Day 8 (3/29/11)

Today we woke up around 8 to head down for our breakfast. It was fantastic, much sweeter than I am used to; I had a custard-filled croissant with Nutella and strawberry jam, some fantastic juice that I think was mango, a roll or two and little toasted bread-chip-cracker-things. After breakfast we met together and talked about our classes that we will be taking and the way that everything will work before we went out on a group walk.
Our walk took us to Forte Malatesta, a pretty large fort that was built in 1349 along the river that circles the city. It was originally the site of Roman Baths, but after its destruction it was rebuilt by Lord Malatesta (called “the jailbird” because he used the fort to avoid persecution for his tyranny) in order to be safe. It was designed using new ideas for wall construction and design to prevent against projectiles, so the walls are extremely thick and they angle out at the bottom so that it is stronger at the level of the attackers. An interesting feature is how the windows work: they are very narrow slits that angle back as the hole of the window punches through the massive wall. They are placed almost entirely at strategic vantage points rather than scenic views, as they were used for defense instead of pleasure. The angle allows a sentry to point a gun through the opening while remaining a very small target to invaders. After it was finally captured and Malatesta was dispatched, an architect was commissioned to utilize the remains in the design of a church. Finished in 1550ish, it has remained in this state as a church, barracks, and up until 1978 (before it became a landmark and art museum) a prison.
After we had explored the fort/church we set off into the city, where we explored many of the smaller, back alley streets through the city. This was an exercise in getting off the main streets (Cardo and Decumanus were the North/South and East/West axis of every Roman camp, and these remain in the plan of most cities today, including Ascoli Piceno), since most of the fun things to see besides the main monuments are hidden in the dense fabric of the area. After a good amount of walking, we were asked to find our location, and using my glorious male ability to always know where I am, randomly pointed to the correct spot.
From there we walked back to the main piazza (del Popolo) where we dispersed to grab lunch. A group of us took some more back streets until we found the best pizza place around: Pizza One-Way. A slice of cheese (margherita) is 1 euro (about $1.50) and a slice of anything else (I had a slice with French fries and hot dog!) is 1.5 euro. Pretty amazing since the pieces are about twice the width (only have the thickness :\) of normal pieces. After lunch we met back up to head to the school where we will be meeting for studio.
The walk up is all uphill, and involves some fantastically tricky steps, but the view on top is unbelievable and totally worth it! Once inside we got a preview of the project and got into groups. The project regards taking ruins of 60s Italian architecture (Aldo Rossi is my personal favorite if anyone is interested, his redefinition of the city has been a great influence everywhere, although barely any of his work was built) and the way in which we can refold them into modern architectural society, whether this means renovation, expansion, or just building around them. The students we are studying with (the groups are made up of 5 people, either 4 of us and 1 of them or 3 and 2) have been doing research on these buildings since January, so we have some catching up to do. Anyway, each group is responsible for a very fast (our review is next Thursday. YIKES!) proposal of what we would like to do based on the original design, its flaws (since it is now a ruin, obviously something didn’t work), and its current use. Our building is the Casa dello Studente a Chieti by Georgio Grassi, an architect who influenced Rossi heavily. The original design is interesting, and of the four buildings (2 dorms, and two others), only 3 were built and only 2 remain (one dorm building that is empty and one other that has been turned into a cafeteria). The project will be pretty fun, especially with the language barrier, and I will keep you all posted regularly.
After some awkward hand gestures and broken English/made-up Italian (and possibly some Spanish) words from us, we had worked out a plan. A large group of us went downstairs to the café to continue to talk, which is where we learned that Ohio is somewhere the Italian students would love to go (right after LA, NYC and Miami it seems), while they think Ascoli Piceno is awful…we tried to convince them that they were sadly mistaken. Anyway, after a while we walked to a grocery store to pick up some supplies (nutella and mixed-berry sandwiches and a 1.5 liter orange soda [55 cents] for dinner!) and headed home. After dinner we chilled, and later our group is meeting to start working on ideas for studio!
As a heads up, my schedule is kinda random throughout the week, since we are working with “Italian Time” which means whenever we want to do something, we do. We also have no scheduled classes apart from random discussions or desk crits. All this means that if you want to talk (I will be subscribing to Skype so I can call landlines and cell phones from my computer!!!!) just shoot me an email and we can work out a time!