Study Abroad: Florence: February 2013

We spent today in the small Tuscan town of Siena, a short hour and 15 minute drive from Florence. Siena is most known for its Piazza Del Campo, comparable to Florence's Piazza Signoria, as the political center and location of the Palazzo Publico, as well as the track for Palio, a bi-annual horse race around the perimeter of the shell-shaped square. Siena's other major site is Santa Maria Del Assunta, the Siena Cathedral. What was supposed to be the largest cathedral in all of Europe turned out to be, over the course of the 160 years it took to build it, a result of multiple architects, ideas, and design changes that have left the finished product with a dome that is off axis, an extra wall where a nave was supposed to be built, and an asymmetric facade (the bottom half and top half do not line up meaning that the vertical line from bottom to top is broken, resulting in the building appearing shorter). While the highly-decorated gothic architecture is impossible to not be impressed with and I give all the credit in the world to the sculptures who carved these decorations, this may be the first cathedral that I dare call somewhat ugly. The latin term Horror Vacui can be used to describe its interior, translating quite literally to "afraid of empty space." With the pictures below, I'll let you decide for yourself.

Here in Florence, also known as our place to stay in between trips, school is in full swing. I've been improving my sketching skills in sketching and drawing where we've been to (and drawn) many galleries and museums around the city. In studio we are beginning the concept and design phase of our information center/cafe/auditorium/gallery for Piazza Ghiberti. Next week is our first midterm exam, a reminder of just how quickly the semester is passing by. Next weekend we will journey with reading cities to Verona and Venice before taking a couple weeks off for midterm juries. After that it is off to Barcelona, and then Paris for spring break. It's been an amazing experience thus far and there is so much ahead to look forward to.

This past weekend we left Italy for the first time to journey to Vienna and Salzburg. Unlike our previous trip to Rome with a class, we booked Austria through a student travel agency called Bus2Alps and our group of 42 consisted of students from Florence and Rome in various colleges and majors. The trip was led by two college graduates working for Bus2Alps who do these trips almost every weekend. We traveled via bus, leaving thursday night and arriving in Vienna at about 7:00 the next morning, just in time for breakfast. After checking into the hostel we met as a group for a tour of the city led by a local guide. He walked us through the market, pointing out the various shops and traditional Austrian food. Vienna is rich with 1900's architecture as it was a lot more willing to accept change than somewhere like Florence. On the tour we saw work by Adolf Loos, Coop Himmelblau and Otto Wagner, as well as the Vienna Succession building, symbolizing the birth of Art Nouveau. We also saw the Vienna State Opera house, one of the top five opera houses in the world, as well as the building in which Beethoven first preformed his 5th symphony. The tour ended at St. Stephen's cathedral, build at the height of the gothic period. The word gothic actually originated in Italy as a derogatory term for "Germanic" architecture, which they believed to be barbaric (and hypocritically went on to build anyway). However, Italian Gothic architecture never reached the amount of ornamentation which you will find in Germany, Austria and France due to the Italian patrons firing any architect who appeared to be "too Gothic" (whatever that means). Compared to previous cathedrals I've posted, you can easily see the difference in St. Stephen's. What stands today is actually a reconstruction using the original salvaged pieces of the church which burned down during the war. Like our tour guide said, "Austria was great at starting wars and awful at winning them." This is why much of the exterior appears to be black and burnt. At the conclusion of our tour we split up to find lunch. My goals for Austrian cuisine were to try the original Frankfurt which was invented in Vienna, apple strudel which is Vienna's other specialty, some good sausage, the original Salzburg pretzel, and anything with the word "schnitzel" in it. For lunch we knocked off the first two, finding a street vendor (don't think american street vendor..not the same) surrounded by locals where I got a frankfurt, and then ate apple strudel at a cafe our tour guide recommended. It was by far the best "hotdog" (I hesitate to place it in the same category) I've ever had, being served with a roll hollowed out and filled with ketchup and dark mustard before the frankfurt was placed inside. After returning from lunch we made our way to the Schnapp's museum for a private group tour. The Schnapp's museum is run by the original producer of flavored liqueur and was the official supplier for the royal family of Vienna. After being given a history of the company as well as a explanation of the different flavors and how they are made, we were given the opportunity to choose a few samples of any liqueur the Schnapp's museum has ever produced, including the king's official drink, an orange flavored cognac with flakes of 24 karot gold (I guess the gold jewelry, coins, scepter, and crown wasn't enough for him?). Returning from the museum, we took the subway towards the Vienna State Opera house to wait in line for standing room tickets to the performance of Salome that night. While seats cost well over $100 a piece, standing room tickets can be purchased the day of the performance for 3-4 euro. Our tickets were for the upper left balcony. The view of the stage was somewhat interrupted by the angle and height but the area presented a great view of the opera house as a whole. Being only an hour and 45 minute show, it was bearable to stand through it, and was definitely worth the experience of seeing an opera in one of the top locations in the world. Though the performance was done in German (the official language of Austria), small screens at each seat and standing place provided english subtitles for us to follow along. The next morning we concluded our trip to Vienna at the Schönbrunn palace (where they drank all the gold). The palace itself was massive, but even more massive were the gardens which surrounded it. Because it was still winter, the grounds were unfortunately covered in snow instead of grass, however, this led to us having a snowball fight outside the palace instead, which I'm sure thrilled a lot of people. We then checked out of the hotel and began the three hour journey to Salzburg. Salzburg, Austria is known for being the birthplace of Mozart, as well as the location in which The Sound of Music took place and was filmed. Naturally, we watched the movie on the way to Salzburg, arriving just as it was finishing. Much smaller than Vienna, the town itself is beautiful and in many ways representative of the relationship between Rome and Florence. After checking in we went on a walking tour. Like Florence, Salzburg is separated by a river with several bridges. One is known as the "love lock" bridge as its sides are filled with locks placed by couples with their names inscribed on them (or written on with sharpie if you are the cheap type). After seeing the Salzburg cathedral, we ate a traditional pretzel in the plaza (another check for the cuisine list). From the plaza one can see the Salzburg Fortress which towers over the town. The fortress is the largest preserved fortress in Europe and features a tram system to take you up and down the cliff. For dinner we went to a traditional beer hall which was like a giant cafeteria full of Austrians in traditional garb, surrounded by shops selling sausages (another check), and shelves of mugs to be filled with beer. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The next morning, while some of the group was on the Sound of Music tour seeing all the locations in which the movie was filmed, the rest of us climbed up to the fort for an amazing view of Salzburg from above. The fort itself was awesome, like a small town surrounded my walls. After taking in the view and exploring the keep, we made our way down using the tram this time. Before getting on the bus to head home, we stopped for a quick lunch and I got a schnitzelburger (final check!). The trip home, though long, was through the alps which were breathtaking. Breathtaking enough that many people called it home with towns at the bases, valleys, and even directly on the mountainside. When the houses started to turn yellow and adopt red clay roofs, we knew we were back in Italy, home base for a few days until our next trip: Siena.