Day 36 (4/26/11)

After an extremely restful long weekend, it was finally back to exploring the city! Today we met at Santa Maria in Trastevere, a local church that a few of my friends have gone to for mass! It is located in a pretty great piazza just off of the main street, and aside from the kinda weak fountain out front, the locale is pretty nice. It was also interesting to look at the urban build-up, as the church is thoroughly engaged between two (icky) new buildings that complement the old look of the church. The interior was fantastic, and the entry into the darkened church with just the altar lit (it was being prepped as we explored) was fantastic. We looked around at the many side chapels and the highly detailed roof, and after a little while the lights started to turn on; this added a whole new beauty to the space, as the contrast in lights and the sharp shadows created were awesome.
After discussing the church for a while we wandered around for a little while, just exploring the back streets of Trastevere. The color of these streets is mind-boggling, as the color palate of the typical American side street is poop and darkness. This area seems to me to be the Italian version of the suburbs, only no one has lawns and the space is better. We also saw the Via Lungare, one of the first axial streets (ever?), which was a primary influence in Sixtus V’s interventions in Rome. After a while we stopped at Villa Farnesina, a decent spot that is only interesting because of the new typology it created: the half-palazzo that incorporates an extended landscape into the planning (along with Villa Giulia, which we will see soon). The Villa was filled with paintings, most of which were designed to either fool your understanding of the space (none did) or work with windows to “break the box” (as cliché as this phrase has become, the concept is actually at play here as the paintings direct your gaze out of the windows, which causes you to leave the Villa momentarily).
After far too much time at this glorified art exhibit, we walked all the way back up Geniculum Hill where we met on our first day (years ago?). After a hellish amount of stairs and some great views out to the city, we stopped to look at our future site from afar. We know very little about this project, but supposedly we receive the brief tomorrow, so expect a full update then! From here we continued walking around the edge of the hill until we came to San Pietro. This church is the unsung home of the Tempietto, one of the more famous monuments in Rome as far as an architecture student is concerned. Designed by Bramante, the temple represented the beginning of the (truncated) movement towards centralized planning, and the disappointing transformation from plan to realization (mostly scale of the space) led to a lessened impact. However, the space is still pretty great: after entering through a small door you are presented with an up close and personal view of the round temple, which sits in a small square courtyard. The various views within and through the space as well as the building’s simple beauty made for a very nice space. My favorite part was examining the four corners of the courtyard, all of which were slightly different! After sketching and exploring, we moved over to the actual church (always second fiddle…), which was truly fantastic. As always, the interior and many side chapels were gorgeous, and the proportions of the space were pretty cool. My favorite part was the variation in the different ceilings, which transformed in scale from a simple decorated roof to a larger dome shape to a massive and well-lit space above the nave. This progression draws you along the primary axis of the church, and I hadn’t even noticed what was happening until I turned back to look.
It was here that we broke for the day, so Richard, Joe, Sam and I decided to just wander around until Italian. We walked along the lower roads of the Geniculum hill (sadly none of them brought us all the way down) before heading all the way down to the site. Unfortunately, the site is surrounded by a very high construction barricade, and after some furtive views in we think there is an excavation going on. From there we walked out to Campo di Fiori for some pizza, and on to Piazza Navona to study our Italian homework. Before doing so, I went back to the building built around the ruins (see day 28), but this time we found the interior of the building, which was pretty great. After an unsuccessful check on St. Nicolas (is it ever open!?) we walked back to the fountain. Sadly, it began to rain shortly after we settled in, so we had to take our studying to the only place we knew that would have both an education-fostering environment and little distractions: McDonalds.
We mostly went here because of the pure chaos, and the chance that no one would notice us taking a table and not eating anything. But of course we had to try the McFlurry (made with “real” gelato), which was great! Mine had cherry stuffing-type stuff with crunched up ice-cream cone and chocolate pieces! So we studied in McDonalds like typical Romans until it was time for class. Before heading in, we decided to stop in on Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, a church designed by Bernini. This gem of a church was an amazing find, and I can’t wait to go back! The contrast between the lighting of the various side chapels and the different scales of the main nave made for an overwhelming space. There was also a pretty nice cloister outside as well as an amazing dome, which is quite hidden from the exterior. Sadly, we had to leave for class, so the trip was finished prematurely.
Today in class we learned about asking directions and various other types of information, and on Thursday we will be heading out to the rough streets of Rome to test our skills! After class we came home, ate dinner, and goofed around for a while before heading off to bed!