The oldest...

Approximately 2500 years ago; the Romans built a baptistry in the place now called Riva San Vitale. The builders used local stone laid in a square shape at the foundation eventually progressing to an octagon as the building went higher. Today this buidling stands as the oldest Christian monument still in existance in Switzerland.

The building contains a monolithic baptismnal font carved out of a single block of store and was installed about 800 years ago. It is just over 6 feet across and it sits smack dab in the middle of the small building. Look underneath and you can see an octagonal immersion font set into the ground.

Part of the original floor - black and white marble set in a rosette pattern - is still there. The literature says that the floor has been raised at least four times since the baptistry was originally built. There are also several frescos still in the building. Two were removed to the adjacent parish church, but others have been partially restored in place. A small apse currently contains a modern alter. Peer down the wall to the left or right of the alter and you will be rewarded by the sight of the original foundation wall.

All this history is located directly across the street from us. The church bells wake us up at 7am (and every hour on the hour since we've been here). Since I have been here I am learning that despite the history, there are those that do not always support preserving these old things from the past. The main point seems to be if we preserve the very old at the expense of the new, who is to say that in five hundred years we will not wish that we had preserved something that we thought was 'throw away' just because it was a more modern building.

(images courtesy of the world wide interweb)

Age is just a state of mind

I have gotten myself into a situation where I am much older than the people I will be spending the month of July with. Because I don’t really know them at all I’ve found myself not telling stories or omitting details, like how long I’ve done something because I don’t want to give myself away. Today one of them was surprised that I had seen a kind of corny movie that she liked. What I didn’t tell her was that I saw it during it’s first release in the theater. I don’t feel (much) older than I was 10 or 15 years ago, but I know that my experience is making me much wiser.

Just how old is she?
The world may never know!

Zürich the Gartencity

This summer, the town of Zürich will be more lush than usual with more than 300 enormous decorated pots placed throughout the city. The pots will display over 30 different types of plant species. Visitors can admire the designs on the huge pots and learn about the different types of plants from placards as they stroll along the mapped route. City leaders have said that this display goes along with the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of the city; specifically appealing to people’s love of the environment. Chicago had cows*, San Francisco had hearts, Berlin had the Buddy Bears* and now Zürich has some huge decorated pots to attract visitors and locals to the streets downtown.

* city list nowhere near complete

(image courtesy of gARTencity Zürich website)

Slowing down

While I am in Europe this summer I will be taking a class titled Cities, Regions and Firms: The Role of the Global Business Environment and Local Economies. The second class I’m taking is titled Sustainability and Cities and will focus on the Slow Food and Slow Cities movements with a class project in a nearby town.

While both of these courses will be interesting, I’m most excited about learning more about Slow Cities (a.k.a. Cittaslow) and how the towns are choosing to approach each point in the charter. While it is great to learn about how larger urban areas work; I am really interested to learn how smaller towns are benefiting from having a thoughtful plan put into place.

From the Australian Cittaslow website (the official site is in Italian!) here are some of the main tenants of the Cittaslow movement.

A Cittaslow is one where the community chooses to:

• implement an environmental policy which nurtures the distinctive features of that town or city and its surrounding area, and focuses on recycling & recovery;
• put in place infrastructure with a focus on environmentally-friendly use of land;
• preserve the history of a region, the important buildings and historical locations and making sure they are identified, protected and maintained;
• encourage the use of technology that will improve the quality of air and life in the city;
• support the production and consumption of organic foodstuffs;
• protect and promote products which have their roots in tradition and reflect a local way of doing things;
• encourage learning about food and where it comes from;
• encourage a spirit of genuine hospitality towards guests of the town or city.

It seems like a good balance of preserving the past and taking advantage of current technology and I can’t wait to experience it in person.

Now, I just need to figure out how to slow myself down.

10 Black T-shirts, 4 scarves, 2 pairs of jeans, a skirt, a pair of fabulous pants...

Packing for a trip can be a mind numbing at best, especially when you are planning for a long one. I usually start with picking shoes based on the known activities, will I need flats or heels, hiking shoes, city sneakers (or both), sandals, etc… Once the type of shoe is narrowed down, color comes into play; black, browns or something more colorful? Shoe choice finalized, test driven and approved by an objective observer, I move on to clothing. The key for me here is that there are lots of ways to mix and match the chosen pieces. I have to be able to mix both styles and colors so that I can (a) carry my own suitcase without hurting myself and (b) don’t feel like I am wearing the same outfit every day (c) dress up or down as appropriate. Personal care items are chosen based on which things I really feel make my routine a productive one and a few key over the counter meds so that I don’t have to try and find them in a desperate situation, if you know what I mean. Finally, I pull together a small ‘survival kit’ for the airplane so that I can survive 24-48 hours without my luggage if I need to; a clean t-shirt, skivvies and a few things to freshen up with and the packing is done. It is usually fairly easy for me to pull things together, although the longer the trip, the longer it takes to pare things down the bare essentials.

The trip I need to pack for this month brings an added twist of several short overnight stays away from the central location. This means I need a satellite bag that is small enough to carry on the airplane (no second checked bag fee) and large enough to hold a few days worth of stuff. At the moment I’m thinking a large rolling suitcase, a soft-sided duffel for the carry on, and a backpack that will accommodate my camera, laptop, reading materials, etc. My handbag will go inside either the duffel or the backpack. Another possibility is two rolling suitcases; one small and one large. In that scenario I would pack the small one, insert it into the large one and check the whole thing, perhaps pushing the weight limits.

Stay tuned…

To New Beginnings (a.k.a. That's Just Crazy Talk)

When this blog was first set up, the intent was to use it to post an image a day from my travels both near and far. Life got in the way and between full time work, part time graduate school, orchestra, family and friends, the blog (obviously) took a back burner. Then, suddenly I was given a very generous gift of time. I quickly assessed my options and decided to take advantage of a summer study abroad program that would be both an extension and an enhancement of my graduate studies.

Crazy, right? I mean, who loses their job and decides to go to Europe for six weeks? Evidently that would be me. I'm going to do my best to keep this blog updated with where I am, what I am learning and how it is all impacting me and what I do next. I will also try to post images along the way.

I think that this will be an interesting summer as I try to always remember; whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are always right.