This weekend (Feb. 6-8) Sara and I made a point of going to visit the downtown area. On Friday, however, I visited the Instituto Nazionale per la Grafica behind the Trevi Fountain with my printmaking class. We saw original prints by Durer, Rembrandt, Piranesi, Goya, and others, as well as the original plates for a Piranesi print and a couple other artists. It was raining, though, so I didn't go see anything else that day. Saturday we went to the Palatine Hill museum and the Forum Romanum (Roman Republican forum). I can't post all my pictures here because I took so many, but it was great to see all the buildings that I've been studying and can identify on sight by now. We spent several hours climbing all over the site looking at everything. One of the most impressive ruins is the Basilica of Maxentius, which is just immensely large. The Museo Palatino (Palatine Hill) isn't quite as interesting because it was just a lot of brick walls from houses--first the patrici...
Musings on Architecture, Urbanism, and the Built Environment