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Published: February 9th 2010
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So if you're thinking, this entry is about 2 months after he traveled to Rome, you're quite correct. But as the next couple of entries should show, I was a bit busy these last two months.
After somehow managing to get myself to the airport in Copenhagen, only having been in the country less than twelve hours from our arrival from Moscow, I was empty headed and tired to say the least. Fortunately, Scandinavian Airlines whisked us all to the Leonardo da Vinci airport without fail. We did wait for over 40 minutes for our luggage in Rome, my luggage naturally being the second to last bag to fall out of the plane. Lovely.
We stepped outside to board the motor coach to our hotel...and wow did it feel good! It was at least 60 degrees and sunny in Rome that day! I had gone from freezing or slightly below freezing with a windchill in Moscow, to a pleasant 40ish degrees in Copenhagen to a gorgeous sixty in Rome...all in 24 hours! Woah.
We drove through the countryside surrounding Rome until we reached the city and became involved in minimal traffic. On our way to the hotel, we
passed the Coliseum, which just happens to be in the middle of everything. The hotel was not yet ready to check us in so we left our luggage with reception, freshened ourselves us as necessary and hit the tarmac!
It is important to note that we studied every site we saw in Rome prior to arrival in our class. We discussed each site's history, location, and relative importance. This prior knowledge made the experience of witnessing each site all the more unimaginable. As we sauntered through Rome from the hotel, all of sudden we were just right there at the Trevi Fountain! From all the pictures in our notes here it was! That's cool.
The Trevi Fountain is part of a facade of a building and is extremely massive (and difficult to incorporate in one photo). The fountain was built for the Pope (during the Baroque period, I believe) so he could look at it as woke up in the morning from his private papal chambers, which you can still see from the fountain plaza. The fountain itself is a popular attraction in Rome and is a large basin for Euro coins because of a fun legend. Legend
has it that if you toss a coin into the fountain it will ensure a return to Rome for you, another legend says that three coins tossed over one's right shoulder ensures either a marriage or divorce. 3,000 Euro are collected from the fountain each night by the municipality of Rome for the fountain's upkeep.
Next, we saunter across town and oh look...there's the Pantheon. The pantheon was a temple in ancient times and was later converted to a church in Christian times. What is remarkable about the structure lies more with the architecture. The columns were imported from Egypt and when they got to Rome they were shorter than expected and thus the roofline had to be lowered...the original outline for where the first roof would have gone can still be seen. The completely concrete dome over the rotunda was built with successively thinner and lighter types of concrete to leave an open hole in the ceiling for light. This hole has always been open even since ancient times. The marble flooring has holes in it where the rain water from the ceiling would drain away from the interior.
Certainly secondary to the Piazza Navona but still
important is the Campo dei Fiori...a plaza in Rome. When we arrived to the plaza, it was sunny and my friend Nushelle and I sat down to have our first meal in Italy. I sampled the spaghetti of Italy first! While we were eating, the heavens clouded over and rained intensely. The entire plaza was flooded in minutes. We were under an umbrella but we pulled our feet and bags up as a current rushed under our feet. Ten minutes later, the sky was sunny and the water receded.
As we entered the Piazza Navona we reached what is warmly referred to as the "living room of Rome". Lining the piazza were little boutique cafes and in the center was the fountain of the four rivers. When built in the Renaissance, this massive fountain depicts the four major rivers known to the Romans: The Ganges, The Nile, The Danube, & Rio de la Plata (This river symbolizing the riches that the Americas would provide to Europe).
Our next stop was into a little museum where we saw an altar all about Augustus, one of the greatest emperor's of Rome. Also in the room were a couple reproductions of
busts notating that their originals were in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark...our teacher made it a point to point that out.
On our way back to the hotel, we viewed the Spanish steps. While I was in Rome, it was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and there was a large memorial and street exhibit all about the wall. I had friends who were actually in Berlin on that day. And my Danish teacher was actually there in 1989 when it fell!
We rested for a while which was much needed, then we headed out into the warm, Roman night to go to dinner at a local pizzeria in which we would through the complicated restaurant into a larger backroom where we feasted on a four course meal with unlimited white wine. Welcome to DIS in Rome! Then I went home and crashhhhhed.
Day 2
What better way to start the day than with the Colosseum? One of the most famous and recognizable structures in the entire world, ehh let's do it. After our Italian breafast of coffee and a biscuit (Zach is still hungry) we're off to the Colosseum.
As usual, we bypass the line as our teacher has connections. The building is amazingly still in tact for it's 2000 year age. Some of the crown molding is still visible. The building would be in even better shape if at some point it hadn't been used as a quarry to build other buildings.
The building was originally built as a public works project, and a very successful one at jump-starting the depressed Roman economy. For every bricklayer, there needed to be 5 brick bringers, and for every 5 brick bringers 5 support staff for food, clothing, etc. There were 5,000 bricklayers: you do the math.
Also interestingly, the building was originally built with 80 entrances for getting to all levels and parts of the stadium. That means they could enter and exit some 40,000 spectators in a matter of minutes. Tell me one stadium today which can do so as efficiently.
Afterwards, why not the Forum Romanum. From our professor as we casually walked over to it: "This is where we ruled the entire known world for 1,000 years." No biggie. We visited the Senate House, the Temple of Vesta, and other various ruins from old,
old Rome.
Afterward, we wandered over to Palatine Hill, where we get the word Palace in modern languages. This is where the emperors had their homes that overlooked Rome. The original palaces. Augustus lived here. We visited his house.
The rest of the day we toured some of the many churches in Rome. We specifically visited one (or two maybe?) designed and decorated by Bernini, a famous Renaissance architect.
For dinner, my friends and I walked back near the Pantheon and word to the wise: when traveling in a pack of 12 hungry American tourist group, restaurant managers become VERY accomodating. One restaurant offered to give us all a glass of free frizzante (a sparkling white wine from Italy) if we sat down and ate at their restaurant. Free drinks? We accepted. The dinner was candle lit on a pleasant and decently warm November evening. I had a delicious pasta dish. Mmmm goood.
Next day, on to the Vatican.
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