Our home base while traveling Europe
was a small villa located in mountainous vineyards of Tuscany, Italy. I was advised to search out the room with the best view, so I immediately ran to the fourth floor. What I saw there was breath taking, the window in my room was already opened to one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen yet.
Almost every night we came back
from exploring cities in Italy we were welcomed home by the Tuscan sun. It was hard believe that this villa was actually ours for the week. Even the vineyards surrounding the villa were owned by the family who was letting us stay on their land.
Villa Deste.
One of the most spectacular gardens we had the privilege of exploring. Almost every inch of the garden was running fountains or still water reflecting pools. The wall of 100 fountains is where is spent most of my time. Each face spitting water was carved with its own personality and expression, almost as if they were about to look up at you.
TThe hilltop city of Assisi almost felt like
a Mediterranean beach town nestled up in the hills. There were endless small roads leading up the mountain, we could hardly choose which path to take. We eventually trekked our way up to the very top of the mountain and stumbled upon the 600 year old castle fortress which used to protect the city.
La Foce was a bit of a deceiving
garden. At first glance one would assume that this was an accident garden, renovated to look new again. The reality of this garden was that a couple in the 1940’s loved ancient gardens and decided to build their own to emulate one. The plants they had growing there were some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.
This photo is actually one of my favorites
taken in Italy. The reason being is that this property was overrun by Germans during WWII and they used the garden pathways to ambush allied troops. I feel like this photo really captures the beauty and the horror of these pathways. The arching vines show the beauty of the garden while looking down the long pathway you feel a looming ominous presents.
The ancient ruins of Hadrian’s Villa really
expressed to me the design potential we have now a days. This was a 160 acre villa built for one emperor as a getaway home. To build this villa they removed more than a quarter of a mountain out so that the complex would have level ground for the horse racing track.
France was the last country our class
toured and was my absolute favorite country. It’s hard for me to even try to pick one city in France to say was my favorite. I guess overall it is pretty hard to beat Paris. Beautiful country side, beautiful architecture, and beautiful people.
The Chananceau Chateau basically
looked like a refined Disney castle surrounded by royal gardens. We were supposed to sketch this chateau but I really could not come up with a sketch that did this astonishing structure justice. Instead I focused on taking the best photograph I could of it. I quite pleased with the result.
I am horrified of heights so for me to even
go up half way in the Eiffel Tower was a struggle... But with the “encouragement” of my class mates I somehow ended up hanging over the edge to get one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. The most agonizing thing about being at the top of the tower is that you can really feel the tower swaying in the wind. In the end I’m glad I went up, but there was definitely some recovery time needed afterwards.