Cybertrixx (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cybertrixx) wrote2009-05-31 03:32 pm
cybertrixx) wrote2009-05-31 03:32 pm
Entry tags:
- 40k,
- italy,
- omfg romans,
- squee
Boring wah about art and wank and OMG THE HEART OF THE IMPERIUM eh what?
Been out of the loop for the last week; I've been on a lightning-fast tour of Italy with Mama. Had a wonderful (and busy) time and am feeling recharged and pretty damned good, despite getting significantly less sleep than I should have...
So we start with Venezia (Venice) - arriving in just shy of midnight on Sunday and heading straight to hotel for bed - first 'oh my' moment being stepping, bleary eyed and recently awoken, onto the banks of the grand canal the next morning to be confronted by a fleet of gondola and the sparkles of sunlight off the water. Following that, a brief stroll across San Polo and San Marco islands to the south-eastern edge of the island-city-complex-thing. Piazza di San Marco, and the Basilica located within, is quite literally one of the most beautiful places I have EVER had the pleasure of visiting. Photographs simply cannot do the place justice. Venice in general is almost painfully beautiful in a surreal and dream-like way. It's like a little toy-town - and though there are thousands of inhabitants, it is difficult to imagine anyone actually *living* there.
After a lovely meal by the canalside and an early rise the next morning, we're off on our way to Firenze (Florence), the home of Renaissance art! And what a home it is. Not five minutes after stepping out of the hotel do we come across the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. This behemoth is bigger than York Minster, for reference, and covered in a magnificent layer of white marble with green and pink panels all over. It almost hurts the eye to look upon it...
We slip in just before closing time and spend a few minutes gawping at the painted dome above the altar. "Wow" says I, answered by mama with a knowing "If you like that...wait until we get to Rome..."
So, we hop across this venerable city which is, in many ways, the York of Italy, and end up outside the Uffizi gallery just as the sun is going down. What a lovely place this Piazza della Signoria is! It even has a replica of Michaelangelo's David standing in it, alongside other fabulous sculptures and statues. What a lovely place to have a meal. And what's this? Rigoletto being performed live, right next to us? A quick climb into the Uffizi's outdoor sculpture gallery after the meal and I'm finding it difficult to imagine things getting any better...
So we head to the Uffizi gallery itself the next day. The place is overwhelming...the highlight definitely being The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. The only real low-point of the whole trip follows, when we realise that the hotel in Venice returned the wrong passport...
So, next day I take a train ride back across Italy to Venice to pick up correct passport. Hang around for a little while, and then return to Florence. £50 down the tube, but how could you resent being able to return to the most beautiful city in the world?
It's now Friday morning; we rise and shine bright and early to head to Accademia della Arti to gawp at David and other associated works, and then hop on a train due South to Rome.
Now, seeing the overwhelming beauty of Venice and the vast treasures of Florence, one would find it easy to become jaded or anaesthetised...
And yet, as we step through a narrow alley and down a flight of steps to come across this vast white marble...thing...that towers above us, I realise that we've still some way to go yet. The 'thing' is a monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II (first king of unified Italy) and is absolutely bloody enormous. Described as 'grotesque' by just about anyone, I rather liked it - it set my 40k-sense going haywire, with vast statues of heroes on horseback urging their comrades onward (for the glory of the Imperium).
So you climb to the top of this colossal slab of marble, hop across to the other side and...what? Somehow, beyond your wildest imagining, Ancient Rome lies before you.
Now, you'd think that with the built-up cityscape on one side and the systematic reconstruction/reclaimation of just about anything of value by the Church over the centuries, that there'd be nothing left. You'd think wrong. Ancient Rome is RIGHT THERE. The Arches, the pillars of the temples on the North-Eastern side of the Palatine hill, the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum...
There are other gems lying hidden about the city, especially the Pantheon (a temple to all of the old gods of the Empire). Somehow it survived intact until today (going through several regime changes, a conversion to a Christian church and WW-2 in the process) and is yet another stunning feat of engineering on top of what is now becoming a very long list...
Having squeed my way across Ancient Rome, walking amongst the arches and the pillars of ruined temples and generally having a whale of a time, we headed out for a fab meal to mark our last night in the Heart of the Old Empire.
Next morning, it was time for the last injection of raw culture direct to the eyeballs. We headed north-west, skipping swiftly past the ridiculously busy Fontana di Trevi and along the banks of the Tiber to an obligatory stop at the Castel Saint'Angelo (while gawping and squeeing at the statues which line the bridge in front of it). Our objective: The Vatican.
It was at this point, when in such close proximity to the seat of power of the Church and surrounded by nuns and monks (sadly, none of them carrying boltguns or wearing power armour) that my 40k-sense began to manifest itself once more. After kneeling before the Golden Throne of the God-Emperor of Mankind/visiting St. Peter's Basilica we pressed on to the world's smallest sovereign state - the glorious Vatican City (it even has its own currency, don'tchaknow). Now, I was expecting some pretty shiny stuff. It turned out once again to be even more stunning than anticipated. Room after room of intricately, painstakingly detailed walls and ceilings painted over what must have amounted to thousands of lifetimes...the place is almost beyond rational consideration. The seemingly endless procession of mind-bogglingly beautiful rooms ends with the Sistine Chapel. Oh my, that Michaelangelo chap must have blown all his character points on 'lord and ruler of all artistic talent, ever'. Just go there. Seriously. It alone is worth the trip.
So we hop onto the night-train from Rome to Paris, hop onto Eurostar this morning and here I am now - home, tired and mildly tanned (Oh noes, my carefully maintained pasty white nerd complexion!). What a journey. I can't believe it was only a week...
So we start with Venezia (Venice) - arriving in just shy of midnight on Sunday and heading straight to hotel for bed - first 'oh my' moment being stepping, bleary eyed and recently awoken, onto the banks of the grand canal the next morning to be confronted by a fleet of gondola and the sparkles of sunlight off the water. Following that, a brief stroll across San Polo and San Marco islands to the south-eastern edge of the island-city-complex-thing. Piazza di San Marco, and the Basilica located within, is quite literally one of the most beautiful places I have EVER had the pleasure of visiting. Photographs simply cannot do the place justice. Venice in general is almost painfully beautiful in a surreal and dream-like way. It's like a little toy-town - and though there are thousands of inhabitants, it is difficult to imagine anyone actually *living* there.
After a lovely meal by the canalside and an early rise the next morning, we're off on our way to Firenze (Florence), the home of Renaissance art! And what a home it is. Not five minutes after stepping out of the hotel do we come across the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. This behemoth is bigger than York Minster, for reference, and covered in a magnificent layer of white marble with green and pink panels all over. It almost hurts the eye to look upon it...
We slip in just before closing time and spend a few minutes gawping at the painted dome above the altar. "Wow" says I, answered by mama with a knowing "If you like that...wait until we get to Rome..."
So, we hop across this venerable city which is, in many ways, the York of Italy, and end up outside the Uffizi gallery just as the sun is going down. What a lovely place this Piazza della Signoria is! It even has a replica of Michaelangelo's David standing in it, alongside other fabulous sculptures and statues. What a lovely place to have a meal. And what's this? Rigoletto being performed live, right next to us? A quick climb into the Uffizi's outdoor sculpture gallery after the meal and I'm finding it difficult to imagine things getting any better...
So we head to the Uffizi gallery itself the next day. The place is overwhelming...the highlight definitely being The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. The only real low-point of the whole trip follows, when we realise that the hotel in Venice returned the wrong passport...
So, next day I take a train ride back across Italy to Venice to pick up correct passport. Hang around for a little while, and then return to Florence. £50 down the tube, but how could you resent being able to return to the most beautiful city in the world?
It's now Friday morning; we rise and shine bright and early to head to Accademia della Arti to gawp at David and other associated works, and then hop on a train due South to Rome.
Now, seeing the overwhelming beauty of Venice and the vast treasures of Florence, one would find it easy to become jaded or anaesthetised...
And yet, as we step through a narrow alley and down a flight of steps to come across this vast white marble...thing...that towers above us, I realise that we've still some way to go yet. The 'thing' is a monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II (first king of unified Italy) and is absolutely bloody enormous. Described as 'grotesque' by just about anyone, I rather liked it - it set my 40k-sense going haywire, with vast statues of heroes on horseback urging their comrades onward (for the glory of the Imperium).
So you climb to the top of this colossal slab of marble, hop across to the other side and...what? Somehow, beyond your wildest imagining, Ancient Rome lies before you.
Now, you'd think that with the built-up cityscape on one side and the systematic reconstruction/reclaimation of just about anything of value by the Church over the centuries, that there'd be nothing left. You'd think wrong. Ancient Rome is RIGHT THERE. The Arches, the pillars of the temples on the North-Eastern side of the Palatine hill, the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum...
There are other gems lying hidden about the city, especially the Pantheon (a temple to all of the old gods of the Empire). Somehow it survived intact until today (going through several regime changes, a conversion to a Christian church and WW-2 in the process) and is yet another stunning feat of engineering on top of what is now becoming a very long list...
Having squeed my way across Ancient Rome, walking amongst the arches and the pillars of ruined temples and generally having a whale of a time, we headed out for a fab meal to mark our last night in the Heart of the Old Empire.
Next morning, it was time for the last injection of raw culture direct to the eyeballs. We headed north-west, skipping swiftly past the ridiculously busy Fontana di Trevi and along the banks of the Tiber to an obligatory stop at the Castel Saint'Angelo (while gawping and squeeing at the statues which line the bridge in front of it). Our objective: The Vatican.
It was at this point, when in such close proximity to the seat of power of the Church and surrounded by nuns and monks (sadly, none of them carrying boltguns or wearing power armour) that my 40k-sense began to manifest itself once more. After kneeling before the Golden Throne of the God-Emperor of Mankind/visiting St. Peter's Basilica we pressed on to the world's smallest sovereign state - the glorious Vatican City (it even has its own currency, don'tchaknow). Now, I was expecting some pretty shiny stuff. It turned out once again to be even more stunning than anticipated. Room after room of intricately, painstakingly detailed walls and ceilings painted over what must have amounted to thousands of lifetimes...the place is almost beyond rational consideration. The seemingly endless procession of mind-bogglingly beautiful rooms ends with the Sistine Chapel. Oh my, that Michaelangelo chap must have blown all his character points on 'lord and ruler of all artistic talent, ever'. Just go there. Seriously. It alone is worth the trip.
So we hop onto the night-train from Rome to Paris, hop onto Eurostar this morning and here I am now - home, tired and mildly tanned (Oh noes, my carefully maintained pasty white nerd complexion!). What a journey. I can't believe it was only a week...
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see you in a few days
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