After saying goodbye to Brandon, Maurizio and Michele we headed for España and spent several days in Barcelona. The city is really striking and the greater Catalunya area has connections to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalhí and of course Antoni Gaudí.
Gaudí's work appears all around the city
We visited Parc Güell, which was designed as a high end neighborhood by Gaudí. This curvy bench is the longest in the world.
Say, Whiskey!
We also took a Picasso tour and visited sites that were important to his life when he lived in Barcelona as a teenager. This is the 4 cats restaurant where he used to draw and mingle with young artists.
Another day we rented bikes and went down to the beach
Barcelona has lots of cool public art
We found some delicious tapas
And saw lots of Cataluyna flags. Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, whose people have a strong separatist movement after having been oppressed under the dictator Franco
We visited the city's Gothic area including the Cathedral
and practiced some night photography
And of course we had to visit Gaudí's masterpiece, the Segrada Familia church, which is still being constructed
The Judgement facade features these beautiful angular carvings
Being inside of the church feels like you're walking through a forest
Gaudí was very inspired by nature
Columns with branches form a canopy overhead
The lighting cast by the stained glass is beautiful
Gaudí was a master at creating moods
Architects and designers are still finishing the church according to Gaudí's plans
The facade on the other side is the nativity and features a completely different style of carvings
Gaudí's love of nature is clear here. Turtles hold up the columns
After having spent so long in Rome it was nice to see some more modern styles of art and architecture. Our 4 days in Barcelona flew by and soon enough we jumped on an overnight bus to head to Madrid.
Ah Roma! Our time in Rome was split in half with the trip to Bologna/Venice sandwiched in between, so I'm gonna be writing about both parts here. In our first 4 days in Rome we got in as much sightseeing as possible, but also spent a good bit of time just wandering around the city and taking it all in.
We visited St. Peter's Basilica, the official church of the Pope
The inside is absolutely stunning and the scale is unbelievable. The entire nave is the length of 2 football fields and the gold lettering around the dome is 6 feet high
The decorations inside the dome are all done with intricate mosaics
The statue of St. Peter - we saw several identical copies in other churches around Rome. Rubbing the toe brings good fortune
A beautiful view from the top of the dome looking out onto St. Peter's square.
We caught up with Maurizio, who we first met several weeks ago at the bus stop on our way to the farm. He gave us an awesome private tour that included the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Capetoline and Paletine Hills.
Us at the Colosseum. The area above the sloped arches is where the seating was and the upper levels were for the women
Maurizio explains how Roman coffins were converted to water basins during the Middle Ages.
Constantine's arch, which is said to be the inspiration for Paris' Arc de Triomphe
We also explored much of Rome on foot. This view is of one of the bridges that crosses the Tiber river
A tzidakah (charity) box in the old ghetto neighborhood, which is still the center of Rome's (small) Jewish community
This was all during our first visit to Rome. However, after returning to Rome from Venice we had a much more unconventional time.
We couch surfed with Michele, an awesome screenwriter in Rome. Here he is about to pick some lemons from the neighbor's tree.
And then tragedy struck. Ray caught a bad cold, which we will herein refer to as "the plague" and long story short both me and Michele got a little sick as well, and we had to cut our sightseeing short. But, while Ray was sick I did manage to do a few fun things:
The Sistine Chapel! Beautiful, but also filled with noisy tourists and guards who yell at you not to take photos. This was the only one I could sneak in
I took a cooking class! Cutting up some yummy hand made pasta!
When Ray finally started feeling better we made it over to the Pantheon. This structural masterpiece was saved from destruction during the Middle Ages because it was converted from a pagan temple into a church. Note the cross on top of the Egyptian obelisk
That's right, my crazy boyfriend flew across the world to come see me for 12 hours for a post Valentine's Day surprise. We had a nice dinner and the next day he was back on a plane to return to work.
Apparently everyone (Michele, Maurizio, Ray, both our mothers, my roommates at home) was in on the surprise. I couldn't believe that nobody had spilled the beans! Shortly thereafter we said goodbye to Rome ourselves and hopped on a plane. Next stop.... España!
After 2 days in Rome (more on that soon) we headed to Venice
to catch the end of Carnival.However
since this is one of the busiest times of the year for this island city, and
since Laurika and I are notorious procrastinators, we found ourselves boarding
the train with no place to stay that night!So, completely on a whim, we jumped off in Bologna in order to spend the
weekend in this city we knew literally nothing about.Luckily, Bologna, like most cities in Italy, turned out to be a fascinating place.
Bologna's Native Son, Pope Gregory XIII. He initiated the calender we still use today...THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR.
We ate pork sandwiches cut right from this pig!
Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore was full of pedestrians, street musicians and
little kids in costumes for Carnival.
The
900-year old Asinelli Tower which was built more or less because the Asinelli
family could afford it.Naturally, we
decided to climb the 500 steps to the top.
Laurika takes in the views…and catches her breath.
I found a stone set of furniture…turns out real couches are more comfortable.
Since we are very cultured people, we took in some art
like Giuseppe Crespi’s Winter.Pretty grim…
With the
weekend rush over, we finally were able to find a B&B in Venice.But as we stepped off the train we were greeted
immediately by…a snowstorm!The snow
kept falling all afternoon and evening, eventually accumulating 3-4
inches.However, by the next morning it was all gone
since that night’s high tide brought one of Venice’s famous floods with the
water rising 4.5 feet above sea level!This
of course is a problem for a city that is basically built at elevation =
0 or below.
Oh no, our
vacations are ruined!
Even in a
blizzard, this city doesn’t lose much of its charm.
This
family decided they were going to get the full Venetian experience, regardless of
whether or not they enjoyed it!
Laurika
is not really able to comprehend what is going on around us.
Basilica di San Marco
Piazza San
Marco
Ice flows in the flooded alleyway below us.Our building, like most in Venice, had a
significant amount of water enter its first floor and had to be cleaned the
next morning.
But on day 2 we got the Carnival experience we were hoping
for.By the afternoon, the sun was peeking
out its head and Piazza San Marco was FULL of people in wild costumes and
tourists taking their photos.
So many tourists!
Blue skies!
Now THAT'S more like it. We would have taken one, but they cost about €100
:(
Last but not least, how could you go to Venice without taking some time to think about one if its most famous visitors...James Bond?
