Franko in Rome

Rome 2008 – Day 16 (Northern Italy 01 of 04)

Francis Luu — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:35:04 +0000

Sorry for the incredibly late blog updates, but I finally have a chance to sit down and get all of the photos up plus write a few things about the incredible four–day trip up to Northern Italy.

It was an early morning. We all met in front of the UW Rome Center with all of our bags packed for a four–day trip up North. We made our way to the bus, loaded up, and left for Cortona, Italy, about 200 km away.

Our bus was proportioned funny and it had a door in the middle!

We arrived in Cortona a few hours later, a small town atop a mountain. There were a lot of opportunities of beautiful landscape shots, along with a few neat shots of people with the town’s more traditional architecture.

We visited the Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca. I also got a haircut! A little expensive at €20, but I got a head massage and TWO washes 3mm in length.

After Cortona, we left for Scarperia, a quiet, quaint little town more or less in the countryside, which was a huge and very much welcomed change to the vibrancy and intensity of Rome. We checked into our little resort hotel thingy, then headed into town to visit the Museo dei Ferri Taglienti which had a few collections of art AND hand–made knives and blades. The town is known for its three knife shops.

Afterwards, we headed deeper into the countryside and ended up at a small, family–run restaurant where we had a traditional Tuscan–style dinner. There were a lot of different meats, spreads, beautifully made pastas, breads, and wonderful desserts. It was also a great way to celebrate Lauren Jong’s 20th birthday! We found a park nearby also!

Birthday girl!

We sat outside and ate into the night. The cooler temperatures up north were very welcomed!

Here was the restaurant’s owner. Great guy!

Mel, the professional photographer with us, got pretty close to the meat.

Nicole liked the meat

Emily likes water.

The girls seemed to like my haircut.

Joey had a few glasses of wine and started posing for candid shots.

Rome 2008 – Day 15

Francis Luu — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:45:36 +0000

We had a studio session today working on our revisions to our first impressions of Rome. I’ve moved away from the idea of identity and more towards the physical remains of Rome and how they carry the feelings of emotions of the culture and history through time.

Here was the first version.

Rome 2008 – Day 14

Francis Luu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:30:40 +0000

Another relaxing day this weekend. Terry and I met up with Emily and she brought us to a gelateria near The Pantheon that had the largest selection of flavors ever. They had 10 choices just for chocolate. Oof.

Afterwards, we went to find the Rome Zara store. Before finding it, we ended up in the fashion district in Rome right near the Spanish Steps. I never knew of so many upscale brands, but Terry knew them all. We also ended up at the Trevi Fountain.

Eventually, we found Zara and I bought two shirts. WoohoO!

Rome 2008 – Day 13

Francis Luu — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:10:16 +0000

Pretty relaxing day today. Recovered a bit from the night before (heh) and decided to have a potluck with everyone in our group and a few of the LSJ people. Of course, Joey and I made our signature “Bro–Schetta,” Yoon cooked some awesome mussels, Tojo put together some great mozzarella and tomatoes, Andy had some crackers, cheese, meat, and olive spread, and Sean made a pot of incredible spaghetti. The girls brought over a few salads and gelato!

And of course, a little fun after the food

Rome 2008 – Day 12

Francis Luu — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:17:31 +0000

Big day! Big update! Woohah!

Today started bright and early at 700am where we met in front of the UW Rome Center and walked to right alongside the river separating Rome and Trastevere. We had an entire day–trip planned with the UW Law, Societies, and Justice program studying in Rome during the same time period we are. The bus ride to Bomarzo was about an hour and a half long; good thing we had a charter bus.

Bomarzo is a site about 100 km outside of Rome where there are lots of large stone sculptures of monsters. Yeah! There was one where a big monster was mounting a second big monster… well, heh. I won’t get too much into that.

Besides all of that excitement, Lauren brought a snack–version of Nutella!

Our second stop of the day was the town of Orvieto where there was a really nice church and a huuuuge well. On the way, some of us started falling asleep. Naomi was subject to some photos taken by Sean, haha.

A shot of the girls overlooking some beautiful scenery at Orvieto.

Apparently, you can only enter the heart of the town if you are a taxi, a bus, a person with luggage, or a bed. We weren’t any of these things, but still went in.

The church at the top of the town was really interesting. It had these stripes on the inside and outside.

Hardcore Terry photo.

After we left Orvieto, we went to Bagnoregio, a tiny little place on top of a mountain where the best olive oil in the universe was supposedly made. We were scheduled to have a bruschetta tasting. I managed to get my hands on four bottles of their oil.

Afterwards, we just had some fun taking photos of each other.

Naomi lost a game of rock–paper–scissors, so she had to give Terry a piggy–back ride.

Rome 2008 – Day 11

Francis Luu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:26:31 +0000

No photos worth posting today

Actually, it would’ve been an incredible set of photos, but the Catacombs of Priscilla that we visited today didn’t allow any photography at all. But it was a crazy experience, especially with 40,000 graves, minimal lighting, and a slight case of claustrophobia.

Not too long of a post, had a few presentations today by Lauren Cutting and Leslie MacNeil. We’ve got an all-day trip tomorrow with the UW Law, Societies, & Justice group to a town up north, about an hour and half away by bus. Itll be a long day so I better actually get some sleep tonight

Meet the bro-schettas

Francis Luu — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:14:33 +0000

I finally managed to grab this photo from Emily Cheng, a junior in the UW VCD program. Thanks for the shot of the most complicated thing that Joey and I have made, heh.

Rome 2008 – Day 10

Francis Luu — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:32:51 +0000

Today’s trek around Rome was a bit tiring although we got to explore a part of Rome that was a bit different than what we’ve been experiencing so far. We headed over to Trastevere, Italian for “across the river,” which was, literally, a small town across the main river running through Rome on an island connected by a series of bridges. Trastevere is known for a less tourist–oriented community, where the “real Italians” hang out, and was the location for Cathy Wu’s presentation. It’s also where my train station was from the Fiumicino Airport and where I got onto the tram towards Campo de Fiori.

The first set of ruins we saw were incredible. Just the facades were the only things left standing, and the quaint neighborhood of Trastevere created a perfect context to admire these remains.

The first church we went was the church of St Cecilia, where there was a beautiful marble statue of her in her grave at the altar of the church.

The second church was of Santa Maria, which was actually located in the same piazza as the one I had stumbled across at night the first day I arrived in Rome. No teenagers playing soccer this time, just the locals, a few nuns, and us.

Lauren helped open the door for us

Yoon was able to have a moment to himself during our busy schedule today.

A second angle of Lauren’s self–portrait.

En route to a church devoted to St Peter at the very top of a hill in Trastevere, a few of us grabbed a sandwich at a shop that was owned by Italian–Americans.

We found an instance of Terry’s Italian name, complete with gangsta–style definite article!

A few shots of Yoon and Joey.

At the church. This was actually the location where St. Peter was crucified and marked a pivotal moment in Christianity in Italy.

Design Critique #01

Francis Luu — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:46:01 +0000

Something I forgot to put up was my first draft of a typography + image composition on our first impressions of Rome. Mine dealt with how the identity of the Roman culture and society was so well–defined and consistent, similar to a successful system of traditional branding and identity design, comparing that to how it isn’t consistent in America. Even with all of the transplantation of different cultures over its history, the Romans have that very “Roman” feel to them, unlike in the States where you have very strong ethnic identities of other cultures.

Of course, this concept was a bit forced, especially with the photography chosen (which had the visual identity of the Castel sant Angelo seen through a window overlooking a part of Rome) and just too complex of an idea with its execution. But I thought I’d post it up anyways.

Rome 2008 – Day 09

Francis Luu — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:55:18 +0000

Today, we went out to Ostia Antica, an ancient harbor town about 30km west of Rome. JT and I were to give our presentations on the Ostian society, culture, and building techniques. I woke up at 630am today to print all of the handouts and barely made it to our meeting place on time in front of the UW Rome Center.

We took the bus to the train station, then a train to the Ostia Antica station. It wasn’t as hot as when I went a few days ago, but that quickly changed as the afternoon heat kicked in. Oof. But at least now my presentation is done and I didn’t mess up (too badly… heh). JT also did an awesome job with all of the detailed information he was giving to the group. Ahh yeah.

I mostly took photos of the people in our group since most of the Ostia photography of the landscape and architecture was done this past weekend. I managed to pull some awesome portraits yeahhhh

Sean is holding on for dear life on the train, haha.

Yoon standing on top of the theatre in Ostia.

JT had an awesome presentation!

Design is forever engraved into stone.

Nicole keeps finding plants and things.

Thanks to Sean for these photogs!

It was a great day. I had finished my presentation, our trip to Ostia was actually a bit relaxing and lenient, and we all had fun. Later that night after dinner, we all went out and Andy hooked us up with a crew that went pub crawling (or bar hopping). We danced, apparently I hyped for the DJ at the first bar we went to, and just had an incredible time… all on a Tuesday night.

Maybe I’ll get those photos up some other day