Day 44. Oh my gracious merciful heavens. Siena.

Siena: I was not prepared to be so smitten. I know, you've heard ths before- Istanbul, and Zanzibar, but now it's Siena. I am fickle, but traveling from one fabulous place to the next, it's unavoidable.

So- Lonely Planet says people tend to fall hard either for Florence or Siena. Florence's glory days were the Renaissance, and Siena's were the Gothic era, so the atmosphere is really different in each. Who knew, I am a Gothic girl. But not the gloomy, brooding kind. Italian Gothic has about as much in common with weighty, French, "Hunchback of Notre Dame" Gothic as, well, Italy does with France: not all that much. In either case, Gothic is all about the wall, and breaking it down, adn all about the engineering feats of creating giant vaulted interiour spaces. In Italy's case, it comes across with a certain lightheartedness and joy- again, like Italy itself.

The Duomo here: all white stone inscribed with stripes of dark grey pietra serena, with pastel candy-colored stone doing all sorts of beautiful and unexpected things. The carvings around the baptistry, for example, are pinks and sages and creams, pulled and twisted like taffy and arranged in ribbons of color. The crypt shows you just how massive it all is, with enormous piers for structure underground, but inside the Duomo itself, it's etheral. Some of my favorite art of the trp is inside one of the chapels- frescoes all around, showing what has to be some of the earliest examples of flawless use of linear perspective here. (Quite nice after all the early religious art.)

And now an urban design tangent: the Italians understand the Public Realm. They've understood it for thousands of years, dating back to the forum; they udnerstood it during the middle ages when the created these enclosed and dynamic gathering spaces, they understood it during the Renaissance, with the attention given to all the lovely Florentine piazzas. They understand that you need a place to put your carousel, and a place for your teenagers to lounge, and a place for your street festival, and soapbox orator, and coffee drinkers. You even need a place for your megalomaniac religious fanatics like Savonarola to burn books and host the "bonfire of the vanities," because any reasonable populace will pretty quickly come to their senses, and that same fanatic will meet with the same exact fate, in the same place, a year later. (That one's for you, Sarah Palin: people who endorse censorship in a nation of reasonable people always come to a bad end.) This whole public realm situation is pretty important, actually, since so many of our ideas about democracy came from the Roman Republic and its views on the responsibilities of a citizen; our ideas bout individuality, and the importance of participation in civic life can be traced to the the enlightenment and Renaissance Florence, when "we" became "I" for the first time in history. We talked about all of this in Western Architecture, and its suddenly all very clear. It's especially clear why I want to spend hours a day enjoying these public spaces, because they're rare at home, at least the lively ones.

To be continued, fighting yet another ticking clock and another foreign keyboard. Can't wait to get home and proofread and spell check...

Day 43. Very Expensive Train Ride. And, Siena

If I do not write it down, it did not happen. I did not fail to read the fine print on my train ticket, insisting that I validate this ticket, although I did not need to validate the last one I had, which came from the SAME MACHINE, before boarding the train. (Isn't that what the nice men walking through the train punching tickets do, really?) I did not walk past a small ashtray-sized validator, surrounded by teenagers, while I was trying to discern whether I was train 1, or 1A. I did not just pay a 40 € fine for this omission. I further did not miss my transfer during the distraction of paying said fine, meaning that I did not actually just purchase yet another ticket for this 40 mile trip. (This does not include the ticket I bought yesterday, with the machine that ate my 20, which, as it happens, was only good for yesterday.) I did not, in fact, just spend 75 €, for a 6.20€ ticket.

As my Australian friend Patrick would say, the only way to be an old hand, is to be an old hand. You can avoid some rookie mistakes with a little research, but for the most part, friends, it's live and learn.

None of this has ruined my day. I am in Siena, in the mother of all piazzas- the Piazza del Campo, where Il Palio takes place. I am already in love with this city, and all I have managed to do is walk directly to the Piazza for a late lunch (vino Toscano, and ravioli with butter and sage.) I know Siena has much, much more to offer, but I'm having a hard time prying myself from this beautiful, lively spot. I have to find my hotel, but I'm surveying the number of piazza cafes and trying to work out a reasonable rotation, so I can hang out in them all.

Day 42, assorted thoughts

Having a small fit of pique, in Florence. It's all mild, really- went to the train station to get tomorrow's ticket to Siena; my credit card won't work, which means a $20 international phone call to sort out. Switch to the machine that takes cash, which tells me after I have deposited my 20 €, that it does not intend to give me change. And despite this being quite a civilized place, it is by far the most difficult in terms of internet access. I stop at two places, both of which insist on seeing the passport I have locked in my hotel room. Mille grazie. I will now have to go back to the place across the bridge I found yesterday, with the loudest snuffling pug dog you have ever heard.

The only thing for a fit of pique, in Florence, is to sit in a lovely piazza and drink wine. This comes with a little surprise assortment of snacks. Today it's olives, and some sort of cheese-pepper crackers, and a little dish of snack mix. So, forgetting the last hour, some snippets from Florence:


On Rooms With a View:

I really do have one. It's a budget hotel, but it's on the piazza with the Duomo. How did they pull this off? It seems to be a crumbling corner of a glorious old plazzo. I suspect this because of the fresco on my ceiling, which is beautiful- and cut exactly in half, by the new wall subdividing this space into two guest rooms. I want to go knock on my neighbor's door, just to see the other half. Also, there's the smallest, oldest, scariest elevator I've ever seen, which takes ylou 3 flights up with a lot of banging and creaking. I wouldn't mind the walk, except that there are no lights in the stairewll, so even in the daytime you have to feel ahead with your toes on the landings before you commit to a step. All of this just adds to the charm. Upstairs it's cozy and cheerful.

On David:

I went to the Galleria dell'Accademia today, to see Michelangelo's David. (I stopped at the beautiful Ospedale degli Innocenti on the way, for those who are interested.) I've mentioned that statues, most of the time, are not a very moving art form for me. This one, of course, is different. I stood there, staring, from every angle, for something like 20 minutes. There's something about that left foot, bearing no weight, making it look like he's just about to step off of the pedestal. The hands, other than being just a little bit on the disturbingly large side, are practically moving. He is so alive that at one point, I actually turned my head to see what he was looking at, before I realized what I was doing. I'm not the first to say it's a masterpiece, but that doesn't make it any less true.

On Food, Mostly Beverages:

Every city has challenged my budget with a different surprise. In Cairo, it was camels; in Istanbul, it was boots; in Athens, it was taxis. Here- it's beverages. I can't seem to go more than a couple of hours without hanging out in a piazza, which means cafes, or vinos, or birras, or at least mineral water. It's just part of the cost of living here- this whole pedestrian city is designed around piazzas. There are tiny ones tucked in between buildings, giant ones full of fountains, and long thin ones full of market stalls. So it's begging you, really, to sit down and enjoy yourself, and linger over your drink to people-watch. And the food...these people have a tight relationship with prosciutto, which I fully endorse. And olives, which I've come to love. Their sweets are just barely sweet, which is perfect. Except for the gelato, which is in its own category. I had some in Rome, which I have to say, I found uninspiring. I'm not a big ice cream eater anyway. But, determined to conquer this culinary obstacle, I tried some again last night. I bought a cone of caramel, outside the Duomo. The guy behind the counter packed my cone full, then took a tiny little spoon and carefully placed some diced caramel cubes on top. Creamy, but light and airy, with chewy little bits of candy. Wow.

On Playing Hookey:

The closer I get to the end of my trip, the less I feel like being inside. It's so odd- I love art history, and experiencing architecture, and this is one of THE world's best places for both of those things- but all I want to do is walk. Walk, and sit in piazzas drinking coffee and wine. I think that's ok. this trip is about experience, not academics. I have been studying, and learning, and sitting inside, for quite some time now. And so: I am skipping the Uffizi. There. I said it. In Virginia's list of Florentine suggestions, she mentions of the Uffizi, "It can start to feel epic towards the end..." And she is right. It contains treasures, and would enrich me as a human being, and expand my understanding of art and culture. But I am not in the mood for Epic. The Vatican Museum sapped my energy, for Epic. I have seen the Uffizi, years ago, and it was memorable, and it was Epic. And so I'm skipping it. It feels like skipping class: I appreciated every minute of grad school, and almost never skipped. All the more decadent, and therefore fantastic, when you do- an afternoon movie the week before a studio review; a nap when you should be in the carpentry shop; watching Glee with friends when you should be working on your portfolio; all of these, on occasion, a wonderful thing. Just like skipping the Uffizi, to hang out in piazzas and drink wine...

On Amore, Idiocy in the Face Of:

Oh, this one pains me to write.

Last night I was sitting in the Piazza Signoria, having a glass of wine. (This is a recurring theme.) A young man walks by, says, "Buona Sera," to the people at the corner table, and then "Buona Sera," as he walks past me. I respond in flawless Italian, "Buona Sera!" and he says, "Ah, Americana." So my Italian is not remotely flawless. We chat for a minute about Florence. He is charming. He looks a little like a young Colin Firth. And we all know how much I love a young Colin Firth. I totally chickened out when he said, "You need-a some-a company, eh?" It has become a total reflex, to politely dodge people trying to sell me carpets, or ply me with mystery drinks, or offer to be my Egyptian husband. So without thinking I smile and offer a lame excuse, thank you but no thank you, and he is not pushy so he says good night and walks away.

And then I realize what I have done, and am completely and utterly dismayed. So now I am left sitting in the piazza with wine and time to reflect, and what I am reflecting upon is this: when a charming and handsome young Italian man, Colin Firth with an accent, strolls by and asks if you need-a some company, YOU SAY YES, you fool, what are you, just AFRAID OF HAPPINESS? Damn. This is is an even worse decision than, say, committing to a six-hour bike ride in Dar. I had a fight with myself on the way home. There was cursing. "Sure, join me for a glass of wine," would have done nicely. "Absolutely, pull up a chair," would have been fine. And I remind myself, you have to be careful about your Travel Face. You use it when you have to, to keep from being beseiged in markets and, well, anywhere in Egypt. But your Travel Face isn't who you are, and it shouldn't be used out of habit, because there goes Colin Firth. Again I say, damn.

Day 41: Florence.

Sitting in a trattoria by the central market, recommended by my friend Virginia. It is fabulous, no surprise. I am having wine with lunch because, why the hell not? I am in Italy, and I don't have a job to report to. Florence: lovely, as expected. My room is about 50 m from the Duomo, on the piazza. When I got here, I immediately hung my head out the window, all excited about the view. I wondered, why isn't every single other person in these piazza rooms also hanging out the windows? And then I realized, oh yes, they're all out enjoying Florence. So I headed out to do the same.

I really hadn't done any research before I came to Italy, knowing that there was plenty to see and I had no particular agenda. All the more fun: I pull out my map,and am surprised to find that I am about a block from the Laurentian Library. I go there directly: it is purported to be one of the strangest, most perverse pieces of architecture of its age, by Michelangelo. And it is. The famous almost-liquid stairs, pouring out of the library above, are practically moving, and they do puddle at the bottom. It's a really small space, very vertical, which makes the dynamics all the more strange. It's know for taking the classical language and twisting it until things feel wobbly; for example, the columns should rest on something substantial, like a huge base or at least the ground. Here, they just stop 2/3 of the way down, and these little scrolls are set into the wall underneath. Mentally, you feel like it's all about to topple. Even more fun, the scrolls actually crash into each other in the corners, like they're an afterthought and just mashed together- but this is Michelangelo, and he is messing with you. A genius in a lot of areas, Michaelangelo didn't start his career in architecture until he was 40, a fact I happen to really like. One more note on the surreal space: its's an icky, grey-ish green color. The stone itself feels chalky and cold and more like clay than marble. The reflections of light in the space are a bit seasick- it's so odd, for someone who was a master of color theory. So, so interesting

After the library, and aimless stroll, but I immediately run smack into a sign for Dante's house. Brief flashback: when I was here years ago during fall break, on a semester abroad, there were 4 of us stomping around the streets with our backpacks. It was pouring down rain, and I remember being sick and no help whatsoever in finding a place, but we finally found a room on our 6th or 8th try. We dropped off our bags and opened the window, and the clouds parted and in my memory there is even a rainbow....and we looked down below us, onto Dante's house. So today I knew I had to go in. It's better from the outside, actually: the museum made no sense at all, and was mostly a collection of coats of arms, unrelated to Dante. But it's a beautiful little spot.

And so: Ponte Vecchio, and piazzas, and the Central Market, and a perfect meal. Finishing my coffee, we'll see what I stumble across next...

And then later:
After my giant meal: went into the Duomo, just to marvel. The outside is so, so much more ornate than I remembered. The inside is much more simple, but with a staggering scale. From there, I wandered south through the Nuovo Mercato, then (again on my friend Virginia’s advice), made the long climb up to the Piazzola Michaelangelo, on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio, to watch the sunset. It’s really not that long, but very steep. And oh so worth it- from the terrace at the top, you can look back down over Florence, the river, and the tidy row of bridges, at the sunset. It’s also the first time I could see the gentle mountains surrounding the city- this is hill country, after all. Florence is nestled down in this bowl of foothills- it’s as if it filled in every possible inch of flat land, but balked at actually making the climb upwards, and just stopped. (This sounds perfectly reasonable to me, if it had anything like as much lunch as I just did.) At sunset, of course, it’s all lit up with sunlight reflecting off the water.

If Rome is a watercolor, though, Florence is an oil painting. Everything here is more solid, heavier, deeper shades; the light is different, although it’s not very far north, really. Maybe it’s just the Gravitas. This is the heart of the Renaissance, the Medicis, intellectual discovery, literature, and rational thought as we understand it.

Day 40. Culture.

Woke up today refreshed enough to be excited about some culture. As promised, I went first to the Keats Memorial on the Spanish Steps- very touching, as it is coincidentally the anniversary of his death today. The room in which he died looks out onto the stops, about halfway up. I walked away spouting poetry..."When I have fears that I may cease to be, before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain..."

Next stop- St. Peter's. Worth the long wait to get in. It's as beautiful as I remembered it. (I think we might have lost sight of context, though, when tourists are lining up for smiling thumbs-up pictures, in front of the Pieta.) Oddly, I thought some architectural education would make a difference in my appreciation of this place, and it really doesn't. Which isn't a slight against my education, at all- in fact, it reinforces that the experience of being inside great architecture is something you can't explain. I was here at age 21 and remember being deeply moved, I still get nostalgic for that memory every year when I see the St. Peter's midnight Mass broadcast every year on the news at Christmas. It's a powerful place. It says something that, when you are in a sacred place like this, the impact doesn't necessarily come from analysis, that was never the intention.

Vatican: The Sistine Chapel, also as delightful as I remembered. But wow, the Vatican is going to make you work for that moment. Follow a sign to the "Capella Sistina," and you are in for at least 45 minutes of snaking through chamber after chamber of early religious art. And tapestries. Early flat-faced iconic paintings? No thank you. Cappella Sistina, please. Medieval gruesome paintings? Cappella Sistina, where is the Cappella Sistina?? Half a mile of contemporary religious art, and not necessarily good contemporary religious art? CAPPELLA SISTINA. PER FAVORE, CAPPELLA SISTINA. So when you finally get there, whew. I read The Agony and the Ecstasy a couple of years ago- and that greatly increased my appreciation of this place. (In fact, so did the centuries and centuries of religious art you have to traverse, in order to get here.)

By the time I get out of the Vatican Museum, I feel like I have been in Sunday School for about a week, so it's off to find some food- gnocci al pomodoro, con vino della casa, in the Campo del Fiore. I haven't had any gelato yet, but trust me, that's next.

Day 39, pm: wandering through Rome, and Buon Appetito

After coffee in Piazza Navona: determined to take in some culture. But my coffee was too small, and really, there's no point taking in culture when you're so tired it feels like a chore- so I walk. I walk all around the culture, and up to it, and I take pic tures of it, but I'm not ready to go inside yet, not while the rain's holding off and I can be outside soaking in Rome. As I planned I went to St. Peter's and admired the lovely piazza; I admired the bridge and the castle, and thought about admiring the outside of the Vatican, too- but I had another coffee instead. The lines are crazy long- I'll go in the morning, when it's supposed to be raining for real.

I walked along the river to the Trastavere, one of Rome's medieval neighborhoods; I crossed the river and strolled back near the old Jewish Ghetto; I crossed back again, this time stopping in the middle on the little island in the Tiber; on the other side I had a beer and paged through an Italian entertainment magazine. Back on the other side, I had a sudden desperate yen to get to the Pantheon. Stat. There was a sprinkle of rain, and I really wanted to see it rain in there.

The Pantheon: that oculis is way, way bigger than I remembered. It used to be the eye of the gods, cosmically speaking. Now that it's a church, I guess it's the Eye of God? At any rate, it's huge. While I stood there looking up, a couple of birds swooped across the sky. The giant coffers in the ceiling, tapering to the top, are mesmerizing. They force the perspective, making the dome look bigger, and keep leading yoru eyes upward. It wasn't raining when I got there, but it had been- they just roped off the floor underneath the oculis and left the water there, to reflect on the marble. I like seeing nature and architecture work together.

After the Pantheon: a real treat. Greg and Kate sent me to a restaurant called Alfredo and Ada's. Perfection. I got there at 6 and was the first one for dinner. It's the kind of place where the burden of making decisions is lifted from you- there are no menus. You will take what you are given, and you will like it. For real. I get a "Buona Sera," and Alfredo opens this waist-high slanting bread drawer and slices some wedges off of a giant loaf. I make it through the "red or white wine" part in Italian, which feels like a small triumph. With my wine Alfredo brings a dish of warm pasta, tossed in a skillet with just enough sauce and a mound of parmesan. By this time a few others have trickled in and they are jealous of my food.

I get my biggest choice of the evening: veal, chicken, or beef? Chicken. My chicken is marinated in rosemary and lemon, with a little garlic, served with greens and a scoop of cold vinegar potato salad. As I eat, I have to close my eyes to keep from swooning. Ada, standing in the kitchen doorway when I open them again, is watching me with grandmotherly satisfaction, wiping her hands on her apron. At the end I am served three simple, not too sweet ring-shaped cookies as I finish my teensy carafe of wine. Bliss.

I decide to take the long walk home, down past the shops on Corso Vittorio Emmanuel, and up to the Trevi Fountain. It's great at night, and it makes me want to go home and rent La Dolce Vita. At this point it starts to rain, in earnest- which is fun because all the umbrellas come out in front of the fountain. Heading home, I take a wrong turn, but accidentally manage to short-cut my trip by ending up unexpectedly at the Quattro Fontane. Sigh. Rome.

Day 38, 39: Roma

Ah, Rome. I am writing this from the Piazza Navona, drinking a 6 euro cup of coffee. I will add that it's on the skimpy side, and does not even have the advantage of a small cookie which should always come with a fancy European coffee drink. No matter, I am happy to pay extra for the piazza, and the busker sitting by the fountain playing Pink Floyd's "How I Wish You Were Here," and for the trickling fountain itself, a few feet from my table.

Truth be known, as much as I love every inch of Rome, I am feeling a little bit busted up today. This is not a surprise- one of the things I learned in grad school is that it's not the day after an all-nighter that's the worst- it's the day after that. And today is that day. I arrived yesterday at dawn, knowing that my room wasn't ready; also, it was the best weather day of my Rome visit, so I figured I'd better stay upright and do outdoor things all day. My 5-hour flight from Qatar, leaving at 2:30 am, had the lights off for about 3 hours, so I had dozed a little. And seriously, wouldn't Rome perk anybody up? So it was ok. But still, halfway through the Forum, I was weaving. I sat down a lot. I was worn out enough that by 3 pm, I came in to re-group. I unpacked and surveyed the dismal laundry situation, and decided that I had no choice but a couple of hours at a Roman laundromat.

My first evening in Italy: I put on my dorkiest combination of clothes so I could wash all the good ones at once. It was dark before my laundry and I set off for this mysterious laundromat, a good 20 minute walk away. Once I got there, it was fortunately situated next to both a pizza stand and an exquisite little bakery, so it was all good. At the pizza place they sliced my square into two pieces, heated them till they were crunchy, then served them cheese-sides together in waxed paper. Mmmm. At the bakery I just said, "Per favori- uno...e quattro...et due..." and got an assortment of scrumptious wafers and almond thingies and million-layer bite sized cookies. AND I have a bag full of clean clothes. Not "washed in the sink and dried on a Cairo balcony" clean, but "washed with detergent and dried all the way in a dryer" clean.

I don't remember anything after the buying the cookies- it's all foggy from there. I just woke up in a daze this morning at 9:15, from a dream in which Angelina Jolie, my friend Paula from teaching, and I were all having coffee and commiserating about how hard it is to be famous. Couldn't figure out why it was still so dark...oh. Piove in Roma. Raining in Rome.

Still weary and draggy, I stumbled across my perfect travel destination in a book- Cafe Greco, where Byron, Keats, Dickens, and any other literary figure you could name hung out at some point or other. I decided to get myself there at once, have a giant coffee or three, and soak in some literary air and nourish my inner English major. It's the first time on my trip I have nearly cried from disappointment- closed for remodeling. Tomorrow I'll take myself to the Keats museum on the Spanish Steps to make up for it. But today, hung over from sleep deprivation: heartbreak.

Which is ridiculous- I am in ROME. Yesterday: walked the Spanish Steps, found the twin churches we studied in the Piazza del Popolo, strolled the Via del Corso to the Forum, the Paletine, and the Coloseum. Had 3 spontaneous on-the-street meals, each one to die for. This whole city is like meandering through a watercolor- the palette of creams, peaches, ochres, pinks, misty cloud greys- music trailing out of cafes into the street, clusters of people gathered everywhere practically singing in Italian, since that's how every conversation sounds- it's so, so beautiful.

Added to which, there are a few other blessings: I look like everyone else, more or less, which is boring to people who are used to dealing with hoardes of tourists, so nobody looks twice. Serenity. The weather here is a cool and pleasant 50's to 60's, intermittent sun. Ahh. And I can drink the water. And it's so easy to navigate in Rome that it's almost not sporting. I can read all of the signs. There actually ARE signs. When you're wondering whether you'll spot your turn onto Via Delle Quattro Fontane, no worries, the Quattro Fontane are unmistakeable, one on each corner. Landmarks! Arrows! Maps with road names and pictures! And everything in the city is within walking distance.

The fun of walking with no agenda: now and then I stop, mid-step, one foot in the air, and raise an eyebrow at something. Hmm...I have drawn that window in my class notes....famous...palazzo....I put my foot down and go investigate. It's way more fun to find them accidentally, scattered around the city for me like Easter eggs.