Arpino

Arpino: A New Quarter details a project conducted by the students of the University of Notre Dame's Rome Studies Program in 2003. The program included the creation of the "Nuovo Borgo alle Vigne," a project that allowed for Arpino to develop a university inside the city.

The new borgo (quarter) was to be an extension of the historical center, not a modernist suburb.  It was to be created with the full respect of the local building tradition in the same spirit as the old city—a cradle of art and culture, and mother of many distinguished men who exalted Arpino throughout the world.

Samir Younes, then Director of Rome Studies who led the project, discussed it in terms of dwelling wisely: "The Italian city, and Arpino is no exception, has embodied enduring paradigms regarding ways of achieving a fortunate balance between the nature-made and the man-made.  If we wish to dwell wisely on this planet, and our history is full of successful and disastrous examples, we need to never lose sight of a very important triplicity:  nature, the art of making the city, and the art of politics."