No detouring from MY tour!

Italy is known for a wide variety of it's qualities. However, it's safe to say that the food is near the top of that list. Personally the awesome food was one of the things I was looking most forward to on a daily basis so it makes sense that my walking tour is focused on food. It's no secret that I l-o-v-e to eat. Rome is a pretty large and diverse place. There are a lot of places to eat with different scenery and their own qualities but the piazzas jump out at me as a top place to get fill of some good food and good people. You can observe the Italian culture at work in and around most of these places. I'm most intrigued by Piazza Navona and the Campo de Fiori probably because of all the people and variety of everything you can find in these places. The destinations I have chosen circle around the Piazza Navona and the Campo because I consider them to be two of the most awesome homegrown Italian places that we walk through all the time, but always for a purpose, never just to stop and smell the roses or relax.

We begin in the Campo de Fiori...

• "La Carobonara" was opened first in 1912 and provides a unique panorama of all of Campo de Fiori. They feature indoor and outdoor seating for a private, more ellegant dining experience or for some ultimate people watching.

Now we travel out of the Campo towards Corso Vittorio Emanuele II through the Piazza della Cancellerina. (Watch out crossing the C.V.E II! Those Italians and their Vespas..) Pass through the Piazza s. Pantaleo onto Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima where you can find all kinds of restaurants and cafe's, but they are pretty much your standard sit and eat places. None that really jumped out at me. So you take this street all the way to Largo Febo...

• "Ristorante Santa Lucia" is tucked back in a corner with a dining area just above Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima. They have an ellegent outdoor setting until winter and an impressive selection of some rather expensive food. The average cost of just the main course was 28 Euros with the most expensive being around 35 Euros. The dining square is up high enough that you can get a glimpse of Italy at work or leisure while enjoying the authentic Italian cuisine from a comfortable setting.

Now we take a right into Pazza Navona which to me embodies the essence and root of Italian culture. It was important a long time ago as a circus which was an important cultural center and now serves as the classic example of Italian culture. All the restaurants in the Piazza are worth while, but the ones I chose are all tied together by the Piazza and it's activities. Upon entering the Piazza on your left you will find...

• "Domiziano" which is at the head of the Piazza where you can clearly see everything going on all over the place. It would be a great place to just sit and talk or watch the hustle bustle of the people around the Piazza. Another reason I liked this place is because all the people I observed or talked to in this particular restaurant didn't speak much english if any at all. It really reminded me that I'm actually completely emersed in the heart of Italian culture because I'm so used to more or less being able to get my point across in english almost everywhere we go.

Now continue through the Piazza keeping on the left side.On your right you can see an innumerable amout of people selling various products or talents and all kinds of people from all walks of life gathering for whatever reason. All the hardcore classic Italian chitter chatter can be picked up on here. You know, the kind that even some Italians need a translator to understand because of the strong accents and Speedy Gonzalas pace of conversation. On the left near the center...

• "Don Chisciotte" has pretty much everything you could possibly want to eat without completely breaking the bank. It was by no means cheap in the eyes of a college student, but for those looking for a moderately priced meal with a variety of Italian cuisine, this is the place to go. Near the heart of the Piazza, it gives you a front row seat to the events taking place in the Piazza. Another plus to this particular restaurant was that the guy I was talking to pointed out the Alfredo as a favorite before I even got excited about it being on the menu. They weren't pushy or rude like a lot of people can be when they really want you to sit at their restaurant.

Now you keep heading straight out of the Piazza on the left side down Via della Cuccagna after taking in the sights and sounds of the heart of Piazza Navona, it's statues and inhabitants to find...

• "La Piccola Cuccagna dal 1950" which means "the small land of plenty". It was established in 1950 and features a menu for those looking to get a taste of a variety of Italian cuisine in one sitting without the entire meal for 18 Euro. Just outside the Piazza, there is a constant flow of people coming and going, chitting and chatting. It's also a little dark in this small Via at most points of the day, so the Piazza serves as almost a light at the end of the tunnel and can be viewed from the dining area of this "small and of plenty."

We now venture back across Corso Vittorio Emanuele II back into Campo de Fiori. In the far back right corner you will find my favorite of the tour and most odd for the area it's situated in...

• "The Drunken Ship" serves a variety of food from American cuisine to traditional cheese platters found only in Italy. You can experience the best of both worlds, as they really are two completely different worlds in my eyes. Not to mention a front row seat to the show we know as Campo de Fiori and a spicy night life after the market closes down. They convert from a casual dining experience to a hoppin' bar at night where you will discover their slogan is "Get Ship Faced." I'm sure you can imagine I find this utterly amusing.

This concludes my tour of "Eating Rad in Rome" with 5 unique restraunts all tied together by the Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori and the people/activities that make them the cultural centers they have come to be. Not to mention some awwwwwesome food!!

Ahhh Ewwwww!!!!!...what are we 'ewwing'?

Even though the term Catholic means universal, there are some things about the church that I was able to pick out in St. Peter's Basilica that were a direct Roman influence as well as somethings that applied to or were influenced by people all over the world. To begin with the artwork within the church is Roman. If you were to go to Spain or France or anywhere else in the world the artwork and decorations would be slightly different because of the different styles from each region. St. Peter's specifically is hardcore Roman because of it's direct tie to the Vatican and the Vatican's direct tie to Rome. Whenever I think "Vatican" the following thoughts are always "Catholic, Pope and Rome." The way I see it, Rome is one of the oldest cities on earth and the Catholic church is pretty dang old obviously. So these reallllllly old churches like the Pantheon are Roman because they are so old not to mention in the Pantheon's case there are important Roman figures tombs located within it.

I see the universalness (I make up words) in the simple Catholic nature of the churches. Not to mention that no matter what faith you follow, a church is still a gathering place for believers which makes it universally appealing. The statues and paintings of Saints seem universal to me because the Saints aren't just Roman but they are a Catholic thing more or less. I'm having trouble spitting out what I'm trying to say. Basically all the basic religious stuff is universal for anyone because it's all about the life and sacrifice of Jesus. So whether you believe he was a prophet or the Son of God or just a cool dude who spread some good ideas, you still appreciate his having existed whether you live in Rome, Italy or Rome, Ohio.

MiDtErM

http://www.penwith.co.uk/artofeurope/bosch_garden_earthly_delights.jpg

^^^Check it out here!!!!^^^ =D

The piece of artwork I chose is “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. He painted this awesome triptych during 1503-04 and is now housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since 1939. Its dimensions are 87 in. by 153 in. and is a three paneled oil and wood triptych.
I have always been drawn to this painting basically because it is so weird. Especially to have been painted in the early 1500’s when Bosch was in his 50’s it seems like it would have been a more modern painting for that time. The use of color and abstract figures is something I would expect for myself or someone my age to paint now. The left panel of the triptych is (or is thought to be) a depiction of the beginning of creation. All the important figures are represented, specifically the concrete figures of the creation story, Adam and Eve. The middle panel is large in comparison to the other two and is just a mess when you first look at it. There is a little bit of everything going on. The most obvious thing is all of the naked people doing whatever they may be doing. Also they all appear to be rather young. Some people speculate that this may be Bosch’s interpretation of the sinfulness of the world after creation or that it may be a depiction of the paradise we lost with the fall of man. Whatever it was meant, it is really cool and keeps me entertained. I am always trying to figure it out and making up little stories about all the people and why they look the way they do or why they are doing whatever they are doing. The panel on the right is hell. There isn’t really any other way to interpret it especially if you get the correct imagery out of the first two panels. It is thought to be Bosch’s depiction of what happens when humans fall to temptation. The city is even burning, it’s obviously hell.
My first impression of this particular piece was just that I loved it. Then after learning a little bit about it I just agreed with the background I had been given about it being creation and earth and hell. Then upon putting more thought into it, my own interpretation, I should say my next guess, would be that the left panel is good, the right panel is evil and the middle panel is the struggle between the two. You can see in the middle panel some solo people looking out on the crazy other people and I can imagine them being unsure what to think about the things going on around them, trying to figure out what is right for them or where they stand. I consider it more a portrait of humanity and temptation than a temptation to hell type scenario. Although traditionally triptychs are meant to be “read” from left to right and Bosch’s other two triptychs are “read” from left to right, that doesn’t mean this one necessarily had to follow the pattern. Even though it probably does, I still like my interpretation not completely ruling out the expert’s opinions. It’s good to break the mold every now and then!

"Jesus was like WebMD"

Music has always been something that I pay a lot of attention to. I literally like everything from Bach to Taylor Swift to Eminem to Def Leppard and everything in between. I love the stories and meanings that the songs tell or portray. When we were sitting in class I was thinking "oh crap now that I know there is math involved in music it's goin to screw it all up". Then of course I came back to the computer lab, listened to my music and not a thing changed. I still listen to the music for what it is saying to me instead of the measurements and chords and so on that went into it's production. Even classical music has a story. I have a very vivid imagination and inside my silly lil head there is always a little movie goin along with the music. I wanted to wait to write my blog until after we went to the concert on Thursday to see if I thought about the math involved. Instead I saw little bunnies in my head running around like maniacs. ha So basically, thank goodness, my view of music hasn't been altered now that I know that there is math involved in making it happen.

Out of control

How weird is it that the Via Giulia is 500 years old and that sounds young to me in comparison to the 2,000 year old places we have encountered? Just needed to throw that out there. I really liked the way the street was put together. It didn't seem as confusing as other places we have been like Venice and Florence with their curvy, confusing, messed up streets. There also is a variation of buildings with various purposes. All the shops aren't just in one place and all the houses aren't just in one place. It's cool how it switches it up. I was expecting a bunch of old and decrepit things so all the old stuff didn't look out of place to me. However there were some things like the scaffolding, condom posters and skulls on the church that kinda threw me off. It's safe to say that the scaffolding and condom posters weren't things that the builders of the Rennaisance had access to or intended to be viewed in the Via Giulia. The skulls on the church were just unexpected and threw me off in general. Also I highly doubt that the inhabitants of the Rennaisance Era found graffiti to be an appropriate use of time. haha

That monkey thinks he's a kangaroo!

When I think of leisure the first thing that comes to mind is fun. Then I take into account what exactly constitutes fun? It's different for everyone right? To some people walking around a botanical garden for hours is fun, but for me very few things excite me as much as going to the zoo. =) In America fun amost always takes up time and usually a lot of it. On top of taking up time, we always feel like we don't have enough time in the day to do all the things we want to do or even feel we need to do. Next comes the stress and so on and so forth which completely counteracts the point of fun or leisure. Sports are considered leisure to us, yet games are always scheduled and highly competetive. My senior year of high school I went to school from 7 am to 1, went to work from 1-2:30 setting things up for later, then soccer from about 3-5, then back to work until about 9:30 and home to do whatever else I needed to do. Luckily for me I loved my job, but for most people that would be absolutely ridiculous. Our whole lives are scheduled out including time for leisure which isn't even really leisure anymore.

In Italy the pace is much, much slower and relaxed. There are always people talking and relaxing because they allow time for it. Instead of scheduling everything out and having a set time to do this and do that, they leave their day a little more open so they can enjoy it instead of rushing through it. Instead of working our standard 8 hrs or more consecutively during the day they work for a while, close around noon, enjoy this thing we call leisure and a huge, delicious meal, then return to work around 3 or 4 or 5. The focus more on their family as well. When I am relaxing or having the most fun it seems my friends come to mind. I don't spend much time with my family because we re al lso spread out and not as close knit as Italian families. It also seems like they know their family so much better than we know ours. I couldn't tell you anything about my grandma or grandpa's brothers or sisters. I feel like here they keep in close contact with all their family basically coining the idea of the 'big italian family'. Comparing the two persepectives it seems to me that Italians have a better appreciation for family for sure and maybe even each day than Americans tend to. They value their family enough to take whole chunks out of each day to be with them. I went from Christmas to spring break this passed year without seeing my Mom or Dean even once. They also take each day as it comes and enjoy it while it's here. Maybe we could learn something from them and take time to "stop and smell the roses" or if you're in Florence you can smell the leather, which ever you prefer. ha

Ugh.. not right now! We are getting our picture painted!

The middle ages art piece I chose to blog was a fresco type thing called Assumption of the Virgin (1489-1492) located in the Santa Maria Sopra-Minerva church. The church is full of little cove like rooms with awesome statues and frescoes. This particular one stuck out to me because it reminded me of my favorite painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights. It is a little random looking. Some of the angels are doing weird things and making funny faces with random little other things mixed in. The colors also stood out to me. Instead of being mostly brown, tan and white like it seems a lot of the paintings consist of, there is a lot of blue and green. The red clothing is what really catches your eye though. The faces look realistic but the focus of the painting is in the middle and significantly larger than the rest of the characters involved. It really sticks out to me out of all the 1874179231764 frescoes we have seen in the last 5 weeks. Basically.. its sweet!

We are golden

Needless to say I needed to do a little research on old Tom Tom after our little adventure to find some cool stuff to blog about. For whatever reason when we were visitng Fossanova I was really intrigued by the little room he died in. It was like a shoe box! Then I began wondering how he died. My vivid imagination started making up all these fun little stories explaining the death of St. Thomas Aquinas. The best one I came up with involved his sister who lived in Fossanova, her husband, and murder. Exciting. So I started researching how he died and in just about everything it says his cause of death is "unknown" which is really lame. Then I found in an article about him that says that Dante is convinced that he was murdered, poisoned even. Other important people even coroborate this story. The things that make him such a big deal would stir controversy now. The whole more or less combining of theology and science topic is always a touchy one. I can't imagine all of his ideals being well received by everyone. Certainly someone wanted to kill him right? Of course I hope he died of natural causes peacefully in his shoebox sized room, but I do love a good scandal.

"Then she will take a umm..what do you call it? a stink?" "huh?? You mean a drink!!"

For the record, on my paper in class I definately wrote "What is an Italian pizza, what does it do for Italian culture, and is there an American equivalent to these pizzas?" ha Just thought I would share that with you.

An Italian piazza, not to be confused with pizza, is pretty much an open area with lots of activity of various sorts. Some piazzas have historical significance like the Piazza Nuova with it's fountains that were once used as a circus. Now people from all over gather there to take pictures, eat good food, shop for cool stuff, and oogle at the street performers. It brings everyone together which is a huge part of Italian culture. They are always known for gathering to talk about everything and everything.

There are a few potetiental similar cultural structures in America. The first one that comes to mind that has absolutely no historical relevance at all is your standard mall. There are always tons and tons of people at malls--tourists, naitives you name it, they can be found in malls. They shop, eat, gather, talk, play and everything that is done in piazzas pretty much without the important background. Some malls are more well known than others such as the Mall of America just as some Piazzas are more well known. The next thing that comes to mind may just be a small town tradition thing, which gives it a little bit of history. In Marysville they always block off the center of town (Historical downtown Marysville ha) for festivals and so on. One of the big things to come through Mville is Honda's Bike Week. There is a big festival and all of downtown is closed off, stores stay open, people set up food stands and all kinds of good stuff. People come from all over the place to be there because these bikes are traveling from all over the U.S. for this festival alone. For that week downtown Marysville turns into a cultural structure similar to the traditional Italian piazza!

I have discovered that it is not just MY computer that will not let me post pictures, it's my blog in general. So while I continue to investigate and hopefully solve this malfunction I will simply have to describle the statue I chose to you in the most detail possible.



The statues and artwork of the Republican Era were used mostly for the Emperors to show how awesome they were. They were used as propaganda to make their subjects believe they should be in power. The statues of the Republican Era were built to last since it obviously was the goal of the Emperor to stay in power. However such statues were not nearly as impressive as the statues contributed by the Imperial Era. These statues were used as decoration in private residences and important places. They were meant to be pretty, not to portray or encourage a certain thought. They were often of irrelevant, however pleasing things as opposed Emperors adorned in battle garb and war scenes.

The statue I chose is of a small child not doing anything in particular but looking cute. I can imagine this statue in color in the front room of someone's house. Being the first thing you see when you enter the house, the giddy look on the child's face would be enough to make you smile. It is a copy, not an original Imperial piece. Now-a-days we would be like "what?!?! A copy!?!? Proposterous!" However during the ancient Roman times, copies were accepted just as much as the originals and held in high regard for their beauty and visual significance.

ps-if my blog disappears, don't fret. I think I may have to shut down my site completely and then re-do it so my blogs will start posting when they say they do and my pictures will load. the end.

A mum for your mum?

Again, as I have said ine very blog that requires pictures, they pictures have been taken, but will not post. For this particular blog you can look at Gina, Jon, Chrissy, Diedre, Kaleigh, Tina, or Sarah's blogs to see the flowers considering we all had the exact same flowers. (aka- the baby)

We had so many beautiful, amazing, awesome smelling flowers to chose from! The combonation we chose were the Yellow Tiger Lilly, Mum, Sunflower, Gardenia, Red Rose, and Diasy (my personal fav!). Here are the statistics for each one in reference to Fibonacci numbers:
1) # of petals expected
2) # of petals counted
3) Fibonacci relevance
Yellow Tiger Lilly:
1) 6 petals
2) 6 petals (3 spotted & 3 solid)
3) 6 is not a Fibonnaci number, however 3 is!

Mum:
1) 144 petals
2) 134 petals
3) 134 is not a Fibonnaci number however, certainly some petals had to be lost in translation. 134 is just 10 shy of 144 which is a Fibonacci number! That's a lot of petals..

Sunflower:
1) 34 petals
2) 34 pretty yellow petals!
3) Fibonacci #! (common example used!)

Gardenia:
1) 21 petals
2) 21 petals
3) Fibonacci #!

Red Rose:
1) 13 petals
2) 13 b-e-a-u-tiful red petals!
3) Fibonacci #!!

Diasy:
1) 34 petals
2) 34 of my fav petals!
3) Fibonacci #!

"RarrReeRReeAHHE" PteraGina

There are 2 thigns to be addressed in this particular blog. 1- What does tradition do for those following a particular faith? 2- How is it that certain religions are able to promise a future when they are so firmly rooted in the past? These are very difficult to address for anyone in general. I think that I view religion in general a little bit differently than most people so I am having a lot of trouble addressing these things. I don't really know much about religion as a whole and can't answer these questions for myself, let alone explain it to all of you. So I'll do my best to portray my thoughts.

Religion does a lot of different things for different people. For some people they find hope that they would not otherwise have without something to believe in. It helps people cope with things or understand things that don't otherwise make sense. Tradition provides some stability and comfort in religious institutions. It is always good to know what to expect instead of being blindsided by the strange and unknown. With traditions you know what to expect. For example some people know that every sunday they are going to get up by 8:30 am, have breakfast, be at church by 9:45, have a huge family lunch at Grandma's and then sit around doing family stuff like watch football games until you can't see straight. This is a tradition that shapes some people's family values that stay with them their whole lives. Unfortunately it has to be said that I feel some people misuse religious tradition to conform to something they wish they were. If that makes any sense. Some people wholly believe in the traditions they follow and live their life accordingly. These people I have the most respect for because sometimes it's so hard to believe in anything especially something you just have to feel like you know without hard proof. For these people tradition is how they live their faith.

My outlook on religion promising a future but being rooted in the past is a little less optimistic. It really can't promise a future. But for some people, religious or not, they have to believe in an afterlife--something better--or they will go crazy. We have to believe that the people that we love that have passed went onto some place better than the constant chaos of here. It makes things easier pretty much. Other than pure ambition what incentive do you have to live the "right" way if you believe that after you die then you're nothing more than worm bait? Not too much. But if you believe that living the "right" life will get you a ticket to paradise where everyone you have ever loved would be waiting for you then you have a pretty good incentive to live the way we are told we are supposed to. Who is to say scripture can't be written today too? Why wouldn't God chose modern day "prophets" to speak through? It doesn't make sense to me that Christianity cna't continue to be expanded upon. That of course is just my opinion outside of a strongly informed religious background. I feel like I'm not really answering the question, but I don't have really any idea how to answer it. All I can really do is toss out my opinion and hope it's not completely off the reservation.

The Flowers & The Trees

Once again, my computer will not allow me to upload the picture of the invention I chose into my blog. So I will keep trying to post both pics (this one and the Athena one) in another blog.



I think there is a good chance that a lot of people chose the same invention to write about since it got a little confusing and there weren't really many tangible objects to chose from that weren't ruled out by our class. I chose the crossbow because it is one that his design overall was a good plan, but he didn't have the materials to make it possible. Not to mention I have recently used a crossbow that wasn't made of wood and string, so I can imagine the changes that needed to be made to make it easier to use. All of these things Da Vinci obviously didn't have access to. It would also make everything easier to make a practical sized bow instead of a giant one. You can do just as much damage with a smallerInstead of firing the bow by hitting a pin with a mallet, a trigger is more practical as is seen in the crossbows we use today. For example my mom's crossbow is mostly industrial fiberglass which makes it light but extremely strong and effective. I can't imagine that huge crossbow made of wood and nails would be very light. Not to mention wood breaks easily so if you're constantly pounding on it with a mallet to fire it everytime it would porbably get worn down easily. I really wish there would have been more things in the exhibit that we could understand better. I feel like it honestly could have been a lot better, though I still enjoyed it because Da Vinci was one cool dude!