Conte Sketching

For the last two months, I have been taking a sketching class as part of my semester abroad. This class is not used to teach us how to sketch; the professors give us exercises and challenges to strengthen our skills and help us find what best suits us. We have site visits every week, so all of our sketches are done on-site rather than of a picture. After an exercise that required us to use Conte (similar to charcoal, but more grainy) as a drawing medium, I have definitely taken to it and have been using every class to improve. 

I have never really enjoyed sketching or been praised for my skills, so coming to Rome and finding a niche? Kind of awesome, to be honest. 

The following is a progression of my favorite Conte drawings from my very first one (Trajan's Market) to my most recent (Villa Guilia). Please enjoy!

Trajan's Market

Campidoglio

Tempietto

Villa Guilia

Villa Guilia

Under the Tuscan Sun

+ Do traffic lights mean anything around here (Italy)?
- Sure. Green light - avanti, avanti! Yellow light – decoration.
+ What about red light?
- Just a suggestion. 

In more ways than only one, I was Diane Lane basking under the Tuscan sun this last weekend. But we'll get back to that in a second. I will first start off by saying one thing.

The Tuscan countryside is the most beautiful place to take a drive. The ride was on an uncomfortable charter bus with my sick seat partner wanting to hurl the whole way, but the rolling hills of Tuscany were so beautiful that my trusty camera couldn't do this wonderful ride any justice. I attempted to take videos at various times throughout the trip, but honestly, this is one of the few times where I don't think anyone can fully appreciate the view without seeing it firsthand. Villas sat atop every peak as crops and open fields literally rolled around them. The roads we traveled along were skinny and curvy to follow the rhythm of the accompanying hills. Every long driveway or small path to a significant piece of property was lined with tall, slender trees, which were usually the only trees anywhere in view. 

I should have spent two days staring blankly at the Tuscan countryside rather than exploring Florence.

I was sadly disappointed in Florence. I don't honestly know what I was expecting. Maybe it was too hyped up with the number of people who told me I would LOVE it (capital letters and all). It's not their faults. I honestly thought it was going to be *my* town. 

I found Florence to be an impersonal version of every other Italian city I had seen in the last two months. It lacked its own identity. It was like a person that tries in vain to make everyone happy even though that isn't actually possible. The city appeared to have been taken over by its abundant tourist market which made it feel very non-Italian. This is, honestly, extremely tragic, because the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the view of the rooftops, and the surrounding landscape were absolutely breathtaking.

Rome is raw. Rome thrives on the spirit of its people and the chaos that they cause. It doesn't hide its dust and grim in corners of the city. It lays it all out there and really doesn't care what the tourist thinks of it. Its people are Italian and will live how Italians live, whatever that implies. 

Rome caters to the Italian, while Florence caters to the tourist. Which would you honestly prefer to see?

Regardless of my opinion of the city, I saw many beautiful things on my trip and had a really wonderful time (when it wasn't cold, windy, and rainy, mind you). 

We took the morning train on Friday to Firenze (Florence). The ride was only an hour and a half, and we quickly arrived at our hotel soon after. Our hotel and room were adorable. Each room even had a bathtub and a TV, both of which I hadn't yet seen in any hostel or hotel I've stayed in here. 

After dropping off our luggage, we explored the city with our professor and a tour guide. I never realized that Florence really was a very small city and pretty easy to maneuver.

The cathedral is the largest and most apparent monument in the city. Every corner that we turned, you could still see its overwhelming dome, designed and constructed by Brunelleschi. It was huge and foreboding in the background of every street view, but its bright colors and ornamented facade livened up its surface. We even spent the eight Euros to climb to the top of the dome (which was totally worth it).

I have also recently found that I really like the water (or bottled water) in every Italian city *but* Rome. Go figure.

Anyway, a party of 17 of us had dinner at a lovely little place close to our hotel. I, unfortunately, don’t have any pictures from it, but the host was wonderful, the group price was reduced to make it affordable for everyone, and our delicious meal was three courses. Can’t complain! After returning to the hotel, I watched Grey’s Anatomy on TV mostly because it was on and in Italian.

That’s also when I learned that the power in my hotel room was on a skewed timer. Everything turned off at 11:22 PM regardless of how I felt about the matter. Unfortunately, I was taking a shower when I first learned about this one night. Yeah…

The second day of our trip was not nearly as successful as the first. Florence apparently has a tendency to be incredibly windy. Because the streets are so narrow, all of them become their own wind tunnel and try to quite literally sweep you off your feet (much like the ones we experience back home at school).

So our day was a bit cold, a bit windy, and a bit rainy. I guess our good luck in regards to weather on our weekend trips had run out.

Regardless, we proceeded through various museums during our morning. After a lunch of the most wonderful lasagna I have ever tasted, we decided to find gelato. Now, this is a pretty usual *and cheap* occurrence. In Florence, the trend was to get gelato on a thick waffle. Being the traditional tourists, we wanted some and would only regret it if we didn’t partake in the city’s customs.

Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting to spend 10 Euros on one sitting of ice cream. That’s $15! On ice cream! I don’t even like ice cream that much!

Banana and Chocolate Gelato stuffed between two waffles!

I mean, it was delicious, but that’s beside the point. It was also a mess to eat, and the gelato melted faster than any ice cream I have ever had even though it was freezing outside where we ate it. The wind whipped around us as we sat in front of the Cathedral. After my gelato treat finally defeated me (I still had a whole waffle left I couldn’t finish), we moved to stand next to the Cathedral to get out of the wind. 

Now, this is the part where I become Diane Lane.  

There’s no pleasant or eloquent way to put this: A pigeon sh*t on me. And there is photo evidence. Which you will not see.

But according to Italians, this is supposed to be good luck, which is probably the only reason I didn’t cry. You either laugh or cry, right? And I did, indeed, laugh at myself.

My poor black winter jacket is dry-clean only though. That’s so sad.

So, after that little episode, I was a little more ready to end my day. Because of our ice cream splurge, eight of us got together and had a picnic of meat, cheese, bread, cookies, and chips for dinner (all gathered from the local grocery store) to avoid going out to an expensive restaurant. It was a lovely end to a rainy day.  

Our third and final day took us on a bus tour of Tuscany as we made the trip back home to Rome. We stopped in Monteriggioni, a tiny walled city that is now predominantly a tourist spot, Siena, a beautiful little town with the best piazza center I have seen so far, and Pienza, an even smaller town with wonderful views of the Italian countryside and really good French fries.  

Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni

Piazza del Campo

Siena

Siena

Pienza

USA vs. Italy

What I DO Miss About the USA

Organized Driving Rules and Standards: I will never call another American driver “crazy”. “Poor decision-maker” or “mechanically-challenged”, but never “crazy”. I have risked my safety being a pedestrian more times in the last two months than I have in my entire life.

Foliage/Yards/Grass: My love for buildings does not diminish my love for trees and parks. Rome, however, very rarely agrees with me on this one.

Children Dressed for their Age: Italian children dress better than I did when I worked at a nice business casual women’s clothing store. A four-year-old should not beat me out in the trendy department.

Mexican/Ethnic Food: I paid $23 at the only Mexican place in Rome for the best Italian/worst American Mexican ever. I did indeed. And it was amazing. It was a ‘reservations only’ place that said if we could eat in an hour (as we didn’t think you needed reservations for a Mexican place), we could eat there. We’re American; that, very obviously, was not a problem. We had 20 minutes to spare to wait for our check.

A Bigger Wardrobe: Wearing the same five shirts every week is getting old. I’ll no doubt be so sick of my tiny selection of clothing options here that I will toss most of it before I leave. The washing machine fades them so much anyways. They’d probably prefer the trash.  

Quiet Nights/Mornings: Italians don’t go to bed until 3 in the morning. They must be able to function with very little sleep because they are out and about every morning bright and early. Will I ever get it? Nope, ‘fraid not; being the party girl that I am and everything…

And the trashman coming down my street wakes me up every morning at the crack of dawn. All I hear is a loud cascade of glass bottles being dumped into a truck bed one household at a time. Makes me cringe every time.  

Being Polite: My lack of knowledge of the Italian language severely limits my communication skills. While I am usually extremely polite and talkative with a waiter or the person behind the counter, I find myself trying so hard not to insult anyone here that I say as few words as possible while trying really hard to smile and hand gesture my respectfulness. I have no idea if it comes across as that.

Hadrian's Villa

What I WILL Miss About Italy

Cafes: I will never be able to drink Starbucks again. The concept of charging people if they sit down at a table rather than using the more affordable option, the “walk-through” bar, is brilliant. Annoying, but brilliant.

Coin Euros: Finding change on the ground is a lot more significant when Euros come in 1 and 2 Euro coins rather than bills.

Walking Distance: Vatican – Thirty minute walk; Pantheon – Twenty minute walk; Grocery store – Three minute walk; Restaurant – Two minute walk; Gelato – One minute walk; Church – 20 second walk

Villa d'Este

My Gas Stove: I know I can get one in the US, but my brief love affair with this stove in my apartment will be hard to let go.

Fresh Pasta: Nothing can compare to freshly-made ravioli and tortellini. No one can do that quite like the Italians.

No Tipping: While I know the prices of everything is raised to account for this, it is a refreshing change to pay the amount that is on the ticket rather than trying to decide how nice you want to be to the waiter and his wallet. It causes worse service because waiters aren’t working for tips, but at least they leave you alone and don’t interrupt your meal.

Mountains: This has quickly become my favorite natural wonder. I could stare at a mountain range in the distance for an unrealistically long time period.

Trivoli, Italy

Major Monuments: How many times in your life has a professor presented a PowerPoint for class, clicked open a slide with an amazingly intricate and beautiful modern monument, and spontaneously asked the class if they wanted to go there for class the next week? Because the building was only a bus ride away. Because you are in ROME. How many times in your life have three out of the five classes you are taking for that semester had a site visit every week?

Yea, it’s awesomely convenient.

Hadrian's Villa

Weekend Trip 2

Can I study aboard in Venice instead of Rome? Not that Rome’s not amazing or anything, but…can I? Please?

Our second major weekend trip through Italy took us on a four-hour train ride to the water-locked city of Venice.  The train ride was smooth and beautiful as always. I do wish that the United States would utilize train travel more often from city to city. There’s so much less hassle and much more freedom to traveling by train rather than by car or plane.

We arrived at the train station and quickly found our hotel, which was right on the edge of a canal feeding into the Grand Canal. I shared a room with two of my current roommates, and we were all pleasantly surprised by its comfortable size. After grabbing sandwiches for lunch (and eating them while dangling our feet off the edge of the Grand Canal…you know…no big…), we took the main ferry system along the Canal. As was true with all of my classmates, I couldn’t believe how clean the buildings and the water were. There was no graffiti, no traffic congestion, and no beggars; I suppose those are the perks of having to use a boat rather than a car.

And none of us could take enough pictures. I knew that Venice was the city of canals. That’s a well-enough known fact. I don’t think I ever fully realized that it was practically two manmade islands pieced together like a puzzle. The architecture had a refreshingly-Spanish feel to it. It was so very *not* Roman that you couldn’t take your eyes away from the seemingly-floating structures.

The trip was a solid 30 minutes (no one really noticed, to be honest) to Piazza San Marco, one of the few large walkable spaces in Venice. 

While the piazza was bigger than I had ever imagined and was wonderfully utilized by the people, construction in every corner divided up the space into odd proportions and found its way into most of my pictures. Regardless, the piazza became a major staple in my trip because we ended up going there the following two days.

We also found that, over the course of a three day weekend, we can spend tons of money on souvenirs. It probably doesn’t help any when it feels like we are only spending monopoly money because the Euro doesn’t look like a real form of currency.

Anyway, the cart vendors and shop owners around San Marco got their pay day. Congratulations to them.

My best purchase, in my opinion, was my carnival mask. This weekend was the opening of the Carnevale di Venezia, a celebration that is much like Mardi Gras in the United States. Every vender was selling variations of traditional Masquerade masks throughout the city as well as capes of fabric to wear over your clothing. People also arrived at the piazza in their own costumes. We saw a group of colorfully-decorated mushroom people having lunch by the canal, many little girls dressed up like Disney princesses, and even a gathering of Teletubbies (although that one was probably a little more scarring than the rest).  

The other portion of our trip took place in Verona, a small city about an hour outside of Venice. It is best known as the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. And yes, I was indeed a girly girl and wanted to (and got to) see “Juliet’s” balcony, no matter how fake it is.

I could live in this city. While there wasn’t too terribly much to see (architecture-wise), it was a sweetly romantic town with a bustling atmosphere, good shopping, a landscape of hills and water, and the ever-illustrious Alps setting the backdrop.

I am quickly finding that the charm of Italy lies in its smaller towns where only the character of the people and the atmosphere of their lives support it.     

May the Force Be With You -- And Also With You

I’m not going lie. It is *awesome* to be Catholic and living in Italy, a country that is 95% (WHAT?!) Roman Catholic.

Ninety-five percent?!

I suppose it makes sense as I only live a short 30-minute walk (not even a drive—a walk!) from the Pope and his Vatican. I see priests, nuns, and people studying to become priests and nuns around every corner of this city. On our flight to Rome a month ago, there was a priest sitting in the front row of the plane. On our shuttle ride from the airport, there was a woman who was practicing to become a nun going to the Convent.

For the last three years, I have grown accustomed to being a part of the minority when it came to my faith. I know, maybe, two Catholics at my university. While the population may be significantly greater than I realize, Catholicism is not the “go to” religion in my area. I’m not saying it’s an issue for me, but it is honestly very surreal to go from seeing *no* Catholic churches to seeing one on every corner.   

And to try and possibly pick one to go to? How could I ever pick just one?

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Basilica di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini

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Santa Pudenziana 

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S. Giovanni in Laterano

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Chiesa S. Maria Della Pace

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Church of St. Sebastian 

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Should be interesting to see the Vatican on Easter Sunday. Three-million people in attendance?

Bring. It.

Weekend Trip 1

Don’t you love it when you come home after a trip to discover that you’ve taken the perfect picture - the one picture that seems to sum up your trip in every way? The angle, the lighting, and the view in general are just the way they should be because that’s how they actually looked in person. When you are actually taking that picture, you think about all the people that would appreciate the view you are seeing only to remember that they aren’t there with you. So how could they possibly imagine what it feels like to be you, standing there and taking that picture?

The perfect picture.    

Capri

 Yes, well…this is that picture for me after a weekend trip to Napoli, Pompeii, and Capri. And yes, I actually did take this picture.

It looks like a flippin’ postcard. I’m so impressed with myself.   

Anyway, my trip this weekend was fantastic and exhausting on every level imaginable. Nine of my classmates and I took the 5:40 AM train to Napoli from Roma on Friday. This was my first official train ride, so I was childishly excited, even at that early hour. Passage onto the train and the ride itself were smooth and uneventful. When the sun began to rise around 7:00 and highlight the faint outline of the mountains on either side of us, I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the window. It was breathtaking to take in the Italian coastline one feature at a time as the sunlight moved away from the horizon line. At one point, our train moved between a major mountain range and the actual coastline. I don’t honestly remember the last time I’ve seen the sea and the mountains at the same time.

Once we arrived in Napoli, we quickly, and luckily successfully, took a metro to Pompeii. This was the one spot in Napoli I had wanted to visit, so I was so glad that the public transportation system was easy enough to get there. The weather was nothing short of wonderful all weekend, so once we arrived, we took a quick walk to the ruins. From there, we took a sketchy ride up to Mt. Vesuvius with an Italian man in his beat-up 90s van.

Yes, I can’t really believe I got into the car either. But you are a lot braver when you are with nine other people, seven of whom are guys.

Continuing, the 10 Euros to get up the volcano and back were well worth it, in my opinion. We didn’t get to climb to the very top because of a strike (how unusual for Italy, I know), but the view was fantastic.

Napoli Bay

Once we returned, we entered the Pompeii ruins and spent a solid four hours exploring the destroyed town. Without a tour guide, the ten of us got to climb and discover every cranny of that place. I never realized the scale of Pompeii; it’s a rather large site that sits much further away from Mt. Vesuvius than I would have imagined.

Pompeii with the foreboding Vesuvius in the background

About half way through our journey, we encountered a sweet German Shepard that we named “Pumpkin” (I do not get credit for the clever name). Many ruins in Italy house dogs that don’t have homes, so this wasn’t terribly unusual for us. After giving the pup some love and affection, she decided to be our official tour guide. She followed, or rather, led us through the rest of Pompeii. She even managed to show us a few places we would never have looked.

PUMPKIN!

That dog liked us so much that she even followed us all the way back to the train station. We felt awful for leaving her, but she seemed to know her way around enough to get back safely.

Our day ended in the main Amphitheater of Pompeii, one of my favorite architectural structures I’ve seen so far. 

Grassy Amphitheater

After staying in a youth hostel in downtown Napoli (with the thinnest mattresses and sketchiest door lock situation I’ve ever seen), we took the morning ferry to Capri, a small island off the coast of Napoli.

The hike across the island was one of the most exhausting things I have ever experienced (as everything was, of course, uphill), and I probably can’t say I fully appreciated the view while I was up there (although I appreciated it plenty, I promise), but the pictures really do speak for themselves.

A trip with old and new friends, experiences to check off my “bucket list”, and a full Sunday to recoup before classes on Monday.

Good weekend.

Oh, and I must add especially for Mom and Brother…

GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!