home.again

After a windy and rainy visit to Assisi, we're enjoying our weekend 'at home' in Orvieto, basking in sun and 65 degree weather. (Not to rub it in or anything, Kansas and Nebraska...)

As I've been getting caught up on sketches for seminar and history classes (procrastination is an international phenomenon it seems) I've completely neglected preparing the next post of weekend activities...my apologies to all my dedicated followers: you'll just have to sit in suspense for the thrilling tales of this leading lady's adventures in Assisi!

(But to tide you adoring fans over, I've added the long-awaited text for the Herculaneum post from way back when...)

the.vatican: take.2

After getting back to Orvieto from our three-day South Trip, we celebrated our homecoming at the local cafes, who were featuring live music, crowds, etc. Paul Megli made a quick comment about "Boy, I'd really like to go to Rome before the Vatican gets crowded."

Next thing I know, we're planning our 6AM departure for Rome.

Our mission: conquer the entirety of the Vatican Museums. Oh dang.

We visited everything, included my new favorite portion of the museums: an often overlooked garage under the Vatican featuring all the Pope's transportation history. aka...POPEMOBILES!

(Back when the popemobile had 4 legs and neighed)

Then it was off to the Early Christian, Egyptian, Etruscan, etc et etc before beginning the hike to the coveted Sistine Chapel finale....this walk shall now be referred to as the Vatican Marathon.

During hour 5 in the museum, we finally made it to the Raphael Rooms that precede the Sistine. The sheer detail of these spaces is incredible...former papal apartments, clearly, as even their shutters are over the top:

Now that the tourist path is set up like a maze, we went up and down about 90 staircases, finally surprising ourselves with one last little, nondescript turn, then BOOM! Sistine Chapel.

Our intelligent move to visit the Sistine in the mid-afternoon paid off...all the tour groups had filtered out by 1, leaving us so much elbow room in the famous chapel that we scored bench seats to just sit and stare. No pictures of the Sistine--my apologies to my adoring fans. The Vatican was under contract with the restoration contractors that no photos will be allowed. And there was no cheating and shooting pictures from the hip...one particular short ninja-like Vatican guard was so not falling for it.

After over an hour of gawking, Paul and I finally crossed the finish line of the Vatican Marathon. 7 HOURS IN. But we were rewarded with a nearly empty St. Peter's at sunset.


Despite about 1 foot of bulletproof glass between me and the Pieta's genius, my lil' Nikon was a champ.

Everyone should be as lucky as to visit St. Peter's right before closing...forget the typical tourist experience. The lighting is fantastic, there's usually music drifting around (we had a splendid children's choir performing during our visit), and no crowds to fight with for the coveted nave shot...it's a rare chance to experience the spiritual, personal identity of St. Peters.

palace.at.caserta

The final day of our South Trip revolved around a visit to the Baroque palace at Caserta, about an hour north of Naples. Like an humbled Versailles (that French disaster is surreal in comparison), Caserta presented itself with a still stunning level of opulence. The royal families who lived in Caserta were relatives of those living in Versailles (those crazy royal power marriages, you know) so there were very obvious and intentional similarities between the two.





Can you name the movie featuring these stairs? (Hint: It's Star Wars. One of the bad ones that no one really ever watches...2 maybe?).


This was unfortunately as close to the Caserta gardens as I came...absolutely torrential rain kept me huddled outside the cafe near the entrance. Hmmm, coffee or wet clothes on a 3 hour busride? Uno cappucino, please.

Caserta showed off it's richness in its fine details. For some reason, I was constantly drawn to the excessive details of the custom windows...


...and the elaborate marble floors showing off the countless variations of Italian marble...


And the quite elaborate/verging on ugly chandeliers...

But Caserta's highlight for my lil' interior architecture self was its furniture...Baroque without being so gilded and ornamental that it was nauseating (cough*Versailles*cough)...




How cute are those his and hers Baroque chairs? Way cute! Perhaps they sell these in the gift shop...

villa.oplontis

Just on the outskirts of Naples (yuck) sits the archeological site of Villa Oplontis. Believed to be the palace built for the wife of Emperor Nero, this villa is famous for its elaborate and highly-preserved wall paintings...Therefore, without further ado, a visual tour of my personal highlights of the paintings of Oplontis.

day.at.pompeii

After "vacationing" in Herculaneum for a day, we headed off to the "busier" city of Pompei--the highlight of our South Trip. Despite foggy weather that completely obscured Mt. Vesuvius for the entire 3 days of our excursion, the weather behaved for the most part.


In fact, the foggy weather occasionally gave way to splendidly brief moments of sunshine, which hit the ruins perfectly as we enjoyed our nearly empty Pompei.



As an added bonus, the potentially rainy skies seemed to keep the hoardes away from the city (and also the fact that our overly excited fearless leaders forced us to be in line even before the city opened).

We had full reign of Pompei for well over an hour...not another soul in sight. Slightly eerie, but beautiful.

After running amock in the Forum with our cameras, Don led us in our group to check out the houses of Pompei...


A strangely atypical house on one of the tiny back streets of Pompeii (the atrium would never open on axis to the stairs like that...must have been a remodel...)

And of course, off to the famously giant "House of the Faun", one of the best known sites in Pompeii...named for this statue (actually a replica, as the jerks from Naples' Archeological Museum seem to snatched up a lot of the originals...)




Then we were set free for several hours to wander the seemingly never-ending streets of Pompeii...



Where Renae and I discovered an unlocked door to the back of the House of the Tragic Poet, another main destination in Pompeii...

Still not sure if we were supposed to be in there, but no one arrested me and I got my pictures. I'd call that a win.


Of course, the famous mosaic floor at the entry of the House of the Tragic Poet (actually a replica...grrrrr, Naples....). Here's why I love Pompeii so much: the city's love for dogs continues.

In fact, Pompeii welcomes dogs. There are tons of formerly stray dogs that call Pompeii home. The city now collars them, feeds them, keeps them healthy, and best of all, finds them all adoptive homes with visitors. These doggies even have their own website!


This is Cuspius. He was my buddy for the morning while I explored on my own:


We went to the botanical gardens, got a snack, sketched for a while, toured a few houses, and he showed the way to the cafeteria (probably in hopes of getting more of my pizza and snacks...)

My last stop before meeting up with Renae and the rest of the group to head toward the Villa of Mysteries (no pictures, as I was so focused on my tired, ouch-y feet I forgot...) was the Bath complex. (Cuspius didn't join me...apparently, like most dogs, he was not a fan of baths.)

off.to.herculaneum

Our first archeological stop on our South Trip was Herculaneum. Buried by hot mudslides after the eruption of Mt. Vesivius in 79A.D., this smaller luxurious "vacation" town boasts well-preserved homes and resorts. We arrived after squeezing our giant bus down the narrower streets of Naples, to find that the weather had started to misbehave and sprinkle.


Undeterred by a little rain, our fearless leaders broke us up into our groups and we headed off down the main streets of Herculaneum to find a restored house in which to hide from the inevitable rain.


The first house we wandered around featured one of my favorite architectural solutions: a potty under the stairs.

It was then into an atypical Roman house, which was the product of several layers of remodeling and the selling of portions of larger homes to create a small domus. Unlike at Pompeii, the 'thieves' of Naples' National Archeological Museum haven't gobbled up the surviving, exquisite details of Herculaneum to shove out of context in a museum. My favorite apartment featured a fantastically large and preserved floor which we could walk on. It creates a much greater understanding of the original to feel and experience something as simple as the texture of the floor under your shoes.


Like a misfit band of Architectural Nancy Drews, we explored every unusual feature of this house--which I loving dubbed my Favorite Frankenstein Domus--and harassed Carol with countless theories and questions. Carol and Don studied these houses extensively and behind the scenes with research access years ago, so it was exciting to be there with a team that had such an understanding of the place...we've been truly blessed by their knowledge and connection to the country! (This session of intellectual snooping at Frankenstein Domus has been my favorite experience so far!)
Look at how preserved these elaborate wall paintings are!

The "locker rooms" at the small Bath complex gave the ruins at Herculaneum a human, tangible realism that reminded us that people actually lived here, partied here, made lives here, in such a modern way that it's slightly mind-boggling.


The advanced technology of the Romans is still amazingly impressive. Systems of steam pipes from fires were encased in a cavity under the raised floor of the baths--sauna anyone? But the attention to detail is what always gets me--this particular bath still has its original ribbed ceiling. Not only beautiful in its precision and texture, this ceiling created channels for condensation to run down along the arched ceiling, so your relaxing heat room session wouldn't be disturbed by ceiling condensation dripping down on you.


Herculaneum was a thrill to experience--again, no crowds meant we had the city's streets to ourselves. Your imagination can truly run wild when you're turned loose in such a combination of textures and layers of history: