Assisi Pictures

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Donatello's Judith Slaying Holofernes

Donatello's St. Mark, Orsanmichele

Donatello's David, Orsanmichele



View from Santa Chiara

Us being homeless

Me and Lyd

Basilica of St. Francis

View from the watch tower of Roca Magiore

Pretending to get my head chopped off

The climb up to Roca Magiore

Santa Chiara

Roca Magiore

The view from the hotel

Orvieto Pictures

Random train station we were stuck in

Bottom on the well photo shoot

On the way down...which was the easy part

View from the top

Sally, Sarah and Lydia imitating the Ninjas

Famous Orvieto wine

Signorelli's Last Judgement Fresoes (can you see the Ninjas??)

Me, Lydia, Sally and Sarah

Orvieto

Orvieto, Assisi and Florence oh my!

Traveling words to live by: Throw out your travel itinerary and just go...

I am proud to say that I have had my first real backpacking experience (at least in my opinion). Following a whirl wind decision Thursday night, Friday morning Sally and I departed morning to meet our Florence friends (Lydia and Sarah) in Orvieto (Umbria region). We had to take the regional train which was a bit of a step down from the Eurostar but serious backpackers don't care about this kind of thing. We all arrived in Orvieto and immediately realized the incredible beauty of this place. The entirety of this city was built on top of a volcanic rock mountain called Tufa. Activities included looked at Signorelli's last judgement frescoes (complete with silly ninja men in the background), traveling down an ancient well of St. Patrick, having famous Orvieto white wine (Margarita and Roberto (Bob/Dad) would have been in heaven). Later that day we made our first attempt at traveling to Assisi. What should have been 1-1 1/2 hour train ride turned into a four hour ordeal. Tired from our travels in Orvieto, all four of us fell asleep on our first train and missed our stop where we had to transfer trains. Thus, we ended up in Ter0ntola....look it up on a map haha . We then spent two hours in this train station drinking beer and playing card games...randomly soo fun. 

Later that night, we successfully arrived in Assisi having no idea what it was going to look like in the day time. INCREDIBLE! Umbria kicks Tuscany's ass any day. The view from our hotel was staggering! Assisi is another medieval town built into a mountainside. This is also the fourth most visited city in all of Italy due to the fact that it is where St. Francis founded the Franciscan Order. Activities in this town included more wine and food, Santa Chiara (24 hour nun on duty to praise the crucifix that was responsible for St. Francis's conversion), the Roca Magiore (huge castle at the top of the city), and the Basilica of St. Francis with the fresco cycle by Giotto (hotly debated art history topic at the moment). The weather and atmosphere were so nice there that we just hung around all day. I think some people might have actually thought we were homeless (which is like the third time this week someone has assumed that about me...strange). That night, we all returned to Florence cause the fun don't stop there! 

Florence was a joy as usual. Went to a great dinner, couple bars, did some shopping, went to Orsanmichele and the Palazzo Vecchio (pales in comparison with the Palazzo Piti). Other highlights included picking up my new leather jacket (hopefully this will signify that yes, i have good taste and no, I'm not homeless). 

Anyways, back to school/Rome. Did anyone watch the Oscars?? I thought Kate Winslette's speak was as good as any acceptance speech I've ever heard. She is so charming. Also, the writer for Milk was very moving as well. I can't get a hold of who accepted Heath Ledger's award for him! Someone email me and help me out. If you find a youtube video of it, let me know! 

Best, Lauren

Music of the Week: 

My Life would Suck without you - Kelly Clarkson (no judgement...i love it!)

Long Distance - Brandy (yes, she's back!)

Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack

Cherry Lips - Garbage

The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon and Garfunkle

Hello, I'm Delaware - City and Colour

Chrstie's YSL art auction

Calling all those with hugely expendable incomes and great taste in art!! First, check out this slideshow on the pieces appearing in the auction in their actual setting in YSL's apartment. 

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/02/18/arts/20090218_YSLAUCTION_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Then check out the Christie's web site to find out how much they are expecting each piece to go for. I believe you can also watch the auctions live on their web site. For those of you in the states though this might be in the middle of the night for you. I think the art world is in a frenzy. I will be watching anxiously awaiting women in huge fur coats and obnoxiously colored Kelly bags to clobber one another with their bidding paddles over the Matisse. Can't wait for the results. 

http://christies.com/#/ysl-feb-2009/2/

 

I'm off to Orvieto and Assisi tomorrow for the weekend. I am officially proud to announce the return of my camera!!! Expect lots of pictures!

Best, Lauren

Sistine Chapel pictures

The Drunkenness of Noah

The Flood

Before and After cleaning

First official Art Info post: The Sistine Ceiling

As you all know, I am a total geek for art history. It was one of the major reasons why I came to Rome for the semester. That being said, every so often I am going to write a post about something interesting i have seen or learned that I think the rest/some of you might find interesting too. 

As many of you also know, I am in a class specifically on Michelangelo and his work in Rome. In the past few days, we have been talking about the Sistine Ceiling at great length. So here are some things I didn't know and found particularly interesting/strange/amazing.

- The lowest band of paintings were painted by several Florentine artists such as Botticelli, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio. These were done in 1481-1482. At this point, the ceiling was a dark blue sky with bright gold stars.

- The ceiling cycle and the last judgement wall were painted almost 30 years apart.

- The ceiling itself can be divided into two halves. This is because Michelangelo stopped working on it for about 6 months in the middle. During those 6 months, art historians believe he underwent a stylistic change in his painting.

- Michelangelo did everything in his power to get out of painting the Sistine Chapel. He thought was a bad painter (he experienced mold problems with the fresco at first). 

- No two bodies on the ceiling are in the same position. 

- Michelangelo was displeased with the final product. Pope Julius II (who commissioned the ceiling) made him reveal the work too early. We do not know what else Michelangelo would have added. 

- During the most recent cleaning and restoration project, many of the details painted after the fresco dried were lost. In addition, Michelangelo himself said that he always intended for th ceiling to darken due to soot produced during conclave. So, the question is, are we now seeing the ceiling the way we think it should look or the way Michelangelo intended it to look?  

- It was around this time in his life that Michelangelo began experiencing deep depression, something which he would not really escape for the rest of his life.

- The central series of nine panels running down the center of the ceiling are supposed to be in chronological order according to Genesis. However, the third to last scene, The Sacrifice of Noah, is technically in the wrong place. According the Genesis, the scene of the Drunkeness of Noah and the Sacrifice should technically be switched. Why would Michelangelo do this? Clearly it couldn't have been a mistake....he was working in the Vatican.

Hope you all found this as interesting as I did. More to come.

Best, Lauren

More Venice...Not bad for the iPhone camera

An angel flying down from the bell tower

My favorite group of costumes...the poodles matched their owners

In our masks, having drinks in St. Marks square





Crazy dinosaur creatures/puppets