Here’s a view looking through an archway of the Portico of Octavia toward the Theater of Marcellus, with just a hint of the apartments built atop of the theater in medieval times. The elements on the left are of the scaffolding supporting restoration work on the portico.

What attracted me to this scene is the way it compresses space and time. Almost everywhere you walk amid the skewed street spaces, buildings, and monuments in the centro historico district, one encounters these layers of history so typical of Rome.

This past Sunday, I attended the 10 am Mass at Santa Maria in Trastevere, a basilica that feels like a normal parish church rather than one that simply attracts tourists. Compare this view from my usual position, seated in the rear and to the left, to a similar one of Blessed Sacrament Church that I did back in mid-September.

The basilica is believed to have its origins in the 4th century, being rebuilt in the 12th century and restored several times since then. Notable are the beautiful medieval mosaics, the Cosmatesque flooring, and the 22 Ionic and Corinthian columns that line the nave, which were brought from the Baths of Caracalla and other sources.

Early Monday morning, I walked over to Palazzo Farnese, but instead of drawing the palazzo, I chose this view of one of the huge granite tubs brought to the square from the Baths of Caracalla in the 16th century. You can see evidence of the raindrops that began falling on the pages and their imprints as I closed my sketchbook.

After meeting in Milan and touring sites in and around its historic center, the AIR13 group of faculty and students took a day trip to Como and then headed south to Siena via a brief stop in Parma. All beautiful places, but each in its own way revealing notable examples of architecture from different time periods, from the medieval to 20th century modernism. Here are a couple of pages from my sketchbook, similar to the ones I am requiring all of the students to keep during their quarter in Rome.

After spending a day and a couple of nights in Rome to get acclimated to the time change, we took a train up to Milan and another to Varenna on the east shore of Lake Como. This is the view from the Hotel Eremo Gaudio, up the hillside and south of town. The other sketch is from a terrace cafe on Varenna’s waterfront. When we first visited Varenna in 1995, it was a much quieter place. It’s more popular now, especially on the weekends, but it remains a spectacular setting for a respite.