Travel Italy - Highlights of Italian Art and Architecture

January 5, 2009 at 8:07 am · Filed under europe

Every year millions of visitors trek through Italy in search of ancient culture, great food, art, architecture, and more. The allure is immediate even to those who have never been.

There is more art and architecture to see in Italy than one person could possibly
experience in a lifetime. Rome, Florence, and Venice alone offer an unending array
of design excursions. Highlighted here are some of the must see designs of both
ancient and modern Italy. Talk a trip, bring a sketch book, and see the gorgeous art
and design that is synonymous with Italian life.

The Coliseum - An architectural marvel, the coliseum was built beginning
in 72 A.M. Originally used as a source of entertainment (usually forced barbaric
combat) the Coliseum is still an amazing site. Strangely, although it could be
considered a source of embarrassment of the past, it has been come to known as
one of the ultimate icons of ancient Roman greatness. Location: the Piazza del
Colosseo, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome

Vatican City - This tiny country is perhaps one of the most remarkable
aspects of Rome. Vatican City is the heart of Catholicism, both spiritually and
politically. St. Peter himself was crucified on this spot, and St. Peter’s basilica was
built directly above the ancient hill. Both the Basilica and St. Peter’s square are still
studied today in architecture and art history classes. You can wander the Vatican
Museums for days, including a visit to the Sistine Chapel, to see some of the true
masterpieces of Roman art. Location: Entry through Saint Peter’s Square, Rome

Il Duomo (The Cathedral of Santa Maria Dei Fiori) - Il Duomo is considered
by many to be the grandest achievement in Renaissance architecture. The octagonal
dome, originally designed by Brunelleschi was the largest in the world when built.
Since then, Il Duomo , which took nearly six centuries to complete, has become
Florence’s symbol. Climb the 414 steps of the bell tower, and Renaissance Florence
will be laid before you. Location: Piazza del Duomo, Florence.

Piazza San Marco - Piazza San Marco is still studied today by architects
and urban planners as one of the most beautiful and successful public squares. The
square is surrounded by cafes, shops, and of course the Campanile and St. Peter’s
Basilica. Visitors and locals alike sip espresso in its cafes, meet to talk, and climb
the Campanile to see an amazing view of Venice. Location: Piazza San Marco, with
the Basilica at the wider end, Venice.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection - In a city world reknown for its
ancient art and architecture, the Guggenheim Collection houses one of the greatest
collections of modern art. her collection includes works by Pollack, Picasso, Klee,
Rothko, Chagall, Mondrian, and more. There is also a gorgeous sculpture garden
housing even more works. Location: Calle Venice dei Leoni, Dorsoduro, Venice.

The Brion Vega Cemetery - The Brion Vega is considered one of Carlo
Scarpa’s masterpieces. Scarpa was and still is often considered the premier modern
Italian architect. The memorial is a great concrete and landscaped form if rectilinear,
stepping, and sculptural concrete elements. It is an amazing pilgrimage for the
architecture buff. Location: San Vito d’Altivole.

You can wander Italy for ages and never take in all of the art and architecture. Still,
the sites listed above are some of the must sees for lovers of art, architecture, and
travel. Open your eyes and see the Italian design that has been around for centuries,
and that which continues to flourish today.

Tags: architecture, art, carlo scarpa, coliseum, design, florence, il duomo, Italy, rome, vatican, Venicearchitecture, art, carlo scarpa, coliseum, design, florence, il duomo, Italy, rome, vatican, Venice

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Learning To Drive In Italy

January 2, 2009 at 2:03 am · Filed under europe

There is an urban myth that we learn to drive only after we have passed our driving test.

The truth is that most of us never do learn.

I have been driving for over thirty years without realising that I couldn’t drive until last year when I went to Italy to spend a fortnight driving around the Sicily soaking up the atmosphere and spending time with my god daughter.

We met in the capital, Palermo where I was taken straight to the car hire office by the docks.

We were faced with a showroom filled exclusively with Italian cars and my gaze was almost immediately captured by a fine silver Alfa Romeo.

I could feel my god daughter tugging at my sleeve saying something that sounded like Fiat but it was really too late and the deed was done.

We left the showroom heading for the street and the nightmare began.

It was a one way street for two lanes of traffic that not only had three lanes of cars, there were also two lanes of motor bikes flying about between the cars.

I was suddenly feeling very vulnerable in my large Alfa that felt like a huge silver island in a sea buzzing with little red fiats and Moto’s.

The road was packed and I could see no possibility of forcing the Alfa into the tiny gaps that occasionally presented themselves.

I was seriously considering spending the next two weeks sitting outside the hire shop, staring at the traffic.

My god daughter, who had been watching my expression of mounting despair, took charge.

She told me to drive out, I said no, there was too much traffic.
She said that when the other road users knew that I wanted to come out they would make room for me.

Faced with the alternative of two weeks in the same spot I let out the clutch and began to edge forward into the melee.

Slowly we moved forward and inexorably the traffic closed behind us cutting off any thought of retreat.

Once in the stream it was simply a matter of keeping up with the flow and hoping that we wanted to keep going straight ahead.

I could feel the rising panic but I was made of sterner stuff, after all it was only a hire car, what was the worst that could happen?

We started to edge over to turn right and the same thing started to happen.

The traffic gently parted for us then simply joined up behind as we gently edged our way across the stream until we arrived at our turning.

I was too grateful to have arrived in one piece to think about why we had escaped unscathed from the traffic and following more instructions from my god daughter, continued the same performance through gritted teeth until we were out of the city onto the relatively empty autostrada.

The relief lasted until we decided to pull over for lunch.
The nightmare began again except that this time we were in the hills and the village where we decided to stop had a very narrow main street that everybody had decided to try to get through at the same time.

For the next two days every time we approached a built up area there was the same quickening of the pulse the inevitable perspiration and the tightening of the throat that suggested panic was not to far away.

The culmination was in a place called Cefalu. A beautiful old port where we decided to look for a hotel, dump the car and indulge in a seafood frenzy with a bottle of the delightfully fresh pink Sicilian wine.

We descended the hill towards the harbour.
The lower we got the narrower became the street until we discovered why Italian cars have retractable wing mirrors when we reached the old town.

We couldn’t stop or turn round, we were part of the tide of traffic that was washing us inevitably towards the harbour, the end of the line.

Suddenly the buildings fell away and there was open space, a glorious feeling of freedom that lasted only briefly until we realised why we were on our own, we had found our way onto the top of the harbour wall.

There was no way forward and back was the same maze of narrow streets that we had just come from.

We were going to have to turn around.

I had never found the three point turn particularly challenging while there were curbs to halt your progress and hedges and walls by which you could determine your position in the road.

The manoeuvre on the top of that harbour wall with nothing to stop a sudden desperate plunge into the water was nerve wracking.

My god daughter had to get out of the car and was trying to guide me closer to the edge but I was petrified and it took nearly twenty minutes of backing and filling before we were finally around.

Now we were facing the same narrow streets that we had just come through but after the manoeuvre on the harbour wall they suddenly did not seem so threatening.

On the way in it had seemed as if everything was gradually closing in and we were continually having our space threatened by the encroaching walls.

On the way out it was as if our personal space had been shrunk as far as it would go and now as we travelled back through those same narrow streets we ourselves seemed to have shrunk down to a size that meant we were now comfortable driving through the same streets that had proved so traumatic on the way in.

We managed to get out of the old town without too much drama and were heading for the main road to book into a modern hotel that had sufficient parking for the guests when we turned a corner and ran straight into a road full of stationary cars.

At first glance they appeared to be parked and then we realised that they were in fact simply stopped and from the looks on the faces of the occupants, they had been there some time.

Decision time, we were being followed by this time by about a half a dozen other cars so after a quick glance in the mirror I hauled the wheel round and managed a fine three pointer that left us heading back towards the old town, now reasonably confident that we would be able to find a road that would take us around the jam.

After a mile we were dangerously close to the old town without finding an alternate route.

The line of cars following us had grown and now the other side of the road was full of cars coming out of the old town.

We seemed to have no choice other than to carry on into the old town to repeat the manoeuvre on the harbour wall, or find another way out.

Except that we had lost our feeling of size.

We had stopped feeling that the other traffic was conspiring against us and had to be actively fought in order to maintain our own personal space.

Now we belonged to the traffic and were part of its flow, it no longer felt as if it was some thing to fight, we had become part of the whole.

Without even thinking about it I slowed down and indicated to turn in the middle of the narrow road.

It was clear to the other road users that we wanted to turn around so in the same way that the traffic had parted in Palermo, the stream parted in Cefalu and gave us the space we needed to turn the car.

We finally found a hotel, with parking, and although not actually next to the harbour we still enjoyed that sea food frenzy we had promised ourselves.

That was the last time that I experienced stress when driving.

The rest of our holiday was spent going with the flow and enjoying our relaxing fortnight driving around an island full of what had been argued by visitors from the UK as the worst drivers in the world.

After our experience in Cefalu we were curious about what had changed that had made such a different to the way I drove.

In the UK we drive as if we own the road.

We have a very selfish idea that the road in front of the car belongs to us and that nobody else has a right to be where we want to go.

If a pedestrian steps off the pavement and is hit by a car the drivers excuse is, “he came out of nowhere, I did not stand a chance”, with the clear implication that it was the pedestrians fault for materialising so stupidly right in front of a car.

This view is even supported by our legislature, if you step into the road without looking the resultant collision will be your fault.

It may even be that this attitude encourages the excessive speed in our towns that makes the consequences of a collision with a pedestrian so often lethal.

The view that we came to understand in Sicily was that the individual driver did not own the road.

The driver shares the road equally with anybody else who wants to use it.

That includes pedestrians, animals, motor cycles, scooters, bikes, in fact anyone.

This causes people to drive at a speed that allows them to give way to anyone else who wants to use the road.

There is no stress because you can’t get angry with someone who respects your right to do what you want to do.

The difference between the two countries, and the two different driving styles seems to be the way that we regard the road.

In the UK the road is treated as if it was our possession, to be defended against all comers who would try to steal from us the piece of road immediately around us that is rightfully ours.

That means driving really close to the car in front when one of the lanes is coned off to stop anybody getting in.

It means travelling too fast in town because we have a right to the road and the old lady trying to get home with her shopping does not.

It means shouting at cyclists because they have no right to clutter our piece of road and they have not paid for the right to use it.

It means blaming everybody else for the confusion and carnage on our roads because we take no responsibility for ourselves.

In Italy everybody accepts responsibility for their own piece of road in an unselfish way. This means that they drive always looking out for the other person who also wants to use the road.

The Italian drivers are equally patient with the young lad on the scooter trying to get to school as they are with the pizza delivery man who is trying to turn left across the traffic or the old lady trying to get home with the shopping.

This is where the feel of the two countries differs, from the barely controlled anarchy in the UK that leads to cutting up, speeding and road rage, to the chaotic friendliness of Italy where you respect the desires of other road users and they respect yours.

The UK anarchy leaves us stressed and irritable with an unsatisfactory experience while the Italian experience slips on like a comfortable pair of shoes.

Having learned to drive the Italian way, it is now an uncomfortable experience returning to drive in the UK.

Maybe it is time to stop telling jokes about Italian drivers, before the real truth emerges.

Peter A Hunter
Author
Breaking the Mould

Tags: driving, Italy, learning, road rage, speedingdriving, Italy, learning, road rage, speeding

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Rome - A Recommended 3 Day Itinerary

December 31, 2008 at 4:02 am · Filed under europe

As the old saying goes, “Roma non fu fatta in un giorno”, or “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. It isn’t long before you realize the accuracy of this statement. Roman works-of-art and masterpieces are everywhere. Walking through Rome is like walking through two thousand years of history, all intertwined and juxtaposed into the present-day. At times, it can be overwhelming. There is so much to do and to see in Rome that even the locals may need a lifetime or two to capture it all. In fact, there is probably more to see in Rome than in any other city in the world.

With so much to see and do, where does one start?

Recommended First Day

The Roman Forum (”Foro Romano”), nestled in a valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, is a good starting point. The forum is really an archaeological complex that you can enter from the piazza leading from the Colosseum. The Colosseum, of course, is the symbol of Rome. This is the famous amphitheatre that was able to hold up to 55,000 spectators as they watched gladiator fights, animal fights, etc. Completed in 80AD, it took 10 years to construct and originally had an adjustable canvas - the precursor to today’s stadiums with adjustable roofs. Architects today still marvel at the design, which allowed the Colosseum to be emptied in about 12 minutes (think of that next time you are at a major sporting event)!

The Roman Forum was the commercial, political and religious center of ancient Rome. In fact, much of our current political system here in the United States is derived from the Roman political system established during the rule of Caesar. Piazza di Spagna, and the so-called Spanish Steps is another popular Rome attraction. During the spring, it is blooming with flowers. This is a good place to people-watch and hang out, especially at night. The streets leading in and out of the piazza will offer Rome’s finest shopping. Look for Via del Corso. Guys beware: if your significant other likes to shop, she will love this district. A day of shopping here is usually a very potent aphrodisiac!

From there, you can take a stroll (it is best not to drive in Rome, unless you have a death wish - to the Trevi Fountain. Try to time your visit during evening hours, when the fountain is illuminated. Don’t forget to throw in a coin over your shoulder….legend has it that doing so will ensure your return to the Eternal City.

Recommended Second Day

You should plan to spend one day to seeing the Vatican, the Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s Cathedral, and the Sistine Chapel. The best way to get there is across the beautiful (angel-clad bridge) Ponte Sant’Angelo. The Vatican, literally is another country separate from Italy. It is also the spiritual and religious center for Catholicism.

Inside St. Peter’s Cathedral, to the right, you will find Michelangelo’s famous Pieta’ - sculpted when the artist was 25 years old. The dome of the cathedral offers the best view of Rome. Inside the Vatican Museum, you will find countless treasures collected or commissioned by the papacy over the centuries. There are many tours that range from 90 minutes to 5 hours. Of particular interest should be the Raphael room and the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel, with its most famous feature, the ceiling, is another Michelangelo (among others) masterpiece. The ceiling is supposed to depict scenes from the Book of Genesis, and took Michelangelo four years to complete.

Please note, that you will not be allowed to enter into St. Peter’s Cathedral if you are wearing shorts, sleeveless shirts, and above-the knee skirts. This is true even in the dead of summer. You still must remember that it is a place of worship. Italians take that very seriously, so dress accordingly. The summer of 2003 was the hottest summer in Rome in approximately 300 yearsthey still did not make an exception to their policy.

A good place to see after you visit the Vatican is Castel Sant’Angelo. This was originally built (138 AD) as a mausoleum, which was then converted to a papal fortress in the 6th century. And with its underground passageways, sometimes used to provide safe-haven for the pope to get to the Vatican. Inside there are numerous works-of-art and you can learn a great deal about the history of Rome. On the fourth floor there is a cafe’ where you can sip on an espresso while savoring some of the finest views of Rome.

Recommended Third Day

Piazza Navona is another one of Rome’s famous piazzas. This is the place to see artists as they sketch and grab a delicious espresso or panino in one of the many outdoor cafe’s. In the center of the piazza is a Bernini masterpiece…la Fontana dei Fiumi (Fountain of rivers). To the west of the piazza lies the beautiful church of Sant’Angese in Agone. Legend has it that this is where Agnese was exposed naked, only to be (miraculously) covered by the rapid growth of her hair. At the northern end of the piazza lies another fountain, La Fontana di Nettuno.

Speaking of fountains, you will see many people drinking from many of the fountains that Rome has to offer. Rome is blessed by a rich water-source and aqueduct system, much of which has been unchanged since originally fabricated during the Roman Empire. Whenever you see the sign “non potabile” is when you should NOT drink the water. The Pantheon, an architecturally geometric masterpiece, is also worth seeing. The building is still in remarkable condition. Its dimensions and lines are very symmetrical, almost perfect. Originally a temple built in dedication to “all the gods”, today, its concrete dome is the biggest in the world.

From here, you can do some more shopping down Via Nazionale. These are similar to the shops around the Spanish Steps, but not as expensive.

Extended stays in Rome
The above itineraries are somewhat rushed, but definitely possible. Ideally, you would probably want to spend a week in Rome and go at a more relaxed pace.

Should you have any more time remaining in Rome, check out the vibrant market of Campo dei Fiori. Here you will savor some of the finest flavors of Rome: fresh meats, fruits, flowers, and vegetables. This is where you can mingle with some of the locals. To the north of the campo lies a piazza and a lovely building that was built during the Renaissance (Palazzo della Cancelleria).

On the other side of the Tiber river lies Trastevere, an eclectic neighberhood full of great Baroque architecture, funky bars, cafe’s, restaurants, etc. It is a good place to go to experience the Rome night life. And on Sunday morning, you can even check out the flea-market (Porta Portese).

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, spend some time north of the Spanish Steps relaxing in the Villa Borghese. This is the greenest and most serene section of Rome. A nice little respite, and a good place to picnic. There are a few noteworthy museums, and a not so noteworthy zoo. You can also squeeze this in on the first day, if you like, since this is near the Spanish Steps.

For something a little out-of-the-ordinary, check out the Catacombs, an underground burial system used many centuries ago in Italy. Italians, like many others, are very respectful of those who have passed away. These are located on the outskirts of town. You will probably have to take 2 buses from Termini Station to get there.

Outside of Rome

Tivoli, about an hour east of Rome, makes a nice day-trip. This is a quaint little hill town famous for its quarry stone industry.

Ostia, about an hour west of Rome, is the where Romans go when they want to go to the beach. The seaside resort is worth a visit if you have time, but nothing really to write home about. The better beaches justify a weekend-outing further south on the Amalfi Coast and outside Sorrento. These locations require a few hours by train.

Heading north of Rome, Viareggio is a nice little beach resort in the Tuscany region. And of course, there are all the wonders of Florence, about a 3-hour train ride from Rome.

So there you have it. ..Rome in a nutshell. You will not leave disappointed, no matter how many days you are there. If anything, you will want to stay more. As the old saying goes about Rome, “Roma, una vita non basta”, or “Rome, a lifetime isn’t enough. ” So enjoy whatever amount of time you spend in Rome, because there is no other city in the world like it.

Tags: italian, Italy, piazza navona, piazza spagna, roma, roman forum, rome, the colosseum, trevi fountainitalian, Italy, piazza navona, piazza spagna, roma, roman forum, rome, the colosseum, trevi fountain

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