Week 1: Arriving in Rome

Packing up your life and moving overseas is probably never easy.  Given that my wife and I were moving overseas with our 3 month old baby on Monday 7 September, and that I was still working and issuing a 124 page report (124 pages of text – not counting the appendices) on Friday, three days before, I’m amazed that somehow it all came together, and we’re here.   I’m almost tempted to walk down to the Pantheon and make an offering to all of the Roman gods in gratitude.  We managed to endure the 11 hour (including the layover) overnight flight with our baby and we arrive in Rome sleep-deprived but relieved, with our sanity reasonably intact.

 Even for a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived traveler, arriving at the gates of the American Academy in Rome is an impressive sight.   The main building of the academy, a 1912 McKim Mead and White designed Beaux Arts neoclassical structure, 

McKim Mead & White Building, American Academy in Rome

commands the near pinnacle of the Janiculum, the highest hill within the walls of the city of Rome.   The actual pinnacle of the Janiculum is across the street, at Villa Aurelia, also part of the academy and the site of its formal public lectures and receptions. 

All the Academy’s Fellows bringing children are assigned apartments in 5B, an apartment building leased by the Academy, next door to the Academy’s main building.  The building was previously a convent, and it has very high ceilings and large windows, with great light.  Coincidentally, we are assigned the exact apartment that author Anthony Doerr and his wife and infant twins lived in, as described in detail in his book Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World.  Doerr described the two cribs in his apartment as “not looking especially safe”, but fortunately, our crib looks brand new (perhaps someone at the Academy read the book, then ran out and bought some new cribs…).  Our two bedroom apartment is sunny and spacious, with a private terrace atop the bridge that connects the two buildings of the former convent.   From my bedroom window I can see the window of my studio in the main building, about 80 meters away. 

Apartment Building 5B, American Academy in Rome

All the Fellows’ fields of study are classified as either an art or a humanity.  Historic Preservation and Conservation (my field) probably could have gone either way, but when I see my studio, I am thankful that the academy chose to classify it as an art.   The studios for those in the humanities are comparatively small, but the studios for those in the arts, including mine, are huge, with 30 ft high ceilings, and immense north-facing windows that capture a beautiful even light throughout the day.   I find an adjustable tilt-up drafting table awaiting me in my studio, just as I requested earlier in the summer.  Drawing will be quite integral to my project as things get rolling here…

Rockefeller Studio (my studio for the year), AARome

In the mean time, this first week involves quite a lot of orientation and start-up things – getting keys and intranet passwords, a general orientation and tour of the main building, an orientation to use of the computer room, a helpful tour of the neighborhood (not an art history tour – but a pragmatic tour of things like where to buy groceries, get a haircut, get a prescription filled, get the bus down the hill to the center, etc.).  We also take a placement exam for the intensive, 3 hour per day Italian language classes that begin on Monday morning.   The language classes will run for three weeks, and other miscellaneous orientation logistics, start-up and paperwork tasks will run concurrently for at least another week or so.     Although it’s all worthwhile and necessary, I’m anxious to have much more time to dig into my project… Identifying my project sites and obtaining access permissions will also take time – the bureaucracies here can be quite cumbersome.   My hardhat and tool bag (they were at the top of my packing list) wait ready in my studio. The methodology of Vitruvius and the incredible historic buildings and monuments of Rome beckon…