Monreale

Well, upon arriving in Palermo, we were quickly whisked off to Monreale, a small town an hour or so away. Built up on a hill, we were able to look down over the whole town. The Mediterranean sea was so blue it seemed surreal. The mountains too added a nice back drop. Both the Laurens and I cement this moment.

After some quick snapshots and a few moments to take in the breath-taking scenery we moved inside the Cathedral. This truly is an architectural marvel. A brief history tells us, that the church started construction in 1170 by William II (who was the king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189). In 1182 the church was dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The Church is particularly notable for it's interior mosaic works. The main apse is heavily decorated with golden mosaics adding another worldly quality to the space. Likewise the way that the light penetrates into the space is remarkable. The miniature apses proved intriguing to me, as did the sculptures that adorned them. The monk's living quarters, that were attached to the cathedral add some cultural significance. The pointed arches that surround the loggia, were an interesting Islamic influence in a Catholic church. The columns that reside under the arches were different in shaft decoration, each one having a different capitol. Overall a very interesting piece of architecture.

Project 1

This is the first project. The project was to create 5 different boards, each representing a different site. The first board was an introductory board, and the rest were 4 of 7 sites that the class visited. Each board was to be hand drawn, with the options of pictures being put on. The boards while individual, must be able to be put together and look like one cohesive piece. The sites that I choose were Campidoglio, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and Villa Giulia. I choose to have the bottom, be section cuts through each of the sites. I lined up the base of each section cut to help unify all the boards. Similarly I used a band of pictures along the top to unify the boards as well. With these two strong elements I was able to have a lot of freedom with the rest of the drawings. I thought it interesting to explore the half plan-half roof for 3 of the boards. I feel that this gives a little bit more information in the same amount of space. I rather like flooring patterns as mentioned before, and I found the drains at each site to be rather interesting, as such the picture in the upper right corner of the last four boards has a drain detail.

Napoli

Upon arriving in Napoli, a few of us were immediately embraced with Stanley’s overzealous nature. "Start sketching, don’t take pictures, just start sketching". It was very refreshing to be thrown right back into the swing of things. Immediately after reaching the Spanish Quarter, a few Napolians came out and started talking to us about how much they loved Americans. One brought out an American towel for a photo-op, and some pictures of himself with Bill Clinton and Mayor Giuliani. The were very simpatici (nice) and it was a nice start to the trip.

The first three pictures are details of the streets in the Spanish Quarter. It seems that each balcony that protruded into the small street had it's own agenda. Which was fine, it makes for a much more interesting drawing, as I'm sure Stanley will agree. It was particularly interesting to see how people would hang their laundry out to dry over their balcony, or even stretch a line across the street to the neighboring building. Even more intriguing still was how each building had it's own identity, connected and yet seemingly detached from everything else.

After the sketching adventure, we went to the Galleria. A highly decorated covered street plaza. It was honestly one of the most breath-taking things I've seen. It was so lavishly decorated, and it was open for the public to simply meander in and out. The flooring patterns ( a personal favorite of mine, though I'm, not sure why) was simply beautiful. Large pieces of different colored marble, with giant glass circles inter-mixed. Underneath the glass circles an iron grate added another hidden detail to the space. The massive space was planned to a T. Cafes were set out into the spaces, shops opened their doors to the potential customer, and lavish decoration dripped off of every surface. A massive iron and glass dome crowns this glorious space. One of the entrances to the space faces the opera, and reflects the symmetrical nature of the opera house.

Speaking of the opera, later that Night about 16 of us ventured there. And oh what a modern opera it was! We saw Candide. I must confess though from an architectural perspective that the opera house itself was much more impressive. The area was comprised of nothing but boxes. It was much more of a traditionally opera house, decked out in an all red decor, with gold tipped carvings. It was very exciting being escorted to our seat and having the usher unlock the door to our private box. Not a bad deal for only 15 euros. Lauren and I had a great time at the opera. (Incidentally this is the most normal picture of Evan on this trip, though i'm sure someone else will prove me wrong shortly).

The next day we went to the museo, an unfortunate substitute to actually going to Pompeii. But the weather can not be controlled. Oh well, there were a lot of rather interesting things in the museum. A giant accurate model of Pompeii was extremely impressive, not to mention the large number of mosaics from Pompeii. The statues were elegant and something some of us strive to be like. Another thing of interest in that museum was the Gabinetto Segreto. In ancient roman times it was customary to have sexual depictions running along the top of the walls, acting as a border. When these things were rediscovered in the 1700's these types of paintings were thought to be crude and inappropriate, so they were removed from the findings. Those that remained were compiled together and placed in a room dubbed "The Secret Room". Recently these items were put on display to the public.

Our last stop in Napoli was a Church. Typical of a Jesuit Church with a basilican plan, this church was highly decorated. Most interesting to me was the pieces of artwork that adorned the church were not merely elaborate statues, some most definitely were, but some were pieces of local artwork. Nothing seems out of character in the space, even the scaffolding used to renovate the church added to it's character.

We finished up the trip with a visit to the Pantheon wanna be. It was very entertaining to see, living so close to the original, it seems proposterous to get the proportions wrong. None the less, it was still an interesting example to look at.

Prelude

As always, I am off to a late start. It feels good to be a procrastinator. But alas, this is for a grade so I feel compelled to comply, who knows maybe this will be fun. Anyways as I'm sure that you've deduced, I'm in Rome. It is beautiful here. I must say that I rather enjoy living in a small apartment off a piccola piazza. Though it is rather... interesting, living with four other girls and sharing one bathroom. It isn’t that bad; I’ve come to enjoy all it’s little quirks, power outages every time 2 burners are in use, or the laundry machine on the roof (no literally). It is very refreshing to wake up in the morning and see the small market spread out to encompass every conceivable crevice. And I must admit, that I do enjoy walking to our gelato place every night after dinner. Everyone here is just so friendly, and eager to help. We have already made some very nice friends. And thus is my intro into the life that is mine, at least for right now.