Tara and Jon looking good.

View of Genova port, about a 1/4 mile walk from our Villa.

Small diesel cars are of the norm, however this car was really small and cool.

Our Villa is the Green one at the left.

Genova was one of the last cities in Italy to conform and outlaw poking yourself and others in the eye with your penis. To bad it could have been a good time.

One of the many retaining walls holding the earth back for streets and paths.

View of my studio from my desk.

Genova is an incredibly beautiful city that has very much been constructed on the side of a mountain. The city is a very complex-dense-vertical topographic condition that can only truly be understood by visiting the city. The entire city is a series of buildings, streets, alleys, and retaining walls. It is the retaining walls that ultimately define the city enabling one to enter a building via the roof or from another location sometimes 10 stories lower, both entrances technically at "grade". It is common in Genova for a building to have numerous entries, all at street grade all at different elevations. The 4 story Villa I am currently living and studying in has 5 different entries all at different elevations, all at exterior grade.

Contrary to what I was told by Jon Anderson very few locals in Genova, Italy speak Inglese. Excitingly I find myself struggling to verbally communicate with merchants and locals.

During a short tour with Stephano Fera, our Historical Italian Architecture professor, we stopped for a caffe break. I purchased a latte machiatto which was only .90 cents in Euros about $1.40 American, it was 10 times more delicious then a Starbucks latte. The Caffe is good!

The two images below are panoramic views of the site we are using for our first architectural design project. The project consists of orchestrating and designing an urban shopping district made of numerous kiosks. At the present moment the site is mearly a large circulation and gathering space.