Spanish Love! Barcelona and Bilbao

Stained glass windows in Sagrada Familia

Interior view of Sagrada Familia

Mosaic tile detail at Casa Batllo

Exterior shot of Casa Batllo

Hanging out with the sculpture at the Barcelona Pavilion!

Guggenheim museum in Bilbao

Spain was AMAZING!  First of all, the food and drink was a nice break from the amount of pasta and pizza I have been eating in Italy.  Secondly, I saw some of my favorite pieces of architecture which I have always wanted to visit. So many dreams coming true :)

We started our adventure in Barcelona.  Naturally we had to have tapas and sangria upon arriving. We dropped our luggage off at our hostel and went to a nearby tapas restaurant. Delicious! The first two nights we relaxed and had fun, and by fun, I mean explored the night life.  The clubs in Spain are ridiculous and don't end until the wee hours of the morning.  Not sure I could do that often. Experiencing it once or twice is enough for this girl!  We went to a great market off of one of the main streets called Las Ramblas and gathered items to cook in our hostel.  Sandy loves to cook, so she wanted to take advantage of the fresh ingredients.  We all pitched in and made delicious stuffed peppers and guacamole.

We had to say goodbye to Sandy in Barcelona... We had sooo much fun with her visiting.  It was great to catch up and explore some fabulous cities with her!

The next day we visited Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi and has been under construction since 1882!  The interior of this church was unlike anything I have ever seen.  It has it's own distinct style and was incredibly creative.  He designed the columns to make them look like trees, which also helped make them appear less massive.  By far my favorite church visited!  We also went to the house he designed called Casa Batllo.  This house is known for it's light well that provides light to the bottom floor, passing through many levels.  The light well is also tiled, beginning with a cobalt blue near the top and fading to a light grey near the bottom depending on how much light the surface would receive.  He also had many innovative details such as creating operable slats on doors and windows to help control the temperature.  Another interesting fact about this house is that the facade did not have any plans to build from.  Gaudi created a 3D scaled model of the facade for the contractors to work from.  Incredible!



Bilbao was our next stop.  I have been wanting to visit this city for a very long time. The Guggenheim museum, designed by Frank Gehry, has been on my list of things to see for many years and I spent many hours exploring it! It was built to help revive the city and bring it away from the industrial city it had become.  I think it may have worked as it was thriving!  The museum is one of the most amazing buildings in the style of deconstructivism. The exterior of the building is made of titanium cladding, stone and glass and the majority of it is composed of curvilinear shapes.  The titanium cladding would reflect colors from surrounding structures, making the museum look even more unique. 

I also visited one of the sites for my independent study here which was another incredible building that changed the skyline of Bilbao. It is shown in the picture above behind the Guggenheim museum. We enjoyed a variety of tapas and drinks here and Laura introduced me to churros.  It is a Spanish dessert of deep fried 'donuts' and chocolate dipping sauce, which had a consistency of pudding!  Soo yummy!  I can't wait to come back!

Flooded in Venice

We made it to Venice!

Piazza San Marco flooded

Sunny day in Murano!

We made it to Venice and it was a bit cloudy... I think this was a premonition as to how the next few days were to pan out.  Our first few days there were rainy and the streets were flooding us into our hotel most nights and mornings! It was cool to see the water rise with the tides.  I purchased a pair of rain boots to slosh around in the water and that way I didn't have to worry about my feet and pants getting wet! We explored Venice by foot on our second day and ended the day in Piazza San Marco, which is Venice's largest public square with the beautiful St. Mark's church.  The interior of the church was amazing with mosaic tiles covering many of the surfaces and minimizing the amount of hard lines in the interior as the tiles wrapped the corners.  We also climbed the bell tower which gave us an incredible view of the city and surrounding islands.  Another church we ventured to was Rendentore designed by Palladio.

Venice was interesting because there can't be any cars on the island, so the travel options are to take the Vaporetto (the waterbus) or to walk.  We got a lot of walking in, because honestly the vaporetto's weren't that fast, just a really cool way to see the island.  However, they were necessary when we wanted to island hop!  I have to admit, it is a little sad that the island will one day be under water.  It is now just a tourist town and as my professor put it, "Venice is now a museum." 

We took a day trip to a lovely town called Verona.  We had a beautiful day here, so a few of us climbed to the top of some Roman ruins and took in the breathtaking view of the city!  We spent the majority of our time here at a museum called Castelvecchio, which was designed by Carlo Scarpa.  This museum has an intense amount of architectural details.  I wish I would have had my camera with me on this day, but I have many sketches where I documented some of my favorite parts! 

I almost forgot to mention my favorite part about Venice.  The Architecture Biennale! This is an architectural exhibition held in Venice every 2 years.  It is a festival that is designated a curator and is essentially a giant museum full of architectural work from around the world.  Fascinating and inspirational.  Especially when we arrived at the United States exhibit, where we saw that our professor who is leading us on this trip was featured on a banner along with other great things happening around the states.  We were all so happy to see this and proud of Professor Talbott!

Our friend Sandy came to visit us in Venice and we had a wonderful time!  We enjoyed some wine, traditional Italian food, shopping and exploring the island of Murano where we searched for some cool glass items.  It was fun to see some of the pieces being made in the shops.  The three of us purchased a pair of earrings at a shop in Venice where we saw someone working on creating some items.  BFF earrings!

After spending a few days together in Venice, we ventured to the airport where we boarded our plane to Barcelona!

Day trip to Assisi and Piazza Analysis

Piazza analysis

Found porchetta sandwiches in Assisi!

Basilica of San Francesco

View up the hill from the Basilica

We were assigned a piazza analysis where we had to select one of four given piazzas to analyze many different aspects of the space such as: how people move through the space, the boundaries of existing buildings, auto zones vs. pedestrian zones, regular vs. irregular spaces, surface quality, etc.  We were allowed and encouraged to work in teams, so Laura and I paired up to study Piazza San Lorenzo which is a piazza we walk through almost everyday.  The first image above is of the perspective drawing, diagram and plan I drew.  We studied the paths of movement, details of the facade, how the market impacted the space and how the flow of traffic dispersed into the neighboring streets.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Assisi, which is an awesome town!  The primary reason for the visit was to explore the Basilica of San Francesco.  The facade of the building has a few gothic details, but is very minimal as is the interior of the church. The interior is much more expansive and brightly lit. I wish I could have taken pictures of the interior, but it seems to be a common theme in Italy that no photography is allowed. 

Before going to the church we stopped in a piazza to get lunch and I found porchetta sandwiches!  Made my day :) 

We had to do a drawing analysis of a narrow street and imagine that, it wasn't too difficult to find one.  However, I ventured a few streets away from the main street we took down and found a cool little residential area to sit and draw for a half hour.  When making my way back to the bus station where we were meeting, I naturally had to enjoy a little gelato.  Never gets old....

And why is it that I seem to love every city I visit just as much as the last?  They all have so many unique characteristics... Heading to Venice this weekend for nearly a week then off to Barcelona and Bilbao for our independent travel.  Blog will be updated after that!  Until then, ciao!

Family in Florence! Eeeek!

Grape leaves!

Wine tasting at

View of the vineyard at Fattoria Poggio Alloro

Hanging out in San Gimignano

Leaning tower of Pisa

I can't express how happy I was to see some of my family here in Italy!  My auntie Kay, cousin Julie, and family friend LuAnne came to visit.  We explored Florence and I showed them the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, the central market and the Boboli Gardens.  We also took a planned day trip to visit Siena, San Gimignano, a vineyard near San Gimignano, and Pisa.  This was a great trip!  We saw a ton of stuff and drank A LOT of wine!  The vineyard was my favorite part... not just because there was wine, but also because they make their own olive oil, which was delicious. It's also an organic farm which is cool.  We did this tour on Saturday and were exhausted by the end of the day.  We woke up on Sunday and went to mass in the Duomo at noon... the rest of the day consisted of market shopping, eating and drinking.  Couldn't get any better than that :)

I was sad to say goodbye on Monday evening after we had dinner at a restaurant near their apartment, but was incredibly thankful that I was able to make so many memories and explore a little of Italy with them!

True Italian Cooking

Sauteing some red onions

Pasta dough ready for the refrigerator

Pasta makin'

Chicken Cacciatore

Panna Cotta

We were offered the option of signing up for a cooking class for 60€, which includes two classes, recipes and an apron.  I was unsure at first, but I am sure glad I did it!  We have another class tonight, but last week we learned how to make pasta and sauce from scratch, chicken cacciatore, and panna cotta!  It was truly delicious and hopefully I can take these skills back home with me! 

We were all a bit shy and apprehensive at first, but then we all started doing our part with instructions from Chef Walter.  He was super nice, informative, and answered any questions we had.  He's instructing our class again tonight and I think we are all looking forward to having him share his skills again!

Pasta maker.... I think I need one now.  Kneading the dough was a bit of a workout, but the end result was worth the extra work!  Our instructor assured us we didn't need a workout on days when we make our own pasta... I completely understand why now! :)  He also showed us how to use the different attachments for the pasta maker and the different types of pasta we could create.  Cutting the chicken into pieces was disgusting and something I would probably avoid when at home. I am not a fan of cutting through bones, so I did not volunteer to help with that part and I give props to Emily and Zach who took on that responsibility!  Panna cotta is sooooo easy to make and fairly quick, except for the cooling part.  Luckily the culinary institute has flash freezers that sped up the process for us.  I will definitely be making this meal again!  Can't wait to see what we learn tonight...

Let the work begin!

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (aka The Duomo)

View of the Arno River

View of Florence from the top of the Duomo

Boboli Gardens and Piazza Pitti in the background

Ponte Vecchio

After a weekend of getting acclimated to our new home in Florence, we dove into our schedule for school at full force.  We have been seeing so much, so I will do my best to recap some of it!  On our first week here we visited the following:  Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (aka the Duomo), Galleria Dell'Accademia, Santo Spirito, Palazzo Pitti, Giardino di Boboli and more!  The Duomo was quite amazing... 3 different types of marble were used in the composition of the facade and exterior of the building.  Brunelleschi, the architect, designed the dome to be 1.5" larger than the Pantheon.  Also, flying buttresses (which were in many of the gothic cathedrals I saw in France) were not to be used in the design.  This was another issue Brunelleschi had to overcome and he solved it by using iron rods to support the interior structure against lateral forces. 

Boboli Gardens (set behind Piazzo Pitti) were beautiful, encompassing both Renaissance and Mannerist style gardens.  The very top of the gardens (part of the renaissance design was to bring individuals from a lower point to the highest point) gave an excellent view of the city. 

Ponte Vecchio is the famous bridge in Florence.  Built with Roman principles, it was placed at the most narrow part of the Arno River.  It is connected to the Vasari corridor which was built in the 1500's when the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici began to fear for his safety.  It connected his residence and the government palace so he could avoid contact with the people of the city.  The Ponte Vecchio was at one time a meat market, but when it turned into the Vasari corridor, the meat was removed and replaced with goldsmiths.  There are still jewelers there today.  I think all the little stores sticking out from the bridge are incredibly neat.  The colors make it even more interesting to look at! 

Spending many more hours wandering the streets of Florence won't be a problem at all!

Mediterranean weather brings smiles...

First night settled into our new apartment in Florence, each of us with our own bottle of wine :)

Duomo Bell Tower

View of the Arno River

I think Italy may end up being my favorite country on this trip.  Not only is the weather much warmer than our previous locations, but Florence is a beautiful city and the architecture is pretty incredible!  However, with that said, I could definitely get used to the Mediterranean climate! There are still a few tourists lingering around, but I think we will have a much different experience here than the other cities we visited.  It's really great that we have our own apartment, which is located outside the city center... cheaper to live and trying to get a feel for how the locals do things.  We can do a lot of cooking together and less eating out since we have a full kitchen too, sans an oven...  Of course I am still getting my fill of pizza, pasta, gelato, cannoli and wine!

We haven't done much as far as class goes quite yet.  We had a welcome dinner with our whole group and have been settling into our apartments.  We have gone on a few walking tours of our neighborhood and the city center to get a better grasp on the city and where things are located.  Tomorrow, we climb to the top of the Duomo, which I can't wait to do! I'm sure it will provide another great view of the city and also allow me to see the interior of the church we have been meeting at every morning.

More to come as our experiences get more exciting!

Oh, and my cousin and aunt arrived today! So I am heading out to go visit with them! Soooo incredibly excited to have some family here :)