This morning I got up at 8:30 and went downstairs for breakfast. I carried pastries back up to the room for everyone since they were still asleep. I wrote about yesterday and worked on figuring out our route and such for the day until the others woke up. We decided that Jubilee Church might be too difficult to find and instead invested our time in making it up to Renzo’s Auditorium Parco della Musica. We got out the door around noon, and I had our public transit pretty well figured out. We rode the red line Metro from Termini to Flamino and then took the train from there to Euclide. We got out in a piazza fronted b a large church. Lots of people were there coming out of Sunday Mass– it was pretty cool. We walked up the street a few minutes and there was the Auditorium! It was really beautiful– like a group of scarab beetles hovering just above the ground. The plaza outside was full of families and kids biking and roller blading and people ice skating. It was really well used and had a good atmosphere. We wandered into the auditorium and looked around on our own for a little while before realizing that they offered guided tours for only E4 for students. The tour was in Italian, but it was excellent because it was just us and one other man, and it allowed us to see inside all three auditoria. We had a little time to kill before the tour started, so we ate lunch at the little outdoor pizza place in the plaza. For E1.50 I got pizza rosso (which means it just has sauce on it– which was perfect). We sat and relaxed for a minute in the sun– the weather was beautiful and the plaza was so active. And it was all locals, no other tourists. Just lots of people enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon. Our tour started at 2:30, and it was incredibl worthwhile. The concert halls were beautiful. The first is the smallest and is used for showing movies and smaller performances related to dance. The second was larger and done entirely in wood with brick walls. It was beautiful and had great acoustics, which I was excited about because it was very similar to the auditorium I designed for my Sustainable Design Center. Good to know it works. The final concert hall was the largest and most stunning. The ceiling of it is basically an inverted tortoise shell made of all wood. Elegant. After the tour, our guide gave us directions for getting to Zaha’s Maxxi museum– walk straight diritto down this street for 5 minutes. So we did! We couldn’t get inside because its not open until May, but it was still really neat getting to see the outside. We booked it back to the station to catch our train back to Flamino and then walked down the street, through the Piazza del Popolo (which was incredibly crowded), and right to Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis Museum. Fun fact– when Valentino visited the museum he loved it so much that he rented the whole thing out for his next runway event. It really hasn’t aged well, but it has a few nice elements– like the stonework that doesn’t use any mortar so that each block has a 1/4″ reveal all the way around and the fountain out front. We spent some time there and then went down the street to watch the sunset while sitting on the Spanish Steps. It was a really great moment. This weekend was really exactly what I needed. We were all exhausted, so we took the Metro back to Termini to clean up at the hotel before heading to the La Famiglia restaurant again for dinner. We had some red wine, and I got the penne all’ arrabbita– so so good and just the right amount of spicy. Andy the company was excellent. After dinner we went back tot he hotel and pushed all the beds together like middle-schoolers at a slumber party and then talked and laughed before falling asleep early.
This morning Allie Ross, Patrick, and I went down early for breakfast, which was good, and then looked up addresses and opening times on the computer. By 11:00 we rallied Courtney and Clay and got out the door. I was once again nicknamed the CaitCait, and I led us down a few blocks to San Carlo alla Quattro Fontane. it was a much smaller scale urban condition than any of us had expected it to be, but in a good way. The inside of the church was absolutely beautiful. Borromini and white and perfect. Allie Ross bought a really pretty map there for only 30 eurocents. Next we went down to the Barberini Metro Station, where we saw the Barberini Fountain (Angels and Demons!), bought our metro passes, and then rode down to the Cipno station to visit the Vatican Museums. With our ISIC cards, entry was only E6– quite a deal. We walked through the museums, the single most stunning moment being when we stepped into the octagon courtyard and I got to see the Laocoonte. I love that scupture, and in person– the real marble– it is exquisite. It has a movement and life of its own beyond the bounds of the stone. I rejoined everyone in the hall of animals and we continued on our hunt for the Sistine Chapel, dodging Asian tour groups all the way. We finally reached it, and the moment was perfect. We stepped in as a guard was yelling for everyone to be quiet, and instantly all or our heads tilted straight back. I’d forgotten how powerful the paintings were. Creation of Adam is still my favorite. The way the delicacy of the fabric God is wrapped in comes out even from so far away amazes me. We were about to leave when suddenly a cloud moved and the entire chapel was filled with sunlight for a minute. It was beautiful. I’m so glad we got to see that moment– it made the entire trip worthwhile. The smell inside that place is so… sacred. It changes from the rest of the museum– sweet and musty. We walked back down the street to a little sandwich shop we had passed called il Panino. It was like the sandwich shop in Curb with sandwiches named after famous actors! Allie Ross and I both got a Gina Lollobergna. It had grilled eggplant, zucchini, rocket, and mozzarella. So good! Plus the weather was beautiful (even thought the forecast had been for rain) so we sat outside to eat. Next we walked to St. Peter’s square. Clay immediately noted how the way the square is arranged makes it feel like a much more circular (less oval) space that it is in plan. Being there again, standing with a group of my closest friends, was overwhelming. We braved the crowds and got in line to go inside. That place is incredible. No wonder people were so willing to die for their faith– it must have been so strong to produce something so huge and beautiful. I looked at La Pieta for quite a while, mesmerized, and then Courtney and I dipped our rosaries into the font of Holy Water to bless them. I continued walking around– just as stunned by the beauty of the mosaics as I remember being when I was young. We watched the ceremony of the Eucharist performed in one of the main side chapels– it was a really intense moment. A large section of the transept was roped off and people were going to Confession there. At 4:30 we decided we would have to leave if we wanted to make it to the Pantheon before it closed. We went down the square and the Via della Conciliazione and in front of the Castel Sant’ Angelo (along the path of the Angels and Demons tunnel!) so we could walk across the Ponte Sant’ Angelo. Das cool. From there we got slightly lost on a sidestreet, which we ended up returning to later because it was really fun looking, but used Clay’s GPS to regroup and make it to the Pantheon. When we arrived it had closed for Mass, so we had to wait 45 minutes to get in. We decided to use that time to find Andy’s gelato shop! Worth it. I got fragola, and we all sat at the base of the fountain in the middle of the Piazza della Rotunda and ate our ice cream as we listened to a woman singing in Italian and watched the sun setting. At 6:00 we finally got to go inside. It was lightly less ancient that I had expected, but no less incredible– and it was neat getting to see it still set up for the Mass. As I walked to the center and looked up through the occulus, a white dove flew over, stark against the deep navy of the night sky. Intense. I continued walking around to see Rafael’s tomb and leaned up against the wall next to it to look back out on the space. Perfect timing. From that exact angle with my head leaned against the ancient marble I could just see the crescent moon through the occulus. I gazed at it for a while before calling the others over so they could see it before it moved out of sight. On the way back to the hotel we walked past the Trevi Fountain. We all made our wishes and threw coins in so we could come back to Rome since we love it so much. We got back to the hotel and Clay did some quick bar research before we headed out to the area around the Piazza Navona. We went to the Scholar’s Bar, an Irish pub, and got to see some Olympics and soccer. Before going to bed Clay told us a bedtime story and tucked us in.
This morning Margarita and Abby drove us to the Marco Polo airport in Venice. We had a little trouble finding it, but then we found our terminal and got to the plane just fine. The Easy Jet-Setters are: Me, Clay, Allie Ross, Courtney, and Patrick. The flight was really short– only 45 minutes. Our knowledge of the Leo da Vinci express train (thanks Professor Fox!) came in super handy, and we took it from the airport to the Termini Station in Rome for E11. We checked into the Hotel Pavia (which was shockingly nice) and then headed out to grab some food around 3:00. We ended up going to the McDonald’s in the Piazza Republica. We sat outside, so it was nice. After that we started walking. I was somehow the unofficial navigator. We went past Santa Maria Maggiore– an excellent first glimpse of Rome– but didn’t go inside. Instead we went down some back streets and come out at the Colosseum. It was incredible just stepping out of the city and back into the park around the Colosseum. It was closed, so we couldn’t get in but we took lots of pictures and did some sketching. We also made friends with a group of Asians and got our picture taken with them. Rome is incredibly full of Asians. We walked around the whole outside of the Forum and through the Circus Maximus just as the sun was setting. The color of yellow was beyond beautiful. Like being immersed in the Fountain. We came out at the very top of the Campidoglio and sat there to watch night falling. It was so strange actually being there, having talked about it so much in class. I was really sad I left my sketchbook in the room by accident. We walked past Trajan’s column and up the Via Nazionale back to the Piazza Republica. Around 9:00 Clay, Allie Ross, and I walked to the la Famiglia Pizzeria for dinner since it came heavily recommended by the hotel staff and I was starving. We had a really good meal. I had gnocchi con pomodoro e basil. It was incredibly delicious– I love gnocchi! We also split a liter of white wine. About halfway through our meal an incredibly dorky German couple came to sit next to us. They kept watching us, and it was pretty hilarious. After dinner we all just hung out at the hotel relaxing and socializing. Much needed down time. Then Courtney, Allie Ross, and I piled in the double bed and Clay tucked us in for the night.
This morning I demonstrated very poor decision-making skills. it was pouring rain with a chance of flooding, so I decided to wear my boat shoes with leggings and a dress in order to avoid ruining my boots and running around in soggy jeans. It was supposed to be reasonable warm. It wasn’t. I froze all day, and my feet were drenched. But Venice was magical. We rode the 7:50 bus into the city and then hopped on a water taxi that took us to the northernmost tip to visit the Bienalle. It was like… Jurassic Park for buildings instead of dinosaurs. Damp, dirty, graffitied, cold, and closed. But still kind of cool to see I guess. We were looking for some Rossi project that, apparently, doesn’t exist. After our minor failure, we headed to the Ando modern art museum. It was really beautiful, and the spaces were nice. The concrete-work, especially, was gorgeous. The art, on the other hand, wasn’t really up my alley. There was one room with glowing cities all meant to be different versions of Krypton, another with dioramas of Nazis killing each other, and still another with penises drawn on all the walls. After the museum, we took the water taxi back to the St. Toma stop and got some lunch. I found an excellent sandwich and espresso for E2. Win! After our lunch break we went into an engineering office designed by Scarpa that Margarita got us an appointment for. My least favorite Scarpa so far. It just wasn’t beyond special. We then walked to his bridge and museum. The museum was strange in that it had no exhibits for the time being, then the second floor was a public library, the third floor was a woman’s house, and the fourth floor was an exhibit on saving the environment. Still, the courtyard was beautiful even though I was slightly disappointed that several elements I had thought were unique to Brion cemetery, like the colored tiles, had been transplanted there. Afterward Allie Ross, Courtney, Patrick, Abby, and I headed to San Marco to look around in the daytime. We got to see the sunset there and it was, again, beautiful and all I remember. Abby and I ran back to Mestre quickly so I could change and then met back up with the others + Jer at the Calatrava bridge at 7:40 to head to our 8:00 dinner reservation at Da Rioba. Margarita didn’t give us directions, so we had to ask at a bar, but it was in the Jewish quarter and on a small canal. The restaurant was incredible. We split a litre of house red wine and two appetizers– octopus over hummus (amazing) and a pumpkin flan that I thought was strange but everyone else greatly enjoyed. I ordered the Grilled “scampi” prawns for dinner. They were incredible. 5 huge prawns that had been grilled and then cut in half like lobsters. Everyone really enjoyed their meals, and then we headed back out of the city– stopping along the way to get some gelato ( I got mango– a bit creamy for me, but so good). We hopped on a bus, waved ciao to Venice, and got back to the Piccolo to rest up for our early-morning Roman plane adventure.
Update on Skiing and Verona to come later- I skipped a few pages in my sketchbook and haven’t actually written about that adventure yet.
Waking up in Vicenza wasn’t an easy task. Its Ash Wednesday– the first one in my life that I haven’t gone to Mass. We ate breakfast at or hotel (Hotel Cristina) and packed up the cars before setting out on or Palladio walking tour. The first thing we saw was the Galleria. It was… Palladio. Next we walked to the Teatro Olimpico. It was really cool. We got to go inside– I had actually forgotten about discussing it in Kalas’ class until the minute we stepped into the auditorium space and saw the stage. Its the project where he constructed the large backstage set streets to create the illusion of forced perspective beyond the main stage area. From Kalas’ pictres I wasn’t able to really fathom how deep a space Palladio managed to create. It was pretty awesome. In the gift shop I bought a beautiful leather sketchbook for only E16. It has da Vinci’s flying machine engraved on the front. We walked around a few other Palladian projects. Its not quite my thing. Allie Ross, Daniel Topping, and I got sent to the grocery store to purchase the makings for a pic-nic lunch. We had stuff for sandwiches (tuna for us!) including mustard, fruit, chips, and cookies. We then booked it to Brion cemetery to eat outside. That was actually really fun and put everyone in good spirits. Brion cemetery changed my life. With that project, Scarpa does it. He creates a world thats so other, and mechanical yet ancient and beyond time simultaneously. Like being inside a level of Mist. It was truly beautiful, and I have every intention of finding out everything I can about it when we get home. The groundskeeper came and opened up all the doors for us, revealing only a few of the cemetery’s limitless secrets. I almost got stung by a bee and killed, which was terrifying. When Margarita was finally able to rip Clay and I out of the cemetery, we all drove to the Villa Emo for a final Palladio adventure. It was… Palladian. Not Brion. We then headed to Mestre to check into the Hotel Piccolo! It was exactly everything I remember it being. Clay and I reminisced on the badger before leading everyone across the roundabout to buy bus tickets and have delicious pizza dinner. Allie Ross and I split one with brie and shrimp. After dinner most of us caught a bus into Venice for a look-around in the dark. When we got there everything was exactly the same– except for the addition of Calatrava’s new bridge, which I’ve decided I actually sort of like. It makes the passage into the city more direct and less congested, and it really is an elegant bridge. Again, it reminded me of some mammoth marine animal come up from the depths. We got a bit lost getting to San Marco, but in a pleasant way that took us back through so many places I remembered. Walking in, we passed the Cafe Bellini where Brittney Cooper and I had our delicious coffee 2.5 years ago. When we finally made it to San Marco, the first thing we saw was the restaurant where we had our incredible lobster gnocchi last trip. We took pictures for everyone. The scaffolding on that side of San Marco had been removed, which was awesome, but instead it had been placed on the front left. I was thoroughly disappointed. Also, the back of the piazza was roped off with scaffolding and carnevale stages, the campanile base was surrounded by some huge wooden structure, and all the musicians and outdoor cafes were packed up to avoid the winter cold and rain. As disappointed as I was, the place still held its magic and beauty. I loved every second of it. We stayed until it started drizzling and then headed back to the bus and to bed.
Its really hard to believe how long I’ve been here. This month has slipped by more quickly than I thought possible. It has, however, been an incredibly eventful weekend. Thursday our classes were cancelled so that people– particularly the Milan group– could go on site visits. Margarita arranged for our group to go for coffee and a walk around Riva with Bettina, a German woman who has been living here for 6 years. She told us a lot about the town and how different spaces are used in both the winter and summer as well as how the Swiss elementary education system works. It was truly helpful– we have a definite direction now with our studio project, which I’ll get to later– and she was incredibly nice. She made sure to invite us to the Riva Carnevale kick-off parade that evening. The theme was Bugs. All the children from the school paraded down the street dressed as bugs (Bettina’s son was a caterpillar) and gathered to dance in the Piazza Grande in front of Town Hall. Thw whole thing was led by our housekeeper Titi’s marching band– the Riva de Janeiro (dressed as fireflies). It was incredible. My favorites were the little kindergarteners dressed as bumblebees– absolutely adorable. We met up with Bettina and her friend Britta and said hello (we may have dinner with Britta, who has 2 twin bumblebees, later on). We also said hi to Mario and Giovanni, who were making french fries dressed as a nurse and doctor. The whole thing was surreal: all costumes, lights, confetti, and abba music played by a Swiss marching band in the middle of the busiest intersection in my tiny town. I really am in love with this place. Or I was– until yesterday when we drove up to German Switzerland (the Graubunden) to see some Zumthor and Olgiati projects.
I was sitting in the middle of the front seat of a 9-seater Citroen squished between Tofan and Andy Ruff. And it was one of the most fun drives I’ve ever had. Everything was so unbelievable. Driving through the Swiss Alps is just one of those experiences that I think everyone needs to have at some point in their life. It will change you. Our first stop was in Chur, which was probably the largest city we visited the whole day, even though it was tiny. While there we saw Zumthor’s Housing Project for the Elderly. It was pretty for sure. That man knows how to lay out a facade. An excellent first Zumthor experience. I would go so far as to say that I was actually lightheaded with excitement. We then drove down the street to the Shelter for Roman Artefacts. Large. Black wood slats. Beautiful. We couldn’t get inside because it was closed for whatever reason, but it was incredible all the same. The attention to detail and connections. The Alps. Chur. Epic. It was beyond cold, so we all piled back into the vans and headed to Scharans (where I WILL live at some point in my life) to see Olgiati’s House for the Musician. The thing is stunning. The color is what got me, I think, and the courtyard. Its a red concrete, all cast with flowers. Its different, but the longer you occupy it the more you realize how much it really seems to fit into its space in the town. I would live in that house in a heartbeat. After the Musician’s House we drove back to Flims to see the Yellow House Museum, which was kind of a big deal, and then we walked down the street to Olgiati’s office for our firm visit. We were greeted by Nathan, the senior partner of the Flims office. He graduated from the AAM 4 years ago. The office is exquisite. A gray concrete base and core with the upper levels clad entirely in glass and stained black wooden slats. Plus Olgiati’s white porsche was parked downstairs. We thanked Nathan profusely for talking to us (as a general rule, Olgiati doesn’t normally allow firm visits) and then went straight to Paspels to see the School. Its hard having so many life-changing experiences in one day. We got out of the cars and ran around in the snow outside taking pictures like small children who had never seen a building before. Patrick was absolutely beside himself. The janitor had been waiting for us and unlocked the door to let us in. We had to take off our shoes and leave them in the cubbies downstairs– like entering a sacred space. The whole experience was unreal. Valerio doesn’t use door frames, and it is beautiful. The concrete work is outstanding. The slight reveal between ceiling, wall, and floor plane. The windows. The wooden classrooms. Everything there is perfect. The floorslabs are finished with a metal edge and have a black sealant putty between them, and they were the most clean-looking slab edges and connections I’ve seen. And this was even better because, unlike the pictures I’ve seen, there were things hanging on the walls. One class had done drawings of bats, another had made sculptures of potted plants out of sticks tied with twine, my favorite being the one with the heart-shaped “flower” at the end of the narrow hallway upstairs. We took pictures and sketched until it was almost dark before driving home, which was just as fun as the drive there even though we were all exhausted. As we came in around Lake Lugano you could see the twinkling lights of all the towns like stars had exploded down into the valley amongst the snow and it was magical. Also, the Swiss know how to design tunnels to be fun to drive through. Like, how cool is it to drive through an Alp? That evening Allie Ross and Patrick went to carnevale in Bellinzona, but I was sleepy and stayed back.
Sunday morning I woke up and went to church with Brian again. I really like the church we go to here. Its nice. It was a children’s mass, so instead of the organ music all the kids sat to the side and sang while one of the older girls played violin. It was quite beautiful. We also wised up this time and found the little pamphlets that had the readings and responsorial psalm and everything in them so that we were able to follow the Italian and participate a little better. Its a great way to start out the day for sure. The rest of Sunday was pretty low-key. A touch boring, in fact, because the internet was out all day. In the afternoon, Courtney, Daniel Topping, and I went on an adventure hike to see the Mario Botta house at the edge of town. We walked because it was still too gross outside for biking. It was pretty awesome and a good adventure overall. Dinner was a super win- grilled eggplant parmesan. In the evening we watched our next city in film screening- In the Mood for Love. That’s where the post title came from. It was incredible, by Wong Kar Wai (Ashes of Time Redux). Good music- especially Yumeji’s Theme.
Monday was busy. We all presented what we had for site analysis in studio, and then Margarita had us build models. That was the assignment- build a model. I carved a piece of styrofoam into a topographical representation of the absence of Riva’s written historical record. Using an xacto blade. This means that I was covered in styrofoam shavings for the rest of the day week. I found some more on me this morning. It was probably the most fun I’ve had building a model though. Stuffed roasted veggies for dinner was a definite win.
Tuesday we spent working on our City in Film stuff. We read an essay about Loos’ architecture, and I played around with watercolor for our assignment on “the room.” I’m kind of over the whole situation with Margarita, though. She really really doesn’t want to have any input in what we do, which is nice in some ways… but we need a little bit more direction than what she’s willing to give. Apparently Tech doesn’t do desk crits. At all. Ever.
Coming up this week:
Planning our Rome Trip
Watching the Italian Job
Visiting Zumthor projects and Olgiati’s office in Flims!
This has actually been a fairly eventful week. And by fairly eventful I mean that we’ve been going non-stop. We had lots of class on Monday and Tuesday, and we finally got our studio stuff all sorted out. We split up into groups based on what city our site will be in (Milan, Como, Chiasso, or Riva). Courtney, Daniel Topping, and I are working in Riva. I’m really pumped about it, and we make a really effective group. On Tuesday, Patrick and I went exploring. We tried to find the Mario Botta bridge house, but were unsuccessful. We did have lots of adventures, though. The weather was really nice, and we made it down a bunch of the smaller residential streets. Wednesday was Margarita’s birthday, so Abby, Patrick, Allie Ross, and I put together a card and cake for her. The cake turned out even better than expected– 3 layers with raspberry jam in between and chocolate with asteroid sprinkles on top. We gave them to her before the city in film screening of Man with a Movie Camera (life-changing) and she was absolutely shocked and very happy. Also, Daniel Topping and I ordered our Dave Matthews Band tickets- soooo excited!
Thursday we had no classes, so we went to Mendrisio to see FoxTown and look around. It was sort of a letdown, but we enjoyed being out and about.
Friday morning when my alarm went off I rolled over and looked out the window to see nothing but white. At first I was a little confused by this, but then I realized that it was snowing! I jumped out of bed and ran to the window. My first reaction was to throw on my warmest clothes and get outside. I played in the snow for a long time. I made sure to visit the cemetery for pictures. It was so peaceful in the snow. It was really like being in another world. The mountains faded out into to white of the sky, and the snow building up on the ground was separated from them only by the thin line of houses running along the horizon. The cemetery was beautiful. The groundskeeper and I were the only ones there, and I took my time walking through and taking careful note of the existing footprints to begin tracking which graves people were coming to visit. It continued to snow for the entire day without letting up at all. Around dinnertime it finally turned into a drizzly rain. For dinner we had quite possibly the worst meal I’ve ever had in my life. The soup was Semolina- very, very strange consistency- and dinner was some sort of canned gefiltefish with almost-tomato sauce, potatoes, and capers. It was… gross. Really gross. I guess you can’t win them all. We did make friends with a friend of Peter Zumthor’s who promised to give us a tour of the AAM (because he works there) and Mario said he’s going to make mexican for us next week!
Today was fun, though. Daniel Topping, Courtney, and I went exploring around Riva to scout out potential sites for our project.
Gefilte Fish:
Fish should never ever come in this shape. I can't be Jewish.
Well, Sunday morning I got up when the bells started ringing and Brian and I went to the Via Settala (as in Beato Manfredo Settala) Church across the street for Mass at 10. It was really fun. There were lots of people and the church had a really strong incense smell. Its small on the inside, but very light– and the pastor is a largeish Swiss-Italian man who talks fast but looks very friendly. I sat in between Brian and a little old Swiss lady wearing a fur larger than me (which is the description I could give of basically every little old Swiss Lady). She smiled at us and shook my hand during Peace. It was really cool getting to hear Mass in Italian inside a small hole-in-the-wall church. I’m definitely planning on going every Sunday we’re here. I enjoy the opportunity to interact with the community here in Riva and see how they act around each other. They seem to be a really close-knit group. When we got out of Mass I went back to the villa to change from dress to jeans and then Allie Ross, Abby, and I headed out to walk through the street market. The Festiva Beaata is… like Riva’s version of the Greek Fest, I would say. There were vendors selling cotton candy, cheese, pastries, and bread, people milling around with glasses of wine, lots of music, and even a tram carrying people back and forth between Riva and Capolago across the river. Everyone was out for the festival, and it made me very happy being there. It was comforting, in a way– like we were able to really look at the warmth of this community for the first time. It definitely felt like a Sunday holiday– like going to the Fantasy of Trees with the family. After having a look around we went back to the Villa to rest up for a while. I watched a little Curb Your Enthusiasm and then went back out to the city center around 2:30 to see the local orchestra play a concert outside Town Hall. There was a man dressed as Beato Manfredo (or a leprechaun, sam thing apparently) and lots of little kids running around and dancing. People made a point to smile at me and make me feel welcome– since I quite obviously didn’t belong. The music was good, and afterward a man started calling numbers out over a loudspeaker while people were furiously scratching number off the cards in their hands. The Tombola had begun! It was a town-wide game of Bingo out on the street in front of town hall. Oh, Switzerland. Finally I went back to the Villa to watch a little more Curb and take a short nap before dinner. It was such a nice, relaxing Sunday. Much needed.
Monday brought us back to the grind of work. Italian class got cancelled, so I took the morning to myself to bike around Riva a bit and explore. I found a little pasture with a regular horse AND a mini-horse. Awesome. After my bike ride and her run, Allie Ross and I finished off our Italian homework before studio at 2:00. Studio… was a mess. We got our “project” which was “I’ll split you into random groups and let you all pick your own projects.” Disaster. Absolute disaster. Oh, Margarita…
Well, I’ve been sort of bad about updating this week so I’ve actually got quite a few new stories. So be ready for a long one.
Friday we went to Bellinzona to see some Galfetti work and the castles. Its a really pretty city, even though Daniella says its sort of polluted. The morning started out kind of rough because we slept through our alarm and woke up 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet everyone downstairs to walk to the trainstation. By the time we were actually dressed the group had already left without us, and Courtney and I had to sprint down the street having had no coffee and no breakfast. Walking to the trainstation, it doesn’t really seem that far. I mean, Campolago’s just across the river right? Wrong. Good thing we both suck at running. Once in Bellinzona we ended up eating the sandwiches Luigi had packed us for lunch for breakfast due to the general lack of coffee/cereal. The first thing we saw was this really pretty Cathedral. They had all these little nativity scenes called praesepes that local artists had made for the competition in the church. They were beautiful. My favorite was the one that was in a little closet with a blacklight- it was supposed to be about the whole world coming to see Christ born. Next we went to see Galfetti’s public pool/ice skating rink/tennis court project. It was cool. There was some really really nice detailing on the concrete, and the stands and roof of the skating rink were stunning. The roof was this huge curved structure made of hundreds of rounded wooden slats that dipped down from the stands and out over the rink, with skylights filtering light in behind the stands on either side. After that we went to Castelgrande to see Galfetti’s restoration. It was awesome. Really elegant. We explored the outside first. You enter in through this incision into the face of the cliff that Galfetti carves out with concrete. You come to a dome within the cliff that’s notable because it amplifies your voice. You can whisper on one side and the person standing directly opposite you can hear it perfectly as the soundwaves are carried up across the dome. Clay and I played with it for a little while. We all crammed in the little elevator and went up to the top to eat lunch in the grassy courtyard within the castle’s ramparts, and then Abby and I rolled down the grassy hill. There was also a tower you could climb to the top of (I was having Scotland flashbacks the whole time!) with two interlocking sets of stairs inside. It was really neat- Clay and I raced up to the top, and then we all went into the museum to explore. The auditorium in the museum was one of the most beautiful spaces I’ve seen. It was so clean, and the scale of it was just perfect. Daniella got them to let us walk through the restaurant as well. All I can say is… i so so so wish I could afford to eat there. It was gorgeous… and definitely Swiss feeling. After a quick stop-off for espresso (much needed) and a look in the Cathedral, we made the trek up to the second castle. Although we weren’t allowed to go inside, the view from up there was incredible. By the time we got back for dinner we were exhausted- but not disappointed because Luigi made us his best mean yet. Vegetable soup, grilled veggie kebabs (the other kids had meat on theirs, I got a large piece of cheese that was hard on the outside and all melty in the middle), and tiramisu for dessert!
Saturday morning most of the boys headed to Zurich reeeeally early in the morning- think like 5. The rest of us went to Milan for a day of low stress sight-seeing and shopping. We got separated on the way there because there was some sprinting to the trainstation again, but it actually kind of worked out for the best because we were in smaller groups and we ended up all finding each other in Milan in time for dinner. Allie Ross, Trip, and I were all together going from Riva to Milan. When we got there we took the metro into the city center, grabbed some coffee, and went to see the Duomo. We had been a little nervous because people are always talking about how dirty and gypsy-fllled Milan is. We were pleasantly surprised. It was a really fun city, and the Duomo was absolutely stunning. Its a sort of fusion of Italian gothic exterior and romanesque interior. After spending a bit of time inside, we got our tickets to go up on the roof. It was really cold walking on the icy wet marble, but worth it. The view was beautiful, and you were able to walk around inside a lot of the detail work on the upper parts of the roof. The highest tier was closed because it was too icy, but that’s okay. When we got done we sat on the steps eating lunch and watching people walk there dogs through the piazza while little kids played with the pigeons. We also saw a lady gaga look-alike and a bunch of swiss goth-hipsters. Trip went to the Galleria with us to glance inside the Prada flagship store (so cool, and so so so expensive) before heading off and leaving Allie Ross and I to shop. I got a pair of 25 euro grey jeans from Benetton (Cara, you’ll love them!) and a shirt from Zara for 6 euro. Yay soldes! (That’s Italian for sales so great we’re basically giving things away. January is 70% solde month.) While we were shopping we ran into Brian, Abby, Courtney, and Tess and everyone was reunited! We told them we were meeting back up with Trip at the lions in front of the duomo for dinner, and then went our separate ways until then. For dinner we went to a little pizza place that had some great wine and then went and got some real italian gelato (mango, yum). We were all exhausted on the train ride back to Riva at 9:30. Apparently the swiss hipsters we saw on the steps earlier are from Lugano, because they were definitely on the train with us.
Sweet Swiss Adventures 