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Published: September 26th 2005
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Time seems to move so slowly here (not complaining…I like it), and yet, as I look back at the week, it already feels like so long ago…
Last Saturday was La Notte Bianca - “White Night” - where museums and restaurants and shops stay open all night and there are all kinds of concerts and other performances going on in the streets. It’s basically a time when the three million people who live in Rome, plus all the tourists, are out all night. Brent, Nathan, Brandi and I met up with the humanities students to go out. It started raining, but we went out anyway. The rain only seemed to make the city more crowded - everyone all dressed up, carrying umbrellas, ducking into shops and pubs. But it was pretty cool that a little rain (okay, a lot of rain) didn’t seem to matter; it seemed like everyone in the city was still out.
Sunday, we found a little pub really close to studio that shows American football games. We were excited - or at least Nathan and I were! The Jacksonville/Indianapolis game was playing, so we cheered for Matt Jones, even though Jacksonville lost. I have to
Useless Trivia...
The people in Ostia lived in multi-story buildings much like apartment buildings, not in the individual houses that we had studied, like at Pompeii. admit - I miss football - I miss sitting in the stands and yelling and doing the goofy little cheers, usually just to watch Arkansas lose. But this trip is definitely worth missing a semester of football.
Not much happened Monday. I had my Rome in Literature class, where we had a lecture by David Fredrick, the coordinator from the University of Arkansas of the humanities program here in Rome. He was here visiting and checking up on things this week.
Tuesday, we went to Ostia Antica. Ostia was founded as a Roman military camp outside the city. It became a shipping port for Rome, since it was right on the Mediterranean Sea, at the mouth of the Tiber River. It was pretty cool to see another town after Pompeii, giving us something to compare to, although looking at so many ancient ruins all at one time can get to be a little hard to take. I still appreciate being there though.
Wednesday night, Brandi and I were invited to have dinner with the humanities students at David Fredrick’s apartment (Brandi is also taking the Rome in Literature course). Dinner was fun (and the food was delicious);
Santa Maria Antiqua
...though these aren't lights and the roof from antiquity it was nice be around non-architecture students - not that we’re not the most interesting people in the world! There are ten humanities students here this semester - nine girls and one guy (there are twelve architecture students - nine girls and three guys). It’s been fun getting to know them and I’m sure that we’ll have a great semester together.
Thursday, Emilio was able to get us into one of the more exclusive sites in the Roman Forum - Santa Maria Antiqua. It is one of the most holy places from antiquity and has one of the earliest frescos of the crucifixion. It’s nice to have connections.
Friday, Davide took us to the monasteries at Subiaco and then to Cervara. There were twelve monasteries in Subiaco, started by St. Benedict. We visited two that still have monks living in them. There are 20 monks between the two: four in the upper monastery (I say upper because it’s up on top of the mountain), and 16 in the lower one. It was a beautiful place, both the monasteries and the scenery. The bus ride was a little scary though; the two things I don’t like about driving are
Cervara
...if you can find the pink building, that's where we had lunch... buses and switchback curves, and of course, we were on a bus, going around those curves up the mountains. And it didn’t help that our bus driver had hit a building when he misjudged how narrow the street was with a truck on the other side of him (it wasn’t bad though…he was barely even moving when we scrapped it…it was just weird waking up with a building in your face). And on the way home, a car rear-ended us; how do you run into a bus?!? But nonetheless, the driver did awesome on the hills and curves.
So after visiting Subiaco, we went to Cervara, a little hilltop town where Davide has a weekend home. Everyone knows everyone there, so we didn’t make it far before the mayor was talking to Davide. It’s an absolutely gorgeous place. You have to climb tons of steps to get into town, but the view is absolutely breathtaking. The streets wind between all the buildings, which were mostly white with terra cotta roofs. Davide said that until relatively recently (maybe the 1950’s), the only way into town would have been by mule. He told us about the truffle festival that they are
Basillica S Cosma E Damiano
This is another place that Emilio took us...the churches are beautiful. getting ready to have (which I didn’t know what a truffle was until he talked about them…not like the pastry “truffle”, a real truffle, kinda like a mushroom). He also told us how most of the people living there are economically independent, and there is only one restaurant in town, which is where he took us for lunch. It was amazing; it will probably be the best meal I will eat while in Italy, not that I’m not taking care of myself, but because it was that good. Plus there’s no way to beat the scenery. I could have stayed there for a while…
Saturday was moving day! We had to be out of our apartment by 10 am, so we woke up, cleaned, and then hiked across town to our new place, which is so much better. I was thrilled that we had the other apartment, because finding an apartment for six at the very last possible minute was a little bit stressful. But the new place is so cute - big kitchen, big living room, big bedroom (with a big bed all for me - until I have to switch), tall ceilings, outdoor terrace, lots of closets,
Brent in Ostia
All the statues were headless...how could you not want to do this? a washing machine, and a bathroom that you have to walk through the wall of closets to get to - it’s so cute! I can call this place home for the rest of the semester.
Saturday night, we used some of the money we had gotten back from the deposit on the other place to buy dinner for the four of us (the six of us became two groups when we found out we’d have to move - it was easier to find places for smaller groups). One of the other girls had told Nathan about the Abbey Theater, where they have great burgers and sports on TV (including American football), and we accidentally found it yesterday, so that’s where we had dinner. It wasn’t the best cheeseburger I’ve had in my life, but it was the best one I’ve had in Italy. And we got to watch Virginia Tech run all over Georgia Tech! It was great!
Today's been a pretty lazy day...mostly taking care of my laundry and doing a little studio work. It was fun trying to figure out how to use the little tiny washing machine...but now there's clean laundry hanging all over the
apartment. Word of advice...if you happen to be in Rome...don't let four people wait three weeks before washing anything.
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Joi
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I wish I was there!
Hey there, my beautiful, talented cousin. I'm enjoying reading about your exploits in Italy, and the pictures are great. I keep telling all my guys here in Alaska about what you're up to, but they're a rather self-involved group of men. I think my excited utterances mostly sound like a vague buzzing noise to them. I want to see some pictures of where you're living. Hey, I'm a girl, I dig details. Be safe and and have fun. It's been a long time since we were little girls playing with Barbies, huh?