>>BOLOGNA

typical bolognese tower
fountain at city center
bustling side street



Bologna! a wonderful city to end our journey on, after we dropped our bags off at the nicest hotel I've ever seen, 4 stars I think, we quickly headed on a guided tour of the avant garde town of Bologna. As a town that prides itself on food, it can be a little expensive to eat-however for lunch on the first day we ate at a cafeteria style diner to sample some amazing Bolognese treats. We learned that at one time Bologna contained 200 family towers like the one above. Left with only 20, Bologna used the brick for fortifications and for new housing developments. Also, during the occupation by Napolean the town tricked the French into beliveing that their Pope statue was really a patron saint- a move that preserved an amazing statue at a time when thousands of Pope monuments were destroyed. Also-the fountain above demnostrates the dominion of the pope, four mermaids representing the four major religious rivers of the world (gangese,jordan,nile, tigris) are capped bye a figure who is both lovingly ruling and also forcefully controlling. One more fact on Bologna, it has the largest University in Europe, 135,000 students, making it a very vibrant young town. The next day on the third we went to Parma and Modena.
Ferrari Museum

Risotto
Ron drinking some wine

Another early start landed us in Modena, on a private bus, to witness first hand the history of Ferrari. The museum allowed us to view architecture as product-as well as modes of manufacturing that are sophisticated yet not used in architecture. From Modena we took our bus to Parma(the hills there of) to have a wine tasting and lunch. By far one of the most interesting parts of the trip. We enjoyed the beautiful views, great food, and learned the process for making the wine. Above you can see the food as well as my professor from sophomore year, Ron Rael. From the vineyard lunch we went to the town of Parma and saw a few churches then returned to Bologna for the last night.

>>FIRENZE

View of Firenze from the gardens
original door panel by Ghiberti
View from Santa Maria Del Fiore
Inside Santa Maria Del Fiore

Once we arrived from Siena we went straight to the academia to view the David by Michalengelo and see many other artworks. My favorites were the unfinished sculptures bye Michalengelo. We also went to a church and walked around Florence. That night we took a long dinner and rested for the next day. On the 31st we took a full day walking tour through Firenze, seeing all the major sights. We began the day climbing Brunheleschi's dome and finished the day in a garden. We also learned about many movements in Firenze and also the artistic shifts unique to Firenze. On the first we went to the Uffizi museum for half the day and saw thousands of works by every major artist. From here we concluded the day with a walking tour of the city. On the Feb 2nd we woke up early and headed to Bolgna early in the morning.

>>SIENA

Bell tower in city center
view from bell tower
Calzone with wild boar and goat cheese

After the excitement in Rome we had a layover issue in a small town on our way to Siena. We stopped in the small town and ventured out for dinner. We ate an amazing meal at an old lady's bed and breakfast-amazing pasta and delictable homemade wine! We then caught the train to Siena arriving late that night. That evening we went to the main piazza to explore the night life. Since it was Sunday night few places were open-however I did have the treat to sample a bottle of Chiuso, a beer made by monks in the nearby monestary. The beer cannot be bought in bottles anywhere else and it tasted almost like coffee or chocolate it was so dark. The next day, 29th, we had a free day with a suggested itenerary and assigned sketches. Siena is a relatively small town and we pretty much covered the entire city. For lunch I had the most incredible calzone,above, with wild boar and goat cheese! One interesting aspect of Siena are the 9 neighborhoods. Each with their own coat of arms and each with their own champion horse racer to represent the neighborhood. The square(middle) is built into a natural ring, which is used once a year for the horse race. The winning neighborhood celebrates all year long. The next day, 30th, we woke up early and ventured by train to Florence.

>>ROMA

view from St. Peter's Basilica
Richard Meir Museum
Colliseum at night

Ciao! I am finaly back from the long 11 day journey through some major spots in Italy. Roma or Rome was our first stop. The hotel was not so great and pretty far from the city center but bus rides were easy enough to access. Rome was a great, a very vibrant and beautiful city. We arrived on the 25th and immediatley hoped on a bus to see the colliseum, and visit St. Peter's Basilica. Later that night, we saw the spanish steps and ate a delicious dinner near the steps. The next morning was another marathon tour day, from 8am till 6pm we saw every major site in Rome. We saw the changing of the guard, obelisks, churches, art and we finished exhausted. That night we saw the Richard Meir designed museum which was wonderful at night. The next morning on the 27th, we had a free day before checkout. We took the oppurtunity to wake up early and line up for the Vatican museum and climb the dome of St.Peter's since we only saw the church the first visit. The line was so long but moved quickly. The museum was so vast it was overwhelming. One of my favorite sculptures was the Laocoone of the serpent with the man and 2 boys. The view from St.Peter's (above) was amazing-you can see a peace rally in between the arms. After The climb, I sketched the facade of St. Peter's while listening to the catchy peace rally rock fest! Then we met up with our professors and journeyed to an exhibit on Maximiliano Fuksas, a contemporary architect we studied last year. He is also the architect who designed the pavilion in Milano were our projects will be displayed. After the exhibit we were late for our train so we ran from our hotel to make it in time!! We made it luckily and we were headed to Siena.