a land as i.

the wrong way: drink the water.

the Wright way: don't complain. You were stupid.

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On Friday we returned from our trip to the Southern regions of Italy. Each place we visited had its own feeling and identity. Napoli was the first city we hit, and immediately I heard the difference between the dialect of the North and South.

I met a friend there named Antony who smoked three camel lights as I sketched sections of two palazzi. He would not stop talking-- with his hands and all [I managed to get all the ash off my pages]. I suppose I would pour my heart out too if someone didn't understand a word I was saying and sat as politely.

We also visited Casa Malaparte, up in the cliffs of Capri. It was about a 40-minute hike across non-regulation stairways and winding cliff paths to reach the area from the main town. The house's keeper, Malaparte's nephew, travels that path just about every day to get to town. For us, it was a bit of a struggle, but we were driven. We spent about three hours sketching, talking about the house, and exploring.

Malaparte was not an architect, in fact he was a writer, but he had a lot of concepts he wanted to incorporate into his design. His concepts had to do with things that he possessed, that he did, or that played an important role in his life. A slave to cell 461, he carried his memory of imprisonment with him as he built his house on those jagged cliffs. His realization of the inability to attain freedom after being released was a crucial epiphany which helped spark the drive to build. He yearned for isolation, yet at the same time felt free, as a performer on a stage. These battling qualities of character were realized, as the architectural self-portrait of Malaparte was constructed on those cliffs.

One of the greatest aspects of the house is how the views are framed. From the outside, the fenestration may seem a tad random or strange, but keep in mind that this house was built from the inside-out. All considerations began from the prisoner's point of view. Each window view on the interior frames a beautiful scene.

The scenes are not just of beauty, but of types of beauty. Making your way down through, you notice that the rooms on the left are built of wood, with views emphasizing the flora of the cliffs and the trees spilling over the sides of the house, lightly protecting it from the elements.

The spaces on the right highlight the element of rock and stone, and the views follow in the same manner.

There is a white fin

that curves on the roof of the house, something CUA has used as a make-shift projection screen for summer lectures. As you walk towards the fin, it grows bigger and cuts off everything from view but the sky and the tops of the cliffs. Standing in a certain location on the roof, you feel like a prisoner to the natural world.

Temple of Apollo ruins

Pompeii/bath complex