Day 1 - AAR INTRO

19:30 and back in my room on day 3 listening to Neil Young "Goin' Back" from the album Comes A Time. Neil sings "I feel like going back, back where's there is no where to stay......I used to build these buildings.....I used to walk next to..........their shadows tore us apart......now we do what we have to do......."
Another day in Rome, another series of highlights.  Had a tour of the library this morning at the AAR.  Head librarian has been here 10 years, having come from Princeton.  Everyone here seems to have spent time at Princeton. I have visited there a bunch of times.
Also had a tour of the whole facility from Giancarlo.
Then tried to find the ROMA Football store so I could score some tickets for a game.  This proved to be a fruitless search.  Then off to see the wonderful Giovana who runs the Tulane Architecture program here (my friend Ken Schwartz who is the Dean of the Tulane A school introduced us.  Ken gets here in a week.  She is married to Maurice Coxe who is a planner I kinda know who at one time was the mayor of Charlottsville!  Maurice and Giovana has divided their time between C'Ville and Florence.  Not bad.  Giovanna has invited me to talk to her students this monday, and then be on their mid semester jury on Oct 10.  She and I had a long lunch and she is going to be a great resource.  Then hit the highlights - the Pantheon in all its beefy grandeur and its 6 M circular walls, Santa Maria Sopra Maria with its great elephant obelisk, humble facade and incredible art within, and then to (be still my heart) St. Ivo, with also a quick stop in Piazza Navona. Some quick sketches follow.  More photos after dinner.......

Pan-theon dedicated to all gods.  Started in 27 BC (!) and finished in 125 AD by old Hadrian.  Maybe the greatest building on planet earth?

Sant'Ivo by Borromini for the Barberini Pope Urban VIII.  Sometimes the Popes get some good things done.