The Weekend in Italy

I would have very much liked to post an update every night so I would not have had to make this one enormous post, but internet connections and time (read: sleep) constraints made that impossible, so I'll just have to make this as smooth and interesting as possible. We'll go Day-by-Day as we did in Crete and for part of the Peloponnese.

Thursday:

Thanksgiving day in America was not celebrated with any frivolity in Milan. The sun rose over the piazza in front of the Duomo Cathedral just as on any other day.

And the day began. I had taken the Metro from my hostel with the rising sun (7:00 am) to the Duomo stop and intended to walk to the train station from there, arriving by 8:30 at the latest. In a beeline path, the walk would only take 20 minutes or so. For a person who had never been to the city before, had not done nearly enough research on its layout and, and had no map, it took just about exactly the hour and a half I had reserved for the trip. 

The side of the Duomo Cathedral just as the sun rose. Unfortunately, all of my pictures of the front, center of the building are very dark and I didn't really get a second chance at taking pictures.

The biggest, most elaborate mall I have ever seen, across the street from the Cathedral. I wish it had been open as I walked through, for a better look at the restaurants if nothing else!

I walked in a straight line unintentionally along the metro line, and passed hundreds of fashion boutiques and brand name stores with Christmas window displays, including the area I had found the previous night, now fully lit and busy as the shops started opening for the day's business. I found the train station without getting too lost and with plenty of time to spare.

Now, about trains. They are by far now my favorite way to travel. If you count in all the time and hassle that it takes to get through an airport and onto a plane, trains are just as fast - if not faster - for intercity journeys, especially when the view is as nice as it is in Northern Italy. It took just over an hour and a half to get from Milan to Florence with no hassle whatsoever. The most relaxing and enjoyable means of travel I've ever come across. Let's get some more of these in America!

Arriving in Florence, I met up with my hostess, Miss Dottie, who at once took me to lunch. I learned there that a true Italian meal consist of three courses: Primi Corso is usually pasta or rice, Secondo Corso is typically a meat, and then you have a vegetable. I wasn't too surprised to learn this until they brought out the plates. Each course was the size of a full meal - at least by my standards - and I had to work quite hard to finish all of the amazing food before me (I couldn't do it, but I gave it my best effort, and the household dog was happy to help with my meal afterwords.) We took a quick walk along the Arno river after lunch, then had to return to prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner.

The Gardens behind the rectory where the Dunnam's live.

St. James, the church where Father Mark is Pastor.

Thanksgiving was an intense and fun experience. It may have been an American style, traditional Thanksgiving meal, but the people there were definitely Italian in mindset, if not origin. We started late, there was enough food to feed a small army, let alone the 85 people who were in attendance, and the dinner that began at 7:30 ended at 11:00 or so, with people lingering to avoid the light drizzle and continue conversing with the pleasant company. Of everyone there, it seemed to me that only about half of us were true Americans, the rest being British or Italian, there for family and friends or just interested in the tradition and the food. All in all, it was delicious and fun, and perfectly full of those awkward Thanksgiving moments where you don't know a soul and are constantly introduced via personal story to those around you who you may never see again (until next year, at least!)

Friday:

I was up talking with Miss Dottie for at least another hour after that, but still managed to get up in the morning for a sunrise walk along the Arno.

Little shops and restaurants, especially those specializing in leather, jewelry and pasta (respectively) line the river banks and help the area gleam. This particular stretch is full of history, even though only one of the bridges is original, and the rest needed to be reconstructed after WWII. The entire area looks more like a movie set or historical villa than a place where people actually live. The museums house a fair few of their statues outside, so I kept running across things like Neptune's Fountain, the bronze Perseus, a copy of the marble Rape of the Sabine Woman, and Hercules and the Nemean Lion as I walked through town. Miss Dottie also directed me to the Duomo in Florence, which I did manage to take a (less dark) picture of.

The immense size of the building (that's a 20-odd foot Christmas tree in the bottom left) is only accentuated by the incredible detail that has gone into every inch of the building.

The front facade of the cathedral, with a little better look at how intricate the masonry and architecture is. These churches are the true merging of form and function, art and architecture as one.

When I got back, we began a little museum hopping, first the Academia Museum to see Michelangelo's David, then to the Palazzo Strozzi for a lovely exhibition of the works of Bronzino, whose art I knew, even if I didn't remember his name. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures in either museum, nor did I have the time to sketch. The David was definitely the central piece in the Academia, and it was much larger and more impressive than I would ever have guessed from the thousands of pictures I've seen of it. It's 17 ft high for a start, which is nigh on impossible to really imagine until you're next to it. There was also an exhibit of antique musical instruments which was fascinating, especially the number and intricacy of those made specifically for the Medici family.

The Bronzino exhibit at the Palazzo Strozzi was much mroe intimate, and very moving. The paintings, sculptures and tapestries, almost all of which he had a hand in, to up about 15 galleries and became more naturalistic and elaborate with time. It's always so interesting to watch an artist grow like that, and I found that some of his lesser known paintings were some of my personal favorites. One, which I had never seen before this exhibit, was a simple portrait of a woman, with such detail and texture that her pearls quite literally stood out over the gold lace on her silk and velvet dress, which I could make out the material of without even trying. That takes incredible talent and skill. Also, some pieces were set up next to contemporary poetry that went along with them and brought an entirely new dimension to the Renaissance paintings. I appreciated that a lot.

Miss Dottie and I spent the evening browsing through Old Town Florence, window shopping and noting the art and architecture scattered along the streets. Florence, with most of Italy, I think, encourages you to crick your neck looking up at the rooftops and high walls of its buildings, almost all of which are topped with statues and wrought iron. It was always fun to just walk the city. At around 7:30, we drove across the Arno and up to one of the largest plazas (called the Piazzale Michelangelo) for a view of the lit up cityscape from above. The mix of modern and ancient, religious and secular, all lit to match with flood lights, street lights, window lights and Christmas lights is breathtaking.

A bronze copy of the David in the Piazzale Michelangelo.

Saturday:

Early Saturday morning, I said goodbye to Miss Dottie an Father Mark and caught the 9:30 train to Rome. I arrived around 11am, dropped my things in the Hostel and began to run. 

I went first to the Colosseum (which is right next door to the Arch of Constantine, as seen below).

But the line to get in was forever long, and as much as I wanted to see the Colosseum, I didn't want to spend two hours waiting in line for it, either. So I went to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill site first and bought a combo ticket for the two places together. Then, feeling intelligent for beating the crowd, I took my time wandering through the Roman Forum.

The Forum is fascinating for many things, of course, but two reasons in particular stood out to me: its huge size - the site took me a good 45 minutes just to walk without stopping much at all - and the immense time span it encapsulates. Ancient temple facades remain, but have been restored as ancient churches, which were later restored again into more modern churches. Arches and houses were built and re-inscribed and re-used for new purposes, creating a kind of mish-mash of ancient architecture that was actually pretty reminiscent of an old shopping center that had gone through several partial renovations. Which is basically - from what I understand - what the ancient forum was. 

Ancient style statues crowing a church dedicated to St. Francis.

The facade of a mostly destroyed temple (no idea who it was dedicated to). It was odd not having a map or guide to the sites. The problem I kept running into in Rome, on sites and in museums, was that nothing was labeled and they would encourage you to pay extra for an audio guide or tour guide if you wanted more information. There were no student discounts to begin with, and I didn't have enough time to do the whole site properly, so I didn't bother with either. I will if I go back, or at least I'll research heavily beforehand.

A temple facade now housing an ancient church. The architectural disparity between the two styles is so cool! 

Triumphal Arch of Titus in the Forum.

The Colosseum. I got to skip the line to walk through. :-)

Looking down into the Colosseum from the upper level. The structures in the center are not roman original, but later Christian additions. Scale tourists provided. This place was so crowded, but really incredible. The structure itself is heavy and weighs down on you, even as it lifts itself up impossibly high into the clouds. Miss Dottie told me beforehand that, to her, the building feels like death, and I agree with that sentiment completely.

There were a whole lots of Gladiator street performers all around the area, but these guys were by far the most playful and the most popular.

Looking up from the base of the Colosseum. It really is enormous.

At around 1:30 pm, I totally forgot about lunch, still somewhat full from the numerous, gigantic meals of Florence, and took the metro to Vatican City.

The wall surrounding Vatican City in part.

I spent nearly 4 and 1/2 hours in Musei Vaticani, most of which was spent craning my neck to stare at the ceilings.

A tiny detail of a tiny ceiling painting in one room.

The full hall with that room, which displays about 25 tapestries, all in pristine condition. I was especially struck by how the Renaissance popes especially enjoyed commissioning portraits of themselves with the Ancient Greek and Roman gods. That mixing of religions and consorting with other deities is so frowned upon today that I had always assumed that Christianity had frowned on it from the start, but apparently that is not true. Many of the deities became angels, graces and saints in the olden days.

Another ceiling in another room, that seemed to be nothing but red and blue paint with gold leaf over marble and ivory. Breathtakingly beautiful. And that is not the main exhibit in that room.

The central gardens within the museum, which serves as a meeting place for tour groups and a house for statues that can survive the outdoors.

Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the Sistine Chapel, but I stayed in that one room, wishing I could lie down on the floor for about 20 minutes. It's funny I had never really noticed, but if you come in by the altar, the main scenes are in chronological order, but upside-down, and if you come in at that back, the scenes are right side up, but reversed chronologically. I think that's Michelangelo's little way of saying there is no wrong or right way to enter the chapel. It is accessible to all. I really appreciate that. Of course the individual artwork is amazing, but what is really mind-blowing is how well the room fits together as a whole. No one thing overpowers another, and all the colors blend and complement each other so pleasingly. I feel like Michelangelo must have taken the entire room into account before even beginning to plan his ceiling. It's a truly wonderful experience.

I was a little saddened that the other pieces I was really dying to see were mostly inaccessible. The Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica was closed off to the public whilst I was there, because the Pope was in the Basilica, doing unspecified Pope-things. That was kind of cool in itself, to know how close I was to an icon of the world. Rafael's School of Athens painting, I could just see, and I'm really grateful for that, but restpration work was taking place on the ceiling just beside it, so a fair amount of the painting was blocked by tarp and scaffolding. Just means I have to go back. ;-)

After leaving the museum, it was already starting to get dark, so I decided to take my metro pass (which was good for 24 hours) and get off at every stop going back to my hostel and walk around a little so I could see a little more of the city before I had to leave. I couldn't see too much because of the dark and because I didn't really know where I was going, but I saw the Fontana di Trevi and Teatro dell' Opera, among other things and began to get a small feel for a small part of the city.

The Fontana di Trevi. I wish my camera could handle the dark better.

I went to bed much earlier than I had planned originally, just from exhaustion and hunger,
and didn't sleep very well, but it didn't matter much. I wasn't going to get any more done in Rome and there was plenty of time for sleeping further on the train, plane and metro I had to take to get back to central Athens. So I managed to stay on budget, see a fair number of things (there was never going to be opportunity to do everything, so I always knew I would have to come back.) Also, I feel pretty proud that my pocket was never picked, and I was never picked on by anyone. I got back to Athens at around 11am on Sunday, and do not intend to leave again until London in December. Now, there is homework that needs doing and sleep that needs getting.

Καληνύχτα!