Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre

I started classes last week, and they started off pretty well. We mostly just went over what we would be doing for the semester in each class. We looked at different examples of prints from past students' work in printmaking. This is a course I took last semester at home, however this class goes through more techniques, and will allow me to experiment with the medium in further depth. I am particularly excited for wood cuts, involving carving into a piece of plywood, spreading the ink on to the plate, and printing. This is a technique I will use in later classes once I get back home, but to have some experience already will be helpful as printmaking is a very meticulous, detail oriented process. Having most of the techniques already, I will just be exploring and building on the overall concept of my work for the remainder of my undergrad work.

For Art History I am taking a seminar course on Michelangelo, which consists of going to see many of his original works in museums around Florence, and studying his work in comparison with his contemporaries, Leonardo and Raphael. We even get to visit where he lived! This experience has already been so much more helpful than looking at pictures in books, as the sculpture specifically really allows you to empathize with the artist in a more physical way. It's almost as if the sculptures have an aura or energy about them. They are absolutely beautiful- all of the parts of the form seem active, and to bear weight. For my sketchbook course we will study these in more detail in drawing through observation, which I have become much more interested in since viewing the sculpture at the Palazzo Medici. It would be impossible for me to be here and not draw inspiration from my surroundings, which makes me grateful that these classes are sort of intertwined. In my sketchbook class today I finally learned how to measure anatomical proportions correctly! It was so helpful! And we made tinted paper, which is something we don't learn at home. It gives the antique feel that Leonardo's sketches have, like this:

As interesting as my classes are, the real fun was over the weekend when my study abroad program took us to Pisa, and Lucca on Saturday and Cinque Terre on Sunday. We saw the Duomo and Baptistry in Pisa, and I counted 61 people taking pictures to look as if they were holding up the leaning tower of Pisa within a ten minute period (haha). This was my first time seeing the inside of a Cathedral, and it was breathtaking! Obviously I took over 300 pictures in two days, so I just put up a few of my favorites. 

The Duomo:

This chandelier was what made Galileo discover the concept of terminal velocity. 

Lucca: 

The islands of Cinque Terre: My retirement location. A series of small islands where the villages are formed along the mountains. There are miles of olive and lemon farms and tons of seafood restaurants! The food here was amazing. 

We started off on a walking tour of Cinque Terre, but of course I wandered away for a second and got lost. I've had quite the habit of doing that these days! I took the opportunity to explore off of the tourist path. There are alleys that lead up the hills to houses all along the street, so I walked up one of them. Before I got in trouble for being on private property (oops!) I took a few pictures, like this one. 

On the way back down the hill, I passed an older woman who was putting potting soil in her plants. I said good morning to her and she motioned for me to help her... After I helped her I asked her if I could take a picture of her but she wouldn't let me :/ It reminded me of the "genre" scenes, images of daily life, of artists like Carracci. I have decided to make this a focus for my photography while I'm here, although there is so much to see that it's hard to focus entirely on one aspect of the environment.  

Some other images from Cinque Terre:

Amazing succulent plants, I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.