MONTE BOLETTO

On Saturday I bought a hiking map of the Lake Como region to plan future adventures. Unfamiliar with the scale of the mountains and length of trails I was very ambitious to conquer Mount Boletto which sits between Como and the town of Torno. Early in the morning I caught the ferry to Torno and started my hike back to Como.

I have been running in the mornings and I feel that I am almost back in shape, but once I started hiking straight up the mountain I was getting tired quickly. The trail I was on led me up the steep slope of the mountain side on a rough trail. My first landmark was an abandoned castle, Castello d’Ardona, located at 1000 meters (3000 feet) above the lake. Along the hike I was wondering who would want to hike up the mountain to get to their castle, but once I reached the top the view was self explanatory. The trail flattened out on my way to the summit of Monte Uccellera (1039m) and at this point I was only a quarter of the way to Como and I was debating whether I would be able to make it back before dark. I really didn’t have any other choice, but to press on and walk faster. I continued on my way towards the summit of Monte Boletto and I took a break at a resting place along the trail. I was drinking water and looking at my map and apparently, to those who were walking by, it appeared that I was lost. An old Italian couple approached me and asked me in Italian if I was lost. With my horrible Italian I explained where I had hiked from and where I was going, but the couple was very concerned because it was a long hike back to Como. When I showed them on the map that I was planning on taking a small trail down the mountain side they told me that it was a bad idea—I on the other hand had no doubts. Anyways, I hiked up to the Summit (3711 feet) and back down the other side along the narrow trail into the valley. At this point I was getting very tired and ready to get home, but as I descended down the trail my fate did not look good. The trail followed the mountain ridge and when I could no longer see the trail before it dropped off into a densely wooded valley I realized that I needed to turn around. The only way back was over the top of the Monte Boletto summit! When I reached the top of the summit for the second time, sweaty and red in the face, I saw the old Italian couple lying in the sun and I had to admit my defeat. I followed the wider trail down to the town of Brunate and I could see Como bellow. Following along the trail that I thought would lead me home I seemed to be heading the wrong direction but I was going down hill instead of up and that was all that mattered at the time. At the end of the trail I was in the town of Blevio and the only way to get back to Como was along the main road. While I was walking through the town I passed a father and his two sons getting into a van. When they saw me walking on the shoulder of the highway they kindly pulled over and gave me a ride back home. A great way to end a 9-hour hike, by hitch hiking! I was thankful to be home before dark and in one piece!

Castello d’Ardona (1000m)

Monte Uccellera (1039m)

Monte Boletto (1237m)

Boat to Torno

Summit of Bolleto

Narrow path

Italian interaction

Brunate

Strada regina

Como

BELLAGIO

Lake Como is 60 km long (about 30 miles) from the Northern most tip down to Como. I wanted to take the ferry up to the northern town of Colico, but I did not realize that it was a 10 hour roundtrip journey. Instead I settled for Bellagio, only 2 hours away. I was lucky enough to get aboard a ferry with a tourist group whose tour guide provided commentary over the speakers along the way. She kindly pointed out George Clooney’s Villa, Villa D’Este, and a few other historically important Villas. The weather was perfect for a boat ride and I was able to take a few pictures along the way. Once we arrived at the Bellagio docks we could see the Swiss Alps north of the lake.

Most people are surprised when they visit the original Bellagio that inspired the Las Vegas landmark hotel. No grand hotels, fountains or expensive restaurants—just a two street town with a marina and a few small cafes. I spent a few hours by the lake while I was in Bellagio and enjoyed the view. I hopped back on the ferry for the ride back home and landed in Como two hours later.

View of the Alps from Bellagio



Ferry Terminal

Villa D'Este



George Clooney's Villa

22

Another year gone… Now that I have cruised past the important age markers: 16, 18, and 21, I don’t believe that there are any more to look forward to. Add another check mark to the running tally!

My 22^nd birthday was a blast and it was a special memory celebrating in Italy. I am lucky to have a few great friends on this trip that made me a birthday dinner. They cooked shish kebabs, fried eggplant and pasta salad, accompanied with Jim Beam and Budweiser. After dinner we ventured out to a few bars and explored Como looking for some locals. It turned out to be a great night and I had a blast spending time with my friends. Thank you to those of you who sent me a birthday wish!

The birthday feast!

Fighting among friends...

The aftermath...

Death match part 2...

EASTER

Happy Easter! Since the Catholic Church has such as big religious and political influence in Italy, the non-religious folks, like me, get to benefit from the extra days off. This weekend we have a long four day break because there is no school on Good Friday and we get Monday off as well. Thank you Jesus! Next week we will be heading to Paris for a week with one of our professors and the following week is our Spring Break, so I decided to stay home this weekend to save some money. Unfortunately as every day goes by the U.S. dollar keeps getting worse- meaning that my money doesn’t go as far as it used to when I first got here.

This weekend Como has been packed with thousands of people shopping and cruising the streets on their long weekend. Even with the poor weather, people still come flooding into the city—I cannot even imagine how crowded this city will be come summer time! Good thing I will be gone by then…

I have spent all of my time this weekend getting caught up on my blog and working on my studio design project. We have Midterm presentations on Friday and I know this week is going to go by fast with the extra day off on Monday and my birthday celebration on Tuesday.

Sorry for the delay on updating my blog, but now that I am caught up I wont have any trouble staying up-to-date. Stay tuned loyal readers. I would like to hear from those of you who are reading my blog, so feel free to send me an email [rhart@usc.edu] and give me an update from the United States.

COFFEE

I thought I would take a minute to share with you my favorite Italian coffee maker. This is a 2-cup Bialetti coffee pot that makes my coffee every morning. The concept is so simple that it blew me away when I started using it—no filters and no machine! It requires water in the bottom reservoir, a little ground coffee in the middle container and a stove. The water boils up through the coffee, comes out the top and collects in the pot. That’s it! They might sell these in the United States, but this was my first experience with one and I plan on bringing one home with me.

ZUMTHOR

Today was our field trip to see three of Peter Zumthor’s buildings in Austria and Switzerland. At 6am we boarded our private bus that would take us through the Swiss Alps on our Architectural pilgrimage. The four hour long bus ride to Austria allowed everyone to take a quick nap and prepare for the long day ahead of us. Around ten o’clock we were in front of the Kunsthaus Gallery- a building I have studied multiple times and greatly admired. Inside was an exhibit of Maurizio Cattelan that only contained three pieces of art. He is an artist who designs life-like sculptures with deeply rooted political messages. We were allowed to take pictures inside the museum of his work because Cattelan believes that the best way to spread the message about his art is through the people who see it—I think my posting of these pictures is an example of the success of his plan. The exhibit was powerful and moving to say the least!

Our next stop was back in Switzerland to see a small chapel that was designed for a community up in the mountains. I don’t think I can count how many times I have seen the chapel in lectures- but it doesn’t quite compare to the experience of actually being there. I was blown away by the elegance of the building with the rugged landscape of the mountains beyond. Now we were all getting excited to get to our last stop on the trip- the thermal baths. The only way to get a tour of the Therme Vals is by swimming through the pools, so we all brought our swim suits.

The baths are located at a hotel resort and can be thought of as a spa-type atmosphere. There is a series of pools which range from ice water to a hot tub as well as everything in between. They are meant to be experienced in a sequence going from cold to warm and back from warm to cold. Saunas and resort type amenities are also available, such as massages and skin care stuff. Unfortunately cameras are not allowed in the baths, but I was able to sneak my water-proof camera in my swim suit and take a few pictures. When we were in the pools I would have to pull my camera out, pop it above the water and snap a few pictures before anyone saw me. I am sure that I looked a little creepy, but I don’t really care because I was able to get a few good pictures. My favorite pool was the hot tub that was outside. The view of the snow covered mountains and the steam off the water added to the whole experience. Another one of my favorites was the meditation bath. To get to it required wading into a pool and passing through a small hole in the stone wall before ending up in a ten foot by ten foot room with the ceiling 30 feet above. Inside the room there was a slight hum being played over speakers and minerals in the water. It was a nice place to sit and relax- not like my time in Italy has given me too much to stress about.

Of course the crowd favorite was the ice water bath which we would jump in after coming out of the hot tub- did someone says shrinkage? Just kidding.

After the baths we had a few drinks in the bar, soaked up the view and then headed to dinner with our professor. Again, it was another great day!

ST. PATTYS DAY

When the Pope moved St. Patrick’s day from the 17^th to the 15^th of March, the world got budged off its axis just enough to disrupt the beer drinking gods and cause everything to go wrong today. Olen and I decided to catch the train to Milan and spend the day bar hoping to and from Irish bars. To start things off we caught the first train that was running out of Como to Milan which would take us to Porta Garibali, located just outside the center of the city. We caught the subway into the city center and this began our never ending ride on the Metro Subway… We started the day off with a Guinness on our way to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”. It seemed that everything was going great, until we got to the museum and found out that the “Last Supper” was sold out. That should have been our sign to turn around and go home- call it quits while we were ahead. We didn’t know that in order to see the acclaimed painting you must make a reservation ahead of time, or get to the museum early in the morning. We shrugged it off and wandered over to another art museum in Milan, the Pinacoteca, which houses a large collection of 16^th century religious art and a small exhibition of contemporary work. Next another beer, and some people watching…

Our Metro subway adventure continued when we were trying to find the main shopping district in Milan. According to the map it was only a few blocks away from where we were, but after walking and walking, we were no closer than where we had started from. Even though it seemed that we were within the vicinity of the area, we were apparently no where near where we wanted to be. So for the second time we hoped on the Subway…

We found the shopping area but by the time we got there most of the stores had already closed. Our next objective was to find a place to eat dinner… after finding out that the “Last Supper” was sold out it should have given us a clue that we were not going to find a place to eat. Again we walked and walked with no luck--we did happen to find the red light district, although that was not quite what we were looking for at the time. Next plan of action was to hop back on the subway and head towards the Duomo where the tourist attractions were. Once we found a restaurant that looked within our price range, we went inside and found out that we needed reservations. Now this was beginning to get ridiculous because it was ten o’clock and most restaurants would not be serving food much longer and we were ready to go home. We decided to cut our losses, get on the train and forget about dinner. Unfortunately the only train bound for Como from the Milano Centrale station would not be leaving until 12:30am—meaning a two and a half hour wait. Plan B: we got on the subway and went to the Milano Cardonna train station that runs along different tracks into Como, which may have an early train. Nope- no more trains! So we got back on the subway and went to the central station to wait for the 12:30am train. This would mean that we would be getting into our apartments in Como at about 2:00am, much later than we had hoped. Well the bad luck does not end here.

We boarded our train, found our seats and both of us accidentally fell asleep. The next thing we know we are stopped at the Switzerland border after missing our stop in Como. Since we did not plan on going to Switzerland, neither Olen nor I had brought our passports. We got off the train and were stopped by the Swiss border patrol, who conveniently enough did not speak English or Italian. Now that we were over the Swiss border and had no form of Official International identification- they put us in police custody with a crazy Israeli man who was extremely high on something, a big drunken German man and another sketchy fellow. When the border patrol came in with rubber gloves and handcuffs it looked as if this night was going to get even worse… Eventually we were allowed to talk to an Italian Police officer who spoke English and we tried to explain our situation to him. After much convincing he led us out the back door and we were free, but no where near Como. Olen and I had imagined that we might end up in jail on St. Patty’s day, but not quite like this…

Since it was 2:30 in the morning there were no buses running and we had no idea where we were. So we just started walking South back towards Italy in the pouring rain. Two hours later we were standing in front of our apartment building and wondering how we made it back alive. We figured out the next day that it was about an eight mile hike, and now I don’t think I will be able to fall asleep on a train ever again!

EVERYDAY

I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about a few of the differences between American and Italian everyday life that I have encountered during my time here.

Store Hours:
The first hurdle I came to was trying to figure out and understand the hours of operation for most stores. While we were in Rome most stores opened around ten o’clock, closed for lunch from one to three, and then were closed at six o’clock in the evening. Now that we are in Como I have found a few stores that open earlier and stay open longer, but they are always closed for lunch. All stores are closed on Sunday- even grocery stores, so my schedule has adjusted accordingly, but sometimes I still forget. Some stores are closed on both Saturday and Sunday and a few are closed from Saturday to Monday—but I have yet to figure out which ones and why…

Promenading:
Even though most of the stores are closed on the weekend in Como, it is still customary to “Promenade” around the city. Many people will take the train into Como to spend the day window shopping and walking around the city. There are only a few stores open on Saturday and very few restaurants, but they seem to show up in hoards every weekend without exception.

Lunch:
I learned from my professor that most Italian families will have lunch at their dining room table everyday—which explains why most stores are closed. Italian schools do not serve lunch and the students are expected to return home in the afternoon. Lunch is normally served around two o’clock and some restaurants will not open until after noon.

Dinner:
Most restaurants have their dinner rush around 9 or 10 o’clock- which is not much different from my normal dinner schedule at home so it didn’t take too long to get used to. Sometimes we will still find ourselves getting to a restaurant around 7 or 8 o’clock wondering why we are the only ones there and by the time we are finished the place will be packed. It is expected that you order a minimum of two courses- usually a salad and pasta or pasta and a main dish, like fish or chicken. Two food items are never served on the same plate—don’t even think about it! If you want water you have to buy a bottle, so sometimes it is cheaper to order the house red wine than it is to order water. Each restaurant charges a “Coperto” or cover charge for each person. This serves as the mandatory tip and no other gratuity is required.

Grocery Stores:
The biggest grocery store within the historic center of Como is about the size of a 7-11 convenience store. There are very few options when it comes to brands, types, sizes, etc. There is however, always a huge selection of fresh cheeses- and I always pick up a different kind every time I go shopping. One aspect that I had a really difficult time getting past, but now I have almost forgotten completely was how they store the eggs. The eggs you buy in the grocery store are not refrigerated and they come in small six pack containers. When I told my Dad about this he was a little concerned, but I have never got an upset stomach from warm eggs. You have to pay for plastic bags and you have to bag your own groceries, so most people will bring their own bags. This isn’t too unusual because there were some stores in Los Angeles that operated this way as well. The difficult part is that there is very little space past the cashier scanner and if you are not fast enough bagging your groceries, the next persons items begin pilling up on yours and it starts a never ending cycle… Most stores also expect that you pay with exact change and get very irritated when you pay with anything over your exact total. “Its not my fault lady- you don’t accept credit cards and the Bancomat only gives me 20’s- so get off my back!!!” If anyone knows how to say that in Italian I would greatly appreciate it if you could send it my way. Thanks.
Also, the sandwich bread is tiny- I mean really tiny! You cannot find Zip-lock bags or Plastic wrap anywhere in Italy—their leftover wrapper of choice is tin foil.
I know that when I return to the United States the differences will really hit me, because certain things have already become second nature to me.

Bathrooms/Toilets:
Every bathroom I go into I am always surprised and sometimes scared. The plumbing isn’t very reliable, and sometimes a bathroom visit can require at least 5 flushes—and for Olen at least 8 flushes (I hope he doesn’t read this part of my blog…). At certain restaurants and bars the toilets are just holes in the floor and if your visit requires squatting there are two foot pads to stand on. I will take a picture of one at the next bar I go to for those of you who are curious.

Laundry:
Doing laundry sucks no matter where you go in the world, but here in Italy it is just more expensive. To do a normal sized wash it costs 6 Euros ($10) and 3.50 Euros ($5) to dry. Whether my friends like it our not, I have to wear some of my clothes multiple times before they get washed just so I feel like I got my moneys worth out the wash. Either they put up with the smell or they fork over some money—just joking—but not really.

Gas:
Gas is expensive here too, and I am really glad that I do not have a car. Each liter of gas costs 1.50 Euros and I believe that 1 gallon = 3 liters, making an Italian gallon of gas cost a grand total of US $7.50!!! Mamma Mia!

Feel free to leave me comments on this page if you have any questions….

BACK FROM DEUTSCHLAND

So we learned today that it is not actually time for Day Light Savings yet in Europe. After setting our clocks forward last night and losing an extra hour of sleep, we found out the hard way that we were an hour early to the train station. We woke up this morning in a hurry to get to the train station because we were nervous that we might miss our flight back to Italy. On Saturday we had heard that the German transportation workers would be going on strike on Monday, meaning that all trains, planes and buses would stop running. If we missed our flight we would have to become students of German architecture until the strike was over, but no worries, because I am writing this safely from Italy.

Today was a long day of traveling! We left our hotel and caught the light rail tram to the main Düsseldorf terminal where we could catch our next train. At the train station we boarded a tiny train with an engine and two passenger cars- it was the smallest train we have been on thus far. I guess you could say it was like the short bus- but on train tracks. Boy did we feel special! Anyways, it took us about an hour on a short train to get to the small town of Weeze where we found the local airport. From the train station we hoped on a bus which dropped us off right in front of the airport, where we were 2 hours early for our flight. Considering there were only two flights out of the Weeze airport that afternoon, we didn’t have any trouble getting through security. The airline we flew on has first come, first serve seating, so all five of us got window seats! It is nice to have a window to lean on, rather than sleeping on your neighbor on a long plane ride. Ninety minutes later we were in the Milan Airport, with another two hours of traveling ahead of us. From the Airport we took a private bus to the central Milan train station, which has become our second home. Most of our trips out of Como require transferring at the Milan Central station to long distance high-speed trains, so we have become accustomed to waiting in the station. For the final leg of the trip we had to catch our routine, hour-long train from Milano Centrale to Como San Giovanni. When it was all said and done we had traveled for 8 hours, rode on 3 trains, 2 buses and 1 plane.

The weather was overcast when we got into Como and it looked as if it was going to rain and this served as a perfect excuse for me to stay inside and catch up on my blogging…

MARS VOLTA

The next morning I got up early to enjoy some breakfast and coffee in the garden. I didn’t see this happening again anywhere in the near future, so I made sure to absorb every minute. German and Italian breakfast is similar in many ways- very light, with breads, jams and juice but with the exception of German sausages. Oh yeah!

The other three were slow to rise and joined me for breakfast a little later in the morning. Once we were all gathered we headed to the train station and found a train that would take us to Cologne. Our agenda included seeing an exhibit of Piet Mondrian, who is a painter, turned architectural philosopher, turned architect. He was the founder of the De Stijl movement which we have studied closely with the early Modernism movement. I really enjoyed seeing his work on display- most of which I had seen in books many times previously, but I also was able to see many of his unpublished paintings. Our tickets allowed us to see the rest of the museum as well but I don’t think any of us realized what we were getting ourselves into. The Cologne museum was the largest I have ever been to and I think it would take a few whole days to walk through the gallery and really look at most of the paintings. After a few hours I was just walking through the rooms in order to get to the end because my mind was on art overload.

As we left the museum we found ourselves in the middle of a German pillow fight. It appeared to be a school organized pillow fight taking place in the middle of the piazza outside of the cathedral. As we were passing by around the outside, a girl who was armed with a pillow approached me and said something to me in German. I had no idea what she said so I turned my head and continued to walk and as a consequence I was nailed on the side of the head with a pillow. This caught me a little off guard because I was empty handed and didn’t even have a pillow to defend myself with.

We continued to walk around taking pictures of architecture, window shopping and searching for the perfect Bratwurst stand. Before we found the ultimate bratwurst we were distracted by the best looking fries any of us had ever seen- they were wrapped in paper, topped with ketchup, mayonnaise and fried onions. As you can tell by the picture, not only did they look good, but they tasted good as well.

In Cologne we saw a Starbucks for the first time and the girls could not resist. While Loren and Sarah were drinking their Lattes, Olen and I walked down the street to a brewery and sampled a few German beers. More wandering followed, and we finally found a Bratwurst stand. The whole day I had built up an image of a Bratwurst on a big bun, with ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut, but that is not what we got. We were served a large sausage in a small dinner roll with the ends sticking out both sides of the bun. I am not complaining because it was great- it just wasn’t quite what we were expecting.

The next order of business was to start looking for the concert venue which was located in the middle of an industrial area. Once we found the warehouse the concert had already started and the place was packed. For those of you who are not familiar with Mars Volta music- they can be described as a contemporary mix of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Santana all rolled into one. It was incredible!

After the concert we hopped on the last train back to Düsseldorf and proceeded to walk to our hotel since all of the buses had stopped running for the night. Our hotel closes at midnight, meaning that all of the doors were locked and we had no way to get in- well there was a way, but none of us had paid attention when the lady told us the day before. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Since we were staying in a house behind the hotel we were able to walk to the end of the block and hop a few fences until we made it to the garden behind the hotel. It made for an exciting adventure just getting to our hotel room. Loren reminded us that it was Daylight savings time in the US, so we all set our clocks forward one hour before going to bed…