All posts tagged: Rome

Cars in the Coppede Quarter

Cars, shared streets, and lovable cities

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I know I’m in Rome to think (and learn) about architecture and preservation (past and future), but recently my thoughts turned to cars. There’s a connection here.  Trust me. If you need a car in Rome, you can find one.  We’ve taken taxis on several occasions, and from those rides I can attest that there are no shortages of cars on the street.  But the interesting thing — from my perspective — is how the cars and their drivers interact with others who share the street: pedestrians (of which there are many), cyclists, motorcycle riders, street vendors, buskers, and patrons at outdoor cafe tables. Rome’s transportation patterns are somewhere between the very rational (and orderly) Copenhagen model, and the free-for-all that is New Delhi. Probably a little closer to Delhi, truth be told. Traveling in Rome is a dance, and cars are not privileged in the way they are in the United States.  (We have changed our cities and planned our suburbs in a way that deifies cars, instead of supports people.) While there are …

Observations from the Road: (The “We Learn So Much Every Day” Edition)

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A couple of quick thoughts about recent days in Italy. Orvieto update – To no one’s surprise, Orvieto (which I wrote about yesterday) is the favorite town of several of our friends and colleagues.  We can see why.  A long-time and dear friend from our days in Staunton, Sally James, wrote to say that Orvieto is her “home away from home!”  In my original post, I didn’t mention the chapel by Fra Angeloco and Luca Signorelli, which is the topic of Sally’s first book, Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry and a Vision of the End Time. The decoration of the Cappella Nuova, commenced by Fra Angelico in 1447 and magnificently completed by Luca Signorelli in 1499 and 1504, displays an awe-inspiring Last Judgement and Apocalypse and, below it, scenes from Dante and classical literature. This was yet another magnificent space in an incredible building full of wonderful art and architecture.  Sally encourages us to look for the next issue of Gesta, probably in April, to see her article on the frescoes of …

34th anniversary

Happy anniversary!

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Today Candice and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary! I have to admit that Rome is a pretty wonderful place to celebrate anything, but it seems especially appropriate for an anniversary. When Candice and I were married in 1982, I was a poor graduate student in Atlanta who found time during my spring break to get married and take a honeymoon trip to Prospect Hill – a 1732 farmhouse bed & breakfast outside Charlottesville. Our first anniversary was actually celebrated back at Prospect Hill, as we were there while finding housing before our 1983 move to Staunton in the nearby Shenandoah Valley. For the first decade of our life together, we would return to the inn for “major” anniversaries – such as the 5th and 10th. Anniversaries changed as the twins arrived, and when they were five we moved to Washington.  During those years we were lucky to be able to find a baby sitter and go out for a dinner.  We did return to Prospect Hill for our 20th, thanks to our good friends …

People (and Dog) Watching in Rome

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Saturday was a picture perfect day in Rome.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Mid-60s temperature.  Our windows were open all day to let in the fresh air and sunshine.  It was a day that called us to go outside. And we did just that, heading over to the largest landscaped public park in Rome, located nearby the Academy in Monteverde on the Janiculum.  While we walked, talked, and enjoyed the sunshine, we primarily engaged in the age-old past-time of people watching.  Thankfully, we were rewarded in this beehive of activity.  Children playing football. Teenagers in love. Older couples holding hands, both to show affection and to steady their partner. Picnics on the grass. Danish architect Jan Gehl has said that – in the past 50 years – architects, landscape architects and planners… “…have gotten confused about scale. They constantly confuse car scale with people scale. Sometimes they make a mix, but most of the time they make car scale and say, look, there’s a sidewalk, people can walk here. What’s the problem? That is …

To Be An Artist

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Yesterday the Fellows Walk took us to the opposite side of Rome, where the city grew outside the walls in the 19th century.  It was a different take, focused on unification, industrialization, and city planning. The tour ended in the Quartiere Coppedè (the Coppedè Quarter) designed by architect Gino Coppedè. A small enclave of apartments and houses from the early 20th century, the buildings exhibit a riot of every Italian architectural influence imaginable.  Wild historical eclecticism – one short-lived response to modernism of the early 20th century. Following the end of the tour, Candice and I roamed the neighborhood with Jeff Cody from the Getty, taking photographs and finding new elements to view on every wall.  Over a coffee, Jeff pulled out a small sketch book to show us some drawings he had made from earlier visits to Italy, and it was then that I regretted not having taken any sketching classes in my life. Just look at these possibilities in the Quartiere Coppedè:         It was the second time in two …

Looking Back, Looking Forward

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Candice and I arrived at the American Academy in Rome on Monday morning to begin my six-week sabbatical.  We suffered through the usual jet lag (and a bit more…but that would be TMI) and quickly settled in to our cozy apartment.  Over the course of the first few meals we were welcomed by dear friends of Tom (recent Rome Prize winner from the National Trust) and Rod’s (his husband); joined a talented graphic artist and his wife at the bar when we both realized we were there for our first night (and then later realized we had met a decade ago when he designed the branding for The Glass House); were connected to some new acquaintances through long-time colleagues in the U.S.; and simply met a host of welcoming fellows and “fellow travelers.” Once the jet lag wore off, we began to explore the neighborhood of Trastervere which lies at the foot of the hill from the Academy (down some 70 steep steps…but that’s another story.) Our focus was the Basilica di Santa Maria, where …