Month: May 2022

Friday, May 20th, Day 5

One of the most exciting parts about living in Genoa for two weeks is the amount of events and festivals the city throws that we get to attend! This week specifically, Genoa showcased their art world with their Design Week. We visited dozens of local galleries and exhibits ranging from furniture layouts to nautical displays where the concept of “space” was emphasized in every design. One gallery in particular hit home for us. Il Vicolo Galleria d’arte is owned by Ambra Guadenzi whose husband teaches at Clemson University’s School of Architecture here in Genoa. The gallery showcases art made by Emanuele Luzzati, a former resident of Castelleto near Clemson Architecture Foundation’s villa. All six of us were able to gather for lunch together where we continued to indulge in Italy’s fresh pasta, bread and gelato! Further exploring downtown Genoa, we stopped at a few shops to admire Italian fashion. We concluded our day with dinner cooked by our professor, Frances Ford, and fruit dessert prepared by Anna Gehring. As a fun bonus, we learned we absolutely love the whipped cream here! Italian food has yet to disappoint!

Saturday, May 21st, Day 6

Who knew coming to Italy that we’d get to experience other country’s culture traditions and festivals? Here in Genoa, on Saturday, May 21st, we had the opportunity to celebrate an annual festival dear to the town of Murcia, Spain. In fact, Murcia and Genoa are twin cities! Citizens from Murcia traveled over to their sister city to host the first international Burial of the Sardine, or Entierro de la Sardina. The people of Genoa and Murcia came together to throw a day of festivities, multiple of which we got to participate in. In the morning was the parade where over a million toys and pieces of jewelry were handed out to the children of Genoa, traditional Spanish and Italian cuisine was showcased in different piazzas throughout the day, and the night ended with the burning of a sardine sculpture and a beautiful fireworks display! Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the actual burning, although we tried! It happened to occur at 11:30 pm, and after a week of walking an average of 15-20k steps a day, we were too exhausted to stay out that late. Regardless, we were happy to celebrate all day long a fun festival alongside two countries! Bonus: we got to see fireworks from the terrace at our villa!

Wednesday May 18, 2022:
Today the group woke up to a bright sunny day in Genoa. The morning began with having a nice breakfast in the garden while enjoying cappuccinos and freshly made bread. Piazza Sant’Anna was first on the “to-do” list for the day.

Close to the Clemson villa, Piazza Sant’Anna is a square located in the quarter of Castelletto within Genoa. Sant’Anna includes intact structures dating back from the 1600s and the students got to visit two of these deeply rooted historic buildings. The first building visited in the square was the church of Sant’Anna (St. Anne), which is a typical Baroque style Genoa church. The second building visited in the piazza was Antica Framacia Sant’Anna that dates back to the mid-17th century. It was the old pharmacy for the convent located within the piazza.

Today ended with a delightful dinner made by one of our students with the help of some of her classmates. She prepared pasta with lettuce, olive oil, tomatoes, and spices, yum! Some of the pictures taken today by professor Frances Ford as well as the students can be found down below. We’re excited for what is to come in their adventures!

Thursday May 19, 2022:
Today was a fun-packed trip to Cinque Terre! This location includes five old villages on the Italian Riviera, which the group hit the ground running first thing this morning to catch the train. Each Italian Riviera village has its own unique style but all are stunning! Riomaggiore was the first of the five villages visited by train followed by Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and lastly Monterosso. While walking around these locations, the group explored churches, shops, scenic routes, and breathtaking views. Some of the pictures taken today by professor Frances Ford as well as the students can be found down below. Very exciting!

Our eighth day in Genoa began with a visit to the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, or Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno. The extensive nineteenth-century cemetery contains elaborate funerary monuments and in some cases, entire buildings, dedicated to their respective families. After roaming, we ate lunch in Piazza San Lorenzo and visited the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Lawrence. The Cattedrale di San Lorenzo is not only monumental and an example of gothic architecture, the bomb fired by a British battleship into the cathedral in February of 1941 and did not explode can still be found in the cathedral. The group then split up for each student to study their own piazza for our assigned project. While on the way back to the villa, we were lucky enough to see a decorative painter at work on the outside of a building in Piazza Ferrari. While Professor Ford and some students took the usual route back to the villa, some students tested out their understanding of the bus system in the city.

On the last day of our first week in Genoa we took a field trip heading to Portofino with some stops along the way. We began by taking a train to Nervi where our first stop was the Wolfsoniana which is a museum that houses examples of Art Deco and Art Nouveau works.

When we finished at the museum we walked down to the Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi to take a break by the sea.

After a short while we made our way to Santa Margherita again by train where we began our beautiful trek to Portofino along the coastline.

Once we arrived in Portofino we made our way up to Chiesa Di San Giorgio to visit the church and get a good view of the city.

The last stop on our list was Castello Brown which has been used since Roman times for everything from defense of the port, a private residence, to a house museum. We quickly learned that the grounds were closed this week for a private event. So we decided to move on in search of some food.

As we perused the restaurants by the harbor, to our surprise, several celebrities marched past us on their way to the private event which we learned was Kourtney Kardashian’s wedding and reception. Pictured here are Machine Gun Kelly and Mark Hoppus from Blink 182 along with his wife Skye.

Deciding to start making our way back home, we took the bus back to Santa Margherita where we had dinner and dessert at Pizzeria Santa Lucia before catching the train home to Genoa.