(Source: CNN)

November 11, 2011 - Last Saturday Trip: Orvieto

I loved everything about Orvieto! It is definitely in my top 5 of all the cities we visited as a group this semester. Located on “The Rock,” Orvieto is an Etruscan town and was extremely important during the MIddle Ages cind it controlled the road between Florence and Rome. After riding the funicular (there is a reason the word “fun” is included in the name of this railcar) into town, the Duomo was our first stop [after a much needed espresso] and it was absolutely gorgeous. It reminded me of the Duomo in Sienna: complete with the basalt/travertine banding and ornate decoration and size. It took over 600 years to build and houses an overwhelming fresco cycle completed by Fra Angelico and Luca Signorelli. The Corporal of Bolsena is also on display which is a consecrated host that began to bleed during a mass in 1263. 

Ok, now that the boring art history mumbo jumbo is out of the way, onto the really cool stuff. Orvieto has an entire underground city that we got to tour! It has miles and miles of underground caves and tunnels which were dug over time starting with the Etruscans. We were able to see wells, stairs, cellars, and even an underground pidgeon breeding section. Very cool and is a definite “must see” for anyone traveling to Orvieto. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping, walking around, and grabbing pizza for lunch at a gourmet pizzeria. There were also a ton of really cool wooden sculptures and stacked-contour reliefs all over town. Restaurants were decorated by them and many had benches outside that had been designed by an artist named Michelangeli. They were really cool to see since each one was different, and we enjoyed taking pictures of all the different ones around town. 

Back in Cortona we grabbed sandwiches for dinner at Molesinis and rested a bit before getting ready to go out. Since it was our last Saturday night in town, nearly everyone on the program met downtown at our favorite pub - The Lions Well. We had a great time meeting locals, dancing, and enjoying drinks with friends. Lions Well will definitely be missed at the end of the semester… though I think they will probably miss us more! 

I am about 3 weeks behind in updating my blog. Slacker, I know. Be prepared for many update posts over the next couple days including the end of the program, traveling throughout southern Italy, and traveling with my parents. It’s been a fun but jam-packed couple of weeks!!

La Moestra!

Last Saturday night (11/5/11) the students and faculty hosted our art show in downtown Cortona. The gallery that it was held at was gorgeous and we had worked all week to prepare and set up for the opening night. Special thanks to all the stipend students who worked extra hours to set up and make everything possible! Though there are lots more pictures, here is a sample of photos from the show night. Everyone was all dressed up and it was such a great experience to finally have a piece of art in a show like this. Though there were large paintings and sculpture pieces I think my little book held its own well! The night was great and it was also nice to see the local Cortonese at the show: shop keepers, bar owners, and others whom we have gotten to know throughout the semester. Sara, Rebecca, and I celebrated at one of my favorite restaurants, Trattoria Toscana, afterwards!

It’s finals week. 

Enough said.

(Source: jackrogersusa)

It’s show week! 

Our final show is only a week away! Each student and faculty member will be putting a piece of work into the show next saturday. Our show is being held at one of the art galleries in town and will be set up by us, the students. This past weekend as very busy and the studios were filled with everyone trying to get their projects finished. 

Because we can only put one piece of work into the show I had a really hard time deciding on what to put in. I couldn’t decide between jewelry/metals and book arts! In the end I decided to combine the two mediums and make a book with a pierced copper plated inlay into the cover. The copper plate took the longest to complete because I had to manually saw each design. The designs are also inspired by Etruscan artifacts from the MAEC: Museum of the Etruscan Academy and of the City of Cortona. I registered my book this morning but am working down to the wire before i need to turn it in for installation on wednesday morning. Most of it is done other than placing the rivets into the cover! I am really happy with how it is coming out and I love the Secret Belgian Binding stitch I chose to use on the spine. 

Hope you enjoy some of these pictures from inside the studios! Isn’t our painting studio gorgeous?! It used to be an old chapel! I am also really enjoying the paintings I am working on right now. I just finished up the painting shown in the pictures and have moved onto another color study. Will update with pictures once I finish it!

Happy Halloween from Cortona!

Also, here is a hilarious email that randomly got sent to everyone in the program from one of the administrative associates in Athens:

We, here in the Cortona office in Athens, would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Halloween. Please remember to check all candy and fruit for poison and razorblades. And students, please remember not to eat too much candy at once! This could cause you to get very sick to your stomach and miss your classes.

Haha we all got a kick out of that email. Hope everyone has a great night and remember kids - check your candy for razor blades.

P.S. This pumpkin was carved by Thomas, one of the sculpture students, and sits outside the school. Isn’t it fantastic?!?!

Saturday Trips: Bevagna and Torgiano (10/29/11)

This past Saturday we went to Bevagna and Torgiano! Our first stop was Bevagna, but not after our usual cappuccino and espresso break. After getting briefed on the town’s history by our art history professor, Danielle, we were able to tour a medieval paper mill. The town itself was small and quaint but had lots of history and still keeps it’s ancient medieval look. Bevagna is also known for having a medieval festival each year where the town shuts down and is converted to a pure medieval state. They even shut off all the electricity and cover the asphalt! 

We were able to see the entire paper making process and were even able to sheet form. The two men running the mill were very nice and even gave some of us note cards to take home that were made in the shop. You can even custom order wedding invitations from the shop! Fancyyyy.

After touring the mill, Rebecca, Sara, and I window shopped and had a really nice sit down lunch. We also decided that the Italians must think we are crazy Americans when we go out for lunch. We ordered one course, didn’t order wine, and ordered our dessert (pinapple slices) with our meal. Weirdos. 

We then had a quick stop to Torgiano to tour a wine museum. Though we couldn’t really understand any of the descriptions, they had a great collection of modern art as well as many interesting ceramics pieces and relief prints. If you are ever in Torgiano, the wine museum is a must see! 

The day was casual and not too busy. We even got to stop at a really cool sculpture garden on our bus ride back to Cortona. It was a great way to stretch our legs and it was located on Lake Trasimeno. Lake Trasimeno is the largest lake in central Italy, where Hannibal ambushed and massacred an entire Roman army in 217 BC, and is even visible from my bedroom window at school. The views were beautiful and we all wished we could spend more time at the park.

Back at school we relaxed and had delicious Molesini sandwiches for dinner. Rebecca, Sara, Lauren, and I also got our RA Casey to set up the projector so we could watch Titanic! We had a blast making and eating homemade popcorn while reminiscing on one of the greatest movies made in 1997. 

Random Titanic facts! (And yes, we did look these up while watching the movie. We know we’re lame.):

• Jack says Rose 50 times. Rose says Jack 80 times. 
• James Cameron drew the sketch of Rose himself - along with all of Jack’s drawings. 
• The movie cost $200 million to make. Sending people to the moon is less expensive.

Toninos Halloween Party!!

Last Friday night Toninos threw us an early Halloween party! We were told a couple days in advance and we had a blast preparing our costumes. Though a lot of people bought new clothes for costumes and spent hours working on them, I was bombarded with work and didn’t really have time to get a crazy costume ready. So, I dressed up as something I see every single day here in Cortona: A tourist. I didn’t have to buy a thing because I (sadly) already had everything. Shocker! I borrowed some hilarious “David” shorts from Rebecca (who loves all things marketed by italy to tourists… especially magnets), an around-the-neck money pouch from Sarah Grace, and an italy tour book from the common room at school. I made a “tour group” name tag, threw a sleep mask onto my head, and voila! Instant Halloween costume. 

Other favorite costumes of the night were Jesus from Leonardo’s The Last Supper, Nutella, Cortona Fog, Spaghetti, a Roman Soldier, a group of gnomes, Medusa, and a camera! The costumes were super creative but I guess that’s to be suspected when you tell a group of art students and professors to come up with Halloween costumes!

Dinner was delicious… complete with pumpkin risotto served in ACTUAL PUMPKINS, peas, roasted potatoes, roast pig, and flowing wine. As if we weren’t already full after all of that, they also served us american-esque apple pie. Yum! After dinner we were led into another room with a full dance floor and DJs! We had a huge dance party (professors included!) and had a bunch of costume contests with prizes. The night was an absolute blast and definitely put everyone in the mood for Halloween!

Florence Trip!

This past Wednesday the book arts and printmaking classes joined together to spend the morning in Florence! We took the 7:15 bus from Cortona to Camucia and caught the train into the city. It was a pretty short train ride and we were able to catch up on some much needed sleep. After arriving in the city, we stopped for coffee and walked (in the rain) to Giulio Giannini e Figlio. The paper shop has been owned and operated for 8 generations and we were able to meet with the master of the shop for a paper marbling demo. What a fun and unique experience! It was very interesting to see the marbling itself and get a tour of the binding studio. Afterwards we were able to buy some decorative paper and other paper goods. I bought some decorative paper and a piece of the paper he had made during our demo (for a discounted price!!). 

Afterwards we went to a couple art and paper stores before going to lunch. At this point it was around 1:00 and the group was about to take the train back to school. However, Rebecca, Sara, and I are bad students so we decided to use our one “get out of jail free card” and skip our afternoon art history class back in Cortona. Besides, when else do you get the opportunity to spend the afternoon with good company in Florence?! Then came mexican food hunt #2. We got directions from some locals and spent the next hour trying to find one of the only mexican food restaurants in the city. Starving and about to give up, we finally find the restaurant. Bad news: It doesn’t open until 7 at night. We were crushed! Note: We are not obsessed with mexican food… we have just been craving it for 2 months. 

Instead, we got some pizza at a small restaurant and walked around to look at some of the sights. Though Rebecca and Sara had seen all the major landmarks at the beginning of the program, it was so new and exciting for me! They were good friends though and weren’t too bored as I acted like a crazy tourist taking pictures of everything we’ve been learning in art history class. We ended the day by shopping around in the markets: Lots of scarves and leather!

We also had exceptionally good luck on our way out of the city. Not knowing when trains were leaving, we arrived at the train station expecting to have to wait around for the next train to Camucia. Instead, we were able to catch a train leaving in 10 minutes from when we arrived. We were even able to get off the train in Camucia and flag down a departing bus to Cortona. If we hadn’t gotten that bus we would have waited another hour and a half! And if we weren’t lucky enough, we were able to rejoin everyone just in time for dinner at Toninos. 

Best. Day. Ever.

(Source: internationally-known)

Saturday Trips: Volterra & San Gimignano (10/22/11)

Ciao y’all! 

Last Saturday we traveled to the cities of Volterra and San Gimignano. It was an early 6am start to the day with a lovely 2 hour bus ride to Volterra. I took this time to catch up on some much needed sleep before we got to the city. Volterra is known for two things: Alabaster and the Etruscan. It actually lasted the longest against Roman attack out of all the Etruscan cities which was pretty impressive back in the day. We started off the morning with our normal cappuccino stop before touring the Etruscan museum. They had a massive collection of funerary urns (all were very different and unique), small figurines, jewelry, and other ancient items. Because all of the museum descriptions are in italian, I also had lots of fun giving made up commentary to my friends about all the items. Highly entertaining. 

We then walked as a group across town to the Museo Civico which is another art museum. We got to see a lot of medieval and Renaissance works of art, including two of Luca Signorelli’s most famous paintings. This was especially exciting (pause for art nerd moment) since we had just learned about them the week before in our Renaissance art history class. The rest of the morning was spent walking around town to some of the shops and exploring some of the markets that were set up. There was lots of sampling of regional foods including olives, olive oil, honey, wine, cheeses, and chocolate. I ended up meeting a really nice honey farmer and though i’m not typically a fan of pure honey, his was by far some of the best i’ve ever had. Picked up a jar for only 3 euro! We also tried on some leather boots and bought decorative paper at one of the cartoleria (paper stores). I’m going to be very busy over the next couple weeks making books and journals for family and friends!

Next stop: San Gimignano. Known for it’s skyline of medieval towers, San Gimignano was thriving. Originally it had over 70 but today only 13 are remaining. After touring a church, we grabbed some gelato at a gelateria called Pluripremiata. The head chef here has won  the Gelato World Championships from 2006 - 2009. The line was out the door, and after making it into the crammed shop, I soon knew why. They had over 30 flavors ranging from chocolate and lavender to grand marinier. I ended up trying mango, sparkling champagne grapefruit, and perugina dark chocolate. Best. Gelato. I’ve. EVER. Tasted. The texture was so creamy and the flavor was spot on. We literally contemplated going back in after we had finished and getting more. (Note: we DID end up resisting temptation and limiting our gelato intake. Our girlish figures were thankful.) Though the town was touristy, we did enjoy walking around and going into the different shops. At one point we ended up at a beautiful overlook of the Tuscan countryside and took a couple pictures. On our way out we stopped at a roasted chestnuts stand. Though I had never had roasted chestnuts, these were mouth-wateringly delicious. The old italian man loved us and even showed us how to roast them. It was a great way to end  the day before boarding the bus back to Cortona. 

Sunday was nice and relaxing. Everyone seemed to sleep in and enjoy being lazy in pajamas. In the afternoon I decided to attend a kick boxing class at a nearby dance studio. The class was actually led and taught by my energetic and tiny art history professor, Danielle. She was great! It was a ton of fun and I will definitely be going back next week. After showering back at school, a couple girls in the class and I decided to go to Ristorante La Bucaccia for dinner. It was the perfect weekend!