Not a whole lot is happening lately… last week graphic design took a day trip to this paper-making town called Fabriano, which is a 3 hour ride on the “slow train” so it’s probably only an hour away. The weather in Rome is probably mid to upper 50’s so we’re all wearing sweatshirts and scarves.. well.. we get on the train about 1030 and when we start to get closer to our destination we keep going through tunnels (in the hills) and all of a sudden we pop out of one of the tunnels and there is snow everywhere!! K, so the rumor in Italy is that it doesn’t snow.. but like one of my classmates had said, it was like Narnia. So we started freaking out ‘cos we’re excited it’s snow until we realize that we have to walk 2 miles from the train station to the paper making museum we’re going to… eek. We get there and maybe half the class has umbrellas.. (I was not one of them) and we HAULLL it.. I was wearing my Globe moccasin shoes which it took maybe a quarter mile walk before they were full of sleet (oh yeah I forgot to mention it was sleeting at this point) so all of us are freezing.. but we made it.. took a tour, they showed us how they make paper from rag pulp etc. It was pretty neato for graphic designers.. it would have been cool to get some of this paper too but it costs 27 euro for one piece of paper! GHA. This museum also had all the wire molds for watermarks.. the way they make watermarks in money, etc.. they lay the rag pulp on top of this wire frame and the image that you want to be a watermark sticks up, so the paper is thinner in that area, so when you hold money up to the light you can see through that area easier because the paper is thinner.. (that sounds really confusing) and Fabriano actually prints the euro which is pretty cool. So we spent probably two hours in this museum (which was mostly outdoors by the way) and go back to the train station for another three hour train ride home.. our prof was actually nice enough to get two taxis from the museum to the train station for all us smart girls who either didn’t have an umbrella or the right shoes.. ha. To say the least Kym, Meg and I took the bus home from Termini train station!
So I’ve mentioned a few times about where I live in Roma, but haven’t really posted pictures yet of the Pantheon.. I don’t really have much to write about because not much has been going on here.. lots and lots of school work.. we basically only have 4 weeks left of actual school which includes 3 type projects, three parts to our big graphic project, three painting canvases and an art history final.. ergh.. I have a feeling I’ll be excited to go home at that point. In last week’s art history class our prof took us to a couple churches that houses some amazing artwork by raphael and carvaggio.. it’s crazy!! Now every church I walk by no matter how plain it looks, I walk into. Yesterday I took a walk to Borghese Park and around Roma for an hour or so and when I was a block away from home I walked into this church and there were two really famous Carvaggio’s in it! It’s basically a free museum considering Carvaggio is probably one of the best painters ever. (I’m serious..) Anyways here are some photos (For some reason it’s not letting me post them right so you have to copy and paste all of the web addresses under the descriptions and paste them into a new browser window to see them.. sorry!)
The dome inside the pantheon.. it’s solid cast.. !!!
http://teganw.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/dome.jpg
This is the front of the Pantheon
http://teganw.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/pantheon.jpg
This is Raphael’s grave.. inside the Pantheon
http://teganw.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/raphael.jpg
The inscription says:
ille hic est raphael timuit quo sospite vinci rerum magna parens et moriente mori
here lies raphael, by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die.
Which is probably one of the coolest quotes I’ve ever seen.
This is a photo taken inside one of the random churches from art history.. it’s a Raphael painting
http://teganw.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/raphaelpainting.jpg
Here’s a Carvaggio painting from another church
http://teganw.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/carvaggio.jpg
