How is it that almost all of the architecture we study in history class is in Italy? Must be something in the water here

This post mostly covers a carlo scarpa project that we stopped by between towns.  This is another project we have spent a good amount of time looking at in our architecture history classes.  After seeing all that we have it still seems weird to see these project right in front of me and actually walk through them.  You learn about the Pyramids in school but you never actually think about people using them or walking by them or anything.  You just think they exist somewhere at some time and thats it.  So its really cool and really valuable to actually see all these projects.  And it baffles me how many of them are in Italy. The fact that we have stopped in so many places in our travels and seen famous projects in all of them is incredible and awesome.  Keep it coming!

So here's Carlo Scarpa's famous cemetery.  Non architects probably dont know it (i didnt before school) but its a pretty intense project.  Maybe not my favorite, but undeniably well done and sophisticated.

some old guy who actually worked on the project let us in and showed us around

Corner condition, still not sure why its not the right way up

So scarpa-esque

dead people

 

And then we stayed in Padova for the night.  Theres not really anything in Padova or really anything to see.  Its an odd city/town.  We had trouble even finding a place open for dinner, yet there were lots of stores for shopping open.  Oh well, it was just for the night. Then, VENICE. yayyyyy. I was so excited to head to Venice.  I have been there once before and it is such a cool city so it should be a good time

9/11 memorial in Padova?

Beautiful Villa Rotonda by Palladio in Vicenza

So this is a shout out to all the architecture students.  We have studied this building inside and out in our architecture history courses.  And let me tell you, its definitely worth studying. Very cool site to visit and to see in person.  On top of a hill overlooking a huge valley.  Symmetries taken to a new extreme and must have been a nice place to live once upon a time...

Sun setting on the Villa Rotonda

Overlooking the beautiful valley

Town at the bottom of the hill, filled with more Palladio building.  Rotonda still wins

Loved these trees more than the building around it. oops. 

Just thought I would throw in some awesome pictures of gelato to round this post out.  Always makes any day 10 times better.

Dark chocolate is always so good.

Carmel and chocolate!

Bergamo, Trentino and Trento. Italian Whirlwind

So heres some more photos from the trip.  This post has photos from Bergamo, Trentino and Trento.  All of these were kind of lumped together because in some places we only stopped for a few hours, some places we stayed over night.  Bergamo was one of the earlier stops on the trip and we just stopped to go to a Richard Meier construction site.  This was actually the first real construction site I have been to and been able to walk through.  They explained how things were working, showed us construction documents and everything.  It was really cool. Plus we got to wear hard hats (everyone had fun getting pictures in them).

Scaffolding much?

Everyone looks better with a construction hat. At least we thought so at the time

Next, we traveled through the italian mountains towards trentino and trento.  Not sure why their names are so similar, but oh well.  Trentino was basically a tiny little town, which we only stopped at for one hour to hop into a modern museum and then hop out.  The museum was really cool itself and had an exhibit of the architect's stuff, which was really interesting.  Success. Next.

Mountains! They ended in the valley so abruptly it was very interesting

Modern Museum! Dont blink

SO MUCH Nutella.  Nutella is amazingly delicious, but this was literally a bucket full

Then we went to Trento, which was quite a bit larger and had a lot more stuff to see in it.  To start out, we took a gondola thing up to the top of the mountain at sunrise.  Seeing the sunrise over an italian town in the middle of the italian mountains is something that I dont think could ever get old.  It was beautiful and so worth getting up early for.  Sleeping in Italy has become quite an unfortunate necessity.  I want to enjoy every second, day, night, morning and evening.  In Trento we also got to see another construction site, this one by  Renzo Piano.  It was much larger and I liked it a lot more.  The site included residential and museum program and was really cool to see.  Plus we saw an italian castle and wandered around the city some more.

Riding up the gondola over the city

So beautiful

Local church

Construction site number 2! Much larger

Model of the museum under construction

Corn Pizza! Really good, at some German brewery since we were so far north

Black Forest Gelato with Extra Dark chocolate gelato.  Thank you german influence and deliciousness

Beautiful views of the mountains from a castle

I want to live in an italian castle...

Verona! Romeo and Juliet's Romantic Hometown

Next, we spent some time in Verona, wandering through the historic parts and exploring this quaint little town.  Definitely starting to get colder in Northern Italy at this point, which I had my jacket.  Good thing my parents are bringing me one!

Delicious cappuccinos and pastries make every morning in Europe a good one.

A random Zaha Hadid sculpture that displayed some competition

The river in Verona from the top of a castle

We climbed to the top of a bell tower to see the town, and it just happened to be at noon.  Wow those bells are loud up close

We went to Juliet's house from Romeo and Juliet! Theres the balcony! There was a statue too

Verona's own huge ampitheater used for operas during the summer

An excellent evening enjoying pizzas with my friends! Found a great sidestreet place

Made friends with the Gelato lady and got lots of really good gelato!

The Verona sky at sunrise.  Wont forget that for a while

Museum designed by Scarpa, famous architect.  Decent design, cool stuff inside

Climbing to the top of the bell tower

Veronaaaa

Ill keep updating this sorry for the delays.  We just got back in Rome and have been super busy arranging everything.  Plus my parents just got in yesterday and I got to spend the day with them!!!! It was awesomeee.

Milan day number 2

 Overall, Milan was really cool.  It wasnt as cool as I was expecting though.  The city was pretty spread out, which made it hard to walk from one place to another.  It seemed like just a regular city for the most part, but with a lot of extra cool stuff scattered in there.  There was the main center around the duomo and then another center of town kind of under construction for the World Expo in 2015.  A lot of famous architects are designing buildings for that.  Also, despite my expectations, there were not fashion models walking the streets at every corner.  I kept my eyes out for Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks on their weekend off, but alas, I did not see them. (Kidding about my expectations....kind of... haha). 

The inside of that beautiful church from yesterday, love the stained glass

huge interior

We also got to climb on top of the church and see the details up close

The square in front of the duomo, with the city of Milan in the background

Milan is definitely beautiful from above

Some more cool architecture models we saw that day from another exhibition

Random yellow wooden sculpture piece with cool screens on it

 We went to McDonals...I know...But I got a Tiramisu milkshake there! It was really good. I wish they had that flavor in the US, of course, its still McDonalds...

 

Model of Milan showing the new planned buildings that are to be done by the 2015 World Expo, very cool complex with a lot of new interesting architecture

I.M. Pei building. I was a fan