December

So to kick off the start of December, Ruth Kidane, my good friend from high school, came to visit on the 3rd. She is studying in Valencia, Spain and got a chance to come visit for the weekend.

Wednesday the 3rd, we took a night tour of the city and stopped at the famous Bernini sculpted Four Rivers' fountain in Piazza Navona.

Then on the 4th we went over to Colosseum.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, so before Ruth caught her flight back to Spain we went over to the greatest market in Rome- the famous, only-on-Sunday Porta Portese market. The market literally goes on for miles and miles and you can find anything you could possibly want. I got some soccer cleats, tennis shoes, and a belt, so I have to say that it was pretty successful shopping trip.

Monday the 8th, our History class toured the city and went to one of Borromini's masterworks the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. The church is designed with a series of ovals and curves, and has Borromini's trademark spiraling spire on top of the cupola.


Its kind of strange to end the entire month of December so abruptly, but that is the life an architecture student. For the last weeks of class in December, before Winter Break, I worked with the other 46 arkies to finish our Pienza project. The project consisted of a redesign of the historic city of Pienza in the Tuscany region of Sicily. The project was a highly regarded urban design project, which was reiterated by the jury we presented the project to. The jury included New Urbanists Leon Krier and Andres Duany, Italian Architect and Watercolorist Pier Carlo Bontempi, and the Mayor, City Planner, and City Architect of Pienza.

For my individual project, my partner Nick and I designed a theatre and cultural piazza for the city. Below are the three boards we presented for our design.

Oblique Elevations
Top: Oblique elevation of the piazza
Bottom: Oblique elevation of the theatre
Top Right: Scroll with Nolli of Proposed Piazza design
Bottom Right: Detail showing the location of the Piazza in relation to the entire city of Pienza
Elevation, Section, and Floor Plans of the theatre
Top Left: Front Elevation of the theatre
Bottom Left: Section of the theatre
Right: Scroll with Ground Floor Plan (Bottom of scroll) and First Floor Plan (Top of scroll)

Diagrams, Details, and Section of the piazza and theatre
Top: 4 Diagrams of the piazza design. From left to right: existing Nolli plan, existing Roof plan, proposed piazza design, and proposed underground parking diagram
Bottom Left: Entry Gate Detail
Bottom Middle: Section through theatre, piazza, and underground parking
Bottom Right: Fountain Detail

Thanksgiving in Dublin

For Thanksgiving my roommates and I had the chance to go visit Dublin and stay with my roommate Dan's friend at the University College Dublin (UCD) campus. Needless to say we immediately felt at ease back in an English speaking country, and on our first day we started our day with a tour at the Jameson Irish Whiskey factory.


After a tour through the Jameson factory, which included a brief history of the Triple-Distilled Jameson Irish Whiskey and an introduction to the brewing process, we got a chance to be certified Irish Whiskey taste testers. They put three different shots in front of us: one was Jack Daniel's, one was Johnnie Walker Black Label, and one was, of course, Jameson Irish Whiskey. After each shot that explained the smell, taste, etc differences between the whiskey types, and I have to say that I think Jameson was slightly better than Jack Daniel's.


Later that night, we got a chance to try shepherd's pie, the famous Irish dish of beef or lamb, vegetables, and lots ands lots of potatoes, at a restaurant called O'Neills. The funny story from the night was as we were eating shepherd's pie and enjoying some Irish cider (Bulmer's) a visibly drunk Irishman stumbled up to our table asking, "Where are you lads from?" After explaining that we were Americans studying abroad in Rome and visiting friends here in Dublin, he interrupted saying "You think you guys can drink. Well I have news for you! You may think you can get drunk, but you will never be able to get Irish drunk!" And just as quickly as he came, he stumbled away.


The next day we spent touring Dublin we stopped at the famous St. Stephen's Green and got a chance to relax and enjoy the amazing scenery.

We also got a chance to climb a tree in St. Stephen's Green, and Dan, who could not climb the tree (embarrassing!), got to take the picture.

After St. Stephen's Green, we went over to the Guinness Storehouse to learn all about the history and magic involved with the famous Dublin-based beer. It turns out Arthur Guinness was a pretty savvy businessman, and the tour turned out to be pretty amazing as walked up the 7 floors in a building which was designed as a large Guinness glass.


The next day we went over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Cathedral is the largest church in Ireland, and is an amazing Cathedral designed in the Gothic style.


After St. Patrick's Cathedral, we went on a night visit to the Dublin Castle.


Overall, it was an amazing weekend and it was great to spend time with the Notre Dame students studying in Dublin. The city has a great culture and it was nice getting in touch with my quarter-Irish heritage.

November 24th-26th

Back in Rome we had a couple days to tour around the city before Thanksgiving break, so the first stop on Monday the 24th during History class was Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major).

The church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church is built on the Esquiline Hill and was built there to commemorate the Miracle of the Snows, which is also why the church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows (the Virgin Mary) and an apparition had by a local patrician and the pope. These events happened as the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the the patrician and the pope on the same night and instructed both them to go to the Esquiline Hill where in the morning they would find a plot of land covered in snow. The next morning the pope then led a procession to the spot indicated in the dream and discovered that snow had fallen on the Esquiline Hill. Since it was summer and snow never fell at that time in Rome, the pope deemed this miraculous occurrence a miracle and the patrician then funded the building of Santa Maria Maggiore.



An amazing mosaic depicting Christ crowning Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

The large column, originally from the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, stands alone in front of the church facade.
Then on Tuesday the 25th my Urbanism class visited the Baths of Diocletian. The amazing ancient structure of these Baths is still mostly intact, and a good portion of the Baths were redesigned by Michelangelo in the 16th century as the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. This is an interior view of the church's apse.

On Wednesday the 26th, my Theology class had an AMAZING opportunity with our professor Monsignor Wells to visit St. Peters Basilica and the scavi, or crypt, beneath the Basilica. First we visited the scavi underneath the Basilica, which was originally a burial ground of ancient Rome. Walking along the ancient streets between the mausoleums where the great Roman families were buried we were headed for some of the most hallowed ground in the known Catholic world- St. Peter's burial place. So after we got a quick tour of the rest of the scavi, we stopped at the resting place of St. Peter. The spot is directly underneath the Baldacchino of St. Peters which covers the main altar of the Basilica.

Another amazing feature of our personal tour with Monsignor Wells was that when we came up from the scavi and entered the Basilica we entered through the door underneath the Bernini sculpture depicted Pope Alexander VII.


Yes, I got to walk through that door.

Pretty good week leading up to my trip to Dublin for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving!

Florence and Pisa Weekend Trip

The weekend of November 22nd-24th my friends and I decided to take a weekend away. So after only getting to visit Florence briefly on a school trip, we decided to return to the amazing city and see some of the stuff we missed.

So on Friday, November 21st, we arrived at night to the "hostel" in Florence. It turns out that the 4-person "hostel" room was a HUGE 4-person apartment that the owners simply gave us the key to. To end up in an apartment that had a kitchen with fridge, a TV, a sitting area, queen beds, and much more instead of a 4-person room with bunk beds was simply awesome.

So after spending the night enjoying the amenities of the hostel, early in the morning we went over to the Uffizi Gallery. The Uffizi, which is one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, was perfect at 7:30am in the morning- no tourists, no people talking, no tour guides with little flags- perfect.

The Gallery was truly amazing and it had some of the most famous works by painters and sculptures, including works by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, and many others.

Since I couldn't take pictures inside, I happened to get a quick picture before we entered of the sign explaining not only that I couldn't take pictures but much, much more...

From the Uffizi Gallery, I also took a picture of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), the famous bridge that crosses the Arno bridge in Florence. It truly is a marvel of engineering and architecture that has stood for centuries.

At the end of the walk through the Uffizi you end up on the roof of the palace and I got some great views of the Piazza della Signoria...

...and a view of the Duomo of Florence. This famous dome was designed by Brunelleschi and became one of the most impressive engineering and architectural domes constructed in the world. The distinctive octagonal design of the double-walled dome was never seen before, and Brunelleschi even had to design a mechanical hoist to bring the materials, mostly brick, up to construct the dome.

Another great view of the Ponte Vecchio.

So after walking around after the Uffizi Gallery, I HAD to introduce my friends to the amazing, only-available-in-Florence lunch of Lampredotto. After having Lampredotto with my professor when I was Florence before I took my friends to the same lunch stand and we all tried the Lampredotto. Yet again, trying to forget that Lampredotto is the fourth stomach of the cow, I had the unique Florentine lunch.

After lunch we went over to the Duomo and got to see the inside of the Gothic-style Florence Cathedral.

Then the four of us climbed Brunelleschi's famous dome and got to see Florence from the highest point in the city.


Later, as if the day hadn't already been packed with enough activities, we got a chance to catch the afternoon train to Pisa. The hour long train ride got us right to the city famous for its leaning tower.

The Piazza dei Miracoli is the major piazza in Pisa that includes the leaning tower, the Duomo, and the Baptistry. The piazza was packed with tourists, street salesmen, and people posing for the famous leaning tower photo, so I got a couple great pictures of my own.

Inside the Duomo.
Leaning tower as the sun set in Pisa.

I had to do it. I think turned out ok.

After returning to Florence, we got a chance to visit one of my most anticipated Florence night spots in Florence- Club Tenax. The club is considered the best in Italy and it truly lived up to its hype. The club was enormous, and the Saturday night "Nobody's Perfect" party was DJed by two of the world's best DJs.


Then on Sunday the 24th we got up early and went over to Academia dell'Arte, which is home to Michelangelo's famous sculptures including the Prisoners and, of course, David.

Michelangelo's prisoners were unfinished sculptures intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, and are pictured here along the wall in the room leading up to the David.


After the Academia, we headed back to the hostel to check out and we got a chance to stop in the Piazza della Signoria where the Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria), the town hall of Florence, stands.

Also in the Piazza della Signoria is the spectacular Loggia dei Lanzi. It is a great three-bay loggia that houses some great sculptures. The one below is The Rape of the Sabine Woman by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne.


The weekend in Florence was great, and the city definitely lived up to its name as one of the greatest Renaissance cities in the world.

November 17th-21st

After Thanksgiving, we got right back to the grind with a History class Monday morning. We walked up to the Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo, and visited the church Santa Maria in Aracoeli. It was a beautiful church on top of the Capitoline hill, and it included a number of great frescoes and candeliers.

Also in the church is the central fresco by Pinturicchio in the S. Bernardino Chapel. The 15th century frescoe depicts the life of Saint Bernardino of Siena.

Another famous feature of the church is the wooden statue of the infant Jesus, carved in the 15th century of olive wood.

After leaving Santa Maria in Aracoeli, we moved on to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli on the Esquiline in Rome. The church is most famous for its marble sculpture of Moses sculpted by Michelangelo.

On Tuesday the 18th, I had drawing class where we went behind San Andrea della Valle, the church nearest my studio and hotel which happens to have the second biggest dome in Rome behind St. Peters.

Then Tuesday night we went out to the always fun Karoake night at Scholars, the local irish pub. In the picture, I am definitely belting out my own rendition of "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. I was really good; I swear.

On Thursday the 20th, I had my Urbanism class with Ettore and we went to the Pantheon to study the marble interior. The assignment for the day was to paint an elevation of the Pantheon, including the marble columns, marble panels, and the coffered ceiling.

That Friday we had a daytrip to Hadrian's Villa. The great Roman emperor, who also happened to dabble in architecture and landscaping, designed this magnificent Villa in the countryside near Rome. The Villa included palaces, several thermae, theatre, temples, libraries, state rooms and quarters for courtiers, praeotrians and slaves. Here is a model that depicts the entire site, and you can see the great size of the site, as well as the combination of Roman building styles and landscaping.

One of the most amazing structures in the Villa is the Maritime Theatre It consists of a round portico with a barrel vault supported by pillars. Inside the portico was a ring-shaped pool with a central island. During the ancient times the island was connected to the portico by two drawbridges. Hadrian used the secluded island getaway as a way to have some time for himself away from the responsbilities of the Roman Empire.