The Belly of the Beatle

Today we took a day long trip to three pieces of modern architecture. The first was the Parco Della Musica by Renzo Piano. The design consists of three separate auditoriums which each have different acoustical qualities. The three pods are often compared to beatles, due to their shape. The roof is made of lead panels, and the interiors range from wood to brick. The coolest part of the structures could be seen by climbing up the fire escapes. Once you did it felt as if you were in a whale's belly.



The next stop was the Adreatine monument which commemorates a site where 340 Italians were murdered by the Germans during the occupation. Afterwards the Germans bombed the caves in a few spots to make it look like an accident. The monument incorporates the caves themselves and you enter in and see where the bodies were interred. The architects preserved the holes where the bombs came through the caves.


Finally we ended with Richard Meir's Jubilee Church, which is way on the outskirts of the city. The building was okay, but looked terrible in the context of what was around it. In Meir fashion the building was all white, and felt completely separate from the surroundings. As you can see from the photos below the idea behind the building was a boat...

Rome Does Gothic

Today I visited the only Gothic looking church in Rome, it was a nice change from all the Baroque churches we've been seeing.


I also thought I'd throw in a picture of the only gas station I've seen here, which happens to be right near the church above.


and finally on the way home, I stumbled upon a movie set. Everyone was in period dress, and they had a bunch of old cars and buses.

Faking It

Today I stopped into Saint Ignatius. It was a very strange church in terms of the ceiling. The main ceiling was a great example of perspective, and made the space feel as if it went a lot higher than it did. The window at the bottom of the picture is where the ceiling ends.


Then there was the dome over the center space. Most churches have a giant dome with a cupola at the top which lets in light. This church at first glance appeared no different, that is while you were standing towards the back in the center of the aisle. As you approached the front, however, it turns out that the dome doesn't exist. It is painted on in false perspective, so it looks really twisted from any other angle.


In the front of the church there is a giant model. It is not of any one particular church, but was apparently supposed to represent all the Jesuit churches around the world uniting into one giant Jesuit church. I'm not entirely sure about the details because it was all in Italian. There is a large circular church in the center surrounded by a bunch of small miniature churches. Each miniature church corresponds to a different country.

Fascism In Rome

Today we took a trip to Citta Universita, which is a university complex designed by the fascist government. It was planned by Marcello Piacentini, he designed the main administration building/library and then selected young italian architects to do the others. Most of the buildings were nothing to write home about but there were some gorgeous fire escapes. Here are some of the highlights:

Thanksgiving Rome Style

Yesterday we had a huge thanksgiving meal, it was quite the spread. There was tons of turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, all kinds of salad and lots and lots of pie. I started the morning with a trip to Saint Peter's since I had missed the Pietra the first time I went. Its a sculpture by Michelangelo which depicts Mary holding the body of Jesus. The details are supposed to be incredible, but they don't let you close enough to really examine it.


Afterwards I helped make a couple apple pies for dinner that night. I had never made an apple pie before, but I think they turned out well. Both were gone by the end of dinner. I also made some creamed corn for the occasion, since its not thanksgiving without creamed corn. During dinner they played a slide-show complied from all of our pictures. By the end of the night everyone was in a food coma.


Due to the massive amounts of food eaten, a few of us decided to go on an evening walking tour of Rome. The first stop was the pantheon, although we got distracted by San Ivo along the way.

Eventually we made it to the Pantheon, but it had closed about 1/2 hour before, so we hung out in the portico for a bit before making our way to the Trevi fountain.


We accidentally overshot the Trevi and ended up at the Spanish Steps, so we had to backtrack a bit. I have to say the Trevi is much better at night, because during the day there are tons of people. It was still crowded at night but you could actually move around and get to the front of the fountain. We all threw coins in behind our backs like good tourists so technically we should all return to Rome now.

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

Vienna may have been my favorite European city so far. Although the weather could have colored my opinion somewhat. Thursday night Brianne and I took an overnight train from Rome. Its a 13 hour ride but went by pretty quickly. When we crossed the border though, things got a little interesting. A guy who was in our compartment got taken by the boarder policemen, they weren't speaking english so we couldn't really tell what was going on. They had scanned his passport and looked at some other form he had, then took him and his bag with them. To make it weirder one of the officers then took a flashlight and looked under the seats for who knows what. It was a little crazy.

The next morning around 9:00 we got into Vienna and this is what we saw:

there was about 4-6 inches on the ground already and it was still snowing. I was super excited because I was hoping it would snow. We were a little cold though, since Rome is about 60 degrees right now and Vienna was probably 30. Our trip basically consisted of us walking around for an hour or so until we got too cold and then going inside a building.

Our first build was the Stephansdom which is a gothic cathedral. Its the first European Gothic church I've seen (Rome really doesn't have any). The stained glass was beautiful. Even though it was dark and snowy outside the inside of the church was full of light (and it wasn't electrically lit).


Next we strolled a bit more and got somewhat lost looking for an Adolf Loos building. Throughout the trip we ended up going the wrong way down this same street on about 3 separate occasions. Eventually we ended up where we needed to go and ran into the Hapsburg palace along the way. It was a rather large complex and is known as the labyrinth, because all the different pieces were built up over time.


We walked through the grounds towards the museum quartier, to look at some Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele works, and we were getting cold. As you can see in the picture below I have 2 hats on.


After the museum we got a room for the night in a hostel. We ended up with the last open room. We then hiked over to the other side of the city to see the Schoenbrunn Palace. There was a giant tree in front when we got there.


We went particularly to see the greenhouses,which are the largest in Europe. It was breathtaking in person. I think the combination of the snow and the time of day also added to the beauty of the building.


Afterwards we headed back to the city and into a nice warm pub. Turns out they brew their own beer and we had a hearty Viennese meal. I hadn't realize how much I missed eating potatoes. We took a stroll after dinner and walked towards the town hall. We had seen it in the distance earlier and wanted to check it out. Waiting for us was the best surprise ever, a christmas market! It was closed for the night, but we decided to come back the next day. The building was set up as a giant advent calender, the windows all had numbers in them.


The next morning we woke up and headed towards the Secession Building, it was slightly warmer since it was sunny out, but still very cold. We went inside to see Beethoven's Frieze by Klimt, and to check out the spaces, like good architecture students.


Then it was off to the Christmas Market. We ended up spending a good two hours there. We had hot Viennesse beverages (the cappuccino was classic, it was a latte with some whipped cream on it, but so good). And we ate and ate and ate. There were a bunch of pastry stands and we got a cinnamon pastry and some toffee peanuts, which were incredible.


Then Brianne and I walked down to the Danube...or so we thought. We knew there was a river and just kind of assumed it was the Danube, since it was murky and brown. Well we realized when we were on the train that in fact we only made it to the Danube Canal...oops. So here is a picture of a murky brown canal in Vienna.

Vienna Waits for You

off to Vienna until Sunday morning!