Studio Project and Another Market

Hello America!

We received our first studio project today and visited the site for the first time. We are remodeling a deconsecrated (all holy objects have been removed and the building is allowed to be used as a non-religious building) church one block from the river in the old part of Trastevere. It is not very big and has not been used since the 1970's when it was a wood shop. The church ended its life as a religious establishment in the early nineteenth century, but still contains some nice marble columns where the altar used to be. We must change the space to be used as a performance area, practice area and display area for some ancient forms of musical instruments such as the lyre, harp, and an early organ called the hydraulous. Those are just several instruments that we can choose to use in the creation of our music space.

We are also being educated on the basics of music theory and chord composition with its relation to spacing and orders of ancient architecture. Several early Greek and Roman architects/math theorists/musicians thought that all three disciplines were extremely connected and theorized this in their writings. Fairly interesting thoughts possibly linking music and architecture. Acoustics is a very difficult subject, and this music education is very helpful in its understanding. I also don't remember music theory being this difficult, I am however doing a great deal better understanding it than most of my peers who seem to not have a musical background. More on this project as it develops...

Just some more pictures of places I was today. Nothing too special, but we start our history tours on Friday so make sure to log on and view some really old fancy looking rocks stacked on top of each other. Also feel free to post comments or questions in the comments bar at the end of each post.

Mike playing his guitar at our site

A typical street in the Ghetto near our studio

Another one...

The street outside of the de-consecrated church in Trastevere

El Livorno Market

The stairs I climb Every Day (I'm on the 4 months to sexy legs workout plan)

Tomorrow will be a creative day. I have some time to kill between classes.

Buonanotta! (For whatever timezone it applies to you in...)

The Second Day

Buongiorno!

As promised today has a better picture selection, and actual events! Drew and I went on a walk between our classes today. We had the Italian culture class in the morning and then the Language class at three.

Castle Saint Angelo

Me, posing as an angel on the bridge over the Tiber River

St. Peters From afar

St. Peters Basilica

St Peters again, this time from a different country. I'm actually standing in the Vatican City, technically a different country. They don't validate your passport though...

The Italian culture class I have signed up for seems to be very interesting. We are studying a myriad of topics about the city of Rome and Italian culture. We have a series of Italian movies to supplement the lecture. We will learn about some of the history of the more modern neighborhoods of Rome. My group was the last to pick and we were given Trastevere as our neighborhood... Which stinks because all of us live here, so we do not get to explore a new neighborhood. We then have to give a tour of historic places within the neighborhood. (the Tempietto and Casa di Dante are two I can think up from the top of my head without any research)

Viale Cinque, the street our studio is on.

Our studio floor is the second set of windows from the top.

The door to get in. These are actually some pretty small doors for this area. 

Pastrami on ciabatta flat bread for lunch. Drew and I both got some and sat in a park near studio

The aforementioned park...

Every public space that is roughly an acre in size has a fountain, and this tiny park is no exception.

View from my studio window out into the ghetto. The domed building is the synagogue.

This is the place where Cesar was executed.

It is now inhabited by several dozen cats. Romans nicknamed it the Ruinas/Piazza delle Gati (the ruins or square of the cats)

They just leave archeological pieces out because, well, you just can't grab one and toss it into your Fiat because the stone weighs more than your car does...

The Pantheon... I did not go inside today, but it is only a five minute walk from studio so I should be fine. 

Me posing by one of three fountains in the Piazza Navona. Lots of little street artists here, might snag some cool pieces if they come as a deal or not.

To those of you buried under six inches of snow... I have nothing to say besides that I wished I had shorts this afternoon. I really want to get a lighter coat because walking around is kinda hot in the Columbia winter coat more appropriate for Iowa weather, especially when you walk 4 km in an afternoon.

Dinner tonight was pesto on fresh noodles (not dried out ones like we have in the states, they were still doughy) as well as penne with a tomato base for people who didnt like pesto (everyone loved the pesto, need to make significantly more of it because there is red sauce on everything here). 

Tomorrow we go to our sight and begin studio in earnest. 

Buonanotta America! Enjoy the fresh white blanket of snow, because I am... (not missing it at all!)

The Walk Home... Trastevere at Dusk

First day of studio... Wow. The old Middle School in Spencer was not in an old building... I learned the meaning of old buildings today. I will have pictures of my scholastic space tomorrow... Needless to say it is distinctly more cultured than the Armory and College of Design. Syllabus day really stinks, plus we recieved a music education for idiots today with a bit of a zen twist to it. It was a very sleep inducing experience to say the least, especially when we did not turn on the lights.

Listed in pictures below are the Isla Tibernica, several views of Trastevere, and one picture of the aforementioned Casa Di Dante. Paul and I double dutied dinner tonight because Cory was getting his luggage from the airport. He and Bradly will be cooking tomorrow. There is also a picture of my six roommates at the beginning of dinner tonight, plus the scrumptious fare that we dined upon this evening.

The next several days will be more exciting in terms of a blog once I get my schedule figured out, and I may dabble in some creative writing just to spice things up a bit... We shall see!!!

Buonanotta America! Once you read this I will be in bed...

Ponte Garibaldi on Trastevere and Isla Tibernica on the way to studio

Walking home Down Trastevere. In the Center of the frame is Dante's House, author of the Divine comedy

Just some regular looking post office

Vialese Trastevere and Portuguense and on the right is some cathedral

The cathedral, one named after a minor saint. It is a mix of Baroque and renaissance architecture

One of the dozen Italian government buildings on Viale Trastevere I pass on my walk.

Dinner. Eggplant, Chicken and sausage with red sauce, noodles and mozzarella... MMM!

Apartment 6: Adam (curly hair), Paul (behind Adam), Mike (the surprised one), John (smiling), and Cory (smiling while sitting down with a hat on)

Sunday and culture shock...

Buongiorno!

Sunday morning is rather interesting in le Est de Trastevere. There is a massive street market on Viale de Portuguense (Portuguese street) right behind our flat complex. It runs parallel to the river and was completely covered by the market. Adam and I walked the entire length of the market and saw just about everything imaginable for sale. Pets, snack foods, clothes, toiletries, shoes, coats, soccer apparel, books, nuts, antiquities, decorations, furniture... And it goes on and on and on. I do want to go there next Sunday and grab myself a jacket and a pair of shoes. I'm not sure if they are things that would make it through customs very well because many of the objects appear to be from dubious origins, but at least they are cheap! It was the first real experience of culture shock because everyone was hocking their wares in loud voices and singling out tourists trying to get them to buy whatever they were selling. This is where speaking English can get you accosted by several people trying to sell you junk you don't want or need with the voice volume stuck at full. After a while Adam and I just bumped each other and nodded in a direction instead of talking, which kept most of the vendors away from us. We also made it without being getting our pockets picked! Supposedly there is a lot of petty theft there, but there were other tourists there who were far less discreet than Adam and I, so we were less of a target.

After the shear madness of the market, Adam and I walked the river channel. We walked down from street level and walked next to the Tiber river. It has gone down several feet since we arrived several days ago, and probably will be back up whenever it rains again. (This probably won't be soon because todays weather was 70 and sunny. I can feel like I got a little sun on my cheeks.) It was very cool and fresh feeling down by the water, and was very calming after the mob in the market. The river also was very scenic. We walked until the Isla Tibernica (Tiber Island) and got back onto the street level near Trastevere. Next Adam and I looked for a lunch spot, and ran into la Casa di Dante. The actual home of Dante, where he wrote his famous works and gave birth to the Italian language! It was closed though, so we perused the nearby restaurants to see what we could find for a lunch. Many of the street restaurants were a costly, and the places we could afford were massively packed with people watching Serie A football. In some places middle aged men were standing in the street just pretending to read a menu or socialize, when they were actually just watching the game.

We eventually just went to Viale de Trastevere and grabbed some pizza by the gram. (It is like buying meat at a meat market. They just weigh it and have a fixed rate per gram. Or you can just buy the whole thing for 5 Euro.) Posted below are some pictures of this mornings walk about and things we saw. I did not get a good picture of La Casa di Dante but hey, I will go by it at least twice a day for the next 4 months.

Ciao...

231 Trastevere, My Flat

You all may know by now that I got to Rome safe and sound, with only a moderate level of excitement. We took a taxi to the wrong address for the housing office then had to drag our gear through the street to a new taxi stop. (You don't flag down a taxi in Rome so much as walk to a sign that says "TAXI" and stand there.) We eventually found the right place and filled out our housing forms with no problem at all. Then we walked with our luggage to our flat, which was like 8 blocks further down Viale Trastevere than we had thought. It was quite the workout.

After napping and showering, several of my flat mates and I went to the grocery store down the street and bought a snack to last us until supper time. We bought the highly stereotypical Italian snack: wine with cheese, bread, and basalmic vinegar dipping sauce. Whilst snacking, the last of our flat mates made it into town, both of them had their luggage waylaid somewhere along the line in the States and had very little clothes... Thank God I have all of mine.

Dinner last night was amazing! (Oh, yes!) Adam, John, Mike, Peter (an ISU student from the apartment below us) and I all went to an Oyster Bar. They had a pizza special last night that was to die for. They had a large stone oven and cooked wood fired pizza, which was very good. We started with an appetizer of antipasti, which in this instance consisted of several cheeses on a plate with preserved meats (bruschetta, salami and a cured ham), grilled vegetables (zucchini, artichokes, onions, peppers and eggplant) and a fried ball of rice with mozzarella and tomato sauce holding it together. All of it was very good, especially after airline food and McDonalds in Chicago. My pizza was a rather odd flavor. It was regular tomato sauce, but the toppings were red pepper flakes, parmesan and some other goat cheese, and little slices of garlic. Magnifico!!!

We have another long day ahead of us here. I still am feeling the jet lag, and slept only in bunches last night. Included are a set of pictures of our flat and the view from our balcony into the court. My room is not included because Mike is still sleeping.

Buongiorno per Roma!!!