Yawning in the Halls of the Mighty

Wow, okay. Yesterday was one of the longest days I have yet experienced -- not just in Italy, but in my life. I don't know if I mentioned that I was going on a class trip to Vinci and the Medici villas in my previous posts, but that's what I did yesterday.
The day began incredibly early, as we had to meet at Piazza Indipendenza at 8:00 am. As that's about a twenty five minute walk for me, I had to get up at like, 3 am (this is only a slight exaggeration). We all clambered onto a bus there and drove for about an hour to the town of Vinci, where our most famous Leonardo was born. There we visited the Museo Leonardiano, or the Leonardian Museum. I find that name rather funny. The majority of the exhibits there were miniature reconstructions of Leonardo's inventions from his drawings. There were drawings and machinery made by other smart men as well, but they were basically all for building cathedrals, making textiles, or hammering gold into gold leaf.

These are some constructs for building cathedrals -- basically they're very complicated wooden gears and pulleys to move big big stones.

Check out this nifty clock! I can't remember if Leonardo designed it or not! But it's pretty nifty!

Vitruvian Man sculpture. You know, tons of people actually drew their own Vitruvian Men, but Leonardo's is the only famous one.

After Vinci, we took the bus out to Anchiano, where Leonardo's birth house is. When we got there, though, it turned out that someone was having their wedding there, strangely enough. We sort of hovered awkwardly on the sidelines, all 46 of us, until my professor bullied someone into letting us see the interior of the house. We were there for about half an hour too long because of the wait, which was rather annoying, and as cool as it was to see the House Where Leonardo Was Actually Born, we could have just looked at the outside and gotten the same experience. Still, there was a lovely view from the mountain atop which the house was perched, as you can see in this fantastic photo.

After we left Leonardo's boyhood home, we went to the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano, the country home most associated with Lorenzo the Magnificent and his Golden Age of Florence. This was a very beautiful house, and we got to have about 10 minutes of lunch in front of it, which was nice. Very much like the Palazzo Vecchio, this place was positively covered in beautiful art -- paintings and frescoes galore, as well as some nice sculpture. Of course, it was acquired by Vittorio Emanuele in the 19th century, and he added quite a lot of decoration, so nothing was quite in its original state. I also couldn't take any photos of the interior, but let me just say: it was pretty badass.

The view from the terrace in front of the villa, the villa itself, and the stream in the back of the house. Someone wrote a fable about a nymph named Ambra who lived in that stream.

To address the title of this post I have to say that I was doing a lot of yawning while we were inside, but simply because I was very very tired, not because I was bored. My professor is a very talkative woman who probably has not forgotten anything in her entire life, and so we heard possibly the entire history of every single piece of art we came across. It took a while.

Poggio a Caiano also has a pretty horrible story behind it: Duke Francesco I and his wife Bianca Capello were most likely murdered there in October of 1587. Nobody likes the Medicis very much, or at least not enough to allow them to live past their 30's. Examination of Francesco's body recently has shown that he was most likely poisoned with arsenic, and as Bianca died the day after him, she probably was too. Not so pleasant.

We had a nice jaunt around the villa at 1:30, then finished our lunch and peeked at the garden, then went back inside to see the huge collection of still lifes -- or nature morte -- on the third floor of the villa. We left at 3:00 for our next stop, and you can imagine by this time that we were all really tired. 

AFTER Poggio a Caiano, we went to Castello, another of the Medici villas. We had a nice walk around the garden there, because the house isn't open to visitors, at least I assume it isn't otherwise our professor would have used any means possible to get us in to see the Very Interesting Things. There is a cool grotto and waterworks in the garden, but as they are under renovation, and have been for the past ten years, we didn't get to see them. I was okay with this though, because I'd already seen a very fantastic grotto and waterworks at the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg two years ago. From what I could see of the grotto here, it was much the same. I know this sounds a little jaded, but I was bone tired and had already seen many wonderful works of art.

Despite my slight grumpiness, the garden at Castello really was beautiful.

AFTER Castello, we walked about 20 minutes to see Petraia, another of the Medici villas. They had many many villas. We waited around for a while until we could get in to see the house. It is at this point that I have to address a flaw in my personality that I don't especially like, but as it came up during this trip I feel I should probably talk about it.

I have made a few friends here already, some nice people who are fun and easy going and get my jokes. As they are friendly people, they are fun and easy going and get the jokes of several other people. These included two girls, who I will describe thusly. They've got big eyes, big mouths, big hair, big voices, and other features that are large. This will sound mean, but these two girls did not strike me as the sharpest tools in the shed. They're dumb. And loud. And really, really disrespectful of the beautiful places we visited. They took pictures where we were strictly told not to, held up the group by buying ridiculous tourist junk, and stole fruit and flowers from the gardens. At one point I just turned to one of them, we shall call her Big Girl B, and said "Stop that. You can't do that." And, because I am a huge nerd and goodie two shoes, I said "Haven't you ever heard of 'take only pictures, leave only footprints'?" She of course looked at me with her big ole eyes like I was a dumbass, but damnit, I hate it when people act like this. She and her compatriot, Big Girl A, are the reason why people hate tourists, and one reason why I feel like four months is a long, long time.

Anyway, Petraia was gorgeous, and because I am a goodie two shoes I didn't take any pictures inside. Let me just say, it was fabulous and I wished that I could live there*. The garden was beautiful too, and there was a wonderful fountain statue made by Giambologna**, who is considered to be the second Michelangelo. The fountain is an allegorical representation of Florence emerging from the Arno (the big river), wringing her hair out. In the days when the fountain worked, water dripped from the end of it, and it was quite lovely.

Florence in all her bronze-y majesty and two shots of the garden. The sunlight was lovely at 5 pm. That was something to see, especially because you could see the dome of the Duomo in the distance from this garden. MAN.

After that, we got to go home. I was so tired after that long day that I went to bed at 10:30, which is quite early for me. It was a pretty nice trip, but...

I'm sitting here, covered in scabs from mosquito bites, thinking about the strange homework I have to do***, wondering why the brand new computer that I love is giving me a blue screen every hour or so****, wishing I could use the washing machine (I am 3rd in line after my two room mates, and we all have to use the little drying rack in the kitchen), hating that I'm 6 hours ahead and approximately 4,158 miles away from all the people I am missing, and hating myself a bit for not being happy.

*Except I don't want to live there because I'd still be all alone.

**He also made the beautiful statue that's in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, The Rape of the Sabine Woman. It's gorgeous.

***My Italian Fashion teacher is making me a. weave fabric and b. design an entire collection. Well, I'm stumped.

****And neither I nor the most computer loving of boyfriends can discern what the problem is.

The Old Palace

I went to the Palazzo Vecchio today, sort of by accident. I had been meaning to go to the Boboli Gardens which are across the river, but I'm quite glad that I didn't, because I got to see something really cool instead. I don't have class on Fridays, so I slept until an obscene hour this morning (hint: I've been awake for a little more than three hours). Most museums don't close until around 6 though, so I figured it was fine to be lazy -- I've had to get up early a lot this week and I wanted to treat myself.*

Anyway, my room mates and I still haven't discovered a good place to dispose of our household trash yet. Apparently there's a piazza nearby with big honkin' trash bins but we hadn't found it. When I went out today, towards the Boboli Gardens, I took out two bags of trash with me. It took me about half and hour to find a place to put them -- you'd be amazed at how hard it is to find things in this city. Wait, no you wouldn't, just take a look at this map.

If you aren't confused just looking at this then you must be a wizard.

Because Florence is a rather hellish place to navigate it took me a while to find anywhere where I could dispose of two relatively small bags of trash. I finally did, though, although I'm not sure I can give my room mates instructions to it other than "it's the piazza with the merry-go-round in it". Anyway, by the time I'd finished that errand, I was not really looking forward to a 15 minute walk to get to the Boboli Gardens, and it was getting cloudy anyway. It was then that I espied the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio not too far away -- that's an idea! I'd been wanting to check it out anyway.

I had been told that I should visit because it's a cool place, but that suggestion was NO WHERE NEAR enthusiastic enough. The Palazzo Vecchio isn't cool. It's really, really cool.

These photos are horrendously out of order but I'll do my best to explain. Oh, and my iPhone camera is horribleterrible, so I apologize for that as well.

Sala dei Cinquecento (room of the five hundred) -- a most beautiful room that seemed as though it were the size of a football field in all dimensions, and positively covered with paintings from floor to ceiling. I'm not kidding. Every possible inch of wall or ceiling was painted, and beautifully. The huge walls were lined with huge paintings depicting huge people. It was breathtaking.

One of the paintings on the walls. I think there were about six of them. It's not a perfectly flat view because I was standing at the base and I'm quite a bit smaller than it is. Still, you can see how amazing this is: a night battle scene with horses and men and lanterns and all sorts of intricate chaos going on.

A rather horrible photo of the ceiling. I'm not at all exaggerating when I say that every room in the entire Palazzo had ceilings like this. ALL OF THEM.

"Youth and Goose" makes another appearance! Who is this guy and why does he hang out with a goose?!

The Medici coat of arms was EVERYWHERE. It's a shield with anywhere between 5-7 balls on it, framed by big keys. No one is quite sure what those balls are supposed to be, but the two most prominent theories are these: they are golden apples to represent the wealth of the family, or they are oranges to signify the family name, Medici, relating to doctors. Doctors often used oranges for curing people, apparently.

Painted on the ceiling. I like the giraffe, don't you? ps. note the Medici sigil to left and right!

This wicked fairy guy is awesome. Just another design of probably thousands that cover the walls of the Medici apartments.

Another part of the fresco in which Evil Fairy Guy is featured.

This is a terrible photo, but this circular design was painted on the ceiling IN A HALLWAY. Not even a grand room! Just a hall way! The borders are foliage, and in each of the squares there's an animal or a face or a figure. Amazing!

One of the rooms was called the Room of the Elements, and on three of the walls a huge fresco depicted the anthropomorphic representations of Water, Fire, and Earth (I think). This lady was part of the water painting, and I thought she was rather magnificent.

Even this little cupboard was like a palace. These people must have had money running out of their ears.

Sala dei Cinquecento again, this time seen from a balcony that ran along the back wall.

There were a couple of these beautiful little chests of drawers. Can you see the birds on the drawers? All of the designs are inlaid mother of pearl and other precious materials. Look closely at the bodies and wings of the birds and you can see the striations. CAN I PLEASE BE A MEDICI.

This room was fascinating. There was a huge globe in the center, and the walls were lined with these huge displays of maps. I can't bring up a list of all the countries that are depicted in the maps, but it was a hell of a lot, let me just say. Incredibly detailed maps of almost every region of the world. How expensive must those have been? How long must they have taken? It's just incredible to stare at those things and imagine.

A closer view of the maps. I believe these are of north Africa mostly, but they didn't seem to be in any particular order.

The exterior of the Palazzo Vecchio. You could go up into the tower if you wanted to spend an extra 4 euro, but I felt like those palatial rooms were enough for me.

Another of the ginormous paintings in the Sala dei Cinquecento. These really are out of order.

The floors were all, of course, amazingly beautiful as well, if a little rougher. Cosimo de Medici, duke of Florence!

 So this palace commands the best view of Florence that I have yet seen. Probably the best one there is, and this isn't even from the tower. I wandered out of some gorgeous room onto a lovely outdoor space framed by columns, between which was this beautiful view.
I didn't mind that I had gone by myself -- it was easier to wander and think that way -- but I did get a sort of Rose Arbuthnot feeling at that moment.

"How beautiful it was. And what was the good of it with no one there, no one who loved being with one, who belonged to one, to whom one could say, "Look." And wouldn't one say, "Look--dearest?" Yes, one would say dearest; and the sweet word, just to say it to somebody who loved one, would make one happy."**

Another one of those gorgeous inlaid cabinets. Just look at that!

So that was my adventure. I hope to have many more like it in future.

oh ps. as I was picking up my bag at the coat room, the guy asked "Where are you from?"

Me: America...?

Him: What state?

Me: Pennsylvania.

Him: (turning to his fellow coat room guy) Pennsylvania!

Other guy: Um...Harrisburg!

Me: ...what

First guy: He knows all the state capitals.

I found that rather amusing.

*If you don't think sleeping in is a treat, then you must be one of those soulless creatures they call "morning people".

**From The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. Just to clarify, I really didn't feel miserable like Rose Arbuthnot, but I did wish I had someone whose sleeve I could tug on so I could say "look!" to them.

Ups and Downs

My moods are apparently on a schedule. Tuesday and Thursday I have a great time. I'm cheerful! My classes are enjoyable! Monday and Wednesday I'm tired, grumpy, dissatisfied with classes, and aggravated at everything. I wonder why this is. I hope that I'll even out eventually, and either be rather happy all the time or at least running at average.

In any case today was a good day! Had breakfast with friends at a really yummy cafe near my Illustration studio and enjoyed a very interesting class. There was a weird moment, however, when I presented my little story booklet to my teacher, I think she said "much better". Which was puzzling. I thought that I'd done worse than my rough draft. Anyway. We worked on a new project, a sort of card-game collage that I found very interesting, despite my distaste for collage. We have to create three 2x1 cards that have the theme of travel, and submit them to a website. The website, when refreshed, will randomly sample three cards from the entire class and put them together to see what strange and wonderful combination it will make. I like this!

Here are mine -- I have one finished, one in the works, and one not started.

I got my first catcall today

I was wondering when that would happen. It wasn't particularly distressing or anything, but I thought I should mark the occasion.

In SACI's handbook they say you will reach a point where everything about the new country irritates you. I may have gotten to that point. It's so loud, it's very hot, there are more mosquitoes than I could possibly have imagined, the tourists are even more numerous than the mosquitoes, and just the fact that nothing is convenient. Nothing. I spent half an hour trying to find a street vendor that sells padlocks before I gave up. How much of a spoiled American white girl do I sound when I say that I dearly miss CVS?

I should mention though, despite all those things...this is still Italy.
So.

Scissors and Skeins

I have been a busy girl! And I'm tired. But it's a good tired.

Third day of classes went rather well. My wonderful illustration teacher gave us a presentation on Bruno Munari, who was a very weird, very cool illustrator/artist guy. He came up with a lot of cool stuff for children and early education, his most interesting contributions being his picture books. I highly recommend looking them up. In fact why don't you visit his wikipedia page.

Anyway, those picture books are made mostly through using cut paper, but cut paper in a sort of strange way that engages the page as part of the...thing. Um. Hmm. Oh! There's an image on one page, perhaps with  a little hole in it that is an eye or a star or a moon. You flip to the next page, and it becomes something different that contrasts in a cool way with what you saw before. He made lots and lots of these books. Our assignment today was to make one ourselves. Here's the cover of my attempt:

You may not be able to tell, but the white is the front page, and the black is what's showing through from the next page. Our theme was "travelling" -- so I did a story of a rabbit making a journey home. 

Sorry these are sideways...but you get the gist, I guess? These two are the only pages that I really like, I think you can probably see what's going on. From then on it goes downhill, mostly because...this was super difficult. You have to be aware of what's happening on the first second third and fourth pages, just so that you don't accidentally show cut out parts where they aren't supposed to be...ugh. Anyway, I have until Thursday to perfect it. Assuming I can find some scissors.

Also today I had my first Italian Fashion Design class. I missed the first session because I just recently added it -- I thought "oh hey I have space in my schedule and this looks like a fun idea", so I signed up. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I enjoyed myself anyway. Along with 7 other girls, I listened to a presentation on the history of the "made in Italy" look, which actually only goes back to 1951. Huh. It was quite an extensive presentation. Ask me if you ever want to know about the early years of the White Room shows. 

The next section of the class was all about FIBERS! Natural, synthetic, artificial, mineral, animal, blue raspberry, you name it, I know...well, most of them, anyway. Then we got to make skeins. Of wool. With our hands. And some drop spindles. Here is me and my skein:

I may look a little overexcited about this lumpy rope of (really too thick) yarn, but I worked hard to make it, dammit. Those drop spindles are tricky. My assignment for this coming Thursday is to a. take 100 pictures of things I find beautiful in Florence and b. Do some sketches.
Of fashion design.
Clearly this woman has never met me. Because I have no idea how to draw fashion that isn't, not to put too fine a point on it, armor.
So I guess I'll show up on Thursday with my fantastical designs and see what she says. Maybe I'll be the next Alexander McQueen.

Okay, Italians, let just make something clear here...

Supermarkets sell food. Anything that does not sell any food at all cannot be called a supermarket. Okay?
Supermarket (n) : A large self-service retail market that sells food and household goods.

I know it seems rather ridiculous to actually get a dictionary definition, but believe me, readers, it's necessary. I realized today after doing a lot of shopping for art supplies (see the rest of this post) that I needed to get some more food as well. I rushed home and deposited my purchases, then looked up supermarkets near my apartment.
The first one I went to turned out to be a department store that sold accessories and women's clothing. The second was a sunglasses store.
Why, for the love of god, did you list yourselves under supermarkets?! That is wrong. No. I refuse to accept that. I'm cranky because I did a lot of walking for no reason, and when I got back, my room mate was using the kitchen (as is her right) and now I'm sitting writing a blog post instead of making pasta. This is bad, because I'm hungry.

Oh she's done. I'll be right back.

Okay, I'm no longer cranky because I made myself my signature dinner (see if you can guess what it is. hint: it may be the exact same thing I had last night, and the night before) and now I have some of my Very Own Grapes. 

I went to the art supply store with a couple of friends this afternoon, after having class all morning, which was enjoyable if somewhat tiring...my first class began at 8:45 am, which is early for this nocturnal girl. And I spent a rather frantic half an hour trying to find all the things I need for all the classes I'm taking.

Ta-da! There they are, the fruits of my labor. And rather expensive fruits they were indeed. Still, I am now the proud owner of:

• 1 pad of peely-offy palette paper (say that 5 times fast)
• 1 little bottle of linseed oil
• 1 little bottle of damar varnish
• 8 little tubes of assorted oil paints
• 1 little box of 12 watercolors
• 1 little pad of watercolor paper
• 4 little canvasses, one slightly less little than the rest
• 8 brushes, not all that little
• 2 pencils, also regular sized
• 1 eraser, white. Regular sized.
• Oh and 1 palette knife.

And I still need rags and masking tape and something to get the seeds out of these grapes.
Here's a shot of the painting studio.

How were they born, the cornflakes?

I don't have anything particularly insightful to say this morning, but I thought I'd share two things with you. First, the box of Keloggs corn flakes that my room mate bought says "come nascono, i Kelloggs Corn Flakes?" The literal translation to English is in the title. For some reason that is quite funny to me.

Secondly here are two shots of the Piazza del Duomo, one taken at 8:30 am and the other taken at 11:00 am. Spot the difference!

Oh by the way, if you'd like to see the little nothings I draw in class (midst my notes, don't worry parents, I am paying attention) then visit the "Doodles" page up at the top there.