Just when the BArch’s thought Rome was the finest Italy had to offer, we hopped on a bus that took us on a long and wild adventure from Roma to Mantova to Verona to Maser to Possagno to San Vito d’Altivole (Brion cemetery) to Vicenza to Venezia and all the way back to Roma!
Today we began this journey in the early morning with a lengthy bus ride to our final destination of Verona (where our lovely school-organized hotel was waiting for us), with a few memorable stops along the way! We all enjoyed the long car ride where we alternated between napping and gazing at the many vineyards, castles, and beautiful towns we passed on the countryside north of Rome. The true essence of Italy’s countryside was captured through these moments; a fittingly peaceful start to a fun-filled adventure. At our first stop we pulled over at a gas station north of Florence and enjoyed the authentic food provided by the 7/11 of Italy. Across the street was the Chiesa sull’Autostrada, a church designed by Giovanni Michelucci in 1960. The largely concrete church was built in honor of the many workers who died building the highway system that we had just been driving on through the hilly terrain of Italy. The more modern design with its extreme complexity in form served as a drastic contrast to the classical Romanesque composition and ornamentation. After seeing the church we again boarded the bus and drove to Mantova, where we spent the majority of our day. In Mantova we visited lots of Giulio Romano buildings as well as churches. Churches are fantastic to explore, particularly with our Professors, as they can apply what we learn in class into real buildings. One church we visited, the Duomo of Mantova, which was a medieval church re-done by Giulio Romano was intensely studied and sketched by Le Corbusier and was perhaps what gave him the idea for ‘free plan’. We also visited a purely Romanesque (not at all Gothic) church which was completely round (done before the church became hierarchical) as well as the famous and beautiful Sant’ Andrea re-designed by Alberti. In addition to the beautiful churches, Mantova was once recognized for being very eccentric which we saw in works by Giulio Romano, his house in Mantova as well as the horse stable (turned museum) that he built for the Gonzaga family in which we saw many bizarre, graphic, and almost comical frescos. We also tried a huge crumbly cookie dessert native to Mantova which was kindly provided to us by Jeffery! We ended the day returning to the bus and arriving to the hotel in Verona where we stayed that night, all quickly slumping after an absolutely thrilling day.
The next morning we woke up early in the morning to be greeted in the hotel lobby by a wonderful array of breakfast goodies, a delicious surprise to our hungry bellies! As we all took fully advantage of the immense breakfast we also prepared for a day of sight-seeing in Verona. As we walked the beautiful pink and beige marble (of which Verona is famous for) sidewalks of Verona we stopped in many beautiful churches and tourists sights. We saw many allusions to Venetian buildings (as Verona was once under Venetian control) as well as renaissance style, Roman, and the classical style of the Verona area (lots of stripped marble exteriors). One notable, yet very short, stop was to Juliet’s balcony where her famous statue sits in a little courtyard swarmed by tourists and love letters from all over the world. Each of us relived the classic tragic love story and found it to a beautiful combination of real life beauty and architectural masterpiece. We also visited the amazing Banca Popolare di Verona done by Carlo Scarpa in the 1906. The bank officials gave us a tour of the entire 3 floor and tunnel-like hallway, during which we all took in the wonderful design and rigorous detailing within the building in awe. We also visited another Scarpa building that day, although the second, Museo di Castelvecchio, was just the interior re-design of a medieval castle which now holds a wide variety of classical art. Seeing this interior re-design was particularly exciting not only because of how beautifully executed it was but also got us excited for our upcoming studio project! During our long visit to the museum it began to rain and as we left we debated not going to the literally majestic gardens of Palazzo Giusti. The beautiful rain walk along the river to the luscious and groomed gardens and the beautiful views of the entire city from the top and it was absolutely the fan favorite of the day. While our days are long and teeming with information, the architects and professors have a great dynamic which makes the academic field trip more like a leisured exploration, simply one that accompanied with two walking encyclopedias.
The next day, after another filling breakfast, we headed to Maser (first) where we went and visited Villa Barbaro, a Paladian villa filled with frescos still owned by a family which you can tour. After playing with the many dogs living on the property and all sketching the famous facades we got back on the bus and drove up to the hill town of Possagno. In Possagno we were confronted with the realities of many small towns in Italy post-recession as all but two of the lunch spots in the town were closed down. Nonetheless, after much walking around the town we were able to find lovely places to eat and enjoyed the company of the friendly locals before going into the old house and studio, turned museum, of the famous sculptor Canova. At the museum we all enjoyed the interior designs of Carlo Scarpa (yet again) and the famous original plaster versions and sketches of the artist’s masterful work. After this we visited the Brion Cemetery, done by Carlo Scarpa in the early 70s for the family of the famous kitchenware company. We were all very excited for this part of the day as we had listened to a presentation on the oddities and significance of this grave site by two of our classmates, Zeli Grey and Basil Harb, back in Ithaca the semester before. Unfortunately the bath house portion of the cemetery was under restoration but we still got to see the the pond and the above ground tombs of the couple as well as Scarpa himselves’ grave which lay just outside the walls and where he was buried vertically! After touring the graveyard we got back on the bus again and headed home for our last night in Verona before packing up and heading out for touring Vicenza and then on to a train to Venice the follow day!
