It's been a week since I've written because I've been molto occupata-very busy- and the internet at studio stopped working for a few days. This past week we finished up one of our calsses (a course in Roman sustainability) and began an new one about urban design. Today we rented bicycles and Tom gave us tour around the area where the site for our design project will be. If I had any doubts about the value of studying in Rome, they are gone after today. I'm excited to get into this project because I'm realizing more and more how interested I am in urban planning, specifically how it relates to agriculture. We also ate at a place called Gambero Rosso- a food center that gives wine and cooking classes, sells culinary equipment, and serves a gourmet buffet. Needless to say, I was in heaven. We ate finocchi (fennel) cooked with a creme sauce, pollo con peperoni (chicken), melanzane, radicchio, peperoni al forno (roasted eggplant, radiccio and peppers), cicoria ripassata (endive), and broccoli romaneschi ripassati (cauliflour). It was delicious and I ate wayyyy too much.
This past Saturday we went on a field trip to Hadrian's villa (a sprawling retreat built by an emperor in the 2nd century) and Tivoli (a city just east of Rome), where we visited Villa D'Este, a 16th century villa known for its gardens and fountains. The ruins at Hadrian's villa are fabulous: the monumental structure that housed the baths has deteriorated in such a way that the structure looks even more impressive than if I imagine it whole: a narrow strip of stone precariously stretches above your head, hinting at a long-gone dome. We also explored underground tunnels, which have are now lit by ghostly shafts of light because they've dug holes in them connecting up to the ground. The trip was also a good chance to meet some new people because we went with a huge group of Northeastern architecture students. That night we went to a house music battle, which is a stlye of electronic dance music, with some of the guys we met from Northeastern. Two dj's battled, taking turns mixing. It was crazy, but so fun. On Sunday we went to a soccer game- the stadium is awesome, and I actually managed to focus on watching the game for most of the time, so I was proud of myself. The best part was watching little puffs of cigarette smoke come from the massive audience and join the hazy cloud hovering above them. Last night we went to a blues club with some new friends of Christine's- Christine is a fabulous dancer and is trying to help these people jump-start a dance scene in Rome by helping them out with lessons. We listened to great music and I learned how to dance some blues, which was soooo fun, even though I'm not so graceful!
Pictures:
Still been trying to upload these pictures....
1. An ancient house in Ostia Antica that we analyzed as we were finishing up our sustainability course.
2. Tunnel in Hadrian's Villa
3. What remains of the bath complex at Hadrian's Villa
4. Soccer game
pics
ostia
665
baths
soccer game-714
No comments:
Post a Comment