ITALY TRIP - PHOTO EDITION: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 04JUN24
Seeing the sights.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Welcome to my vacation slideshow.
FLORENCE
My most-used phrase the entire trip was, “This doesn’t seem real.” Like, I’ve seen pictures and movies set in Italy but while I was there my brain never fully accepted it as reality. It was all too big and too different for it to fully sink in. These buildings and cities are incredibly old compared to America and have very different origins for how and why they were built, so while they are familiar they’re also radically alien.
And so damn beautiful. Like, everything was just…pretty.
Our second day there, we were aimlessly walking around without any destination in mind. Katy and I call it Omaha Style, based on a weekend we spent in Omaha where we just wandered and went into any place either of us found interesting. We noticed we were walking against traffic a lot and I said maybe we should follow them for a bit. We went around a corner and there was the Florence Duomo, a gigantic cathedral that kind of broke my brain every time I looked at it. We found a second floor combo bar and record store in the square and had drinks while watching the crowd and taking it all in.
THE TUSCAN COUNTRYSIDE
Later that same day we were picked up to go out to the venue where the classes were taking place, called Antico Borgo La Torre. It’s amidst an active vineyard and olive grove and dates back to the Middle Ages when it was originally a watch tower. The farm was built around that tower and has been in the Medici family for centuries through to this very day.
The building we worked out of sat atop an an active winery in its basement, which we got a tour of one night. During the tour they told us that Leonardo da Vinci would use the surrounding hills in his paintings, possibly even the Mona Lisa.
The beauty of this place and its history was legitimately overwhelming at times. I would get frozen in place just staring and trying to let my brain wrap around where I was and what I was doing there.
Each evening we had different group activities like the wine tour, a pizza night where we each made our own that was then cooked in an outdoor wood fired oven, and a night where we made pasta from scratch. There were pitchers full of wine from the winery all night and there were definitely a couple nights where we were up well past midnight, laughing and feeling like we were old friends even though we’d all just met.
Wrestling art.
UFFIZI GALLERIES
After our time in the countryside was done Katy and I stayed a couple more days back in Florence, mostly sticking to Omaha Style but we made a point to visit the Uffizi Galleries art museum. It’s a massive complex filled with artwork I’ve only ever seen in history books.
Like, yeah, we walk through a doorway and there’s The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. Walk through another and there’s a series of works by Leonardo da Vinci. Cross the hallway and you’re surrounded by Michaelangelo. The ninja turtle representation was outstanding.
Most of these Renaissance paintings were commissioned by the Catholic Church, so there’s a lot of sameness to the subject matter. At one point I said to Katy, “People sure were excited about babies getting born back then.” But it’s through that shared subject matter that you can begin to appreciate what each artist brought to it through their compositions and craft.
And the sculptures! I don’t personally have an aptitude for three dimensional art, I was never successful at making any, so I never developed as intense of an appreciation for it as I do for painting and illustration. But there was no way to behold these incredible sculptures and not be in awe of them.
And as you go through it all it can become too much, like, yeah, another religious painting. Seen it. But then you walk around a corner and there’s several rooms of Caravaggio paintings. Walk through a door and there’s the Dutch Masters, including Rembrandt. And they’re just…right there. These historic works of art, the actual paintings and sculptures where a who’s who of the greatest artists in European history physically made them. I’m still in awe of it all.
Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
###
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
###
Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees!
###
Instagram
Threads
YouTube
Yeah, that’s a real photograph.
IN CONCLUSION
Our final night in the countryside there was a torrential rain that cleared up quickly to reveal this incredible double rainbow. A bunch of us stood and gazed at it, unable to wrap our brains around this entire week and how it ended so perfectly.
Its moment in time came to an end but the memories, the lessons and the love throughout will stay with me the rest of my life.
Love you more,
Rob