Our 2nd Day Trip: Pavia & Vigevano

On Tuesdays we have a daytrip class, where we visit nearby cities and towns led by Professor Giuditta Poletti.  Giuditta has an endless amount of energy, an endless supply of architectural knowledge, and an endless supply of cigarettes in her purse.  On every trip she keeps us on an aggressive schedule packed with live action architectural history.

Professor Giuditta Poletti.

Pavia and Vigevano 

For this trip, we traveled in class by chartered bus, which took us first to the Certosa di Pavia:

Construction of the Certosa began in 1396 by Duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti as a family mausoleum.  During the course of its over 100 year construction, multiple influential families funded the project, and in return received rights to deposit deceased family members within the church.  Most of them are still there.

The Certosa is primarily a monastery that has housed multiple orders through the years , and is now home to a community of Cistercian monks (also known as Trappist monks in the U.S).  Unlike many of the other churches we have visited here in Italy, the Certosa is very much still in use, rather than a tourist destination.  The feeling is almost immediate upon entering.  The walls are not uplit to highlight decoration as in other Italian churches, rather, the space is dark, silent, and cold.  On the day we visited, there was still snow on the ground—the cold outside was the same as the cold inside, so that the church was very much an extension of that which is natural.  The dim and the quiet clears the senses and the mind, clearing way for something larger perhaps.

Base of vault/column capital in church.

We were given a tour of the grounds by one of the resident monks. He did not give us his name that I can recall, and now I regret not asking. His English was astoundingly good (later he revealed a connection to a monastery in New Jersey), and he imparted a wealth of information for every detail of the church and monastery.  Most striking to me though was the lightness of his personality. On the one hand, there was a certain gravity in the carefulness of his step, the pace of his speech, and the softness of his voice. In the cold, he wore perhaps half the amount of clothing that we the visitors wore. Yet despite the seeming severity of his person, he had a remarkable sense of humor, and lightness of being. It was as if he saw the world as both serious and hilarious at the same time, in a way that made him seem more comfortable with the world than most people.

Resident monk and tour guide.

The monastery itself mirrored the quiet and lightness of the monk.  The cloister especially, was characterized by an overwhelming silent peace, accentuated even more so by the cold and the remaining snow.

View to smaller cloister.

A wall.

Other Images

Bridge in Pavia.

Basilica of San Michele, Pavia with double facade. 

The facade of the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano was meant to complete the edge of Piazza Ducale.  See the much small church building behind the facade.

In Other News

Also, one of our number caught a nasty stomach flu the day of the trip, which involved multiple emergency stops by the bus during our ride.  The virus continued to plague us,  with one of us catching it anew every two days for the next week or so, and following us all the way to Florence.  Stuff happens.

Sights of Genoa

In a previous post, we had mentioned our hopes as a class to venture out and discover the city of Genoa. In the almost short 3 weeks that we have been here, we have actually been able to do so. Genoa is a beautiful city rich in history and full of life. Here are a few pictures that students have been able to capture while sightseeing. Enjoy!

Piazza de Ferrari

One of the many sets of stairs that make up Genoa. 

Our 1st Day Trip: Genoa Port and Lighthouse

Over the course of living in Genoa, Italy, we will take  day trips every Tuesday (with the exception of 3 or 4 due to week long travels), every week, for the entire semester. Most will be spent in parts of Italy, while a couple might be outside of Italy in other countries. For each day trip, we will have a "tour guide," Giuditta, who is from Genoa and knows much about Italian history and architecture. For our 1st day trip, we toured the Port of Genoa. The day was actually very dreary and it rained all day long. So we spent our first hour or so (in the rain) walking through the harbour obtaining as much historical information as Giuditta could put out in a short amount of time. We saw some beautiful, historical architecture that she knew just enough about to make you feel like you had had a crash course on the history of Genoa and its port. We then moved on to a boat tour that included a view of the entire harbour area from the sea. We had the boat all to ourselves, and it was the perfect way to begin the our 1st day trip of the semester.

View from the boat looking back at the harbour. 

After our boat tour, we headed over to see two architectural complexes between the harbour and the historical part of the city. The first was Palazzata Della Ripa and the second was Palazzo San Giorgio. Both held significant importance to the city's harbour and were ideal for the architecture students first sketches. 

We then headed to Galata Museo Del Mare for a tour of the museum of the sea. This partiuclar museum was built on the original site of the 17th century arsenal main dock. In the main hall, when you first come in, you can see the entire map of the waterfront of Genoa. 

An aerial view of the entire waterfront of Genoa. 

After finishing up at themuseum we had a quick lunch around the harbor. We thenmoved on and took a tour of La Commenda Di Pre' which is one of the most historical centers in all of the Mediterranenan, founded during the 12th century. 

This building was used as a hospice to knight monks and pilgrims that were traveling through the area to reach the Holy Land. There are two parts to La Commenda Di Pre', an upper and a lower.

From La Commenda, we went to the Palazzo del Prince, which was the mansion and the headquarters of the Prince of Genoa. We toured the entire mansion; bedrooms, gardens, and banquet hall. It was very old and very beautiful.

The interior of the upper church of La Commenda.

One of the rooms inside Palazzo del Prince. 

Lastly, we ended the day with a trip to the tip of Genoa to se La Lanterna. It was quite the trek, but well worth it once we arrived and the perfect way to end our 1st day trip. It was the perfect backdrop for such an important structure to the Genovese history. The Lighthouse was first constructed in the 12th century, then a new one in the 16th century, and finally restored as a museum from 1995-2004. La Lanterna is the symbol of Genoa; it rises some 85 meters (279 feet) from the base and 117 meters (384 feet) above the sea. It remains a functioning lighthouse and navigational aid for sailors even today holding a light beam that can be seen for up to 33 miles away.

La Lanterna.

Italian Classes

Since arriving, we have not only began, but finished a crash course in the language of Italian, and managed to do so in a mere ten days. 

Professor Barbara Zaczek came from Clemson to stay with us in the Villa and meet with us

during these ten days for 3 hours a day. She was absolutely wonderful; because of her we were 

able to quickly learn enough of the basics to get us by during our semester abroad. 

Professor Barbara also made it possible for us to have two delicious meals while here so that we could practice using the Italian we had learned. Our first meal was at a restaurant down by the port one of the first nights Barbara was here. We were treated to a full 4th course meal at  i Tre Merli at a special price. We really enjoyed the food, but had a great time trying out our Italian!

Our group at i Tre Merli 

The other restaurant we visited was the day of our last class and the night before Barbara was to head back to Clemson. It too was very delicious, and being that we went at the end of our ten day crash course, hopefully our Italian was a little better than at the first restaurant we visited!

 

A group of us at dinner with Barbara on her last night in Genoa. 

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We really enjoyed having Barbara in the Villa teaching us our new native language. She really is an excellent professor who knows much about the Italian language, and is an asset to the Clemson University faculty and staff. We were very sad to see her go! Thank you SO much Barbara! 

Sweet Barbara and her friends that let us practice our Italian on them. 

Our Goals for the Semester

Now that we are here and trying to get the studio portion of the semester started, we just wanted to make our readers aware of some goals we have for sharing the semester with you. 

We will be doing a lot of sketching this semester. Our goal is to assign one student to each week in the semester in hopes that they will choose a couple of their own sketches and not only share those with you, but also share insight on to how those sketches came to be. 

We will also be doing a great deal of traveling. Our goal in traveling is to share as many first hand experiences and pictures with you so that you too feel as though you have been all over Italy with us. 

We hope to meet these goals effectively each week. In doing so, we know that you will have a better understanding of our Clemson experience in the Genoa program! 

Let the semester begin!!

We have arrived!! 

Everyone that has the distinct pleasure of being a part of the Genoa program for the Spring Semester of 2009 is safe and sound here in the Villa. We've all had a long journey over the course of two or so days in getting here, so we're all pretty jet lagged. We hope to adjust to the time difference quickly and after a few days of rest, have the opportunity to explore the city of Genoa before classes begin. 

Until next time, arreverdici! 

Our home for the next 4 months.