The Eternal City

Today marks day 3 of our trip to the Eternal City. Hans chartered us a bus for the day because the places we are seeing are spread out on the outskirts of the city proper. The first stop of the day was the Jubilee Church by Richard Meier. It was very much a Meier building using mainly cast-in-place concrete and travertine stone. The defining feature of the church is the curved walls on one side. It was a beautiful building with a nice space in the interior for mass.

Jubilee Church

The next stop was the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. Mussolini had this built in 1940 as a symbol of fascist architecture. It is supposed to be a celebration of the Colosseum. The building is very regular and simple but elegant in the way it is constructed. The arches are very nicely constructed. The building was closed for five years in the last decade while it underwent renovation but has since reopened as the headquarters of the high end fashion company Fendi.

Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana

Following that was the Palazzetto dello Sport which was a basketball arena for the 1960 Summer Olympic Games. The exterior was in such disarray. The roof was dirty and pealing. The concrete was cracking and weeds were growing everywhere. The inside was quite nice though. The ceiling was completely made of diamond shaped coffers which gave it a unique look. The circulation halls were in bad shape though. It is quite indicative of Olympic venues once the Olympics are gone.

Palazzetto dello Sport

Next we went across the street to the Auditorium at Parco della Musica. Despite being in the neighborhood of the Olympic Village this was a recently built building dating back to 2002. It was designed by the famous architect Renzo Piano. It was a beautifully constructed concert hall that offered three auditoriums at different sizes. We got a guided tour throughout by a very knowledgeable docent/practicing architect.

Auditorium at Parco della Musica

Once we were done with the Auditorium it was time for us to all break off. The bus dropped some of us off at the Roman Forum and we were able to find the entrance this time and set off into it. It is such a huge complex. There were so many ruins and changing elevations. It was a lot to see and we didn’t get to see even half of it before they closed. We decided to take a break and sit and sketch the Colosseum since we right across the street. And by the time we left we got more night photos that turned out pretty good.

Ruins at the Roman Forum

We got back to the hotel and it was time to meet up with the group for dinner. We ate across the street and had a typical Italian dinner. We had pasta first course, a meat second course, and a dessert. And of course we had wine. It was all very good and a great way to end our time in Rome.