Long and Winding Road

Yesterday we took our weekly field trip to the towns of Sabaudia and Sperlonga, which are south of Rome. Sabaudia was created in the 1930's during the Fascist regime, and it's pretty cool because they created a new style of architecture to officially represent Fascism. It referenced classical architectural but also took some of its techniques from Rationalism, which was gaining popularity in Europe at the time.

After that we went to Sperlonga, which is just a small coastal town located on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. Nearby are the remains of a villa that had amazing sculptures in an adjacent grotto. The villa and grotto were cool, but my favorite part was definitely the town of Sperlonga. They actually let us walk around on our own, which is always the best way to explore. We're supposed to fill up our sketchbooks by, um, Wednesday, and I'm ALMOST haflway through so I was sketching like a fiend all day. I don't think it's going to happen. :) Oh well,...

View from the town of Sperlonga, looking at the adjacent beach.

The other side of the beach.

View from the grotto looking towards Sperlonga.

We got back in Rome around 7:15, went home, grabbed some dinner, and hurried to Piazza del Popolo where Ben Harper was giving a free concert sponsored by National Geographic for Earth Day. It was really fun; there were SO many people there! Italians love American music; they sing the words even if they don't know what they mean.

Today the president of Auburn came and visited us in studio and asked us some questions about how to make the Auburn abroad system better. We got a picture with him, that's right. :) The rest of the day we've just been working up in studio. I think we're going to go to St. Peter's tomorrow though because I have yet to see the interior and I do NOT want to leave Rome without doing that! I'm getting sad the closer we get to leaving.