A Nakie Boy, a Pretty Boy

Today was the iconic visits to the must see art of Florence. We started at Uffitzi Gallery and the Academy Gallery. Starting with Uffitzi was a very historical view of where art has come from. Seeing the stark Saint paintings, with little perspective then seeing the beautiful Renaissance work, in which they perfected the perspective. One of my favorite to see in person was The Primavera and Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, incredible depth and color to everything. The Renaissance truly was a high in the history of art. The building alone was a sight to see, and had a beautiful view of the River Arno and the amazing Porte Vecchio. Next was over to the Academy Gallery, home of the David and many magnificent works of Michelangelo. One of the highlights for me were his unfinished works, to see the characters come right out of the stone, he often described it as setting them free out of the stone. The David was jaw dropping, even more exquisite than I expected…it’s so cliché here, you see it plastered on every tourist knick-knack around, but really, it’s amazing. The expression on David’s face is meaning full…question, is he going into battle or has he conquered. The look in his eyes to me was facing the giant. I thought it so satirical that David would be huge like a giant…massive! The detail in the hands, the veins up the arms, the flex of the leg…all incredible.
After a trip to…you guessed it Gelato…this one owned by a Sicilian family famous for using their own nuts in the flavoring. I had the almond and hazelnut, oh… my yummy! We then met up as a group to tour the inside of the Duomo and Baptistery. The most exquisite mosaics yet seen, vibrant, shinny, tiny gold tiles. It was so interesting to pick out the familiar stories from the bible, my favorite Noah’s arch. Then inside the Duomo, with amazing pillars and arches framing the ceiling, and beautiful stone inlayed floors. Florence is a refreshing style after the heavy baroque of Rome, there’s a bit of sibling rivalry when it comes to regions of Italy and their claim to fame. Florence is very proud of there history and the work that came out of there.
Together as a group we sat on a bridge across from Porte Vecchio and sketched, I felt like a stuffed creature from Disney Land with all the Japanese snapping my picture, I had no idea we were such an attraction. We then did a few really helpful breakout sketching tutorials with Brady and Laura as our teachers.
Now for me the highlight of Florence, climbing the hill/mountain…it was really big…and seeing the view atop. We also got to hear the chanting of the monks and saw the outskirts of the Tuscan Valley. To pick out the vibrant red dome of the Duomo and see the sea of building was beautiful.
We headed to my favorite restaurant yet, the way I had imagined it to be, Whit and I split some amazing spaghetti, I know sound plain, but done the right was, masterpiece and this really great mozzarella chicken smothered…dripping with a creamy sauce and fresh melted mozzarella cheese. It was such a great night. As we were there enjoying our meal the Japanese group next to us recruited there buddy to sing…who would have thought, another Michael Hung I thought, wrong-o! He was amazing singing an Italian opera powerfully and beautifully, It’s going to be the next big thing on You Tube, just you wait. This was a sweet find to finish up a fantastic day. But, oh were not finished yet…we decided to strap on our laundry outfits…just imagine something like homeless people-minus the shopping cart-but garbage bag in toe and that was us wondering the streets of Florence trying to find a laundry mat…winner we found one at like 10 p.m. my first laundry mat experience, I miss my whirlpool! But a funny night with my fav traveling buddies Mal and Whit. We were excited to plan our adventures for our free day in Florence!

Florence…Here we Come!
Today was transfer day…my very first train ride…how sheltered am I! After a wrestle with my luggage…the luggage won! Off cross country to Florence. I was really excited…I’ve always wanted to see the Tuscan valley. Florence had a completely different scene...the architecture was decorated with mosaics and colorful inlays!...what magnificent workmanship! Once there we headed to our…well I’ll use the word hotel…but I think hole in wall is a little better fit! Hot, Yellow, Dingy! But none the less a place to lay my head… if I dare. P.S. Sorry for all the exclamation points! We next meet up with Tanya our next tour guide…take it away. First, the Santa Maria Novella, Florence’s architecture is so different, unique and exquisite. We took a tour around town…a bit of a blur…that’s a lot of info to take in. It was so great to see the palaces that we talked about in history, seeing the different levels and understanding the history of the city. Florence was originally a market town for fabrics…some of the stone had marks for measuring for fabrics from way back when. The whole city was very gothic compared to Rome, frozen in time. We went to the cathedral where the frescos of Masaccio studied by Michelangelo. Florence is very proud of their art history, the birth place of the Renaissance. One unique thing we saw was a sculpture by Michelangelo of the Crucifix. This is recorded as his very first works, now housed in Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito was very unique, a very young Christ very frail, and very real. Michelangelo was known for studying the anatomy of bodies which in his time was very taboo. The tour ended in front of the Duomo, the Florence name for cathedral, with the beautiful inlayed white, terracotta and green stone. The baptistery doors detailed bronze reliefs done by Leonardo Ghiberti depicting the scenes biblical scenes. This was really exciting for me to see because I did my research on the doors, reading about each scene and hearing about how they took 20 plus years on each door. Doors that Michelangelo referred to as the “Gates of Paradise”. After our lovely tour we took a trip to Grom…amazing…I can now die…this was the best…I repeat…best Gelato ever created. Real Gelato apparently isn’t suppose to be made with milk, and this particular venue, they grow their own fruits for the flavors. In season now were apricots, melons, strawberries, blueberry raspberries, lemons, pear, and peach. I had the amazing combo of melon and apricot…yes please! Don’t worry we took another 2 trips back to try them all 31 flavors! Whit, Michelle and I enjoyed the town a little and found a corner pizza place to have a slice, one had potatoes on it and really good pepperoni! We did some shopping and then came back to our crappartment and got to finally talk to my family for the first time on Skype! Florence has such a great relaxed atmosphere, everyone enjoys just being in Florence!

Free At Last…Rome Here I Come

So this was our first free day and I was so excited to concur the city…with my by myself! We started off…being Sunday at church, which was weird to take a cab to church…does that cancel out my good works! I was so excited to be somewhere familiar, even if it was in a different language. There was such a great feeling pulling up and seeing the well known font of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the side of a conference center building. It was so great to see the missionaries, thinking about my brother translating for the girls visiting just like the missionaries did for us. It was so great to here the strong conviction of the people; they really deserve the temple…and that day sitting in the chapel I hoped to return when the temple is built. After church we headed back to the Villa, and caught up with Megan, Kyle and Ashley. We caught the metro to the Spanish Step. It was such a rad part of town. The high end area, with the streets lined with high end shopping like…Prada, Gucci, Luis Vutton! I was in heaven…if only I was a rich women. I did step into Prada, just to say I had…touched the holy grail of purses…then off to the much more affordable H&M!
Next, we headed to the Forum…but crazy, the Ambassador of China was there taking a private tour so they removed everyone from the big sights to have a private tour…ah to be high and mighty!
Whit, Mal, and I headed to see the Pantheon again…Whit was absent for the first venture…and what do ya know…shut down for the big wig too! She got to see the outside at least…then we met up for dinner with the rest of the gang at Piazza Norona…such a great plaza lined with great restaurants and musicians playing away serenading us…It was one of those moments…the I can’t believe I’m here…I can’t believe I’m experiencing Rome in it’s fullness! We had the best meal in Rome…we headed down the square, pop!...around the corner was a massive embassy building with this amazing fountain! Entertainment by Chofo the clown…I got to figure out the human table thing he did! …and then he juggled flaming pins on a big unicycle! He was a good time! This was the type of square and architecture I had imagined in Rome! Plants dripping from windows, bright colored stucco, and iron work…the streets lined with artist and of course gelato on the corner…this time…Nutella…totally favorite!
A quick trip to the Mouth of Truth…which sadly was locked, so no reenactment of Roman Holiday scene! It was so great spending the last night, seriated by music, dinning in the plaza, with the glowing city all around me…When in Rome!

Come let me show you what is ... THE VATICAN

That's right, the Vatican! We started our day on another interesting bus ride...I'm amazed at how the most mundane tasks in Italy are so interesting...I really thought we were going to take out the entire lane of cars with a single turn!
So with our trusty Antonella leading the way we headed into the massive...”City Center”...of the Vatican.
Starting off with the Museum...so many sculptures..., Naked Boys, and Pretty Boys! Quite the scandal...Antonella told us about when the Pope decided that the nakedness was not appropriate at church...so he had all the "bits" taken off of the statues...so Antonella asked once..."is there a room with all the bits!" Ha!
From the Museum you could see the dome of St. Peter's, really one of the most incredible feat in architecture...I'm so amazed at how, with such limited resources they made such amazing masterpieces...the dome is so underutilized in our contemporary style world. It creates such great space and movement and such a grandeur!
We traveled though the Museum seeing the incredible tapestries with gold and silver thread...amazing! They have been masterly preserved by 40 nuns who have devoted their lives to keeping them for many generations to come! The floors were so incredible, I never knew how many colors marble came in...vibrant, fabulous colors.
Next, we headed to Sistine Chapel...a moment I've been waiting for since the moment I studied them in my history books. I floored...the pictures do not do this masterpiece justice. Michelangelo really did leave his mark… like no one else in history. The colors were magnificent and ...oh my goodness astonishing! Seeing the hand of God...a piece that I had spent hours staring at, sketching it in High School was such an...awe man moment! I couldn't even imagine how, for hours upon hours, Michelangelo laid on his back working. I didn't want to leave, I only had to because my neck was cramping...question...why the ceiling! Don't they know it's easier to see on the walls!
Moving on, we were off to St. Peter's ...This was one of my highlights of Rome! The biggest cathedral, the most unbelievable sculptures...just the scale alone was...grand! Being the genius artist they are they created scale by making the statues at the bottom smaller than the massive ones on the top, the letters at the top were 6 feet tall...6 feet!
One of my favorite sculptures of Mother Mary with the crucified Christ over her lap. This was one of the earliest sculptures by Michelangelo that he marked...just to stick it to the unbelievers. I really felt the depth of the moment he captured with this rough block of stone.
After a quick blessing from St. Peter ...and headed up to the dome. So the genius that is Bernini...he was asked to make a grand entrance for the Pope and because of the lack of space he manipulated the stairs to have more grand by perception. So up we went, up and up and up...500...something stairs...around and around! Some of the time I felt like I was in a crazy Willy Wonka moment! But...finally we reached the end and oh, my the view! I could see all the way to Paris from there! Yeah, not really, but close! Just seeing the bird’s eye view of the Vatican and the grand span of Rome…I realized I have a lot more of Rome to see!
We had a little breather outside in the court yard then headed out to find the Pantheon…not a problem I thought, wrong-o! So we got a tiny bit lost…what a great place to get lost! After a few walks in an iffy area and a couple switches of the metro we were shocked to find the Pantheon stuck smack in the middle of Italian city area…Freaking Sweet! I have dreamed of seeing that dome…the obelisk …at that time…about 5…it was shining brilliantly on the wall! We sat down on the floor, exhausted… and took it all in!
A trip to the corner gelato shop…strawberry and coconut…yammers! And back to the Villa Pamphili for a swim…sadly we didn’t get to use the hot blue shower caps that are usually required…shame! Then, off to dinner in Rome. We had a really great waiter…served we some fab Carpanora (pretty darn dang tasty) and…ah what a sweetie…gave us some free shots…well obviously we didn’t partake, but it was fun watching our friend Ashley take a swig! We hailed a quick cab…yeah I hailed a cab…look at me being all city savvy and headed to bed! What an eye full of a day!

1 Cathedral, 2 Cathedral, 3 Cathedral…more!-July 3

So today started with a bang, my first taxi ride, I know I’m such a sheltered child! We headed down town to the Borghese Gallery, home of great works by Bernini, famous for sculpture and architecture of St. Peters. Okay, lets talk building first, this huge baroque estate, two giant stone staircases adorned with embellishment guide you to rooms lavish and grand. The statues are framed in paintings of draperies so real you’d swear they were plush. Inside was housed some of the most extraordinary work of the time.

A few pieces to make mention; the Apollo and Daphne sculpture, extraordinary…depicting the lustful Apollo turning Daphne into a willow. The leafs were so thin, and detail so unreal…how do they do that! Engraved at the base in Italian the words…“Those who love to pursue fleeting forms of pleasure, in the end find only leaves and bitter berries in their hands.”
Another sculpture I loved by Bernini, the sculpture of Truth, completely unique…her happy, imperfect face glowing and symbols like a radiating sun burst in her hand. This piece is believed to be most personal to Bernini; at the time he was struggling with construction of St. Peters and the death of the pope. It stood in his own home, a gift to his son for many years until being moved to the Museum.
Absolutely amazing, sadly we couldn’t take pictures, but room after room of not only beautiful décor but incredible art work. After a quick trip to the attic to see the family paintings…what a storage room! We headed to the garden and out to this great green house with some contemporary pieces.

Really, truly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my young life!
Next we skipped on over (metro and 5 or so stops later…this is a huge city!) to the Coliseum to see the inside!...honestly I didn’t know you could go inside. What a site to see though. Once completely covered with marble, this structure held thousands for the first Olympics…This was awe inspiring realizing I was walking up such ancient steps and peering out views that have evolved over so many years.
We later headed to meet our tour guide, Ms. Antonella, a guru of all things Romanesque! She carted us around to 5 different churches, one of which had 3 generations of Rome uncovered. The first being the newest…4 thousand or so years old, the last dating to 600 A.D. or so! Yeah…really old! I thought it was interesting to see in the lower level the baptismal font, now no longer used! We traveled through Rome, one amazing architectural relic after another. Housed in the ………… was the statue of Mary and Christ done by Michelangelo, one of his only signed pieces! Absolutely stunning! There were the most exquisite mosaics and stunning architectural details…embellishment at every turn…They didn’t ever hear about the joke, “if it isn’t Baroque…don’t fix it!” They Baroque-d every nuke and cranny! These churches hold some incredible archives though, a massive sculpture of Zeus by Michelangelo and the chains of Peter, and one church was said to house and display at certain occasion, a piece of the crib of the Christ Child!
On the signal of our faithful guide we ran to see the changing of the guards at the President’s Headquarters. So cool to hear the people sing the anthem of Italy, we looked at each other, realizing that the 4th was tomorrow and in Rome, it would be just another day!


Another skip and jump and there we were at Treve Fountain. This is one of those iconic venues that I have dreamed of visiting. In anticipation I fished out my 20 cent euro and my shinny copper penny and properly threw my coins over my left shoulder, back towards the fountain…one to return again to Rome and the other to met an Italian man…I skipped the third coin thinking that my Momma might be mad if I met a man in Rome and got married! (could you imagine the faces at dinner when I say…I met a man in Rome, he’s wonder and amazing and were getting married…a little quote from Mr. George Banks!)
Water bottles filled with crisp, clean, cool water from the natural spring we went to a fabulous little restaurant and had my first Authentic Italian Dinner! Meat Ravioli, it was so great, fresh hand made pasta, thick fresh tomato sauce, great chewy Italian bread! A little shopping, a hilarious episode waiting for the shuttles with way to loud American girl chit chat and we were back home after an amazing tour of the city. Today I saw, that I have so much more to see!

When in Rome...July 2

When in Rome!...I can’t believe I get to say that! So we landed in Rome around noon, after a grueling 18 hours or so of flying… “love it!”… what a joke…Italian men in there navy suits lining the walkways with signs “Hansen Family” “Petersons” I had to laugh, exactly what I expected an Italian man to be like…cliché, but hilarious none the less. We got our 28 pieces of luggage piled into the small van that looked like it had been cut in half…a reason that became very clear to me as we started driving on the very narrow roads of Rome! So squished in this tiny bus; we got our first look at this exciting city on the way to our grand hotel the Atah’s Villa Pamphili…headed upstairs in the “honey I shrunk…the elevator” and ran to the plush beds to stretched for the first time in what seamed like years!

After a quick snooze and some freshen up I had my first Metro experience…oh my, what a party! That first day we all clung the Big D’s knees like 3 year olds, hoping not to get lost or worse trapped between the Metro doors!
Oh wait…since my little cooking chickens will be reading this I should mention I had my first Authentic Italian Snack…Panini!, It was very tasty…tomatoes, mozzarella, great bread, all toasted up by a dark, darn dang adorable Italian man!
Continuing…So we then excitedly exited the metro, la de da! The Freaking Coliseum…that’s what, Oh my beautiful Roman Relic! It’s so striking that in Rome there are these ancient buildings plopped down in the middle of the city!

Okay then one of my favorite travel stories…so we are snapping away, being typical American’s (worse than Japanese at Disneyland) when out of the blue sky comes the darkest, deadliest rain cloud you have ever seen. It came with out warning, without packages, presents or bows! And before I could put on my thin grey sweatshirt (yeah that’s going to keep me dry) I was soaked head to toe…we say under a tree, gathered as close as possible waiting for the storm to die down…but no, then comes the hail, marble sized pieces of ice…lightening (and yes we were at that time still under the tree!) Hilarious moment! Just imagine Whit and I under a florescent yellow poncho trying to keep our purses dry, because our bodies were complete lost causes!But in true Big D style…the travels continue…off to the Capitoline Museum, as we dripped on the marble floors we say awesome pieces of sculpture, beautifully painted walls and ceilings, and breathtaking views. As you enter there are fragments of a giant statue…the bulging bicep, the head…nice eyes, the hand…number one! Then as you enter…the most beautiful painted walls and elegant chandeliers, and city views that took my breath way. One of my favorite pieces was a bronze statue of a boy getting a thorn, absolutely amazing. There were Roman relics through out dating thousands of years! I just can’t believe I’m here, experiencing this…If it weren’t for the goose pumps and tender feeties, I would have had to keep pinching myself!

So one of the assignments we have on the grand tour of Europe is pattern development. Here in London we were asked to use 3 museums for that inspiration. The V&A, British National, and Tate Modern. So here's what I came up with, these are rough sketches and done is "companies", so along with 4 other designers we created our catalog of patterns, check out the other amazing work on the group blog at www.usuinteriordesignabroad09.blogspot.com