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>> TERRY BOHLING: Today's webinar is entitled "The SmART Traveler: Bringing the past to
life while making memories to last a lifetime!" And our presenter is Peter Lewis Gabak. Professor
Gabak is an art and architectural historian at Rochester Institute of Technology. He began
his teaching career at RIT in the fall of 2008 and instructs a variety of undergraduate
and graduate courses, including Survey of Western Art and Architecture I & II, Architectural
History I & II; Renaissance Painting in Flanders; and the History of Computer Graphics.
He has traveled abroad with the RIT honors student trips to Germany, Italy, and the United
Kingdom. Peter is fluent in French and conversant in Italian, having lived in Siena, Italy.
He is a seasoned international traveler, knowledgeable in many areas of art history, including the
art and architecture of the Italian renaissance. His travel in education motto is, "The world
will be our classroom, and it will always be my privilege to show RIT trip participants
magnificent works of art and great architectural marvels while taking travelers off the usual
tourist paths to see and experience the heart of the Italian landscape."
Benvenuto, Peter. >> PETER GABAK: Thank you, Terry. Thank you,
thank you. It's my privilege to be with you all today as RIT alumni and friends, and whether
you've traveled before, seasoned traveler, never traveled out of the country, it's my
privilege to sort of lend you my experience as a traveler who has traveled abroad.
So I am here today with a sort of potpourri of things to offer a little bit of lifestyle,
cultural Italian trips, travel tips, maybe some language as well.
I wanted to give you, from my experience, the best travel tips for both novice and seasoned
travelers alike. I think one of the things I learned early
on, particularly with regard to packing, is to roll your clothes. Rolling your clothes,
particularly pants, shirts, anything really can roll, you conserve space in your luggage.
In addition to doing that, not only do you conserve space, you also sort of free up space
to bring back great souvenirs, mementos, maybe the bottle of wine, maybe the bottle of Italian
olive oil, so it's a really great tip. In addition to the sort of space-conserving
technique, you also really leave clothes less wrinkled than they would be if you laid them
flat in a suitcase. Another tip I have for clothes, if you have
something, you have a really nice function the day that you arrive in your foreign country,
say Italy, you can also use tissue paper. If you iron a nice, crisp shirt, you can put
tissue paper behind it, and that really will help your garments stay in shape while they
travel a 7.5-hour flight over the Atlantic. The other thing that I do is that we have
plastic bags from grocery stores here, we have Wegmans -- this isn't a commercial for
Wegmans -- but I save those bags, and I will usually pair my shoes, if I bring two or three
pairs of shoes, and put the shoes inside a Wegmans bag and knot it off. It helps it from
shifting in the suitcase. So really smart packing with regard to how you lay out your
travel luggage can be very beneficial. Speaking of carry-on luggage, carry-on luggage
should not exceed 50 pounds, nor do you want it to. I think if you look at airports in
Europe, there's a lot of walking between where you park your car, where you get off your
bus or your taxi. 50 pounds is pretty heavy, and you really do not want to be carrying
all of that. Bad back, even with rolling luggage, so I really try to make sure that my luggage
does not exceed 50 pounds. So rather than buying one of those very expensive sort of
travel luggage weighing devices, you can just sort of weigh yourself on your bathroom scale,
then you can weigh yourself holding your luggage, and you will get a pretty accurate assessment
of whether you've hit the 50 pounds or not, and they really have started to crack down
on that. Of course, if you do go over 50 pounds, you might be assessed an additional charge,
monetary fee for luggage that exceeds 50 pounds. This is a great sage travel tip that was taught
to me by a great woman in my undergraduate college. She said bring old clothes, Peter,
and one of the things that sort of -- not the sort of clothes that you want to be seen
in, but undergarments, brassieres, socks, those kinds of things. If you are wearing
them on the inside, nobody gets to see them, and the best thing is is that you won't feel
guilty about discarding them. And again, by discarding them after you've worn them maybe
once or twice or three times on your trip, you make more room in your suitcase for bringing
back maybe new clothes that you bought in Florence, Naples, or again, more space for
those bottles of wine and olive oil. If you are looking for an ATM, when I started
traveling -- to date myself -- everybody was sort of getting onboard with travelers
checks. You had to go get travelers checks. Now pretty much with debit cards, they are
accepted worldwide. Credit cards have always been accepted worldwide. So if you are looking
for an ATM to get some quick cash, in Italy particularly, it's referred to as a bancomatico,
or a shortened version of that would be bancomat. So if you are going to ask for an ATM, no
one is going to know what you are talking about, so you are really looking for a bancomat.
Tipping. Tipping is very important. What I would tell you, particularly with a meal at
a restaurant, there is no expectation whatsoever on the part of Italians, Italian waiters,
restaurants, that you do leave a tip. If you do leave a tip, they will no instantly that
you are American. It's a dead giveaway. I do like to tip for exceptional service. So
my motto is if you have had exceptional service, leave one or two euro per person at the end
of a meal, whether that's a lunch meal or really nice dinner. Even if you are at a five-star
restaurant, there is no expectation that you leave a tip.
That said, thinking about the hotel industry and hospitality, if you are staying in a really
nice, you know, hotel, what my rule of them is is that it's usually about a euro per person
per day for the person -- the housekeeping staff that comes in, sort of turns down your
bed, sort of picks up your bathroom for you. One or two, you know, euro -- one euro per
person per day that you are staying in a hotel is pretty standard. Those folks do not make
high wages, so it's a nice way to offset, you know, particularly exceptional service.
In most European hotels, there is a turn-down service. Although they may come in and make
the bed, I would not be surprised to come back to my room right before the dinner hour
to find that my bed has been sort of turned over, and you might find a chocolate or something
on your pillow. Medications. Many of us travel with medications.
I do. I recommend strongly that you leave them in your carry-on luggage. Do not put
them in luggage you are going to check, for a variety of reasons. Some medicines certainly
have a potential for high theft, and some are just sort of life-saving and a necessity,
so should your luggage be delayed a day or two days or nine days -- nine days has happened
to me -- you know, you want to have that on you at all times. So you know, either put
it in your pocket, put it in a coat, or definitely put it in a carry-on. That's really my sagest
advice with regard to medications and traveling abroad.
You know, you do want to contact your pharmacy ahead of time if you are traveling, particularly
sort of if you are in the middle of your prescription cycle. And most pharmacies -- I know ours
do here in Rochester, New York -- have a vacation override they call it, where if you
are sort of halfway through your prescription, you are not ready to refill, but they know
you are going to go away, they will sort of cut you the difference in pills so you are
not going to run out of your medication while you are traveling.
Something else to think about for your carry-on luggage is to bring a change of clothes and,
as I say in my parens, even bring undergarments. It happened to me. I was in London, and I
think we were without luggage for about nine days, halfway through the trip, so wearing
the same thing day after day gets pretty interesting. So from that point on, I have always carried
a change of clothes in my carry-on, at least a change of clothes, which would be a shirt,
pants, socks, and definitely some undergarments too.
When you are traveling, I make it sound like it's really adult camping and you are sort
of roughing it. Sometimes it is, but sometimes you want to dress up, and sometimes you want
at least one really nice, dressy outfit. Again, that same person that taught me to bring your
old clothes said, you know, Peter, you can recycle a really nice outfit, whether it's
a really nice top, a jacket, a tie. No one is going to know that you've worn the same
tie, you know, three different days of your 14-day trip. So if you bring one really nice
outfit, one really nice pair of dress shoes, and recycle it, and you will be fine. Again,
I am all about bringing things back, whether it's souvenirs, wine, olive oil, so the more
space I have in my carry-on, the happier I am at the end of the trip.
And lastly, with my sort of broad-brush rules for seasoned and novice travelers, is follow
the rules. Don't be the classic "ugly American." I believe Graham Greene novel. And Americans
tend to just by nature be loud, tend to be demanding, and sort of forget that maybe not
everyone in that country that you are visiting speaks your language -- although most do
worldwide. So try to follow the rules. It's a great transition into my next slide.
So here is a selfie I believe we call them today. It's a picture of me in the Sistine
Chapel, sort of discreetly taking a picture. I told you don't be an ugly American. I will
tell you that photography is prohibited in the Sistine Chapel, but I did want a selfie
of me and the ceiling painted by Michelangelo. And I think what we need to remember when
we travel abroad is we always have the sort of tick list, I want to go to the Vatican,
I want to see the Sistine Chapel, I want to go to the Duomo in Florence. For us it's a
list of things we want to see because we're tourists. Many of these places are sacred
sites, sacred to one of the world's oldest religions, Christianity, and they are not
tourist sites. They are tourist sites, but they are active places of worship. So when
we look at these and want to take a touristic memento here, I think we need to remember
that. Particularly with churches, particularly with churches in Italy -- it was cold in
January when I was visiting, so I had a little skull cap on, and shortly after viewing the
Sistine Chapel, I went into the Vatican St. Peter's, and I had my little skull cap on
and was instantly stopped by an usher at the front, who asked me to remove my hat in respect
for religion because St. Peter's is an active, you know, sort of religious edifice or religious
building, while the Sistine Chapel is most often a touristical location. It is a place
where the new Pope is selected, so it's not quite as orthodox in the rules. So I think
know the rules where and when you are traveling, particularly in summer months, if you are
a woman when you enter into a church, oftentimes your head should be covered. Your shoulders,
if they are bare, should definitely be covered. And usually shorts for women, short shorts
for women, you know, might raise an eyebrow. Many of these places have ushers stationed
at the front door to just sort of discreetly -- or maybe not so discreetly -- tell you.
When I went to Italy as a student, I was with a group of some women who were wearing shorts,
and we went into a church, and we were actually refused entry until we put -- they put something
around their waste, their shorts were too short, and their shoulders were not covered.
So just be a good American. Give us a good rep.
Italian is a wonderful language. It is a classic romance language. It's Spoken by about 62
million people worldwide. It is the official language of Italy. It is also one of the official
languages of Switzerland as well and a few other countries that I have listed in this
digital slide. Pronunciation is classically romance language
driven. Vowels are pronounced distinctly, differently, clearly than they might be in
the United States. We have our standard of vowels, our A, E, I, O, and U, and in Italian,
it's ah, eh, owe, and u. Giving you the sound like in noon. Once again, ah, ay, ee, oh,
and oo. Many consonants are similar to English, though
there are some exceptions. Languages are all about exceptions. The consonant R is usually
trilled, the trilled sound made with one one's tongue pressed against the ridge of the sort
of soft palate and the teeth. Roberto would be a little bit different with the Rrrroberto.
There is a little bit of air that vibrates with the tongue. There are some special sounds
that we do not have in English, a few of them here. The gl sound is closest to our word
scallion, scallion, and I think of an Italian definite article, the word "the," which is
gli if you were to spell it out, so that l and the ye is the combination of the gl. We
do not have that. Another one that we probably know because
we look for them in the grocery store, gn combination, which if you look at the English
word, canyon, is a ny, so if you think of gnocci, those things we look for in the store,
the g becomes soft. There are several other exceptions to the rule.
I want to give you some important language words and phrases maybe to get you started.
And why I advocate for these, I think it sort of levels the playing field. Rather than going
into a store and instantly addressing someone with English language, you make assumptions.
They may not speak English language, and that's something that I think we really need to just
be respectful. Try a little bit. I think if you try a little bit in Italian, they will
try a little bit in English, and you will have a happier experience.
So to say thank you, it's grazie. Now, grazie is very different than sort of the sew were
a knows version -- Sopranos we hear on TV. Every vowel is addressed. So there is an I
and an E at the end of grazie, so you want to make sure you sort of subtly hit the I
and the E, rather than just grazie. If you know what you are doing, maybe the pasta sauce
will taste better. You want to say thank you very much, you can
Sa tante grazie, or you can say grazie tante. So the tante can go before or after.
You're welcome, prego. That will come in handy far more than we use it in the United States.
I can give you an example. If you are on the bus, an elderly woman gets on the bus and
there are no seats, you get up to offer the woman your seat, she might say grazie. You
might want to respond to her to acknowledge her response to your effort. You would say
prego. Please, per favore. Please goes before and
after everything, every question in Italian. Please, may I have another cappuccino or may
I have another cappuccino, please. Per favore, another great word that's great to add.
Yes is si. No is no. Excuse me, mi scusi. You can add per favore after that if you want
to be more polite, mi scusi, per favore. You can. I am sorry. Mi dispiace. I am sorry,
I am lost. It's a nice qualifier. I don't understand, non capisco. Non capisco.
I am sorry, I don't understand what you just said, mi dispiace non capisco.
I don't speak Italian, non parlo italano. I don't speak Italian very well, non parlo
molto bene italano. You can add a variety of things. I am sorry,
I don't speak Italian very well, I am trying to find my way. All those things are good.
You can ask simply do you speak English? Many people do. Parla inglese. You can also add
per favore in that, do you speak English, please? It elevates your request. Parla inglese
per favore. How are you? Come va. That translates to literally
how's it going. Sounds a little bit more slang. The response would be I'm well, it goes well,
va bene grazie. More Italian words for you, phrases that will
be helpful when you are traveling, good morning, always, buon giorno. Buon means good, giorno
means morning, buon giorno. Good afternoon. This is less used. It's still
available to use as you're traveling. Buon pomeriggio. It's simply good afternoon. Nice
little politeness. Good evening, buonasera. Buonasera. Buonasera
is something that you would use to greet maybe as you are returning from your day trip to
Florence, you go back to your hotel, you could greet the person at the front desk, buonasera.
Nice to do. Good night is buon anotte. That should only
be used if you are retiring. If you are at a table, not going to see the waiter until
the next morning, or maybe you will never see the waiter again, you want to say buonanotte.
This is only when your head will hit the pillow. Something invaluable when you are in Italy,
how do you ask for a cappuccino. It's the life and blood of Italians. Vorrei un cappuccino,
per favore. I would like a cappuccino, please. This is a slide of cappuccino. It's a photo
I took in Florence. Enjoy your cappuccino. It is not like cappuccino in the United States.
Although we try to come close. A funny thing is when I travel, I love a cappuccino. I could
probably have four, five, or six a day. Italians never take their cappuccino after 1:00 p.m.
If you are out at a restaurant and you ask for a cappuccino, they might give you a hairy
eyeball, so be aware. They will know you are Americans. The best plan to find a cappuccino
after hours is your hotel lobby. Your hotel lobby will probably be willing to go to the
bar and retrieve a cappuccino. One of the things I love about Italy is the
opportunity to eat great food, eat great food outside the city in these outside cafes. Many
restaurants also have not only an inside restaurant but have an area sectioned off in front of
them. Perseo is a wonderful cafe restaurant in Florence or Firenze, as you can see. They
also have gelato. You can sit in this great public square. Perseo is named after Perseus.
It's named as such because of the location. The restaurant really had wonderful cappuccino,
wonderful dessert, so before I started to dig into my dessert, I remembered I should
take a picture. I am a foodie. I love good food. I decided to take pictures of my meal.
I invite you to do that too. All of my photos are taken with sort of simple iPhone cameras
and just the tarts and the fruits and the pastries are some of the best.
This was a little fruit tart that I had at Perseo in Florence. Again, I started to eat
those. Looks pretty good. It's around the lunch hour, so I am sorry I am teasing you
with great Italian food. I said that it was named because of its location.
So we are now looking at a square in Florence called the Piazza della signoria. It's a square,
the cafe is sort of where you are seated in the screen. Directly across from the square
is this wonderful logia, a covered area with sculpture, and one of the sculptures is of
Perseus. That's why the cafe is so named. The other interesting thing to see in the
same square is this building, which is sort of directly ahead, the Palazzo Vecchio. This
is a late medieval sort of fortified palace, or it would be the equivalent of our city
hall, seats of government, important families, and such. You can see that it looks quite
heavily fortified, heavily rusticated, and looks very unwelcoming, as it should, and
has a sort of high tower that you see rising up off center from the basic cube. If you've
got neighboring, unhappy tribes coming your way to invite your city, you want to know
indeed they are coming. That's the Palazzo Vecchio, in the Piazza we just looked at.
Palazzo is palace, Piazza is square. One of the things, in front of this, you can
see -- I will move my cursor here -- there is this statue right here that is the David.
It is a reproduction now, but I am showing you the original David right here in this
slide. It was actually moved. So in the early 19th century, after a little mishap, the statue
of David, sculpted by Michelangelo out of marble, was moved to this new location called
the academia. The academia or the academy is the home of David, and you can see that
there are many other things in this museum to look at. There's paintings on the wall.
There's more Michelangelo's sculpture as well. So here's good old Michelangelo's David, biblical
hero. 1501 to 1504. I mentioned that it was moved, and it was moved because the history
sort of says that there was an argument on one of the floors of the Palazzo Vecchio,
one of the squares we were in, and the bench was thrown out the window, and the bench missed
just cleaving off one of the arms of the David. So because this is a world heritage masterpiece,
Italians, Florentines in their right mind decided to move it and protect it indoors.
There are other sculptures that you maybe saw in the earlier slide that you would get
to before you would get to the David. This is a close up of one of them. They are also
sculpted by Michelangelo. This is part of his slave series, and they were originally
designed for the tomb of Pope Julius II, sculpted out of marble around 1513 to 1516, and you
can see from this the outline of a male form, and if I use my cursor again, you can even
see the outline of a face, you can see two eyes and a nasal bridge sort of coming out
of the marble. Marble is a very hard substance to carve, and Michelangelo does it quite well.
Looking at the David, if you look at his torso, you can see veins, sinew, and if you look
at David, you get the sense he was living and breathing. But with these unfinished pieces,
again, they were designed for the tomb of Pope Julius. The tomb sculptures were in production
a long time. The Pope was dead a long time before he built the sculptures. What you see
is the sculptures coming forth out of this marble, almost like it's a foggy haze, and
one of the things that many artist historians believe is they were meant to look unfinished,
at least in this iteration. One of the things that Michelangelo was fond
of saying in Italian about these sculptures is (Speaking Italian) that which lives in
dead marble. So Michelangelo sort of thought that his powers came from a higher self, God,
and all he had to do was hit a chisel and these sculptures would magically be unveiled
from this dead mar marble. I think he is a little humble about his genius as a sculptor
and creator. Genius, I don't know, I like to sculpt gelato
into cups and enjoy it. Gelato is probably one of my favorite treats next to cappuccino.
A cup of cappuccino and a gelato in the square, and you will be fine. The gelato flavors are
different than you would find in the United States. I have gelato that comes close, but
nothing hits the mark. I think it has something to do with the way cows graze in Italy. You
have different flavors. You might get tiramisu. You get some really wonderful flavors of gelato.
I double dip. I am not ashamed to admit that. When I am in Italy, I am there for a short
time, and I really like to enjoy gelato. If you walk around -- because that's what you
do in Italy -- you burn off all the calories. I don't worry about gelato calories. They
are nonexistent. Florence really is a spectacular city to walk
around, to visit, to see. We are looking at a digital slide, a photo
that I took from a bell tower next to the cathedral of Florence. Affectionately referred
to as the Duomo. The Duomo because of the great dome you see pictured here. The dome
is the largest dome, at least into the early Renaissance, that was created by man since
the then largest dome from antiquity. So the ancient Greeks and Romans from great engineers.
Ancient Romans built the Pantheon in the city of Rome. And this dome now is the second largest
dome all the way from classical antiquity. This is why it's called the Renaissance. It's
a rebirth, a reawakening of classical ideas, great architects, great sculptures like Michelangelo.
This is taken from the bell tower. The bell tower is located adjacent to the cathedral
in Italy. They are separate but referred to as the accompanile.
You can climb the bell tower, which I did, and you can also climb the duomo. It's a great
workout, maybe take 25 minutes to climb to the very top, but you are climbing all the
way through the medieval architecture. Here is a picture of me. I do really enjoy
bringing RIT students to travel experiences. One of the things that we did when I went
in January with the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences honors students, we got to go
to a town that I lived in for a summer in 1990, Siena. Siena is just the sort of heart
and soul of Tuscany. I know Florence really is or should be. And the difference between
Florence and Siena is, quite frankly, this, that Siena still looks like it's rooted into
its heritage, and people are very fond of saying Siena is today what Florence was in
the 1940s, sort of underexplored, minimal touristical activity. You get a sense when
you are walking down a street that maybe someone dressed in a very different costume than you
are dressed today will be walking around a corner.
What we are standing on is a parapet. The cathedral of Siena was to be enlarged. It
was a very sort of well-to-do town, almost a rival of Florence, and they decided to have
an expansion of the cathedral. More people will come. It's a tourist attraction in the
Renaissance, and unfortunately, the black death, the plague, hit Siena, so all construction
stopped. Siena was hit hard by the plague, and the only thing that survived was a sort
of exterior retaining wall where the cathedral would have expanded to, which you can climb
today, and you get this great sort of Tuscan hillside view of the town of Siena.
You will also notice in the back there is a sort of large tower featured prominently.
That is the Palazzo Publico. This is the public palace, the city hall of Siena, high tower,
and you can see quite clearly from here, if you were stationed in the tower, you would
get a pretty good view if anybody was coming over the hillside to maraud or invade your
town. In Italy, you can eat your way through Italy.
I promise you won't gain a pound, especially if you are walking around. This is just a
window shop I took in Siena. What I loved about it is these wonderful pastries. We were
there in January. And they were sort of turned into these magical Christmas trees of biscotti
and great treats. It's fun to window shop in Italy. Occasionally you will need a break,
so you need a cappuccino and go in and take your sweets for your dessert. Maybe a little
sustenance to get you through another two to three hours of shopping and sightseeing.
What I like to do is see the normal sites that you would go to at any town, whether
it's the Sistine Chapel or the duomo. But I also like to bring travelers to places you
never sort of see, those things off the beaten path.
Something that I found a few years ago is La Specola. That means in Florence a zoological
museum, a natural history museum. It is even an anatomical museum. And it's old too. It's
founded in 1790. The name Specola refers to an observatory because there was also an astronomical
observatory included in this. So if you are thinking about early science in the 1790s,
it's pretty interesting. So can you find a zebra in Florence? You certainly
can find a zebra in Florence, but you can find it at La Specola. It's stuffed. So in
the late 18th century, you had people that were going, travel to go exotic locations
like Africa. They were shooting game to sort of bring the hide back. And then the pieces
were sort of put back together in Italy in Europe. So while the hides sort of tell the
story of the shape and anatomy of the figure, I always think it's interesting to see the
eyes because the taxidermist sort of maybe had never seen a zebra and had just sort of
been given this pile of flesh. So they sometimes tend to have more humanoid expressions, and
I think the eye in this sort of primate here is really quite interesting as well. So these
are from the 1790s. They are animals that you can still see today.
The hides are a little bit sort of shop worn because of age, but there's a wonderful collection
from exotic animals from the sea to birds like you can see here, all in La Specola.
This is located next to the PC palace. So many people go to see the art and sculpture
there, but right next door, you have this great little museum.
And it also has images like this. As I said, it is also an anatomical museum. In the sort
of 17 the 0s -- 1790s, if you were going to teach people anatomy, thinking of great
artists, like Leonardo and Michelangelo, we wanted to explore the body. Unfortunately,
In that time, that was forbidden. What you would do is have these wax models, wax replicas
of human anatomy to show prospective medical students, future doctors, where things were
connected. This is all made out of wax, it does have human hair, and every thread, every
sinew, is exposed that you can see on the interior of the neck area here. So things
are made of wax, threads are dipped in wax to create minute capillaries and things like
that. It's a spectacular museum, one of those off the beaten path kinds of places that I
like to go. This is another nice transition. So no, this
isn't another replica from the anatomical museum. This is one of the best pizzas that
I had. This is another travel tip. Be adventurous. Try things that you wouldn't try. Pizza doesn't
necessarily look like pizza that you get from a Little Caesars in the United States. All
hand crafted, all artisanal, all wood fired. This pizza was wonderful, referred to as le
quattro stagioni, the four seasons. In each quadrant of this pizza, there are things that
would represent winter, spring, summer, and fall. There are some meats, there's some seafood.
It's truly a feast for the eyes, and it's a great way to sort of experience Italy through
the food and great wine. Desserts are equally impeccable. If you look
at the slide, this digital slide taken from my iPhone, taken by me, but yet it just sort
of magically looks like maybe a food image from a cookbook or a travel TV show. Everything
looks better in Italy. There's always these great little flower arrangements on the table.
So someone had taken an orange, carved out the pulp, made a nice sort of creamy gelato
or sorbet and placed it back into the shell. The food is really spectacular in Italy.
There's also a sense of style as well. Here we see a simple arrangement that was on the
table in a restaurant I was in. Some artichokes sort of artistically placed, then magically
through the power, the alchemy of food and cooking, it turned into this wonderful artichokes,
steamed, drizzled with olive oil and spaces. Again, one of the best artichokes. But you
know it's all fresh because as we saw in the previous slide, usually it's sitting on a
counter to show this is what we are featuring today.
I do want to let you guys know that in 2015, RIT will be taking alumni and friends to Florence
and Vicenza. Vicenza is sort of outside of Venice, so it's a northern focused trip. We
will go to Florence, also go to Venice and the area around as an architectural pilgrimage.
So we will be having great food, great architecture, beautiful art. It is sponsored by Alumni Relations.
The dates are May 31 through June 7 of 2015. I'll actually get to be in Italy on my birthday,
which is June 5. We are going to go see things like the 14th
century Palazzo Davanzati, which is the beautiful Renaissance villa. We will also see Palladio's
Villa Rotonda, which is the image you see on the slide in the distance. It's a spectacular
Renaissance country, home designed by the great architect Andrea Palladio. His designs
are still impacting builders and designers today.
We are going to look at Romano's Palazzo del Te. It's interesting, a summer palace, summer
retreat. It was renovated three times by Romano. Just sort of kept growing and growing and
growing. Originally designed as a horse stable, horse farm. Then morphed into this great,
grand country house. And one of the highlights of the trip, the
2015 Florence and Vincenza trip, is we are going to lunch with the Count and Countess
Valmarana in a Renaissance villa, and we are going to dine under a fresco painted by none
other than Tiepolo, a great fresco painter. This is what I like to do, to get off the
beaten path. You can eat in any great Italian restaurant, but to eat in an Italian home,
under this great architecture, it would be wonderful for anyone who would like to travel
with RIT. For more information on this trip in 2015,
in May and June, you can contact Terry Bohling, office of Alumni Relations. We have a great
brochure. Those are just the highlights. I will actually be traveling with the group,
so I am really quite excited to be sharing my love of art and art history and sculpture
and everything I know about Italy with those travelers.
So for me, here again you see me sort of dressed up with some students. I just want to say
mille grazie for talking with you today. And I think the next part of this is to answer
any questions that you might have had spurred on by this great time we spent together today.
>> TERRY BOHLING: Mille grazie, Peter. Now I have a little more confidence in saying
that and pronouncing it better than I did before. That was a wonderful presentation.
Thank you so much. Now, we do have some questions from today's
presentation from the participants of the webinar.
Peter, what do you recommend as the top three -- two or three places or sites to visit in northern
Italy? As your favorites. >> PETER GABAK: As my favorites, I think if
you are going to Milan, one of the things you would almost really want to see is Leonardo's
Last Supper, if you were heading truly up north.
If you were staying in and around Venice, one of the things that you want to do is you
want to walk around Venice as a city, sort of world heritage site as a city itself. It
is probably one of the most surreal cities I've ever walked around, particularly because
you know, there's no street traffic. There are Cars and buses. Certainly that exists
in the more urbanized area outside of Venice, but you are walking down these fairy tale
little streets. So just the area of Venice alone is wonderful.
Particularly, you know, Venice is great, but the islands that surround Venice are equally
fascinating. Not only do you have the Isle of Murano, so noted for its beautiful glass,
blown-glass chandeliers, goblets, paperweights, anything you can think of that involves glass,
even glass ladybug I brought my niece back a souvenir. Another island less explored called
the island of Burano, and it's known for its lace. Get out, you can take a water taxi,
you can drive around on the water because, of course, you can't take a bus. But those
would be maybe some top things to think about. Of course, Florence, even though it really
isn't northern Italy, sort of smack dab in the heart of Tuscany, you have to go to Florence.
>> TERRY BOHLING: All right. Overall, do you have a favorite Italian experience, be it
food or the landscape or -- >> PETER GABAK: I do. I do. It was recently.
When we were in Italy in January with our group, we went and visited an RIT alumnus
who runs a photographic archive business in Florence, and he and his wife invited us back
to their house. They cooked us a traditional Italian meal. Of course in Italy, everyone
is family. We helped make the meal. Really sort of being in an Italian's home is very
different than being in a restaurant. It's very different than being in an outside cafe,
to see how sort of Italians lived. They lived on an upper story of this beautiful house
in -- house apartment complex in Florence, had a beautiful balcony with olive trees on
the balcony, and we just had a great, great meal.
>> TERRY BOHLING: All right. Along those lines, do you have a favorite
restaurant or a favorite dish? You did mention gelato.
>> PETER GABAK: Yeah, Terry, gelato tops the list. I will tell you I like to be adventurous.
I do like to try things either I won't make at home or I haven't tried. I tried wild boar
the last time I was there. It was served over this really wonderful homemade pasta, and
I was hooked. So I will always order wild boar. So be adventurous. Try things you wouldn't
necessarily try. >> TERRY BOHLING: Okay.
Do you have a preferred season for travel in general in Italian specifically?
>> PETER GABAK: Last summer I was in France, then in January I was just in Italy, and they
were both off season. I like off-season travel. I think the crowds are a bit less. I am not
a big crowd person. When I was in Italy in January, there were sort of after-holiday
sales too. So I like off season. The crowds are less. People are more eager. You know,
the business is down, so if you are coming in with a group, you might get a little extra
treatment. You might get some homemade sweets served at the end of a meal. Travel when you
can travel is my motto, but I like off season. >> TERRY BOHLING: You could probably get some
good deals. >> PETER GABAK: Definitely. The after Christmas
sales in Naples were spectacular. >> TERRY BOHLING: Do you think it's better
to fly into Rome and then take the train too Florence, Venice, Milan, or is it -- do you
prefer travels directly to the city that you're touring?
>> PETER GABAK: I think that varies from person to person. I think it varies by the budget
of your trip. I have taken the high-speed train, regular train, buses. I think it's
driven by economy. If you can sort of afford to fly in, do it. But I think you are only
in a European city maybe for 14 days or 9 days. If you can fly into Rome and have an
extra three hours, go to Rome. I Personally like to fly into Rome.
>> TERRY BOHLING: All right. Thank you. Just one more question about banking. Now, I have
had the experience where I did this once, and I promised to never do it again. I did
not let my bank know I was traveling, and I did have my -- all my assets frozen. And
so would you recommend this as a matter of course?
>> PETER GABAK: You've got a great bank. My dad was traveling on the south of United States,
the banks with a calling them on their way back, they got a phone call, we want to make
sure there's no fraudulent charges. We have all these charges between Florida and North
Carolina. Definitely, that's one of the first things I do, and I also let them know that,
you know, I am traveling, I am traveling in these cities. So I don't just say I am going
to Italy. I am going to be in these specific cities. Should some sort of Mafia gather your
card in whatever city, whether Russian or Italian Mafia, you want them to know you are
not in Venice today; you are actually in Florence. That's a good point to notify your bank. Most
banks will be more than happy to accommodate you.
We do have another question. Have you taken a river tour of Italy, and would you recommend
it? I have not taken a river tour of Italy, but
I did last summer take a river tour of France, and it was southern France. So we sort of
got on the barge right outside of Paris, and we went down both the Rhone and Saone Rivers.
Flat bottom boat, no wake. The boat got into places we might not have been able to get
into. If you are able to take any kind of river cruise. I will tell you the food was
incredible. We got a tour of the kitchen, it was tiny, looked like a closet or bathroom
in the United States. The food that came out of that kitchen was magical, you know, flaming
baked Alaskas coming out of the kitchen. The chefs are magical.
There are many companies, some are German-based companies, but there are many, many, increasingly
growing numbers of riverboat cruises, so I would say definitely take advantage of that.
>> TERRY BOHLING: All right. Thank you, Peter. That about wraps up our Q&A for the webinar.
Peter has a couple more slides, and then we will have -- I will wrap things up to conclude
our session today. >> PETER GABAK: I just want to sort of tell
you that always wear your sunscreen. I tend to burn. I have very fair skin, dark hair,
light eyes. This is a picture of me really feeling the burn in Pompeii, I took my scarf
and wrapped it around my head. That's sort of my cheeky moment.
But I do want to remind you all that next up on our agenda at RIT is the August 12 presentation
at noon, the Vignelli Professor of design, Roger Remington, will talk about Pierre Mendell,
so please do tune in. You have been a great audience through the Internet today, and wherever
your travels take you, I really do wish you safe travels and eat well, have that cappuccino
and gelato and just enjoy Italy. >> TERRY BOHLING: Thank you, thank you, thank
you. Thank you all. Additional questions can be emailed to ritalum@rit.edu
or tweeted to @RIT_Alumni with the hashtag #meRITwebinars; and we will direct your questions to Peter.