Siena

I've not been posting for about three weeks because my parents have been visiting me in Italy. They are usually bus tour type people, so to be able to travel independently is a new experience for them and I'm glad I could make it happen for them. It wasn't easy at times for various reasons. Now that they are gone, I can reflect on what the difficulties were. (There were lots of great moments, but I'm trying to learn from the challenges and times I lost my cool). First and foremost.....I am my father. Two of us together, both control freaks, is not always good. He is to be commended for letting me take the wheel (figuratively and literally), but I did have the slight language advantage. Second, and this is totally me being tough on myself, I expected myself to never make a mistake. I set up all the hotels and set the daily agenda and if something went wrong of I got lost, I ended up taking it out on Mom and Dad when I should I know that they understood that not everything was going to be perfect. Highs and lows come with travel and I thought they would judge badly when I made a bad call. Third, it was hard for me sometimes to deal with the fact that I've accepted that sometimes things are done "the Italian way" and I've adjusted to it, but Mom and Dad didn't always "play along". I need to give them credit for doing such a great job as they were dropped into it pretty much without preparation. Oh, and lastly, there is the issue of my Dad never saying what he really wants. This is something that I've learned (even though I have yet to learn how to deal with it patiently) is that he'll mention something and then say it's ok if it doesn't pan out, when her REALLY does want it to. Ok, I've processed. And for those of you who are Facebook friends, you've gotten the daily commentary and status updates about the incredibly humorous things Mom and Dad said throughout the trip.

So, the blog postings about the trip start now. After spending a few days around Viterbo and a day trip to Rome, first stop......Siena.

When Tuscany is mentioned, people swoon about how beautiful it is.

It really is. It's amazing how you just drive from Lazio into Tuscany, and the landscape is just THAT much prettier, idyllic and amazing. Pictures don't do it justice, you'll have to see it for yourself.

A view of the city hall tower in the Tuscan hill town of Siena.

The center of town, and hands down the best piazza in Italy, is the Campo of Siena. It's magical at night and it's great for people watching. It's surrounding by homes and restaurants that fan around the curved border.

Siena City Hall is what all the buildings face.

The campo (the bricks are what the color Burnt Sienna is named after) is divided into nine sections (representing the nine council members who ruled during medieval times) and slopes down to a point in front of city hall.

This 13th century duomo is amazing and it's piazza is the sight of a funny incident that Melody (from the Volterra trip) and I had on this very spot. There is amazing art inside the duomo as well.

One of the first panels on the floor you come to is this one with Siena (she-wolf) as the center of the Italian world with other cities (Rome, Florence, etc) revolving around Siena.

One of those towns "orbiting" around Siena is Viterbo. WOOHOO, Viterbo worthy of mentioned in Siena's put down!

This pulpit (1268), but Nicola Pisano, is one of the first Renaissance "sculptures". Notice the classical forms and the realism.....about 100 years before Leonardo and Michelangelo.

The pillars stand on the backs of lions. The lions symbolize Christianity and it (the lions) are devouring it's catch (the defeat of paganism).

Siena, actually was going to build an even BIGGER duomo. The current nave was going to be the trancept of the larger planned duomo. Here we are looking at the facade of the unfinished duomo.

Here we see the arches that were to form the nave. It's been filled in and the Duomo museum occupies the space. The piazza in front (what would have been the nave of the new duomo) is the location of the place to which Melody and I a few weeks previously had accidentally ended up when she was navigating us around Siena using the GPS on her iPhone. Siena is a pedestrian city and all this is where we ended up.

This is the pedestrian only street that the GPS let us down. We had to drive out on it as well.

Siena was the fourth day of Mom and Dad's trip. Mom saw this Chinese takeout place and insisted that we go.

Here they are eating in the stockroom of the takeout place. We ate Chinese at least 5 times on the trip. Each time, the Chinese natives would roll out the red carpet for us.

Viterbesi one of the Azzuri

Being in Italy for the start of the World Cup (Mondiali) is quite an experience. Being the defending champions brings great expectations and the whole country stops and watches the games. Here in Viterbo, there is an added bonus. Leonardo Bonnuci is from right here in Viterbo. He's actually from two neighborhoods over from where I live. So, they set up a screen in the piazza and projected it onto a wall. This happened all over town, and I bet around the country and probably the world.

"Go Leo!~ We are all with you."

The piazza of Bonnuci's neighborhood packed to the gills.

"Go Leo! You are our pride"

Here's the set up in Valle Faul, Viterbo's psuedo Central Park. I watched the second half of the game here. When de Rossi scored the goal the place went NUTS.

What a year it has been

If you are a dedicated reader of the blog, you know the meaning of this picture!

Tuesday morning at 230AM, the bus pulled into the "Questura" (police station) parking lot to load up the kids, their bags and lots of tears for the flight back to the United States. I had my moments of mourning their departure the Thursday before when we cleaned up the school and they left the building for the last time. School was, and still feels empty without the screeching and laughter of high school students. This year was an amazing experience. I left the job in Oakland because I was bored. I didn't have the feeling of excitement each and every day that I felt here. I recognize that it's always the first year that is always special. And there will never be a first time here in Italy like it was this year. What made it so memorable? Why was it that I couldn't sleep through the night because I was so ready to get the next day started? (Well, lots of great coffee didn't help matters). It was the fact that I was learning every day. I was teaching subjects I hadn't taught in years. I waded through and successfully taught BC Calculus. There were times when I was walking the tightrope of having to admit that I didn't know what I was teaching, but I made it through. Taking Art History was awesome and gave me context and excitement for everything I was seeing. Traveling each and every weekend was unbelievable and something I started to take for granted. But what this year gave me was the chance to learn how to live that keeps me engaged and excited, how to live a life that keeps me out of trouble or even thinking about trouble and how to take chances. I've still got lots to learn and places where I can be bold and not be tentative, but I have no fear of living in a place where I don't know the language or the culture.

So, what's up this summer? First, Mom and Dad are here visiting for the the first weeks of June. I return to the US for a month. One week in San Francisco, 10 days in Seattle, a week in Upstate NY working with Lucky Dog farms and then a few days in Manhattan. I return to Italy in late July, my friend Vern visits and then we travel to Cologne for the Gay Games. I'll spend a weekend down in Bavaria with my German host brothers from 1986. Amsterdam with my friend Jim J. and finishing up in August hiking in the mountains and fjords of Norway. How's that?

The Vatican

Classes finished this past Thursday. The Italian teachers called me "cattivo" for scheduling an exam on the last day of classes. I thought nothing of it and the kids didn't complain one bit. However, the final academic requirement of the year for the students was a last trip to Rome this past Friday. The trip I had yet to go on was a tour of the Vatican. I had been there back in 2007 when I was here for a wedding, but this time, it became a game of "oh, we studied that piece in Art History" almost everywhere I turned. So, here we go, it's kind of a hodge podge of a bunch of pieces from the entire year in Art History.

The cupola of St. Peter's Basilica.

First piece, the base of the column of Antonius Pius. On the right side, the apotheosis of Antonius and his wife Faustina, which is firmly in the classical tradition. On the left, is the decursio, or ritual circling of the funerary pyre. Note the break with classical traditions. Artists had become bored with classical art and were breaking with it. The decursio adopts non-classical traditions and brings in art of the lower classes.

Apoxyomenos, aka The Scraper, by Lysippos. This marble copy of the 330BC bronze stands in a large niche just before entering the octagonal courtyard. The young man is scraping the oil off his body after exercising.

Lysippos introduces a new canon where the head is one-eighth of the body, instead of one-seventh. The viewer is encouraged to view the statue from all angles instead of just frontally.

The Greeks LOVED order and balance. Here Praxiteles has created the "Apollo Belvedere." Although this is an action shot, Apollos is totally in control and serene. He's the mix of real person and god. Totally Greek!

The Aphrodite of Knidos, by Praxiteles, was major because it showed female nudity. And not just any woman, a goddess. Aphrodite isn't openly erotic, but she is sensuous and inviting.

This is Mithras (the symbol of order and salvation) taming the bull (representing chaos and unrest).

Ahh, yes, this brings back memories of a joke we had in class. This is a detail of the statue shown above where the bull is biting the balls of the bull thereby giving sending the bull into spasms and metaphorically giving chaos one more chance.

Raphael's "Transfiguration". The face of Christ might be the last thing Raphael ever painted as the rest of the painting was completed by his students.

This unfinished work (apparently Leonardo had artistic ADD and moved from piece to piece having a hard time finishing them) shows his ability to show psychological emotion and power. It's anguish of the body but ecstasy of the spirit through the eyes.

My favorite room in the Vatican museums is the long corridor called the map room. I could stand for hours looking at the huge maps of Italy that break up the country into chunks that show in great detail what was present on the peninsula during the time the maps were painted.

This is the map of the area called Tuscia, which is southern Tuscany and northern Lazio. Viterbo is located between the small lake (Lago di Vico) in the center and the big lake in the upper left (Lago di Bolena).

The facade of St. Peters was designed by Carlo Maderno between 1606 and 1612.

The size of St. Peters is enormous. This is the "balcacchino" (silk from Baghdad in Italian) that Bernini created in 1624-1633. It marks the high altar and St. Peters tomb. It's scale is perfect in bridging the human to the lofty vaults of the huge church. Interestingly, Pope Urban VIII ordered bronze taken from the Pantheon to be used for this structure. It's symbolic in taking from paganism it summarily rejects it.

St. Peter's Square is actually an ellipse. If you stand at one of the foci.....

.....the three deep rows of columns line up and appear as one. Math and architecture as art. AWESOME!

So, I have to admit that I missed some of the famous pieces that I wanted to see. Specifically, "The School of Athens" by Raphael. I did so with the knowledge that next year, I will be able to get into the Vatican with the school at least three times. I'm spoiled and lucky, I know.

Giro d'Italia 2010

The 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia (perhaps the 2nd greatest bicycle race in the world after the Tour de France) came within an hour of Viterbo yesterday. It was a Sunday and the 189km leg ended in the mountain town of Terminillo, about two hours from Viterbo. My colleagues and I went there because the last 15km of the stage was the first significant climb of the tour. The difficulty rating was 4 stars out of 5. The Danish rider Chris Sorenson won the Chianciano Terme-Terminillo stage, but the Kazakh rider, Alexander Vinokourov maintains the "magila rosa."

From left, Pat S. (director), Renato (our Italian buddy), Frank T. (Latin) and myself at the 1 km to go marker. And yes it was cold and foggy.

The finish line at the top of the town of Terminillo.

Only in Italy will you find a porchetta sandwich truck along the course. I think I need to buy one and import it to the US and franchise porchetta paninis.

So, here's the spot we staked out 300 meters to the finish on an relatively steep grade.

The riders were predicted to come in at 515PM. At 505PM, the official car indicates the riders are starting to come.

The leader, Sorenson I believe. He moved pretty fast.

Our spot was strategically chosen because the riders, minimizing the amount of distance, rode directly at us as they rounded the curve just downhill from us.

Apparently my recent haircut is somewhat different. The kids say it's "Italian" because it's short on the sides and longer on top.

In the first three to five minutes, the lead group of 17 riders came in, which broke away km 113, but the climb had separated them out.

A second breakaway group dribbled in and then 12 minutes after the leader, the first chunk of the peleton.

Then the next group of the peleton.

And the close car stating the end of the riders. Amazingly, the barriers and the course is broken down within an hour.

Now help me with the pathology here. This is ALL the free loot I acquired during the day. I don't need it, nor will I ever really use it. But when I saw it, I became a crazed child. I wanted it JUST to have it. I hopped a fence at one point to get into the crowd to get one of the those yellow bags. I ended up getting two. Now that its home, I'm never going to take them out of the packaging.

Here I am in front of "La Gazetta dello Sport" truck. The paper is the sponsor of the race, is printed in pink, and this is why the leader where's the "pink" jersey. This is the paper I read every morning and from which I'm learning to read. Drew, the student who took the picture, says I look as happy as a 10 year old kid here.