Wired!

Padre Felice (Felix) was our main resource about San Lorenzo. On Wednesday we had the last question-and-answer session together (Padre was talking about the cultural issues – reminding us of all the “piu importante” italian artists we have not heard about; we in turn were asking about structural details). Some useful images of the church came up from the bottom of the convent’s stacks. The rest of the day we spent working on the models. In the evening Gemma and her friend Carlos took us to a cosy place for dinner. Then some more modelling and a deserved sleep.

The next day we took the Circumvesuviana (a regional train) to Pompei and Herculanum.

Flocks of tourists swirl around the ancient ruins. There are fora, temples, whorehouses, and even public buffets; here and there remains of frescoes. We had beautiful weather. Ciprus trees swaying in the wind and Vesuvius in the background… bellezza. Of the romans there remained only ash casts and bones (some of the bodies (contorted in pains of death) are exhibited in glass cases! horror!). There were many stray dogs sleeping in the sunny streets of the ancient city. They did not mind the tourists.

We took thousands of pictures. Especially Umberto was keen on collecting textures – Hadrianic baths are all set!

Frutti di mare for dinner. Again some final touches to the model… we give up for now. There is the 6th century basilica and carefully modeled crucial parts of the present church ready to be picked up next time.

Today morning Umberto left for Rome, to visit his family. The Akara and Laura went again on Circumvesuviana to climb its namesake. Michal stayed in Naples, catching up with some schoolwork and taking final strolls in the city.

Tomorrow morning we take a train to Firenze where Santa Croce (the focus of Laura’s project) and other sites wait for our eyes.

Ciao a tutti. Yesterday we sadly left the convento. We got a late start because we were working until 6 am with Fra Angello (he says he works better in the night because during the day he gets too many phone calls). We ate our ‘last supper’ and drove for two hours through the beautiful mountains to Naples.

When we arrived, Fra Angello directed us through the busy streets, and stopped to say hi to 1 out of every 2 people – all of whom he knew very well. We also met Father Felice and Gemma and went out for some pizza. They were all too nice to us – it is getting suspicious. Also, we are having problems spending our money because everyone wants to pay for our food.

Today, we visited San Lorenzo and took measurements and pictures galore. We also visited the archeological museum, and walked through the ancient Roman market.

We parted with Fra Angello this afternoon. He gave us each a small gift and big hugs. We will all miss him. Bittersweet… but our work continues…

Correction: Today is not Mother’s Day.  It is Women’s Day.  As a surprise after dinner, the brothers baked Akara and Laura a special lemon-pineapple cake.  Then, we all went into town for beers.

Can’t forget that we ate some delicious pizza made by the brothers for dinner, as well as breakfast the next morning. There were several varieties for our choosing – cheese, no cheese, con fungi, and veggie. The brothers are trying to fatten us up.

Mountain Climb

Michal and Fra Agnello were up until nearly 4 am last night working on the model!  We have decided to try to reconstruct two different stages of the monastery (around 1300 and 1500).  We spent the morning cutting and pasting bits of all our models into a master file, grouping the elements, and getting everything to scale.

Today is mother’s day in Italy (and the birthday of our cook), so we had a big celebration from lunch.  Since the weather was nice, we decided to carry on the festivities and up hike the mountain.  The four of us piled into a tiny Fiat with Brother James and drove up the winding road until we got stuck in a snow bank.  We hiked the rest of the way up the mountain until we reached the church on top.  We took some beautiful photos (check out flickr!) and learned about the area.  It helped us to see Folloni from above, and to see it in context.

On the way back down, Brother James drove us through the narrow streets of Morella.  Now all of the brothers are in mass.  We changed our soggy clothes, and are back in the computer lab working on the model.

Buonasera tutti!

Here is the link to our Flickr photostream, if anyone is interested.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36152444@N08/

Ciao!

Well, today we began by exploring the convent, both new and old, in attempt to grasp the full differences between the two! Our other aim, of course was to gain a better idea of what the convent may have looked like, and its progression over time. We were given a tour, by a super enthusiastic Fra Agnello.

Perhaps what was most interesting about the tour, was the cloister. Fra Agnello explained that it was reconstructed twice, the original dating back to the 1300′s, then reconstructed in 1500 and in 1700.  We even have concrete evidence here! A bit of the cloister has an original wall, with remaining signs of many of the arches. Although unsure of how we may integrate this into our sketch-up models at the moment, we were able to get some measurements of the height and width of the arches and the differences over time.

Even after a trip here we are still struggling with  our already much debated issues concerning roofing. Fra Agnello brings up older photos from about 1920 (which he claims exhibit a less standardized convent, and thus one more similar to that of 1700). The earlier years are still to be left to historical hypothesis! Michal and Agnello are currently debating rather energetically about what it may have looked like.

Smaller finds, such as the archways of the chapels and pieces of the original columns have gone a long way to adding to the historical accuracy of what the convent may have been in the past. Dates however have remain rather hypothetical; Fra Agnello is claiming that much of the second floor (ie bits over the refectory and what we considered as the chapter house) appeared around the 1500′s. The staircase visualized near the original nave was built, for certain (due to an inscripion on the bottom step) in 1495.

Realistically however, the real highlight of the day was lunch (at least for me). I miss Italian cooking! Pasta and cotolette hit the spot, especially in the rather chilly weather. The many espressos throughout the day have also gone a long way to curbing jet-lag.

One of us (name unmentioned) almost missed the flight. All came out well in the end and we are now at the Convento.

The weather was getting worst and worst the further away we got from Durham. Cloudy in NY and Rome, Raining in Naples, until a full winter experience at Folloni. We were so shocked at the amount of snow that we refrained from exploring the surrounding the first day. All of us have some winter clothing… hopefully.

At dinner we met most of the brothers. The convent houses an astonishingly international community at this time. Apart from Italians there is a friar from Kongo and a group of four from Canada (who came to study at the seminary in Benevento). Pasta & fish, casual chat, reading of an exrerpt from the rule, italian espresso and fruit for desert – usual.

After dinner Fra Agnelo showed us around the newly arranged library office where we are stationed now, benefiting from internet connectivity. Fra Agnelo brings out old books to show us: from Gregorian chants to Virgiluis’ poetry – some dating back to the 15th century. We intend on a night exploration of the convent and an early sleep to recover energy before tomorrow.