italia10

reflections +

2010-04-27T13:37:00.001+02:00

it’s just after lunch on tuesday, april 27. in two days i will be home! we have our final studio presentations tomorrow, and my group’s boards are ready to print, so i thought i’d take some time to reflect on the past four months…

ever since knowing i was accepted into the genoa program, i had been so excited to come to europe. i was nervous about leaving the country and being away from home for so long without even option to visit home if i had wanted. knowing almost everyone else who was coming (most students here are from my year at clemson) made it easier. if they could do it, i could do it. a lot of my friends had studied at the barcelona program last semester, so i had seen all of their pictures on facebook last fall. i was ready to make memories of my own!

living here for four months has been indescribable. the ability to hop on a train or get a cheap flight to visit a different city or even country for the weekend is awesome. i am a pro traveler. subways, trains, planes, metros, buses, funiculars, you name it and i can figure it out, even in different languages. checking in at the airport, passport checks, going through customs…it’s all become a way of life for us. balancing our travels with our work was challenging at times, but visiting the different places gave us an opportunity to explore, see, feel, experience, SKETCH even more. It sounds dorky, but all of the classes we take here relate somehow, and mostly show architecture from around europe. so the point of almost all of our group and individual travels are to see what we’ve learned about. seeing it in pictures in a slide show during a lecture and being able to walk around the building, go inside, see other people seeing it, is on two totally different levels.

bernhard, our professor in residence here, has told us countless times about the importance of traveling. he’s encouraged us to continue it back in the u.s., even if it’s to a place two towns away from where you live. he flew to chicago for the first time early in the semester (he was born in romania and lived in germany for most of his life), and immediately sent us an e-mail telling us how incredible it was to be in a new city. it was kind of ironic. it was one of the first weekends that we had free travel, so while all of us were exploring parts of italy, france, and germany, he was in america, in a city a lot of us have visited before. and we all had the same sense of awe and excitement. bernhard has been a huge reason as to why this program is so great. this was his third (and last!) semester in genoa. he spent a semester in clemson prior, and will be returning to sc in the fall.
there are no words to explain living in the villa. last semester, there were eleven students living here. this semester, twenty one! we are split into six bedrooms and share four toilets, six showers, three washer and dryers, and one refrigerator. like i said, most of us knew each other prior to coming. there were little ‘cliques’ when we arrived. people hanging out with the same people all the time. after living together and especially being on our nine-day trips with each other twentyfour/seven, you learn to hang out with new people. i’m so glad we had a big group this time. i’m so much closer to the people i knew, and have made great friendships with people i met four months ago. sharing this experience is something we will have in common forever. no one else is going to understand climbing hundreds of steps every day, the daily ‘luciaaaaa’ call, or grunting like serverio. there is an infinite amount of inside jokes, secrets, and memories that we can call our own. i’ve never lived with more than three people. i must say that i lucked out and got a pretty big room to share with three girls with our own balcony facing the port. unfortunately, i did not luck out when it came to the bathroom. upstairs where our rooms are, there is a wall of bathrooms. the two end ones are connected to bedrooms, each to a room with three girls, where they have the ability to lock the door of the bathroom that opens to the hallway. that leaves three bathrooms to the rest of the house. only two of them have toilets (the third has two showers in it, weird? yes.) that means that fifteen people share the two full bathrooms. that means that my three female roommates and i share two bathrooms with eleven guys. as bernhard has told me, ‘poor ashley’. and i must say poor bernhard, because his wing is on the main floor, where all of our studios are, located a floor above the kitchen and dining room, and below our bedrooms. so bernhard hears everything. and i know he’s had many sleepless nights, especially those nights we are too lazy to climb the hill to go out, so we just stay in and drink and play games in the kitchen. we have the next professor to take over genoa for a few semesters visiting us this week. one of the first things he said to us was that he was a light sleeper. bernhard just laughed and said, ‘then you will not sleep.’

the past four months have flown by. i thought by now i would be homesick and ready to come home, but honestly, i think i could do this for a few more months. don’t get me wrong- i can’t wait to see all of my family and friends! and i know that my wallet wouldn’t support ANY extra time here (thank you mom and dad for helping me out, and aunts and uncles-you know who you are!) but i know all of us definitely feel at home here. living in genoa was perfect. it was not the touristy rome or florence. it was the quiet little town between a port and a mountain, filled with adorably dressed little kids and the cutest old people, where they only speak italian and look at you in a funny way when you wear shorts, even though it’s seventy degrees out.

well i’ve gone on longer than i planned. i guess i had more to say than i thought. time to start cleaning up and packing. thank you all for reading my blog this semester and sharing all my travels with me. i have tons of other stories i can’t wait to tell you when i see you :) arrivederci!!

the last full week...

2010-04-20T18:11:00.000+02:00

the countdown is into single digits- 9 days until i come home! this past weekend i stayed in genoa to relax and catch up on work. we watched movies all weekend, and a lot of people went hiking in portofino and cinque terre. saturday night, the few of us who were still in the villa, went to the genoa hofbrauhaus for some german food. this is zac’s favorite restaurant, so he was really excited to find one in genoa. it was decorated so well inside we thought we were in germany. i had wienerschnitzel and potato salad and beer. it was delicious!

jamie’s parents were supposed to visit her in genoa this weekend. her dad was already in the uk for business and her mom was flying into genoa to meet both of them. but because of the volcano, jamie’s dad was stuck in london all weekend, and her mom got rerouted to rome. her iphone got no service there, so she had no way of contacting jamie or jamie’s dad, so jamie had quite a stressful day. her mom had to wait in line for two hours at the airport, then go to rome’s train station and wait another two hours for a train, and then take the four-five hour train here. thank goodness she had a card for jamie that she had forgotten to send so that she had our address! she took a cab to the villa and stayed with us all weekend.

my roommates, judith, catherine, and kelsey were all in Ibiza this weekend. i was supposed to go with them and even already booked my flight, but decided to stay in genoa this weekend instead. good thing, because airports in the north of italy are closed, and the girls are stuck in Ibiza until tomorrow (if everything works out!) another grad student, sylvia, went to berlin over the weekend, and was stuck as well. she had to take a train all day today and will hopefully be back tonight. our coordinator, sylvia, was supposed to fly to clemson for a few days for meetings, but had to cancel the trip because of the planes not flying for so long. what a mess!

on sunday, there was a half marathon in genoa that our teacher, bernhard, was running in. grad student tyler and i got up early to go down to the port to cheer him on. but tyler looked at the route wrong on the map, and we actually got it backwards. we got to see everyone take off from down the street, but didn’t get to see bernhard. we waited around for a while to try to catch them, but no luck. so we went to get gelato instead. by the time we made it back to the villa, bernhard was returning not far behind us. he laughed that we got the route wrong and showed us where they really went on the map. he then asked us if we wanted to do a nice dinner that night, which we agreed to, but first, the soccer game.

at three o’clock, most of us had tickets to see uc sampdoria (one of the genoa teams) play soccer against ac milan. a 2002 clemson graduate AND david beckham plays on the ac milan team, but seeing as our tickets sat us in the home section, we of course still had to cheer for our ‘home town’, genoa. uc sampdoria ended up winning 2-1 in the ninetieth minute of the game. it was really intense! and the italian chants and cheers were so cool to hear and try to sing and clap along with. we had taken a bus there, but somehow i ended up in the small group that decided to walk up the giant mountain to get back down to our villa. logan, allender, and i were not happy as we followed jeff and tyler on a hike! we made it back before everyone else though, so i guess it was worth it. i had time for a fifteen minute power nap!

bernhard had made reservations at a small restaurant in a little town right outside the center of genoa called boccadasse. we only got to see it at night, but it was beautiful. when we got off the bus, we told bernhard how great it was, and he said it’s going to get a whole lot cooler in a second. we turned the corner and there was a little beach right in front of a street with a bar and restaurant on it. it was gorgeous! dinner was delicious (complete with wonderful white wine and tiramisu!)

we had our final in our sketch class today. we each had to make a book with fifty of our sketches and present it. it took all day to go through all of us, but we did it, and now we only have studio to worry about! we have our final review next wednesday. i can’t believe i’m almost done the semester!

weekend in london

2010-04-13T14:18:00.000+02:00

i spent this past weekend in london. because we had an itialian rationalism final friday afternoon, catherine and i couldn’t leave until saturday morning, and we met michael and nate, who had flown out the day before. they’re landscape architect majors, so we told them to fit in all of the parks they wanted to see before we got there ;)

the boys were pretty impressed that catherine and i figured out the train from stansted airport to liverpool street and the tube without one mistake! we checked into our hostel and dropped our bags off, and then took the tube to go on ‘the eye’ before it got too dark. when we got off at our stop, we were walking out, looking for a snack, and i spotted a krispy kreme doughnut stand. it was glorious. we all got so excited that we ordered a dozen doughnuts to share. not wanting to have to carry the box around all day, we seriously each ate three doughnuts in about ten minutes.

we had preordered tickets for the eye so we picked them up and got in line. the eye is a giant, glass ferris wheel. it moves really slowly and takes about a half hour to go all the way around. you can get some great views of the city during the ‘flight’ as they call it. it was designed ten years ago and paid for by british airways. it was supposed to be a temporary exhibit, but it’s still there. this was one of my favorite parts of the weekend, and i had been looking forward to the london trip solely to ride the eye :)

after our ride, the boys took us down westminster abbey. we saw the parliament building and big ben and Buckingham palace. we looked for prince william and harry, but didn’t see them. we had heard that the first hard rock café was in london, so keeping with tradition, we went to find it. they had a two and a half hour wait, so we chose the pub down the street instead. i had ‘bangers and mash’ which was sausage in mashed potatoes with peas and carrots. it was delicious! afterwards, we went back to russel square where out hostel was, and went to another pub. we were trying to meet up with my friend from high school who was studying there, but all of us got too tired before he made it out with his friends. we did get to watch the real madrid vs barcelona soccer game at the pub though, which was pretty exciting.

the next day, michael, catherine, and i wanted to go visit wimbledon. nate’s not really a tennis fan, so he decided to go visit some more gardens until we were done. the three of us took the metro to wimbledon, but got off at the wrong stop. we followed signs to ‘wimbledon’ but didn’t realize they were leading us to the center of the town of wimbledon, not the tennis courts. so we ended up circling through the whole town before ending up at the stadium, which was the first stop on the metro that we had skipped. we visited the museum which was really cool and interactive, and then we could walk through this glass tunnel to see center court. that was sweet and i would love to go see wimbledon some day! (now i know how to get there.)

we had all talked about going to see a show while we were in london, and i found the place where they sell discounted ticktets, so we went to see if there was anything left. since it was sunday, there were only about five plays going on, and our top choice, lion king, was already sold out. the choices came down to ‘legally blonde’ or ‘stomp’. knowing we were with boys, i figured we would go see stomp, and i was pretty excited, but then michael shocked all of us when he said he really wanted to see legally blonde! nate passed on this too, and probably went to see more gardens. catherine, michael, and i bought tickets for the show that started in less than an hour and walked to savoy theater. our seats were really good for buying them same day- we were in the front row of the first balcony! the show was really good, exactly like the movie with really great, funny songs.

after the play, we raced to try to meet nate. he told us to meet him at london bridge, which was perfect because we got to pass tate modern, the shakespeare globe theater, and some really cool, modern architecture. unfortunately we missed the london bridge (which is not at all impressive) and walked all the way to the tower bridge (which is a lot more memorable). we didn’t realize this until we couldn’t find nate at the bridge, and had to turn around and walk about half way back. nate was a little upset when we finally found him; it was getting chilly and he had to sit outside and wait forty five minutes for us to figure out where the london bridge was. oops.

we bought him a beer at dinner to make up for it, though, so everything’s okay. we went to another pub for dinner, and i had steak and ale pie which was delicious! we had a few drinks and then headed back to our hostel. we had to leave at six thirty the next morning to make it back to the airport, so we went to bed pretty early.

our flight was on time out of stansted, and we made it back to genoa airport a little before one, with the one hour time change. we took the airport shuttle and bus back to the villa, and had some lunch before having studio. london is one of my favorite cities i’ve visited. it reminded me a lot of new york city, with a touch of harry potter. i’m really glad i got to go while i was over here. i can’t believe i’ll be back in america in sixteen days!

travel 3 = basel + verona + venice +

2010-04-06T00:30:00.000+02:00

day one / sat 27 mar 2010 =

we left the villa at six am to take a train to basel, switzerland. it took over seven hours and two train changes, but we made it to our hotel and to our tour at three. an architect gave us a quick walking tour of the city. we went to a church and he told us about the history of basel and then took us across the city pointing out unique buildings and famous architects’ studios. one building i really liked was the children’s wing of a hospital. they used a special material on the outside and the colors changed as you moved past it.

we were on our own for dinner, and after getting some swiss francs, we learned how expensive things are in switzerland. we explored a little bit, had dinner at a chinese restaurant downtown, and then went back to the hotel. one of the girls here, allender, knew a girl who had been a foreign exchange student at her high school and lived right outside of basel. she met up with us and took us to this place called ‘city beach’. it was a club that changes locations every year, and the whole inside of a warehouse-type building is transformed into a beach resort. it was really cool! it reminded me of prom with tons of sand on the ground and beach chairs and cabanas. they had a pool going through the one room and a hot tub in the other. no one told me i was going to need to pack a bathing suit!

allender’s friend gave us instructions on what trams to take back to our hotel. after we switched trams, no one noticed that they had changed the track and times because of day light savings time that night, and trams stopped running an hour earlier than we thought they were going to. so we ended up at the last stop without passing our stop. luckily someone had a map, and we got directions how to walk back to the hotel. we knew it was going to be a long walk when we passed a sign pointing us to the ‘city’. it took over a half hour to get home!

day two / sun 28 mar 2010 =

we had a private bus take us to ronchamp, france to see le corbusier’s chapelle du ronchamp. this is one of those places that we’ve studied forever, so to see it in person was pretty cool.

we had lunch at a little rest stop café, and then we stopped in mulhouse, france to see low budget social housing, which we had a lecture about in our contemporary european architecture class a few weeks earlier.

we got dropped off at the hotel, and catherine, kelsey, judith, and i ordered pizza to the hotel, because we are cheap and were feeling lazy. turned out that everyone else did that too and six pizzas were delivered. we watched mr. and mrs. smith in italian with a couple of the grad guys and went to bed.

day three / mon 29 mar 2010 =

when we checked in to our hotel in basel, we were each given a card so that we could use the public trams and buses for free, so we took the tram to this place called goetheanum in dornach, switzerland. it was this crazy looking building, kind of rock-like. all of the interior space was similar, it all looked like it was carved. the inside was painted in crazy pinks, blues, and greens. we had a tour guide tell us about the building and surrounding campus area and kept relating things back to the human body. by the end of the tour, we were sure they were trying to brainwash us.

we were running late but had time for a quick tour of the beyeler foundation which is a museum and building workshop for renzo piano. it was a really cool space and landscaped beautifully.

then we were off to weil am rhein, germany. it was so crazy to just hop on a bus and change countries, but we did it the whole first half of the trip! in germany, we visited the vitra campus. we had also learned about this in alessandro’s contemporary european architecture class and we were blown away to see it in person.

my favorite building there was the vitra haus. the whole idea was to model pieces of the building after the traditional house, like a square with a triangle on top. the model house is stacked and twisted on top of each other so it looks like a pile of houses. the places where they intersect create really cool spaces and views into other parts of the building. after our tour of the campus, a couple of us had time to tour through the vitra haus, which is home to a collection of crazy looking furniture. this was definitely my favorite part. you got to try out anything you wanted, and they had this system set up where you could swipe your card and make a wish list of furniture you want to buy. it was really cool.

we decided that we would be able to find a cheaper dinner in germany rather than switzerland, so bernhard took us to this little german restaurant where we could all eat outside together. i had a german beer and schweineschnitzel and fries. it was so good!

day four / tues 30 mar 2010 =

we had an eight am train from basel to verona, italy. we stopped in luzern to look at the train station and convention center. it was a really pretty town on the water, and we wished we could have spent more time there. we had two more stops and finally arrived in verona a little after five.

highlight of the day- we only had fifteen minutes to change trains in milan, and our train bringing us to milan was running twenty minutes late. our tour guide, giuditta who was traveling with us, had already changed our train tickets to catch the next train, but she didn’t tell bernhard, our studio professor. so when we get to milan, bernhard runs to the platform to see if there was any chance that our next train had been delayed. seeing him run, the rest of us tried to keep up. the conductor blew the whistle and we all tried to jump on the closest car. people were pushing each other and throwing luggage to try to make it. half of us made it on the train with bernhard, only to realize that our train ticket was still with giuditta and the other half on the platform. oops! bernhard made some phone calls, and apparently giuditta had to call the conductor of our train to tell them eleven people were riding without a ticket. bernhard just came into our car and said, ‘today we ride for free!’ and laughed. we all thought it was really funny, but the other half was a little bitter they missed the train. we ended up waiting about twenty minutes for the rest of the group at the verona train station.

since we were running late, we didn’t have time to go to the hotel first. we went straight to castelvecchio which was a castle that was transformed by carlo scarpa into a museum. we toured the building and got gelato. by the time we were ready to head to the hotel, it started storming. it was our first thunderstorm in italy! and we were pretty miserable walking in it. we were soaking wet by the time we got to the hotel. we decided to get something close for dinner and all ended up going to a pizzeria around the corner.

day five / wed 31 mar 2010 =

we met at eight am and took a train to vicenza. there, we walked with bernhard to see a couple of villas. the first was villa valmarana ai nani, which was really pretty. here is a sketch i did there.

afterwards, we walked to la rotunda. this was designed by andrea palladio and inspired thomas jefferson’s works, even seen at university of Virginia. we got to tour the inside and took a group picture on the steps with the tiger rag.

we walked to a really cool place for lunch. i had gnocchi cooked in a rabbit sauce. it was really good. after that, we walked to the olympic theater and met a tour guide the program had used before, vilma barbieri. she was a tiny, italian lady who had a microphone pack and was pretty hilarious. we got to go inside the theater as she told us about it and the city. we even got to see a sound and light show sitting in the theater. the set was incredible, especially the perspective showing the city of thebes. the stories she told about the theater and stage were really cool. she took us around the city a little more, showing us some of palladio’s work and some rationalist structures.

we took a train back to verona, and a lot of us went to this mexican restaurant down the street from our hotel. i had enchiladas, nachos, and a margarita. it was delicious!

afterwards, a couple of us met rich and logan, and they showed us the balcony that inspired romeo and juliet. it was gated off since we went at night, but you could still see tons of love notes and messages written on the walls leading to it. we also saw the arena and the bridge before going back to the hotel to sleep.

day six / thurs 1 apr 2010 =

we met at eight am to take a private bus to meet vilma again. she was going to take us to a bunch of different cities. we visited a cool covered, wooden bridge in bassano, a museum of statues and studio by carlo scarpa in possagno, villa barabaro and villa emo by palladio, and brion cemetery by carlo scarpa. it was a long day and half the time we didn’t even know what city we were in, but everything we saw was gorgeous, and vilma was a really good tour guide. we joked with bernhard that she never gave us a rest…even on the bus to the different cities, she was on the microphone the whole time! afterwards, we dropped her off at a bus stop and took the bus to venice. once there, we had to take a water taxi to san marco and walk to our hotel. as we crossed a tiny bridge to our hotel, we saw a hard rock café right across a canal. we knew where we were going for dinner! kelsey, judith, catherine, michael, zac, and i beat the rest of the group and had an awesome american dinner. it was really late by the time we were done, and we all just headed back to the hotel to sleep. when coming back to the hotel, we saw our tour guide from genoa, giuditta, checking in. she spent a few years in venice when she was attending school, so she knew just about everything about the city.

day seven / fri 2 apr 2010 =

today started at nine am and giuditta took us to piazza san marco and talked forever about the piazza, basilica, the clock tower, palazzo ducale, and libreria marciana. we went to wait in the ridiculously long line to go inside the basilica. mario had visited venice a few days before and had e-mailed me the tip to check your bags at a nearby church and you could skip the line. rich was reading his bible aka the rick steve’s italy book and it gave the same tip, so he and i decided to try it. we took his backpack to the church down the street, and they gave us a little card to go right in. we paid to climb to the top and waved to the rest of our class still waiting in line.

giuditta and one of her friends she had met up with who still lived outside venice took us to a less touristy part of venice for lunch and i had pizza margarita and gelato.

after lunch we went to a couple other churches by palladio (this was a palladio trip for real!) and walked back to the hotel. for dinner, judith, kelsey, catherine, michael, zac, and i walked to ponte di rialto and ate an italian restaurant right on the water. i had vegetable soup and white sea bass and bread. it was really good! we walked back to our hotel and a bunch of people came to hang out in catherine and my room. we watched tv, talking and enjoying venetian wine until bed time.

day eight / sat 3 apr 2010 =

today started by going to the peggy guggenheim collection at her house which has been turned into a museum. we got to take a mini gondola ride across a small canal. we had a tour of the museum with a lot of history about how she collected the works of art as well as about the rest of her family.

afterwards we went to a museum and a church. after we went inside the church, i was sitting on the steps finishing up a sketch while we waited for everyone. two little girls came and sat down next to me, practically in my lap to see what i was drawing. they kept saying ‘que bella!’ and ‘come fai?’ which means ‘how beautiful!’ and ‘how do you do it?’ haha but i didn’t know what to say back in italian so i just laughed. their mom was talking in Italian to giuditta and told her that this was the first five minutes they had been quiet all day! it was really cute and everyone was laughing at me and taking pictures. we decided that i had inspired them to become artists. they’re my first fans!

the sketch they were staring at

next we were off to the venice biennale which is a huge park where architects have designed and built different pavilions for different countries. once a year, there is an exhibit where each pavilion is opened, but we weren’t visiting at the time of year, so we saw them all closed up. here are a few sketches from wandering around the garden.

that night, catherine, allender, and i went with our professor bernhard to dinner. he took us to a small, cute restaurant called trattoria alla madonna. he had already been there a few nights before, but told us it was good food at a reasonable price, so we were in. i had lasagna and we went through two bottles of wine, which bernhard kindly paid for, he’s so nice. the best part of the night- we were talking about returning to south carolina in the fall, and three adults at the table next to us told us they were from charleston. allender told them we were all clemson students, and the two men at the table said they graduated from clemson over thirty years ago. we thought that was crazy but it gets even better. they asked what we were doing in venice and i told them we were studying in genoa for the semester. they asked if we were architecture students, and we all said yes. turns out the two men graduated from the school of architecture and had studied in genoa too! they told us they had scrubbed the marble floors we were enjoying now haha. they work for ls3p architecture in charleston, sc and we had a really great conversation with them. they were visiting the man and woman’s son who went to the citadel and was studying in madrid for the semester. it was so cool to meet them, it blew our minds!

after dinner, we went back to the hotel (after bernhard made us get gelato) to meet up with the rest of the group. bernhard wanted to celebrate max’s birthday, which was sunday, so practically all of us followed giuditta to a little bar in a piazza not too far from our hotel. we all drank and talked about the trip. i went with the first group back to the hotel, but then jeff called me, because we had promised each other that we would ‘get lost in venice together’ because that is what you do in venice, so i walked back to the piazza and hung out with jeff, max, tyler, giuditta, and catherine for a little bit longer.

day nine / sun 4 apr 2010 [easter sunday] =

today was our free day. we didn’t have to check out of our hotel until noon. catherine and i got up for breakfast and then went back to bed. we finally did pack up and check our bags in the lobby, and then walked around to pick up some last minute souvenirs, lunch, and gelato (of course). we waited for the rest of the group at the hotel and took a water taxi to the train station to catch our train home. we changed trains in milan. this time everyone made it ;) and we made it back to genoa by eight pm. we took the bus back up to the villa and christina had lasagna and bread waiting for us to heat up.

we had monday off from classes to unpack, catch up on sleep, and work. since it’s still a holiday here, almost nothing in genoa is open. the villa angels arranged for us to have food all day. nate made us all french toast this morning, and since they don’t sell maple syrup here, he made it from scratch! we had powdered sugar, too :) grocery stores closed at noon today so there was a rush for all the guys to get beer and meat to grill for us. this afternoon we had burgers, hot dogs, and barbeque chicken on the grill in our garden. nate, allender, and jamie made homemade french fries, and nate made bbq sauce, since they don’t sell that here either! everything was delicious! earlier today, when we were all talking about how much work we had to do, bernhard was taking pictures of our sketches in the villa and told us not to worry about it, that tomorrow was another day. ha my kind of teacher. and when he brought out a bottle of wine to the barbeque, we knew that today was a relaxed kind of day. after eating, we played soccer, frisbee, and catchphrase in the yard. it was the perfect day :)

visits from katie and mario :)

2010-03-22T12:19:00.003+01:00

i haven’t updated this in a while, and I’ve done so much!

last friday was the villa party. they have a big party here once a semester, where the director and professors invite family members, friends, and other architects from the city. the guest list had over 100 people on it! it was a lot of work to set up for. our cook, christina, and her boyfriend were in the kitchen preparing food for two days straight. we had to clear out our studios and cover the tables and sofa to make it look nice. we hung our sketches on the windows, too as the decoration for the evening.

^ one of my sketches is center left!

we had to rotate jobs throughout the party. some of us had to be bouncers and check off the guest list and bartenders. this was the day that my friend from home, Katie jewell, flew in, too. she was spending her spring break in italy visiting me, and i went to meet her at the airport at five. we got back to the villa and everyone got ready. we took the famous group picture on the stairs with our professors and then the party began! sylvia, the director, had her son and his band come to play for a little bit, and then we had our own playlist to play. it was a lot of fun and we ate, drank, and danced all night! katie didn’t even go to sleep!

katie, nate, and i as bartenders

which was probably not the smartest idea, since katie, michael, and i had plans to take a six am train to florence saturday morning. katie really wanted to see other parts of italy while she was here, and this weekend was the only time we’d be able to do it. so michael and i had found a bike tour of tuscany that started at nine am. we made it there with time to spare, and we were the only three on the tour (that was probably a good thing). our tour guide was bill and was awesome. it was kind of overcast when we got there, so he said we’d just bike a loop and see what we could see, then he’d drive us to the villa where we would have the wine tour, tasting, and lunch. we were fine with that, since the three of us were still struggling that morning ;)

but the sun came out while we were riding, and bill and michael decided it was a nice enough day to ride all the way to the villa. this is what they usually do, but bill said they usually stop every few minutes to take pictures, for him to tell us the history of the land, and to basically take a break. not today. it was the first ‘nice day’, so bill just wanted to ride. that’s all he kept saying- i just wanna ride! we were dying! he would come up behind katie and i and give us a push up the hills. it was absolutely gorgeous! (he did let us stop on the way back for some pictures!)

and the wine tour at the villa was really cool. we saw all the huge machines that make chianti and learned what it takes to be able to call it chianti (no irrigated grapes, right katie?) then we had lunch and tasted two different chiantis and olive oils that are all made there. everything was delicious! we rode back. our favorite part of the day: bill was taking a picture of the three of us with our bikes with florence in the background. he was excited about how good the picture came out and before i could even say it, he said ‘put it on facebook!’ i started laughing and said, ‘you have facebook?!’ he replied, ‘hell yeah!’ and before i could even ask him, he said, ‘but DO NOT add me as a friend!’ we were hysterical. it makes sense though, he said if everyone friended him, he would have hundreds of people that think they’re friends with him who he’d have to read about on his facebook haha by the end though, he told us we could add him. oh bill.

while katie was here, we went to the genoa aquarium, the largest in italy, and second largest in europe. it’s right down at the port and was designed by the famous Renzo Piano and was really cool. there was so much to see. my favorite were the manatees, penguins, and sharks.

we also went to como on tuesday. it was the first time that it was actually nice out for one of our day trips. it felt so good to be outside…but we didn’t get to see george clooney :(

thursday morning, katie and i took a train to nervi, which is a small town about twenty five minutes away from genoa. i’d been there before with friends in the beginning of the year, and knew it would be a quick, really pretty place for katie to see. the weather was beautiful and we spent the day walking and taking pictures on the rocks in the sea.

katie had to leave friday morning, and saturday morning i took a train to meet cousin mario in rome. he’s spending his spring break in italy too, and landed saturday morning. it was a crazy weekend in rome. saturday there was a protest parade (we think for clean water? not really sure…) and the city was setting up for a big marathon that was happening on sunday. we walked around the whole city, saw the coliseum, trevi fountain, st. peter’s, the spanish steps, and climbed castel sant’ angelo where we could see the whole city. on sunday, the marathon was crazy. it started and ended at the coliseum and made a loop through all of rome. we kept running into it. i found out after i got back that my studio professor, bernhard, ran it. i thought i had heard he might, so i was looking for him, but i didn’t see him. all mario wanted to do was go to the vatican museum and see the sistine chapel. apparently, it’s closed every sunday. we had no idea. we walked over to it anyway to take pictures. as we were walking to the center of st. peter’s, we see a bunch of kids running really fast. i thought they were late for their bus or something but we keep walking and see that it is packed with people. it’s just about noon and we walk faster in time to see everyone point and clap as the pope came to the window to speak. it was so cool! mario said that definitely made up for the museum being closed!

i left mario sunday afternoon. he’s off to florence for a few days and then is going to visit me in genoa on wednesday. we have a big studio review coming up wednesday afternoon, and then we’ll be getting ready for our final nine day trip to basel, veneto, and venice…so get ready for another long post!

we were really exhausted (and sore) by now. it was a six hour tour and over fifteen miles! we went back into florence to check into our hostel and napped until dinner time. we went to dinner at a place our teacher had brought us on our trip to florence before called za-za, and went to the red garter for drinks afterwards for karaoke night. the next day, michael headed home early, and katie and i went to academia to see david, to the cathedral, and since the duomo was closed, spent our day shopping.

independent travel

2010-03-09T21:54:00.000+01:00

spring break : cologne + prague + newcastle + edinburgh

we arrived safely back to genoa last night. here are the highlights!

day one / sat 27 feb 2010 =

for the first half of the trip, it was catherine, jamie, kelsey, judith, and myself. judith and kelsey flew from milan to frankfurt late friday night, and the rest of us spent friday night in milan to catch an early flight saturday morning. once at the frankfurt airport, we took a bus to cologne. we walked from the train station to our hostel, the station backpacker’s hostel, which was the smelliest building we were ever in! thank goodness we were only there one night!

that day we went to the cologne cathedral and walked around the city a little bit. we visited the chocolate museum where we learned the history of cocoa, saw chocolate being made, tried free samples of fresh chocolate, and ate chocolate desserts at the café. it was amazing. we walked all over the city and tried to see some of the things our professor, bernhard, had suggested we check out.

we went to dinner at an awesome german pub called papa joe’s. they had two life size puppets playing accordions and you could put money in the machine and request a song. for dinner, i had white sausages which came in boiling water with delicious mustard on the side, a big twisted pretzel, and beer that cologne is famous for. funny story- judith had ordered pork and sauerkraut, and we couldn’t finish the sauerkraut. our table was right next to the bar and this guy came over to our table and started talking in german to judith pointing at her plate and at the menu. we all were trying to tell him we didn’t speak german, and without even looking up from the menu he said, ‘no problem…’ and started talking in perfect english. he told judith that the kitchen was just going to throw away the leftovers and that she should give it to him instead. he offered to buy her a beer for it, and she said she didn’t want another beer but would take a glass of wine. haha she picked the most expensive glass of wine and he got it for her! what a trade!

not wanting to go back to our smelly hostel, we walked around a little bit more. we found a really cool shopping street and eventually found a square that had a lot of bars and clubs. catherine and my favorite part of the evening: a tiny little bar called juicy dreams which specialized in ‘cocktails to go’…something we think every city should have ;) we eventually ended up at a cute little bar that was projecting the olympics. that was the first time all year we could see any of it!

day two / sun 28 feb 2010 =

we had most of the day before our afternoon shuttle back to frankfurt airport, so we left our luggage at the hostel and went to see a couple other places bernhard had recommended. we went to peter zumthor’s ‘kolumba’ which is a museum preserving part of a cathedral. it’s pretty well known because of the way he creatively uses light throughout the building. a couple of us also went to ‘museum ludwig’ which had really cool pop and modern art.

from frankfurt we flew to prague, capital of the czech republic. our hostel was amazing! it was not in the center of town, but it was run by two clemson graduates. (see, i can just run hostels in europe after i graduate!) we had booked the two floor apartment so we had a cute little kitchen with table, two separate bedrooms, our own bathroom, and access to the roof deck (although it was a little too cold to enjoy that).

day three / mon 1 mar 2010 =

we were well rested and had all taken wonderful showers in our nice, clean, not smelly hostel. we took the bus to the town center and traded in our euro for prague’s money called crowns. one euro is equal to about twenty five crowns. we went to the prague castle where we could see amazing views of the city.

for lunch we went to this cute little restaurant. i had pork and dumplings which were delicious. we explored the city a little more and headed back to the hostel to snack and get ready for the night. it was really the only night we would be able to go out all together, so we had to do it right. we went to this five story club where they played a different type of music on each floor.

there, we met a group of people from england who were actually staying at our hostel. they were about our age and we talked and danced with them all night. our new friend adam wanted to try to name all fifty states. we would give him hints until he could remember the names of them, and he had a stereotype for each state… florida was old people and oranges, alabama was known for incest, and when he got to new jersey and my friends told him i was from new jersey he looked at me and just laughed and said he felt bad for me. nj is always getting a bad rap!

by the time we left the club, the buses had stopped running so we had to walk all the way back to the hostel. we passed the time by singing disney songs…

day four / tues 2 mar 2010 =

today we saw the dancing house by frank gehry. i love this building! even though most locals hate it and call it ugly. it’s said to resemble two people dancing, which is how it got its name. it has a restaurant on the top floor and the rest is private i think, so we couldn’t go inside, but it was really cool to see. we also went to see the john lennon wall which has been covered in layers of paint and graffiti since the eighties. we had dinner at a place close to our hostel and stayed in because judith and kelsey had an early train the next morning.

day five / wed 3 mar 2010 =

jamie, catherine, and i had a flight to birmingham this afternoon and then took a train to newcastle. it was a lot of traveling and we ended up getting to our hostel pretty late. we had an eight girl dorm, but only two other girls were staying there that night. their names were lucy and hannah jane and they were two friends our age from a few hours away meeting in newcastle for a couple days. they gave us some ideas of things to do and see and left early the next morning.

day six / thurs 4 mar 2010 =

our first stop was starbucks, delish! then we walked to see this bridge that i had learned about sophomore year. it’s called the gateshead millennium bridge. it has two lanes for bicycles and pedestrians and its curve is supported by cables. at least once a day, everyone is cleared off the bridge for the bottom curve to lift so boats can pass through. it has been compared to an eyelid because of its shape and the way both parts move closer together. we planned our whole day around this, and went in museums and exhibits while we waited for the magic 2:00 bridge opening. i loved it!

there was also this crazy looking arts center and concert hall next to the bridge. it was such a cool looking building and totally free and public so anyone can walk through it. it reminded us of some works we had seen by other famous architects this semester, but it was actually created by local architects which is kind of cool.

then we took a bus to the edge of town to see ‘the angel of north’. it was unbelievable. said to have the wing span of a jet, it was hard to even fit the whole thing in the camera’s view!

that night catherine and i went to see the lady gaga concert. it was ridiculous! she changed her outfit for every song! it was such a good concert and we had so much fun!

day seven / fri 5 mar 2010 =

today we took a train from newcastle to edinburgh. it was an afternoon train, and we had to check out of our hotel by ten, so we spent a few hours at the starbucks across the street from the train station with all of our luggage. we finally got on the train and arrived in edinburgh a few hours later.

we took a cab to our hostel, where our friends michael and zac (from the villa, fourth year landscape architect majors) were waiting for us. they had gotten in the day before and had already been to st. andrews. for dinner we went to hard rock café (our favorite!) and had nachos, burgers, pulled pork, chicken, and pasta. we went to a small bar near our hostel afterwards and told each other all about our spring breaks so far.

day eight / sat 6 mar 2010 =

zac had to leave in the morning to meet his girlfriend in milan (she’s staying in the villa all this week) and michael told us girls how to get to the edinburgh castle, since they had done it the day before. the castle was really cool and we could see a lot more of the city from up there. catherine’s family is scottish so she absolutely loved it. parts of the castle were redone with lifesize scenes acting out the history. in the jail they had hammocks hung with speakers hidden in them so it sounded like people were really laying in them. it was a total disney experience, except you had to walk through it and there were no catchy jingles.

afterwards, we met michael at the scotch whiskey museum (it was only eleven am!) we got to ride in a barrel while we learned how to make whiskey (another disney experience). after the ride we sat down while a girl told us about the different types of whiskey made in scotland. we got to smell each one and then decide which one we wanted to taste. we walked into another room to have a real toast. we were looking at the largest whiskey collection in the world. all of the unopened bottles belonged to this guy claive vidiz and he sold them when he was getting old and didn’t want his family to have them. it was crazy!

we spent the day shopping (they had an urban outfitters!) although no one bought anything because by now you can imagine all of this traveling left all of us very poor. we ended up going to see alice in wonderland (in english because we were in an english speaking country yay!!) and we all loved it. we went back to our hostel for a little while before dinner. we went to pizza hut and had garlic bread, wings, and two pizzas…it was amazing!

afterwards we went on our own little pub crawl and stopped by three or four places. a lot of them had live bands playing and listening to the scottish music was really cool. at our last stop we met this woman named angela who was ridiculous. she was out with a bunch of people and started talking to us because she saw us laughing at her husband who was dancing hilariously. she asked who we had voted for in the election (and named scottish people) and i told her we were from america. her friend said, ‘america, well then i bet you voted for simon cowell!’ we all started laughing and angela said, ‘no i know who they voted for- the osbornes! sharon osborne!’ we couldn’t even explain how wrong they were. we asked where she was from and she asked if we had ever heard of newcastle. of course we had, we just came from there! she then went on to tell us she was from this little beach town but it was always freezing. any sentence she said, it ended with, ‘BUT IT’S FREEZING!’ we were dying! eventually one of her friends dropped a drink on the ground and they all rushed out. she was the highlight of our night!

day nine / sun 7 mar 2010 =

we packed up and had to check out of our hostel by ten. we took a bus to the airport and waited for our flight which was in the afternoon. we weren’t bored…i had stupidly misplaced my passport and the four of us had to go through my bags to find it so i could fly home. it was really scary and eventually michael found it in a bag that had all of my edinburgh pamphlets in it (weird i hadn’t used it since the flight to newcastle, but oh well) i was so relieved, and we couldn’t stop laughing about it all day.

fortunately we had today (monday) off from classes so everyone could catch up on sleep, do laundry, and relax from all of this traveling. all of us are glad to be back to home cooked (and free!) meals and clean showers and bathrooms. off for a day trip to torino tomorrow, and then a little less than three weeks until our final nine day trip to basel, veneto, and venice!

oh one more thing! we have a blog that’s part of our grade this semester, where everyone from the villa contributes. mine won’t be up for a couple days, but if you want to check it out it’s: www.tigersinitalia.blogspot.com there are some good group pictures on the left side, and more will be added soon!

weekend update

2010-02-24T23:46:00.000+01:00

this past weekend almost everyone stayed in genoa to relax and catch up on work. it was a nice break from traveling! the weather was actually nice, too! it was the first time i didn’t have to wear a coat!

thursday night, a bunch of us went to find this bar our studio professor had told us students from last semester liked a lot. it was this tiny little place down by the port. we got there at a good time because they had a little room downstairs which was empty so all of us could hang out together. it was a nice change from the usual oc café we go to every week. we had heard all about how it had glass floors so you could see the water below. rich was fascinated…

on saturday a lot of people went up the mountain to see the forts. me and three others walked down to the port since it was so nice. our plan was to sit and sketch…but when we got there we saw a huge pirate ship and we just had to go on it!

we got gelato at a café and wandered around town for a little bit. it started getting cold as soon as the sun went down, so we made the trek back uphill to the villa.

when we got back, a couple people had set up this game in the garden. basically you try to knock the empty bottle off of the stick with the frisbee. there’s all kinds of rules but it was really fun and we played until nate’s beef stroganoff was ready! (on the weekends, we’re on our own for meals…lucky for me my friends here love to cook. sunday night they made chinese food!) oh big villa news- angela, our cook, is retiring! her last day is friday! she’s been training a new woman, christina. she’s younger, doesn’t speak a word of english, but makes awesome desserts for us :)

this is a rough week for us. we had a studio pin up today and we have a midterm in italian rationalism on friday where we have to write essays on hundreds of pages that no one has started until a week ago…oops.

aside from two nights of almost no sleep, the studio critique went well today. i didn’t take any pictures this time, but here are some from our first pin up, and it looked pretty much the same today.

as much as this week stinks, everyone is excited. on friday we leave for a nine day trip of independent travel. here’s the plan: cologne, prague, newcastle and gateshead (lady gaga concert!!), edinburgh then back to genoa. it’s going to be sweet!! get ready for a long post in a week and a half ;)

weekend in madrid

2010-02-17T01:05:00.001+01:00

so this past weekend, we had monday and tuesday off for carnevale. kelsey, judith, catherine, and i went to madrid for the holiday. we had to take a train to the milan airport and fly to madrid. it was my first time flying easyjet, a known cheap airline in europe. we could each only have one carry-on that would fit overhead. no purse, no computer bag, not even an umbrella outside your carry-on. they also don’t assign seats, so you line up as soon as the gate opens and hope you can get seats with the people you’re traveling with.

we made it to madrid with only a slight plane delay by saturday afternoon. we took three different lines of the metro to get to our hostal. (kudos to judith for figuring that out!) i was the only one out of the four who remembered any spanish, so it was pretty interesting for us to figure out what the guy at the front desk of our hostal was saying. we had reserved a private room for four, but it turned out he had a room for four with a private bathroom available, too for a little bit more. it seemed like it took forever to try to understand what he was saying, but we finally got it and agreed on the room with the bathroom.

we spent the afternoon walking around madrid. our hostal was pretty conveniently located, and it wasn’t too terribly cold. we found this awesome bakery that sold pastries for between one and two euros. it was so good, we went every morning!

the grad guys (jeff, tyler, and max) were spending their last night in madrid before heading off to valencia and barcelona, so we made plans to meet them for tapas that night. on our way back to our hostal, we stopped at a grocery store and bought a couple bottles of sangria and little plastic cups to enjoy while getting ready. this turned out to be hilarious, because all of the cups that we bought seemed to have a little slit cut in the bottom, which of course we didn’t notice until catherine had already poured them and started passing them out. sangria all over the floor!

we met the guys at puerto del sol at 8, and it being carnivale, were not disappointed by the people who were dressed up and performing in various squares throughout the city. the guys had copies of famous tour guide rick steves’ suggestion for a tapas tour, so that’s how we started the night.

first stop- la taurina cerveceria. it had stuffed bulls’ heads on the wall and we started off with some sangria and tapas, which were pieces of bread with different toppings.

next, we went to lhardy pasteleria. this place wasn’t as exciting. catherine and i split a little half of a ham sandwich and tyler and jeff got these desserts which were pretty good. not a crazy atmosphere though. as rick steves says in his guide book, more of an ‘old world charm’ place.

after that we headed to the museo del jamon (museum of ham). we had passed at least three of these during the day, and had read that they were known for their ‘famously rude service’, so we were a little apprehensive. but we decided since rick steves suggested it, we had to go for it. it was pretty crowded. i pushed my way to the bar and ordered ham sandwiches for the girls before the guys even knew what they wanted. the sandwiches consisted of a long, hard roll with a thin slice of ham and cheese. for only a euro, no one was complaining. it filled us up enough for another glass of sangria ;)

i guess after succeeding at the museum of ham we were feeling really gutsy. we went to a place called oreja de ora, which means the golden ear, which specializes in, you guessed it, pigs’ ears. jeff and tyler were in to split one, so of course we all had to have a taste of it. the boys liked it. i can tell you i am not a fan. luckily we could wash it down with some more sangria.

after that we were ready to sit down, so we ended up at an irish pub (which seems to happen a lot when we go out with max, no matter what city or country we’re in). everyone got drinks and headed downstairs. catherine and i were last to order at the bar. we got newcastles in honor of planning our spring break trip with a stop in newcastle. the bartender carded us! he wouldn’t give us the beers at first and just kept saying i.d. in his spanish accent. we pretended not to know what he was talking about because we couldn’t believe we were getting carded in spain, and he got one of the other bartenders to ask for our passports. it was bizarre! he didn’t ask anyone else! so i encountered my first time being carded at a bar where the drinking age is sixteen!

the next day, we went to the prado museum, where we saw lots of art from our art history classes. we grabbed a quick lunch at this really cool place called ‘leverage’ and then went to retiro park, which was beautiful! it was huge. we saw soccer games going on and some intense roller blading. we walked around until we found the crystal palace, which was gorgeous. some crazy artist was having an exhibit inside, where she balance things on bottles using the shadows to tell the angle of the sun? i think? and she had strings coming from the ceiling to the ground, maybe representing the sun’s rays? there was no explanation… interesting fact- you are not allowed to go into the crystal palace when it’s raining. personally, i think it would be kind of cool.

you could also rent row boats at this place in the park. it was cute to see so many people on the water, especially because it was valentine’s day.

all kelsey wanted for dinner was paella, and we walked all over until we found it. we even sat down at a restaurant ready to order, only for them to tell us they didn’t serve dinner anymore. we ended up at this really cute restaurant. we went in and judith asked one of the waiters if we could still get paella. it was a little, old spanish man and he yelled out ‘quatro chicas! they want paella!’ everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us, and kept looking at us as we sat down all the way in the back of the restaurant. then our waiter (a different guy) came to take our order and told us they were out of the paella that was their special. we were about to make a scene when he said he could make a different kind and charge us the same price, so we agreed. it was amazing! it had all kinds of crawfish and shrimp and chicken and calamari in it, and we all shared a huge pan.

we wanted to do something special for v-day, so we went to this cute, little bar near our hostel that was serving two for eight euro mojitos. all the tables were full so the four of us sat at the bar, where we met my new friend, bartender pablo. pablo was excited that we were american so he could practice his english on us. he was not impressed with our spanish, though. he told us we needed to practice more. he also kept asking when we’d be back in madrid. he really wanted to hang out with us! we had awesome desserts there. pablo made them extra special with drizzled chocolate and everything.

we watched him make drinks and when i saw him light one on fire, i knew i wanted to try it. it ended up being whiskey and coffee. it was delish! he was pretty upset when we told him we weren’t able to go out with him the next night because we had an early flight. poor pablo! he did give us hugs good bye though.

the next day, we woke up to snow. kelsey and i were not happy. we walked across town to the royal palace where we had to wait in line in the gross snow. it was worth it though. we got a guided tour through all the rooms which was really cool. my favorite room was going through the dining room with a table that could fit over a hundred guests.

after a quick lunch of sandwiches and patatas bravas (mmm!) and a long nap, we headed to the reina sofia museum which has a lot of modern art. this was my favorite stop of the whole trip. the four of us went through the second floor analyzing what picasso was thinking when he made paintings, guessing the titles of certain works, and interpreting blobs to be roosters and tennis players.

the highlight of the visit, though, was seeing the bauhaus exhibit. this probably sounds pretty lame, but we’ve had to watch multiple really bad educational movies about the bauhaus and they always show the dance choreographed by painter oskar schlemmer with the dancers dressed up in ridiculous shapes and colors. catherine recognized some of his artwork in one of the galleries and i thought she was going to have a heart attack when we turned the corner to see life size replica’s of the costumes on display. it made our day! (we’re archidorks, we know)

we found an awesome place for dinner that had a fixed price menu which included salad, fish, potatoes, veggies, and dessert. it was the perfect way to end our weekend!

naples + rome + florence

2010-02-08T22:19:00.000+01:00

i survived my first nine day trip and have a lot to tell! ok here it goes…

day one / sat 30 jan 2010 =

we had to leave the villa at 6am to take a bus to the train station to catch our train at 7. walking down the steps of genoa with heavy luggage is not easy! it must have been hilarious to see all of us trekking down the hill. we were headed to naples but had to change trains in rome first. before we got to rome, they had to change one of the cars on the train, so we ended up missing our train in rome, so we didn’t have reserved seats on the train to naples. it was kind of a mess, but good to know what to do in case we ever miss trains on our own.

we arrived in napes at 2pm. naples isn’t the cleanest or best city, so sylvia had arranged for a private rental bus to pick us up and bring us to the hotel. the hotel we stayed at was so nice and had just opened. it had a cool bar and lounge area and cute balconies off of each room facing a courtyard. breakfast was included each morning, which was good.

we were all kind of tired from the train ride, so bernhard (our studio professor who lives with us) took us to look at a cool church and then to a famous pizza place that one of our other studio professors had recommended. it was a small place that had been there forever (it reminded me of bruni’s and mack and manco’s combined) and only served two kinds of pizza. naples is famous for its pizza and this place did not disappoint. there was so much oil on it, it looked like a puddle, but it was so good! we got gelato afterwards and stopped at a little grocery store right next to the hotel. we got a couple bottles of wine and everyone hung out in catherine and my room for a while until a bunch of us went to the hotel bar and lounge. catherine, tyler, jeff, and i wanted to explore and asked the front desk where a close, safe place was to go out and they sent us to a bar called ‘papaloca’. it was cool, there was music and dancing and on the walk back to the hotel, catherine and i had the most amazing piece of pizza with ham and corn on it. weird i know.

day two / sun 31 jan 2010 =

today, professor federico poole met us at the hotel and our private buses took us all to visit pompei. prof poole was a tour guide clemson has used before who lives in naples. he knows his stuff. he gave us an awesome tour of the ruins of pompei. it reminded me of mrs. robinson’s fifth grade history class.

professor poole rode with us back to naples and took us to this pizza place called pomodorino. no surprise, it was amazing. he then took us all around naples from the water back to the center of the city telling us the history. it was really interesting, and we saw that naples isn’t as dirty and sketchy as we thought it was.

day three / mon 1 feb 2010 =

we left naples at 9am and had our little bus take us back to the train station. we took a train to rome and then lugged our suitcases on the subway down two stops to where our hotel was. we literally walked out of the subway station across the street from the coliseum. it was crazy! we walked a couple blocks to our hotel. hotel mercure was one that clemson has used before and liked because of its location. i could see the coliseum from my window!

we went with bernhard inside the coliseum, to tour the ruins of the forum, and to the pantheon. we took some cool pictures. bernhard knew of a gelato place near the pantheon that he said was the best, called ‘della palma’. we got there and i have never seen so much gelato! the counter wrapped all the way around the whole room. we were in heaven!

that night a bunch of us went to dinner with bernhard and then he told us about this little irish pub where a lot of american students hung out, called ‘scholar’s lounge’. a couple of us went out to it that night and it was trivia night. it was pretty cool, really crowded! afterwards, max went with me to try to meet up with sam steindl (my friend from high school who was doing a winter session in spain and italy and ended up being in rome the same time as i was!) and her friends.

we walked to her hotel and went with her and a couple of her friends to meet other friends who were doing a pub crawl. we ended up blending into the pub crawl group and took a bus to this little bar/club across town. it was really cool and i was so glad i got to see sam while we were both in europe!

day four / tues 2 feb 2010 =

our tour guide from genoa, giudita (who gives us our tuesday daytrip tours) came to rome for three days and started tuesday off with a tour of renaissance and baroque architecture. we saw famous fountains and churches and walked allll dayyyy. i swear, giudita has the shortest legs but always seems to be miles ahead! not as bad as bernhard though…he walks faster than dad! and doesn’t stop after crossing streets…i guess i’m used to it, right mom?

we would always get about an hour for lunch (usually amazing pizza or pasta) and of course gelato. on all of these tours, it’s always so cool to see the sculptures, buildings, and paintings we read about and studied in our art/arch history classes in person!

we went to the scholar’s lounge again (it was karaoke night!) but it was way too crowded so we ended up going to this place called ‘the drunken ship’ with 2 for 1 drink specials!

day five / wed 3 feb 2010 =

another fun filled day with giudita. she took us to the vatican museum and to saint peter’s. it was gorgeous. it’s so crazy to be in places you’ve seen on tv and in movies all the time. the sistine chapel was gorgeous.

i had lasagna and gelato for lunch and then we headed to the eur to see a lot of buildings from the fascist era, which goes along with our italian rationalism class. see? we are doing some work here!

that night some of us went to hard rock café for dinner. we were in need of some american food. it was amazing. my table had nachos, cheeseburgers, pulled pork, and chicken. we definitely needed that. and- unlimited free ice water! that’s a first in italy! afterwards we went to scholar’s lounge for a drink, but it was so crowded and we were so exhausted, we didn’t stay very long.

day six / thurs 4 feb 2010 =

last day with giudita! today was contemporary and modern architecture (my favorite so far). she took us an auditorium by renzo piano, which was amazing. we had a tour by a guy that worked there and got to go in all the concert halls. there are three of them at different sizes so they’re used for different types of functions. it was really cool.

we also saw the ‘palazzetto dello sport’, a weird-looking on the outside, really cool on the inside basketball stadium. they used it for the olympics years ago whenever they were held in rome. we walked by the maxxi museum designed by zaha hadid, but it wasn’t open yet so we couldn’t go inside. oh well, i guess i’ll have to come back ;) we also saw richard meier’s museum he designed for the ara pacis (altar for peace). this was my favorite building by far because of how simple and modern it was, in the middle of a historic city, and i love richard meier.

i also got to see sam again after lunch at the pantheon. she was about to leave to come back to the u.s. the next day so i got to say good bye!

we met back up with bernhard at 5pm and to the metro to the train station to go to florence. from the train station we walked to our hotel, a one floor hostel-like place fun by a family. it was adorable. bernhard knew of this restaurant called ‘za-za’ and all 22 of us went for dinner. it was amazingly delicious (shocking, i know…all food is phenomenal here!)

afterwards a bunch of us were outside our hotel deciding to go out or not and some girl came up to us with flyers advertising a bar with specials for a group of us. it was just around the corner (and she had promised free drinks) so eight of us went with her. it was this tiny place that we practically had to ourselves but turned out to be pretty fun. yes, we got our free drinks and free shots!

day seven / fri 5 feb 2010

today, professor jane zaloga from syracuse university, teaching in florence, met us to give us a tour of the city. i liked her a lot and she took us to a bunch of museums and churches and had lots of little stories to go along with the history of the places.

for lunch, bernhard took a couple of us to this little hole in the wall restaurant called ‘vini’ which was amazing. we had to wait twenty minutes to get a table that seven of us could fit at, which took up half the restaurant. instead of asking what we wanted to drink, one of the guys behind the counter just handed our table a jug of wine. he then proceeded to toast with all of us and drink his own bottle. and then try to give us another jug. the food was so good, too. the perfect amount of pasta, and only five euro!

afterwards i went shopping with a few of the girls. we only had to go to six shoe stores to find two of the girls their perfect pair of boots! i bought adorable leather gloves which i’m in love with and some people got bottles of wine to bring home with them.

we went back to the hotel for some down time before dinner, where we went with bernhard to another amazing place, and then to the ponte vecchio bridge for gelato.

that night this american bar called ‘the red garter’ was having a karaoke night. we got there earlier than most and were able to get tables on the second floor looking down at the stage. two girls from our group went up to sing and the whole night was a lot of fun. they sang a lot of old songs that we all sang along with.

day eight / sat 6 feb 2010

this was our free day. in the morning bernhard took us to a museum of historic florence and to the top of the duomo. four hundred and some steps later we all made it to the top and took pictures with the tiger rag. it was an amazing view!

three girls and i walked to the top of the hill to see panoramic views of the city and to go in this really cool church and walk through a beautiful cemetery. the hill reminded us of the steps of genoa, and we were not fans! we had our work out, so we decided we could get gelato.

there was a chocolate fair going on in front of one of the churches. a huge tent set up with dozens of tables set up with pure chocolate. it was unbelievable. i had hot chocolate, and in italy, it’s actually melted chocolate. sometimes you need a spoon to eat it, it’s so thick. so good!

while walking back to the hotel we saw lots of people dressed up for carnevale…kind of like italy’s mardi gras. it’s really celebrated next weekend in venice, but lots of other places get in on the fun we learned too.

we took naps before dinner, and some of us went with bernhard to this restaurant called ‘the divine comedy’, themed after dante’s famous work. i had lasagna, and it was the best i ever had! (sorry, dad!) afterwards we stopped by the chocolate fair and got some free samples for dessert. there was a booth that was giving out chocolate shots, this thick chocolate that had rum in it. i got a bottle to bring home to dustin, his two favorite things!

after dinner, catherine and i met up with the grad guys. jeff had a friend studying in florence and she took us out to this cool bar where some of her friends were.

day nine / sun 7 feb 2010

last day!! we had to get up early because we had appointments at two museums. in the second museum, accademia, we saw the famous ‘david’ and all attempted to sketch him. that didn’t turn out so well.

afterwards we had free time before we had to catch our train. we had lunch and logan and i did some last minute shopping. we met back at the hotel and walked (basically ran to keep up with bernhard) to the train station and took a train back to genoa with a quick stop to change trains in pisa.

in genoa, we took a bus back to as close as we could get to the villa, and most of us took the long way up the hill to avoid as many steps as possible. our challenge for next time it to pack not using a suitcase with wheels…yeah right.

the trip was so much fun but was so exhausting. one of the first days at the villa, bernhard had told us that genoa would become our ‘home’ and we would feel ready and comfortable to be back at the end of trips. he’s definitely right. everyone was definitely glad to be home sweet home.

thanks for reading my novel!! this upcoming weekend we have a four day weekend (for carnivale) and a couple of us are off to madrid! ciao!

pisa + portofino

2010-01-26T19:56:00.000+01:00

so for our first weekend trip, i went with catherine, judith, kelsey (the three girls i’m rooming with), zac, and micheal (4^th year landscape guys) to pisa and portofino. we left friday afternoon and got to our hostel in pisa around dinner time.

it was cheapest for all six of us to share a room, so six beds were shoved in a little room…it was pretty cute! i don’t think the boys thought so…especially because they could barely fit in their beds!

we asked the woman at the hostel where to go for dinner and she directed us to the area around the leaning tower. it was crazy when we just came up to an opening and looked to our right and saw the tower! it was so cool! we found a pizzeria and got pizza and pasta. it was so good! we walked around a little more and found a cool bar called ‘the wall’. the whole back wall of the bar was glass and butted up against the really old wall that runs in the middle of the city of pisa. the bar was really cool with fun lights and a bartender who looked a little too much like fabio to us. after a drink we headed back to our villa to get some sleep.

saturday morning we got up and went to the tower. we bought tickets to climb to the top. it’s over 300 steps to the top, but after climbing all the hills and steps in genoa, getting to the top of the tower was a breeze! the view was gorgeous!

we walked down the street to a cute café we had seen the night before and ate delicious sandwiches and gelato while seeing the tower from our table. it was quite a view! afterwards we went back to try to take fun pictures with the tower. it was harder than we thought it’d be! but we got some pretty good ones. we took pictures with the clemson tiger rag too!

we walked around the city and found lots of cute stores and got cappuccino at a café before heading back to the cathedral next to the tower. the inside was gorgeous! we went back to our room for a little bit before dinner and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine while talking…what turned out to be a few hours later, we went downtown to get some dinner. we went to another cute restaurant and had pizza and pasta again. while walking around to find other things to do, we ended up at a tiny little mexican restaurant. we had delicious tequila flavored beers and tried to order chips and salsa, but the salsa we ended up getting was the spiciest i’ve ever tasted! the boys ended up having a contest to see who could eat more without taking a drink. it was hilarious! after that we went back to the bar from the night before. there was a soccer game on, so it was packed! it was really fun to watch the game with everyone.

the next morning we took a bus to the train station to go to a small town called portofino, which is only about a half hour from genoa. apparently portofino was a hot spot for celebs in the 1950s. we definitely visited during their off season…almost everything was closed. it was beautiful though! we are planning to go back once it warms up! we hiked up to see a castle there and a church with a pretty cemetery and a light house. it was really cool but a lot of walking, and we didn’t have anywhere to put our bags so we were tired pretty fast. we got back to the train station (with a quick stop for this coffee/chocolate/ice cream dessert) and took a train back to genoa.

we got back around the same time as everyone else and all ate dinner together. now we just have to get through our review on wednesday and we’re off to naples, rome, and florence next week!!

my birthday celebration

2010-01-18T14:17:00.001+01:00

we celebrated my birthday saturday night on the 16th. almost everyone went to the old city café (where a couple of us had been before) for drinks. my group was late from the day trip we had taken so i had to meet everyone else there. everyone cheered and clapped when I walked in, and the owner remembered us from before. he told everyone (in his Italian accent) that I was the one who kept ordering drinks over and over again! it was funny. he gave me my first drink (a jack and coke, in honor of mario) in a large glass, double the size of everyone else’s, for free!

everyone had a really good time and had plenty to drink. the waitresses and bartenders like us because we’re american (and americans drink a lot). they tried to get us to dance on the tables. no one would do it except for logan…it was pretty ridiculous!

five or six of us stayed until the bar closed and made the trek back to the villa. we stayed up for a while longer in the dining room of the villa. dad sent me two dozen roses, 1 for each year and he said to give the extras to sylvia for taking care of us for the next four months.

on sunday, our italian professor barbara (who is here until wednesday) decided we should go to this nice restaurant down in the port. she had called ahead so our meal would have a fixed price- 30 euro per person. this was the biggest meal I’ve ever eaten! it included red and white wine, water, bread, antipasto (foccaccia al formaggio and farinata di ceci, which was a really good bread and cheese type dish), primo (trofie al pesto and testaroli al pomodoro, two different types of pasta), secondo (the main dish: l’orata al forno con le potate, a baked fish with potatoes), dolce (semifreddo, fluffy ice cream that is made with cake), and espresso. it was delicious! i couldn’t eat it all. it was definately an amazing birthday dinner i’ll never forget!!

the top of the mountain and the sea

2010-01-17T14:22:00.000+01:00

on friday, i went with allender, sam, and lindsay to the top of the mountain that we live on. we took a lift up to the top. it was pretty cool, like a subway on a 45 degree angle. we got off on the last stop and then hiked up the rest of the way. there were three forts up there and the views were amazing!

yesterday (the 16th) I went with allender, stephen, tyler, nate, and sam to this small coastal town. it was about a fifteen minute train ride from genoa. there was a long promenade type thing that stretched along the water. it was like a brick/stone boardwalk! the water was such a pretty blue and all of the buildings were beautiful. there were also these large parks to walk through and huge museums set back. they also had a downtown area with cute stores and restaurants.

we took the bus back, which was not as easy as the train. it dropped us off at a place in genoa we had never seen and we had to figure out how to get back to the downtown area we’re familiar with. we stopped for pizza (so good!) and wine and gelato (i’m obsessed) and finally made it back to the villa.

everyone else had already left to go to the old city café to celebrate my birthday so I got changed and tyler and i walked down the hill to meet them there…i’ll fill you in on my birthday night in the next post!

villa life

2010-01-15T18:30:00.001+01:00

so we're finally settled in the villa. there are 21 of us here. everyone is third year with me except for the three grad guys i knew from charleston, three landscape architecture guys, and one grad girl who studied in barcelona in the fall.

the villa is three floors. a kitchen and dining room and a ping pong table in the basement; our studios, a library, the faculty offices, and the lecture room are on the second floor that opens up to the courtyard. the studio professor, bernard, also has his private quarters there. the bedrooms and bathrooms are on the third floor. there are three rooms for girls and two for the guys. the guys have the big room with the large balcony and i'm in a room with three other girls my age and we have a smaller balcony.

sylvia is the coordinator of the program and she's in charge of the villa. angela is our cook, judita is our tour guide' who takes us on day trips on tuedays, and lucia cleans the villa. they are the cutest italian women. bernard calls them the villa angels. we were told to thank them all the time and that they love receiving flowers.

we’ve had classes and met all of our professors. they all seem great. our studio project is to work in groups of 3 and redesign a building that is downtown that really doesn’t fit in right now. it should be cool. i’m working with jamie who is my age, and max who is a graduate.

the food that angela makes is delicious! and the faccacia bread we have every day is amazing. it’s good with honey, nutella, cinnamon, anything! two guys have to go buy it every day for us, so it’s fresh! my job at the villa is to keep the library neat and organized and to tell sylvia when we need more ink for the printer.

i can definitely get used to this :)

the city

2010-01-11T20:37:00.000+01:00

exploring the city

the villa

2010-01-11T20:25:00.000+01:00

the view from our balcony

leaving for italy

2010-01-03T22:11:00.000+01:00

one week left!