A Tour of the Academy

Soon I'll do a post about my apartment and neighborhood, but for now, this one is going to be about life at the Academy, where I'm spending more of my time right now anyway.

The grounds, both front and back are seriously beautiful. Extensively manicured, of course, but the variety of plants is pleasing, too. There's an olive grove in the back where the flock of green parrots live,



And there's also a decently sized kitchen garden with, among other things, an entire bed of basil. They're also growing zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and a lot more that I couldn't identify on sight. Green beans, probably, since we've been eating them at about 4 of 5 meals. There's also a bunch of fruit trees (including at least one fig tree) which aren't bearing now, but presumably will be soon.



The front of the academy has a large metal gate - if you want to come in, you have to check in with the portiere and be on a list of people to be admitted. Once you get inside, there's a large round fountain, which the Fellows (people who have been given an award to live hear all year and do research) were taking a dip in yesterday afternoon. I imagine that this is the only fountain in the city of Rome which you can swim with relative impunity.



The Academy actually has quite a large collection of epigraphical fragments and parts of statues, which are set up in various places as decoration. They were all probably acquired long ago when you could just pick up interesting fragments and cart them off, but those days are long over of course. The courtyard is lined with them on all 4 walls, and the white of the fragments makes a nice contrast against the orange stucco, especially with the green of the ivy and cypress trees in the middle. There's another fountain in the center of the cortile which adds the bubble and splash of running water to the atmosphere.



We eat our fabulous meals at long tables in the courtyard (or cortile), which is pleasantly shaded and nicely breezy. That's actually were I'm sitting right now.



So it's really a pretty fabulous place to hang around. There's also the library, of course, and many rooms where people stay. I might get some pictures of those later, but right now you've just seen where I'm spending a lot of my time.