Bologna Arte Fiera

Friday a group of professors took their classes to the Bologna Art Festival (called Art Fiera). So we rented a bus and drove almost 2 hours to get there (fyi, Italian rest-stops are a lot nicer and have better food!...and there is a section that's almost like a mini grocery store!). We drove through mountains to get there..and saw..SNOW (Bologna isn't in the mountains though, we just drove either through them or along side of them to get there). It was rather cold in Bologna, Firenze is lot warmer. I took a photograph from the bus:















After getting to the festival venue we all stood around waiting in the cold for our professors to get tickets...in that time my eyes fell upon this wonderfully dressed pimp-woman:



















This festival was insane. It was basically this huge huge HUGE convention center like place and all the large rooms were sectioned off with partitions and galleries from all over Italy, other parts of Europe and some from the US could rent a section and exhibit their artists' work. It was extremely overwhelming. I took a lot of pictures of the work I liked and wrote down names of the artists who did video work.
Artists who did videos that were awesomely funny, creepy, entertaining:

-Coniglio Viola (I think..it was hand writen and not very clearly!) - "Romantici", edition 5HD + 55D, 2007 (Tomaso Renoldi Bracco = gallery) - a family portrait of what looks like a late 1800s family but all the faces are of the same person (maybe the artist?) and they all look uncomfortable, or trying to hard to pose, or just odd - especially the young twin brothers.

-Gu Dexin - "F23", "F36", "F52", "F79", "F92" - flash animation, edition 5, 2006 (Galleria Continua) - slightly more complex stick figures doing really strange acts in groups, like chain reaction sort of acts. One person does something and the rest follow, then the last person ends it with a funny outcome...I'm not going to say more becuase that just gets into too many details I would rather not describe on the blog...if you're interested look it up yourself or email me! haha. - here is a link to on of Gu Dexin's clips but it's not one that I saw at the fair...but you get the idea of his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRa1RgBOhMk

-Marc Horowitz (American I think) - he did a bunch of commercials for galleries. they are hilarious!! Maybe they have them somewhere online to watch. If you YouTube his name, and look up the video for Pecker Drum...they played that at the fair...I'd say it's PG13 :)
He also had a video called "The National Dinner Tour" here's the link that I found on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jQaMVBcpI
I saw him walking into the building as I was leaving for the bus - that was cool! :)


Jacob Hashimoto (bought his cataloge from the gallery)
Untitled
paper, bamboo, acrylic paint, nylon string
107 x 74 x 20 cm
2007














Not sure of the name of this one - It was basically a whole big area of space that had all the paper/bamboo pieces suspended and coming down in layers. It was pretty cool...you could stand in it, walk around (as demonstrated in the silly picture below)

































This gallery was really busy so I couldn't get a hold of someone to tell me the artist's name but I'll look it up later at the Gallery Biagiotti website.








Details: (location in the picture above: Bottom row, second from left and Top row, first from left)























Marco Fantini
La Citta di K (and detail)
Oil paint, collage, gesso, smolto (an Italian word in the description I don't know the meaning of..will find out soon enough)
180 x 150 cm
2006-2007
another Marco Fantini (I really liked his work and saw a gallery with a cataloge and asked how much it cost and the gallery rep said "for you..FREE!" So I got a nice hardcover cataloge of Fantini's work!)

Mmmm...cioccolate....

A bunch of us (me, Nicole, Joe, Angie) went to Saschall (a theater about 25 minute bus ride from SACI) to go to the CHOCOLATE FAIR!!!!!

It was divinely delicious...not that I really needed to say that. Basically the venue was circular so you walk in with your entrance ticket and 6 free sample tickets (4 chocolate, 1 tea, 1 coffee) and you're surrounded by tables and tables of chocolatey goodness. Then there's upstairs where there was a meat selection, teas (I tried coconut and pinapple tea...it was surprisingly tasty! I wanted to buy a box but it was around 8 Euros for 12 teabags...so I passed). In the beginning we all just use a ticket or two and ate the samples but then we started sharing so that was fun. The hazelnut stuff was my favorite along with the little plastic cups of hot chocolate (literally) - just warm thickish liquid chocolate. The oddest one we tried was the one that had tabasco or hotsauce in it...it was weird, I dont think I'd buy any but a nibble of it was enough...it packed quite the huge punch!

I didn't think of taking my camera but Angie took some pictures so I can get them from her at some point! We saw this chocolate dragon, whose head was about the size of a basketball and the body about a meter long with scales and spikes and claws and teeth - it was pretty amazing.

They had a demo of how to make chocolate - chocolate cubes with filling. So there was a chocolate chef with his tools and melted chocolate and a camera zoomed in on what he did and it displayed it on the stage wall. Unfortunately it was in Italian so we didnt understand it but was fun watching for a while.

Joe was accidentaly given 2 sets of sample tickets so we shared the second set between the 4 of us so we all got a few more samples each!

I acutally bought one piece of chocolate cause it wasn't part of the samples so I just paid the 70 cents for it. It was a little disc of dark chocolate, honey and almond pieces. Mmmm...yummy.

Joe and I also bought a loaf of 5-grain bread made in a wood fired oven and made fresh that day for the fair (like the random meat stall, there was a bread stall). They had a bunch of free samples (didn't need a ticket) so we tried it all! They had really good chocolate bread and plum cake. And obviously the 5-grain was amazing cause otherwise we wouldn't have bought it.

Two of Joe's flatmates showed up so the 6 of us left together to head back towards home. Then Joe, Nicole and I went and got pizza and becuase we're students, we get a free first glass of wine (or only glass cause we didn't want to order any cause its expensive!! hehe). Walked around for a bit after dinner and headed back to our flat and then decided to go to Stonehenge, a little family-run bar across the street. We went in and it was nice, low key, not swarming with tourists or anything. Robert came at some point and the four of us played foozball for a bit. Then all went our separate ways! (Robert/Rob is a returning student at SACI, he was here last semester, and now he also works one night a week at Stonehenge cause he went there so much last semester!)

Tomorrow my Digital Multimedia class and a few other classes are taking a bus from Piazza Adua near the train station to go to Bologna to the Bologna Art Festival. Apparently it's a big deal and lots of galleries from around Italy come there to display and have a mini gallery at the fair. Renting space costs approximately 30,000 Euros!! So we will spend the day there, look at art (mostly contemporary from what I've heard), and head back to Firenze around 6pm. Bologna and Firenze are about an hour or so apart by bus.

More later!!!

Piazzale della Porta Romana

Austin (girl in my illustration and digital multimedia class), Nicole and I walked to Piazzale della Porta Romana today. It's about 30 minute walk from city center...it's past the Uffizi and Boboli Gardens. I think the piazzale is named Porta Romana becuase there's this huge gate with some wall on either end. Way back when, citys were walled and gated...at somepoint the walls around Firenze were knocked down, and my guess is they didn't knock this gate down...maybe it faces the direction of Rome...since Rome is south and Porta Romana faces south.

Anyway. It was a nice long walk, though my feet are hurting now, but it was definately worth it! We were gone for about 2.5 hours. I had to go there to photograph for my class. My prof, Romeo, made us pick locations from a hat so that we get out of the city center and see more of Firenze, and the not so touristy areas. I used up a roll of film in the few hours we were gone. On our way back, we stopped at a snackbar/cafe and got various things to eat (me: crem caramel, nicole:mozzarella-tomato sandwich, Austin: lemony cake with chocolate layer on top...all were yummy).

(posted in order that I took)

Ponte Vecchio from two bridges away. Ponte Vecchio has all sorts of jewelry shops along the sides of it...really high end shops from what I've heard.

























A really beautifully decorated/painted Medici building. I'm not sure what the Medici family used it for but I know it's a Medici becuase of the oranges in their seal thing between the windows.















Porta Romana (view from what would be inside the walls). The Piazzale is on the otherside.











Yeah...I found a mattress in some bushes...with the frame and some wood pieces!

















Old man who got our attention by pointing at me and yelling "Filippino?" to me. Then he started asking Nicole (middle) and Austin (right) where they were from but it was more just him loudly rattling off names of countries...
"Inglesia....Polka"













Just something I liked...













Feathery bra on display on the 5th Ave of Firenze. We were rather amused by it.

randoms

-The building SACI is located used to be where Gallileo's last student lived.

-There is a little shop that sells meats and cheeses near SACI, they have a display at the door of 4 stuffed boars eatting lunch...apparently (according to Camila my illustration prof) they have been there eating lunch for over 43 years.

-Tripe sandwiches are very loved by Florntines. (ew)

-The traditional Florentine steak is 4 inches thick, the middle two inches are always rare. It is grilled for a minute or two on top and bottom and served. If you ask for it more cooked, they won't do it.

-According to Camila, Italians don't really eat dessert (which I don't understand because everywhere I go, I see desserty sweet things).

some more pictures of the area around San Lorenzo

Some of the street vendors packing up around 8pm.































Where the vendors' stalls are stored...there's many of these around, they also use a motorized thing that helps them move their stalls in and out - saw it happen this morning!
















A Tabacci-Bar: like a snack bar, they have drinks, lottery stuff, food items, chocolate and other random things. (You can buy stamps and bus tickets there too).

Dear God, why is there no salt in Tuscan bread?

...Because, back in the day when people were poor and tasty flavoured stuff was waaaaaay too expensive, bread was the staple diet. Since salt was expensive...poor people couldnt afford it in large quantities so didn't use it in their bread (which, apparently, they could eat a whole loaf in one sitting...one person...one loaf). So with their large quantities of unsalted bread, they had a jar or container of something they can use to flavor in small quantities...salt with herbs, that sort of thing.

I had my "Intro to Italian Culture and Cuisine" last night...it was...um...DELICIOUS. We didnt acutally cook anything, but got a few recipies (that seem like they need too much effort or are too complicated for quick meals...) and we got to try food that the instuctor/lecturer made and brought in for us.

She made lasagna (meat and veggie), salad with beans and smoked herring (which i picked out cause i wasn't a fan), clementines/tangerines (she called them manderins though...but it hink she was refering to the Italian name for tangerine cause she said at somepoint that they're not manderines....i think), halved pears with marscapone cheese and walnut stuffing (interesting and mild), fonttuna (i think thats how it was spelled).

Fonttuna is basically toasted bread with olive oil and herbed salt. Bruscetta is toast with other stuff on top like tomatos or something.

Overall...very very very tasty. The olive oil was the best...SHE MADE IT HER SELF AT HOME IN NOVEMBER! it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. A medium green colour, thick and you could taste the olives. Oh man. I was ready to drink the jar of it!

She gave us a few names of good olive oil to buy and use here, and a few other things like ready made pesto and lasagna pasta.

I have switched into intermediate photography. My first assignment is to go shoot at Piazza Romana, which is across, on the other side of the river (Arno). I could take the bus or walk. I might walk...it's not that far. I'm willing and able, so why not?

Tomorrow (Thursday) is what I like to call "hellday" - nonstop classes from 9am-7:30pm. Literally nonstop...Illustration ends at 12 and Italian begins at 12...I and a few others, have to leave Illustration a few minutes early to speed walk back to the main building to get to class on time. Italian until 12:55, then at 1pm - Digital Multimedia until 4. 4:30-7:30 I have etching.

So far so good though, I think my classes will be fun; Illustration seems more demanding than I was expecting but whatever, I'll deal.

More pictures will come. Hopefully there's also a place I can scan photographs from my class once we start printing.

Arrivederci

Via dell Amorino

This is my street - looking down from Via Sant' Antonino (which is where SACI is...to the right of where I'm standing and behind me). If I could walk through the buildings at the end of the street, I'd end up at the Duomo.

If you walk to the end and take a right it leads you towards the 5th Ave of Florence to the left and Santa Maria della Novela to the right.

If you walked on Via Sant' Antonino (behind me) and walk towards the picture's left, you will head towards the San Lorenzo market and street vendors.

San Lorenzo Market

I had my Illustration class today. Seems like a demanding class but hopefully will be alright. Our work will get published with some people or something who are trying to change parts of Florence (this is how I understood the assignment and her description of it). Basically between now and Thursday, I have to go around and photograph San Lorenzo and the area around it between Via Nazionale, Via Guelfa, and some others. Of the pictures I take, I have to choose 10 to bring in for Thursday's class. Eventually we will pick a topic of some sort that relates to the city (markets, people, tourism, multiculturalism, students, etc) and photograph that topic and research it, and eventually do illustrations based on them or something along those lines!
Here are the pictures I took today that I liked. They are mostly in the market building, San Lorenzo Market. I am standing on the upper level where all the vegetables and fruits are sold (below in the main section is meats, poulrty, cheeses, wines, pasta, and other food).


View of one of the passages on the main floor (meats/cheese etc), I'm standing on the stairs.

















A guy on a bike with 3 wheels...Not sure what he was doing in there...

















Mmm...Oranges.

First day of classes. Italian and photography. Wow. both instuctors are great. Photography is Romeo DiLoreto...he's a character and a half but very outgoing and looks like it will be a good class.

Im hungry. Bye.

First Day

Today is the first day of classes. My first is at noon, Italian, until 1pm, and I have photography from 4:30-7:30. I have to get a notebook before Italian from the carteloria (I think thats how it's spelled) - the "papershop".

I live on this tiny little street called Via della Amorino and it's right around the corner from SACI which is on Via San Antonino - about a minute or two walk. I've noticed a lot of the smaller dinky streets smell - garbage from the numerous blue lid, grey dumpsters, laundry water thrown out on the street, urine. But despite this, the streets are acutally really clean. There isn't much litter and I think I've heard a street cleaner machines scrubbing and humming away on the cobblestone.

Every now and then there will be a strong food smell which ends up making me hungry.

The markets are intimidating. They're loud, filled with people gathering around the counters ordering grams of salami and cheese or something scary (tripe). The tripe freaks me out. There are just piles of it in the glass covered counters. It kinda looks like coral but squishier. Then there's the whole dead duck or chicken..sometimes a pig. I've seen a leg of some animal (pig?) with the hair still on it. ew. Other than that and the strong smell of meat and fish, the market is a pretty cool place. The cheeses look so yummy and I just want to eat all the mozzarella i see. The veggies are cheap and juicy and delicious. The breads are amazing, however, Tuscan bread doesn't have salt in it, will find out why at my Itailian Cuisine and Culture class tomorrow night at 8pm...So if you want to know why there's no salt...tune into the next blog. :)

Jan 13

You'd think that on a Saturday I might be able to sleep in....not really. Last night Francesco the Landlord came again...and again tried to hang out with us for 3 hours at a time. Nicole and I, however, positioned ourselves so that he couldn't really get past us to the sofa to sit. So he only acutally stayed 15 minutes (a new record!!) to check on the hotwater/heating stuff. He told us he had called the specialists and they would be coming between 10am and 2pm...which meant we had to be up and ready for them at 10....they arriced at 11:30ish. They did a lot of noisey things for about an hour but I think the problem is finally fixed and now our heat/hot water acutally works, the timer on the thermostat works, and we dont lose pressure in that machine thing that they fixed every few hours (which leads to no heat or hot water, and if there's too much pressure (above 2.5) my bathroom pools with water from the safety spout).

We also talked to Daniela, housing director, about our discomfort with Francesco spending so much time with us. We appriciate that he took the time to show us around the city with gelatto, getting us some wine for the apt (twice so far) and what not....but after a while it got a little too much...he's the landlord...probably 40ish...not my buddy. It was fine until the Italian kisses on the cheek when he left after the hour long tour. Firstly, when he came Thursday night to check the pressure, he asked us how we were and we both said we were tired and were ready to pass out after getting gelatto. So he checked the pressure and said he'd have to wait a few minutes before looking at it again to make sure it's not doing anything crazy, and some how in those few minutes he decided he was going to take us to a gelateria. So we went, cause it's not like we know a good one..turns out he didnt really either cause we just kinda walked around until we found an open one near San Lorenzo (which by the way, i know more about than Francesco does!). I expected that when we got back to the apartment, he could check the gauge and leave...but somehow he ended up chilling for another hour. At this point, I'm a little frustrated but didn't want to be rude in how I ask him to leave because his english is very basic. So i wait it out. Again as he was leaving he kissed us on the cheak and this time he's like "timida" to me...."very timida". By now I'm just uncomfortable and glad he's left. Nicole and I both agree to go to Daniela and tell her about our situation, which we did this morning. She called him and talked to him about it. So he didn't linger this time after the specialists left with their cases of instruments and gadgets.

AFter that we hung out at home for a little, then walked around the city, got better gelatto than the first time (i got nutella gelatto!! mmm yummy). walked around some more and i went to get some salami and oranges came back and made dinner before I got too tired to make anything. So i made some penne and made a sauce from tomatos, cut up salame, and pasta spices (pre mixed and sold in a packet) and kinda sauted it in olive oil. then added ricotta. It was pretty damn good!

I read my book (Running with Scissors) but passed out in the process for 2 hours or so. Woke up, ate my penne and came to the internet cafe which now closes in 30 minutes!!!

Wow...I just wrote an essay.

Orientation and all that Jazz

After arriving i figured i would shower and such. but there was NOOOOO hot water. NONE. and no heat. so we got a housing person from SACI (which is a minute walk around the corner from our apartment) and she came and adjusted the water pressure and what not in the heater thing in my bathroom. we finally go hotwater and heat. later in the evening our landlord, Francesco came by to check on it becuase SACI had called him regarding the problem. he fiddled around with it, then insisted on getting nicole and i drinks. and since we were in our pjs, he was like "ill be back" and left. he came back in 15 minutes with a bottle of wine, a large bottle of beer, a 6pack of "coka" (coke) and a package of praline chocolate biscuits (which, ill have you know, were SOOOOO yummy). nicole and i went to dinner at some restaurant we found down a few streets. it was warm when i went to bed so i just slept in shorts and tshirt like i normally do..only to wake up in the middle of the night to put on flannal pants and a fleece and warm socks. i woke up in the morning to find out the heat and there was no hotwater. that night again, Francesco came by at 7 gave me money to buy wine while he went to check everything, and while Nicole kept an eye on him. he took us around the city after that. he came back and hung out with us...we didnt want to be rude and kick him out and didnt know how to do it and not sound rude or impolite so just let him talk to us about florence and tell us where things are.
Today we had inventory checks (housing people come to check what you have, whats damaged etc so we dont get fined at the end), intro art history tour of the city for 2.5 hours at 9am, a tour of useful places (post office, art store, markets (super overwhelming but fun), supermarkets, and other things), at somepoint the students in design classes (illustration, graphic/interior design, architecture) were taken to the design center so we know how to get there from the main SACI building. and now im just killing time before our lecture thing with a police officer or something...

the food is wonderful. ive been buying some food from the market so i can make dinner tonight. had a super tasty calzone for lunch!!
its really great. and the weather's not that bad! its rather warm. a light jacket, longsleeve and sweater is just enough!

more later!!!!

Arrived

I have arrived in florence...finally. what an ordeal. the flight left on time from frankfurt and i passssssed out. however, at somepoint i woke up and remember thinking that it had been over 1.5 hours but i was soo sleepy i didnt really care cause i could sleep more. i woke to the airhostess saying we were landing in Bologna instead of florence becuase there was such heavy fog. (apparently, we circled around it a number of times and even attempted landing but abruptly pulled back up again) so instead of landing at 9:30am in florence we landed at 11ish in bologna. We got our stuff, everyone was put onto buses and we took an hour and half or so ride to florence airport. by the time we got there it was about 1 or so, and by the time i got a taxi with someone who lives aroudn the corner from me and i reached the apt. it was around 2pm. my roommate (nicole..from drew) got there waaaay earlier than me. so i brushed teeth and we went an got sandwiches...figured it will tie us over until dinner.

other than that..its nice here. its really pleasant weatherwise. i am wearing longsleeve, sweatshirt and coat and i was on the warm side! the apartment is small but good size for two people. we both have our own bathrooms too! mine has the washing machine in it though. its also superduper close to SACI. right around the corner, two minute walk.

orientation starts tomorrow at 9:45am. and ends sometime on saturday.

In Transit

Made it over half way!!! Sitting at the gate in the Frankfurt airport, have an hour to go before my next flight. It's about 6:20 right now, too early, in theory, to be awake but yay for jetlag.
I didnt sleep much on the plane, there were too many rowdy children and two were right behind me. At one point he/she stood up and leaned onto my seat and somehow managed to pull on my hair...a good glare got him to sit down. hehe.
I think that I won't have internet in my apartment but I will have access when I'm on campus.
Orientation starts on Thursday and goes until Saturday.