i'm spending a semester in la città eterna, trying not to fumble along like an american in europe. let me tell you about my mishaps, my embarrassments, and all the beautiful things along the way. it's a small world, after all.
un'americana
And my professor asks me if I have been drinking:
tastes the best when it’s straight from the bottle.
soon after paris, but before my economics paper was due (the pain, the pain…), i was benedetta enough to spend easter in roma! easter is my absolute favorite holiday, and while i was literally at the center of the catholic world this time around, i would have still traded it to be at home with my family, hunting for easter eggs and then stuffing myself silly with grandma’s meatballs. oh, and this year? there was a golden egg hidden somewhere in the yard… with ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS in it! man, times have changed since i was a little girl…
in all seriousness, i missed my family like crazy, but i still loved la mia bella roma. i woke up early (what?), so early (whaaaaat?), for eight-thirty mass — italians don’t wake up that early, so i was one of the only people at santa maria in trastevere, one of the oldest churches in rome, the first church dedicated to the blessed virgin, and the first church at which mass was openly celebrated. after learning in depth about christian prosecution in the city of rome in class (rough, nero… rough), i was taken aback by being able to practice something about which i had never even thought twice. two thousand years ago, people were prepared to shed their blood to practice what they believed in, and so that i could stand in the same place and believe in the same things - what! and christianity is a relatively young religion - to think of the hundreds upon hundreds of years that people have killed over for believing different things, and that people have fought for what they believe in so that in the year 2012, a year they could have never possibly imagined, their belief systems can still hold true. humans can be pretty cruel, can’t we?
i didn’t take any pictures of the church during easter mass, but if i find my way back for an afternoon i’ll be sure to photograph it. the basilica was marvelous, gold mosaic from the thirteenth century depicting the coronation of the virgin right above the altar. again, the years and years of people… mind-blowing! i’ve never thought about it before.
after mass, it was time for a quick breakfast - nutella, certamente - and then on to st. peter’s square! the poor pope looked like he needed a nap… but the 150,000 people in the square were just energetic enough to keep him going.
at the risk of sounding sacrilegious (forgive me father, for i have sinned…), the mass and subsequent noontime blessing felt like a rock concert. there were tons of people waving their country’s flags, cheering when the pope managed to read out God bless you, Happy Easter in their language (the loudest - the filipinos! especially the nuns right next to us ;) ). the square was wired, dare i say, miraculously - too much? - and you could hear il papa from wherever you were. to see so many people gathered in the square, overwhelmed with the reality of being there, was inspiring - but i almost felt guilty. i practically sauntered into the square at eleven o’clock, from my apartment a three minute train ride away, and was able to experience something that’s a pilgrimage laced with sacrifice, if not an unattainable experience altogether, for the majority of catholics around the world. did i deserve to be there? i don’t go to church every sunday, i don’t confess nearly as often as i should, i don’t do a whole host of things (HAHA GOTCHYA AGAIN) that other people who were there that day, and who weren’t there that day, do to stay true to their faith. but i guess i just have to take it for the blessing it was, and be unbelievably thankful that i was able to experience it.
i was pretty close to the basilica, and even caught the tail end of the 10:30 easter mass! p.s. there were tons of short nuns in the crowd, this picture does not adequately portray the sass and the virtue surrounding me that day.
paris, paris, paris - where can i even begin? the entire city was a dream! i’ve wanted to go to paris since before i can remember, and the city lived up to every expectation i have ever had. paris, je t’aime, toujours!
okay, so i had a very limited amount of time to spend in the city of lights - three days, a little less - and gabrielle and i switched into ultimate tourist mode ASAP. well, not quite as soon as possible… we grabbed some delicious lunch first! ham and cheese on a baguette, with butter = best. lunch. ever. throw in the luxembourg gardens on a particularly sunny day, and you’ve got one amazing afternoon. am i cheesy yet?
after we took what will never seem like enough time in the gardens, we headed over to notre dame to see the stained glass in the afternoon light - and we literally happened upon the presentation of the crown of thorns. notre dame keeps the crown, believed by many to be at least the original rushes that sat on Christ’s head before and during the Crucifixion, as a relic, and presents it every friday during lent. it was quite possibly the most moving thing i have ever been a part of, and i was simply a spectator. the line to touch, kiss, or even just to see the crown was massive, and all for a few seconds of contact - but everyone seemed to intent, so passionate about what they were waiting for, it was amazing to see. the cathedral was lit up, with a choir singing, and the space came alive. it was the first real religious experience, i think, i’ve had as a ‘tourist’ here in europe, even though i’ve seen so many gorgeous buildings built for worship. it was powerful, and i’ll never forget it.
fast forward to nightfall, where paris really did begin to sparkle - every girl’s dream! - and gab and i headed for the champs du mars with a bottle of delicious wine, after a delectable crepe dinner, bien-sur. the air was cool but comfortable, the night was young and inviting… and then we got hit on by not one group of creepy ass men, but two. because two young women can’t simply enjoy a night together in europe. all we wanted to do was watch the eiffel tower twinkle!
after we were (nicely?) kicked off the champs du mars, we were able to catch the sparkle after all, and to say it took my breath away was an understatement. it came alive! where else in the world has the eiffel tower? nowhere, only paris. the night positively glimmered. or maybe it was all that wine…?
no, it was definitely just paris. what an amazing night! quel soir!
versailles was amazing. to be blunt. a pair of marie-antoinette fan girls retracing her glamorously well-heeled footsteps? in rooms with padded walls? super chouette.
so french, so chic! it really was an unforgettable day; the sun was shining as we sat and had lunch in the gardens, and we were lucky enough to have time to stop for some ice cream, :). unforgettable is an understatement; do you ever have moments where you sit and think to yourself, remember this, this is important, when it’s close to being all done this is one of the times that’ll make you warm inside, because you were so happy and so alive. maybe? nobody else? well, i do. and that was definitely one of them.
triton’s fountain in the sunshine! can i go back yet?
sunday, my last day in the city of lights, we took to the louvre like a pair of moths to a flame. morbid? oh well. three hours was not enough — guess i’ll just have to come back! gab, you in?
we played ‘how many creepy baby jesus can you find?’ and then we lost count. oh, art!
a beautiful painting of a beautiful lady. i don’t know, do you know her?
venus looking a little… unsteady?
what a beautiful sculpture. canova, another genius! (psst… we saw his tomb!)
after croissants, cheese, and too many tea breaks (that’s not possible), my weekend in paris had come to an end. what heartbreak! paris was electric, brimming with both old and new, the drive of today with the inspiration of yesterday. VIVE LA FRANCE!
i cannot believe i’ve been here for what at once feels like an eternity and a blink of an eye. i love it here, i love the city and the romans (in their unique way, they’re charming), the weather, the food, everything! but i miss home, a lot, i miss my family and my friends and dinners that don’t focus so much on carbs. right after new year’s, i made a list of risoluzioni italiani that i had hoped i would meet during my time here. i have to say, i’m proud of myself for the adjustments i’ve made, but there are definite changes i hope to make before my time here is out. i’m writing out this list for myself, but if you want to bother reading it, that’s cool too :)
as my first official act as an american in europe on sPr111ng BReaK, i went to see the salvador dali exhibition in piazza venezia. hm.
it was a pretty great exhibition, although a little unorganized; it lacked fluidity, and it was hard for me to follow dali’s transformation as an artist. it was really cool to see how much respect dali had for the great italian masters, i had no idea how much dali revered raphael, and how he saw his skill as an artist seriously lacking in comparison. it was really interesting to study the few works they had on exhibit and look for the various nods to the classics - i do wish they had more works, though!
it was a small exhibit and my roommate and i were done in about an hour, and although i had to exert serious self-control and not buy a dali moustache mug, it was a nice excursion into the city. the italians just love taking credit for dali’s career, i guess, just like they love taking credit for everything ever. che pazzi!
onto venice, the most romantic city i’ve ever been to! good thing i was there with my soul mates :)
after waking up before lazy mr. sun, we landed in venice just as the morning was heating up - the mist on the sea made everything seem softer, almost like it was out of a fairy tale, and the hour and a half we spent on the water taxi zipped by in no time with so much to see.
that deep turquoise color was everywhere, and i was positively in love!
fun fact: VENICE IS AN ISLAND. A SERIES OF ISLANDS, ACTUALLY. we didn’t realize that it was full-on, out-in-the-middle-of-the-water isolated. but we got very, very lucky, and our hotel was on the main island with everything big to see! the tourist rates for water taxis were obscene, so much so that our day trip to murano was quickly decided against.
art, art, art. at one point, venice was the richest city in the world, and it showed. the opulence, the grandeur, the gold against the lagoon - everything was a show, an exhibition of how God must have smiled upon the venetians. their lion-like pride (ha, get it? venetians? lions? okay…) made for some gorgeous churches (tons of gorgeous churches) and a whole lot of art. the basilica di san marco was stunning, with the heights of byzantium gold lining the ceiling as opposed to high renaissance master art. my best illegal shot;
gold mosaic. stunning.
piazza di san marco was hoppin’, to be sure, but i’m glad we made it to venice in the ‘off season’ - i’ve heard that the square is positively full during the summer. and, another tip: the best place for pick-pockets!
we were exhausted after only four hours of sleep, though, so we definitely took it slow - and stopped for caffeine! we quickly found ourselves in the heart of venetian culture - the mask shop! it’s amazing how many artistans still run their own shops, with either a work table or a small back room devoted to making and painting their own masks. some were simple, while others were literally over the top - the feathered, velvet ones were my favorites. you’d need a strong neck to hold something like that up all night, though! how we’d love to go to a masquerade…
as the sun set on the lagoon, venice sparkled - it was gorgeous!
i’m so smitten with the color of the water there that i bought myself a glass bead that i think best matches the searing blue, and i’ve worn it every day since. something about how clean the water was surprised me - the city smelled like fish, to be real, but the water was clean and striking and pure, it was my favorite part!
doges’ palace was next on the agenda! over the top, like everything else in venice - basically, this is were shit got real for the blessed venetians who held power in the city, so they wanted to make sure everyone coming and going knew just how blessed they were. so many venetian lions alongside saints and images of God and Christ; i thought florence was a proud city, but venice takes the cake, and laced it with solid gold.
pictures weren’t allowed inside doges’ palace, and i’m not the best at illegal things (prior to contrary belief, i know) so i’ll leave you with some gondola shots instead:
(look at that blue! ugh, take me back!)
after we got our fill of venetian propaganda (i say that as lovingly as possible), we decided to peruse the shoppes by the rialto bridge in search of the perfect pieces of murano class. we found the BEST glass shoppe, owned by the sweetest, most knowledgeable old man - it was called rialto 79, if you are ever in venice, you have to go! he was well-priced, and seemed to be really passionate about the glass, the jewelry, and what it meant to be a real glass-maker. he gave us a mini (extensive) lesson on bead-making, and even changed a pair of earrings around so that they were just what gab was looking for.
(here’s the view from the bridge of sighs — a prisoner’s last chance to look out on the glory of venice before a lifetime in the doges’ dungeons. you bet we sighed!)
venice was definitely a more relaxed paced than the past week - we all welcomed the break! a lot of what i remember was the amazement in passing through the different piazzas and along the canals - venice doesn’t have a lot of, you must see this before you die places, in particular, but i think the entire city is a sight to behold. it was obviously built and maintained with such care, a loving tribute to the glory of the city, its power, and its people - everything was gorgeous. a word much overused, i’m sure!
but, one place that was not like anywhere else in venice was peggy guggenheim’s collection - an oasis of contemporary and modern art in a sea of masterworks! after learning about pegs (we’re on first name basis, you know) in my gallery management class, i’ve grown, to be frank, obsessed with her - she supported so many artists, like pollock and calder, from their early days, and without her, their careers would be nothing. she even married max ernst, but i think that was just so that she’d get some of his (weird-ass) art before it made it on the market. she was the first dealer to pay an artist a living wage so that they could continue to work - where would we be if she didn’t support pollock while all he knew how to do was drip paint on canvas? (don’t answer that. it’s pollock.)
photos were forbidden, once again, in the guggenheim (damn the intern who realized what i was trying to do while photographing the de kooning piece and followed me around for the rest of the time), but i found some beautiful pieces that i’m positively in love with. my favorite in the museum wasmare=ballerina, probably because of that bright teal in the center of the canvas. peggy guggenheim had a custom-made alexander calder headboard in her bedroom. she’s my hero.
after pegs, it was unfortunately time for me to take my leave, saying arrivederci (for now?) to the gorgeous, sparkling lagoon. i had such an amazing week with two of my best friends, and i’m so glad they were able to make it to italy, to see, experience, and explore with me. i’m still in shock at the fact that i get to do all of these wonderful things with such wonderful people, and i am not taking one second of it for granted. i’ll remember this for the rest of my life!
for now, it’s studying roughly 800 years of roman history, sixty years of EU history, and what seems like endless amounts of italian subjunctive tenses, but i’ll soon be on spring break! paris and barcelona, forse? yes please!
i’ve been so lucky to travel around europe like i have these past few weeks, but i hadn’t had the opportunity to explore roma for what it’s worth - but when taryn and gab came to visit, it was the perfect excuse to put on my walking shoes, grab some sunscreen, and turn sunny roma inside out. i finally got to tour the coliseum, palatine hill, and the forum, as well as get inside st. peter’s basilica. everything was gorgeous! tons of walking, and my old lady knees made sure i couldn’t handle the cobblestones as well as a twenty year old should, but i’m so glad i got to get out and see the city with new eyes.
first on the agenda, vatican city on a sunny sunday! we made sure to get there bright and early, so we were lucky enough to get inside st. peter’s basilica. it was breath-taking.
the pieta’ is right on your right as you enter the basilica, and it almost sneaks up on you, modest in size but supreme in presence. i thought the david was impossible to believe - this sculpture topped it. it was so emotive, so detailed, so fresh in the way it caught the light, i’m so glad i got to see it! maybe it’s just because i’ve wanted to see this sculpture in its original for so long, maybe it’s because of where i’ve seen the image before, but the pieta’ was the most moving piece of art that i’ve seen yet. my pictures didn’t come out very well, thanks to the bullet-proof glass, but i guess this means you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
the rest of the basilica positively shimmered in the morning light, but as with everything else in the vatican, my senses were overloaded - once i turned away from the pieta’, the sheer amount of detail overwhelmed me. the tall ceilings, the bright paint, the scenes upon scenes upon scenes, i felt such guilt not being able to take the time to look at each painting and sculpture in due time. although, i have to admit, bernini’s baldacchino received the bulk of my attention. fun fact: my classics professor taught our class that, while a lot of people think that bernini originated the concept of those huge, twisted bronze columns, he actually based them on smaller columns that are found in private prayer rooms high up in the basilica. and those columns? inspired by columns found within the second temple on temple mount, most probably brought to rome after pompey’s raid in 63 BC. i thought this story was really cool, to be honest, because our professor kept mentioning the speculated whereabouts of the ark of the covenant, and i kept wanting to say, come on now, we all know indiana jones has it… but i controlled myself. it was a lot of work.
as gab and i quickly realized about ourselves, we’re a pair of bernini fangirls… no shame.
after the vatican, we found our way over to the pantheon (!!!!), and i got to see the ceiling and subsequent drains my art history professor so very loved to talk about. i had no idea that the pantheon would too be outfitted with catholic art, but i guess i was silly for expecting it to be as the empire left it. pope boniface had his way with it, that’s for sure… i say this with a heavy, shamed heart, but it was at this point in the week (so early!) that i started feeling “arted out.” but i was quickly rejuvenated by the borghese galleries! we’ll get to those later… but first, as per everywhere else in italy, a ceiling picture is in order!
bella bella bella!
monday morning we paid a visit to the lovely campo dei fiori in the daylight… i got lost on the way. taryn was definitely our compass, talk about a savior! the piazza was bustling with activity, but it was definitely a tourist attraction - five euro for a bag of pasta? boy, please. while i was in class later on in the day, gab and taryn made their way out into bella roma - and learned the bus system better and quicker than i did! let’s be real, taryn probably knows her way around rome better than i do. where would i be without her? lost and alone, that’s where.
tuesday was tourist day part two! we made it to the coliseum, the palatine hill, and the forum, and had plenty of gelato along the way. tip: never pay more than two euro fifty for gelato! two scoops of delicious, refreshing gelato is always what the doctor ordered. i have to say, my favorite part of that day was the view from the palatine hill as the sun was setting over roma - bella, bella, bellissima!
the forum in the afternoon light - can’t you just see it, alive? if you can’t, try a little harder. it’s not just all dead rocks, i promise.
wait, so lizzie didn’t actually perform here?!
ciao, bella roma :)
i love how at once rome buzzes with today, but moves with the weight of years and years and years. rome definitely feels like a heavy city; a lot of solid rock, a lot of cobblestone, a lot of slow-moving people (except when they drive? pazzo…), and these immense structures, i don’t know what makes it seem that way. it just is.
but, on the daintier side, we hit up villa borghese on thursday… officially my favorite place in sunny roma! where else do you turn a corner and happen upon a bernini? his work is absolutely stunning, so unbelievably detailed, he is an under-appreciated genius. gab and i fell absolutely in love with apollo e dafne, and seeing aeneas, anchises, and ascanius in person was surreal. the amount of skill that went into sculpting one of the feet of one of the characters in just one of these works is immeasurable, immense, incredible. unreal! i still cannot process the fact that i’ve seen all of these amazing works of art, talent, and mastery. i’m smitten.
after a full week of leading a double life, student by day and tourist by night, i was ready for the weekend… and venezia! but first, i give you a gorgeous sight - the cat sanctuary.
winnie the travelling pooh hasn’t been making it many places, even though i’ve been making some european rounds… he’s been exiled to my bed, how tragic, :(. easy jet’s carry-on policies combined with the vulnerability of traveling alone just make it too hard to bring this cutie-pie along. pooh, i haven’t forgotten you!
