Kayaking in the Archipelago
We
had a four day weekend not too long ago, and we decided there was no
better way to celebrate the beginning of summer than to get out on the
water in the archipelago in a kayak. The summery weather didn’t fully
cooperate and two of our four days were chilly and rainy, but it was a
great way to kick off the season none-the-less. A couple of friends
joined us and we all enjoyed a beautiful, relaxing, low-key outdoor
adventure.
We
took the ferry out to the island of Möja, which is pretty far out in
the archipelago, and then kayaked around the adjacent nature reserve
which consists of a couple hundred islands of varying size.
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| Our adventure began and ended in the little village of Berg on the island of Möja |
The islands are
somewhat developed with small summer cottages and docks here and there,
but the development is fairly minimal, making for a fun blend of nature
and jealousy-inspiring cabins. Because the islands are mostly
undeveloped, it’s not too hard to find an isolated camping spot.
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| One of our lunch islands had a couple of cute, small cabins and an awesome dock |
The first couple of days were quite windy, so we didn’t venture out into open water to visit seal colonies like we had originally planned. Instead, we focused more on sheltered waterways and explored lots of bays as well as some really fun narrow natural canals. I love how close to the islands you can get in a kayak!
While the wind was strong, we had to camp in the trees, but a calm final evening allowed us to camp in a more exposed position on top of the rocks at the water’s edge. We tried to take an “outdoor magazine” tent photo with a glowing tent, but we didn’t have bright enough lanterns, especially considering how light a Swedish summer night is.
Although
we spent most of our time in more sheltered areas, we were far enough
out in the archipelago that we caught glimpses of “nothingness.” The
slate-colored sea and stony sky made the distance even more foreboding.
The
group agreed to paddle fewer miles, allowing for lazy mornings,
frequent breaks, leisurely lunches, plenty of island exploration,
relaxing evenings, and gourmet meals. Dinner became a mini-competition
with smoked pork with a wild forest mushroom sauce one evening and
couscous with grilled vegetables and halloumi another. The capacity to
easily transport such meals (with wine!) is one reason why I love
kayaking so much. I do love backpacking, too, but the food isn’t nearly
as tasty when you have to carry it all on your back!
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| Long lunches with lots of island exploration and gazing at the scenery |
Even on sunny days, the temperatures were never very high, and we all spent most of the weekend in long johns under wind pants and medium heavy jackets and hats. The water was even chillier than the air, but we all managed to take at least one swim. Carl won the prize for the most dips--he swam three times!
One
of the islands we camped on had a public sauna. Given the chilly
evening temperatures and the wet nature of kayaking, it was lovely to be
able to thaw out in the warmth, although I didn’t stay in long enough
to get sweaty. I still don’t understand the desire to get hot and
sticky in a sauna...
Carl and I loved our time out on the water so much that we strongly considered going back out the next weekend, but it just proved to be too much with all of the unpacking and packing. We can’t wait till our next kayaking trip!
Carl and I loved our time out on the water so much that we strongly considered going back out the next weekend, but it just proved to be too much with all of the unpacking and packing. We can’t wait till our next kayaking trip!
Backpacking along Roslagsleden
Last weekend, Carl and I escaped the city to backpack a stretch of
Roslagsleden, a 190 km trail which starts in Stockholm’s northern
suburbs and heads north through the Roslag region of Sweden. We chose a
stretch in the middle of the trail because our hiking book recommended
that stretch over the other stages. Unfortunately, the trail goes
mostly through private land, and the forests that were described in our
guidebook as beautiful are now clear-cut wastelands that made me want to
weep. Except for a couple of miles through a nature reserve with truly
beautiful forests, we spent the entire weekend walking through cleared
timberlands.
There were a few bright and beautiful spots along the way, however. We
passed by ten small lakes over the weekend, and several of them were
surrounded by more-or-less intact forest. We ate lunch in one idyllic
spot and camped at another lake with a perfect, west-facing waterside
stone outcropping. There were even hammock-able trees by the lake!
We managed to successfully shut out all the destruction that we had seen
on our journey and to spend the evening enjoying our solitary, idyllic
spot. We sat by the water and in the hammock and sketched, watched
mating ducks, read, cooked, and snoozed in the sun. When the sun set
and it was too chilly to lay in the hammock, we bundled up in our
sleeping bags and continued to sway in the breeze. So cozy!
On Sunday, we were pretty tired from our 18km hike the day before, so we decided to cut our walk short, set up the hammock by a lake, and read the afternoon away. We weren’t too far from a main road so at the end of the afternoon, it wasn’t too hard to catch a bus back into town.
I am deeply saddened by the forest destruction that we witnessed, but I am glad that at least fractions of the ecosystem remain intact and enjoyable. There is nothing better than lazing in a sunny hammock with my husband, a good book, and a lake view!
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014
Office Ski Trip to Hemsedal, Norway
I
am officially spoiled. Three ski trips in a three month period! This
time it was in late March with 21 other architects, engineers, HR
people, and finance people from my office, and we went to Göteborg’s
nearest ski resort which is seven hours by bus. We left a bit after
lunch on Thursday afternoon and were back late Sunday night and had
three full days of skiing and two full evenings of après-ski partying.
Needless to say, it was a fun but exhausting long weekend.
Hemsedal is right in the middle of the fat part of southern Norway. The entire area is mountainous but it seemed like most of the area was too low for reliable snow and skiing. Hemsedal, however, is relatively high at 3576 feet in the valley and 4737 feet at the top of the highest lift. The mountains around Hemsedal are an interesting blend of pointy like the Alps and rounded like the Appalachians. The contrast between the jaggedy tops and the rounded humps was really beautiful.
With
only about 40 non-bunny-slope runs and 13 non-bunny-slope lifts,
Hemsedal does not have enough variation to keep you occupied for a whole
week’s vacation, but it is quite perfect as a weekend destination.
(Lucky for Olso: Hemsedal is about a 3 hour drive from the city.) I
have definitely gotten spoiled with all the skiing we’ve done in the
Alps. The runs in Hemsedal seemed so short! The longest run at
Hemsedal was 6 kilometers, which is only about half of the longest run
in Val Gardena (see “Christmas Skiing in the Italian Dolomites” below),
and the maximum vertical fall is 810 meters, compared with 2065 in
Chamonix. (see Skiing in Chamonix LINK!!!). Hemsedal has 40 kilometers
of runs while Val Gardena has 1220 kilometers of runs. There are only
three black runs at Hemsedal, so very little of the terrain was very
challenging, but I really enjoyed just cruising along, relishing the
beautiful scenery. It was absolutely wonderful to be outside for three
solid days and to not even think about looking at a computer screen!
Overall,
we had fairly good weather with a surprising amount of sun, but the
first day of skiing was extraordinarily windy. The entire top half of
the mountain was too windy for pleasant skiing—ice pelleted your face,
the wind nearly blew you off your skis, and you couldn’t see a thing due
to all of the swirling loose snow. Luckily, the weather was much
better the following two days and I was able to explore every run on the
mountain, several times.
I
only fell once during the ski trip, but it was a pretty extreme fall. I
was skiing down a triple black diamond slope (it was steep, yes, but
triple black diamond might be a bit of an exaggeration) and lost my grip
on an icy patch. I plunged head and arms first and slid down the steep
slope for at least a hundred feet. I plunged head first so long that I
had enough time to think several separate thoughts: “Hmmm, this isn’t
so good. Probably good that I’ve started wearing a ski helmet. I’m
still not slowing down. If I’m not slowing down naturally, I should try
to arrest my fall. Hmm, pushing my hands into the snow isn’t helping.
Maybe if I try to press my bottom ski into the snow? No, that’s not
helping, either.” I finally stopped only when I hit the bank at the
side of the slope. Thank goodness that my skis hadn’t popped off when I
fell! Otherwise, it would have been a looonnngggg hike back up the
steep, icy slope.
I
skied for about 6.5 hours on Friday with only a short lunch break. On
Saturday, the slopes opened at 7:30 in the morning, and I skied from
7:30 almost until 4:30 when the lifts closed with only a short break for
lunch. On Sunday, I managed to get in 5.5 hours of skiing before the
bus left. By the last run on Sunday, my legs were very, very tired!
And unfortunately, my right ski boot didn’t fit well so my leg was
killing me by the time I got on the bus.
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| me on skis! |
We
stayed in lovely cabins that were just to the side of the slopes, so we
were practically able to ski right to our front door. Very
convenient! The cabins seemed practically brand-new and were in
spic-and-span condition. Because we were so many, organizing groceries
and cooking a huge meal was just too daunting, so we ate dinner at the
nearby lodge the first evening and then ordered in pizza the second
evening. I know that I have mentioned many times how expensive Sweden
is, but Norway makes Sweden seem cheap! Our twelve pizzas cost
$600!!!! Can you imagine paying $50 per pizza? Absolutely crazy!
The
pizzas didn’t arrive until 10 pm, so we had a massive dance party that
lasted from about 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. We danced and danced and danced
and danced, and since “Tsunami” had become the theme song of the
weekend, we danced to that tune at least five times. In sharp contrast,
we danced to “Rockin’ Robin” at least twice. By the time the pizza
arrived, many of our party were too drunk to eat, so we ended up with
five pizzas left over. It just killed me that we were wasting $250
worth of pizza! But then someone came up with the superb idea to gather
at the ski resort’s grill cabins at lunch the next day and to warm up
the pizzas over a fire. Brilliant!
Carl
and I have always laughed when we fly out from Stockholm early in the
morning during winter time, because when Swedes go on ski vacations,
they start the vacation with whiskey. Even if it’s 4:30 in the morning
and they are waiting for a 6:00 a.m. flight to take them to the Alps,
Swedes are sitting in the airport bar drinking whiskey. Not in their
coffee, but straight. Our bus ride was no different, and most of the
bus spent the seven hours of the trip drinking continuous shots of
whiskey. Once at the cabins, the 22 of us managed to consume eight
boxes of wine (26 bottles of wine), at least 20 liters of beer, and
several bottles of whiskey, Baileys, Jeigermeister, and other liquors
over two evenings. I personally didn’t drink all that much, so I’m not
sure how everyone else managed to ski the next day after consuming such
crazy quantities of alcohol. It’s probably not surprising that I won
the prize for skiing the longest on Saturday.
This
was my last ski trip of the year, and probably my last chance to play
in the snow until November or December. I’m already looking forward to
the winter adventures which await next year!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014
Serre Chevalier on Two Skis
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| Even though we had five days of lessons, our group still managed to ski together quite a bit. |
In February, Carl
and I flew down to Serre Chevalier in the French Alps for a week of
skiing with seven friends. A couple of the faces in the group were
different than last year, but most of the group consisted of the same
fun folks. We all went down with the same program that we went to
Chamonix with last year, UCPA (see “Skiing in Chamonix”).
UCPA is a pretty darn awesome non-profit dedicated to getting “young”
folks outside. For an unbelievably low price, you get a flight, a
simple but adequate hotel room, full board with pretty good food
including a French cheese buffet (!) every day, a lift card for 6 ½ days
of skiing, equipment rental, and best yet, five days of lessens with a
world-class instructor.
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| The view from our room. |
Last year I had been in the intermediate group, but after last year’s lessons and our week of skiing in the Dolomites (see "Christmas Skiing in the Italian Dolomites" below), I progressed to the intermediate advanced group for this year’s trip. Now I can ski confidently down the steepest black slopes, so this year’s lessons made a big impact on my skiing ability, too. Next on the list to master is moguls, which I can sort-of ski already but certainly not so elegantly.
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| Carl and I in action. |
The lessons generally consist of drills which isolate and exaggerate one part of the full ski movement so that you get a feel for what it is like when you get it right. For example, during one exercise we leaned over and touched the uphill ground as we made turns. This exaggerated the leaning movement that you make when carving. Another exercise was follow-the-leader. You followed closely behind a partner who was making turns in quick succession, and the follower had to exactly and simultaneously mimic the movements of the leader. During this exercise, we were practicing turning no-matter-what. On steep slopes and in bad conditions, you typically don’t get to choose where you turn; the mountain chooses for you. This can be scary, but an exercise like follow-the-leader gives you confidence that you can in fact turn in a controlled manner no-matter-what. Other exercises included skiing backwards down steep slopes, making successive 360 degree turns while travelling downhill, jumping off of small ledges, and skiing without poles and making swooping, exaggerated airplane-like gestures with your arms.
There was tons of new snow while we were in Serre Chevalier, so we also spent a good amount of time off-piste even though our group was officially on-piste. The first day of off-piste runs was really difficult and everyone in the group flopped over and disappeared deep into the snow every thirty seconds or so. Digging yourself and your skis out of such deep powder is a huge challenge! But toward the end of the week, most of us got the hang of “bouncing like a dolphin in the waves” and were able to somewhat elegantly ski down the powdery slopes. While the first day of off-piste skiing was just hard work, by the last day, it was actually quite fun and joyful.
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| The air was thick with new snow a couple of the days we skied. A good way to learn how to trust your skiing instincts when you can't see a thing! |
Carl’s expert group was an official off-piste group, and they had endless fun in all of the new powder. Generally, they took lifts up as far as they go, continued walking uphill to the tippy top of the mountain, and then skied all the way down.
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| Carl's group on the way up to a peak. |
Having a guide for
this kind of skiing is pretty critical unless you know exactly what
you’re doing. First of all, the guide knew what kind of terrain was
awaiting the group and could guide them away from huge cliffs and toward
bus stops. Secondly, the guide is trained to quickly asses avalanche
danger, hopefully avoiding all avalanche threats. Even though the goal
is to avoid avalanches, everyone in the group was wearing transceivers
and the group trained extensively to locate a buried person. I am happy
to report that Carl’s group didn’t encounter any avalanches and that
they all made it down the mountain safe and sound, every time.
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| Carl's group making fresh tracks high up on the mountain, and Carl zooming through the trees. |
Just like last year, I ended up in the same group as my friend Jessica. So fun that we have progressed at the same rate! We didn’t see much of our group during the day, but every evening we all “whiskey stretched” together, a brilliant concept that is now a group tradition. After the stretching, the evenings generally consisted of some après-skiing at one of the nearby bars followed by a leisurely and tasty four course dinner.
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| Jessica in action. |
UCPA hosts different events every evening, but I was mostly too exhausted from all of the skiing to participate. I did, however, get a kick out of watching all of the ski instructors ski jump into the outdoor, somewhat heated pool. Their jumps and twists and flips and splashes were all pretty crazy, but the most impressive part was that they all jumped several times. This involved a sopping wet walk, with skis in hand, in below-freezing temperatures in sloshing ski boots and a clammy, dripping wetsuit about a 10 minutes uphill. The walk looked pretty darn chilly and uncomfortable to me, especially considering that I was freezing just watching the event.
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| A couple of the jumps. Pretty hard to swim while attached to a snowboard... |
I
really liked Serre Chevalier as a ski resort. It is pretty low key and
the snob factor is next to null. However, the range of runs is quite
extensive with 250 km of interconnected runs (impressive, although no
where near as extensive as Val Gardena!). It was pretty awesome not
having to take a bus around like you have to do at Chamonix where the
various ski areas are not connected up on the mountain. Better yet, the
UCPA center was about 100 feet from two major lifts, so we never had to
carry our skis and walk around town in ski boots. There was a good
blend of challenging runs and easier cruising trails including a couple
of super beautiful, quite long runs through the forest where you glide
easily through the silent trees, catching occasional glimpses of the
jagged peaks beyond the valley.
FRIDAY, MARCH 07, 2014
Rome Rome Rome
What
can I possibly write about Rome that hasn’t already been said? Rome is
gorgeously picturesque. Rome is dirty. Rome is chaotic and chock full
of people, all the time, everywhere. Rome is a city of hidden, quiet
courtyards. Rome is a city of overpowering monuments and oversized
public spaces. Rome is a city of narrow, meandering lanes. The light
in Rome is strong and stark. The alleys of Rome are dim and shadowy.
Rome’s piazzas exuberantly gush with water while Rome’s streets are
dusty. Rome is showy spectacle. Rome is understated elegance.
To walk through Rome is to walk through an architectural history book. I.e.: exploring Rome is an archi-dork’s dream.
After our week of skiing in the Dolomites, Carl and I took a bus and three trains down to Rome where we lived in a studio apartment in the historical center just off Piazza Navona for nine days. I had visited Rome once, when I was 19, before I started architecture school. Needless-to-say, I had come to realize that that visit didn’t really count and that it was high time to visit Rome again, this time with a strong education in architectural and art history. Carl had never been to Rome, so it was also high time that he experience the eternal city.
To walk through Rome is to walk through an architectural history book. I.e.: exploring Rome is an archi-dork’s dream.
After our week of skiing in the Dolomites, Carl and I took a bus and three trains down to Rome where we lived in a studio apartment in the historical center just off Piazza Navona for nine days. I had visited Rome once, when I was 19, before I started architecture school. Needless-to-say, I had come to realize that that visit didn’t really count and that it was high time to visit Rome again, this time with a strong education in architectural and art history. Carl had never been to Rome, so it was also high time that he experience the eternal city.
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| The view from our apartment window and our neighborhood Piazza, Navona |
Over our nine days, we saw a lot. I am not going to recount each amazing thing that we saw, because that would take about 20 pages and five years to cover it all; there was something truly special about each and every one of the 31 churches, 5 palazzos, 18 piazzas, 12 fountains, 7 Roman neighborhoods, 5 archeological museums, and 6 art museums that we visited. I’ll try to limit myself to the brightest highlights.
It’s a total tourist cliché, but my favorite fountain was Trevi,
originally designed in 1730. Because it was a little out of the way and
because I had seen it before and hadn’t been overly impressed, we
nearly skipped it. But I am so glad we didn’t. The fountain was
commissioned by a Pope to glorify himself; he obviously didn’t take the
vow of humility very seriously. Four stories high and taking up half of
a large piazza, Trevi is so over-the-top and overtly ostentatious that I
couldn’t help but love it. It is so huge in the confined piazza that
you can’t possibly take it all in in one glance, and it spews so much
water that you have to shout to be heard. Between the racket from the
water and the crush of the tourists, the piazza isn’t really a very
pleasant place to hang out. Despite this, and despite the fact that I
am usually more attracted to understated elegance than to flamboyant
display, Trevi Fountain completely secured my admiration.
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| I love that the fountain is so large that it is actually a building. Can you imagine living in one of the apartments that looks out over the fountain? I also love how the fountain emerges from the building. I love how the designer, architect Nicola Salvi, blended the line between architecture and sculpture. The fountain reads as a separate entity from the building, but it’s hard to say where one ends and the other begins. |
Rome is filled with genius moments of city planning, but my favorite piazza was Piazza di Sant’ Ignazio which was designed by architect Raguzzini in the 1730’s to look and feel like a theater set with wings.
Instead of encountering the piazza’s church in a hierarchical, head-on
manner typical of Renaissance and Baroque planning, you stumble upon the
church as if you were stumbling on stage from the theater’s wings.
Standing on the church’s steps, you look upon the stage set and those
walking through the piazza on their daily rounds become the actors in
Rome’s performance. The uniformity and light-hearted architecture of
Raguzzini’s five apartment buildings together with the delicate spatial
interplay of curves and ovular forms reinforces the piazza’s sense of
spectacle and theater.
Piazza del Popolo isn’t even a close second to Piazza di Sant’ Ignazio (Popolo just feels vast and dirty and transient), but I do love how ridiculous and overdone and therefore how entirely Roman it is. In the 1820’s, a new wide parade road as well as an accompanying giant public plaza was cleared through the medieval jumble. The composition of major avenue plus public piazza plus new showy church was challenging—how can you have both the road AND the church be at the center of the symmetrical hierarchy around the piazza? Architect Valadier’s solution was to build not one but two churches, symmetrically placed on either side of the new avenue. After all, why build one church when two is clearly better? (I think Valadier may have been from Texas.) Interesting, the footprints of the two churches aren’t identical, but the architect employed several optical illusions to make the churches seem identically symmetrical.
Perhaps because it is such a simple contrast to most of Rome’s other churches, my favorite church was San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane by architect Borromini (designed in the 1630’s). When you visit so many churches in Rome, you begin to wonder where all of that money came from. The giant and impressive Roman-era monuments can be partly explained by the system of slavery, but when Rome’s churches were built and renovated in the 15th-17th centuries, much of Europe was destitute but (relatively) free. How can tithing and even plundering possibly explain such ostentation, such glitter, such flamboyant wealth all concentrated into one city? Even the plainest of neighborhood churches gush with gold leaf and masterpiece paintings.
In
contrast, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane has a monochromatic simplicity
within a richness of architectural space. Even outside, the building
sways and recedes and protrudes in a complex Baroque rhythm. Inside the
tiny church, the spatial complexity becomes even more intricate as the
ovular theme alternately closes in and releases outward. Despite so
much spatial complexity in such a small space, the church exudes calm
and introspection and peace.
The
first time I visited Rome, I was impressed by the Roman Forum. Now
that I have seen several spectacular Roman cities (Ephasus, Miletus,
Priene, and Pompei just to name a few), the Roman Forum is of little
interest and I would recommend a visit of about an hour (although the
adjacent Palantine Hill is pretty cool and is worthy of an afternoon).
Instead of staring at individual stones with litte context in the Roman
Forum, spend a day at my favorite (at least in Rome) Roman ruin,
the city of Ostia Antica, which is about a half hour outside the city
on the commuter train. Ostia Antica was a vast port city and much of
the archeological site, but not all, is excavated, so you get a good
feel for how Roman cities were designed and how the various building
types (apartment buildings, warehouses, tombs, temples, baths, etc) were
formed. Although most of the finish materials (marble!) in Ostia
Antica were looted throughout the ages and used in other buildings, the
site remains extensive and impressive.
I am usually not extremely interested in sculpture, but during this trip, my favorite pieces of art
were marble sculptures, one Roman sculpture and one Baroque sculpture.
I found this Roman sculpture (in the Palantine Hill Museum) absolutely
incredible.
How on earth did the artist chisel such fine folds and
billows into the woman’s clothing?
Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne in the Villa Borghese was also intricately detailed. Unlike most preceding sculptures which are quite static, Bernini’s sculptures capture movement, a blink in time. The sculpture freezes time in the middle of Daphne’s transition between human and tree. Where does her hair end and the tree’s leaves begin?
I was also enchanted by Bernini’s Rape of Persephone
(also in Villa Borghese). There’s a lot going on in this sculpture,
this marbleized moment in time, but the way that Hades’ hands press into
Persephone’s flesh shows how the kidnapping is happening right now.
No one mastered the technique like Bernini, but I did take pleasure in seeing Baroque sculptures capturing movement throughout Rome in many neighborhood churches. This sculpture where the man is falling out of the frame is one of many entertaining sculptures that literally “break the boundaries” of sculpture.
Villa Borghese, home to the two Bernini sculptures I mentioned above, was my favorite art museum.
The building with its rich frescoes is just as much an object of art as
the sculptures and paintings it contains. Your ticket only gives you
two hours to take in the all of the villa’s frescoes and the museum’s
star-studded collection (Titan, Raphael, Rubens), so you have to
prioritize your gazing time. Because I had just read a book on the
finding of a lost Caravaggio and learned that there are only about 25
surviving Caravaggios in the entire world, we spent a lot of time
studying Borghese’s five Caravaggio paintings. After stumbling
upon several other of Caravaggio’s paintings in various Roman churches
and art museums, we have now seen more than half of the surviving
Caravaggio cannon. Both Carl and I loved loved loved the stark light
that is so characteristic of his art.
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| St. Matthew and the Angel |
I also fell in love with Rome’s optical illusions in art—the use of perspective drawing techniques to create optical illusions—discovering these artworks was my favorite surprise. Several of the Palazzos and Villas that we visited had entire rooms that seem to extend beyond the room’s walls and ceilings. In other cases, fake windows expand the space outward with fake views. There were also many cases where the optical illusions make the room seem fancier than it actually is through faked architectural elements such as elaborate niches, arches, paneling, cornices, door and window frames, pilasters and coffered ceilings.
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| From the side, in the center of the room, the "niche"to the right looks correct. But once you move closer to the niche, you can see that it is fake. Same goes for the arched "windows" above the niches. |
Perhaps my favorite optical illusion
was the ceiling of Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola which is
crazy-realistically painted to look like it is arched when it is in fact
entirely flat.
The
painted figures which perch on, fall from, and hide behind the faux
architectural elements only emphasize the illusion. Not even the window
frames are real; this guy’s hands show that the stone frame is just
painted on.
It's not until you move down the nave that you realize that it's all an illusion.
Further down the nave, even the church’s dome is a painted optical illusion!
Being
in Rome over a public holiday when most of the sites are closed isn’t
an issue because half the fun of Rome is just wandering through its
historical neighborhoods, lounging in its numerous piazzas, strolling in
and out of its churches, and relaxing by its gushing fountains.
Preferably, you should do all of the above while alternately eating
gelato and drinking cappuccino. After so much intense art gazing and
such focused learning about the Roman era, the Renaissance era, and the
Baroque era, it’s lovely to have a quiet, “lazy” day of unplanned
meandering.
My least favorite experience in Rome was going to the Vatican. If we had known what we know now, visiting the Vatican would have been a much, much more pleasant experience and we may have actually enjoyed seeing Michelangelo’s masterpiece. So heed our advice!: Spend the extra money and buy your tickets online at least a week ahead of time. Book the earliest morning slot. Once you get in the museum, head straight, and I mean straight, to the Sistine Chapel. Oooh and ahhh, get your fill of the incredible ceiling, and then return to the rest of the Vatican Museums, taking in one or two of the incredible collections. Bring a picnic lunch and take a break in between museums in one of the several beautiful courtyards.
We had thought that after the Sistine Chapel we’d be kicked out of the museum, but that is not the case. You are actually required to go through the main entry on your way out, so you can easily check out other parts of the museum after you’ve seen the Chapel. If you wait till the afternoon to head to the Sistine Chapel like we did, you will suffer through an indeterminate, painful, endlessly snaking line through claustrophobic corridors with thousands upon thousands of people between you and the nearest emergency exit. As an architect, all I could think about was: “If the fire alarm goes off, I will get trampled to death. If the fire alarm goes off, I will trample others to death.” Not so cheery thoughts…
Another downside to the trip was experiencing Rome’s unbelievably crowded, disgustingly grimy, and surprisingly limited public transportation. The upside to this downside was that I now have a newfound appreciation for just how clean and downright pleasant Stockholm’s transit system is. In Stockholm, bus departures are reliable, disgusting subway cars are the exception, and outside of rush hour, you almost always get a seat.
While there were a few uncomfortable and grimy moments in Rome, our stay was extremely positive and enriching and we are eager to return. Despite being there for nine days of intense sightseeing, we still haven’t seen everything on our list! Not to mention all the villa gardens that aren’t open in the winter, or the Etruscan archeological sites an hour or two outside town, or the . . .
In an effort to keep this post somewhat in check, I’ve left out a lot of incredible experiences. I won’t go into detail about them, but I want to share some more archi-dorky images:
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| Roman brickwork at the Colosseum |
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| Inca-like stone construction at the Colosseum |
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| I wouldn’t be an architect if I left out the Pantheon |
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| More Roman brickwork, this time at Ostia Antica |
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| Hot water pipes provided radiant heating at Ostia Antica (wow!!!) and a flat Roman arch at Ostia Antica |
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| I love Bernini's ovular colonnades enclosing St. Peter's Square |
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| Quite an anti-feminist message! |
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| With all that touristing, sometimes you just need to take a break and look at the sky. |
While most of the images are mine and Carl's, I have fished a few from Lake Google Image where our photo didn't turn out or when photos weren't allowed in the museums.
Popolo Noli map: http://www.imago-terrae.com/piazzadelpopolo.html
Interior
of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane:
http://historythings.tumblr.com/post/4018049434/vvertsum-francesco-borromini-chiesa-di-san
Apollo and Daphne: http://coolmachine.tumblr.com and http://www.galleriaborghese.it/ and http://teller91.tumblr.com/
Rape
of Persephone:
http://www.class.uh.edu/courses/engl3322/blazarus/sculptures.htm and
http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/art-history-6b-final/deck/10110386
St. Matthew and the Angel: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/04/26conta.html
Christmas Skiing in the Italian Dolomites
This
year, instead of returning to cozy Lofsdalen , we convinced Carl’s aunt
Eva to accompany us for a week of skiing in Val Gardena. While we have
loved our time in Lofsdalen (see “New Year’s in Lofsdalen” and “Low Noon in Lofsdalen,” we were super excited to try a new ski resort, especially one so exciting as Val Gardena.
Val Gardena is part of the largest ski network in the world, and over 500km (311 miles) of its 1220km (758 miles!) of groomed slopes are interconnected. That means that you can ski for 311 miles without having to take a bus!
Val Gardena is part of the largest ski network in the world, and over 500km (311 miles) of its 1220km (758 miles!) of groomed slopes are interconnected. That means that you can ski for 311 miles without having to take a bus!
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| Click on the map to enlarge. This is just a few of the ski areas! |
Val
Gardena’s most famous all-day round-trip ski tour is the Sella Ronda
which circles the Sella mastiff, crossing four passes and covering 42km
(26 miles) of trails.
I just loved doing the Sella Ronda—it’s kinda like cross country skiing
in that you have a goal and a destination, and that goal isn’t just down
and then up again. The Sella Ronda trails are somewhat challenging and
the distance means that you can’t doddle, but it’s a very reasonable
day that allows for a leisurely Italian-style lunch and a couple of
coffee breaks.
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| From the top of one of Sella's passes. |
And then there’s Sella Ronda's scenery: It just doesn’t get much more awesome that the towering spires of the Dolomites:
Val Gardena also distinguishes itself by the sheer length of trails. There are a few trails that are 12km (7.5 miles) long! Comparing to Vail, CO where the longest run is an impressive 4 miles long, Val Gardena’s trails are nothing short of unrivaled. These long trails start high, high above treeline and begin by cutting straight down wide-open bowls with 180 degree views over range upon range of jagged mountains. After reaching the forest, they begin snaking their way through the trees, through rocky canyons, alongside streams and frozen waterfalls, and finally down to the village. These long runs aren’t super challenging, but they are super enjoyable because the scenery is so varied and because you can ski downhill, uninterrupted, for an entire hour.
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| At the top of the 11km run. |
The
terrain in Val Gardena is generally not crazy steep and challenging,
and there are only a few black runs scattered about. So if you’re
looking for death-defying double-black-diamond terrain, Val Gardena’s
not for you. However, if you’re looking for incredible scenery and a
one-of-a-kind ski experience, then Val Gardena should definitely be on
your bucket list.
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| An easy run but what a view! Look at that powder! |
Val
Gardena's lift system is incredibly extensive with about a hundred
chairlifts, gondolas, cable cars, and cable railways. Thankfully there
are very few button lifts or tow ropes to contend with. There is even
an underground moving walkway to transport skiers from one side of the
valley, under the village, and to the other side of the valley. I felt
kinda lazy taking the moving walkway but in ski boots I'll take any
shortcut I can find!
One
thing we found interesting with the lift system is that in the US, a
ski lift generally serves three or five or more runs. In Val Gardena,
the ratio was generally one lift to one ski run. That means that there
are very few lift lines, but it also did feel a bit indulgent. It's not
like Val Gardena needs more runs, but it seems like the resort
could pretty easily double the number of ski trails without having to
increase the number of lifts.
Friendliness and customer service were also traits that made our experience in Val Gardena extra enjoyable. Everyone around us was so amazingly friendly, and the ski-resort atmosphere was much more down-to-earth than snobby. Clerks in stores were super helpful, and the boot division in the family-run ski rental shop was like an old-timey shoe store where the clerks actually put the shoe (ski boot) on your foot and lace them up for you. I wonder if the lack of extreme terrain keeps the ski snobs away and helps to keep Val Gardena’s atmosphere unpretentious?
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| Many of Val Gardena's slopes were blissfully empty. |
And then there’s the food. Oh. My. Val Gardena lies in a part of Italy that was part of Austria until the first World War, so the German/Austrian influence in the valley’s culture is just as strong as the Italian influence. Food dishes draw from both cultures, and on most menus you’ll find large dumplings filled with cheese, mushrooms, pork, and/or spinach, perhaps in a broth and definitely drenched in olive oil and grated parmesan; polenta slathered with forest mushrooms in a butter gravy; gnocchi with a thyme cream sauce; hearty, béchamel-rich lasagna; to-die-for apple cake smothered in vanilla sauce… The dishes certainly aren’t light, but they are exactly what the body craves during a hard day’s skiing, and just about everything we tried was better than excellent.
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| Depending on the weather, we sat inside in the cozy dining rooms or outside with the incredible views. |
Unlike every other ski resort I’ve been to, slope-side food in Val Gardena is not a secondary part of the skiing experience. In other resorts, the food is expensive and limited to fast-foody options such as chili and French fries and greasy pizza. This is soooo not the case in Val Gardena. Instead, there are hundreds of small, historical wooden huts dotting the hillsides. I believe that most of the buildings were once farmhouses, sheds, and barns, but now they house small-scale but absolutely gourmet dining establishments. For 9 or 12 Euros, you get a huge plate of absolutely delicious food, served to you at your candle-lit table. The Italians really know how to ski!
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| These cabins actually weren't restaurants but they could have been. What an AMAZING place to own a ski cabin... |
As if our slope-side gourmet lunches weren’t enough, we also enjoyed a
gourmet dinner just about every evening, too. We shared an apartment
with Eva and took turns cooking fabulous meals. Our favorite meals,
however, involved no cooking at all. We called them “picnics” and
snacked all evening long on antipasti--Italian olives, artichoke hearts
in olive oil, pickled onions, cheese-stuffed peppers, prosciutto, speck,
several local cheeses, and of course, hearty Italian wines. Our
apartment kitchen came with just about every utensil you could possibly
need, but it didn’t come with candle holders, a severe oversight to any
Swede. Eva creatively and beautifully solved the problem by pushing
candles into shot glasses and then filling them with rice, so our
dinners were even candle-lit and cozy in addition to being tasty.
When
we flew into Innsbruck, Austria, my heart sank: there was hardly a
white dot of snow to be seen. Luckily, Val Gardena is high enough and
the ski-making equipment extensive enough that most of the slopes were
snowy and open for the Christmas rush. In places it was a little
strange to be skiing on great snow when there was exposed dirt to the
side of the trails, but a mid-week snowstorm transformed the entire
valley into a winter wonderland. We had a combination of cloudy, sunny,
windy, still, and snowy days, so we have experienced Val Gardena in all
of its moods.
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| The view from our apartment window during and after the big snowstorm. |
I’m not sure how many of the 1220km of trails we covered over our six days of skiing, but it was probably around 250km. I generally prefer to try someplace new instead of returning to somewhere I’ve already been, but in Val Gardena’s case, we can return time and again before we have skied all the runs. Returning to Val Gardena is now very high on my list.
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| Carl and I skiing in Val Gardena. |
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