My Trip Through Italy
First destination: Milan
Our first stop on our month long tour of Italy was the beautiful fashion centre of the work Milan, with amazing architecture design both historical such as The Gothic Duomo di Milano cathedral and Sforzesco Castle and contemporary with the Bosque Vertical. Whilst staying in Milan we met many other people like us at the hostel and went to explore the night life resulting in a slow morning the next day. fortunately we had an extra day to relax before we headed to the Milano Centrale Train Station, a powerful example of fascist architecture.
On to: Venice
Stepping out of the train station into the bustling life of Venice’s canals we are greeted with a beautiful vista of a bustling plaza, serene canal and the stunning view of The church of San Simeon Piccolo an 18th century example of neo-classical architecture and one of many beautiful churches spread across Venice. Refusing to use our phones to navigate the tangled spaghetti of streets that is Venice our walk to our hostel took about 3 times longer than it should, but it was a refreshing break to walk down streets and only hear dissent chatter and the sloshing of water compared to the roving engines and beeping horns of just about any other city in the world.
For the next three days we would explore all of Venice by foot and boat, finding every dead end each plaza and a number of small unique spaces with their own charm such as this beautiful little courtyard, and this intricate masonry work on the corner of this house. We found a beautiful book store filled with treasures and a beautiful space where I could have sat for hours.
We searched for hours in the mess of narrow paths to find the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo famous for its external spiral staircase which uses a number of architectural illusions such as a decreasing archway height as you move up the floors to visually add height to the structure. These stairs lead to an arcade which offers beautiful views of the city roof-tops. From this arcade we viewed our next destination of St. Mark’s Square and Basilica. A must see for anyone traveling to Venice. To the side of this it the bridge of sighs, whilst walking along the cost of the city in the middle of summer a thunderstorm rolled across the city releasing a torrent of rain down half of the city which made for an interesting panorama photograph. Later that night after eating the rain started again and St. Mark’s Square that we had seen previously in the day had been flooded with at least 3 inches of water. With everyone huddled under the arcaded me and my friend knew we had to cross the square to get back to our hostel… The best way to do that? Of course we ran straight through the square splashing and laughing. We lost our flip-flops at one point and had to go rescue them, which I knew gave a couple of laughs to everyone else watching us.
The next day brought the sun again and we decided to take the Bus (which was a boat of course) to the surrounding islands of Murano famous for its artisanal glass and the beautiful small island of Burano with brightly coloured immaculately kept houses. There is little to do on this island except take in its beauty which is what we did for hours before returning back to Venice for our final night.
The next morning: Florence
Arriving in Florence we headed straight for The Baptistery of St. John and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, a gothic style cathedral started in the late 13th century. From the we walked out past Palazzo Vecchio down the Uffizi Gallery and across the Ponte Vecchio. We had a small hike up winding streets not easily navigated in flip flops but we made our way slowly to Piazzale Michelangelo for beautiful views across Florence and stayed there for a breathtaking sun set over the city.
Just a quick train ride over to Pisa for a day trip we visited the leaning tower of Pisa to do the obligatory photo that everyone does. We enjoyed our time there to sketch and people watch before returning to Florence, where we planned to go up the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Brunelleschi's Dome as well as Giotto's Bell Tower which offered beautiful views of the city and cathedral. Half way up there are openings in outside wall, for light and air. The thickness of the wall and size of hole allowed us to climb into the walls at points and offered amazing views by sticking our heads out of the wall a few hundred feet up.
Next stop: Rome
It seemed all too soon but there we were, Rome. The capital of Italy and host to so many iconic architectural feats we just had to see. So what was first on this long list? We decided to walk to the Vatican City to see St Peter’s Square and basilica, with its intricately decorated facade, ornate interior and beautifully laid out square. Feeling refreshed taking in the atmosphere of Vatican city we headed back to Rome. After a brief stop for some well deserved and eagerly awaited gelato we headed to Trevi Fountain. A popular site with tourists you will find it hard to get to the waters edge at anytime of day even up until late night. It is a great site to relax and hide from the heat of the summer sun and people watch, after getting our bearings to our hostel we went back to find food before heading back to the fountains later at night (a lot later) where it was much less crowded.
The next day was a hard one on our flip-flops with a lot of walking. Our plan was to see the marvel of the world largest unreinforced concrete dome, a marvel of its own until you realise that it was also built over 2000 years ago! Of course I am talking about the Pantheon. Walking through the portico of large granite corinthian columns reveals the rotunda capped by the impressive coffered concrete dome with its oculus allowing the space to filled with light, revealing the beautiful paintings and sculptures inside. Another great feature of Rome is the public transport. Its metro couldn’t take you any closer to where you wanted to go with the metro station Colosseo putting you right at the base of the Colosseum. After a short queue we were allowed in free of charge as we were both students of architecture. Later that afternoon we traveled to Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana before leaving for our final change of city. The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is in the EUR district of Rome designed during the fascist regime and provides a large scale impression of what urban Italy might have looked like, with its grand imposing scale, symmetrical streets and austere buildings of limestone. This location is a little further afield from central Rome and much quieter. The open space around the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana allowed us to experience the structure and space from many perspectives. We were able to get into the ground floor but unfortunately could not go to any other floors but the security and staff were very courteous and respectful, ending what had been a busy but amazing stay in Rome.
Final stop Naples and Sorento
Our stay in Naples was a short one but from the moment we arrived and stepped into one of the many fascinating subway stations we were amazed. The close proximity to mount vesuvius we visited Pompeii. Unfortunately it was during a period of intermittent showers which caught us off guard but by the end of the day we had simply embraced it walking back to the train. the next few days we would take the circumvesuviana train to Sorrento to admire it beautiful swim in the mediterranean sea. We took in the views soaked up the sun and unwinded at the end of what was one of the best experiences of my life.
