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Published: July 19th 2005
Columns of Il Tempio
Such a beautiful Catholic Church inside, but because of no flash rule, it did not photograph wellNOTE: This was meant to be sent last Friday.
Just wanted to send a quick update on my week before I head out to France this weekend. On Tuesday one of my professors took my class to the small town of Passagno. This town houses Il Tempio and is the hometown of a famous sculptor. Il Tempio is a round temple that is actually a church. It was built in the 1800s (relatively new by Italian standards) and is modeled after the Pantheon (the oldest building in the world, in Rome). The inside was absolutely beautiful and had elegant sculptures and detailed frescoes. For a euro 30 (about $1.56, I think) you could climb the stairs that spiral the building and walk to the top of the dome. After my experience in Vatican City I decided that it would not be a good idea for me to do it, which turned out to be a good thing because those that did had to turn right back around because of lightening (the dome is metal).
After that we went to the house of Canova. It turns out he was a famous neo-classical sculptor from the 1800s who has beautiful and
well known artwork displayed throughout the world (does anyone know "Tre Grazie" --"Three Graces"--? I'd not heard of it, but it was beautiful.) Anyway the building housed nearly all of the plaster models he used to create the final sculptures...very cool. Some even had measurement markers on them. I've attached pictures of some of the good ones.
When we finished the art tour, we headed to a place called Prince Resort. It was a beautiful pink villa atop a grassy hill. Normally I'm not one for pink houses, but this place was amazing. The decor was so grand and refined it was breathtaking. Rooms ran from 95 to 500 euros a night (the pictures I've included don't do justice). At the resort, we had antipasti and Prosecco, a yummy sparkling white wine. Although I happen to be a red wine fan, this is so good that I bought three bottles!
We continued on to another restaurant for dinner. The food and atmosphere were also fantastic here. We also had the pleasure of dining with a native Italian named Cinthia (pronounced Chin-thi-ah). She is an architect from Venice who studied at Cincinnati! She randomly met us the first Tuesday
Mars and Venus
My favorite Canova sculpture. of classes when my professor was giving us a tour of Asolo. So he invited her to dinner with us. It was so interesting to get a new perspective on American life!
All in all it was a great night that ended with all the students meeting for drinks at one of our favorite spots, Epoca!
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Tom
non-member comment
Canova
Hi: Nice to see a blog on my favorite sculpture artist and idol, Antonio Canova. Venus Italica is my favorite work by him, but I am going to see the "Hope Venus", supposedly his best of that genre. Theseus and the Centaur in Vienna is a great favorite, too.