When in Italy... Do Italy

Yesterday was quite a busy day! Why you ask? Well architecture of course! We began our morning with Contemporary European Architecture class with Professor Alessandro. It's a 3 hour class every Thursday morning about exactly the title, contemporary european architecture. It is such a fascinating class because it expresses how architectural Greats before us and around us have managed to meld the contemporary love of architecture in the ancient historical context of Europe. During that class we received our semester project that will be due at the end of the semester... To write a book! We design it, we write it, we decided exactly what it's about (i mean architecture- but what about arch) and publish it by the end of the semester.

Then after class, we ate lunch and headed on to studio where the real fun begins! Except yesterday it was a little on the not so fun side.. Thank you Professor Lucca. After Vanessa (my project partner) and I received some unwanted words from Lucca, we found nothing better to do than to just laugh and begin again. So we continued laboring until around 1 am where I would find my pillow for the first time in a while. 

Today we began our day with Italian Rationalism, a class taught by a very slow, monotone speaking Italian man. He's brilliant and content in class is actually quite interesting, but a faster, more enthusiastic voice could go a long way for the class. Today we learned about the Fascist movement in the 1920's and the role it played with architecture. You wouldn't believe the amount of sketched that you can create in a 3 hour class with this man... about 4 pages worth! Thank you Professor for the interesting sketches!

Finally, it was lunch time. Lasange and Faccaccia bread, yum! Then my friend Vanessa, Whitney and I decided we deserved a little Italian shopping therapy for our long nights and hard work. Besides, we're in ITALY for goodness sakes! So.. to Venti Settembre we went. This is the main strip of prime shopping territory in Genova. Being in Italy today has cured my disease of not buying things even when I really want them. Today I purchashed: a pair of wonderful brown flats, a giant mustard color scarf (brings out my eyes according to Whitney) and a light pink knit sweater. I've always know my style came from European influence... I LOVE shopping here. 

Tomorrow we head off to hike the Cinque Terre. 10 of us are leaving the Villa at 6:30 am to catch a 7:20 train because the motto here in Italy is to "walk" everywhere! We'll arrive at the starting point around 9 am and hike all day until around 5 pm probably where we will finish our day off with a little swimming at the beach! Then of course it's back to studio, which is what I should be doing right now so.... ciao!