Back in the game!

So, I know it has been a while since my last post and I do apologize for that! But, I am going to make a stab and bringing the blog back to life. Just to fill you in on what has been going on in my life the past few months, heres a quick synopsis.

I am back in full swing at Clemson in grad school. We are actually just short of a month from being done with this fall semester. The weeks and months have really flown by as expected with the amount of work we have been involved in. As you may or may not know, I am working on my Masters in Architecture with a specialization in Health. This involves the design of hospitals, clinics, out patients facilities, senior living campuses, and even healthy living environments in general. One interesting part of our studies has been the opportunity to tour various hospital facilities and experience the spaces that we might normally only see in extreme circumstances. We took two roadtrips to Philadelphia and Orlando to visit hospitals and attend the Healthcare Design Conference 09'. They both turned out being great trips and we were able to make some very valuable contacts.

I have also been continuing my studies in photography and it has been a great chance to explore some new techniques. This is a night shot of Philly's courthouse.
While in Orlando, we were able visit one of their newest hospital expansion projects at Halifax Health Medical Center. This is a photo from the corner of the new tower.

As for other big news in my life, I am dating again and I consider myself very lucky to be with a wonderful girl who constantly goes out of her way to care for me. Aside from being beautiful, athletic, funny, intelligent, etc.. (the list goes on and on) she has become quite the elaborate chef and I have to say that my brother and I are not complaining, ha! We have had a great time getting to know each other and Im excited to see where our relationship takes us. This is a picture from earlier this summer while we were at the beach with my family. I love you Alicia!
Lastly, I finally got my website up and running. There is a good chance that you may have actually been directed to this blog from my website but if you haven't seen it, here's the link: DerrickSimpsonOnline I will be developing the design and adding content quite frequently so be sure to check back in.

Well, hopefully I wont leave you in the dark for so long again! Thanks for reading! Catch you next time!

10 Days in a Backpack!

Im hoping that you all read up on where we had planned to go during our spring break trip last week!  I am happy to report that we were able to make all of our destination and I have to say, there were really no glitches!  There was however a short 10 min period of freaking out at the airport in Berlin when one of our group "misplaced" their passport... Not to mention any names but "she" luckily found it back in the magazine shop, ha!  But that being said, we really had no trouble getting in and out of each airport and into the city centers! So here is a quick glimpse at what we got to see these past 10 days! 

Milan

We took a train from Genova to Milan late friday because we had to do some last minute packing and printing(bookings, boarding passes, etc) When we arrived at the station, we found a coach that took us to Malpensa Airport. From Malpensa, we called the hotel and they sent a shuttle to pick us up.  Luckily, the hotel was still able to make us some dinner (pizza) when we arrived at 11:30.  After dinner we went upstairs and passed out.  We had to be back up to catch a shuttle at 5 in the morning to get back to the airport for our flight to Athens.  Milan was basically our starting destination but we had to take the train and get a hotel because our flight left so early in the morning.  

Athens - Greece

We arrived in Athens early Saturday morning and we had to catch a bus into the city.  It was about a 50 min ride and we were all fighting to stay awake.  Athens looked pretty old and dilapidated until we got closer into the city center.  We rode the bus to the end of the line, Monastiraki Square.  From there, we were able to walk to our hotel.  We checked in then headed back out to find some lunch.  We were about 30 feet outside the door when lindsey found Melissinos Art Sandal Shop.  Of course we had to stop in and get a pair of Greek sandals (which I was able to break in at the Acropolis during the next days exploration)

 After taking those back to the hotel, we went in search of a spot for lunch.  We found a place about 5 mins walk from our hotel that had a view of the Acropolis we couldn't turn down.  We ended up eating and people watching for about 5 hours.  The street vendors were pretty crazy because they kept picking up and running off when the cops walked by.  They would circle the block and come right back.  The last time though, the cops tried to close there exits which bottle necked them right past our table.  I was able to catch the heard of vendors on video when they were running from the police.  

After lunch, we walked around for a while checking out some sites in the city and looking through some shops. We had to pick up the typical Greece souvenirs (shirt, post cards, etc.)  Then we headed back to our hotel to see the art show that was on display downstairs.  After this we were able to head upstairs to the roof terrace to catch some good photos of the Acropolis at night.  

On sunday we got up and had breakfast then set out for the Acropolis! We were able to get into the entire site for free because it was Sunday!  We toured the grounds for the rest of the day taking in the sites and snapping tons of photos of the ancient structures.  This is a photo of Aeropagus Hill where Paul preached to the Philosophers of Athens.  

We then headed over to the Parthenon to take more pictures and do some quick sketching.  After our long day of site seeing, we headed back to the hostel to grab our luggage and catch our bus back to the airport.  We breezed right past the suckers checking their luggage and headed for our gate with our backpacks and pre-printed boarding passes  (EasyJet is awesome by the way).   

Berlin - Germany

We made it to Berlin at 10:30 on Sunday night.  We then caught a train into the city and hopped on the Metro to get to our hostel.  We got off the metro and found a place to eat that was still open.  We had bratwurst and french fries and large glass bottle cokes for really cheap so we couldn't complain. Then we checked into our hostel and passed out about 2 in the morning. 

We had great intentions of getting up early the next morning.  But we ended up just barely making breakfast at 9:58 (closed at 10).  After breakfast, we ventured out into the city for our 1 day in Berlin experience.  We met up with our prof., Bernhard after lunch and from there we were able to fast track a lot of the time spent finding our way around.  We went to see a few of the cities great attractions.  Here are a few that we visited:

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Wall 

Holocaust Memorial

Jewish Museum

We were also able to see a few other sites around the city. We packed in as much as were able to in our short day there.  I felt like we got a great introduction to the city.  

Dublin - Ireland

We got up early again on Tuesday to set out for Dublin.  We backtracked our way to the airport then took off around 10 in the morning.  We landed in Dublin around 11:30 and followed the mass crowds headed for the city.  We took a coach which let us off a few blocks from our hotel.  There was no way to get to our hotel because of the St. Patty's Day parade.  

We watched the parade, or at least what we could see over the heads of the people in front of us (500,000 in town for the parade), then we finally made it to our hotel at 3 in the afternoon.  We checked in and headed upstairs to get settled in.  Jon and lindsey took a quick nap and I headed out to buy a green shirt and meet some of the locals.  I ended up finding an Irish Rugby jersey in one of the local stores and decided it was good enough to serve as my green attire.  I came back to the hotel and was surprised to see that the bar in our hotel was slam packed with people.  

I headed up to the bar and ordered a Guinness, since we were in the land of the mothers milk.  I quickly made some friends in the bar and I got some info on what we needed to see during our stay in Ireland.  After a few hours, I met up with Jon and lindsey and we went out to find some dinner.  We found an burger place around the corner which was amazing. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the festivities for a while longer.  All in all, it was an awesome St. Patricks day celebration.  It was amazing being able to celebrate this holiday with all of the locals living where the festival originated.  

On Wednesday, we set out on a walking tour of Dublin.  We started with Trinity College and the Book of Kells.  Then we headed for the western side of town.  Along the way, we visited Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, St. Auden's Gate, and other various sites.  We then headed over to the Guinness Storehouse to take a tour of the facilities and see where it was born.  The building was pretty crazy because it was built around a giant pint glass.  The tour went into detail about how Guinness is made and processed.  Obviously, the company doesn't disclose all of their secrets but it was a great tour.  The tour ended with a panoramic view of the city from the gravity bar where I was able to trade my ticket in for a pint of Guinness brewed on site.  I have to say, it was pretty amazing and I have since become quite a fan of "The Black Stuff" (as the locals call it).   

After leaving the factory, we walked East back toward St. Patricks Cathedral.  We were able to make the 5 pm "Evensong".  We attended the service and it was really an amazing experience to hear the choir in the cathedral.  After the service, we made our way back to our hotel.  We got some dinner and hung out for the rest of the night.  

On Thursday morning, we got up early and went to the Tourist Information Center to find out what Irish country side we might be able to see near Dublin.  We ended up taking a train out to Malahide Castle which was about 3o mins out of the city.  There was a really great fog laying all around the grounds of the castle as we arrived so it made for some great pictures.  

We toured the castle and the grounds for a good while during the day then we caught a train back into the city.  We made it back to our hotel to drop off our stuff then we headed back out to find some dinner.   On our way out, we realized that the bar connected to our hotel was having live music and the menu looked really great and affordable.  So, we sat down and enjoyed the music for the rest of the night while eating tons of food.  It was an awesome experience being able to sit in an Irish pub listening to authentic music play while we shared stories and great food.  It was a great way to wrap up our stay in Dublin.

London - England

We arrived in London on Friday morning at 9:30.  We took a train from the airport to get to the metro.  From there we were able to take the underground to a stop near our hostel.  We went to our hostel but it was too early to check in.   We left our bags in the luggage room and headed out for a self guided walking tour.  We had a goal of finding the tourist information place.  We wanted to talk to them first because we knew we would be able to plan for the rest of our stay.  Along the way,  we stumbled across a ticket office for the local theaters.  We had been planning on trying to see Oliver Twist while we were in town because one of the main performers is "Mr. Bean" and it has received great reviews.  When we found out that it was fully booked, we started exploring our other options.  We eventually discovered that there were a few seats left for Wicked that same night.  We jumped on those tickets!  After leaving there, we continued on our quest for the Tourist Information place.  We walked through Piccadilly Circus and we had to do a bit of shopping before we could continue the search.  After getting that out of our system we eventually found the info office.  We were able to book a trip on Sunday for our group of 5 (Heather, Lura, Jonathan, Lindsey, and myself).  After getting that taken care of, we went back to the hostel to put our stuff in our room and change for the show.  

When we got back to the hostel and eventually got to our room, we were greeted with an awful smell in our room.  So bad that there was no possible way to be able to sleep in the room.  But at this point, we were out of time to deal with the problem because we were going to be late for the performance.  So we headed back out the door not quite sure what we were going to do about that situation when we got back.  We made it to the theater across town with a few minutes to spare.  

Wicked turned out to be a really great show and we all had a great time.  It was funny too because we had been out of touch all afternoon with Heather and Lura, but they had actually gotten tickets for the show too.  We ran into them during intermission while we were down front looking at the immaculate set.   After the show, we all headed back to the hostel.  We told the hostel about our situation and they were hesitant to help.  However, we knew there was no way to sleep in our room.  The smell was a mix of 3 guys with body odor and no baths who had apparently decided that a full can of Axe would fix the problem.  I hope that this description can begin to give you an idea of the smell, it was bad...  We ended up going next door to the travel lodge who had a rate that was really close to what we were already paying for the hostel.  So we booked our two rooms and passed out in our nice beds with clean air.  

Saturday, we got up and set out for another self guided tour of London.  We hit all the major sites.  

We started with Buckingham palace and gardens...

And we stayed for the changing of the guard.  

Then we headed for Big Ben and Parliament Square.  

We were also able to attend an Evensong service at Westminster Abby.  Here is a quick video clip from inside the church.  

After the service, we split up and Heather and Lura and I went to London Tower Bridge.  We crossed the bridge and started walking back down the river when we came across a side walk performer.  He was working the crowd with his juggling act. 

Then we walked back down the water to the Tate Modern.  We ate dinner first at this really cool little restaurant on the River Thames.  It was a little chilly but we had a great meal and enjoyed the view.  

After dinner, we went into the Tate Modern, which was free (awesome).  Unfortunately the museum closed at 10 though so we only had about an hour inside.  After we left, Heather and I tried to go catch a ride on the London Eye but it was closed by the time we got there.  We were able to snag a few cool night time photos but then we headed back to the metro to ride back to the hotel.  

On Sunday morning,  we all woke up early to get the the pick up point for our day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford.  We left out from Victoria Station downtown around 9 in the morning and it took us about 30 mins to get out to the castle.  We were fortunate because the Queen was in residence being that it was the weekend.  Even though we did not see her, it was cool to know that she was there.  The castle was amazing inside and out.  We only had a short 2 hours but it was enough to do the interior tour and take some cool photos.

We loaded back up on our Evan Evans Coach and set off again for Stonehenge.  It took about another hour to get out to the remote countryside site.  It was a perfect day. The tour takes you on a 360 walking tour of the stones.  You can no longer go up and touch the stones but it was great for us because it meant that our photos were tourist free!  

We had about an hour at Stonehenge then we cranked up and headed for Oxford.  The town was really great.  We took a walking tour with our guide and he educated us on a lot of great sites throughout town.  We also got to see the inspiration for Harry Potter's scar which I thought was pretty cool.  

The trip only took about 30 mins but it was very informative about the buildings used by the university.  We had a few minutes to pick up our Oxford shirts and such before we loaded back up on the bus and drove back to London.  

When we got back to town, we walked over to the IMAX theater in hopes that they had a good movie playing.   We were able to catch a few more night time photos on the way to the theater. 

We were extremely fortunate once again because they were playing Watchmen and we were able to get 5 of the last 7 seats.  I thought the movie was pretty good but I know it has received a lot of mixed reviews.  After the movie let out, we discovered that the metro had closed so we took a taxi back to our hotel.  We had to pack and it was about 2 am by the time we went to sleep.  We had to get back up to meet another taxi at 4 in the morning.  If we had known it was going to work out like this, we would have just slept at the airport but I guess hindsight is 20/20.  

We made it to the airport and caught our 6:30 flight back to beautiful Genova!  We were dragging all day monday during class but it was worth every bit of lost sleep for our unforgettable spring break trip!  I hope that you have been able to catch a small glimpse of our travels!  There are plenty of side stories that I simply cant include in this short novel but just know that I had a blast and I will never forget it!  

Now its back to studio work and getting ready for our next trip to Venice and Bologna in two weeks!  See you all again soon!

Ciao!

Ciao Tutti.. and Arrivederci!

Sorry for the slackness of my blog posting here lately everyone! Times have been pretty crazy over here in Genoa! We have not had anytime to sit down and relax ( or blog post... ) We just wrapped up our first project here in Studio.  The project was a design for an Outlook Tower on a site up above our villa.  We have been very interested in the Architecture that recalls ship design.  So our project resembles some of the elements you might see in sea vessels.  Also, with Drew being a Landscape Architect.  We put a lot of thought into the site layout and how it will effect the people that visit our project.  These are our 2 boards for the presentation.  

Anyways, enough with school work!  Now its on to Spring Break!  We will be traveling like crazy this next week!  We are going to Milan, Athens, Berlin, Dublin, London, and then back home!  Lindsey has done a great job of explaining our trip down to every detail!  Here is her blog that covers the trip!  

Well, I am off to pack real quick.  I am taking one carry on for the entire 10 day trip so that should be pretty crazy!  I will post pictures as soon as we get back!  I only hope that I dont fill up my memory cards in the first couple of days!  I have to make them last the entire trip!  See you all in a few days! 

Ciao!

Rock Climbing!

I got the chance to go rock climbing with my Italian friends tonight.  Our friends Alesandro and Luca took Heather and I to an indoor place across town.  There friend Margo came along too.  She is in town for the week visiting from France.  It was a blast hanging out with everyone at the complex.  This was not like the rock climbing places I am used to at home.  Normally at home, we have to hook in when were climbing because we climb taller surfaces.  This place was more of a training facility for rock climbing.  It was really pretty cool because there were about 6 different levels of hand grabs that you could use across the wall.  The entire center of the room though was a giant mat in case you lost your footing.  We had a great time hanging out with the locals and getting some good exercise.  

We are planning a trip to go to a rock face near Genova later in the semester.  I will let you know how it goes!  Anyways, we are headed to Switzerland and Germany this weekend!  So I will hopefully fill you in on that when we get back on Monday night!  

Ciao Tutti! 

New suit...

Just wanted to throw up a quick post to say that I have now officially purchased my Italian souvenir.  We have visited a few different stores since our arrival back in January.  We have been lucky because all of the stores have had there after christmas sales going strong for a month now. I was in a store with Jonathan and Lindsey a couple of weeks ago when we ran across some Versace suits.  Of course we weren't going to even look but then we noticed that they were still on sale, which is even more ridiculous when you think about what we have to pay for them at home.  Well, last friday, we were going out to run some errands with Sylvia, our Italian program coordinator to get ready for our wine tasting that night.  She offered to go by the store with me and take a look at the suits to see if I could get one before the sale was over.  After about an hour of working with her, the staff, and of course my two sales advisors (Jon and Lindsey) I was able to find one that I liked.  I should be able to pick up the pants later this week but I already have the jacket.  While I was checking out, the lady at the counter told me that the sale ended on Sunday and all of there Versace items would go back to the main store.  So, we got really lucky in making the trip 2 days before the sale ended.  Anyways, I will try to throw up another picture after our villa party next friday.  I figured that would be a good time to break it out! 

Rollerblading on the French Riviera

On Sunday before we left Nice, we were able to get in some rollerblading so that we could see more of the coast line.  It has def. been a while sine we all put on skates but it turned out to be a great time and nobody broke anything (cameras... legs...pride..etc.) Anyways, we were able to snag a few photos and a video so here you go! 

Carnaval - Nice, France

We just got back in from our weekend in Nice for Leslee's birthday!  We had a really awesome time just being able to get away for a weekend and enjoy ourselves.  The parade, which is basically there version of Marti Graus, lasts for a couple of hours each day.  We were able to take in some sites from a nearby mountain top and play on a jungle gym... as well as all the fun nigh time festivities. 

 Anyways, I am trying to get caught up on my video uploading.  Luckily this one loaded fairly quickly onto YouTube so I will go ahead and post the link for you.  I will add the other links as soon as there in the system.  Hope you enjoy Carnaval Nice style!!

Florence, Siena, Rome

I will try to give you a quick run down of some of our travels from our first study trip.  There is no way to include all details unless I write a short novel but I will do my best so here it goes! (videos will be up soon)

Florence

We got up bright and early on Friday morning (Jan. 30) to set out for Florence.  We were at our hotel by 1 or 2 pm roughly that afternoon.  We got settled in and had a little bit of time to get acquainted to the city.  The hotel we were staying in was right around the corner from the church of Santa Maria Del Fiore which happens to be one of the buildings I am studying this semester.  That worked out nicely.  You might recognize the dome of the church from various history books or especially if you have had any art history.  This is an image from a hill side in Florence where we went to see the sunset.  

Later in the week we were able to take a tour of the dome.  I have included as much footage as YouTube would allow, ha.  The videos have been fun to make short of a few minor incidences, like smacking my head in the dome on the way down, ha.  

A couple of other interesting things that we got to see in Florence were the Museums.  The city is full of statues and paintings that I have only been able to see in books.  It was really amazing to be able to see these things in person.  We were able to see the Uffizi Gallery which has works from artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael.   We were also able to see Museo Dell' Accademia and Michelangelo's David.  

On  Monday Feb. 2nd, we toured Brunelleschi's Cupola then hopped on a train to Siena in the afternoon. 

Siena

We arrived in Siena at around 4 in the afternoon.  After dropping off our luggage and getting settled in, we headed back out into the city in the pouring rain to see Piazza Del Campo.   Wikipedia explains this site and its uses better then I ever could. 

The hotel suggested a really great restaurant for us to eat at that night.  We all piled in out of the rain and ate in a little downstairs room.  There was actually a stair right beside our table that went down to an underground tunnel system with routes all over the city.  We were hoping for a quick tour from our waiter, which happened to also be the owner, but he said that the tunnel system was closed off for now.  

The next day we got up and did some more walking around.  We visited the Duomo in Siena and we were able to get some cool shots of Siena from above.  

We left Siena in the afternoon and headed for Rome.

Rome

We arrived in Rome on Wednesday night (Feb. 4).   We got settled in then walked around literally behind our hotel to see the Pantheon.  It was pretty surreal being able to walk out our door and see a structure that has stood for nearly 2000 years.  

The next morning we had a few hours of free time so a couple of us headed out after breakfast for the Coliseum.  We made our way through the Roman Forum snapping some photos.  It actually worked out well because our ticket we bought for the Forum got us into the Coliseum as well.  

When we first walked up to the entrance, we thought we weren't going to have the time to get in but we luckily realized that it was the ticket line that we were seeing and not the entrance.  So we took our tickets from the Forum and headed right on in to check out the inside.  

After a quick lunch, we met up with the rest of the group in Piazzo Del Campidoglio to start a Barogue tour with a guest prof. living in Rome.  His name was Terry Kirk.  He was a pretty crazy tour guide, full of energy and extremely enthusiastic about everything.  It made for a pretty interesting day.  We were all over the place in Rome.  We  ended the day with the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  

On Thursday morning, we got up and made our way toward the Vatican City.  We spent the morning in the Museum of the Vatican checking out works by famous painters and gazing at the Sistine Chapel.  In the afternoon, we moved on to Saint Peters church where the pope resides.  We climbed the cupola and got to see Rome from above.  We also spent a lot of time inside the church which again, was enormous.  I made a few videos of our church experience as well as snagging a few pics from the day.  

On Friday, we toured some more piazzas and visited some various churches spread across the city. We were able to see some works by Francesco Borromini and Lorenzo Bernini.  Two ancient designers that again, I have only read about in books.  It was really great to see their architectural solutions in person.  

On Saturday, we got up early and caught a train to Tivoli.  Then took a bus to Villa Adriana.  Again, wikipedia, can give you the scoop a lot better then I can in a few short sentences.  Its basically a large archaeological site of Hadrian's country Villa.   It was really amazing to see such a large site of just ruins.  It was cool to be able to imagine what it might have been like in its time.  

After we left the park, we headed over to another site in Tivoli named Villa d'Este.  This place was really amazing.  It was a villa set on a hillside, but the entire hill down below the villa was a huge landscape park full of water features and gardens and seating areas as well as some great panoramic views of the city.  We only had a short 30 mins. in the park so we were running around frantically trying to snap pictures.  After we finished up, we had to hurry to catch our train back to Rome.  

On Sunday,  we visited the EUR section of Rome which is basically where Mussolini tried to express his imperial dreams for a city.  This section of the city is not one you would normally see on a tourist visit to Rome but since we had a lengthy stay, we were able to make the trip.  The buildings were all made of similar materials.  All very plain, and modern looking with a minimalist design focus. We toured the area for a few hours and were unfortunately turned away at 3 of our sites due to events occurring on our sites that prohibited us from entering.  Like the PalaEUR, a giant sports arena, which had a game in the afternoon so they security guys would not let us in.  

On Sunday night, we all went back to the hotel and checked our bags out of storage and made our way for the train station.  We all pretty much passed out on the train from our extremely long travel week.  We made it back to Genoa around 10 pm then we hopped on a bus and headed for the villa.  All in all, the trip went really great.  We all had a blast and got to take a lot of great pictures and soak up some great memories.  Anyways, I tried to cover all the bases best I could.  If you stuck with me for the whole blog post, give yourself a pat on the back because this was a long one folks!

Ciao tutti! 

Ice Dancing in Torino

I have had numerous requests to post this video up so I am throwing it up on here for your enjoyment! We were searching for the Olympic Stadium in Torino when we happened across this nice patch of ice.  Synchronized ice dancing broke out and the rest is history.  Hope you enjoy!  

We are headed out of town in the morning.  Check out Lindsay's latest blog post for a list of the places we will be visiting.  I think after you read the list, you will hopefully be able to appreciate what we are going to see this week.  Its really pretty incredible.  I hope we have internet while we are there so that we can keep you updated on our day to day activities.  If not, then we will catch you all in 10 days!  

Ciao! 

Second Day Trip

We all loaded up in our private tour bus this morning at 7:30 to set off for our second travel trip!  It was another long day of sightseeing.  We went to a church first near Pavia.  There are currently 8 monks living there.  One of the monks gave us a tour of the entire campus.  This particular church was finished and occupied before America had even been discovered so that was a pretty interesting bit of information.   Its really awesome that we get to walk in and out of these structures on a daily basis.  The inside of the church was another amazing site as they all are.  It was the typical roman cross plan with a large dome.  I made sure to bring my tripod today so that I could take some longer exposures inside.  My back is paying for it now but I was happy with the shots I was able to get.  

After the church, we headed into the town of Pavia to check out some other buildings.  We headed to one of the private university buildings to do a quick walk in tour. The building was built to house honor students for the University of Pavia and it is still serving that purpose today. We were a little late getting there because we left the church late and because we drove out of the way to get there.  Once we arrived we only had a few short minutes to step inside and take some pictures.  I did happen to catch two love birds in the fountain at the end of the private garden.  Who knows, maybe its a sign, ha!  

After we left the university, we toured the city a little longer checking out a few other projects.  Then we loaded back up in the bus and headed for Vigevano.  Specifically The Ducal Square/Piazza Ducale.  Once again though, we were a little too late so we weren't able to go up in the tower.  We did however get to tour some of the public garden as well as a really cool open air gallery.  It was called "The Covered Road" or "Strada Coperta".   The main purpose of this passageway was to allow the Dukes of Milan to enter and exit the castle without being seen.  There was some really great natural light coming in because it was almost dark.  We set up the tripod again and had some fun with long exposures and the use of an extra flash.  

After the self guided tour, we headed back to the bus and drove the 2 hour trip back home.  I would tell you more about the trip but I was out cold for the whole ride.  All in all, another great day of sightseeing.  Now its time to work on finishing up some sketches and getting ready for a presentation on Thursday.  

Ciao! 

Bardonecchia Skiing!

So I should start by saying we all made it back in one piece.  The only injury was a bruised and possible broken nose (lura) but we think everything is good.  I have to give her props though for snowboarding, thats one thing I haven't learned yet and I know it takes some skill.   The weekend trip went pretty well.  Torino was cool on saturday.  We basically got in from the train around 10 in the morning then headed to our hostel to drop off our packs.  Once we did that, we headed back out to take in some of the sites.  The group I set off with headed for the Olympic site.  We ended up finding it after about a 4 mile hike.  We did however find a nice patch of ice on the way there.  I hope to have a video up from that before too long.  

After playing in the snow for a while, including a small children's playground (and again, more pictures and videos to follow) we made our way on over to the Olympic site.  It was all done in a very contemporary design.  It was a little disappointing though because we weren't really able to go in.  The actual stadium was closed and the gym had a wedding show or something going on.  We were able to snag a few shots though before we set off back for the hostile.  

On the way back, we stopped in to get some caffe, hot chocalate, snacks.. etc.. basically all the things you want when your hungry and its cold outside.   After warming up a bit, we set out again toward the hostel.  We walked for close to 45 mins. or an hour and we were starting to get closer to our place but it was already so late, we decided to stop in and get some food.  We ate at a chinese restaraunt, ha, it was actually surprisingly good too.  And we couldn't beat the prices.  After dinner, we headed back to the hostile and hit the sack early to get ready for our long ski day ahead.

At 5:50 the alarm went off on Jon's phone and mine at the same time.  Of course, Jon could probably sleep with the phone going off inside his ear so I got up and turned them off.  We got dressed and packed back up and then headed out the door by 6:35 or so.  We made it to the train station and on our train with no problems... well if you don't count the 45 mins... "en retardo" (that means delayed in Italian)  Nonetheless, we eventually pulled out of the station and made our way for Bardonecchia.  On the way there we pretty much all slept.  As we were getting closer, I decided to try my hand at some video work.  So I will let the video take you from here.  Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday Port Visit!

It has been a fairly busy week.  We started our day trips this week.  On tuesday we visited the historic port of Genova.  We did a lot of walking but we were able to cover a very large section of the harbor.  We started at 8:30 in the morning and got back to the villa just before dinner at 7.  It was a long day of museums and historic site visits but we got a lot of great pictures and sketches.  We got to take a boat ride out into the port district to see what Genova looked like from the water.  It was an overcast day so we didn't get many shots of the hillside but it was still impressive to see.  There was also some cool breakwater over the seawall that protects the port.

After we got off of the boat we headed to the Museo della Mare.  We got caught in a storm though while we were inside! 

Everyone came out fine but Lindsey had a close scare with a shark!

After checking out the southern end of the port we headed over to the more historic district where most of the shipyard containers are handled.  We also got to see the Lanterna! It is a very old lighthouse that sits on the coast of Genova.  It was actually destroyed during one of the World Wars but it was rebuilt shortly after and has stood for many years since then. 

After taking lots of pictures and getting our history lesson, we headed back to the villa to heat up our dinner and rest our legs!  All in all, it was a successful first day trip! 

Ciao Barbara!

We had our last Italian class this morning.  We have all learned a lot of material in this short amount of time.  We basically crammed a semesters worth of Italian into 10 days.  My hat is off to our prof, Barbara, for even attempting it.  

She made the classes very interesting though and we had a lot of teacher/student interaction.  She gave us a very practical understanding of the Italian language.  Now its our job to go out and apply our skills in the city.  We have been very fortunate so far to make some Italian friends that have been helping us practice our new language.  I am finding Italian very easy to pick up.  I have been able to have some great conversations with some of the locals and I am lucky to be able to call them friends now. 

Tonight we went out to Barbara's favorite restaurant which happens to be very close to the villa if you don't count the 162 stairs, ha.  The food was great.  It was a very traditional meal with first course, second course, and dessert.   Oh, and in a health news side note, Italy has actually served as a pretty good diet for me so far.  I have already lost 10 pounds since I got here so I cant complain.  Between the exercise and drinking a lot of water, the Genovese diet has worked out pretty well the last couple of weeks.  But I don't want you people back home to think that Im not eating.  Believe me, I have plenty of food to eat.  Our chef makes sure of it.  Plus the food out at the local restaurants is always wonderful.  This is one of the traditional Genovese desserts.  My kind of diet!

After some vino and a espresso, we headed back up to the Villa to decide on our group partner for the semester.  There are 16 of us students and we are splitting into 2 person groups.  We all set down as a studio and discussed our interest for Italy and what we wanted to learn from this architectural experience.  Drew and I found out that we have common interest and goals for the semester so we will be working together on our research project as well as our design projects.  We also share a common appreciation for Landscape Architecture and how it combines with the structural component to form a complete package.   Drew is actually studying Landscape Architecture at Clemson so I feel like I will be able to learn a lot from him this semester.  Tomorrow we will begin our actual studio work and we should be able to get a good handle on our research project.  

In other news, we are heading to Torino (Turin) this weekend to ski the Alps.  So uh yeah, that's pretty exciting!   I will def. update you with some pictures from that trip after we get back.  I think we are taking a train Friday night so that we can ski all day Saturday.  We will prob. stay sat. night too so that we can visit the museum and some other structures before coming back on Sunday.  This is a link to the place where we are going skiing on saturday.  

Wish us luck on the mountain!  Until next time! 

Ciao!