With so little time before we board our flights home, these photos will have to speak for themselves! Arrivederci, Venezia!
0 Comments
We arrived in Venice in great spirits and after a quick stop at our charming hotel on the island Lido we wasted no time..... and after some exploring we got straight to the gondola rides! Taking in the sights of the magnificent St. Mark's Square and exploring the opulent interior of Doge's Palace was another highlight of a glorious first day in Venice.
After a group dinner at a particularly amazing pizza restaurant we all walked up to the top of Piazzale Michelangelo at dusk in the final week of our time in Florence. Watching the sunset over the magical city students bid their farewells.
Our last day in Florence began at midnight when students were still laughing and dancing together at Space Discotheque. Going to Space is a treat, and it seemed like an appropriate way to celebrate the friendships that students have developed over the course of the month. Give them music, lights, and atmosphere, and our students have some great moves! Naturally we didn't want to ruin the following day with a late night, however, so soon after midnight we walked back to the residence together to get some rest. Students also got to sleep in a little bit the next morning! Once they were awake and looking at the day ahead of them, however many students asked themselves what they wanted to do just one more time. Was it one more trip to the best gelateria? One more walk through Mercato Centrale to some goodies buy to bring home? One more chance to stroll across the Ponte Vecchio? For many students, the last day was about one more chance to see art. Some of them had already visited the Uffizi galleries in their art classes, but they wanted to see their favorite works of art one more time. Others, students who had enrolled in the language or cooking classes, hadn't visited yet and wanted to see this world class collection before leaving. Whether it was the elegant statue of Ariadne sleeping, Leonardo da Vinci's breathtaking Annunciation, or some other treasure, each student found something which made them slow down and look with awe. Packing, cleaning, and other practical things filled a good portion of the rest of the day, but once evening came, it was time for our last group dinner in Florence, a three-course meal we enjoyed together at Osteria dei Baroncelli. Bread, pasta with fresh tomato sauce, turkey, green beans, and ice cream made for a delicious and filling end to a busy day. Then, of course, it was time for some goodbyes. Charis, our full-time staff member who taught Italian, will not be going to Venice with us, so students had a chance to say goodbye to her. Charis has been an amazing teacher to many of them, so they were sad to be leaving her behind. Our days in Venice will bring more adventures, and of course, more goodbyes. But for now, one last look at Florence, with its lovely little streets and spectacular duomo, is in order.
-Rachel Van Wylen Imagine seeing an exhibit of nineteenth-century photography, a church with a fifteenth-century fresco cycle, and a park with a first-century amphitheater, all in one city. Now, imagine visiting three cities in one weekend and having opportunities like that in all three places. Not bad right?
Next up on our list was Viareggio, which we visited on Sunday. This was a different kind of day trip since Viareggio is a beach town. Fortunately for us, the weather was perfect, and the beating sun had warmed the water so that it felt like a giant, sparking, salt water bathtub. For students more interested in staying on the shore, the rows of green and blue beach umbrellas fluttering in the wind offered a nice respite from that sun. Not a bad place to chat with friends, munch on snacks, and catch up on reading! One our way home from the beach we stopped by our third city for the weekend, Pisa. Any students who were were feeling depleted from their hours in the sun perked right back up once they saw the baptistery, duomo, and (best of all!) the leaning tower itself. It was getting late in the day, so we only had a few minutes to walk around and see things, but, still, what an incredibly beautiful city.
Students have been all over Florence with their cameras, exploring the nuances and rhythms of this beautiful city. From piazzas to palaces, gardens to galleries, markets to cafes and back again. One of the most inspiring and popular activities has been documenting the Firenze colourful street life - in black and white! Taking inspiration from some of the earliest and greatest street photographers Abbey Road photography students avidly explored the world around them in tone and monochrome; and as Henri Cartier-Bresson put so wonderfully looked for 'the decisive moment'.
The conversation spilled over into a coffee break, which the class conveniently took up on the terrazza of the Uffizi. Pastries and cappuccini provided the necessary refreshment before students returned to the galleries to see more. Since I was with them, I got to chat a little too, and I've rarely enjoyed a pasta con mele (pastry with apple filling) so thoroughly. Students also had the opportunity to practice their photography skills and take aim at getting some good shots of the corridors of the museum. With the light flowing in from the windows and the long hallways stretching out ahead of them, they could experiment with the settings on their cameras to get exactly the effect they desired. Meanwhile, other classes have been tackling other challenges. The Italian cuisine class recently did a workshop in making pizza from start to finish. I didn't have a break in my schedule to go with them, but when I heard how good the pizza was, I regretted that I didn't make it a priority. And of course Lindsay's studio art class, so popular among students, is always off on some incredible adventure. Similar to Jenny's class, they've been learning about linear perspective. In their case, however, the goal is to create architectural drawings using this new skill.
What could motivate a group of tired teens to cheerfully rise before 6:00 am, walk to the train station, board a crowded train, and then make two more transfers before finally arriving at their destination? The answer? Cinque Terre, of course!
At times it was hard to say whether we were just hiking or actually climbing, since the trail had so many ups and downs. Well-traveled, with stairs cut into it, the trail was never truly treacherous, but it did pose more challenges than a mere walk in the woods. Questions like, "Is it this steep the whole way?" came up in conversation more than once. Those questions melted away like cones of gelato in the sun, however, once we saw Vernazza. So lovely it seemed more like a fictional place than anywhere we might actually be, the city sat below us in all its multicolored glory. We didn't rest there for long, though, since our ultimate goal was Monterosso, the next of the five villages. With our water bottles refilled and our spirits revived, we continued on. The next leg of the journey was slightly longer than the first, but our reward for finishing it was nothing less than the pure, warm waters of the Ligurian sea. Whether floating in the water, swimming out to the rocks fifty meters from shore, reading paperbacks on the beach, or exploring the little shops in the village of Monterosso, there was no way not to enjoy this picturesque town. And for hungry hikers, the plethora of seafood restaurants with beautiful ocean views gave ample opportunity to relax and recover from an exhausting day. The train ride home was long, and it was almost midnight when we saw Florence again. Not many of us kept our eyes open the whole way home, but each of us still had the images of Cinque Terre fresh and vibrant in our mind's eyes. Why stay awake with such happy things to dream about?
-Rachel Van Wylen Evenings are a wonderful time for Abbey Road students. With classes done for the day and temperatures dropping in the city, it is time relax and enjoy Italian culture! Last night students did this when they went to Kitsch Deux for aperitivi. An aperitivo is a drink (non-alcoholic, of course, in our case!) that stimulates the appetite, and in Italy you can order just one drink and gain access to an assortment of free, small food items. Little squares of pizza, slices of fruit tart, vegetables marinated in olive oil, cheese, you name it! Of course the most important ingredient in aperitivi is good company, which, as you can see from the photo above, our students have figured out! Food isn't the only way to have a great time, though, and students often do projects or visit museums in the evening hours as well. Early this week a group went to make their own Florentine ceramics, and later tonight another handful of students will do the same. What better memento of one's time in Florence than a handmade (and personalized!) piece of pottery? Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria doesn't close until 11:00, so last night a group of students went and experienced this magical place in the already-magical hours when the stars come out. It's hard not to think of grand parties and balls when walking through a capacious space like this. As one student said to me, "I know I can't take it all in right now, because there's just too much to see!" The Palazzo Vecchio also has small spaces to discover, and in the quiet of the evening, when most of the visitors have left, it is possible to be alone in a tiny chapel, just as a member of the Medici family might have been 500 years ago. And if you get tired of looking at frescoes, sculptures, gilded ceilings, and Latin inscriptions, there is always the view from the window: Brunelleschi's brilliant dome for the Florentine cathedral. Plenty to see and do at the end of a busy day, and plenty of inspiration for the next one. This morning, when I looked out over the city of Florence in the crisp, early morning light, I remembered what makes studying abroad so great: this city, with all its history and beauty, is our classroom for the next month. There's no need to look at slides projected on the wall or tiny pictures printed in books. We are here, and we can see everything we are studying directly instead of settling for reproductions. I'm also reminded of this when I see students returning home after an exhilarating lesson, as I did last week when I spotted these photographers and their instructor Jenny. They didn't notice me at first, but I saw them, and it was clear that they had been laughing about something they had seen or done together. What a nice change of pace compared to traditional classrooms, where students are sometimes in a rush just to finish their lessons and get on with the day. Our students are eager to keep learning! Unsurprisingly, one of the students in Vieri's cooking class approached me with a rustic peach tart she had made outside of class. Her interest in cuisine didn't end when the class did! Sometimes students have assignments back in the classroom that allow them to draw inspiration from what they saw while walking around town. Our fashion design group is working on a series of mood boards inspired by Florence. One student told me about seeing a woman wearing a pastel outfit with lots of yellows, greens, and pale reds. Her mood board contained images pulled from magazines that were in this color scheme. Her personal voice came through in the images she chose, but it was also clear that she had been influenced by the city. And, of course, the studio art students benefit tremendously from being able to carry their sketchpads to the Piazza della Signoria or the Boboli Gardens and draw the sculptures, architecture, and foliage in these locations. Recently students learned about using white chalk to draw on black paper. The white chalk is the light, and everything left black remains a shadow. A lesson in light and shadow is always engaging, but how much more so when the subject is the Tuscan sun hitting the side of a Renaissance statue? In the coming weeks students in the studio art class will also study atmospheric perspective and linear perspective and see examples of these techniques in the Uffizi Galleries. Perhaps the benefits of being in Italy are most apparent, however, in the language classes, since students can walk to a local cafe and order a bottle of water or a coffee in Italian. For some students, this may be the first time they've ever spoken in Italian, but for others who have been studying for several years, the cafes are a place to have a longer conversation. At the end of the day students are exhausted, but I don't see their smiles fading just yet. Another walk around the city to see just a couple more things is often in order, and they head out in groups of three or four to spend another hour exploring. Then it's home again to rest for another full day of adventures.
-Rachel Van Wylen |