Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Milan was fun!

Salve!

I went to Milan this past weekend! Vanessa (one of the TA's) and I took a night trip to Milan on Saturday. We took TrenItalia and it took 2.5 hours to get there. Once there we took the subway two stops to Loreto to our extravagent, classy Hotel Laguna Blu. That was completely sarcastic! HAHA! There was a garden that looked like a crack head decorated it; childrens toys spewed everywhere, a random vacuum cleaner, stacks of chairs, cleaning supplies....it looked more like a storage closet than the garden they asked us to wait in. We had two lil twin beds in a room that smelled like cig smoke! The perk: AIR CONDITIONING! Which came in handy after a night of clubbing and a heat wave. But first I should talk about the turisty stuff. We went to see the Duomo, which looks like a big frosted cake. It is extremely Gothic inside and out. IT IS MASSIVE! We went through the main shopping area (the first of its kind) which is right off of the Duomo Square. Then we hit the public gardens.
Main shopping area in Milan

Vanessa and I had to get some key things out of our system. After 2 weeks straight of pasta and pizza we went out for sushi. GUILTY!!! I needed to switch up my taste palette. Also, the nightlife in Venice is lacking, which is fine because we're so busy anyways.  SO Saturday night in Milan we went to a crazy chic club called The Oracle seeking fun Euro techno music with a lot of bass and beat---and that's what we got! We danced and drank vodka tonics til 3 am! I wore heels (which I NEVER DO!!) We made random friends at the club. We took a cab home. 

Vanessa and I in the Public Gardens in Milan

Monday we went across the canal to Giudecca with our Prof. Holly to do some shooting for the space assignment. We took us to her old rowing club and a ship yard for some random and interesting shots. I will return to Giudecca to probably do some much needed laundry....
Last night (Monday night) I wrote 4 art history papers, one page per work of art from different churchs around the city. One paper was about the facade of the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, which is on the Grand Canal near the Ponto Rialto. 


Hotel Laguna Blu, Milan 

This week in photo we we are working on the space assignment. Today we went to the Franciscan Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. The facade and exterior architecture is purposefully simple. The monks of this church lived off of charity and focused ALL of their energy on meditation. St. Francis meditated SO hard that he bears the same wounds on his hands as Christ. The Assumption of the Virgin by Titian is the main altarpiece in Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. This piece truly launched his career.  I'm working on the campo project with Krissy, Jenna, and Abbey. Solid group. We study a neighborhood for a week and a half and then give the  class a tour of the campo's church, architecture etc.....We pretend to be our art history teacher for 40 minutes. And of course we each write our own 8 pages papers.

TEAL, WE HAVE LIBRARY CARDS FOR THE BIG PUBLIC LIBRARY IN VENICE!!!! I know you'd love to hear that!


Random pic of shadow and light (the weekend assignment)

Monday we went across the canal to Giudecca with the photo class. Holly took us around to her old rowing club and an old ship yard. Though, I have had my fill of pictures of boats. 

After class today we went to Punto supermarket for lunch, where I was WAY OVERCHARGED FOR MY PASTA SALAD AH!!! Because of the language barrier I lost the argument with the cashier. Oh well. My Italian has gotten a lot better and natural sounding.
 
Tomorrow night we're all meeting Piazza San Marco to have a workshop on night shooting. Thursday night we're having a cocktail party at Prof. Andrea G's house! We're wearing masks like Venecians do during Carnivale. 

Vanessa and I in front of the Duomo, Milan

2 comments:

  1. Ah man my post got deleted Sarah... so i'm just going to do it short!

    A. high heels! AWESOME come dancing with me. You rock
    B. Gross hotel
    C. Libraries are awesome, take pictures for me
    D. I bet you rock at Italian
    E. Going to check out the website!

    it was a lot longer but hey i'm lazy!
    Much love ,
    Teal

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  2. Oh also, I laughed to see you guys both in Brown. You seem to dress more European (whatever that means) by the day...or should i say post.

    ReplyDelete