Day 57 (5/17/11)

This morning we woke up early (I fell asleep before setting an alarm so it was a fun little sprint to get ready) to head out to the town of Frascati to see Villa Aldobrandini, a pretty great building that we talked about in Theory. So we took a train out from Termini through some pretty fantastic landscape and around the edge of an awesome valley filled to the brim with all kinds of buildings. Once we got there we walked through the main space of the small town before coming to the main axis of the Villa. The building sat up on a hill and coming down from it was a large procession through a row of dense trees that became a colonnade. A funny moment that we found which had been highlighted in our discussion of the building in class was how when you come to the gate the very top of the building is all that pokes out over the trees, so it looks like a new building just sitting on the trees.
Unfortunately the gate was closed so we set off on a main road to try to get to the top. The walk up along the walls of the Villa’s property was pretty cool, until we came to the gate, which was locked. We then set back down to try the other side, and after a few bad turns and general disheartening we finally found a great road that ran along the edge of the hill for more great views before cutting back towards the Villa. We finally found the entrance and snuck past the sign that said no entry and the ticket office. After walking through a cool tunnel and up some stairs we were standing in the main courtyard of the Villa looking back out over the city and beyond to the valley. The front façade of the building is much less interesting than the other spaces, although the scale of the flatness stopping the grand axis up was pretty cool. From here we walked around the other side and snuck into the gardens. The trees out here were pretty fantastic, and the way they grow in any direction they choose was a pretty funny contrast to the planned way they were planted. From here we got a pretty great view of the backside of the Villa as well as more views out from the different spaces of the garden. We walked up along another road towards a second structure behind the Villa that was a pretty cool half-circle space with a bunch of statues.
Next we continued our trespassing by climbing over a construction fence to get on top of this building and after enjoying the great views of the Villa we found that the main axis continued up the hill behind us in the form of a series of garden spaces. After climbing over another barrier we started the climb up the hill. The first water feature was a pretty great terraced water chain that brought the water over the edge. The top was framed by two fantastic spiral columns and very dense woods along each edge. After hiking up some steps we came to a flat area highlighted by a large rock group that the water cascaded over before running into the axis. We climbed up some very treacherous steps and came to the final area and the start of the water. From a large waterfall the water ran underground and then rushed over the smaller rock feature; however, there was also water that was flooding over the pool at the bottom of the falls and running into the next level on its own, which was pretty cool. We climbed up the hill to the top of the falls and enjoyed the complete view back through this steep garden feature and back to the Villa. The very natural forms and forgotten appearance combined with it being surrounded by seemingly untamed woods on all sides made walking through this space was like stumbling across some very intact ruins in the middle of a forest, which was a fantastic feeling.
After slowly climbing down the perilous slopes and overgrown stairs we moved on to the other half of the large half-circle space onto the roof of it. After enjoying more of the much more articulated and varying rear end of the Villa, we saw some police cars down below and got nervous until we spotted some old folks wandering around. We decided that it was still best to get out of the off-limits areas so we same down to the rear courtyard that faced the half-circle and beyond to the gardens. The structure housed a bunch of statues and a pretty great fountain of Atlas in the center. From here we continued around the sides enjoying the views of the massive Villa and the interesting little moments around it before coming back to the first courtyard. We next worked our way down the front “lawn” to the main gate and down through the tree boulevard, which was pretty cool to walk through since the trees came all the way up over the center. Once we had all gotten back together after exploring the rest of the area we walked back down.
Next we took a quick look at a pretty fantastic church with bipolar facades: one was a hulking, extremely plain mass with an interesting tower, and the other a pretty great Baroque composition. To cap the fantastic day we stopped for gelato and I had the best pistachio of the trip, which was a pleasant surprise. We made our way back down to the station and caught the slowest train back home, which was ok because enjoying the landscape was better than getting home (where studio and Italian class were lurking). After a bus ride back and some quick lunch I worked on finally sorting through all the pictures from last weekend before we left for class. Today we learned about ordering at a restaurant and took a tour around the area near our school where we all described a place we had picked the night before.
After class our group went to the school to work on some studio. Sadly, printing troubles severely restricted our productivity, but we were able to make some executive decisions and some major preparations for the construction of our study model tomorrow. After working for a while we came home, made dinner and relaxed for a while. After a few hours of finishing my sorting through pictures it was time to go to bed!