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montepulciano & pienza

4.22.2006



wed. april 19

*this is tuscany

today we visited one of the most beautiful sites in tuscany my senses have witnessed. the bus took us to montepulciano in the morning where we saw the church of San Biagio. it was a small church just outside of the city. the visit was short and we didn't have time to do much.


* san biagio

our next destination was Pienza, located about 35 mins from montepulciano. this town is blessed by some of the most beautiful views in italy. the town sits on a hill overlooking tuscany, and when i say tuscany i mean heaven. it just so happened that our lunch was a prearranged deal with one of the local restaurants. WOW! the food was freaking fantastic. bruschetti, lasagna, delicious bread, salad, fried potatoes, pork, chicken, beef, homemade tiramasu and all the wine i desired! heaven for my senses. today was a day i will never forget.


*heaven


Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

orvieto yay

4.17.2006

*well of st patrick... taken from about 3/4 of the way up.


wed. april 12

this trip was tons of fun. we arrived on tuesday night, my friends mark, kyle, alex and gabe provided free accomodations. not only that, but mark also fed me and charlie with some delicious food. that night reminded me of house parties back in manhattan. a whole bunch of us from castiglion came that night and got together with all the orvieto folk at one of their houses. we drank and danced and chatted and then drank some more. it was fun.

on wednesday we actually went out and saw the town like a good student should. first on the list was Il Pozzo di San Patrizio, the well of st. patrick. this well was constructed in the 1500's by orders of the pope. its crazy cool. the well consists of a path that would allow donkeys to go to the bottom (about 200 ft) of the well and then back up with out running into someone going the opposite direction at all. this made possible with a double helix stair up and down. crazy stuff.

we also saw the duomo of orvieto. its really big and crazy cool. too bad my camera had no juice and i could only take one picture the whole time we were there. damn. oh well, it was still a blast.

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

Cinque Terre

4.16.2006

*vernazia and monterosso beyond

sat. april 8, sun. april 9

*i promised myself to not leave italy without first being here.

cinque terre is a cluster of five small towns located in the northwestern coast of italy. the towns are separated anywhere from 2 to 5 kilometers apart. the views that you get when hiking from town to town are amazing and if you go when its really warm out, the beaches and transparent waters are the thing to do.

we arrived saturday afternoon in the town of Monterosso. the first thing we did was to look for a place to stay the night. at one point it seemed impossible to find anything reasonable but somehow at the end i found this lady who rented us a huge apartment for 25 bucks a peice. not bad at all, it had two bedrooms, a balcony, a nice kitchen - fully stocked with kitchen ware, and a really big bathroom. pretty cool. the later part of the day consisted of goofing off at the beach, drinking wine, and having a seafood dinner.


*manarola

on sunday colleen and i decided to hike our way to Rio Maggiore, the furthest town of the five. on our way we also visited Vernazia, Corneglia, and my favorite - Manarola. *side story - we also kept running into this guy in his 40's wearing a pink wife beater that looked like a tank top. he also had a little dog with him. the funny thing is that the first time we saw him he got arrested by the police, it seemed they were already looking for him. i guess somehow he scaped because we kept seeing him in the streets and we also kept seeing he police looking for him. pretty funny stuff.

*corneglia and rio maggiore beyond



*the water is so clear

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

genova and the aquarium




sat. april 8

oh yes, genova, the city of christopher columbus... and also home to the second largest aquarium in europe!

today was f*^%$# sweet. we arrived at the aquarium early in the day, a good thing because all kinds of people started showing up right after we did. the building, designed by renzo piano, really sucked (very disapointing), but other than that is was awesome. i got to so see some really cool animals. sharks, turtles, starfish, seahorses, penguins, seals and coral reef. i also got to pet some sting rays. the best thing though, were the jelly fish. man, those things are sweet!!!! i really want one.



after hours of looking at the sea creatures, we had lunch at this food festival right next to the aquarium. they had food from pretty much all of europe. our lunch consisted of german hotdogs and chocolate covered strawberry kabobs. delish.










Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

milan


*jelly fish lamps

fri. april 7

our day started way early today, 4:00 am to be exact. the long ride in the bus took us to milan. the goal was an easy one - arrive at the Milan Furniture Fair and embrase the furniture for the entire day. sweet. this place was huge! i would not doubt it if this building is a mile long, and it was all filled with the best designs in the world. as soon as we arrived (9:00 am) we started walking and we didn't end it until about 5:00 pm. we saw kitchens, bathrooms, chairs, beds, lighting, storage, tables...everything!

one of the coolest things was the student exhibition. there was about 100 participants from all over the world, including two mexican teams. the cool thing was that you got to see the designer presenting their work and it was probably their best friend helping out. it was rather different in the professional section. anyways, it was all pretty damn sweet. ciao!


*the building

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

Parco di Monstri and Villa Lante



Wed. march 29

it was only two days without traveling and there we went again. only this time it was not to venice or greece, it was to parco di monstri and villa lante, two italian renaissance gardens. it was actually pretty cool.

our bus left early in the morn and headed towards Bomarzo, the town where parco di monstri is located. this garden was done for some guy who really liked fictional stories and poems, so it is filled with characters from tales and others that i'm sure he made up. huge stone turtles, giants fighting each other, slanted houses, monster faces... and the list goes on and on. i bet its a really cool place to play "hide and go seek."



Villa lante was in some ways the opposite. this garden was very rectalinear and regulated as well being on a central axis. don't get me wrong, i still liked it a lot. the coolest part is the stream that runs through the whole thing. they deviated a river back in the day and redirected some of the water to the top of the hill. its amazing how the elaborate design depends only on gravity. its really cool.







Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

the Acropolis


*the parthenon

sun. march 26

today is the national greek independence day. all party. it works out really well... we stayed the night near the Monastiraki square, right at the foot of the acropolis. when we woke up, everybody was out and about, talking, eating, drinking, having fun... it also just so happened to be the last sunday of the month; another plus beacause they don't charge admission for a lot of venues during this day. good deal, huh? too bad we had to leave later that day. anyways, we headed up to the acropolis somewhat early in the morning. it was cool because we didn't have to pay.

man, it feels really good to see something you've only known in books. its crazy... it was only when i was standing right in front of the parthenon that i trully knew why i had seen it so many times in all those books. it is beautiful.


*porch of the carytids

we spent sometime up in the acropolis, wondering around... for me it was like the perfect good-bye to this country. who knows when i'll return. i hope that it is soon. greece has a wonderful soul, the people here are just so damn cool and the food is to die for. good bye greece (wheep, wheep).








Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

Santorini

4.15.2006

*veiw of the crater

wed. march 22, thur. march 23, fri. march 24, sat. march 25

wednesday we took the early ferry south. previously we explored greece by land and now it would be the sea that took us to our destination, Santorini.




what a wonderful thing this santorini... i guess some thousands of years of ago, this volcanic island errupted like crazy. all that was left was a backwards "c" shaped island with some smaller hardened lava formations in the center. its really interesting, the "c" shape is basically the outline of the crater created by the volcano. the coolest thing is the 200 meter cliff on the inside of the crater that pretty much goes straight down.

we arrived at the island on wednesday afternoon and stayed there until noon on saturday.

it was time to relax.

and that's exactly what was done. we rented a car and drove around the island, we ate delicious gyros for every meal, went to the beach, took photographs, slept, got huge fireworks thrown at us, ate some huge donuts, visited ioa, drove up crazy roads, enjoyed the sunsets, bought some books, and then ate some more gyros. man, that was sweet.



*yay for gyros!





Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

Delphi

4.06.2006


tues. march 21

the center of the world and the site of the oracle. as it turns out, a continous flow of pilgrims visited the oracle for a solid one thousand years up and until the demise of paganism in the 300's AD.



* view of the mountains beyond

we arrived on a sunny day, the temperature was perfect, the ground was green and yellow and the sky was as blue as it could ever be. at that moment it was easy to understand why the greeks would place the navel of earth in this very spot. it is beautiful.

*the temple of Apollo

*the Tholos temple of Athena



*beautiful ruins

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

meteora

4.05.2006
*Ayiou Nikolaou Anapavsa, the lowest monastery

mon. march 20

this is the most beautiful place my eyes have ever seen.

rounded cliffs, twisted shapes and massive rock pedestals. all carved by river sediment that flowed into the sea that covered the Plain of Thessaly some 25 million years ago. The earliest religious communities in the valley emerged during the late 10th century, when some hermits made their homes out of caves inside the rocks. in 1336 they were joined by two monks from Mount Athos, one of whom established the first monastery there. today Meteora is a series of 12 or so monasteries that sit on top of the very same rock formations that were created millions of years ago.


*Ayias Triadhos


our hike began in the morning, the fog was heavy and we could not even see the top of the rocks. after following a long and harsh path up hill, our first visit was to the Ayias Triadhos monastery (holy trinity). it certainly seemed like the monks were busy with their shores but we still got a warm welcome, they even gave us homemade candy! from there we made our way to Roussanou. after a short stop here we kept walking until we reached a spot that jutted out right into the middle of everything. we took out our super cheap packed lunches and had a picnic that i bet no one of us will ever forget. it was so beautiful there.


*picnic area

sometime during the afternoon we reached Megalou Meteorou, by then the sky was completely clear and the temperature was amazing. this is the grandest of monasteries and also the highest - built 400 meters (1,200 ft) above the valley floor. what do you say or do when something like this is at your feet? nothing... you just sit and stare in amazement.


*the village of trikala at the base of the rocks

*i must also say that i tasted the most delicious food i've had in europe yet. it was made by the lady and the son that ran the hostel in which we stayed during this visit. it was heavenly....


*Monastery of Roussanou

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

greece



sun. march 19

*greece is beauty.

charlie, mark, corey, colleen and i headed north from athens. the road would ultimately take us to the monasteries of Meteora, but not before the 7 hours of bus travel through the landscape of greece.

i don't know if i can explain the feeling... greece is unlike anything i've ever seen. these lands just seem to tell great stories with such ease. there are echoes even in the most desolate of places. i my mind i could imagine the local peoples making the same journey as i, only they would have done it thousands of years ago and not by bus. i wonder what those people thought about these lands? maybe it was them who told the mountains about the great kings and the heroes and the gods. maybe it was the other way, the mountains told the peoples about the kings and the heroes and the gods...

all i know is those greek mountains and lakes and trees speak with beauty and pride.

i am listening.

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

plains, trains and automobiles

*the milan station


sat., march 18

well, today was a tavel day. we took the early train from verona into milan. once in the milan trainstation, a bus took us on a one hour ride to the airport. from the airport a plane took us to athens. nice.

athens is cool. in fact i love athens. the people are so cool there. dinner that night consisted of lamb and delicious rice. yum. oh, yeah, we also had some amazing gyros right on the monastiraki square... so freaking delish and crazy cheap! late that night we also went out in the monastiraki area, i'll have to say that this was one of the most happening places in any city that i've been too. soooo many bars and people and delicious food! (not to mention super close to the acropolis too!) greece rocks!

*the view of the acropolis from our room

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |

oh Verona

4.04.2006

*the other side of the river in verona

fri., march 17

the day began with an early day tour of two works Carlo Scarpa had done in the city. the first one was the Banco Populare, another project that reasured my thoughts about his architecture. in other words, (with the exeption of the door in the building) i again think he over did it. just too much.

the second example of scarpa - The Castelvecchio Museum- was, in my opinion, the best we've seen. i really like it. althought the art in the museum does not appeal to me much, i think scarpa handled it very well. he was in charge of remodeling the castle and designing the stands for every single peice of art. this was the first time were he did not seem exagerated in the detailing, the problem that i've been having with him so far.

after a great picnic in one of verona's public parks, we decided to pay a visit to the Giusti garden. it was amazing. i felt like i took a step back 500 hundred years. parks and gardens today should definetly be more like this renaissance marterpeice.

*inside the castelvecchio

*inside the castelvecchio

Posted by Gustavo Ramirez |