Cultural and Coherent Landscape

The term landscape most often refers to historic vegetation and wildlife. However, Fabio articulates that the term is far more dynamic. Landscape is a cultural process, holding experiences, events, memories, and people. This idea is brought to life in the Amalfi coast where small windy roads lead to family owned lemon orchards, who share their sweet produce with you. The vast terraces of lemons are what often bring tourists to the coast. 

In 1012, people from Ravello built terraces made solely of stones and soil, permeable to water and wind, allowing for citrus and other ways of life to thrive. This man made landscape speaks to our complicated, double faced relationship with nature. We are both initiators and receivers of the changes in the landscape. These terraces have created the ecosystem we see today, becoming an essential part of the region's cultural heritage, which is why they are also listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. 

In prior centuries, there was a greater dependence on the land, which built sentiments of respect and care towards the environment as individuals were sustained by it. In recent years,  independence from the land has grown, allowing for the exploitation of land as ideals of consumerism drive many individuals actions. 

From our guided walk from Ravello to Maiori, I was blown away by the views. It was refreshing to be embraced by clear blue skies, fresh air, and beautiful Italian architecture scattered about the mountains. However, at one point in the tour, my attention was brought my attention to the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer. It looked like it was dropped into the surrounding landscape; it did not fit the scenery. At that moment, I experienced some of the incompleteness of urban identity that our readings mentioned. I had a difficult time building a coherent meaning of the landscape with the presence of that auditorium. As someone who visited this part of Italy for the first time, I am curious to hear what how the residents of this town feel about the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer. In reflecting upon this, it raises questions about urban regeneration and how landscapes designed and created intentionally by man, like Amalfi, can still seem organic, cultural, and coherent.

Tanti Saluti da Roma! Alina
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Digital Scrapbook of My Time in Italy

Image
It's astonishing to think that our incredible adventure through Italy is over! We started in Venice and worked our way south through Orvieto, Fontecchio, the Amalfi Coast, Rome, and many places in between. Here, I will share some of my favorite pictures and memories from each location. Venice We started out in Venice where we took tours of various sites such as the locations of historical factories and the Venice arsenal. While in Venice we had a free day, and I went to the islands called Murano and Burano. Murano is known for its beautiful glass and also has a really nice glass museum.  the island of Burano ~ known for its colorful buildings a canal in Venice a sunset we saw while on the taxi boat on the way back from Burano a cat crossing a bridge in Burano   a gondola! Venice is full of tiny walkways and beautiful bridges and canals the group I went with to Burano Orvieto After Venice, we continued on to Orvieto. Orvieto is a small town perched high on a hill. This location...
Read more

Environmental Hazards in Italy

Image
      While in Italy, we discussed and visited a few locations that have had notable environmental hazards. The most prominent one, and one which most people who haven't ever even been to Italy, is the eruption at Pompeii. We took a trip to Pompeii and got a tour of the site and it was shocking to me how huge the site was. It seemed like it stretched on and on and would take hours and hours to explore the whole thing. It was so interesting seeing everything that was preserved at this site. So many things were excavated and are still being excavated to this day. It was very interesting in the article about the Pompeiian vineyards reading how they were able to make casts in the holes left by decayed organic material in order to learn about not just the people, but also the plants and animals in this area. For instance, they were able to make casts of the roots of trees to identify them and could even see the mathematical precision the romans used, planting vines exactly fou...
Read more

Looking Back on Italy- Emma Penick

Image
      After spending three weeks in Italy, I learned so much about the History and Present day culture. In terms of what I was expecting, there were some things that certainly were how I thought they'd be. For instance, the views. The beauty of Italy was just as incredible if not even more so than I was expecting, which given that that's what I was most excited for, was definitely a wonderful thing to experience! In my first post I also talked about the food, and while there were many tomato centric dishes, as expected, there were also a plethora of dishes I had never heard of that were absolutely amazing! My favorites of these were the pistachio pasta and the truffle pasta.      One thing that I was not expecting how BIG the portion sizes would be!  Though, by the end I did get used to having bread, then pasta, then a main course, then a dessert, somehow! Also the fact that there would be bread available at basically every meal, I never thought ...
Read more