Quick note from Rome...

Well, Rome is a frenzy as per usual. I'll be glad to get out of here. Which I do in about an hour. Have a train ticket to Spoletto which is as close as I can get to Norcia... my planned jumping off point for riding in the Sibillinis. Have to figure out a bus to Norcia when I get to Spoletto.

Wish me luck! (And good weather!)

- B -

Hello from Siena...

Hello all!

Well, we spent two nights in Florence, racing around to see all the good architecture and art. Whichwas fun. Florence is way way too busy though. Too many American college students there... feltlike I was attending a sorority party! And the locals are so tired of tourists. They are not particularly friendly and don't even bother with your attempts to speak Italian.

I had made reservations at a hotel in Siena... wanted to ride my bike there but they wanted me to arrive by 7:00. And we were getting let loose from the Uffizi Art museum at 1:00 so I knew I couldn't make it. 60+ km and hills. So I was going to take the train down instead but on walking back from the art museum to the motel I decided to go anyway. I had a cell phone that I share with a roommate, so when it got close to 7:00 and I was still quite a ways out I called, told them I was late and they were fine. So I blew through the Chianti wine country as fast as I could on bike with my little suitcase trailer behind! It was fun, though hard. I wish that I'd found someplace to stay in the middle of the Chianti area and then come on into Siena today, live and learn. But Siena is a great place. The main square, 'piazza del campo' is a big brick square where you can hang out and eat pizza and enjoy the sunshine. The people are friendly, there are lots of tourists but they are not all going to college in the US, and the locals are perfectly willing to talk to me in Italian that understand about every 10th word of.

Tomorrow we head for Rome (many of my classmates are here as well) and spend three nights there. Afterward I am planning to get to a town called Norca somehow (I was planning on the train but hear it does not go there) then will bike through the Sibillini Mts back to Macerata. There is a brutal climb on the first day (1000 meters up!) but after that I should be okay. We will see. Will post photos and drawings when I get back to Macerata.

Cheers!

- B -

Typical Schedule...

Somebody was asking me how often I had Italian class, so I thought I'd describe a little bit of our schedule.

We start at 9:00am, Mondays with the Town Form class. This class, taught by Jenny Young from Eugene, focuses on the development of the hill towns, why they were such great structures for living and what difficulties they face today. (Cars is the big one... little streets with no parking and people driving through them as fast as they can go... pedestrians get out of the way!). After a couple of hours discussion and looking at drawings we've done (we're supposed to do 5 sketches per week and then there are a bunch of sketches assigned on the field trips), we generally walk to somewhere in town and visit.

Tuesdays and Thursdays we have Italian from 9-11 and Architecture History from 11-1. Italian is a lot of fun, Architecture History is good but a little dry and by 1:00 I'm falling asleep badly.

We break from 1-3 for lunch (most of the shops are closed and the Italians at home during this time as well... so you can't buy groceries for instance). Then from 3-7 we have studio.

Fridays we take field trips. Wednesday mornings we sometimes have free. Weekends are generally free, I try to work in studio one day and get a bike ride in the other... although last weekend I just worked because of midterms... which I have to go off and take notes for a review now!

- B -

- B -

The Big Prune...

Historically, Macerata is known as "The Big Prune". I am unsure why. But then, I'm not sure why NYC is "The Big Apple" either. There is even a song about it... comparing Macerata favorably to London and Paris (I think... the song is in Italian).

Anyhow, if you ever wanted to travel to The Big Prune, now you can.

- B -

Busy busy busy...

This week is midterm week. Tomorrow (Thur) we are supposed to present our projects, so have been working hard. Then on Friday we leave for Florence for three nights. Following which we have a couple of nights free, then are in Rome for 3(?) nights and finally have three more nights free before starting classes in Macerata again a week from Tuesday.

Anyhow, updates will be spotty until then...

I'm thinking I'll do some biking during the free days while away, will try to post my plans and some midterm images tomorrow...

- B -

Language Lessons IV: English Slang

Turns out that you learn some new English terms when hanging out with a bunch of college students as well. In particular, the words "dope" and "tight" mean "very cool". As in, "Man, that is a dope chair!". Or "Wow, Urbino is SO tight".

- B -

Field Trip III: Urbino

Urbino is one of the northernmost cities in the Marche, and one of the birthplaces of the Renaissance. The main man there was Duke Frederico. He made lots of money as a mercenary general, fighting for whomever paid the most that particular day. On his coat of arms there was a jellyfish, because his tactics were to sting and run away.

Frederico built a huge palazzo, mostly for advertizing his abilities as a general. Every room had a statue of him or coats of arms or little relief figures of the various awards given to him. Notice the hooked nose? Apparently he lost an eye during a joust with some of his folks at home, and had the nose altered so that his vision would not be so obstructed on the bad eye's side. As macho as they come.

In addition to visiting the palazzo we visited two modern buildings by an Italian architect Giancarlo de Carlo. These were interesting because they used historical buildings but put modern university buildings inside of them

What was extra fun about visiting yesterday was that the Mille Migglia, or 1000 Miles car rally was going through town as well. All day long these beautiful racing cars from the 20s through... I don't know, the 70s? Newer? Anyhow the most amazing to me were the cars from the 20s. Beautiful old cars with amazing engines... these did not sound like Model Ts.

Language lessons III: Carta vs Cartina

Somebody (one of the other students) told me that "cartina" was "map", and that you could find good maps in the bookstores. So I went from bookstore to bookstore up the street from here asking for cartinas and being directed further down the street. Turns out that "cartina" is "postcard" and "carta" is map. So I went back to the first store and found exactly what I wanted, which were some good maps to help with the bicycling.

- B -

In case you wondered...

...I really *am* working here. Today I finally sat down an scanned in a bunch of the work from my sketchbook so far... Take a look at the drawings here!

- B -

More language lessons: Cane versus Carne...

The other day I was attempting to converse with an elderly Italian lady in our study town, Civitanova Alta. There was a little dog running about and I was attempting to ask her what the dog's name was... unfortunately I mixed up "Carne", which is "meat", with "Cane", which is dog. So I guess what I was asking is "what is this meat's name?" Which did seem to cause her confusion...

- B -

Yet another bike ride...

Saturday I was a slug. But Sunday I got out and rode off into the hills again. Except this time I went West instead of East and so found bigger hills. I was going to head for a town near the mountains called San Ginesio but it was so hazy in that direction I figured it wasn't the right day to make that effort. So I turned North and started following some random bike route signs out in the country. Ended up at an old Abbey, had some lunch, went up to the very nice (small) town of Tréia, and from there decided that I could make it over to the town of Cingoli. Only problem was that Cingoli was on top of a really big hill. I mean, most of the towns I've been visiting are a couple hundred meters up. Cingoli was 600m up!

I could see a smaller road on the map leading up there, so I turned up on to where I thought it should be. Things were looking good when I made a wrong turn (or maybe a right one) into a little cul-de-sac. There was a guy working on his car there and I asked if I was going the right way. He tries to point me back down the hill and around, and I'm trying to point up the hill, and finally he points that way and goes "Si, si, Cingoli..." but "bruté, bruté"! I decided that "bruté" was not what I needed and went back down and around. Just as well, the regular road was bruté enough for me.

Not too many photos from this day... you've seen one hill town you've seen them all right? I did get into the middle of one square right after church was letting out and the town was celebrating first communion for all the young people. Really neat. Had several Italians engage me in conversation about my crazy bike (at least I think that was what they were talking about), and one man (82?) tell me all about the war and working in Germany and France and... fixing doors was it? A mix of English, Italian and French seems to be working pretty well for me. And it is fun to get out away from the crowd so that people want to visit.

Just a few more pictures here...

- B -

Ascoli Piceno ps...

I forgot to mention that Ascoli Piceno is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have only had the opportunity to visit two of these so far, Ascoli and Suomenlinna Island near Helsiniki. They were both amazing places and I like that there is this program calling for their preservation. Apparently 70% of the World Heritage Sites are here in Italy. Click for UNESCO...

- B -

Field Trip II: Ascoli Piceno

Today we spent at a city in the southern Marche region, a rival to Macerata, called Ascoli Piceno. It was a truly beautiful city. Tons to churches, I think there were 26 total listed on the map. And it was a lot closer to the Sibillini Mountains with nice views. It was not a hill town, instead was built in the junction of two deep river ravines and used those for defense instead. Which of course was an economic boon for the city in the old days as well, since they didn't have to devote money and time to building and rebuilding walls.

The other cool thing about Ascoli Piceno were the towers... it used to be that the rich type folks built tall, square stone towers on their houses to keep their valuables hidden away in. The original towers had wooden staircases wrapping around the exterior, which have been removed now. There are only a few left. Since the staircases have been removed it seems they probably can't even get up into them now. They're very tall... something like 6 or 8 stories tall? Neat stuff.

So, put Ascoli Piceno on your list of good places to visit in Italy... More photos here!

- B -

Language Lessons...

Italian has to be the only language where one of the first things the teach you is how to ask if somebody has a cigarette. "Hai una sigarette?" It is important not to ask "Hai una fuma?" because apparently that is slang for marijuana. If French is the language of love, apparently Italian is that of cigarettes.

- B -

Traffic...

Hey there Bloggetts!

only one here with a bike. Anyhow, it was good, we did well. At the end of the day we were sitting in a little park at the edge ofToday was spent wandering about and mapping details of our project town, Civitanova Alta. This is the one I rode the bike to last weekend. Today we went back by bus, however, seeing as I'm the town waiting for the bus to come by and I wanted to share the traffic at the intersection there...

Now, there were 6 ways into this intersection, 4 main paths and 2 lesser ones. One came from Macerata straight at the town and across the intersection turned into a local main street. To the right there was a major road leading down around the city to the larger city below on the coast. To the left there was a tight U-turn back to a local street, and then an oblique left onto another main road leading down and around the city in the other direction. Finally, past the main right turn there was access to the city parking lot... with a little wedge shaped gas station crammed in between.

The only traffic control at this intersection was that there was a yield on the local street coming in from that first left. Everything else was wide open. So cars, trucks, buses, tractors, pedestrians, everybody, just came flying in from their respective streets and sort of pushed their way through to the street they were after. I started photographing some of this but then the bus came... and it was a good thing I was taking photos because the other two guys were drawing and wouldn't have noticed the bus if they'd been standing in the middle of all this!

Ciao!

- Brian -

Bike Trip #1

Well the bike got unpacked and taken for a ride on Saturday! I rode from Macerata out to the coast, to a town named Civitanova Marche. The "Marche" part, by the way, is related to the time of Charlemagne and the second Roman Empire. This region "Marked" the northern extent of the Empire at one point or another.

Anyhow, the bike ride was great. I crossed over to a ridge to the North of Macerata, then rode east along the ridgetop through three hill towns on the way. Morrovalle was particularly lovely. The last of the three, Civitanova Alta stands above Civitanova Marche near the ocean. A study group I am in will be studying this town for our town form class starting this week. So it was nice to have the chance to visit there ahead of time.

After Civitanova Alta I had to drop down to Civitanova Marche and dip my wheel into the ocean. Its actually a little difficult to get to the ocean! First, the beaches are public but the access to them is not. You have to cut through one of the little private restaurants or hotels that line the road. The beach itself is rocky, not sandy. And the traffic in Civitanova Marche was hellish. I finally decided that I had to act like a motorcycle. Just make sure they see you and go for it. As long as you move they put up with it.

So I dipped my wheel in the Adriatic and headed back for home. I came home along a road in the valley, nice because no hills but much busier than the ride out. And when I got back I still had to climb the hill up to Macerata anyhow. Which was tough at the end of the day!

One final stop along the way was at one of the churches we visited the day before... I'd lost a drawing pencil that I was hoping to find there but didn't. I did get a really lovely view of one of the alabaster windows lit up from the western sun however...

But the bike did really well. I had it tuned up in February and it is operating nicely. I'm already planning my next venture! There are more pictures here...

- B -

Jazz & Dinner & Fieldtrip...

Well, there have been few postings being made of late... mainly because I've been busy! We have class 8 hours each day except for on Fridays when we go on an all day field trip. And then of course there is all the outside class work that needs to get done as well. But there has been time for some pure fun too.

Last Tuesday we went to a jazz concert here in Macerata at the Lorro Rossi Theater. This place was great! It is one of those old style theaters before they knew how to build balconies. So there was seating on the floor surrounded by four tiers of box seat rooms. We were on the second tier. Supposedly these were not such great seats (I guess compared to being on the floor) but they were a lot of fun and gave a great view.

The music was a pianist and trumpet player. They did a mellow jazz thing that was really very nice. I was impressed by the way the trumpet player could hold a perfect note out as long as he wanted to. His playing form was funny... he sat on a regular chair and would scrunch his body all tight when doing difficult notes. Seemed like exactly the opposite of what you should do for your diaphragm but he clearly knew more about it than I do.

Wednesday night we went out for dinner at a local trattoria that was excellent. There is not a lot of variety in food here... your choices are basically Italian or pizza. The variety comes in with what kind of restaurant you select... you can buy pizza at a place with a counter and walk away with it, or you can buy pizza at a restaurant where you sit down and enjoy the meal there. Still, the food is great. This restaurant we went to had hand made tagolini with asparagus sauce, then roasted potatoes, chicken and pork chops for the main. Apparently this region is know for pork and tough chicken. They like chicken that tastes like it came from a bird that worked hard pecking up all those seeds. No growth hormones for these folks.

Friday was a field trip. We went to a lovely Romanesque church. These date from around the 1400s, after the first roman empire and a little before the second. Very heavy structures of brick, tall and dark inside. The did not dare to put in very large windows. And they had little or no glass so used thin slabs of alabaster instead. These glow golden when the sun is behind them. Beautiful. From there we visited the ruins of a large roman town, the hill town which exists today above it, and another abbey and church there. I'll see if I can get some photos posted here...

- B -