30
Apr

circolo degli artisti

By Becky Ashby-Colón 0 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

This past Sunday, Michael Ashkin’s studio art class participated in a group show organized in part by Shara Wasserman, in conjunction with Temple Tyler and RISD art students at the Circolo Degli Artisti. Participating students included: Rebecca Ashby-Colon (yours truly), Cynthia Baker, Zahra Chevannes, Erin Ferro-Murray, Emily Greenberg, Jeremy Handrup, Charlotte Krause, Samuel Pelts, Michael Picos, Emma Pryzbylinski, Dan Rosen, Anne Wu, and Xu Yang. The work presented various in medium and size, and generally acted as a follow-up to our most recent critique and precursor to our final critique.

We arrived at Circolo on Sunday at noon to install our works, and found that despite our best efforts to set up quickly and leave to get ready at home, there was only one ladder, which was circulating between the two other schools as well. We did eventually get our turns with the ladder as well, but not before a lot of grumbling was heard throughout the room. The major catch of the space was that we were not allowed to attach anything to the wall, whether it be with nails, tacks, or tape. Thus, every piece had to be secured with either chains or fishing line, tied to a pipe running the perimeter of the ceiling. A few paper cuts and several muffled obsenities later, I finished hanging my (very crooked) drawings, and headed home. Many of my classmates were still in the process of installing their works when I left, so when I returned at 7:00pm, the space had been totally transformed. Spotlights were on each student’s work, and blue lights filled the rest of the room with a funky vibe, bouncing off the red walls. The garden outside, where some of the RISD work was displayed, was warm and bright with fairy lights. Thankfully, it was a warm evening without rain, and we enjoyed the rest of the work with our complimentary drinks. Thank you to everyone (students and professors) who made the trek to Circolo to support us!

 

Installation by Charlotte Krause (Princeton).

Collage by Emma Pryzbylinski (BFA '13).

Installation by Cynthia Baker (BFA '13).

Installation by Michael Picos (BFA '13).

Drawing by Anne Wu (BFA '13).

Sculptures by Zahra Chevannes (BFA/BA '14).

Drawings by Rebecca Ashby-Colón (BFA '13).

Installation by Erin Ferro-Murray (BFA '13).

Video installation by Jeremy Handrup (BFA '13).

Installation by Dan Rosen (BFA '13).

Video and painting installation by Xu Yang (BFA/BA '14).

Installation by Samuel Pelts (BFA/BA '14).

Digital prints by Emily Greenberg (BFA/BA '14).

Michelle Kim (URS '13) and Urban Planning professor Nancy Brooks enjoy the show!

30
Apr

a summery spring break

By Becky Ashby-Colón 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life and Uncategorized

Spring is here! The birds are chirping! The flowers are blooming! … And we’re in school. La primavera a Roma is almost too beautiful and distracting to get any work done, but somehow we must ignore the sunny cobblestoned streets and tempting gelato beckoning us, and buckle down for the next few weeks. Luckily, our week of spring break came at the opportune time for us to blow off some steam and relax.

Five of my friends (Cynthia Baker, Jeremy Handrup, Dan Rosen, and Erin Ferro-Murray, all BFA ’13) and I started off the week right in Berlin, staying in the beautiful neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg.

Dan Rosen (BFA '13), Cynthia Baker (BFA '13), and her brother Brian Baker pose outside our Berlin apartment. Photo by Jeremy Handrup.

During our stay there, we visited the Holocaust Memorial, the two major contemporary art museums: Kunstwerk and Hamburger-Banhof, the Reichstag, the Kathe Kollwitz Museum, and Museum Island, just to name a few. We were joined by Charlotte Krause (Princeton, BARCH), now in her natural German habitat, and were miraculously admitted to famed European nightclub Berghain (Four floors of muscley German men, dry ice, strobe lights, and thumping bass. If you go, don’t say I didn’t warn you). In the Mitte and Alexanderplatz areas, we gallery-hopped and shopped. In Kreuzberg, we ate lots of Turkish food (think falafel and halumi pita sandwiches, smothered in garlic and yogurt sauce, topped off with shredded lettuce and cabbage and tomatoes. My mouth is watering again) and Vietnamese food (huge steaming bowls of pho! With tofu!! And spring rolls!!!).

Cynthia at Hamburger Banhof, in the Ryoji Ikeda installation. Photo by Jeremy Handrup.

On Sunday, we hung out in the famous Mauer Park flea market, conveniently located around the corner from our rented apartment. Porta Portese had some things to learn from this flea market, let me tell you! Stretching out the length of the park, it was chock full of street food stands, clothing vendors, knick knack tables, homemade jarred goods, handmade jewelry, tables of cameras (be still my heart. I did eventually give in, and bought a gently used Minolta 35-mm), and other such necessary items. It was so lovely to wander around without agenda, experiencing both street and nightlife as well as cultural institutions. On our last night in Berlin, Anne Wu and Michael Picos (also BFA ’13) joined us from their stay in Vienna, and we shared a delicious dinner at White Trash Fast Food (think gourmet-but-simple artisan burgers and tofu burgers, melty spicy crunchy nachos, traditional schniztel and brats, and a generous selection of German beers on tap, in a multi-tiered restaurant connected to a tattoo shop, with live music nearly every night. Seriously recommended, but make a reservation!) located on Schonhauser Allee in the Mitte area.

A colorful bit of the East Side Gallery, a painted section of the Berlin Wall. Photo by Jeremy Handrup.

Wednesday morning, we all split up to fly to our next destinations. For Dan, it was back to Rome where his mother was visiting; for Erin, Jeremy, and Cynthia, it was to Paris, where they stayed with friends from Cornell and in an apartment in Montmartre, respectively; and for me, it was to Prague. I took a train from Berlin to Prague (with old compartments, just like Harry Potter!), stopping through Dresden and passing some wonderful scenery along the way. Prague was unlike any city I’ve visited before; eastern Europe really is different from Rome, Paris, or London. It seemed to be a true example of a city as palimpsest, with its rich history of governmental, military, and cultural upheavals. On my first day in Prague, I got hopelessly lost for a few hours when I decided it would be a good idea to walk the 3 kilometers from the suburb of Holosevice (Praha 7) to Stare Mesto (Old Town in Praha 1, the historic center) instead of taking the tram, without a map or a working cell phone, and apparently across a highway that sprung up out of nowhere. After a little while of running back and forth like a chicken without its head, I breathlessly reached Old Town and rewarded myself by stuffing my face with street food of the traditional Czech variation: since I belong to a clan of herbivorous dinosaurs, I skipped the sausage and went instead for the fried smoked gouda cheese on hearty rye bread, and finished with a doughy, spiral pastry covered in cinammon, sugar, and almonds (I later figured out that the consonant heavy, nearly vowel-less sign “Trdlenik” on the pastry stand meant “turtleneck,” because of the cynlindrical shape of the pastries. I also then high-fived myself). During my stay, I visited the Alphonse Mucha Museum, walked around the historic center and across the Charles Bridge, and all the way up a narrow street on a hill, passing green orchards and a convent, and reaching a great brewery at the top of the city with an incredible view.

Old Town Square in Prague's Stare Mesto, or Old Town. The monument in the middle is dedicated to Jan Masaryk, the Czech Foreign Minister from 1940 to 1948.

It was with a 50% heavy and 50% relieved heart that I returned to Rome the following Sunday, sad to leave my travels behind but exhausted and happy to be back in a familiar city where, at this point, I can communicate effectively. Everyone has been eager to share their spring break stories this week. Other locales visited by students include: Athens, Mykonos, Marrakesh, Morocco, London, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sevilla, Barcelona, Vienna, Munich, and the Swiss Alps for a lil’ skiing. If other students wish to share their experiences in these places or others, feel free to leave a comment with your stories (and pictures)!

18
Apr

a walk with Lorenzo Romito

By aw429@cornell.edu 0 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

Now nearly a month away from leaving Italy and returning to the familiarities of American life, these next few weeks seem as if they belong to neither country—caught somewhere in a perpetual state of waiting. It’s strange to think about what has become comfortable for us here that will only be evident when we enter the front doors of our homes in the States and elsewhere. I anticipate the first time I’ll see a slice of American pizza and wonder why it’s in the shape of a triangle instead of a neat rectangular slice. Things like “excuse me” will sound strange on my tongue and I’m sure I will mistakenly greet people with “ciao.” I will wake up and realize that I am no longer in my Dandolo apartment in which I’ve carved a home for the past four months. The cobblestoned streets of Rome will seem so far away, as if this had all happened years and years ago.

Though what I’ve seen of Rome is merely a fraction of its entirety, I have been lucky enough to make the trip out to San Lorenzo every week for my internship with the artist, Paolo W. Tamburella. The bus rides are almost always cramped and uncomfortably warm, but they circle around the city in a way that is unrushed, allowing you to see the places you’ve never even set foot in. I’ve mentally marked streets that I hope to return to—maybe in the next couple of weeks, maybe in the next several years. I’m not sure when I started making these tabs, or when I began to see the city as not just a place that is lived in, but sought after. Perhaps one of these first realizations occurred during a lecture at the Palazzo way back in February.

On February 27th, Lorenzo Romito gave a talk to the Cornell in Rome community called, “‘The Beyondcity,’ Towards a New Common Sphere.” Romito is the founder of Stalker, an interdisciplinary collective that originated from the Italian student movements of the 1990s. An architect himself, Romito discussed the various intentions of the group, highlighting past projects and expressing its current interests. Unconventional to say the least, Stalker can be described as quite radical in its ideology. Romito himself was charismatic and excitable, explaining to us in detail projects that ranged from setting up camp in the outskirts of Rome and holding community-wide organic jam-making events. They traced the peripheries of the city, trying to map Rome’s most overlooked corners by gathering stories and memories. After the lecture, we were told that Romito would take us on one of these walks the following day. Unsure of what to expect, I left the Palazzo with a shrug, ever more perplexed by a city that still seemed hidden beneath a veil.

We began at Termini train station, a spot I had grown accustomed to passing on my way to work. A hub for immigration, Termini and its surrounding neighborhoods are filled with ethnic restaurants and supermarkets. From there, we hopped on a bus that took us to the ancient Roman aqueducts. Between the modern railway lines and the ancient Acqua Felice, we walked along an unpaved dirt road as cars hurried past. One of our first stops was Il Circolo degli Artisti in San Giovanni, a venue that showcases live music and art. Tucked away along a one-way street, Circolo’s facade resembled more of gated construction site than a thriving club.

Cornell students and professors gather across the street from Il Circolo degli Artisti.

As we continued along via Casilina Vecchia, we noticed that the boundaries between the roads, the aqueducts, and people’s homes began to blur. And beyond the roads and the aqueducts, neighborhoods rolled out onward. From one side, we could just make out the tops of small buildings. From the other, we saw the front doors of houses constructed right along Acqua Felice. Rome seemed almost unrecognizable, as if it were still in the process of being built. In some ways, these industrial areas gave the city a different sort of life, one that shook with a newer sense of urgency. Although the aqueducts no longer carried water throughout the city as they did during the Roman Empire, they now stood as monuments to a history that continued to expand.

Our new vantage point revealed a less familiar Roman skyline.

Katerina Athanasiou (URS '13) and Cynthia Baker (BFA '13) discussing life in one of Acqua Felice's countless archways. Photo taken by Jeffrey Kim.

We continued to trek along the aqueduct until we found ourselves walking right into a small neighborhood enclave. Structured almost like a maze, the neighborhood consisted of walls and fences that closed off one home from another in nearly claustrophobic proximity. The barking of guard dogs reminded us that the ground we stood on was more private than it was public. I felt odd in this neighborhood, surreal almost. Though we were all outside the perimeters of their private lots, I still felt as if I were a child, mistakenly wandering into a strange neighbor’s backyard. Before long, we took note of the guard dogs’ warnings and turned to walk back to the main road. As we sauntered back to the center of Rome, we carried with us only a faded mental picture of all the places we witnessed, the places that may one day spring up in a momentary daydream.

02
Apr

gnocchi nite (a very delayed post)

By Becky Ashby-Colón 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life, Events and Uncategorized

Let me first explain how excited I get about food. SO. EXCITED. My apartment-mates and I cook dinner together nearly every night. One particular housemate is a cooking genius (shout-out to Cynthia Baker!), and we always try to use different ingredients and creative recipes. At school in Ithaca, I live in a cooperative house in which all 30 members cook dinner five nights a week in shifts (and in bulk. You can only imagine). My very rudimentary culinary skills (and food appreciation) have absolutely benefitted from these different forms of food immersion. Now that we have that out of the way, let me explain how excited I was to learn that Anna Rita would be hosting two Italian cooking nights this semester. SO. EXCITED. The first of these mythical nights is devoted to gnocchi, a typical Italian pasta made up of potato, flour, and eggs.

After boiling, peeling, and pressing many kilos of potatoes, we separated them into piles of about 4-5 kilos each, dropped in the eggs and flour, rolled up our sleeves, and began the long kneading process. Next to me, Cynthia was working at a furious pace with her dough, which was slowly but surely mixing into a smooth consistency; Natalie Kwee, on my other side, was busy extricating her fingers from the sticky paste on her table, hurriedly adding flour. My own ball had the unfortunate texture of glue, coating the wooden cutting board as well as my own hands. It took me longer than the rest, but at last I was able to work the dough into some kind of usable form (with flour. Lots and lots of flour).

Rebecca Ashby-Colon (BFA '13, me), Cynthia Baker (BFA '13), and Natalie Kwee (BARCH '13) try their hands at making gnocchi dough! Photo by Jeffrey Kim.

When Anna Rita declared each student’s dough acceptable, we cut them into long strips and rolled them out lengthwise, as if we were in kindergarten again rolling clay caterpillars. Next, each caterpillar was sliced diagonally into smaller pieces, forming little rhombus-shaped macaroni. Using one or two fingers (I found my index and middle worked best), we rolled each rhombus onto itself from the middle outwards, creating the signature little shells of gnocchi. Some of the more adventurous students took it upon themselves to meticulously carve in the striped pattern using forks. In the end, we had quite a motley crew of gnocchi–plump, thin, patterned, and plain. My own were no match for Nat’s perfect examples; she was one of those gnocchi-striping fiends.

Kevin Yen (URS '13), Emma Pryzbylinski (BFA '13), and Elease Samms (BARCH '13) cut and shape their gnocchi. Photo by Jeffrey Kim.

While we gnocchi slaves rested our weary fingers, Anna Rita began to boil the pasta and dress it with the many different sauces she had already made (a true Italian mamma!). The first sauce was a kind of ragu, a thick red sauce chock full of meat and carrots. The second seemed to contain artichokes and porcini mushrooms; the third, rich red peppers. The fourth was my favorite: a simple, light butter and sage sauce that perfectly complemented the heavy, starchy gnocchi. I’m not sure if the final sauce was another meat variation or if it was leftover from the first round, but at that point everyone was so far into a food coma that we didn’t question it.

Our finished gnocchi, ready to boil! Photo by Jeffrey Kim.

The night was such a pleasant (and singular!) experience. Thank you to Anna Rita for organizing the event, cooking all the delicious sauces, and feeding everyone! To top everything off, three olive oil cakes (prepared in part by students as well!) were brought out at the end of the evening. At that point it just felt like overkill, but I went for some cake anyway. Obviously.

27
Mar

Palazzo del Lavoro, Pier Luigi Nervi

By aj257@cornell.edu 0 Comments
Categories: Field Trips and Photo of the week

14
Mar

ROMA 2012 Introduction to Perspectives (Part IV)

By luna 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life

You have arrived at that part of the story where you will understand why this is my first entry, and with it Note to self #12: If you feel sick, don’t hesitate in going to the doctor. During the first week of classes my throat started hurting, but since it got better after a few days I ignored it, thinking that it was just another normal throat infection. In reality, I wasn’t that far from the truth, it was a normal throat infection, only I didn’t take into consideration the fact that I’m in another country, and thus there are many different types of bacteria to which I am not used. Also, the change in diet affects your immune system, and depending on the person it might make it healthier or not. In my case, it was the latter:

On a Tuesday I make an appointment to visit the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. On Wednesday, I visit the doctor and he tells me I have a normal throat infection (emphasis on normal) and that if I didn’t feel better within a few days then I should get antibiotics. Thursday I wake up with a huge ball on my neck, crying in pain, and unable to get up or do anything. I called the Palazzo and we made another appointment to see another doctor that same day. The second doctor starts me on antibiotics, and tells me to keep taking painkillers for the neck pain. Friday, I am completely under the influence of painkillers, which are the only thing that help me get through the day. Saturday and Sunday I kept getting better, the throat infection was gone but that ball on my neck wouldn’t go down. And here is when it gets interesting. Monday, I go back to the doctor because I don’t think that ball on my neck is normal, and how right I was. The doctor referred me to another doctor, a surgeon, and said I had to go immediately. He gets me into a cab and away I go. I get to the other doctor’s office and the first thing he says to me is: “Do you have everything you need to go to the hospital?” I felt my pupils dilate and my head spinning in circles. Hospital? What? Apparently I did have a normal throat infection that had spiraled out of control. The antibiotics dealt with the infection, but since that gland was already too big, the antibiotics had no effect on it and it kept growing. This is the next thing he said to me: “Yes, you have to have surgery to have that gland drained because we’re running the risk that the pus inside the gland starts spreading through your body, and the next places it might go are either your heart, your lungs, or your brain.” At this point I’m severely confused, not scared yet. There was no time to register what was going on. Long story short, by 9pm that night I was in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, waiting to see if the inflammation would go down so I wouldn’t need to get surgery. Thankfully my awesome roommates responded very well, and one of them spent the night with me.

You’re probably dying to know what happened next, and you’re probably guessing right. Wednesday at 5pm I was put under general anesthesia so that a German and an Italian doctor could drain a gland in my neck. After the surgery I called my parents to tell them everything was ok. Thursday my parents tell me that my mom was going to come to Rome to take care of me. Friday, the AAP in Rome program headed to Napoli for the second field trip of the semester. They managed to leave before the first snowstorm in 25 years hit the city, which left the city in complete chaos. The roads were impossible to navigate, everything was full of snow. Sunday, my mom made it to Rome, and Monday I was let go. Everything was going back to normal at last. For about a week after, I had to visit the doctor everyday so he could drain the gland and clean the wound but at least I could go back to class and start having a normal life again. Intense right? Note to self #13: Never panic, make sure you keep your parents posted, and listen to your doctor, and remember, never panic. I had the luck that all of my doctors and nurses were great and on top of things all the time. If you ever need a doctor, ask Anna Rita or Pam, they were the ones who recommended these doctors.

After the whole hospital incident things have been running a lot more smoothly. The next time you read me you’ll read about our Tuscany field trip. So stay tuned!

14
Mar

ROMA 2012 Introduction to Perspectives (Part III)

By luna 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life

During the first few weeks in Rome most students take Italian language classes, either the two-week intensive course or the semester-long beginner’s course. Since I’ve studied Italian since Freshman year, I did not need to take Italian here, which was nice since it gave me the opportunity to take other classes. Note to self #10: Try taking at least a semester of Italian before coming to Rome, especially if you are spending an entire semester here. Knowing the basics of Italian opens a lot of doors, and it gives you a sense of confidence when walking around the city and exploring. It definitely makes it easier to get around and meet people, which is very important, since this trip is not only about spending a semester in Rome, but also about meeting actual Italians. Tim Cahill once said “A journey is best measured by the number of friends made rather than miles.” That should be your motto for your journeys, especially this one. Italian culture is all about community. People focus more on enjoying their company and having a good time with friends and family than anything else. Be sure to experience this.

The weekend before classes started there was a very nice reception at the Palazzo so that we would all get acquainted with each other, and formally welcome everyone to Rome. The orientation field trip was on Saturday, January 20th. Professor Blanchard gave us a brief introduction to the city and then the walking part of the tour started. We saw some of the most important monuments in the city, including Vittorio Emmanuele II, Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, the Colosseo, the Capitoline, and many, many more. After the walking tour we got on our bus, went out to the outskirts of the city to a place called Fosse Ardeatine. The Fosse are where the Massacro delle Cave Ardeatine took place. In 1944, a group of the Italian Resistance killed 33 Nazi soldiers in one of their expressions. A furious Hitler ordered that 10 people be killed for each Nazi soldier that died during the protest. Nazi soldiers went down the streets grabbing men from all social classes, ages, and religion and took them to these caves where they were all shot dead. They then proceeded to blow up the place to conceal what they did, which is why in some places you can see the sky above while standing inside the cave. Today you can visit the caves and the tombs that are on the site. 333 people were identified out of the 335 that were killed, and there is a tomb for each, even for those who were not identified. The day concluded at the Spanish steps, after which everyone went their own ways.

After the first two weeks of Italian everyone was ready for classes to start. Students loved traveling around Rome but it was time to have some structure in their lives and to start exploring the city with a more critical eye. As far as I’m concerned everyone loves their classes. For most, it was difficult to choose which classes to take since a lot of them seemed very interesting. It was a process of deciding whether they would focus on completing their majors or traveling around Rome, Italy, and Europe. They discovered that by choosing to take the classes they really want to take they are experiencing Rome in the way they want to experience it. It was a matter of understanding that our professors wanted to explore Rome just as much as we do, so they were going to incorporate as much walking around as possible. Hence our Note to self #11: Take the classes you really want to take, and that you think might introduce you to many more perspectives of Italian culture, since that is the reason why you are here, to experience Italy from Rome.

(cont…)

 

14
Mar

ROMA 2012 Introduction to Perspectives (Part II)

By luna 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life

The first thing that the students had to do when they got here was to go straight to Palazzo Lazzaroni to check in and get their apartment keys. The palazzo is beautiful! It was built in the 17th century, and you can still see some of the original paintings on the ceilings. It is on Via dei Barbieri, off of Largo Argentina, a main road, which is a transportation hub that has a tram stop, bus stop, and taxi stop. It is very well located in the center of the city or centro storico. Since my roman apartment is right by the palazzo I walked there instead of taking another taxi. The apartment was so charming! Small but cozy and very homey. It is always great to move to a completely new and different place and find out that your apartment is really nice and well located. It makes it a lot easier to get used to a new place when you know you are always going back to a nice place at the end of the day where you can relax and spend time with people you like.

Note to self #5: Try to sleep as much as you can on the plane; and once you get to Rome, follow the Italian schedule at once. Do not take a nap, just go to bed at a normal time and wake up early in the morning. Being jet-lagged is not fun. Even though most students, if not all of them get to their apartments and are completely exhausted, the excitement of being in a city like Rome gives you a boost of energy that is disconcerting to those around you who have not had the same experience. Thus, that first week that the students spend in Rome is one of intense exploration. At first, they all thought they were never getting to understand the city because of its crazy street system, and to be honest, the trick is to get lost by yourself once. It is amazing how much you learn by not knowing where you are or in which direction you’re going. This might seem daunting to many, but the reality is completely different. In a place like Rome, there is no place you can go that is not interesting and beautiful in its own way, especially at the city center. Hence, this experience is not only important so that you understand and find your way around, but it is also a way of learning about the city and seeing things that you wouldn’t normally see. You start developing a sense of what you would like to see again or experience once more. Also, you immerse yourself in this collage of history that you had only seem from a car, and are blown away by how different the layers are to one another but how perfectly they work together to create a visual experience that you can only live in Rome. Note to self #6: Get lost as soon as possible, and take a notebook with you so you can write down places to re-visit and their addresses.

During this period of intense exploration you do not only learn about the landscape and the architecture, but also about the culture, and to be honest, not all lessons are learned easily. Some of them are pretty uncomfortable to learn, but this is all part of the experience. Let me tell you another story so that you understand what I mean. This one is Note to self #7: Never judge a restaurant by its facade but by its menu. On my first night here, my friends decided that since they had been here for a while, that I should choose where to eat for dinner. Italian food has a reputation for being amazing. I chose this little restaurant near Piazza Navona that looked very nice, and that was affordable for us students. Our first clue that something really wrong was going to happen that night was that as an appetizer, the waitress brought us a bowl of Pringles. All six of us stared at if for a few minutes until one of us asked if we were all thinking the same thing. There were eight Pringles in the bowl, so it was not like they brought us a bowl of Pringles to eat while talking, we each had one Pringle and that was it. We looked around to see if anyone else had Pringles on their table but we were the only ones. It was bizarre. Since we had already ordered our food we decided to stay, but the atmosphere was changed completely, and tension was high. The waitress brought us our food a little later along with a bag of bread. The food was good, not the most amazing dinner we’ve ever had, but good. Maybe it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been because of the Pringle incident, but nevertheless good. The bread was delicious, so we decided to order another bag. We finished our dinner and we were in much better moods, until we got the check. Note to self #8: If you feel like you must get out, do it. The price you’ll pay for staying will be a lot higher… literally. They were charging us 14 euro for the bread. 14 euro! None of our dinners were even close to that! At this point no one was even trying to pretend that everything was fine: eyes where the size of quarters, heart rates were through the roof, hairdos were coming undone… things were getting out of control. After a heated discussion, where emotions were all over the place, I went up to the waitress to talk to her since I was the only one who spoke some Italian. I saw the manager and decided to go straight to him instead, and I explained our situation and that we were never told that we had to pay for bread. The waitress just brought it without us asking for it, at least the first bag. The manager looked at the waitress in a very judgmental way; clearly she had played with us. He agreed to not charge us for the first bag but that we would have to pay for the second one, and to be honest at this point we just wanted to go home and relax after an unexpectedly stressing evening. So, we paid for everything and left. It is safe to say that we’re never going back there again.

Don’t be afraid though, not all of Rome is like that. I have seen more acts of kindness here than anywhere else. Once, an old man was crossing an avenue when his grocery bag ripped and all of his stuff fell on the ground. It was pouring rain and the light changed so there were cars honking their horns because he couldn’t move. A lady that was standing on the sidewalk jumped into the street to help him get his things. Then a man who was on his bike waiting for the light to change, gave him a plastic bag that he happened to have in which he could put his belongings. This is a perfect example of Roman generosity and community values. It was a beautiful thing to see and experience. Thus, Note to self #9: There are beautiful people everywhere, and they are the majority of the population. 

(cont…)

 

14
Mar

ROMA 2012 Introduction to Perspectives (Part I)

By luna 0 Comments
Categories: Daily Life

I’m sure you have already read about the beginning of the adventures of the AAP-in-Rome-Spring-2012-crew in the magnificent città di Roma, and although this post might seem like it’s being posted later than it should have been, no worries, you will understand soon enough why it has been posted just now.

Hopefully you noticed the title of the blog entry. In a way, it summarizes very well what has been happening to, with, on, inside, and around the students; as well as give you an idea of what the entries to come will be like. Each of my stories will have a moral or a lesson. Write them down, because they’re meant to help you if you ever come to Rome yourself. Not that you shouldn’t have your own interesting experiences, but just keep these things in mind. You can do a “Notes to self” journal, name it “An Informal Visitor’s Guide to Success in the Magnificent City of Rome” and bring it with you on your travels. And now on to the stories…

The students all arrived to Rome with different ideas of what their experience and the city were going to be like. We can all agree that the first culture shock experience has to do with Italy’s driving culture; especially the crazy driving of taxi drivers! Note to self #1: Research beforehand in Google Maps or Google Earth how to get around the city, especially the route from the airport to your apartment. I did some research before arriving about taxi culture in Rome and how I could get from the airport to Palazzo Lazzaroni, Cornell’s Palazzo, so that I wouldn’t be surprised or confused when I got here. It didn’t work. One of the things I read was that as you walk out of the airport there will be people trying to get you into their taxis by taking your luggage or sometimes even pulling you by the arm, but that you should ignore them and be firm in expressing your desire of taking the white taxi with the Roma logo on the side. I was definitely not prepared for this. Note to self #2: It is not about just doing the research; it’s about actually doing what the research tells you. Beware! The people who ask you if you need a taxi are the ones you should ignore. Not because they’re not honest people, I’m sure most of them if not all of them are; but because if you’re a stranger in a city, who barely speaks the language, you should be very cautious and at least manage to get to your new home the first day. (Just try to reach home at least the first day. You can experiment later when you have a better understanding of the city.) Back to the story, after a ten minute heated argument with the taxi driver, I decided to just get in the car and get home. Word of advice: check Google maps before traveling. The one thing that kept me calm and gave me an extra sense of security on my way home, was that I had memorized the way from the airport to the palazzo beforehand, so I knew where the taxi driver was taking me. I’m not saying that you should know how to get there yourself; I know this was a little bit extreme on my part, but at least have a general idea of where you’re going. You can never be too safe, especially when it’s your first time traveling by yourself to a different country on a continent halfway around the world where they don’t speak your language. Note to self #3: Learn basic sentences and expressions in Italian before arriving here, it makes it easier to get around. As you can imagine, I made it home safe. I realize now I was a tad paranoid but it all worked out, I’m ready for my next taxi adventure.

The next thing we all noticed was how beautiful the city is: which definitely made it easier to stay calm on my way to the palazzo. I was mesmerized by the landscape. You can see the different layers of history piled on top of each other around the city, giving it the feel of a 3-D collage that is thousands of years old. This becomes more apparent as we study the city in greater detail but we’ll talk about academics later. For now, it’s just about first impressions. On my way to the palazzo I kept asking my taxi driver what the different and most impressive buildings were; at one point I saw this huge wall on my left and asked him what it was, he said “That is Vatican City”. I was stunned! I was definitely not expecting the Vatican to be right there, by a main road on my way home. It made me realize that Rome is not one of those places where you have to go out of your way to see important sights, everything is here in the same place, as if it were a city-size museum, which in a way it is. Note to self #4: Even if you’re bringing your nice big camera, make sure you bring a smaller one to have with you at all times. Sometimes the nice big cameras are very inconvenient and hard to carry around. The difference in the foliage was very interesting as well. Here in Italy, there are Stone Pines or Umbrella Pines everywhere! They are so beautiful! They were, and still are, used to mark pathways, and seem to be the most common type of tree in Rome. The pines are especially beautiful at night since the green light projected from their base makes them look a little bit cartoonish and unreal. It’s almost as if they were man made decorations rather that actual nature.

(cont…)

22
Feb

a wonderful wine tasting at renato e luisa

By Becky Ashby-Colón 0 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

This past Friday, we were treated to a wine tasting at restaurant Renato e Luisa, which Cornell in Rome students have, in the past, declared to be one of the best dining experiences in Rome. Not only did we have the whole restaurant to ourselves, but we were also given an introductory lecture on wine making and tasting by proprietor (and half namesake) Renato. He first explained to us the role of the traditional sommelier, or the server specifically available to present the wine. Before more modern technology, the sommelier utilized a tastevin to judge the maturity and taste of a certain wine. Renato passed around his own tastevin, which is a “small, shallow silver cup or saucer” with concave “pearls” of different sizes used to both see the color of the wine and to aerate the wine.

Nata Saslafsky (BARCH) is the first lucky student to attempt the champagne un-corking, with Renato supervising.

Renato next explained the process by which wines and sparkling wines are made. The amount of sugar in the grapes used for the wine accounts for how alcoholic the drink will eventually be. Yeast is responsible for the fermentation of the sugars, which turn into ethyl alcohol. The maturation process is different for different types of wine; typically, red wines are matured for longer than whites.

Scent is a very important component of wine tasting as well. As an exercise, Renato handed out five tiny bottles of different essences. We passed them around the room, writing down our guesses at their contents. As someone with an admittedly primitive ability to discern smells (under pressure!), I was relieved that the first one was easy. Mint, I jotted down. I was also able to identify black pepper and then lemon, pleased to note that one of my companions had written, dish soap?. Ah yes, the subtle eau du Lysol. However, when the next bottle was passed, I was totally thrown off by its sickly sweet aroma. Refusing to give it up, I hogged the bottle rather than handing it off to one of my peers, deeply inhaling and practically snorting the thing. The scent was, as everyone agreed, obviously banana. My acute olfactory senses brilliantly detected bubblegum. The final bottle stumped me just as much. Another sweet yet musky smell had me desperately scrawling, weird. It turned out to be honey. My potential career as a perfumer quickly dissipating before my eyes, I was pleased when the first wine, a sparkling white, was served.

Jeremy Handrup (BFA '13) attempts another bottle.

Sparkling wine, or spumante as it’s called in Italy (not champagne—that must come from the Champagne region of France), is produced through a more complicated process involving the addition of carbon dioxide. It must also be bottled in a specific vessel with a concave bottom which allows the sommelier to properly pour it into guests’ glasses using only one hand. In addition, it is considered polite to open a spumante bottle silently, without the signature cartoon pop (none of this American bottle popping!). In order to achieve a silent un-corking, one must turn the bottle, not the cork, slowly, to ensure a significantly underwhelming puff of smoke. Imagine if all ceremonies were celebrated by a lazy breeze of wine-air! Anyway, Renato gave this task to several students, who attained different levels on the scale of POP to hiss.

Cynthia Baker (BFA '13) gets the final effort.

We were instructed as to which glass we should use for which wine. The spumante, in all its bubbly glory, was poured into, you guessed it, the champagne flute. The flute was designed with its narrow rim to prevent the fizz from escaping the glass. While we sipped the spumante we were encouraged to simultaneously nibble at the soft cheese, nuts, and honey concoction that appeared on out tables as part of a larger plate of miniature bites, each paired to one of our three wines. Other morsels included rolls of aged ham around cheese, and something delicious that seemed like a mini pizza (but I’m sure was more sophisticated). Needless to say, it was a perfect combination.

Next, we sampled a more acidic white wine that was paired with a zucchini flower stuffed with more cheese (yum). The final red wine we drank alongside a plate of cheesy risotto with zucchini and a hint of fennel. Renato graciously encouraged us to come back for dinner anytime. Having no real experience in wine tasting, I thoroughly enjoyed the night, and I think we all felt like real connoisseurs by the end.

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