Sabaudia and Sperlonga Along With One Unfortunate Week

Please forgive the lack of posts lately. We are finally winding down the semester and it seems that it passed all too quickly. This week has been hell. Absolute hell. And the more I look back on it, the more I realize how rough these last two months have been. A learning experience no doubt, but I'll be completely and brutally honest, I'm ready for home. I'm ready for some familiarity and some new faces. But this is not a pity post to tell everyone what a sad disposition I've had as of late, but rather an update on the GOOD things that have ocurred over the past few days.

Last wednesday, my class and I took a treck out to Hadrian's Villa and the Villa D'Este. The weather was perfect. We were in the sunshine all day long. Firstly at Hadrian's Villa, we traced around the steps of his ancient hodgepodge of buildings finally ending in the most famous spaces of the villa, a long rectilinear reflecting pool surrounded by ancient statues. I spent about an hour or so sketching one of my favorite statues there. He was my boyfriend for the day. From here, we took the coach into the small town of Tivoli and ventured to the Villa D'Este. The interior of the home on the villa was decorated with stylized frescoes of which I was truly not a fan. But I could appreciate them. The home had an unsual set up: long implied corridors that connected room to room and a thin rectangular footprint. But the main focus of the villa was the garden. They were a beautiful extent of green manicured bushes butted up next to dramatic fountains. I wish I had my camera this day. I didn't end up purchasing a new one until just a few days ago. (The following five photos are courtesy of Nicole Dennis.)












This past wednesday, we made it out to Sabaudia, a "fascist new town" outside of Rome along side the western coast. This town has turned into a summer resort and getaway for Romans. Unfortunately, I really don't admire fascist architecture so this part of our expedition was a little dull. However, for lunch, we piled on the coach bus and headed towards la mare (the sea). It was incredible to eat a rather mutilated sandwich on the beach. As Anthony Bourdain once said, "everything tastes better barefoot." I rolled up my jeans (not far enough as I found out later) and walked around in the sand. I even braved the water. It was cold, but standable. The sun had decided to stay behind the clouds that day, but it was lovely none the less.

We then piled in the coach, my jeans sandy and wet from my knees down, and headed to our final desitination - Sperlonga. This place was incredible. It was a small medieval village atop an outcrop of land jutting out into the Mediterranean. There were very few cars here for the streets were only wide enough to walk four abreast. But it was as if I were in a maze. The winding streets transformed slowly into staircases that would end abruptly at someone's front door. There were little alleyways covered by someone's apartment that framed a view of the city below. It was beautiful. Simply beautiful. Although, there was a sense of eerie emptiness as I walked down the deserted streets. I came to the conclusion that most of the apartments, judging from the large stacks of mail sitting outside the doorways, were summer homes for neighboring city dwellers. I wouldn't mind having a little summer apartment here. I even took a few pictures of the Vendesi (for sale) signs. (I did this for my folks, just in case they were interested in moving to Italy after they retire. Haha)