Alumni of the Cornell in Rome Program are on their way to a reunion with each other and with the Eternal City, in celebration of the program's 20th anniversary, March 24 to 26. Several faculty members and administrators from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) will attend, along with distinguished guests and former student artists, architects and city planners who for two decades have used Rome's array of cultural and historic riches as their classroom.

"This was such an important experience in their lives as undergraduates that they are eager to come back," said Margherita Fabrizio, AAP's program coordinator for Rome and New York City.

Palazzo Lazzaroni, current home to the program's classes and studios near Piazza Navona, will host selected events -- including a presentation of student work and a panel presenting the new book "Italy Now? Country Positions in Architecture," published by AAP, edited by internationally known architect Alberto Alessi, and with a foreword by AAP Dean Mohsen Mostafavi. The book stems from a 2005 exhibit Alessi curated at Cornell on contemporary Italian architecture, "Italy Now? Country Places."

Cornell in Rome faculty members, including academic coordinator Jeffrey Blanchard and Emilio Del Gesso, adjunct professor of art history, will lead walking tours of the city March 24 and 25. Cornellians from all over Europe have been invited to a gala reception March 26 at the American Academy in Rome.

Other events include a public lecture by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, speaking on fluidity in her work; a tour of architect Renzo Piano's Parco della Musica auditorium complex, followed by a Verdi symphony concert; and a reception for Cornell alumni, faculty and the AAP Advisory Council at Palazzo Massimo di Pirro, one of the Cornell program's original sites.

Guests at the Rome reunion will include Roberto Einaudi, former director of Cornell in Rome, many longtime Cornell faculty and distinguished alumni including Albert "Ace" Bean Jr. '43, recipient of the 2006 Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award.

For more information, visit http://www.aap.cornell.edu/rome/.