there and back again

On Saturday night I returned to Rome after almost two weeks of travel, first to Florence on a class trip, and then to beautiful Sicilia with six friends, specifically to Syracuse and Ortigia on the Eastern coast of the island, right on the Mediterranean. Along with a foot-tan in the shape of my sandals, a painting I made and some sea-glass I found, I've brought back so many amazing photographs and adventures (though no run-ins with the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, I regret to say...)


Ortigia was so incredibly gorgeous. It is a Baroque city and looks like some kind of wonderful shipwreck that has risen out of the sea.


We stayed in this great little apartment and just relaxed. We ate the best meals: brioche bread, pasta with eggplant and tomatoes, ricotta with pistacchios, swordfish rolled with breadcrumbs and garnished with olive oil, lemon, pine nuts and raisins, cinnamon gelato... the list could go on and on!


These are all photos I took on our first evening on the island. More to come soon!

"Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning."

-Giotto di Bondone

Mercati

There are markets EVERYWHERE in Italy, selling EVERYTHING. They make for great wandering and interesting photo opps. These are some photos from a market in EUR (more on that later). I had arrived early for class and decided to explore...




That's right folks. A POPE WATCH! I may have to go back and buy one.

I actually needed a watch, so I settled on this one. For 3 Euro, not bad!

Centrale Montemartini

This is one of my favorite museums of all time. Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture is paired with the machinery of an old electrical plant and the result is completely modern and stunning.





Le macchine e gli dei: the machines and the gods.


It is a fantastic place for sketching...





I find the sculptures in this setting so powerful. The athleticism of the machines really speaks to the muscularity and solidity of the figures. One of the most dynamic displays of classical art I have ever encountered.

Caffe Farnese

Caffe Farnese is probably my favorite daytime cafe in the city. It looks out onto the lovely Piazza Farnese right next to Campo dei Fiori. Great atmosphere, great cappuccinos and tomato juice. This is my friend and I taking an artsy photo there. In the lower right corner, my miniature Italian cell phone makes a cameo appearance.

A view of Caffe Farnese from across the piazza.

Culture

Yesterday was so cultural, I'm really proud of myself. I started off touring La Sapienza with some friends and Sapienza students. La Sapienza is the major university in Rome, and quite an interesting place. It kind of reminds me of UC Berkeley in the campus layout and size.

Image courtesy of La Sapienza's website, www1.uniroma1.it.

In the afternoon, we went to Museo del Corso to see their current Edward Hopper exhibition. It was really interesting for me to see more examples of the differences in common exhibition practice in Italy, compared to American Museums, in both the design and the curatorial aspects. For example, there was a life-sized reconstruction of Hopper's famous Nighthawks, where people could literally walk into the "painting" and sit next to mannequins dressed up like the people. Very surreal. In another room you could take a piece of paper and pencil and trace over a projected image of a Hopper drawing, and then take it home with you. It was much more interactive and theatrical as a whole, and definitely interesting, though not necessarily my cup of tea. Exhibition aside, I am definitely inspired by Hopper's work. He is an incredible colorist and master of composition.

This was my favorite: Le Bistro (The Wine Shop) from 1909. On loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Image from www.museumsyndicate.com. The light is so evocative.

This is my traced drawing:

And a quick sketch I made:



From Museo del Corso, we headed up to Gagosian Gallery, on via Francesco Crispi. They were debuting Richard Serra's new Greenpoint Rounds series of very sculptural (and very marketable) large-scale drawings. I was pretty impressed with the gallery space, and found Serra's take on drawing pretty visually interesting up-close.

Richard Serra. Borges. 2009. Paintstick on handmade paper. Courtesy of gagosian.com.

Our evening was spent at Micca Club, a lively burlesque club with great food, drinks and music.

This is a funny pamphlet I picked up there.

All in all, a pretty accomplished Friday, I'd say.

Campo dei Fiori

Today I was standing next to an orange tree and an orange fell down right at my feet. I am eating it now. It made me remember that I hadn't posted pictures from the lovely outdoor food market at Campo dei Fiori, where oranges and other delicious things practically do fall at one's feet.

This is me, getting really excited about lemons.


Carciofi (artichokes) are a really popular food here, especially the local carciofi alla Romana.



I polished off a couple hundred grams of the green olives in the front in record time yesterday.



Though the food market closes up around 3pm, flowers are sold all day. They are gorgeous!
I go to Campo almost every day because it is near work, and it is always lively, day and night.

Buona Pasqua!

Easter in Rome is pretty spectacular. Though I remain a devout agnostic/sometime virtuous pagan, I really enjoyed participating in the festivities. On Good Friday evening, the Pope narrates the Stations of the Cross in a dramatic ceremony at the Coliseum, complete with fiery crosses.



Here he is, Benedetto XVI.


This was literally inside the Coliseum.

And on a very rainy Easter Sunday, we made it to San Pietro for the Vatican service. It was pretty amazing, though we only made it about half an hour before it was time for a cappuccino.



Piazza San Pietro was packed, though it is incredible how many people can actually fit there. There was a lot of singing and chanting and the Pope did his thing, which concludes my experience of Catholicism's most holy day. Dear readers, consider yourself blessed.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

-Anatole Broyard