Day in Tuscania

Yesterday was a full day beginning with my primo Italian exam that included an oral presentation.  Well, let’s just say I took a loaves and fishes approach to the presentation…. Meaning, I did as much as I possibly could do with 5 nouns and 2 verbs.  I won’t say I was magnifico but I did my best. Later this afternoon I will get the results.  Oh dear.  To prepare for the deluge, it’s just best to have lunch.  Here is my gorgeous salad and a pizza I picked up from my favorite bakery. 

The highlight of yesterday was a trip to Tuscania, a medieval town that is about 30 minutes drive from Viterbo.  I met my drawing class at the Porta Fiorentino in Viterbo and from there our instructor drove us to Tuscania.  We stopped just outside the town to view it from a hill and do a quick sketch.  Using pencil and/or pen we were invited to do very quick sketches of the city.  The point of the exercise is to identify specific forms and shapes and then via close observation (and minimalism) complete the drawing with a few details like rocks, sections of old walls and vegetation.  Here is my sketch:

In Tuscania we wandered around the town, doing very quick exercise sketches of portions of fountains, sculpture, doorways and passages.  It’s kind of like an exercise in drawing caricatures because you are trying to capture that one element that ‘defines’ the essence of the thing.  Here are some of us doing quick sketches of the landscape:

After about two hours we met up with my Dante class and the Medieval Hill Cities class for a tour of two important churches: the San Pietro and the Mary Maggiore.  They are both undergoing some ‘fixing’ and stabilizing and contain the most glorious frescoes.  Seriously gorgeous and old, old, old.   We went down into the crypt of M Maggiore to see these graceful gothic arches made of marble that is not local but rather ‘procured’ from ancient Roman and Etruscan sites.  In fact, Tuscania is built on top of Etruscan ruins and they are constantly uncovering walls, dwellings and sarcophagi.  (Forgive the crazy confusion of the photo layout.  I can't seem to get this thing to do what I want.... ugh.  And after wine with lunch, who cares?  Geez.)