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.

Cinque Terre

And on the 8th day He declared, "There shall be great spots from which to take pictures with your digital camera." And so there were, and it was good.

Saturday morning, 6:15am. We stumble out of our apartment after about three hours of sleep, making our way to meet up with the girls and take the bus to Termini train station. This was to be my first time using public transportation in Rome, and thankfully there was a ticket box inside the bus so that we didn't get fined for not already having them. Termini is the largest train station in Rome, and looked the part of a modern airport. We took a fifteen-minute break to find some breakfast and have a coffee, then met back at the train which would take us to Cinque Terre, our destination for the day. It was a long five-hour trip in economy class,

 meaning regular seats which could be slouched about four inches to accommodate an uncomfortable sleeping position. Didn't happen for me, unfortunately (the sleep part). With about a forty minute delay, we arrive around noon. This would be my first "trip" outside of Rome since arriving in early September.

Cinque Terre is a coastline area with five seaside towns, connected by its own train route and several hiking and goat trails. In Italian the name literally translates into "The Five Lands", aptly put for the five peninsulas that jut out slightly into the water, upon which each town sits. It is the main tourist attraction of the Riviera of La Spezia, a hilly, rugged region. La Spezia is the staging area for getting to any of the five cities, and we took a train to the furthest one from which to start. After grabbing some potatoe-and-mushroom pizza and a sports drink, our group was ready to start up the hill.

The last hill (our first) was, naturally, the hardest one. It took us somewhere between an

 hour and a half to two hours to conquer it, and that was with several breaks along the way. The steps leading up didn't look challenging until you were already halfway up them, panting like you've just run a marathon. I spent a lot more time checking my footing than I would have liked, considering that every time I looked up, there was some magnificent vista to take in or snap in a photo. 

The trail itself was full of little things here and there to garner your interest. The small rock footbridge pictured right is among one of them, amid others such as small streams, terraced vineyards and a small cat sanctuary with a couple of snoozing felines.

 

The next few hills were less hell than the first, but they still were pretty tiring. The slopes were more gentle and plateaued for a longer time, and as the sun got lower the area became even more beautiful with the late evening light reflecting on the ocean and the small town buildings and churches. Really, there's not a whole lot that can be said to capture the feel of the area, so I'll just attempt to do it with the photos that follow. 

After getting to the last town, it was around 20:00 (8pm) and we decided that it was definitely time for some chow, real-Italian-cuisine style. There were only a few ristoranti in the area and they all had lines, but we did manage (with a little help) to find a small seaside wine bar that also served food, just only first courses (which is fine by our American standards). I had my first taste of a pesto dish, and it was so good I thought my tongue might get stuck to the plate. Me and a couple of my roommates also ordered a bottle of the house red wine, and, oh my god. Until then, I hadn't known the taste of a truly delicious wine, and I would drop another €15 instantly for that kind of wonderfully full flavor. 

We enjoyed our meal and paid our bill, then took the train back to La Spezia, the staging area. We had a few h

ours to burn until our train left back for Termini in Rome, so we went to a hostel where some of our friends were staying, corked open some wine bottles, and sat around a crowded room, myself perched atop one of the bunk beds, avoiding tossed wine corks while trying to get through the next game of Hang Man. The train ride back was an exercise in discomfort, the seven of us squeezed into one train cabin. I'm not sure how we all retained the energy to get ourselves off the train and onto the bus home, but somehow we managed. I rarely wake up at 3pm in the afternoon, but I'm pretty glad of it. Can't wait to feel those aches in my legs from all the up- and down-hill movement, but maybe those squats I did every morning in the summer will have finally paid off…

Manarola, the fourth city we reached. Cool sheer cliff face.

Took a picture of some trail hikers (circled) opposite the hill we were on, just for sense of scale.

Example of some of the lighter terrain we trekked through.

Plenty of other tourists on these trails. These wooden rails on the side are the exception, not the norm…

The closer you get to Riomaggiore (the town closest to La Spezia), the more gorgeous the paths become.

Looking down on what I think is Vernazza, the second town we went to.

Friends hanging out at the beach in Vernazza. Slippery rocks, I'm told.

This is what Vernazza looks like up close, umbrellas and all.

Church

This week for art history, we went a-walking through early Christianity. First was a church where St. Peter was said to have stayed with a Roman senator (not pictured), probably the earliest example of a Christian Basilica. Next, and more impressive, was the Santa Maria Maggiore, the first church dedicated to the virgin Mary. Early Christianity faced the problem of having many worshipers who would pray to the Virgin as an intercessor with Christ, but she did not have much significance in the Bible outside of giving birth. The first Ecumenical council established her authority, and to signify this Cardinal Colona had a church built in her honor.

It is a beautiful Christian Basilica, adopted from the former Roman-style Basilicas which were originally places of law and discussion. Ornate mosaics and painting adorn the walls, which have an upper clerestory which is the sole source of light in the church. This creates a heavenly feel, as if being in this church is experiencing the ethereal if even for just a few minutes. At the end of the nave, one large painting adorns the upper end of the apse, depicting Christ crowning the Virgin Mother, in essence giving her near equal status. Figures around them have hierarchical significance, from St. Peter to St. Paul to Cardinal Colona himself (though minimized). 

There are many more beautiful parts to the basilica, with every wall adorned with something. A couple of side chapels feature even more ornate altars and imagery. They really went all-out with the decoration, even for 500 AD. 

 

Side note: on our way to the church (you can see it on the right edge of the following photo), we ran into a group of striking hospital workers demonstrating in their own parade. Apparently this is a regular occurrence. The Santa Maria Maggiore is in a northern spot in Rome, not too terribly far from the Vittorio Emmanuelle Monument and the Colosseum, maybe twenty minutes walking.