurant located IN the city is closed down. There were some interesting ruins though, and some glass cabinets depicting the molds of the dying bodies gruesomely twisting in agony as they were enveloped by liquid-hot magma. I'll spare you those images for now.

Here's wall paintings instead!

Area outside one of the amphitheaters.

Probably the best part of the trip was when the class part was over and our group of up-to-no-goods went to take the ferry from Sorento to the island of Capri. Ever imagined what an island paradise looks like? Capri is basically it, plus a lot of touristy-trap things to ensnare your wilted Euro notes. That said, the place was a paradise after too much spelunking in ruins and museums. We roamed the small streets, taking little orange busses to get around the entire time (that €1.40 each ride starts to hit you after about the tenth time). Took some of the most beautiful pictures I've had the pleasure of taking, despite having a dust spot in my camera (good excuse to splurge on a DSLR before I leave?).

Friday was mostly chill, we just went about the island trails and snapped some pictures. Went to AmericanLand for dinner, which was bleh. I was scraping together euro cents to pay for everything since I hadn't taken any money out of the ATM before arriving (sorry guys). Saturday we took a bus to the beach (which wasn't actually there apparently) and stood on top of rocks overlooking the ocean instead, where the winds buffeted us while waves crashed down below. I have never felt peace like I did here, nor an appreciation for the raw power of nature as the waves crashed mercilessly on the sharp outcroppings of rocks. That evening, we ate at a posh restaurant with some friends who were also staying in Capri. Later on we went to a club called "RED", where a supremely boring comedian joked in Italian. I missed out on the dancing that went on later; that'll teach me for drinking my wine too fast. Fell asleep in the hostel we were staying at, a pleasant little place in Anacapri (basically the sister town to Capri). The staff were extremely friendly.

Sunday we made our way up the "ski lift" to the top of Capri. Took some amazing photos here. Later we made our way to an actual beach, and each of us did a "cliff dive", which was not actually a cliff dive but just jumping off of a rock twelve feet up in the air into the ocean. I usually don't do awesome stuff like this so for me it was pure thrill. Swam out of that water as fast as I could though, as some of my friends were getting stung by jellyfish (Tim and Sarah, you kids are troopers). 

Picture of the city while going up the "ski lift".

This is the marina. The water was so blue...I wish drinking water looked like this.

So beautiful.

Yeah, I'm here.

Quick update: Assisi

I've got a lot of work that I've been putting off all weekend, so this will have to be a quick update. Saturday we took a class trip to Assisi, about two hours north of Rome. This is the burial site of St. Francis, one of the early Christian evangelists, founder of the Franciscan Monks (obviously). Assisi is an oooold, old village located on top of a hill; it's since become modernized and expanded at the hill's bottom, but the hill itself still retains its medieval look for the most part. The church is a beautifully old structure with frescos by Giotto adorning the walls. Beautiful country.

If you see any dark splotches on the pictures below, it's from some dust that has gotten into the lens of my G7. I gotta figure out how to get it cleaned, or maybe I just need an excuse to buy a DSLR with the money I don't have…

View of the church from up on top of the hill. Notice the rose window in the center.

View of the town from higher up on the hill. Cranes over on the left with their sans-serif logos are totally messing up the view.

Another far-off view of the church. 

The castle up on top of the hill. Didn't go inside but it was nice to take pictures around it.

Evidence that I am indeed here.