Midnight in my mind, five years from now.

I'll never discover a painting. I wont be in some grad school with my nose in a book, researching an artist's every breath to track down a piece. I see my rooms in disarray, but charmingly so. I can smell the aroma of freshly cooked vegetables and basil all over my brightly colored kitchen. The sun shines through my windows peeling with salmon colored paint and it warms the simple tile floor, worn and old. I'm barefoot, as usual, even though I still own a plethora of shoes. I have a room strewn with canvases, large and small, my own originals that aren't etremely good of profound, but the colors make me happy and I like to get my hands dirty. I have an old black typewriter and I sit like my grandfather does writing out my life story. Might as well start as it's fresh in my memory. Sometimes I get called in to work on a painting or to restore a mosaic, here and there. I eat lemon gelato and lay in the park with fresh fruit and my guitar at my side. I drink wine with friends and I go see Palermo play when they're in town. I sit and draw in piazzas, faces, hands, windows... I'll never be an artist like my father or sister, but I find joy in any sort of creation. I often write down my dreams and when I'm home I wear large button-down shirts and no pants. I listen to classical music and conduct orchestras as I walk through my rooms. My hair is long and still as black as ever. He tells me I give the sweetest kisses in all the world, honey and wine.

Palermo, lezioni, soldi.

So, I'm thinking about becoming a genius.

I truly am in my element right now, studying exactly what I want to study, thriving in all of my classes, and for the first time truly enjoying school. This is exactly what I would never get at Fordham.

My direction in life is changing a bit. AUR might be starting a Restoration concentration next year, so I'll definitely be taking all 6 classes for the requirement, but I'm wondering now how I'll fit this all into 4 semesters or so. Summer classes! I'll be trying to get all of those stupid classes out of the way, like math and science, so that I can focus on the things that are more relavent to me.

Tonight I'm going to a gallery off of Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere with Freya... it's a requirement of our Art Gallery Management class and we have to do a write up on the function, layout, lighting, etc. of the place, and it's all very wonderful to me. There are so many interesting galleries here... I want to get involved in the gallery crowd. Go to openings, meet artists and historians, learn everything there is to know about everything... and here is so much more down to earth than in New York. The galleries there are kind of stuffy and high-class.

Which inspires me (and this is where the new direction comes in) to consider opening up my own gallery... something really earthy and accessible, a way to have a relationship with local artists and give people a relaxed atmosphere to view art.

We'll see. I must learn it all first. Restoration too. Maybe add a coffee shop into the mix as well... sip on espresso and discuss art, my two favorite things.

more pictures!

Tottitottitottitottitotti...
Just a glimpse of the lovely advertising campaign throughout Roma. Oh Totti.



Waiting for the 44 in Piazza Venezia



So, the Palermo-Mlada UEFA Cup game was on the other day ON A CHANNEL WHICH I GET!!! and 1) the bus was really slow getting home so I didn't get to see the first half, and 2) This is what I saw for half of that second half...
So total minutes of live Palermo footie that I've seen since being here? 20ish. EXCELLENT.



Jackie and a caramel cornetto. Mmmmmmmmm.



Pictures of our church! I only got a couple that actually came out nicely because the flash washes the colors out, but this is directly behind the altar. The mosaics were done by a pre-Raphaelite artist named Edward Burne-Jones (and it just figures that as I was looking up the spelling of his name just now, I find a website that looks like it promises to have better pictures than the one I'm posting...go! Look!) who actually did the whole things around the height of Oscar Wilde's fame (1880-1890). They're really gorgeous and the symbolism behind them is really interesting. This one is Jesus on the throne of the new Jerusalem with seats for the six archangels -- the empty space to his right being Lucifer's former seat. I know there's Michael next to the empty spot (with the armor and the red banner) but I'm not sure of the others. This is a case for Art-History Jackie!



Another view



And yet another of all three panels.



This is around the corner from us on Via Merulana -- apparently we have a fellow enthusiast in our neighborhood! Totally made my day.

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Videos!! Finally got these up -- it's been a long time coming, I know.


This is part one of our "apartment tour." Sunday morning in a slightly disheveled Di Croce household.


Part 2 -- Kitchen, etc...


These are the bells of the Scala Santa. I just wanted to put these here so that you all could get an idea of what we wake up to every morning. That's right outside of our window folks. Bright. And. Early.

Alright, until next time!

All work and all play.

Today I'm going over someone's house to meet her two little boys and kind of have an interview to see if I'll be able to be their wonderful English mothertongue babysitter. Fun!

My class ends at 5 though, and I have to be at their house at 5.30... interesting. I'll probably have to leave early. I'm just really excited, because I miss being around kids, and I have this fascination with Italian children because I think they are all geniuses. So pray that everything goes okay, because I'd like to actually have some spending money in the future.

I think I want to go to San Lorenzo all the time. It's close to La Sapienza (Roman University) so there are tons of young Italians hanging around... and I was was walking around the area two nights ago and I saw a band dressed up in 60s fashion playing Beatles songs. What more could you want?

Your general, boring update.

My feet are always dirty.

Some may not know this, but Rome is a pretty dusty, dirty place... as in we get winds from Africa (supressing Joni Mitchell song) that bring us lots of desert dust. So you must sweep and mop perpetually... but even so, walking around barefoot in the house, on the balcony, open-toe shoes... dirty dirty feet.

I love it.

My Italian is not getting any better, but I am trying to study and do more reading/writing, and my friend Steven I set up a little study group... I've decided that I must learn passato remoto perfectly, because it is used mostly in Sicily, and I always strive to be more Sicilian. Forza.

Anyone else thrilled that Inter lost last night? ;)

Tomorrow morning I have a class at Galleria Nazionale Dell'arte Moderna... we talk about a painting as we are looking directly at it. Amazing, no?

Baci!

Picture post!

Alright, pictures! My camera decided to play broken for about a week after we got in so I haven't had much to post, but it got over itself a couple days ago and I've been toting it around. So yes, pictures! Click on 'em to see them at full size.




Alright, so this is pre-break. The black and white is to allow you to truly experience Heathrow airport. Jackie and I sat at this cafe for maybe three hours, jetlagged and hungry as we waited for our connecting flight. They served us cream with our coffee and it was served WARM. That was probably the only good thing about that place. ANYWAY!




Aaaand this is the view from our balcony! That's San Giovanni di Laterano right there (which is where Oscar Wilde spent his last Easter, by the way) and part of the piazza, which actually stretches from in front of the church and down its right side (in front of our building). The building in the foreground on the right is the Santa Scala which is the building that houses the staircase that Jesus supposedly climbed on his way to see Pontius Pilate. There's a bell tower on the top of the building that rings at the most random times and for the most random amounts. Let's just say that it's not meant to be a timekeeper -- we're still trying to figure it out. You can't see it in the picture but further to the right of the Scala Santa, the building attaches to part of the Claudia aqueducts which were built from 36 - 50 AD. Very cool.




And instead of the obelisk built by Thutmose III, restoration efforts have left our view with Zac Efron. Which Jackie is not upset about.



Here's Jackie being studious in the courtyard of her school.




And here's an example of what our piazza is capable of. Saturday was the 10th anniversary of MTVItalia which brought HUGE day-long concerts to both Rome and Milan. We bounced in the middle of the day to escape the screaming teenagers in their stylish duds.




Iiiiiinteresting juxtaposition.




As you can tell, I was very amused by this all.




Very.




Here's Jackie strutting her stuff on the way to the Fontana Trevi




Aaaand here she is -- at midnight when it was more or less calm and enjoyable and sans gladiatori picture ops.



Hi!




Archs over the street on the way home.

And that's it for now -- more to come once I get my hands on the stuff Jackie has on her computer!

Love,
Stef

Pics

Relaxing after a fabulous meal. Freya, Rita, Steven.














Steffi, Neil, Freya... notice the pictures on the wall... all of your faces!














Stef sipping un cafe'.



















Circo Massimo! The exhibition was called 'Maximum Silence'.











Typical meal in the Di Croce house... pasta, bread, cheese, vino, and tomato concoctions!















This is the ceiling of our bedroom.
















Our view from the balcony.

Goethe makes me see the light.

I had a class today in Goethe's house. It's a small museum that has a few of his transcripts as well as tons of etchings and tiny treasures all around. I was inspired though. I decided to add yet another class to my schedule so that I'm taking Art Gallery Management as well. It sounds interesting and I'm thinking that maybe in the future I'd like to set up my own gallery... we'll see.

Annnnyway, my classes are as follows:

Painting Techniques
Survey of American History (blah)
Italian Reading and Composition
Arts of Modernity
Arts of Antiquity
Art Gallery Management

Yes, six classes, but I think I can handle it, especially because for Painting there are no academics involved. I plan on being a big nerd this year anyway (and i just found out that my current GPA is a 3.1, the highest it's ever been!).

I just want to do so many things... I want to be able to take as much advantage as possible of the classes offered here.

Dork.

ps- I was just informed that Zac Efron is performing 'Ladies Choice' in my piazza on Friday. Which means that I will be right front and center screaming my head off.

Internets.

So for now, we only have internet at school... this is something we are working on. Eventually we will have it in the house.

So, interesting things... we have officially been here for a week and I am floating on the idea of being here for so long. I love waiting for buses and having conversations with new people in Italian... there is something so freeing to walk out of your apartment and have access to an entire city in minutes. I love wearing wonderful clothes every day and finally having my red lipstick permanently on my lips. Che bella vita!

My new favorite thing to do (also because it is reminiscent of my last stay in Rome) is to wake up in the morning, make my coffee and sit on the floor with the windows open. The sun is so strong and warms the tiles and I stay in my pjs, all barefoot and sleepy and look at the statues on the top of the church.

Tonight we are going to Circo Massimo to see an exhibit called 'Maximum Silence'. It's a bit lengthy to explain, so I promise to post some pictures tomorrow.

Love!

Here. Safe. Sound.

Ciao tutti!

We are finally here and kind of settled in. We have no internet, but Stef has been surviving without it better than I thought ;)

Right now we have no pictures to send, mostly because our cameras are out of batteries (go figure), and we still have to buy some adaptors for our chargers. The area we live in is really different than where I was last year, and I freaked a bit, but after walking around a lot we found everything we needed right in our neighborhood.

The funny thing is that our piazza is sort of the MSG of Rome. There is constantly some concert being set up there. This week, MTV Italia is hosting TRL right outside our window, so all we hear during the day is a bunch of screaming Italian teenagers singing along to Avril Lavigne. Next week there is a HUGE concert there with a bunch of famous Italian pop artists, so we are probably going to have a bit of trouble getting around that day. Boh!

The bus that we take all the time drives us right next to the Colisseo every day, so we've been developing our relationship with the building... last night on our way home we walked right up next to it to touch the walls... nothing quite like running your fingers across ancient Rome.

Still a bit nervous about making some money for rent, but I think we'll be okay. I'm hoping to save up enough to buy a vespa, because every single time I see one (which is like, every 4 seconds) I realize how convenient they are (as well as pretty awesome and fun to ride... wouldn't I look so cute on a little shiny red vespa with a camel colored leather seat?).

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnyway, things are going good... meeting new people already and just enjoying good food and wine. Ummm, Roma is amazing.