The internet at the villa can't handle uploading pictures anymore. So.... I have to wait to put up more pics... and believe me I have more... loads more. In my last couple of posts you saw my photos from my trip to the Duomo in Florence and our daytrip to Sienna. Both cities were beautiful. We returned to Florence on Friday and visited the Pitti Palace, which was an amazing building... formerly a palace (hence the name) turned art gallery. The most amazing part of the place was how they had Botticellis and Raphaels just hanging up high in a corner... like it's no big deal. On Thursday we went to Arezzo, a wonderful medieval town with lots of banners flying.. on the way back from Arezzo Mark graciously stopped at a sunflower field for a photos shoot (pictures coming soon).
Yesterday we went to the Trebbio Castle, formerly a Pazzi villa (more pictures coming soon). The historic building was amazing, and was actually the location of the Pazzi family when they planned the failed assassination of Lorenzo De Medici, leading to apx 200 members of the Pazzi Family being hung from the ramparts of the Palazzo Vecchio. Pop up video moment: Hanibal Lecter mentions this little story in the movie Hanibal. On Easter morning in church the Pazzi assassins attacked Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giovanni de Medici, killing Giovanni but only wounding Lorenzo. Lorenzo exacted his revenge by wiping all living memory of the Pazzi family from Florence. All of the Pazzi coat of arms were destroyed, except the one at the Castle Trebbio. While we were visiting there the guide pointed it out to us saying "Lorenzo could not destroy this coat of arms because it had been made by the most talented Donatello." A Donatello hanging over there... no big deal. It matches the Raphael in the livingroom...also no big deal. About a hundred years ago the Castle Trebbio was bought and converted into a Winery/Olive Oil producer. We got to do a tasting of their prized Chianti and Olive Oil... and some how bottles of each made there way into my luggage to come home.
In about 4 minutes I'm leaving to go to the Villa Itati, the Harvard Villa in Florence. I'm told there are beautiful gardens there. Today was my last day of painting... and like the trooper I am I got up at 6 and was in the Gale Force winds and rain painting during my last chance to paint... it didn't even look bad. I may have gotten a chill from it, as I'm sitting here inside with my University Di Roma hoodie on and not warming up. Tomorrow is my Italian Final... and I need to write out the story of Goldilocks in Italian before class tomorrow. It may be a very crude and simple version... there will be bears and porridge, that's what counts right. More stuff to come... stay tuned.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
some paintings....
Capitignano from the bottom of the hill
For some reason this pictures looks very blue... but this is the dining building and the main house as seen from the ping pong table...
Old Barn down the road
Olive tree on a very very gray day... no bright pretty colors.... even the flowers looked gray
this was actually my second painting at Capitignano.. it's the shadows of cyprus trees on one of the buildings
Sunrise...I swear it looked like this
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Switzerland: Mountains, Chocolate and Cheese... mmmm Cheese
We, Tracey and I, began our trip to Switzerland by riding into the country with Mark, our Art History and Italian Teacher. Mark lives in the town of Lugano, just over the Swiss border. When we crossed over into Switzerland... we asked but they refused to stamp our passports... sad face... so now I have no Italian or Swiss stamp in my passport... but I do have a stamp from Germany... ridiculous...
From Lugano we got on a train to Auf-Goldau... a connecting stop. On the train we sat in the dining car and ordered.. Hot Chocolate... and even on the train it was the good stuff, made from milk and chocolate powder.. .not that I'd expect anything less in Switzerland. The train ride was truly beautiful: little chalets, rivers and waterfalls... and MOUNTAINS. Our train got into the station about a twenty minutes late (apx. time of arrival 10:40 pm). The next connecting train left at 11:20pm. We called our hotel and were informed that we needed to make it to check in my midnight, or pay 2 franks for every minute we were late... ouch. We met a very nice Swiss woman on the train who lived in Lucerne, or Luzern (at this point in the story we've crossed for Italian Switzerland to German Switzerland... which means that all the cities now have German names... same place.. just two names). When she took us to the taxi cab stand another nearby woman heard us say the name of our hotel. She told us not to waste our money, that she would walk us to our hotel... being only a 5 minute walk from the train station. Is everyone in Switzerland so nice?... well, I didn't meet a mean or rude Swiss person my entire visit. On check in the guy at the hotel was so nice that he gave us a free upgrade on our room. He moved us from the budget hotel across the street to the main hotel where check in was. This hotel prided itself on being the only hotel in Luzern that had a swimming pool. ... funny, they even sold little swimsuits that said "Basletor Hotel" on the them.
The next day we milled around Luzern. We started checking off Items on our Swiss to do list:
See fresco building-check,
Walk over covered wooden bridges, yup they had two-check
Walk city wall and climb tower (scariest steppy tower ever, fairly certain that Tracey as a picture of me freaking out on the staircase)-check,
Visit Swiss cheese shop and purchase cheese-check,
Buy Swiss chocolate-check..double check... triple check (I can't help it if the chocolate is so good there-and Lindt gets it's own wall at grocery stores in Switzerland.. with all kinds of exclusive flavors),
Visit fake Alpine Diorama show... too funny-check
See large carved lion (Mark Twain called it the "most moving rock".. he has a funny sense of humor)
Buy jacket because its so cold-check, Fondue-check............
For dinner we were determined to do cheese fondue. We settled on a restaurant that was actually an anchored ship in the harbor. The woman in the tourism information station told us that they had very good fondue there. Her definition of inexpensive didn't exactly meet our definition as the fondue there was 32 franks per person (roughly 40 dollars apiece). But the view could be beat. The man actually apologized when he told us that the only table that he could seat us at was outside at the front of the ship. We had a full and uninterrupted view of the bay... a shame really.. heh. The cheese fondue when it came was actually a bit disappointing. Tracey and I both weren't very fond of it. The cheese was just too strong for our taste. To second the fondue we ordered Peasant's Alpine Macaronni: essentially the peasants are rich since it still cost 20 franks for the dish of fancy Mac and Cheese with potatoes and onions, but it was very yummy. We spent the rest of the night walking back around the entire city taking photos of everything at nice. It's just as breath taking at night as it was during the day. We probably clocked about 20 miles that day just walking back and forth across the city.
The next day we had strudel for breakfast(-check) and spent the day going up Mt. Pilatus- height 7,000 ft. We ascended the mountain on the world's steepest cogwheel train. It took about 30 minutes to make it to the top, and we saw some views that only the crazy mountain climbers could...and of course the hundreds of people riding the train each day, but it's nice to pretend. When we came to the top an ensemble of alpenhorn players were preforming. It was magical, I cried a little, there were literally clouds rolling in around us. We hiked around the trails at the top of the mountain, said "OH MY GOD THIS IS BEAUTIFUL fifty times, had more hot chocolate, and split the most delicious bratwurst ever(-check). When it was time to come home we rode Gondolas down the mountain, another 30 minute ride. For dinner we went to the Fondue house... where we had potato soup, paid 7 franks for tap water, and got Toblerone Fondue.... mmm chocolate fondue (-check).
The next day we had the most perfect food ever- a strawberry pieish thing with whip-cream and a piece of chocolate... that could not be perfected... we left no crumbs. After the perfect food we got on a train (got more hot chocolate and cheese in the dining car), met Mark back in Lugano. He showed us around his beautiful home... then we drove the 3 hours back to Capitignano. All in all a long... totally expensive.. and FANTASTIC weekend. It should be a moral imperative that everyone sees Switzerland in their life time.
From Lugano we got on a train to Auf-Goldau... a connecting stop. On the train we sat in the dining car and ordered.. Hot Chocolate... and even on the train it was the good stuff, made from milk and chocolate powder.. .not that I'd expect anything less in Switzerland. The train ride was truly beautiful: little chalets, rivers and waterfalls... and MOUNTAINS. Our train got into the station about a twenty minutes late (apx. time of arrival 10:40 pm). The next connecting train left at 11:20pm. We called our hotel and were informed that we needed to make it to check in my midnight, or pay 2 franks for every minute we were late... ouch. We met a very nice Swiss woman on the train who lived in Lucerne, or Luzern (at this point in the story we've crossed for Italian Switzerland to German Switzerland... which means that all the cities now have German names... same place.. just two names). When she took us to the taxi cab stand another nearby woman heard us say the name of our hotel. She told us not to waste our money, that she would walk us to our hotel... being only a 5 minute walk from the train station. Is everyone in Switzerland so nice?... well, I didn't meet a mean or rude Swiss person my entire visit. On check in the guy at the hotel was so nice that he gave us a free upgrade on our room. He moved us from the budget hotel across the street to the main hotel where check in was. This hotel prided itself on being the only hotel in Luzern that had a swimming pool. ... funny, they even sold little swimsuits that said "Basletor Hotel" on the them.
The next day we milled around Luzern. We started checking off Items on our Swiss to do list:
See fresco building-check,
Walk over covered wooden bridges, yup they had two-check
Walk city wall and climb tower (scariest steppy tower ever, fairly certain that Tracey as a picture of me freaking out on the staircase)-check,
Visit Swiss cheese shop and purchase cheese-check,
Buy Swiss chocolate-check..double check... triple check (I can't help it if the chocolate is so good there-and Lindt gets it's own wall at grocery stores in Switzerland.. with all kinds of exclusive flavors),
Visit fake Alpine Diorama show... too funny-check
See large carved lion (Mark Twain called it the "most moving rock".. he has a funny sense of humor)
Buy jacket because its so cold-check, Fondue-check............
For dinner we were determined to do cheese fondue. We settled on a restaurant that was actually an anchored ship in the harbor. The woman in the tourism information station told us that they had very good fondue there. Her definition of inexpensive didn't exactly meet our definition as the fondue there was 32 franks per person (roughly 40 dollars apiece). But the view could be beat. The man actually apologized when he told us that the only table that he could seat us at was outside at the front of the ship. We had a full and uninterrupted view of the bay... a shame really.. heh. The cheese fondue when it came was actually a bit disappointing. Tracey and I both weren't very fond of it. The cheese was just too strong for our taste. To second the fondue we ordered Peasant's Alpine Macaronni: essentially the peasants are rich since it still cost 20 franks for the dish of fancy Mac and Cheese with potatoes and onions, but it was very yummy. We spent the rest of the night walking back around the entire city taking photos of everything at nice. It's just as breath taking at night as it was during the day. We probably clocked about 20 miles that day just walking back and forth across the city.
The next day we had strudel for breakfast(-check) and spent the day going up Mt. Pilatus- height 7,000 ft. We ascended the mountain on the world's steepest cogwheel train. It took about 30 minutes to make it to the top, and we saw some views that only the crazy mountain climbers could...and of course the hundreds of people riding the train each day, but it's nice to pretend. When we came to the top an ensemble of alpenhorn players were preforming. It was magical, I cried a little, there were literally clouds rolling in around us. We hiked around the trails at the top of the mountain, said "OH MY GOD THIS IS BEAUTIFUL fifty times, had more hot chocolate, and split the most delicious bratwurst ever(-check). When it was time to come home we rode Gondolas down the mountain, another 30 minute ride. For dinner we went to the Fondue house... where we had potato soup, paid 7 franks for tap water, and got Toblerone Fondue.... mmm chocolate fondue (-check).
The next day we had the most perfect food ever- a strawberry pieish thing with whip-cream and a piece of chocolate... that could not be perfected... we left no crumbs. After the perfect food we got on a train (got more hot chocolate and cheese in the dining car), met Mark back in Lugano. He showed us around his beautiful home... then we drove the 3 hours back to Capitignano. All in all a long... totally expensive.. and FANTASTIC weekend. It should be a moral imperative that everyone sees Switzerland in their life time.
On top of Mt. Pilatus
Ascending the 47 degree incline on the worlds steepest cogwheel train
a cogwheel train ascending the mountain
an alpenhorn ensemble at the top of the mountain.. music in the clouds..
Two crazy swiss climbers climbing the side of the mountain... with out ropes!!! ... notice he has ropes hanging from his bag... he's just not using them... when he gets to the top and I ask him why didn't he climb with a belay he said "I'm Swiss you know.. we're all crazy."
Me standing on the edge of the world.... the winds were so strong out there... I could barely stand for the photo...
There's no better place for an impromptu dance party than the top of the world...
Lucerne Photos
Me and Tracey next to the covered bridge of Lucerne
In Lucerne many of the buildings have frescoes on the exterior walls... this one was the coolest
You know me... I loves me some cheese
view from the covered bridge
They know how to celebrate in BIG way in switzerland
I love Switzerland!
"Toblerone Fondue... You will be mine..."
 |
| Cheese fondue... you are also mine... |
The Academia and the Uffizi
All the Things you CAN'T Do at the Uffizi....
Sneaky pic of David
The palazzo vecchio
Nude portrait of a little person....
Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi Gallery Window
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