Europe 2014

This page is a growing collection of digital souvenirs of our 2014 European adventures, which included stops in Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Russia, and Italy over a one-month period. I plan to populate these links (and add new ones) over the summer.

Helsinki, Finland

• Suvilahti district street art: Tour artistic creations in a converted power plant

Jyväskylä, Finland

• Teaching at JAMK University of Applied Sciences: Photos by Phillip Szeto

Tallinn, Estonia

• Old Town and Kalamaja district street art: Highlights include a visit to the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport (now abandoned)

Stockholm, Sweden

• Underground tour: Visit the world's longest art exhibit

St. Petersburg, Russia

• The Hermitage: One of the world's most impressive assemblages of artwork

• Soviet relics: Narvskaya metro station, Sergey Kirov monument, "Workers of the world" mural, and more!

Cinque Terre, Italy

• Hiking the Sentiero Azzurro: Three days of dining, napping, and hiking

Rome, Italy

• Vatican Museum tour: Including School of Athens, Laocoön and His Sons, and the Gallery of Maps

• Ostiense neighborhood street art 1 of 2: Features Blu's transformation of Via del Porto Fluviale

• Ostiense neighborhood street art 2 of 2: Features work by Gaia, Gaucholadri, and Guy Denning

• Popped Collar Cool: You may be cool... but are you Italian Popped Collar cool?

Book Project

• Picaboo: These are draft-pages from our hardcover trip keepsake [warning: link may be temporary]

Shameless Plug: The Placeless City

I'm delighted to announce the publication of my new book, Die Ortlose Stadt Oder: Die Virtualisierung Des Urbanen (The Placeless City: The Virtualization of the Urban).

Co-authored with Alain Bourdin (Université Paris VIII) and Frank Eckardt (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), The Placeless City examines ways in which new information and communication technologies have transformed modern notions of urbanity.

This project emerged from a lunch conversation in 2012 during the “Media of the Metapolis” conference in Weimar, where Alain and I had been invited to speak on our relative approaches toward urban life. And now, thanks to Frank's expert negotiation of the German publishing world, we can share the results of that conversation with a larger community!

Publisher's link: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2746-6/die-ortlose-stadt

Popped Collar Cool

You may be cool... but are you Italian Popped Collar cool? In my case, no. But these guys are. I present these nine Kings of the Popped Collar, spotted in Rome.

For some reason Jenny and I got obsessed with this fixture of Italian male fashion during our recent travels, which meant multiple occasions when one of us would spot a candidate and the other would follow behind, snapping surreptitious pix. 

Was it creepy? A little, yeah. But once you fall under the spell of Popped Collar Cool, a tiny bit of touristic voyeurism is sure to follow.

Rome: Ostiense Neighborhood Street Art [2 of 2]

Here are some more pix of Ostiense neighborhood street art.

Gaia's Il Piccone Demolitore e Risanatore ("The Wrecker Pick and Healing")
Via Ostiense, 335 [GMap] • Installation video

Via Ostiense underpass [GMap]

Gaucholadri, Fuga de capitales
Via Ostiense underpass [GMap]

Percy Shelley, Via Ostiense underpass [GMaps]

Via Ostiense, 349 [GMap]

Guy Denning's “Di, di se questo é vero” [GMap]
Based on Dante's Inferno Canto 31
Street Art News post about installation

Via Gaspare Gozzi, 33 [GMap]

Via Gaspare Gozzi, 33 [GMap]

[Page 1 of 2]

Learn more

• B(e)Local: Street artists dream team: Post about Via Ostiense underpass

Sites to visit

• Blu's “Alexis” at Via Ostiense 124 [GMap]

• Roberto Perrella's images of Quadraro district

Rome: Ostiense Neighborhood Street Art [1 of 2]

Here's some street art found in Rome's Ostiense neighborhood [GMap] during our Europe 2014 travels.

Via del Porto Fluviale [GMap]

Via del Porto Fluviale [GMap]

Via del Porto Fluviale [GMap]

Via dei Magazzini Generali [GMap]

Via dei Magazzini Generali [GMap]

Via del Commercio [GMap] 

Via delle Conce [GMap]

[more images - 2 of 2]

Learn more

• Stephan Faris [Time Magazine] Rome’s graffiti boom: Eternal City finally welcomes street art

• Tomas Mancin's Street Art Roma, "The walls speak": overview of districts

Vatican Museums

Here are a few pix from our Europe 2014 visit to the Vatican Museums.

Andy sees Raphael's School of Athens for the first time

School of Athens detail
Pythagoras's theory of mathematical harmony

Arnaldo Pomodoro's Sfera con sfera
("Sphere within sphere")

Head from a colossal statue of Augustus

Herm of Socrates (including, for some reason, his testicles)

Statue of Ceres

Gallery of Maps

Gallery of Maps [detail]

Laocoön and His Sons

Cinque Terre, Italy

Our Europe 2014 trip featured a visit to Cinque Terre. We drifted along a leisurely itinerary of al fresco dining, napping on the beach, and hiking along the Sentiero Azzurro.

Hiking from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare

Looking back on Vernazza

Contemplating the Corniglia steps

Navigating the Sentiero Azzurro

Getting to know Monterosso al Mare

Meeting a Corniglia kitty

Hiking to Vernazza, looking back on Corniglia

Returning to Vernazza

Waves crashing near Riomaggiore

Taking the train from Riomaggiore to Vernazza

Savoring our last morning in Vernazza

Learn more

• Nicole Ruskell's Rescuing Vernazza: An eyewitness account: "The rain kept pouring down until the village became a rushing river. The cars in the parking lot above town began to get swept up by the water. The strong current carried cars and trucks down into town like they were nothing but toys. Some locals looked on from their balconies with disbelief as their cars rushed by below them."