Southern Italy

Last week we did a group travel to southern Italy.  We spent one day in Naples, stayed in Sorrento, did a day at Pompei, hiked the top part of Mt. Vesuvius, spent a free day on the island of Capri, a day in Amalfi, and a day at Caserta a massive palace.
Naples was the worst place ive been in all of Italy.  It was a landfill, the streets were covered in trash as well as heaps of trash piled everywhere, the buildings were old and decrepid, it smell like urine, there were more street hustlers than ive ever seen, and the view of the sea was blocked by storage containers and large boats. I felt unsafe there for the first time here and didnt really want to take my camera out.  We did however have some good thick crust pizza and the hottest cup of coffe in the world.  I wouldnt recommend Naples to anyone though. Just head south to nicer places.

More stories coming soon.

Enjoy the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59481748@N03/

Rome with my parents and Lago di Vico/Faggeta

Some photos from Rome when my parents were here theres the inside of the colosseum, and some shots of Bernini's Elephant and 4 Rivers fountain in Piazza Navona.  Then last tuesday we were suppose to go to a horse race for carnivale in a next town over called Ronciglione funny thing about that place probably not appropriate so ask me personally if your interested hahaha but they had to cancel the race on tuesday because the race on sunday ended fatally.  The story in my interpretation as I heard many different versions in translated english from a few different Italians was that a horse in the race, the horses race jockeyless through the main street in the town, somehow impaled or collided with one of the metal barrier partitions to protect the crowd and sliced its underside open and spilled blood and guts all over the road and viewers and was then trampled by the remaining horses. Very brutal and due to that the animal rights activists persuaded the town to shut the event down for tuesday too bad I was really hoping to see the race and get some pics.  Anyway we went into town just over the mountains from Viterbo, and talked to some locals, got coffee and some typical carnivale pastries.  On the way out and back we explored some of the mountain area and the lake.  Lago di Vico was real cold up in the mountains and is apparently a popular spot when the warm weather hits but was pretty dead when we arrived.  We then went to the top of Mt. Chimina to the Faggeta, which in Italian means beach wood.  The whole forest consisted of only beach trees and this is actually a very rare occurrence because this specific type of beach tree is only supposed to grow at much higher altitudes but the forest has thrived here at much lower altitudes for a very long time. It was real nice up there to get into the woods and out of the hustle bustle inside the walls.  We watched the sun set and saw some wild boar tracks which is the most common predator in the area.

Link for photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59481748@N03/

Pienza and Acquapendente

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Link for photos above:  We went to two small towns called Acquapendente and Pienza in the first town we went to a church with a fully original basement where the capitals of the columns were all very intricately carved, we also had lunch in that town which was a set menu and really good.  We then went north into the Tuscany region to the small town of Pienza which has the oldest renaissance garden in Italy, the garden was really small and so was the town but there I had some of the best cheese ive eaten here mostly sheep cheese and very sharp.

Bracciano and Field trip for Studio Art

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Link Above for photos from Bracciano where there was a late 14th century castle and Lake Bracciano.  It was beautiful there we also saw two brand new red Ferraris race by while we were walking along the white line on the road absolutely amazing only in Italy.  The second set of pics are from a small town about 45 minutes away where we went for our studio art class.  The castle was once a getaway for the pope and across the square from the castle was a church were we were able to go down into the crypts and walk around the tunnels that connected the castle to the church and also provided a way out of town.  The whole experience inside that castle and inside the crypts had a very uncomfortable feeling.  There were lots of bones under the church and just a very eerie feel.  I was happy to get out of that church and town but luckily on the way out a stop at the pasticeria eased me out.

way behind

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59481748@N03/?saved=1

Link to pics above, Pics from Villa Adriana just outside Rome crazy roman ruins and then the at the Mediterrian Sea just outside Tarquinia also 2000 year old Eutruscan Tombs.

Villa D'Este

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Here are the pics enjoy!  Story will come soon, I'm a little behind on posting.

Workin Hard or Hardly Working

This past saturday our gardens and cuisine professor asked for volunteers  to help her in her garden out in the countryside.  She is a landscape architect and a great chef and I had heard that she has a beautiful house and garden around her house and the offer of a good home cooked meal I just couldn't turn it down.  So my friend Mike and I volunteered to help her and she picked us up at 930 in the morning.  Unfortunately I was in a bit of rough shape that morning but ended up sweating it out once we got out there.  On the way out she took us on this ancient Etruscan road that was carved at least thirty feet down through solid rock sometime around 400 BC.  The road was pretty scary actually, hardly large enough for a 4 door fiat punto and wound around the looming rock walls at close to 90 degree corners to the point that our teacher had to lay on the horn while bustling around the corners.  Once out of the tunnel like road we hit the countryside and the pavement soon ended to a terribly rutted dirt road through hundreds of acres of sheep farms, the sheep kept and bred mostly for their milk to make cheese.  The sheep had their lambs and she informed us that most of the lambs would not live past easter as it is customary to eat the lambs on easter.  The older sheep however, were rarely eaten because the meat becomes too tough.  The farm surrounding their house, as she said had over a thousand sheep and the sheep were the loudest neighbors they had.  As we pulled off the road into their driveway we came upon their house a three story place constructed of the local redish brown volcanic rock.  The yard or i should say garden surrounding the house was absolutely beautiful, a few rows of olive trees which they use to hand crush their own olive oil, a formal 4 section garden design out front and a wrap around porch covered in lattice with numerous thorned vines running up the pillars and up the lattice.  The whole compound was surrounded by tall hedges and from inside the garden yard you felt as if in paradise because the only view was over the hedges and spread out over the countryside to blue hazy mountains sitting just on the horizon.  However, lost in the beauty we were assigned to a pile of dirt towards the back the of house.  There we were given pitchforks to sift through the pile of dirt and pick out the trash, sticks, rocks, and gremenia, which is a kind of root weed that grows and sprouts without being planted or cared for.  As we prepared the dirt to be put into the vegetable garden her husband would shovel it into the the wheel barrow and one of us would help him dump it carefully not to spill into the raised bed garden which was already growing leafy greens and beans.  After a few hours of work at the same monotonous project we took a break for lunch of capricollo, prosciutto, pane pizza, and caciatta cheese.  After the half hour break we returned for another three and a half hours of work and depleted most of the pile.  They were impressed with our work and were satisfied with the progress we made that day.  We cleaned up the yard and she set up to start dinner.  The first step was starting a fire in their outside wood fired oven because the flavor from it was unmatched.  While our teacher started at dinner, her husband took us out to these ancient Etruscan tombs.  Carved into the solid exposed rock from a cliff side was a full necropolis.  The set up of the tombs was a large carved facade with T shaped "false door" above the actual entrance and the actual entrance was just a large void into the cliff face with a set of stairs cut down below the meeting area.  Down into the actual tomb would lie the bodies in stone sarcophaguses of the families deceased members.  The actual site was in pretty terrible shape as it was open to the public and there are no funds for the up keep.  Most of the facades were broken off and stairs to the tombs were blocked off by the fallen rock from the facade.  All of the tombs had been raided in earlier times and all that remained were the massive beds that the bodies would lay on.  I was pretty erie being down inside the tombs a very strange energy was in the air and we didn't spend lots of time actually inside.  From the necropolis out across a small flat valley and over a river sat the acropolis.  Taken over in the medieval times by a fort and lookout tower.  The only remaining piece of Etruscan architecture left was the original entrance archway.  But we went inside the fort anyway and climbed to the top of the lookout tower for a spectacular view out over the Lazio region.  From the top you could clearly see why the spot was chosen for a civilization.  Where the acropolis sat was on a triangular shape of land in between two rivers that converged at the point and entrance of the fort.  And as I said directly across the valley sat up on the hillside and inside the cliff the necropolis, completely visible from the acropolis and protected by the river.  That finished our tour of the ancient landscape and we wandered back to the house through vineyards and olive groves the vineyards mostly used for homemade wine which to todays standards are unfavorable and only the farmers who make their own drink their own, comparable i guess to moonshine.  We returned back to the house exhausted and in just enough time to sit out on the porch and watch the blood red sun sink beneath transcending lines of pinks, purples, and blues.  Then came dinner, for first course we had pasta with a sausage cream sauce followed by a roasted chicken and potatoes and the Fibonacci sequence broccoli like vegetable.  Accompanied by an expensive bottle of local red wine which was a mix of merlot and some other grape that I was unfamiliar with.  To finish the night off we had a fresh made apple crisp and an interesting conversation about what to do around Viterbo.  We worked hard but it was totally worth it, good people, good food, good times.    

Bagnoregio: The Dying City

Here is the link for the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59481748@N03/

Last weekend we went out to The Dying City.  About a half hour bus ride from Viterbo out into the countryside.  The dying city is just outside a slightly larger town called Bagnoregio.  We arrived by bus in to the town and had to walk about a mile outside town and down into this large valley to the the entrance of the city.  While walking down the hill we encountered probably the best view of the city perched atop a tall outcropping of red layered rock.  At the base of the city sat a restaurant and a couple other buildings.  We ate at the restaurant and sat for a little over an hour where I ate, the only one to get two plates, a bean and porcini soup for first plate, then a plate of mushroom and truffles in cream sauce over a thick regional pasta.  Very delicious.  We then made the hike up the long ramp up into the entrance to the city.  As you walk into the entrance of the town you step back in time through a few rough stone archways into the main piazza with a bar and a gift shop, then as you continue on down the main road you find the cathedral and the piazza outside that, then a little further down the main stretch you hit the end of town which goes down some stairs and turns to dirt as it wraps around the hillside below the city.  At the end of the dirt path there is a cave which runs through the hillside to the clear other side with another cave branching off halfway through.  It is said that this cave system connects to the basements of most of the houses as an escape route in times of attack.  The town today is only occupied by 12 full time residents.  It has 1 restaurant, 1 bar, 1 gift shop, 1 church, and a whole herd of cats who acted as our tour guides, probably more cats than actual residents.

Blogger Bullshit

Because this website sucks as far as photo uploading I taken on a Flickr account.  I have about 4G of photos from the past two weekends that I am working on uploading to my new account so as soon as I can figure all that out I will post the link here and you can access the photos to my stories through that link.

beginnings continued

At the start of the semester I volunteered to meet with a language partner to help them with their english and in return get help with my Italian.  So after a few weeks I received an email and arranged a meeting time and day with my new friend Stefano.  Hearing from other USAC students, I had the expectation of meeting with another student at the university around my age and being able to go out and have some drinks with them and have a good time as well as language training, but I was a little taken back by our first meeting.  We arranged to meet at 3 outside one of the walls of the city and when I arrived I called and he thought I meant meet at 5 so he said he'd be right there in 5 minutes or so.  Up pulls a Mercedes hatchback and the window rolls down and the man inside says "You Karl?" "Ah yeah, Stefano?" "Yes yes,  nice to meet you." Ok well i walk up and shake his hand he has a wedding ring on and a baby seat in the back...come to find out he is twice my age, married with kids, and has a PHD in Agricultural Economics.  Not exactly what I expected for a language partner but he is a really nice guy and took me out for coffee and we talked mostly in english about art and photography and I found out that he needs to expand his english because he is traveling to Nepal for a work project and they will do all the business in english.  After the first meeting we set up to meet twice a week on day in english and one day in italian.  I will keep this posted to see how it goes.

odds ends and beginnings

I haven't been able to post pics this week because I have to purchase more storage space for this blog its bullshit in my opinion because upon starting the blog there is no mention of limited space but o well.  I will be posting pics of "The Dying City" in a little town called Bangnoregio about an hour outside Viterbo.  However in the meantime, a word about the train system in Italy.  On Sunday we were supposed to go to Rome to see a Van Gogh exhibition, so I figured I'd wait til sunday to get my ticket before we got on the train, I am aware that the ticket window and cafe which both sell tickets would be closed but there are self service ticket machines outside the station that you can use to purchase tickets.  So about 40 minutes before the train leaves we walk up to the station only to find everything closed as anticipated and the self service machine conveniently out of order.  Also its good to know that even though most Italians don't attend church, the whole town pretty much shuts down on sundays.  I've since learned from the first weekend here to stock up on food on saturdays because that first sunday we didnt have anything to eat and walked all over town to find anything and to our dismay everything is deserted.  So back to this past sunday, we frantically, maybe not so, run around town trying to find anyone who will sell us a BIRG ticket, good for a round trip to Rome as well as the metro system, with no luck.  So with that behind us and shrugged off we set out to make the best of our day.  One of the girls we were supposed to go with suggested her rooftop terrace would be a worthy alternative, it being the most beautiful day so far here, sounded like a great option.  So we went out got a few bottles of wine some cheese, prosciutto, and fresh bread and commenced towards a full stomach, sun burned face, and a mean buzz.  A great day ended in all of us tranced in amazement watching the blood red sun flash its last rays of the day over the arid central italian landscape and multi leveled terra-cotta tiled roofs and terraces.  Much better than the hectic Rome rat race I would say.

Firenze

The Hostel we stayed in was great it was like nice hotel with a pool, sauna, rooftop terrace, bar downstairs, it definitely set a very high standard for my first time in a hostel.

Approaching Il Duomo.

Just wow! The Duomo is absolutely amazing the colored stone and the massive scale just erupts out of the winding narrow streets of Florence.

The competition doors of Brunelleschi and Ghiberti.

Stairs at the Hostel to the roof.

From the top of the hostel the view was amazing and I was one of two other people in our group to make it up there.

The street lights are really cool with anthropomorphic support legs.

Ponte Vecchio.

Santa Croce inside the tombs of Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galleleio and many more lay.

The piazza surrounding Santa Croce.

The Arno near sunset.

Chimney smoke and vespa blur.

Across the street from the Uffizi Museum.  The Uffizi houses numerous famous paintings.  My favorites there were Venus:Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi(unfinished):Da Vinci, Medusa: Carvaggio, and Decapitation of Holofernese: Gentileschi 

This guy just owned the place.

Beat at this point. Working on 8 hours of sleep in the whole weekend, this is sunday at 5 and I was dirty greasy tired exhausted worn out feet but so happy.  Florence was a great time.  We were able to meet Sean Sullivan there who showed us a great time.  The previous night Sean's tour company put on a pub crawl and we showed up and there was a crowd of over a hundred other american students there and the deal was 11 euro and the first bar was 2 hours all you could drink heineken on tap or sex on the beach.  Obviously I drank my fair share (heineken of course) and worth within the first half hour.  After that we went to two or three more bars and got free shots there.  However the rest of the night remains somewhat cloudy in my memory.  From what I recall got lost walking around for about an hour than found duomo and sat in amazement for an hour at like 4 in the morning.  It was a great time and I will definitely have to return.

Italian Renaissance Gardens: Villa Lante

I'm taking this Italian Gardens class this semester and we will be checking out around 5 or 6 Renaissance gardens around this region.  This garden is Villa Lante and is located in Bagnaia the same small town that the bonfire was in.  We went two fridays ago but I was unable to post until now due to being sick with a cold and flu all last week.  But this garden was absolutely amazing.  However, on that day it was hardly pleasing, it had snow flurried most of the morning and I had to get up earlier than most of the other students because I am volunteering on Friday mornings in the local high school.  The english class is all girls and they were very excited to meet us and ask us lots of questions about america and about our lives in america.  There were lots of questions about pop culture which I was unable to answer but not so disappointed about that.  But I was surprised that there were a few of them that were able to speak and understand our english very well and there were a few of them that I could tell just didnt know it or just didnt care.  After that we had lecture about this garden as it was snowing outside then turned to rain and we were in question about going out there.  But at the end of the lecture the rain had stopped and we decided to go and I was miserable.  I hadnt eaten anything except an espresso on the go and I was terribly unprepared for the cold damp weather outside.  So miserably I went along and we waited for the bus to come and when it did we all got on and the driver got off.  He smoked a cigarette and then told us we were too many and that he wouldnt take us we would have to take another bus out there. So Ok we waited for another bus out there and got of at the little town so cold and raw out and walked up to the garden. Upon arrival and first step into the garden my spirits had turned, I realized it was totally worth it...

The Pegasus fountain, Pegasus in ancient literature was responsible for kicking the ground in the mountains that provided water to support the people.  So due to this most of the gardens have a Pegasus fountain.

This is the seal of Cardinal Gambera.  Gambera meaning prawn or crayfish is the one who built this garden.  As a Cardinal he had a great deal of wealth and built this garden for himself while he resided and was a ruler here in Viterbo.

This is called a water chain and it runs from one level of the garden to the next and at the head of the fountain here the water comes out of a crayfish showing that Gambera has provided the garden with a source of water. Also a showing of his power.

Also in every garden we will see there is always a fountain dedicated to the local river gods as we see here.

This was a lunch table with a flow of water through the middle which was used back in the day to keep jugs of wine cool.

The bottom of the garden and the grand finale per se.