DAY ONE
We left early thursday morning from Florence and took the Frecciarossa towards Rome. Unlike the regional train to Assisi, the Frecciarossa maintained 150 mph, made no stops, and completed the trip in 1 hour and 20 minutes, about 3 times faster than the regional would have. The quick trip allowed for a full day of touring and after dropping things off at the Hotel Navona, we made our way to our first stop, the Ara Pacis Museum by Richard Meier. This contemporary building which sits in the historic district of Rome was the center of much controversy at the time of its construction due to its modern nature. Richard Meier, a member of the so-called "New York Five," is classified in modern architecture as one of "The Whites" because of his..well..use of white. Meier has gone so far as to mix a custom white paint which he feels is neither too warm or too cool, claiming that the beauty of utilizing white is that one can see all the colors of the rainbow inside it. The Romans apparently did not agree, claiming instead that it's ugly presence stood out against the beauty of the surrounding antiquity. Even as we arrived in the pouring rain, the structure did stand out, however, I believe it is just as important to look at the museum's function as it is to critique its curb appeal. The purpose of the design is to house the Ara Pacis, the Alter of Peace, hailed as a masterpiece of Augustan sculpture. The juxtaposition between the old enveloped within the new is what I found to be the most intriguing. Though the ornamentation differs significantly, the two structures share the same ideologies of pureness and proportion. This in many ways reflects Rome as a whole; the coexistence of new and old, and in that way I find the building to be quite successful. Opinions on appearance I suppose is a matter of personal personal but as an architecture student who has studied the modern style I was very impressed.
After lunch we made our way towards Vatican City to see St. Peter's Basilica. Approaching from the east, a road runs from the river straight towards the church, creating a sort of procession until it empties out into the giant, circular St. Peter's square (circular square?). Prior to a change in the urban fabric at the time of Mussolini (bulldozing a street from the square to the river with little concern for what was in between), the small streets lined with tall buildings would suddenly open up into the giant St. Peter's square, creating an effect that is no longer present. While the long procession with the dome rising at the end is also a nice effect, your inclination to walk in the center of the street to fully experience the perspective (and get a nice photo) is spoiled by your greater desire to not be hit by one of the many buses that frequent the road. You'll have to wait until you get to the square to get a head on view, which sort of defeats the purpose. Preserved however, is the procession into the church through the colonnade which lines the square on either side. While today you'll stand in line to send your belongings through a metal detector instead of gallantly steering your thundering horse-drawn carriage towards the entrance, you can always pretend.
The interior of St. Peters is indescribable and unlike anything that I have ever seen before. From floor to the tip of the cross of the highest dome, St. Peters measures 130 meters. If you are like me and have no idea what that means, its equal to about 426.5 feet. You could comfortably store the Florence Cathedral inside. You could put Millennium Force next to the Dome and have 126 feet to spare. The ceiling over the central nave is the second highest in the world at 151 feet, thats 25 of me stacked on top of each other. I do all these comparisons simply because the space inside is literally too large to photograph (and because I have a lot of respect for whoever was in charge of building 150 feet of scaffolding, laying the ceiling, waiting for it to dry, praying, pulling out the scaffolding and then running for their lives as the vaults had, at least 100 years earlier at the time of the Florence cathedral's construction, a collapse rate of about 50%). Even more impressive is the decoration and sculptures that cover every inch of the interior and exterior. My favorite piece of art in the cathedral is the baldachin which shelters the tomb of St. Peter. Designed by Bernini, the giant bronze and gilded canopy is supported by four decorative Solomonic spiral columns. Due to the small crowds of the offseason, we ended up coming back to St. Peters a couple more times over the course of the weekend.
DAY TWO
After breakfast in the hotel we made our way to the Roman forum for a tour led by a professor of archeology. Due to his experience, he was able to give us a chronology of the forum, as it had been destroyed, rebuilt, and changed for centuries. The lower portions tend to be the oldest, and the highest portions the newest, as the earth builds up over time. Archaeologists have pieced together remains which they have found from each period of time, meaning that overall, a lot of what is standing now was never standing together. It makes for an interesting place to explore the differences between Rome as a monarchy, republic, and empire. After the forum we walked up Palatine hill, the historical location of all the most powerful figures homes. For good reason, the view was amazing. From the top of the hill, one could view the colosseum below. It was nice to see grass and trees again, my favorite being the stone pine which we coined "the broccoli tree." We could not have had better weather to view it all either. Our guide, who has lived in Rome for many years even pulled out his camera, saying that it was rare to see the sky so clear. After the tour we made our way down to the colosseum where we were free to explore the inside. The most amazing thing about it was how very not abnormal the whole layout was. Our stadiums today take so much from the Roman's original design. After finding lunch we made our way back to the Vatican where I sat on the steps in the sun and sketched. We then decided to climb to the top of the dome via the 552 steps. Its possible to take the elevator at a higher cost but it only gets you about a third of the way there, and only covers the easier part of the climb. The top of the dome gave us a birds-eye view of the city in its entirety. The best view was looking down onto the square from above and seeing the line run all the way out to the Tiber river. Although we attempted to stay and watch the sunset, the dome closed just as it was happening. After the climb back down, we went back to the hotel to find somewhere for dinner. We ended up going to a very small and traditional italian family restaurant off the beaten path. There we had the house wine with traditional bread. I ordered the pasta carbonara with a cream sauce and thick chunks of bacon, and for dessert some delicious tiramisu.
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| Carving Carrots |
DAY THREE
On Saturday we left the center of Rome and took the tram out to visit Zaha Hadid's MAXXI Museum, Nervi's Olympic Stadium, and Renzo Piano's Auditorium Parco Della Musica. The MAXXI museum, besides being in Zaha's curvilinear style, housed an exhibit on Le Corbusier which contained many of his sketchbooks, models, and drawings. The second floor was almost entirely dedicated to architectural models including a structural model of the Olympic Stadium right down the street. On one wall they had models of every submission for the MAXXI museum's design side by side with the name of the submitting firm above. Although I'm not always into the whole curvy, "organic" sort of architecture due to it many times completely disregarding its surroundings and it need to function properly, Zaha was subtle in the MAXXI museum and the sweeping curves make sense. While walking through the space you slowly find more and more pieces on display and as you go you never really knew where the exhibit ends until you find the other side. Next was Renzo Piano's auditorium which is actually a complex of three auditoriums, each increasing in size. It is home to the national Santa Cecilia orchestra. Each auditorium is made of a lead "shell" which helps to prevent any exterior noise from leaking into the concert hall. The effect is something that looks kind of like an armadillo, but the way that the three of them are placed around the piazza creates a dynamic space. On the interior of the concert halls, acoustics are the number one priority. Each room has a different shaped ceiling based on its size and the layout of the seats. In every auditorium there are fabric drapes which can be either lowered over the walls to dampen the space, or raised to brighten it. After seeing Nervi's Olympic Stadium, famous for it's use of reinforced concrete, we decided to go back to the Vatican for saturday night mass. It was a rush to get there and a process to get in, but how many people can say they've been to mass at the Vatican? I didn't understand a word that was said (I could pick out "god", "drink" and "peace"), but mass was located in a chapel which is shut from view by a large curtain, allowing us to see part of the church that is not normally visible. I realize while writing this that chronically this is going to sound funny, but after mass at the Vatican we went to check out the Steeler bar (yes there is one in Rome) and then found an Irish Pub (yes there are a lot in Rome) to get dinner and watch the hockey game.
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| My Point Exactly. |
DAY FOUR (if you're still with me)
Our last day in Rome began with a Baroque tour of the various churches and monuments in the area. Stops included San Luigi dei Francesci which houses Caravaggio's first public painting, Santa Maria della Pace by Pietro da Cortona, S. Ivo alla Sapienza by Francesco Borromini, the "Spanish Steps," and finally Piazza del Popolo. At the Piazza del Popolo we watched part of Carnival Roma consisting of people in costumes and mach gladiator battles. We made our way up the hill back towards the top of the Spanish Steps for a view over the city. Coming down the Spanish Steps (called the spanish steps due to their proximity to the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See) we walked until we found a nice restaurant which, although usually expensive, had a deal for lunch as they many times do. There I ordered a margarita pizza which came with traditional brushetta as an appetizer. After lunch we made our way to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a Roman temple dedicated to all of the pagan gods. Today it has been transformed into a christian church but its dome still remains the largest poured concrete non-reinforced dome in the world. It is most recognizable for its 30 foot oculus at the top of the dome, which is a structural engineering feat even by todays standards. The pictures I had seen in classes did not truly do it justice as it was not until I was standing inside that I realized how amazing it was that the dome was standing at all. With that we concluded our trip to Rome, making our way back to the train station in route for Florence. Whew.
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| Painted Perspective of a Dome, Actually Flat! |
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| Skinny Columns |
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| Caravaggio's First |
Next up...Vienna and Salzburg.
Fantastic man! You are really doing a good job of capturing the experience, and reliving the details. Have fun, and keep posting!
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