>>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.

>>Tre Mieli

(place setting)

(antipasto-two different fried cheese dishes)

(desert-gelato with hand rolled cone)
(surrounded by wine bottles)

Cio!Last night was perhaps the best meal I have ever enjoyed. Sorry to all the cooks at home, but you can't compete with fried cheeses, hand made pasta with pesto, perfectly grilled (local) fish, in house made gelato, and the local favorite white wine! Four hours later, I understand why Italians are so friendly-they enjoy their food. The restauraunt "tre il mieli"(three crows) is located on the port of Genova with breathtaking interior design which included beautiful place settings and walls of amber wine bottles. Nothing ends a tough week of school quite like and amazing dinner. Today was a usual school day, we finished classes before lunch but had our last Italian lesson until four. From now on, we should have more free time since our 2 hour, twice a day Italian lesssons are over. Tomorrow I will return to Milan to try to capitilize upon the "saldi" a major sale in January(and april where everything is on sale) most things have been ranging from30-75% off-worth the trip to find a uniquely Italian fashion for a fraction of the cost! Tonight I will return to the Piazza to meet up with our Italian friends and enjoy the beautiful Genovese weather a perfectly comfortable meditteranean night. Buona Nota

>>SAN LORENZO

(San Lorenzo, graphite, pen, ink wash)
Today is yet another day of excitement. First, we woke up around 7:30 to go turn in our passports so we could stay the length of time we needed. Well, ofcourse I lost my passport, walked all the way down town, and had to go back to the villa to find it! It had simply slipped out of my pouch and was between my bed and desk! So that was a good start to the day. Then we've had classes and studio all day, but tonight we will go out to dinner with our Italian proffesor. Above is a field sketch i did of this amazing church here in Genova, San Lorenzo. It is right down town off of Piazza del Ferrari.As usual thanks for the comments! Cio!

>>MILANO

(sculpture)

(galleria victorio Emanuel)

(piazza di USA)

Today was pretty uneventful, mostly recovering from Milan. We took a walking tour of the city with one of our proffesors, Stefano. Yesterday however was pretty intrigueing. As you know we went to Milano which is quite different then Genova. Firstly, being inland Milan was much colder and very cloudy-making for a very glumy day. Yet, at night the city really comes to life (props to me for learning how to use my camera at night!). At the top, you see a very amazing bronze sculpture-keep in mind that the artist had to construct the inverse of this massive object and pour the lava gold bronze into it. Below, is a picture of a huge galleria, next to the infamous Duomo. The Duomo has taken 500 years to finish-the larges Cathedral in Italy. The space the galleria provided was very intense. Me and Mark went into Prada and I was very close to buying some shoes that were on sale....however I resisted the urge. On the bottom you can see how picturesque the night time truly was, lights and cars proved the perfect end to the 6am start up. We began our day in the outskirts of Milano studying some post-modernist housing projects that were quite amazing. Then we ventured into the city proper, a much more city like space then Genoa. The fashions were amazing and I believe Mark, Janis, and I will return to Milano on saturday to see the city more.Cio!

>>VILLA DAY

(graffiti sketches, photo transfer,pen,india ink,graphite)
Cio! today was relatively uneventful-mostly school work and classes. Tomorrow we will leave for Milan at 6am and be there for the day. The above sketches are from some interesting graffiti I have photographed(mom let me know if you like the sketches!). The process for these sketches included photography, then editing in photoshop, mirroring the image, printing then copying them on the copier, photo transfering using acetone, then drawing and painting on the transfer. Today we also paired of for our project, a group project on housing in Genoa. Our class has also been selected for the Milano Salone Satelite , an international design fair hosted in Milan where furniture and industrial design projects will be exhibited. Our projects will appear in the Satelit section, restricted to students advancing the craft of design. Since our projects will focus on architecture as product it fits well into the fair!

>>GETTING LOST

(panorama of Genova)

(Piazza del Ferrari)

The sun has come out and the weather has been bellisimo, nothing like 60 degree weather in January! Above are some shots of Piazza del Ferrari and of all Genova. This piazza is considered Genova's city central-at night this place becomes a large open air party. Many young people and family's will gather here until as late as 6am. Piazza del Ferrari and Piazza del Erbe are two of the hot spots that we have experianced this weekend. Some notable foods and drink I have encountered-Sangria at Bar Latino, Montenegro con Arancia at Bar Berto, Lasgna al Pesto at Carmine di Orze. I have also found that the local Genovese people are very friendly. I have already made friends with Matteo, Claudio, Gabrielle, Sylvia, Franco, Sarah and a few others that seem to think "you speak good Italian" so atleast Ive been able to interact with the locals. Because Genoa has no logical city grid, its terraced labryinth streets are told to be tricky even to locals-I discovered this the hard way last night. On my way back to the villa(which is in the hills about 20 min up the mountain from the Piazzi) I took a wrong turn somewhere and became extremely lost. I walked the mountaneous streets for about 2 hours. Finally, around 4:00 am a very friendly young Italian couple offered me a ride home-I was a 30 minute car ride away from the villa! Today we went to see an architecture exhibit at a local museum, it was a very interesting exhibit on modern Italian architects. Today, concluded with a walk through an open air market where I sampled the most interesting foods-pesti, fishes, cheeses, meats of which I couldn't begin to name. Well, Cio for now!