We had all heard of Casa Malaparte and we have studied it in a history class briefly, but I never actually knew the history of the man or the building. The story turns out that Malaparte ( which wasn't his real name) started as a Pro Fascist writer in Italy. He slowly changed his perspective and ended up writing against the regime. He then went through a period of time in and out of prison, where he developed the dream of owning land.
After his final stint in prison, he buys some cliff property on Capri and began planning for his home. He brought in a well known Architect of the time and together created the plans for the site. After getting into a dispute he took the task of designing the home, all done on site during construction, upon himself. The result?
The amazing retreat that we as a group ended up visiting for the entire day.The house was designed completely from the inside out; views are framed and the room in which this "picture" sits is designed based upon which side of the house it is located. The site took a bit of effort to get to, but once we arrived everything seemed to melt away and it was just us and the ocean. It was as if the landscape had been refined to form this piece of art. The House seemed to invoke memories of my grandparents lake house and really made me miss those summers. We were asked to do two studies of the house, one of the analytical type and then compose a page of our emotions. It was hard to not imaging the water when thinking of Casa Malaparte. There was every shade of blue possible and later in the evening the line between sky and earth was indistinguishable. Shear Paradise.
I was truly moved by this experience and it helped me refocus as to why I am studying in Rome. The time spent there helped me recall all that I accomplished to get to this point.
Arrivederci
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