SAST Wingees » Italy

Italy Moblog #9

Sukumar — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 00:11:00 +0000

We left Venice at 8 AM on a 8-hour bus ride and reached Rome at 4PM. The ride was made enjoyable by a small detour through the picturesque Chianti area in Tuscany.

Once we reached the hotel, we took a cab and reached the Campidoglio and checked out the Museo Capitolini (Capitol Museum). This is another famous museum with some very important works like the She-wolf bronze (a wolf suckling Romulus and Remus the mythic founders of Rome), Venus, Dying Gaul, Phidias’s Amazon Woman dated to the 5th Century BC. We also saw the gigantic head, foot and hand of Constantine.

The head was 5-times the size of the David statue we had seen in Florence. Probably the Constantine statue would have been 100 feet tall to have a head of that size. Wonder how it would feel to see the entire statue intact. There were also some excellent paintings at the museum by Veronese, Tintoretto, Guercino and other great painters.

They allowed us to take pictures of the paintings in this museum – the only one that we visited where this was posisble. So that was cool.
However, in general, the documentation in this museum was bad, making you wonder whether its an elaborate ruse to make you hire guides or buy their books. All the same, considering that its a very important museum, I hope they improve the documentation before our next visit.

Then we walked to the Fontane de Trevi (Trevi Fountain). Its called Trevi because 3 streets converged onto the fountain in the olden days. Now, 6 streets are converging. This is a spectacular fountain made by another famous artist – Salvi. It has the God Neptune astride his chariot at the top and water flowing in all directions with many mythical and real animals below the God. Its a huge fountain – the mother of all fountains. As is customary, I swung a coin into the fountain for good luck. The visit to the fountain was a fitting finale to our Italy trip.

We then had a quick dinner at one of the restaurants and made our way back to our hotel. We got up early in the morning the next day and reached the US in the afternoon. The customs counter on the exit in Rome was a nightmare – multiple queues were converging on the same official, there were too few officials and many of the officials were yelling something in Italian! On the whole it was a fish market or a zoo – not something in a place like Rome where so many tourists come and spend their hard-earned money. On the whole, this turned out to be another unforgettable trip.

Arrivederci Roma! (as they say in Rome).

P.S.
1. Ganesh, I saw your comment on the previous entries. I didn’t see it untill today and so I missed the gelateria at the fountain. Too bad. 2. In a moblog, i just email the text to a certain address and the text appears as a blog post. Thats what I did. I did not have web access. If any of the other posters want to use this technique, please let me know.

Italy Moblog #8

Sukumar — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 14:10:00 +0000

Yesterday was a relaxed day, so decided to not write. Here is yesterday’s account. We left the hotel at 8am on our Venice tour.

We reached the San Marco square which is the major center in Venice. Our first stop was at the Murano Vecchio glass factory. We saw first hand how the famed Murano glassware is made. Two experienced workers were making them. Their seamless coordination and the way they made the beautful glass was very interesting.

Then the tour guide gave us a sales pitch which we weren’t quite prepared for and proceeded to explain how wonderful all the stuff on sale is. Definitely the beauty of these glass objects is something to be seen. But everything seemed so expensive but so tempting to buy.

From there we went to the San Marco church – nearly a 1000-year-old one. The domes were organized to represent a Greek cross.

Our next stop was the San Marco square and we looked at where Napoleon Bonaparte lived when he conquered Venice. The square didn’t look as impressive as it looked during the night. There were thousands of pigeons roaming the square and it made for a nice spectacle.

The next stop was the Doge’s Palace. The Doge is an interesting concept – Doge was an elected ceremonial head of the government and lived in the palace and presided over the senate, council etc but had no power. Doge is what you get if the Queen of England was elected – ceremonial figurehead.

The palace is beautiful and is typical of any such thing in Italy – ist filled with paintings and sculptures. There were too major ones worth mentioning – Veronese’s masterpiece in the celing of the Senate. The ceiling instead of having a fresco actually had framed paintings by Veronese mounted on it. It is spectacular.

Then in the Grand Council Hall, we saw Tintoretto’s masterpiece mounted on the ceiling in the same way. In both instances the best painting was right above the throne of the Doge. Our tour ended around 11am.

We walked back to the hotel after lunch. We passed through the Realto bridge which offers some excellent views of the canals and some excellent shopping as well. It was a long walk but one filled with a lot of window shopping. These Murano glassworks are too tempting. We reached the hotel around 2 PM and took a siesta till 4PM.

Then after a cup of coffee, we reached the Jewish Ghetto that Priya wanted to see. The word Ghetto originates from a Geto – a foundry here in Venice. The Jews were not allowed to go outside the ghetto after certain hours of the day. There were a couple of synagogues in this area, but were closed by the time we reached there.

It was around 6.30pm, so we decided to have dinner at the Ghetto Vecchio (“Old Ghetto”). We found a jewish restaurant – Gam Gam. It was a wonderful dinner. We had the best Falafel we’ve ever had. That’s saying a lot because we eat Middle Eastern cuisine atleast once every 2 weeks.

After that, we roamed around – checked out the Venice Train station. The trains looked pretty good – probably not as good as the ones we had seen in Switzerland, but pretty good. We then headed back to the hotel and chatted with some of our tour group members and hit the bed at 10pm.

We left Venice today at 8am on a long bus ride back to Rome. More to come.

Italy Moblog #7

Sukumar — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 20:26:00 +0000

We left the Jolly Hotel in Florence (Firenze to Italians) around 8am. Our tour bus hit the road to go towards Venice with a short stop in Verona. We reached Verona around 12 noon.

We first did the most touristy thing you can do in Italy – check out Juliet’s balcony in Verona. There is no record of Shakespeare having been in Verona ever, but since the story of Romeo and Juliet is set here, you have to assume that he did, atleast for the sake of tourists. This place is complete with Juliet’s bronze statue and even a sarcophagus!

After that we had a quick lunch and had enough time to take a peek at the ruins of the Arena – a smaller version of the Colosseum in Verona. We left Verona around 1.30 pm and reached our hotel in Venice around 3.30pm.

Our hotel Carlton is right on the famous Grand Canal. At 4PM we did the Gondola Serenade tour on the Grand Canal. Going on the Gondola through Venice looking at the nice old buildings and nice hotels. It is a great experience. We came back to the hotel and after a cup of coffee we left at 5pm on our Venetian Night Out tour on a small cruise boat.

We passed through the Realto Bridge – the first bridge on the Grand Canal and reached the spectacular San Marco square (St. Mark’s). With the brightly lit facades, the sight of this square at night is something. Took some pictures but I’m not sure one can capture this beauty that easily. We had a good dinner at the All Angel’s restaurant where Picasso and other great artists have frequented.

Venice is a unique town owing to the system of canals that serve as the thoroughfares. The buildings, atleast some of them are very stylish and exude a certain old world charm. Venice does live up to its Queen of the Adriatic epithet.

Tomorrow also we’ll be spending in Venice. More to come.

Italy Moblog #6

Sukumar — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 22:34:00 +0000

BTW, forgot to mention in yesterday’s entry about the Raphael Section in the Sistine Chapel. We could not visit that due to lack of time. Too bad.

Our tour started today at 8am. Our starting point was at the Galleria dell’Accademia. Just when we thought we had seen it all in the Vatican Museum, Florence takes us to the next level.

Here in the Accademia, we took in the jaw-dropping David by Michelangelo. Its a 16-foot-tall imposing marble statue with remarkably accurate anatomical features down to the carotid artery in the jugular and the tendons above the knees. Later we learnt that Michelangelo dissected cadavers at the age of 16 to understand the human body intimately. This is considered to be one of the greatest sculptures of all time. He made this sculpture right after the Pieta we saw in the Vatican. He was just 26 years of age and it took him 2 years and 4 months to make this sculpture.

We also saw some incomplete works of Michelangelo including another Pieta. Apparently he made totally 4 Pietas.

There were a few other good paintings in the Academia but David makes anything else sub-par. We also saw a bronze statue of Michelangelo himself.

Then we walked through the city to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore – one of the largest churches in the world. The facade is made of pink, green and white marble. A competition was run to chose the designer for the dome. Fillippo Brunelleschi won the competition and designed the dome which is another engineering marvel. At that time to put such a large dome at that height was not considered possible. Brunelleschi invented some new techniques. First, he designed the dome in 2 layers with a gap in between which reduced the overall weight of the dome. He also used an innovative herringbone design to lay the bricks to give the structure more strength. Brunelleschi’s methods were later widely copied including at the St.Peter’s in Rome.

The inside of the dome holds Georgio Vasari’s version of the Last Judgement and is the world’s largest painting. He is one of the leading disciples of Michelangelo. The cathedral also includes a bell tower designed by Giotto – another famous renaissance artist. We’ll cover him again later.

When we got out of the Cathedral we saw the Heaven’s Doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Interestingly Ghiberti won the competition to design the doors that form the entrance to the Baptistery beating Brunelleschi. This is another fantastic work.

We then reached the Basilica of Santa Croce. At the entrance there is a huge statue of Dante (Divine Comedy fame). We talk of august presence but the inside of Santa Croce should be called super august presence. It contains the tombs of the favorite sons of Florence – Michelangelo Buonarotti, Guglielmo Marconi, Galileo Galilei, Enrico Fermi, Dante Alighieri, Nicolo Machiavelli, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gioachhino Rossini.

We lit a candle and prayed that some of the genius of these people rubs off on us all. It was time for us to start the 1pm tour of the Uffizi Gallery. This gallery is considered to be one of the first modern museums in Europe. Our guide started the tour with Giotto’s paintings which set the stage for later Renaissance artists like Michelangelo and Raphael. He was the first one to give a 3D feel to the paintings. How Giotto himself became a painter is another inspiring story.

The Uffizi Gallery houses the cream of the Renaissance art. Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Da Vinci’s unfinished Adoration of the Magi, Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, Raphael’s portrait of the Pope, Tijiano’s paintings, Caravaggio’s paintings etc. It also houses the largest collection of Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings. With that our tour of Florence was complete.

We had also seen some more interesting sculptures like Giammatti’s Neptune in the Piazzas during our walks through the city. Florence is a beautiful city with the river Arno running through it. We are definitely completely overwhelmed by the sheer talent that had been assembled in Florence, Rome and the rest of Italy.

Clearly, the accomplishments of these great people puts Italy in a different league altogether. Don’t know when and where we’ll see the next assembly of such great talent.

After the tour we walked back to the hotel took some rest and went back to the city for dinner. Our guide had recommended Boldavino’s. What shall we say – it was soul food – a fitting finale to the fabulous day in Florence.

Tomorrow we’re off to Venice with a stop enroute at Verona. More to come.

Italy Moblog #5

Sukumar — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:29:00 +0000

Had to get up at 6am today in order to put the bags outside the room for them to be loaded onto the bus. After breakfast, we reached the Vatican Museum around 8.15 am.

A long line had formed at the entrance already even though the museum opening was still 30 minutes away. It was pretty cold there standing out in the open. No local entrepreneur selling coffee in sight. If someone did that, quite a killing could be made. There were souvenir vendors however.

We finally entered the Vatican Museum around 9am. We saw several rooms filled with paintings, murals, tapestries etc. We also saw a map room with maps from various periods in time. The tapestry room is maintained at a certain temperature, with no direct sunlight, and is inspected every 48 hours for mildew formation.

Some innovative techniques were on display – the 2D painting made to look 3D was fantastic. It has to be seen to be believed. They’ve actually painted the shadows that would have been there if it was truly 3D to bring about the effect in 2D. There were also several rooms containing gifts given to the Pope from different parts of the world.

Finally, we reached the place that embodies possibly the best art from the renaissance world – the Sistine Chapel. Here Michelangelo can be seen at his best. The vault is covered by Michelangelo’s depiction of the Genesis. This also includes the most famous of all – Creation of Adam – Adam lying on earth reaching out to the sky with an extended arm and God doing the same from the sky.

On one of the big walls, you can see Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. He was 60 years old when he painted this and it took him almost 4 years to do. He did it singlehandedly which is amazing. Again this painting has to be seen to be believed. When he painted the Genesis series he was not actually a painter but did it at the behest of the Pope because Raphael, the other famous painter was busy painting some other part of the Vatican.

Considering that he was a newbie, the Genesis series is an expression of pure genius. Over the years, because of the soot from the burning candles, all the paintings in the Sistine Chapel had turned black. A project to restore the paintings was done for 19 years and completed only in the year 2000. Interestingly, the Last Judgement took 12 years to restore with 15 people working, what one man did in 4 years.

Priya remarked that this is similar to software – maintenance is a lot harder than development! The Sistine Chapel also has panels painted by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli etc.

Many people wonder why the Pope who is supposed to be the owner, can’t sell all this art and erase famine from the rest of the world. Our guide said that was not possible due to a law preventing that. We left the awe-inspiring place reluctantly around 11.30 am. It will take a few days to do justice to seeing the Sistine Chapel alone. We have decided to come again to Rome and spend some quality time here. From there, we jumped on the bus and started towards Florence.

We stopped at Pisa to check out the Leaning tower of Pisa – one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. Factoid – the Pisa complex including the tower took almost 500 years to complete starting in 1100 AD. When we reached it was dusk, we barely had enough light to take some pictures. The leaning tower’s facade is still under restoration. Another little mentioned fact, the Duomo (Dome) which is nearby is also tilting a bit. So the same mistake of not realizing that there were sink holes in the soil has been committed twice in the same location – once in the tower and second in the Duomo.

Priya noticed this and asked the guide about it who confirmed. I have a picture as well. When we reached Florence it was around 8pm, in time for dinner. Some interesting facts about Florence – Amerigo Vespucci and Verrazano (of Verrazona Narrows fame) are from this area.

Tomorrow, we’ll be spending the whole day here. More to come.