So what was La Notte Bianca?
1. LOTS OF WALKING.
2. Half-losing yourself, half-knowing-where-it's-at
3. A medieval town party blasted into the 21st century, but not a carnival.
4. Destroyer of my eating routine and sleep schedule.
5. The culmination of another extremely active week in Italy.
Let's take it slowly, and start from La Notte Bianca, and work our way backwards to the last post, on Tuesday.
La Notte Bianca was a lot of events and consequently a lot of expectations, but it became a chase for these few events I witnessed in part: (where titles are remembered, they are put)
1. The Origin of Water
2. Osadia does hair...
3. Girafes
4. La Noche Blanca[sic]
5. Diviners of Clouds
6. Fireworks and such
1. A semi-lame, semi-interesting dance performance with a waterfall on stage and hot bodies going in and out of said waterfall, creating some interesting effects with the interactions of water and such.
2. A small piazza is turned into a stage for the spectacle of two Spanish artists called Osadia, who make their art out of sculpting hair. Osadiaonline.com will have more information. Techno-opera, pomp, extravagance, style, art...crowds of people watching in awe...transformation...it was definitely the most interesting thing I saw for la notte.
3. The people I hung out with were eagerly expecting the live giraffes to walk down Via Cavour eating from treeleaves and such. Upon closer reading of the english descripition of the event, I suspected this may not've been the case. Indeed, red giraffes didn't seem like a natural occurence. What we saw on the street was a very weird show of people on levers and poles making a parade out of these red giraffes-puppets, complete with a blast of red circle paper-cutouts.
4. A brisk walk to Termini for a concert of Spanish musicians. The guys we saw looked like pirates.
5. Several performances I wasn't able to see, all along the bridge in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo. They all looked like weird alchemy-magic related stuff. Too bad.
6. Forunately, I saw the tail-end of a long performance of dance and spectacle that culminated in dancers in front of the river with torches and FIREWORKS. Sweet.
These were all witnessed between 8pm and 5am, with LONG punctuations of walking about the different places in the center of the city. What was La Notte Bianca? Apparently, it was also an excuse for Romans to go out and trash their own city instead of letting tourists do it. For the main Vias were packed: with people, and trash. But fortunately, it was still a giant celebration of culture and the city itself, once a year.
Saturday Morning
What the hell? Beaches here aren't free? This rots! Californian mind does not comprehend...2 euro to get our clothes dirty on sand?
Otherwise, Santa Marinella was a welcome seaside respite from the Big City. Fried seafood wasn't bad either.
Friday
An otherwise extraordinary day ruined by hours of near-incapacitation from a stomach ailment. A perfect score in the Italian oral test, followed by a bus ride to L'Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region in Italy. This region is full of forests and beautiful mountain landscapes, and they show up behind the buildings of L'Aquila. There's a fountain that's supposed to have 99 spouts but it only has 95, and it's pretty lame altogether. But otherwise it's a charming small town with a big castle, surrounded by forests and mountains.
Too bad I puked twice and layed by a lamppost waiting for my company so that we could have another torturously long and cramped bus ride back to Rome.
Thursday
This was independence day. A meeting with a priest to set my head and my spirit straight, followed by an impromptu pilgrimage to St. John the Lateran church near the outskirts of the Roman city center--definitely a magnificent place, technically more imporant that St. Peter's itself due to its place in the history of the church and the papacy. Definitely worth a wiki. I overheard what I thought were pilgrims in a Mass in one of the chapels, hearing a Tridentine Mass while also praying in front of a copy of a relic of the Madonna from a Polish city.
The cloisters of St. John the Lateran were very peaceful and beautiful, contained an original manuscript by Palestrina, and pieces of the original, old old old church.
Wednesday
A pool on the top of a hill overlooking other hills popping up from the grounds of Tuscany. A beautiful country home outside Rome with a huge kitchen for cooking classes and fine food. Swimming--not really, just wading...in the pool, with cleaner air, and a break from the heat. Beautiful full moon evening with food cooked by students.
But I remember feeling out of place amongst the cliqueishness. And arguing beliefs. But train rides are always relaxing, and getting help on Italian homework from an Italian is good too.
Tuesday
Frascati. Supposedly a land of fine wine and food. Finding the fine wine was harder than I expected, but it was a good day trip, another welcome retreat from the big city with a fine park made from a villa that was destroyed in the War.
Twas also...something I cannot remember. But it was another relaxing locale, but not nearly on the scale of L'Aquila or Ostia Antica.
This is what happens when you don't write your blog in one sitting. Thoughts are forgotten.
Again, Be sure to check my Flickr photos, because it's a veritable pain to get them put up here.
1. LOTS OF WALKING.
2. Half-losing yourself, half-knowing-where-it's-at
3. A medieval town party blasted into the 21st century, but not a carnival.
4. Destroyer of my eating routine and sleep schedule.
5. The culmination of another extremely active week in Italy.
Let's take it slowly, and start from La Notte Bianca, and work our way backwards to the last post, on Tuesday.
La Notte Bianca was a lot of events and consequently a lot of expectations, but it became a chase for these few events I witnessed in part: (where titles are remembered, they are put)
1. The Origin of Water
2. Osadia does hair...
3. Girafes
4. La Noche Blanca[sic]
5. Diviners of Clouds
6. Fireworks and such
1. A semi-lame, semi-interesting dance performance with a waterfall on stage and hot bodies going in and out of said waterfall, creating some interesting effects with the interactions of water and such.
2. A small piazza is turned into a stage for the spectacle of two Spanish artists called Osadia, who make their art out of sculpting hair. Osadiaonline.com will have more information. Techno-opera, pomp, extravagance, style, art...crowds of people watching in awe...transformation...it was definitely the most interesting thing I saw for la notte.
3. The people I hung out with were eagerly expecting the live giraffes to walk down Via Cavour eating from treeleaves and such. Upon closer reading of the english descripition of the event, I suspected this may not've been the case. Indeed, red giraffes didn't seem like a natural occurence. What we saw on the street was a very weird show of people on levers and poles making a parade out of these red giraffes-puppets, complete with a blast of red circle paper-cutouts.
4. A brisk walk to Termini for a concert of Spanish musicians. The guys we saw looked like pirates.
5. Several performances I wasn't able to see, all along the bridge in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo. They all looked like weird alchemy-magic related stuff. Too bad.
6. Forunately, I saw the tail-end of a long performance of dance and spectacle that culminated in dancers in front of the river with torches and FIREWORKS. Sweet.
These were all witnessed between 8pm and 5am, with LONG punctuations of walking about the different places in the center of the city. What was La Notte Bianca? Apparently, it was also an excuse for Romans to go out and trash their own city instead of letting tourists do it. For the main Vias were packed: with people, and trash. But fortunately, it was still a giant celebration of culture and the city itself, once a year.
Saturday Morning
What the hell? Beaches here aren't free? This rots! Californian mind does not comprehend...2 euro to get our clothes dirty on sand?
Otherwise, Santa Marinella was a welcome seaside respite from the Big City. Fried seafood wasn't bad either.
Friday
An otherwise extraordinary day ruined by hours of near-incapacitation from a stomach ailment. A perfect score in the Italian oral test, followed by a bus ride to L'Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region in Italy. This region is full of forests and beautiful mountain landscapes, and they show up behind the buildings of L'Aquila. There's a fountain that's supposed to have 99 spouts but it only has 95, and it's pretty lame altogether. But otherwise it's a charming small town with a big castle, surrounded by forests and mountains.
Too bad I puked twice and layed by a lamppost waiting for my company so that we could have another torturously long and cramped bus ride back to Rome.
Thursday
This was independence day. A meeting with a priest to set my head and my spirit straight, followed by an impromptu pilgrimage to St. John the Lateran church near the outskirts of the Roman city center--definitely a magnificent place, technically more imporant that St. Peter's itself due to its place in the history of the church and the papacy. Definitely worth a wiki. I overheard what I thought were pilgrims in a Mass in one of the chapels, hearing a Tridentine Mass while also praying in front of a copy of a relic of the Madonna from a Polish city.
The cloisters of St. John the Lateran were very peaceful and beautiful, contained an original manuscript by Palestrina, and pieces of the original, old old old church.
Wednesday
A pool on the top of a hill overlooking other hills popping up from the grounds of Tuscany. A beautiful country home outside Rome with a huge kitchen for cooking classes and fine food. Swimming--not really, just wading...in the pool, with cleaner air, and a break from the heat. Beautiful full moon evening with food cooked by students.
But I remember feeling out of place amongst the cliqueishness. And arguing beliefs. But train rides are always relaxing, and getting help on Italian homework from an Italian is good too.
Tuesday
Frascati. Supposedly a land of fine wine and food. Finding the fine wine was harder than I expected, but it was a good day trip, another welcome retreat from the big city with a fine park made from a villa that was destroyed in the War.
Twas also...something I cannot remember. But it was another relaxing locale, but not nearly on the scale of L'Aquila or Ostia Antica.
This is what happens when you don't write your blog in one sitting. Thoughts are forgotten.
Again, Be sure to check my Flickr photos, because it's a veritable pain to get them put up here.
posted by Ninjesuit at 6:13 AM
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