First Day of School at Lorenzo De' Medici

We have been really busy here. There is never a dull moment! So far, Rome feels like home. We have all become really comfortable when it comes to transportation and adjusting to the culture. We are even to the point where we are mistaken for being Italian by the locals. It is exciting at the bus stop to be approached and asked a question in Italian and thinking ‘Wow, I must really look like I fit in here’.

Italy is a remarkable country and the perfect place for art students. Everywhere we turn there is another church or museum covered in art. We walk and commute on buses, trams, and trains everyday to see these great things. I can’t help but think that Rome is boot camp for artists.

The first picture I have is one of my favorites. It was our first day of school at Lorenzo De’ Medici. It was taken eight weeks ago, but it seems much longer. At the same time this whole experience has flown by and we are winding down to the end. It is definitely bitter sweet.

Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain

For my art history reports my topic is Baroque Architecture and Sculpture. My main focus is over the works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini. In this picture I am in Piazza Navona giving a presentation on the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini. This is my favorite fountain in Rome! (I have also included a picture of the fountain itself)

So far we have gone to many sites and museums in Rome, but we have also traveled to Florence, Siena, and Assisi. Florence was spectacular. While we were there we visited the Uffizi Gallery which had some of the most famous works of art ever known. It was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Siena was a wonderful and quiet medieval village. My favorite thing there was the stripped cathedral.

Assisi

So far, my favorite place is the small medieval hill town of Assisi. It felt completely different than the other three places because it was much quieter and smaller. It had the perfect balance of city and nature. Overall, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been!

The view from Rocca Maggiore of the valley below Assisi

By Lian Dziura

So far in Italy we have seen about a million beautiful things.

Italian art and architecture, and the natural scenery of Italy make it hard to choose just a few photos to show what we’ve done so far.

These photos are just a few of our favorites that we’ve picked out to share with you!

Talking Art History

By Brielle Burrus

We are all learning so much from everything we are seeing and doing, it’s so overwhelming. Our brains feel like they are on overload, but probably in the best way an artist could have it.

In the last few days we all had to shut ourselves in our rooms so that we could concentrate on making art and letting all the inspiration we have seen sink in. It’s hard because we have so much to just pick one aspect.

All of the pre-trip art history readying has really helped me understand and appreciate the works and places better. I’m also getting to know the artist behind the work and the struggle or drama that they went through. It has been really great to see and hear about so many people that I have admired for so long, and see them as real people. They had a life outside of just the few pieces of famous art that I studied in freshman art history. Actually standing in front of these things changes everything you knew about it, that might sound dramatic, but it’s true.

We spent a few days with Linda Karry a landscape artist. It is really exciting to walk around the city with someone who views everything in pastel colors. We have all really enjoyed getting to know her.

The pictures below are mostly of us talking about the art we are seeing. In one, Megan James is giving an art history report in front of the Four Rivers Fountain in the Piazza Navouna. We each are responsible for a certain aspect of art history and it has been really good to hear about other people’s topics also. Not only the factual things about the places or pieces of art but the opinion of the person who is studying them.

An afternoon of sketching beautiful landscape and roman ruins

Buongiorno, all!

So, it turns out that Italy is a little more topsy turvy than first anticipated! Sure, we were given the books to read up on their culture versus ours, and talked plenty pre-trip about the potential difficulties we might face abroad, but it seems that no amount of training beforehand can ever truly prepare you for culture shock.

Seeing as I’ve already traveled to several different countries before this, I honestly believed that Italy would be, “no big deal,” upon arrival. Beppe Severgnini, in his book La Bella Figura, describes Italy as a sort of stage, wherein every Italian believes they are the lead role. Personally, I find this to be a bit of an overstatement, but it does have a bit of truth to it—Italians simply love to dramatize even the smallest of incidents or situations.

Before we even walked through the door, I could tell that Anita, our teacher, was already feeling a little worn out. She greeted all of us with a big grin and plenty of welcome, and then with a wistful sigh, informed us that they had actually just finished cleaning our apartment for us, since it was a disaster when they arrived to check it out.

Moments later, after we had all selected our rooms (I’m rooming with miss Lian Dziura, who’s along the lines of splendid! Our room is a giggle fest comprised of good cooking, incense, and British film watching), we were quick to find out that our apartment is without WiFi (thus the long stretch of time it’s taken us to post anything on the blog!). Even though it’s almost over three weeks later (many, many phone calls, personal exchanges, head scratching and puzzled expressions later, too) our house is STILL without WiFi. However, we’re making due pretty well on two ethernet cords that we’ve learned to share. Who would’ve thunk life would be so difficult without checking your Facebook whenever the fancy struck you?

The first week proceeded by us in a quick flurry of colors, a myriad number of smells (lots of cigar smoke and lemons…), many buildings that were far too impressive for their own good, and a lot of different characters passing us by speaking a language we can barely comprehend.

We kept close to each other, but walked forward with feet firm on the ground and determination written on our faces (along with mild confusion, but I think we covered ourselves pretty well). While the locals here aren’t the most friendly looking people at first glance, since smiling here is something for people of the lower caste (happy people?), they’re pretty quick to recognize you as a local by the second or third trip into their store, and attitudes toward you as a clumsy English speaking tourist change pretty fast. Their vigorous hand movements in conjunction with speech closely resembling Spanish with a dash more of elegance makes comprehending them a little easier on you once you get used to it. In general, getting to be addressed to as, “bella,” when someone wants my attention isn’t too shabby a change, either.

By the second week, I’m pretty sure we all felt like veterans. Sure, our sense of direction and self was still a little shaky, but all in all we had made our first trips to the market just below our apartment for delicious sundrys, been harassed by a couple of the more forward street vendors, and braved a trip on the metro. We had also done more than enough of our fair share of walking, considering, A) we’re art students, and, B) we’re not earning P.E. credit for our time here. And let’s not even get into the initial ’bout of jetlag we contended with.

Rome is just too filled with history, art, and glorious architecture. It seems almost unfair that one country could hold so many indelible treasures from our world’s history, and even more unfair that Rome itself can claim the majority of it for itself. “In this church, three Carravagio’s. In the one around the corner, ten Bernini sculptures. And over here, we have a facade designed by Michelangelo.” I’m sure we must have looked like wide-eyed fish out of water as we walked through the city, eyes nearly popping out of our heads while we marveled at whatever came around the next corner, and mouths gaping all the while.

It seems like Rome hasn’t bothered to look over a single portion of the city in its grand architectural scheme to exude beauty and elegance. Most of the buildings are baroque (very theatric and embellished), with stout or blocky medieval buildings randomly sprinkled here or there in nearly perfect condition. People here live in buildings nearly five hundred to eight hundred years old and think nothing of it. Even the most humble of doorways sports an impressive lock system and some sort of distinct embellishment to it. When it comes to “neighborhood integrity,” as they put it in the real estate market, Rome has got it.

So, along with plenty of site-seeing (art history, on site!), cooking, open-air markets, and sampling of the local culinary establishments (culture), as well as sketching, painting, collecting and collaging (art/studio, of course!) we’ve had our hands plenty full. We have culture and language classes for Italian at a locale institute (the Lorenzo de’Medici Scuola) two to three times a week, and spend all of our remaining free time walking and sketching around the city.

It’s strange to think that the Colosseum and Pantheon are just down the street from us, and that the Vatican City itself is a mere forty-five minute tram and bus ride away. It’s crossed all of our minds, I’m sure, that this sort of good fortune and wealth of beauty and history is probably wasted on a good majority of the Italians who’ve grown up and been around it all their lives. Even now, I can feel myself more easily shrugging off “less impressive” churches that seem to riddle every nook and cranny around here. I hope that even though our stay is both long and short, that we will maintain our sense of wide-eyed wonder and enjoy Italy to the very fullest potential it holds for us.

Next week/weekend we’ll be in Florence and the suburban area of Assisi. I’m extremely excited to see how it compares to Rome as a city, and to see the place where Michelangelo and Giuliano Sangallo grew up! It should be something marvelous to behold! Until next time, ciao, bellas!

<3 Ally Anderson

PS. Once upon a time I was a journalist/editor/layout artist for our high school’s newspaper… Lian thought it would be something worth mentioning, so as not to psych everyone out.