The morning we left Venice, all 50ish of us boarded a coach bus and headed to Vicenza to visit one very specific building: Villa Rotunda. Since freshmen year, this house has been drilled into our brains. Palladio designed a perfectly symmetrical villa situated on top of a hill. He used perfect geometries (squares, circles) to create this classic form. I loved the framing of views and the connection to the town and to nature. There were a few things that surprised me though. One: I thought the villa would have been dead center on top of the hill, but on all four sides, the portico opens out into something different. Specifically in the back, the portico comes out but then there's only maybe five feet of space before you hit the wall that surrounds the area. Two: the gate from the street isn't on center/parallel with the front of the villa. However, it lived up to my expectations (at least from the exterior). Unfortunately the interior wasn't open to the public that day.
After sketching and photographing, we all got back on the bus and drove towards Verona. We made a quick stop at a random gas station/bus stop to grab lunch and kept going. When we arrived, we quickly checked in, dropped off our stuff, and headed out to the piazzas to sketch and analyze.
Our first piazza was Piazza delle Erbe, the oldest square in Verona. It was actually a great space. In the center is an "island" where all the markets are set up, and then along one edge are cafes and restaurants. The other edge is dedicated to vehicular traffic going through the space. There are also monuments and roads which create a major and minor axes through the square.
From there, we followed the minor axis and went through two archways into Piazza dei Signori. Side note about the archway: hanging from one of the arches (the one closest to Piazza delle Erbe) is a rib bone of a whale. Legend says that the bone will fall when someone who has never told a lie walks under it. That'll be the day... Anyway, Piazza dei Signori was a much quieter space. I actually enjoyed it more because it was less chaotic and much more formal. Each entrance into the square was covered by an archway. All the buildings that enclose the square are historic buildings (I believe they're government buildings) and in the center is a statue of Dante (author of Dante's Inferno and Divine Comedy). When Dante was exiled in Florence, he fled to Verona and sought protection from Cangrande I during the early 1300s. He actually lived in one of the buildings that faces the piazza.Time for a funny/gross story. Just as we sat down around Dante's statue and started sketching, a pigeon shit ALL OVER Sarah. It wasn't even like one plop or anything; no, this pigeon was messed up. The poop was bright, mustard yellow, and it was like a shotgun went off on the back of Sarah's head. It got all over her hair (poor Jeri helped to clean it up and gagged the whole time) and on her backpack. I missed the attack by mere centimeters because I was RIGHT next to Sarah. The minute I heard the noise and saw yellow on Sarah, I jumped away from Dante's statue. Ughhhh it was so gross, but I could not stop laughing. The ironic part is that Sarah HATES birds, and out of all the people to poop on, this pigeon singled out Sarah. Needless to say, Sarah headed straight back to the hotel and showered as thoroughly as possible. I took pictures, but I won't post them to save Sarah from embarrassment.
Once Sarah returned, we finished sketching and just hung out around Piazza delle Erbe. I did some souvenir shopping and ate a fruit cup as I wandered around. Once everybody was finished, we walked a few steps over to Juliet (Giulietta)'s house which is completely touristy. As you enter the courtyard, the walls of the entrance are covered in names of "lovers" (such a funny word to me). Supposedly by writing each person's name, their love is supposed to be everlasting. To the right side of the tunnel is a metal enclosure with little holes where people can drop off their letters to Juliet, and to the left is some sort of photo viewer (the description/instructions were covered by peoples' names). In the courtyard is Juliet's balcony (where she famously asked "O Romeo, O Romeo, wherefort art thou Romeo?") as well as a statue of Giulietta herself. Legend says if you rub her right breast, you're supposed to have good luck in love. So naturally, we made like tourists and posed with Giulietta. On the opposite side of the balcony is a gate that's covered by locks. I've seen locks on various objects (usually bridges) in a few cities around Europe, and they're supposed to represent a couple's love. Usually names are written/engraved on the lock and the key is thrown into the river/ocean/something. And conveniently next to the gate is a gift shop, where a lock is 7 Euros! Silly.
To end the night, we all went to our hotel rooms and sketched... lame; I know, but our sketchbooks were getting graded the next day.
In the morning, we only had one destination: Castelvecchio. This is a castle-converted-into-a-museum, renovated by Carlo Scarpa around the 60s. Just like the Querini Stampalia Museum, there are fantastic details all around. My favorite design is a set of steel stairs. Each step is the shape of a J. The short side is bolted into the wall, and the long side is bolted at the top into the floor plate. The first three steps before the landing are mirrored vertically; the long end goes straight to the floor and the short end is again bolted to the wall. Plain and simple, it was sexy.
We had some free time after exploring the castle, so we finished souvenir shopping (I bought a mini statue of Giulietta!) and bought some snacks for our afternoon bus ride which would last seven hours...In the middle of our commute, we stopped by a town in northern Italy (no idea what it was called). It was a nice little town, not really touristy. I found it interesting that most of the people spoke German, which was comforting to hear after being away from Berlin for a week.
Finally, we arrived at our final European city: Munich.
No comments:
Post a Comment