Fertig's Designs: 2011

I'm leaving to Italy to study Product and Industrial Design at The Accademia Italiana in Florence. I will be posting on this blog my difference trips, experience and discoveries around Italy and possibly around Europe.

Week 1: Sept 4th - Sept 11th

Flight from Chicago to Rome

I left the U.S. on Sunday September 4th and arrived in Rome on Monday Sept 5th. The flight for the most part when pretty smoothly. except for the fact that my flight to Rome was overbooked and the starting offering money to for people to stay until the next day. the offer started at $100 and went up to $1000 plus hotel stay in Chicago. I was tempting for me, but my desire to arrive in Italy was bigger. Thank God I didn't take the offer because I found out that Florence and Rome where striking the following day. Once I arrived in Rome I had to wait for my luggage it took forever, but I got it without problem. The problem came when I have to start moving everything around while I was trying to figure out where to get the shuttle to the Rome Termini to get to Florence. Learned that Italians dont help you with your luggage and they are bad are giving directions.

Once I got to Florence, I took a taxi from the train/bus station to the apartment building. The landlord was waiting for me and lucky one of his worker was there to take my luggage to the third floor where my apartment is located.

The apartment was recently renovated and it looks modern, I will post pictures soon. Since I was the first one to get into the apartment I got to chose the room and different spaces. First night was nice the weather cool down and I was able to sleep for a few hours. the seven hour time difference messed me up for a couple of days, but everyday I get so tired of walking that it doesn't matter what time it is back home.

My bedroom corner

Shared room

Living room - Top view

Entrance to my room and stairs to terrace

Kitchen and Living room

The next day, was my birthday! I was still alone on my apartment and the internet wasn't working. I went out to explore and enjoy my birthday. I got a huge gelato that later on I learned that good gelato isn't that big because it is more watery that typical ice cream.

First Gelato by the Palazzo Vecchio

Even thought it wasn't the real thing it was delicious and it was a great experience to eat my first gelato in front of the Palazzo Vecchio where one of the David Replicas is located.

Later that day, when I got back to the apartment I met one of my roommates and neighbors. They both had they moms with them and speak German. Later on I met the rest of my neighbors, but still one one roommate. Since it was still my birthday we all went out to dinner around the corner where there is a little piazza. Overall my birthday was a success. I met most of my neighbors, got to walk around Florence and visited the Duomo.

Throughout the week I meet the rest of my roommates and neighbors. We are about 13 girls living on this building.

From Wednesday to Friday we have the Orientation at the Accademia. We did walking tours around the Florence, visited the two locations that the Accademia has and took a bus tour to a little town call Fiesole.

Stairs to the Accademia Workshop

View from the Workshop Terrace

Neighbors and Roommates
Mary Ann, Irina, Anastasia, Karly and Saskia

View of Fiesole

Fiesole a famous small town of Tuscany

For my first weekend adventure in Italy, Karly and I went to Cinque Terre (Five Lands) The adventure was quite a hike, but the breath taking views made it all worth it. Cinque Terre are five small towns connected by trails. This area is about two and a half hours from Florence. The food, views, colors, and beach are amazing.

The Love Trail
People bring their locks and put them around the trail and trow the key to the sea

Lovely Stairs

Reward after the 1st hike

Last Land, the beach area

... and after a long hike, we got to relax on the beach

The first week in Florence was great. I met a lot of people, got to know good places in Florece and learned a lot about the culture.

Week Two: Sept 12th - Sept 18th

My second week in Florence was pretty calm. It was my first week at school and the first time I was able to really know what the Accademia does for Industrial Design. For personal desire I decided to take an Italian Class to see how much I learn while I am here. It would be nice to get credit for it back at KU, but apparently the Italian Department at KU thinks that Italians don't know how to teach Italian, Crazy isn't! Anyways, I'm constantly hearing Italian and I understand most of it because I speak Spanish, but the grammar is a little different, so hopefully the class helps me even more. Besides Italian which I am taking Monday thru Thursday, I am taking an Art History class, Life and Works of Michelangelo, and Technology of Material on Tuesday. Wednesday I have Rhino and Thursday Industrial Design and Packaging Design.

Since this classes are upper level classes most of the information is taught in Italian, but all of the professor speak English, so they will give the English speaker the short version after the explain everything in Italian. Again to my fortune I know Spanish and that has helped me a lot to understand most of the lectures.

For the most part it seems like the classes are not to complicated and I will be just fine. I like that I am able to take as many classes as I want and I am able to take graphics, product and interior Design courses. I feel that it is a huge advantage to be able to at least know what each field of Design has to offer. The Accademia, different from many schools in Florence, is a school that encourages students to talk and interact with Italian and other international students. In many of my classes I seat with students from Switzerland, Germany, North and South America, Italy, etc. I have also found out that many students from Europe speak more than one language, about 95% of them speak perfect English and many know German and French. I thought I was good being bilingual, but I guess everyone here knows a least two languages, so I didn't feel the advantage as much as I thought it would be.

With my Italian class and the other Design classes. I have to seat thru at least 5 hours of Italian per day, so when classes are over I dont want to do anything else, but to come home and relax. Homework isn't that bad yet, but I know I will be soon spending more time studying than relaxing.

On Friday I have a free day, so my friend Karly and I went to explore the city a little more and get some shopping started. We walked for easily 5 to 6 hours and honestly I didn't feel a thing until we got back home. I could barely move once I stop walking. Shopping is a big thing in Florence and it is a lot to chose from. There are the famous brands, Prada, Dior, D&G, etc. The list is endless, but there are also a lot of markets. Each piazza has at least two kiosks that sell all sort of souvenir stuff. They also have the Train Station underground shops. The Ponte Vecchio is full of Jewelry stores, etc. Shopping is not a problem around here. Saturday was another tour day. we went all around the little alleys and look for hand made leather accessories. One of the shop had a lot of beautiful handbags, belt and jewelry and the owner even showed us around their workshop to see how they make their accessories. At night most of the girls from my apartment building went out to have dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. I got to say it wasn't bad at all. After we finish we started walking toward some of the bar area. After passing the Piazza della Republica there was a little street show of a man doing magic tricks. It was really funny and a lot of fun definitely a nice experience from the locals. Karly and I ended up at a bar call Moyo. It is a very sophisticated bar with modern architecture and techno music. We weren't to happy with the techno music, but at least was fairly open and they have a lot of drinks variety. We tried a couple of drinks we went back home to sleep.

Accademia Group

Local Show

Sunday, the day to rest and get homework done. Many of the stores seem to close on Sunday and the amount of turists is reduce a lot. We also had by far the coolest day. The sun is hiding and we got rained on.

Week Three: Sept 19th - 25th

During this week I didn't do much. Right now I'm just slowly trying to adjust to the class system in the Accademia. I have switch some classes to make sure they fit my needs and that I am able to fully understand them. Unfortunately, not all the classes are taught in English and it is hard to fully understand what the class is about in Italian. More and more I realized how the Italian like to dress up for school. There is not such as thing as roll out of bed and go to class in your PJs. Honestly not a bad thing because it is good be in class with people that are awake and prepare for class. I have also been meeting a lot of new people. I feel the advantage to be able to take different classes because I get to work and meet new people from Graphic, Interior and Industrial Design. One thing that I'm struggling to figured out is how classes are organized. Since I have already in an advance level I'm taking classes with people that are getting started on their thesis and many of the classes are organized for a year long class and not a semester long. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, but it is confusing at time specially because even the permanent students at the Accademia are a little lost with the schedule. That makes me feels better because the teacher's response to the scheduling problem is "WELCOME TO ITALY" Leave that to the Italian basically.

Something else that is different to me is the fact that teachers are open to what you want to make, not what they want you to make. It is not about the end product is about the research and concept development with a lot of concepts exploration, material, etc. Two completely different approaches I have not been expose too. I am really excited to be able to make things that I want to make and do the beginning part of the process this time rather than skipping to the product/prototype making.

So far I have been working on developing/redesigning a glass bottle for one of current liquor brands. My pick is Bacardi Rum. Hopefully I will be able to develop a nice glass bottle. For my other class ID3 or 4, which is the level here, I have to make a furniture and product piece. I'm thinking Chair and table for furniture and Light fixture for the product. I think, but not really sure yet, we need to also develop a clock, but so far is up to us to design anything.

Milan Day Trip

On Saturday some of my neighbors and I decided to go to Milan during Fashion Week. The main purpose was to get to see some of the Runway events, but I wanted to see the big Gothic Cathedral as well as the designers stores. They trip was a little disorganized, but I was happy I got to see the Cathedral inside.

Milan Duomo - Gothic Cathedral

The next day we found out that all the Museums and Gardens were open for free that Sunday, so my roommate, Irina and my neighbor, Karly, went to the Boboli Garden behind the Palazzo Pitti. The Garden has hidden entrances and beautiful pathways.

Beautiful View from the Garden

View of the Palazzo Pitti

Irina, Karly and me

One of the beautiful pathways and trees around the garden

Marble stone

I had a good weekend overall. Since the trip to Milan was a little disorganized the company that planned it decided to refund us the money for the trip, so that was even better.

Week 4: Sept 26th to Oct 2nd

At school this week I'm a little better than the past ones. I have a set schedule now, so I'm a little more organized and situated. Most of my classes are in the afternoon and I by the time I get home it is time to get my homework done and just "try" to relax and go to bed.

This week was a little stressful at home. First our kitchen sink flooded and now we have a lot of dirty water in the sink and tons of dirty dishes. Our landlord is pretty laid back about things, so we didn't get our sink fix until Thursday.

Also, It is hard to get along with all girls that live here specially since we all have different routines. Overall, I get along pretty well with everyone and they see me a little different because I am the oldest one of the group. Most of them are between 18 and 21 years old, so I feel like the old lady. The girl I share the room with, Irina, is really nice and organized which I'm really happy for because our room always looks clean. The other two girls are share the room opposite to mine and they have a different story going on in their room. Like I said the only problem is the fact that we share different cultures and apparently Italian girls are not very good at living with people from different background. Hopefully after talking and sharing our opinion we have come to an understanding and now we will have a harmonious apartment

One highlight of the week was to find out that Karly and I might be able to get an internship in a Leather shop. We found this beautiful shop between one of the back roads in Firenze that had a very distinct and beautiful designs. Even thought I'm not in costume or fashion I was really excited to see the store's workshop. The owner of the place was really nice to show us around and told us about the options of getting an internship. We are really excited and hopefully it works out, so we get to learn how to work with leather. If you want to check it out go to www.infinityfirenze.com

On Friday I went to Fisole to see an exhibition from the school and from one of the architects of the area. It was nice to see a collection put together and how the school showcases students work.

Local Architect Exhibition

Accademia Exhibition

Famous local Architect from Accademia

Saturday I got up really early to go with my roommates and neighbors to Cinque Terre to celebrate Alexia's 19th birthday. We spent all day at the beach there and we had a great time. The beach is absolutely beautiful and the blue water has a color value that I have never seen on a beach before. We returned home at 9:30 pm after a long 3 hour train ride and went to sleep feeling really tired. Sunday was Alexia's actual birthday, so Karly decided to make French toast for her. I was a nice gesture and a very tasty one that everyone got to enjoyed.