Category: Modern Italy

I was standing in a damp basement in Ravenna last Tuesday, tracing the edge of a coarse, unadorned concrete lintel, when I realized how much we’ve been lied to about the “beauty” of the post-war era. Most critics treat neorealism…

I was standing in a cramped apartment block in the outskirts of Naples last Tuesday, tracing the hairline fracture where a load-bearing pillar met a non-structural partition. Most historians look at the ina casa housing programme and see nothing but…

I remember standing in a narrow alleyway in Naples last autumn, my fingers tracing a seam where a jagged piece of 1950s concrete had been shoved against a centuries-old limestone block. The texture was wrong—too smooth, too cold, and utterly…

I was standing near the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana last Tuesday, watching a group of tourists snap photos of the arches, looking for that “classic Rome” feeling they expected. They were looking for the warm, crumbling patina of the Trastevere…

I was kneeling in the dust of a crumbling palazzo in Palermo last autumn, my fingers tracing a series of jagged, hurried repairs in the limestone, when it hit me how much we misinterpret the concept of authority. Most people…

I was standing in the Piazza della Vittoria last autumn, watching a group of students sketch the facade, and I felt that familiar, sharp irritation. They were all talking about the “purity of form” and the “manifesto of Rationalism,” treating…

I was in a dusty basement in Milan last autumn, tracing the edge of a particularly stubborn travertine slab, when I realized how much we misread the era. Most critics approach rationalism between the wars as if it were a…

I was standing in a damp warehouse outside Milan last Tuesday, my flashlight catching the jagged edge of a crumbling concrete pillar, when it hit me how much we misunderstand these spaces. Most people look at an industrial building in…

I was standing on a scaffolding in Turin last October, my fingers tracing the oxidized seam where a wrought-iron balcony met a limestone lintel, when it hit me how much we misinterpret this era. Most people walk past these buildings…