Summer Celebration : Schedule of Events

Monday, July 19
• Arrival and check-in.
• Free day with lunch on your own.
• 6:00 pm - **Welcome Reception at the Villa Maderni

Tuesday, July 20
• 7:30 am – 9:00 am – **Breakfast at the Villa
• 9:30 am – option #1- escorted trip to Monte Tamaro with train from Capolago to Rivera. We then walk to a Cable car station for the trip up to the Santa Angeli Chapel by Architect Mario Botta with frescos by his design collaborator, Italian artist Enzo Cucchi.

"I believe that today making architecture is a way of resisting the loss of identity, a way of resisting the banalization, the flattening of culture brought about by the consumerism so typical of modern society. In this sense, architecture is more an ethical than an aesthetic phenomenon." —Mario Botta.

• 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Light lunch on your own in the mountain-top self- service restaurant.
• 2:30 pm – Begin return train trip to Riva San Vitale by train.
• 6:30 pm – **Reception and Ceremony recognizing the partnership between Blacksburg and Riva San Vitale. Exhibition showcasing Blacksburg and Virginia Tech will be open in the Citizen’s meeting room, “Sala de Patriciata”.

Wednesday, July 21
• 7:30 am – 9:00 am – **Breakfast at the Villa
• 9:30 am – option # 2 - escorted trip to Bellinzona with the train from Capolago. The site visit will include Architect Aurelio Galfetti’s Sports Complex, including a sequence of swimming pools, a tennis court complex and a newly completed enclosed ice hockey rink and stadium. We then walk to the restored Castel Grande of Bellinzona as one of the three castles forming the southern boundary of medieval Bellizona.

“History and the contemporary era, nature and the work of man meet and enter into dialogue in this tight tectonic structuring. I always like to have two opposite poles: opening-closure, mountain-lake, forest-plain, which also counter and enter into dialogue with the two architectures to which I always refer, external and internal, or with other wide-reaching poles such as the always enlivening conflict between history and the contemporary era. " —Aurelio Galfetti
• 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Lunch on your own at the Castel Grande.
• 3:30 pm – return train to Riva San Vitale by train.
• 6:00 pm – **Reception at the Villa Maderni to honor Lucy Ferrari and the late Olivio Ferrari for their founding vision and continued contribution to the Center for European Studies and Architecture (CESA).

Thursday, 22 July
• 7:30 am – 9:00 am – **Breakfast in the Villa
• 9:30 am – discussion in the Villa Maderni Garden of the CESA and its future
• 12:00 noon, lunch on your own.
• 2:00 pm - An optional guided walk around Riva San Vitale.
• 6:00 pm - **VT President Steger’s Reception and following dinner at the Villa Maderni. A tribute to the first ten years of the Virginia Tech Center for European Studies and Architecture.

Friday, 23 July
• 7:30 am – 9:00 am – **Breakfast in the Villa.
• 10:00 am – Option # 3 - Escorted Lake Boat trip to Lugano.
• 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – lunch own your own in Lugano.
• 4:30 pm Return to Capolago by train.
• 7:00 pm – Option # 4 - escorted trip to the Restaurant Terminus Pojana on the Lake of Lugano. The large panoramic terrace promises a lasting memory of dining directly on the Lake of Lugano in view of the surrounding lake villages.

Saturday, 24 July
• 7:30 am – 9:00 am – **Breakfast at the Villa
• 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Check out from the Villa Maderni

 

Management Entity: Office of International Research, Education, and Development,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA - 24061-0334