In a fitting exit for my time in Tuscany, I was all set to put my luggage under the bus using the pull-and-lift technique some stranger had shown me when I was struggling. As the bus stopped and I lifted the familiar looking handle, I saw the underbelly of a bus engine instead of a cavernous luggage storage cavity... So then I lugged my 20 kilo suitcase up into the main part of the bus where the driver told me something I already knew: there wasn't luggage storage on this bus. I also realized this driver looked familiar to me. You know you've been taking a lot of Italian transportation when you get the same bus driver twice. So then I moseyed back to find a seat and enjoyed the tuscan hillside as we drove toward Grosseto. At one point I saw a man driving a steamroller on newly laid asphalt. It was just like the one I know how to drive!
I bought my train ticket to Milan Malpensa Airport and then ventured into Grosseto to kill a few hours. After meandering around the historic center I camped out in a little (air conditioned) cafe where I had stopped a few weeks earlier for a cappuccino and croissant. The owner may or may not have recognized me. I got another cappuccino and pastry and camped out while writing in my journal. It was really pleasant to order in Italian and feel like a regular. I even ordered a rice salad to take on the train with me, which was one of my favorite dishes I tried at the agriturismo in Tuscany.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Le Marche + Roma
After Tuscany, I headed west to the Adriatic Coast to visit the relatives of my paternal great grandmother. They are a wily bunch and it was an action-packed visit! We went to the beach on bikes, drove to eat dinner by a mountain, visited lots of medieval towns (by day and by night), ate lots of local food, and of course went swimming. The families were really excited to see me again after four years and treated me like a princess. I really loved speaking in Italian the whole time, since this was the first time in my trip to be surrounded by Italians.
After Le Marche I had to go back to Tuscany so I could then go north to Milan, where my flight was departing. I was going to pass through Rome while my cousin was there for work so we met up in the city and saw some sights. After getting carried away and not allowing enough time at the train station I missed my train...and wouldn't be able to make the bus connection in Grosseto if I caught the next one. So I added a surprise night in Rome to my trip! We saw Rome by night and walked along the Transtevere area til late at night. The next day I headed to Grosseto by train and then Montegiovi by bus.
After Le Marche I had to go back to Tuscany so I could then go north to Milan, where my flight was departing. I was going to pass through Rome while my cousin was there for work so we met up in the city and saw some sights. After getting carried away and not allowing enough time at the train station I missed my train...and wouldn't be able to make the bus connection in Grosseto if I caught the next one. So I added a surprise night in Rome to my trip! We saw Rome by night and walked along the Transtevere area til late at night. The next day I headed to Grosseto by train and then Montegiovi by bus.
Color into Print
It took me three extra-urban buses to get from Siena to Castel del Piano, a small town west of Grosseto, which was where I was picked up by the organizer of the class I came all the way to Italy to take. One of the great things about Italy is its web of public transportation. You just have to plan ahead and be patient and you can get yourself just about anywhere. Of course, if you have questions some drivers are more helpful than others. But anyway, it was a weary day of traveling that turned into a marvelous beginning of the class.
The main reasons I signed up to take this class through Women's Studio Workshop where the location in Italy and the timing in July. I also asked around about the teacher and checked out her work. But that was it. From those humble pretenses, I got much more than I expected. Color into Print was an AMAZING experience. The very first day I knew it was going to be great after chatting with Shelley, the instructor. I could tell right away she is super down to earth and completely invested in her students as artists and complicated people. After traveling on my own and having minimal interactions with people it was a shock to find myself in a meaningful conversation with someone I had just met. But it was also great.
The age range of the six students was 50 years and everyone had led a really remarkable life. I got to know the group over the 10 day class and it made the experience extra fun to scheme with them about trying to decipher information about the staff at the agriturismo where we stayed. I was the only one who could speak Italian so I acted as liason/diplomat between the two groups. Did I mention it was fun?
The first morning of the class was full of demos. Since they had converted a dining room and living room space into a print studio we were working with low-tech methods, but I learned a great deal. There's a lot you can do with not a lot. The days were set up to have work/demo time in the morning til 1:30. Then lunch. Then a break til 4 at which point work time started up again until 7. And then dinner was always (mostly) promptly at 8 and lasted at least two hours with four very generous courses.
During the break sometimes we went to the pool, sometimes napped, and sometimes we walked in the heat of the day for hours to and from Seggiano, the closest town. The art-making was at times frenzied and intense and at other times relaxing. I worked best when I was printing in the morning and making plates in the afternoon. I had been gathering inspiration in the first week of traveling in Italy from magazine images to images drawn in my sketchbook. So I just dove right in and made things like crazy.
New* things I learned:
Chine colle method that actually makes sense
Shaped drypoint plates with plexiglass
Using foam shapes to create the illusion of screen printing
Collograph with chipboard, metal filings, and spackle
Watercolor monoprint
Viscosity monoprint
A la poupee inking technique
Lots about mixing color
*a few things I saw done in college but had never tried them myself
I paired some tried and true methods like acetate stencils and transparent flats with the aforementioned new techniques and just kept making and printing then making more and printing more. It was the first time for me to play with printmaking in over two years. I jumpstarted my stagnated studio practice and hope to keep up the momentum back in the States.
The main reasons I signed up to take this class through Women's Studio Workshop where the location in Italy and the timing in July. I also asked around about the teacher and checked out her work. But that was it. From those humble pretenses, I got much more than I expected. Color into Print was an AMAZING experience. The very first day I knew it was going to be great after chatting with Shelley, the instructor. I could tell right away she is super down to earth and completely invested in her students as artists and complicated people. After traveling on my own and having minimal interactions with people it was a shock to find myself in a meaningful conversation with someone I had just met. But it was also great.
The age range of the six students was 50 years and everyone had led a really remarkable life. I got to know the group over the 10 day class and it made the experience extra fun to scheme with them about trying to decipher information about the staff at the agriturismo where we stayed. I was the only one who could speak Italian so I acted as liason/diplomat between the two groups. Did I mention it was fun?
The first morning of the class was full of demos. Since they had converted a dining room and living room space into a print studio we were working with low-tech methods, but I learned a great deal. There's a lot you can do with not a lot. The days were set up to have work/demo time in the morning til 1:30. Then lunch. Then a break til 4 at which point work time started up again until 7. And then dinner was always (mostly) promptly at 8 and lasted at least two hours with four very generous courses.
During the break sometimes we went to the pool, sometimes napped, and sometimes we walked in the heat of the day for hours to and from Seggiano, the closest town. The art-making was at times frenzied and intense and at other times relaxing. I worked best when I was printing in the morning and making plates in the afternoon. I had been gathering inspiration in the first week of traveling in Italy from magazine images to images drawn in my sketchbook. So I just dove right in and made things like crazy.
New* things I learned:
Chine colle method that actually makes sense
Shaped drypoint plates with plexiglass
Using foam shapes to create the illusion of screen printing
Collograph with chipboard, metal filings, and spackle
Watercolor monoprint
Viscosity monoprint
A la poupee inking technique
Lots about mixing color
*a few things I saw done in college but had never tried them myself
I paired some tried and true methods like acetate stencils and transparent flats with the aforementioned new techniques and just kept making and printing then making more and printing more. It was the first time for me to play with printmaking in over two years. I jumpstarted my stagnated studio practice and hope to keep up the momentum back in the States.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Italia 2013: Hiking, Tuscan Sun, and Delicious Food
Day 0: airport
My darling sister Josie dropped me off at airport and I was off with a start! Well, actually I had mixed feelings about going to Italy for a month. On the one hand: sounds amazing. On the other hand: I had just finished a colossally exhausting six month project called Insta-tangram where we made interactive 3 foot by 3 foot woodcut tangram prints with a steamroller (video). In the one week leading up to the trip there was lots of chaos and scrambling. Not really any time to feel rested and ready to embark on a month-long sojourn in a foreign country.
Before we even left the ground, I found myself in my second insurance claim situation in the past few months. I was bending forward in my aisle seat to get something out of my carry on at my feet and my head was a few centimeters in the aisle. A flight attendant came flying toward the front and swept my sunglasses off my head and projecting them two rows ahead. Sadly the sunglasses were not made for impromptu air travel and one side became bent beyond repair. I bought new ones at JFK and hoped that would be the worst thing that happened during the plane trip, which it was.
The transatlantic flight was mildly uncomfortable but not horrible. I'm out of practice taking 8+ hour flights. My personalized tv was broken, but I was focusing on trying to sleep anyway. I ended up getting about 4 hours on the plane.
Day 1: Milano
I arrived in MXP at 7 am on July 1 and managed to swap out my US Sim card for a European one. I headed to Milano Centrale on a bus and met up with Sylva, who I hadn't seen in about a year! We chilled in a park and munched on a brioche while catching up. After I got my Milan-legs we headed to the apartment where we were couchsurfing with a really nice Italian couple. I dropped off my bags and then we ventured into the city to see what we could see. Twice we fell asleep on grass, but only once did the police scold us so you could say we're fast learners. We meandered toward the part of the city with canals and then later saw the Castello Sforzesco. Dinner was at Pizza Big with Matia and his colleague Daniele. After delicious pizza Napoletana we drove around and ended up at the canal area again. At night the atmosphere is totally different with lots of people dining outside and enjoying the cool weather. It ended up being a pretty late night, which was difficult but helped flush the jet lag out.
Day 2: Milano
Sylva let me sleep in til almost 10 and then we had to get a move on since we were heading to the Politecnico di Milano to meet up with a lady I met at the Digital Media Leaning Conference in March of this year. She teaches at the university and gave us a nice introduction to some of the programs. We of course enjoyed a macchiato in true Italian fashion. Afterwards we ate some panini for lunch and then headed back to Milano Centrale. It ended up taking a while to get our train for Chiasso sorted out so we decided to just head directly there instead of squeezing one more thing in. Chiasso is actually just across the border in Switzerland, and it was the next couchsurfing destination. The train ride from Milan was about 30 minutes and then we hung out in the train station until meeting our host. The European sim card that I was using apparently only worked in Italy since I had no service in Switzerland, so that was a fun surprise. But even without a way to make contact we found our host Michael and settled into his apartment. After a light dinner we went out and headed through windy Swiss roads to Lugano, where there was a music festival happening. We walked along the lake and heard great music coming from the band stand. The band performing was called Tuba Skinny and they hailed from New Orleans! It was lots of fun to listen and dance to late into the night. After their set we had a tranquil aperitivo along the water and then headed back where sleeping came very rapidly.
Day 3: Chiasso, Lugano
We woke up reasonably early and meandered to get an Italian style breakfast with cappuccino and brioche. After the leisurely breakfast we started on our hike to Como. Since Chiasso is right on the border, we walked through a nonexistent checkpoint and headed on our merry way. We found out later that they haven't stamped passports there since 2007. As we walked along provincial roads in and out of little towns there was a slight sprinkling of rain, which helped cool us off. The walk was lovely and walking into Como on unusual paths was nice and non-touristy. We walked a bunch around the lake of Como and then took the funicular up to a town called Burate. There, we ate lunch overlooking the lovely vista and then explored the historic town by foot. Back down in Como, we met up with a super nice guy named Tomaso who lives in Como. He and his girlfriend took us on another tour around the lake and town center and then we all went back to his apartment to eat some raspberry cheesecake and hang out for a while. It was really pleasant to meet them. Tomaso studied cinematography in Rome where he met Tim Burton one time. After our early evening snack, they helped us navigate back to Chiasso. We decided to go by bus to save time. Once back in Chiasso, we met up with our couchsurfing host. He wanted to go back to Lugano for the music festival since there were new groups playing. The weather was lovely once more and we stayed out fairly late listening to the different groups.
Day 4: Como, La Spezia
This was Sylva's last day and she wanted to go kayaking on Lake Como so we took all of our luggage on a super crowded bus and made our way to the kayak rental place that Tomaso showed us the day before. We were out on the water before 11 am in a double kayak and the weather was just delightful. We headed away from the coast we had explored by foot the day before and saw lots of awesome architecture along with several water planes flying around. This was my fourth time kayaking and it was lots of fun! We stayed out on the water for two hours and then had to turn back since I had a train to catch. We made our way to the train station and grabbed panini along the way. Sylva and I headed to Milano Centrale where she connected with a train to the airport and I headed to La Spezia to see the Cinque Terre. The train ride was about three hours, during which time I wrote in my Italian journal and tried to eavesdrop on conversations around me. From La Spezia I took a bus to Biassa where the hostel was located. Ostello Tramonti is located in a really cute medieval town with a great view of La Spezia through the mountains. I checked into the hostel and then walked around in the dying light taking as many pictures as I could.
Day 5: Cinque Terre
The hostel offered a shuttle service to Riomaggiore but the earliest left at 8:30 and I really wanted to get an early start. So I woke up at 6 and took a bus into La Spezia where I then took a train to Monterosso, the northern most of the Cinque Terre (Five Lands). I started on the walking trail from the train station toward the next town called Vernazza. The Cinque Terre are famous because they are small villages right on the water and used to only be accessible by boat or by footpaths. Now with the railway it's easier to get between them, but the walking paths are a popular destination. I had my sketchbook with me and picked shaded spots throughout the day to draw. The path from Monterosso to Vernazza was very up and down with some spots of the path only 18" wide right next to a sheer drop. I heard lots of different languages throughout the day. After 11 am the number of tourists increased dramatically. I rested in Vernazza for a bit and then headed to Corniglia. These were the only two paths open and I could completely understand why since the paths are incredibly hard to manage. Some sections I passed were slightly blocked by stones from a crumbling wall. The path to Corniglia was a lot easier than the first one so it went by fairly quickly. The estimation is that it takes 2 hours to walk between each town, but I finished in less than 1.5. So I may be out of shape, but I can certainly hold my own in comparison to middle aged Australians.
Day 6: Biassa
I spent all morning painting around the small town of Biassa. Then in the afternoon I headed into La Spezia to take a train to Firenze. The train ride was pretty pleasant and I arrived in time to enjoy dinner prepared by my former host mother, Maria. We got to catch up during and after dinner and then I watched a documentary about Van Gogh dubbed in Italian on the tv.
Day 7: Firenze, Siena
I woke up before 7 so that could take a bus to Settignano and hike around. My breakfast overlapped with Maria's and Paolo's, which was nice. They are so great! I wish I could live with them again. The bus to Settignano was short and sweet and then I started off on one planned path that then turned into choosing random roads. I did a loop into Vincigliata and Montebelino and then back to Settignano in the early afternoon. I had already packed up my bags and was able to chill at Maria's house for an afternoon caffe and then head out to the bus station. I managed to not get lost heading to the station and caught a bus to Siena. The hostel where I was staying was located outside the city center so I walked around for a bit, but then decided to take a bus into the center and explore there. I saw a poster for a summer movie series at the medieval amphitheater in Siena and found out that they were showing the Great Gatsby tonight! Every day was a different movie, so it was pretty lucky. I hung around the medieval fortress and then got a seat for the movie. It was so great! And since I've seen the movie in English, I was able to understand almost everything and I even picked up some new vocabulary.
Day 8: Siena
After only one week I desperately needed to do some laundry so I went to a laundromat nearby the hostel in between eating breakfast. Then I set off into the city center and walked around all day. I tried to get lost and just absorb the beauty of the city. I of course went to the Piazza del Campo and the Duomo, but I also stopped into the Medieval Torture Museum, which was....interesting... In the Duomo I ended up drawing for three hours on a marble bench, which was nice and cool.
Day 9: Siena, Seggiano
I checked out of the hostel and then took a bus into the city center, then a bus toward Grosseto where I transferred at Paganico to Castel del Piano. There, I waited to be picked up by the director for the Women's Studio Workshop that I'm attending for a week in Tuscany. It was a stressful travel day, but everything worked out and I was able to relax at the agriturismo where the class was happening. And I've been there for a few days and making lots of new stuff.
I'll write more about the workshop later!
My darling sister Josie dropped me off at airport and I was off with a start! Well, actually I had mixed feelings about going to Italy for a month. On the one hand: sounds amazing. On the other hand: I had just finished a colossally exhausting six month project called Insta-tangram where we made interactive 3 foot by 3 foot woodcut tangram prints with a steamroller (video). In the one week leading up to the trip there was lots of chaos and scrambling. Not really any time to feel rested and ready to embark on a month-long sojourn in a foreign country.
Before we even left the ground, I found myself in my second insurance claim situation in the past few months. I was bending forward in my aisle seat to get something out of my carry on at my feet and my head was a few centimeters in the aisle. A flight attendant came flying toward the front and swept my sunglasses off my head and projecting them two rows ahead. Sadly the sunglasses were not made for impromptu air travel and one side became bent beyond repair. I bought new ones at JFK and hoped that would be the worst thing that happened during the plane trip, which it was.
The transatlantic flight was mildly uncomfortable but not horrible. I'm out of practice taking 8+ hour flights. My personalized tv was broken, but I was focusing on trying to sleep anyway. I ended up getting about 4 hours on the plane.
Day 1: Milano
I arrived in MXP at 7 am on July 1 and managed to swap out my US Sim card for a European one. I headed to Milano Centrale on a bus and met up with Sylva, who I hadn't seen in about a year! We chilled in a park and munched on a brioche while catching up. After I got my Milan-legs we headed to the apartment where we were couchsurfing with a really nice Italian couple. I dropped off my bags and then we ventured into the city to see what we could see. Twice we fell asleep on grass, but only once did the police scold us so you could say we're fast learners. We meandered toward the part of the city with canals and then later saw the Castello Sforzesco. Dinner was at Pizza Big with Matia and his colleague Daniele. After delicious pizza Napoletana we drove around and ended up at the canal area again. At night the atmosphere is totally different with lots of people dining outside and enjoying the cool weather. It ended up being a pretty late night, which was difficult but helped flush the jet lag out.
Day 2: Milano
Sylva let me sleep in til almost 10 and then we had to get a move on since we were heading to the Politecnico di Milano to meet up with a lady I met at the Digital Media Leaning Conference in March of this year. She teaches at the university and gave us a nice introduction to some of the programs. We of course enjoyed a macchiato in true Italian fashion. Afterwards we ate some panini for lunch and then headed back to Milano Centrale. It ended up taking a while to get our train for Chiasso sorted out so we decided to just head directly there instead of squeezing one more thing in. Chiasso is actually just across the border in Switzerland, and it was the next couchsurfing destination. The train ride from Milan was about 30 minutes and then we hung out in the train station until meeting our host. The European sim card that I was using apparently only worked in Italy since I had no service in Switzerland, so that was a fun surprise. But even without a way to make contact we found our host Michael and settled into his apartment. After a light dinner we went out and headed through windy Swiss roads to Lugano, where there was a music festival happening. We walked along the lake and heard great music coming from the band stand. The band performing was called Tuba Skinny and they hailed from New Orleans! It was lots of fun to listen and dance to late into the night. After their set we had a tranquil aperitivo along the water and then headed back where sleeping came very rapidly.
Day 3: Chiasso, Lugano
We woke up reasonably early and meandered to get an Italian style breakfast with cappuccino and brioche. After the leisurely breakfast we started on our hike to Como. Since Chiasso is right on the border, we walked through a nonexistent checkpoint and headed on our merry way. We found out later that they haven't stamped passports there since 2007. As we walked along provincial roads in and out of little towns there was a slight sprinkling of rain, which helped cool us off. The walk was lovely and walking into Como on unusual paths was nice and non-touristy. We walked a bunch around the lake of Como and then took the funicular up to a town called Burate. There, we ate lunch overlooking the lovely vista and then explored the historic town by foot. Back down in Como, we met up with a super nice guy named Tomaso who lives in Como. He and his girlfriend took us on another tour around the lake and town center and then we all went back to his apartment to eat some raspberry cheesecake and hang out for a while. It was really pleasant to meet them. Tomaso studied cinematography in Rome where he met Tim Burton one time. After our early evening snack, they helped us navigate back to Chiasso. We decided to go by bus to save time. Once back in Chiasso, we met up with our couchsurfing host. He wanted to go back to Lugano for the music festival since there were new groups playing. The weather was lovely once more and we stayed out fairly late listening to the different groups.
Day 4: Como, La Spezia
This was Sylva's last day and she wanted to go kayaking on Lake Como so we took all of our luggage on a super crowded bus and made our way to the kayak rental place that Tomaso showed us the day before. We were out on the water before 11 am in a double kayak and the weather was just delightful. We headed away from the coast we had explored by foot the day before and saw lots of awesome architecture along with several water planes flying around. This was my fourth time kayaking and it was lots of fun! We stayed out on the water for two hours and then had to turn back since I had a train to catch. We made our way to the train station and grabbed panini along the way. Sylva and I headed to Milano Centrale where she connected with a train to the airport and I headed to La Spezia to see the Cinque Terre. The train ride was about three hours, during which time I wrote in my Italian journal and tried to eavesdrop on conversations around me. From La Spezia I took a bus to Biassa where the hostel was located. Ostello Tramonti is located in a really cute medieval town with a great view of La Spezia through the mountains. I checked into the hostel and then walked around in the dying light taking as many pictures as I could.
Day 5: Cinque Terre
The hostel offered a shuttle service to Riomaggiore but the earliest left at 8:30 and I really wanted to get an early start. So I woke up at 6 and took a bus into La Spezia where I then took a train to Monterosso, the northern most of the Cinque Terre (Five Lands). I started on the walking trail from the train station toward the next town called Vernazza. The Cinque Terre are famous because they are small villages right on the water and used to only be accessible by boat or by footpaths. Now with the railway it's easier to get between them, but the walking paths are a popular destination. I had my sketchbook with me and picked shaded spots throughout the day to draw. The path from Monterosso to Vernazza was very up and down with some spots of the path only 18" wide right next to a sheer drop. I heard lots of different languages throughout the day. After 11 am the number of tourists increased dramatically. I rested in Vernazza for a bit and then headed to Corniglia. These were the only two paths open and I could completely understand why since the paths are incredibly hard to manage. Some sections I passed were slightly blocked by stones from a crumbling wall. The path to Corniglia was a lot easier than the first one so it went by fairly quickly. The estimation is that it takes 2 hours to walk between each town, but I finished in less than 1.5. So I may be out of shape, but I can certainly hold my own in comparison to middle aged Australians.
Day 6: Biassa
I spent all morning painting around the small town of Biassa. Then in the afternoon I headed into La Spezia to take a train to Firenze. The train ride was pretty pleasant and I arrived in time to enjoy dinner prepared by my former host mother, Maria. We got to catch up during and after dinner and then I watched a documentary about Van Gogh dubbed in Italian on the tv.
Day 7: Firenze, Siena
I woke up before 7 so that could take a bus to Settignano and hike around. My breakfast overlapped with Maria's and Paolo's, which was nice. They are so great! I wish I could live with them again. The bus to Settignano was short and sweet and then I started off on one planned path that then turned into choosing random roads. I did a loop into Vincigliata and Montebelino and then back to Settignano in the early afternoon. I had already packed up my bags and was able to chill at Maria's house for an afternoon caffe and then head out to the bus station. I managed to not get lost heading to the station and caught a bus to Siena. The hostel where I was staying was located outside the city center so I walked around for a bit, but then decided to take a bus into the center and explore there. I saw a poster for a summer movie series at the medieval amphitheater in Siena and found out that they were showing the Great Gatsby tonight! Every day was a different movie, so it was pretty lucky. I hung around the medieval fortress and then got a seat for the movie. It was so great! And since I've seen the movie in English, I was able to understand almost everything and I even picked up some new vocabulary.
Day 8: Siena
After only one week I desperately needed to do some laundry so I went to a laundromat nearby the hostel in between eating breakfast. Then I set off into the city center and walked around all day. I tried to get lost and just absorb the beauty of the city. I of course went to the Piazza del Campo and the Duomo, but I also stopped into the Medieval Torture Museum, which was....interesting... In the Duomo I ended up drawing for three hours on a marble bench, which was nice and cool.
Day 9: Siena, Seggiano
I checked out of the hostel and then took a bus into the city center, then a bus toward Grosseto where I transferred at Paganico to Castel del Piano. There, I waited to be picked up by the director for the Women's Studio Workshop that I'm attending for a week in Tuscany. It was a stressful travel day, but everything worked out and I was able to relax at the agriturismo where the class was happening. And I've been there for a few days and making lots of new stuff.
I'll write more about the workshop later!
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