La Città della Luce

February 18, 2012August 12, 2024Leave a comment

Buongiorno (or should I say bonjour?), amici! You are probably wondering what is taking me so long to get this thing started. Well, I’ve been in Paris for two days, and I haven’t had any downtime for anything other than sleeping. I wrote much of this post at the Orly airport, and I am finishing and posting it from Pisa (tomorrow, I will do a little sightseeing before catching a train to Siena in the afternoon).

I arrived in Paris on Thursday and caught a cab to place de le Bastille. The most prominent structure there now is the Opera, which is glaringly modern.

From there, I took a long walk through Marais, which included a light lunch (an omelette with Roquefort and walnuts) at a chic teahouse called Le Loir dans le Theiere (the doormouse in the teapot).

Its walls sporting advertisements for local theatre and music events plus a hand-painted Alice in Wonderland themed mural, Le Loir appears to be a popular spot for Parisians of all ages; there was hardly room to move around the tables, and I was seated at what was probably the last open chair, at a table with a few teenagers visiting from Switzerland. The omelette and the tea were sublime.

I strolled from Marais across the river and made a lap around the east end of Île de la Cité.

Most notably, I circled around Notre Dame. Check out those flying buttresses.

And around to the facade!

After my walk, I hopped on the metro to my hotel on rue de Rennes. I didn’t get much else done that day; jet lag was starting to set in, so I wandered out for a quick dinner and went to bed soon after. The jet lag didn’t last, fortunately, and I woke up the next morning ready for a very long day.

I had a chocolate pastry for breakfast at a corner patisserie, and then set off for Île de la Cité via metro. I started at Sainte-Chapelle, the outside of which is a little dull (the Gothic style is similar to Notre Dame but on a smaller scale) and the inside of which is beyond amazing.

The first floor is notable for the brightly-painted ceiling and arches.

The second is notable for some of the most intricate stained glass you’ll ever see. The 14 windows depict the entire Christian history of the world, from Genesis to the Apocalypse.

Sainte-Chapelle was comissioned in the 13th century by King Louis IX to house several relics, including the Crown of Thorns. These relics are now kept in a more secure location, though it is occasionally brought out for display in the elevated pulpit.

(Open this one up for a higher-resolution view, to see more detail of the stained glass:)

After Sainte Chapelle, I returned to Notre Dame and went inside.

Notre Dame (“Our Lady”) de Paris is another Gothic cathedral, with architectural features similar to the duomi of Siena and Milan. Construction began in 1163 and continued until roughly 1345, though it has undergone frequent repairs, remodels, and reconstruction (particularly after the French Revolution, during which many historical sites were vandalized). Its 7,800-pipe organ (not pictured, though goodness knows I tried), made by François-Henri Clicquot, was installed in the 1700s and rebuilt a century later by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.

Inside, there is a memorial to Joan of Arc, who led the French army during the Hundred Years’ War. The decision to declare her a martyr was made at Notre Dame some 25 years after her death.

Look at the painted detail of the stained glass (close-up from the treasury).

Leaving the cathedral, on the wall to the right of the door, there are statues of angels and a saint (I haven’t been able to find out who) holding his own decapitated head.

Who are all these guys on the front (again, open it up for a higher resolution view)?

These twenty-eight statues represent the Kings of Judah, distant ancestors of Mary and Jesus, though they also are said to represent historical kings of France. Fun fact: the statues were actually beheaded during the French Revolution. One assumes that new heads were sculpted some time after, as most of the heads were not even recovered until 1977.

That is all for the moment! Check back soon for further adventures in the City of Light.

2012!

January 10, 2012August 12, 2024Leave a comment

Belated Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

It’s 2012 already. I’ve had an eventful year–working hard and recovering from my injury–and I’m happy to announce that I will be going abroad again from February 15th to March 15th of this year. I am extremely excited to return to Italy, and have also planned to spend some time in Paris. I hope you will travel vicariously through me again this year!

I will update later with more details as the departure date draws closer. For now, here are some photos to tide you over–these are a few last shots from Florence that never made it onto the blog last year. (I’m getting nostalgic just looking at them.)

A presto, belli!

February 18: Museo Lamborghini

March 9, 2011August 12, 20241 Comment

As of yesterday, I am back at work full-time, which is both a delight and a tragedy. On one hand, I’m an utter workaholic, and I do like my job; on the other, I had so many things I wanted to do before going back that getting so egregiously sick pretty thoroughly prevented me from doing. Well, at least I still have time for this blog!

I mentioned previously that Friday the 18th involved a trip to a very special museum. I’m sure you all have been dying to find out what it was (well, except for some of you clever people who’ve figured out how to view my Flickr photostream).

To get to the museum, from Bologna, you can either take a bus for an hour, or you can take a train for a half-hour and a bus for ten minutes and hope that the bus-train schedules match up efficiently. (I did the latter, and realized the next day that the bus I could’ve taken stopped literally a ten-minute walk from my hotel.) The train drops you at a tiny station in the middle of the country, with fields as far as the eye can see. You walk along the one road away from the station to the center of the nearby town, which consists of a few stores around an old arch and a bus station; you catch a bus to the town of Sant’Agata Bolognese, which is literally a church and a few houses in the middle of nowhere. There is a road; on the road is a sign that points to Bologna in one direction and Modena in the other. You walk along the road towards Modena.

Fortunately, it’s only a few minutes before your destination is within sight. It’s pretty big; combine its size with the flags out front, and it’s pretty hard to miss.

The museum itself is actually rather small, which isn’t a surprise considering that the rest of the complex is the factories of Automobili Lamborghini.

Museo Lamborghini contains a collection of the more noteworthy vehicles produced by the famous Italian automaker. The first floor is largely made up of older cars, including the first production model (the red 350GT, 1964) and examples of groundbreaking or beloved automobili from the company’s first thirty or so years.

An early Miura (the P400S, 1968), for example, showcases both the beginnings of the classic Lambo look and the innovative thinking that has made Lamborghini successful.

The lower floor is arranged in chronological order, so as you walk around it, you can see how the models changed over time, both in aesthetic and in function. Each car has a plaque in Italian, English, and German that explains points of interest relating to its engineering, history, and power.

You can also look at parts of a disassembled engine.

Throughout the museum are a number of assembled engines as well. They are huge! I mean, logically, I know this, but it’s really hard to appreciate what a five- or six-liter engine actually translates to in terms of real space until you have seen one up close.

The second floor of the museum houses more recent models – Diablos, Countachs, a car on the wall, some racing models, more engines…

In 2004, Lamborghini donated a pair of Gallardos to the Bologna police.

These cars are equipped with state-of-the-art radio communication, plus special compartments for transporting blood, fluids, and organs for transplant and transfusion. Considering that year’s Gallardo’s official top speed is in excess of 190 miles per hour, I’d say that they are being put to good use!

Oh, right, and there was a Murciélago mounted on the wall.

Further proof of my theory that the Lambo philosophy is as follows: “Why? Because we can.”

But let’s step back for a moment.

Look back up to the first photo of the second floor and note the dark gray car in the background, behind the beige Diablo.

That is the Lamborghini Reventón, possibly my favorite vehicle in the universe. I find it remarkable not just for being one of the fastest street-legal cars in the world (over 210 miles per hour), but for a number of engineering features which you can bet I will tell you about at length shortly! It has the added bonus of not being as butt-ugly as some of the cars that could actually beat it in a race. As a matter of fact, I find this car pretty attractive.

The overall design was inspired by modern fighter jets; note the air intakes and the design of the wheels. I love the headlights (which have influenced those of the more recent Gallardos) and the angles of the body around the rear wheels.

The tail lights are distinct (if I spot a newer Lambo on the road, sometimes I recognize these before I recognize the body of the car itself), and every line on this car is aggressive.

The chassis and the engine of the Reventón are the same as the Murciélago, but the exterior is new, lighter, made of a carbon fiber composite with a metallic green-gray matte finish. The instrument panel is entirely LCD, and can switch between two modes of display: traditional, and awesome–which is to say, made to resemble the panel of a high-tech fighter jet, including a G-force meter (note: I may have deviated slightly from official terminology).

Okay, we can give other things some attention now.

A Diablo and a GT:

A series of photographs and concept sketches, presenting a history of Lamborghini from the 1960s and on:

The 25th Anniversary Countach, made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company in 1988, and a Miura concept:

I admit to liking the Countach’s general design philosophy, which seems to be, “does it look high-tech enough for you yet?”. It actually has this appealing post-modern ’80s retro look to it, albeit designed in the ’70s. Marcello Gandini: time traveler? Or just that good?

Anyway.

I love the hub caps on the Diablo:

But not as much as I love those on the Reventón.

Why are they shaped like that? When it comes to Lamborghini, a fair answer in any situation would be “because it’s badass!”, but there is always more to it than that. In this case, the fanblade-shaped spokes actually help to channel air around the brakes and up towards the engine, thus cooling the whole system more efficiently at high speeds.

The Reventón is also the first Lambo to feature LED running lights, probably influenced by Audi.

Only 21 Reventóns were produced – 20 for sale, and one more that you see right here. They were unveiled in 2007–and funnily enough, by the time that the general public knew of their existence, all 20 models had been sold.

Probably for the best, given the before-tax base price of one million euro, making it the second most expensive street-legal car in the world.

All right, all right, enough of this.

I went to the gift shop afterwards and bought a cute little model Reventón.

Next up: well, there’s only one more post that I have planned, but it’s about my last days in Florence, so I hope you will enjoy it.

Ciaociao!

February 16-17: Bologna

March 5, 2011August 12, 2024Leave a comment

Once I left Venice, I spent a couple days in Bologna, since my professor had recommended it and there was a site in a small town nearby that I wanted to see. I didn’t really know what to expect, since I hadn’t heard much about the place; I’d been there briefly and had lunch at a cafe near the station once, since I had changed trains there a few times, but I’d never seen the historical center or really heard much about it at all.

So, it was a shock.

Bologna is BEAUTIFUL.

The historical center is a medieval maze of beautiful old palaces, fortresses, churches, and towers. The ubiquitous use of red brick and terracotta roofing gives Bologna the nickname La Rossa; the name takes on a double meaning given the city’s post-WWII connections with communism. Even today, it has a comprehensive network of social services, and entrance to most of its museums is completely free.

There is just nothing, nothing like walking down a perfectly ordinary city street, turning a corner, and finding yourself face-to-face with this.

Bologna’s famous Two Towers, dating to medieval times when the city once contained as many as 180 such structures, are one of the most famous symbols of the city, mentioned by Dante and other authors of the time.

And yes – if you think they look slightly askew, it’s not just sloppy perspective. The Two Towers, like another famous Italian landmark, both are leaning slightly.

The University of Bologna is the oldest university in the world and has been operating continually since its foundation in 1088. It is also the first use of the word “university,” derived from the Latin universitas and meaning “aggregate” or “community” in the context of a community of scholars. Today, more than 100,000 students attend every year, and the historical center is full of bars and chic cafes that cater to the younger generation.

Bologna has dozens of prominent museums, many associated with the university: art, music, archaeology, history, science, medicine, and still others.

I could have spent a week in Bologna and still not have been satisfied, but unfortunately I only had a couple of days there and I had to blitz through the museums and interesting sights, hence the lack of in-depth reporting today. So much history, and so little time! I did eat some beautiful meals, though (the food in Bologna is said to be among the best in Italy).

(And now I’m craving buffalo milk mozzarella…)

Next up: my trip to a very special museum, and a subject that is quite dear to my heart.

February 15: San Marco

March 3, 2011August 12, 20241 Comment

Well, then! I’m so sorry for the lack of updates. There are still plenty of photos, rest assured, and I will post them. I just came down with a really nasty cold on Monday and between that and starting work again next week, I’ve been pretty busy.

On my last full day in Venice, it was foggy yet again; I had put off the belltower and San Marco because I wanted a good view, but I wasn’t going to leave Venice without climbing it, the weather be damned. So, I took a vaporetto to the piazza and ducked into the basilica while I waited for the campanile to open.

To backtrack—you’re probably familiar with St. Mark’s Square, as it is one of the largest and most famous piazze in Italy. Wide open (if usually tourist-choked) spaces, absurdly expensive cafés, flocks of pigeons and gulls, vendors selling roses, photographs, t-shirts and souvenirs; it is bordered by the wings of the ducal palace and the ancient administrative buildings, now converted into museums and offices, but the centerpiece is the gilded Basilica di San Marco. Construction of this cathedral began a cool millennium ago and it was completed in the early 17th century. It is a prime example of the Byzantine architectural style, corresponding to the period of Greek rule over what was once the Western Roman Empire; the building exhibits characteristically Byzantine traits such as use of the Greek cross as the floor plan (rather than the Latin cross of later structures), mosaic decoration, and lots and lots of domes.

Having climbed a Duomo or two in my day, I felt a little resentful of the fact that they didn’t let me take the stairs to the top of the bell tower of San Marco, but I guess I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that there was a really good reason that we all had to take the elevator.

Looking down on the cathedral:

Piazza San Marco between the wings of the palaces (now the Museo Correr):

Looking south towards Giudecca and San Giorgio Maggiore:

I still love how everything just disappears into the fog.

Up next: Bologna!

February 14: Le Isole di Vetro e Merletto

February 23, 2011August 12, 2024Leave a comment

Well, I have made it home safe and sound, and am busy getting readjusted to the American way of life (and making lots of appointments for my neck). I can’t say how strange it is to walk into places and speak English! and while I’m sad about the lack of really amazing food, it is nice to be home with my cat.

Since last entry, I went to Bologna for a few days, then returned to Florence for the weekend before going home. Lack of reliable internet means a big backlog of photos to post and things to talk about, so I’ll try to share them all over the next few days!

The fog that I mentioned last entry persisted, and if anything, it was even thicker on Monday. It’s not the kind of thick-as-pea-soup fog that rolls along the landscape in discrete banks; it’s more of a haze, I suppose. It doesn’t significantly impede visibility when navigating on foot or along the canals of the island itself. But when you follow the canals to where they empty out into the sea, or when your vaporetto turns out of Canal Grande and you look out to the horizon—nothing. Just the emerald-green sea stretching out and into the mist.

Between Venice proper and Murano, there’s a small island called San Michele. The whole island is enclosed in a brick wall, with towers and domes reaching up from between the cypresses. San Michele is a cemetery, and there must be hundreds of thousands of graves there. I got quite lost on it, actually, but it was completely beautiful, with flowers of every kind and color adorning the thousands upon thousands of headstones, and a mystical sort of silence broken only by bird calls.

No photos were allowed on the island itself, but I got a few from the boat.

The next stop was Murano, home of hundreds of glass workshops and a Glass Museum that includes Roman-era glass artifacts as well as artwork and functional pieces from the 16th through 20th centuries, and explanations of various glass-making techniques and materials. Naturally, no photos were allowed in the museum (and most of the shops had big signs saying “NO PHOTOS”).

The character of Murano is similar to Venice proper when it comes to the layout of the island and the style of buildings, though it appears less well-kept.

The central part, where the largest canals intersect by the main piazza and the bell tower, showcases this glass sculpture that is actually pretty ugly. I much prefer the chandeliers.

But there is plenty to appreciate about Murano, and it is definitely not limited to the glittery show room displays.

From there, I caught another vaporetto to Burano. It’s a long ride, with nothing between the two islands but miles of fog-veiled ocean and rows of pylons to mark the way, and it is slightly disconcerting (but also really cool) to look back and see that the island you’ve just come from has completely vanished behind you.

Burano’s claim to fame is lace, and the island’s main tourist attraction (other than lace-shopping) is a Lace Museum. The museum is currently closed until spring, which would have been nice to know ahead of time, but I am not bitter, because Burano also surprised me in a good way.

Look at the buildings! I’ve never seen anything like this in Italy, but the buildings are all such bright, varied colors. The entire island is like this, with just about every color you can imagine.

Literally every street is like this.

While I am admittedly not very knowledgeable about or interested in fashion or textiles, and perhaps made some tongue-in-cheek remarks about lace in my trip journal, I will admit that Burano lace is pretty stuff.

It is cool, for lace.

Next on our agenda is Basilica San Marco and the view from the bell tower, so hold tight–when I am a little less jet-lagged, I will post that for you.