Rome, week 2

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So, here I am around the end of week 2 in Rome. I know I haven't updated in a while but here goes nothing, right?

After the walking tours from my last entry, we went to Todi, a medieval hill town in Umbria. It was a very cloudy day, but everything in the town was nice. There was this huge staircase to get up to the top of the town, and at the top there was a park with a big stone in it which was a September 11th memorial. In the town, there was a nice church which had all these cool separate chapels. Todi is the Hershey of Italy, so I can presume, because Baci chocolate is based out of there. I had my first Italian cappuccino in a cafe in Todi, and it was very good. I'm a big cappuccino drinker now.

The day after Todi, classes started. My classes are good, I have Italian 1001, with a very nice Italian lady. I have History 2400, which is Museum Theory, which is very cool because every week we go to a different museum, so I don't have to plan any trips on my own which is nice. I am in Athropology 200whatever and my professor for it is such a character. He's this older guy with white hair, born in Texas, raised in Paris (France, not Texas) and has traveled his whole life studying cultures. Very nice guy with a very intelligent aire about him. My last class was Art History 1003 with Huber the goober, and I switched out of that into Art History 300something with Paolo Carloni, a very nice Italian man who is a much more practical professor than goober. I mean Huber.

The first week of classes, my Art History class went to The Roman Forum, right down the street from the Colosseum. It is at the base of Palantine hill, one of the seven hills of Rome.

Funny story: So, I take the metro to the Colosseo stop, which is where my class was meeting. I got there and met up with the class around 5 of 9, and we were talking for a little bit about the Forum. After ten minutes or so of talking, we turn around, and the doors to the subway are shut. It was a metro strike. It turns out that they strike all the time here. There's a law, however, that states they can only strike from 9 to 5, because the people of Rome must be able to get to and from work. I like the metro here a lot, its fast, frequent, and rather clean. The bus system isn't horrendous, but the metro is so much easier and linear.

Back to the class: The Forum is a large area of ruins which used to be this huge crazy neighborhood of palaces and temples. There is the arch of Constantine and Titus in the area, which are these two huge arches. Apparently arches had no purpose back in the day and were constructed solely to show opulence and tell stories of army victories. Then we went and saw the oldest ruins in Rome, a bunch of mud holes and rocks dating to the 9th and 10th centuries BC. Pretty cool. Then we saw ruins of the Palantine residences, which is where emperors used to live. Did you know that the word "palace" comes from the Palantine hill? Because the residences were so huge. Cool, huh?

Then we went to the Colosseum, which everyone knows and loves. Its a very big, cool building, with a lot of history behind it that everyone knows. Inside, its big and open, with a lot of stones in the ground. You all know what its like.

That weekend, we went to the Vatican. We live very close to the Vatican, and I can see St. Peter's Basilica on my walk to school. They still have a big Christmas tree and nativity scene up in the Piazza, which is very cool. The Vatican does it up big time for Christmas, so I hear. We didn't go inside or anything, we just enjoyed the scene outside and went down the street to St. Angelo's castle or something? Its a big brown castle that I cannot remember the actual name of. Very cool stuff, it's right by the Tiber river. On the walk back, we got gelato at Old Bridge, which is right outside the walls of the Vatican. Great gelato! I got pineapple, banana, and black cherry. Three flavors in a cup, 2 euro. I liked the banana the best, the black cherry was great, and the pineapple was kind of gross.

Last Sunday, we went on the Wall Walk, which is a walk that Temple organizes and it goes around the Aurelian walls of Rome, which are the original city limits. From like 700ad or something. Crazy. It was a 13.5 mile walk, and it sure as hell felt like it. We saw many different neighborhoods of Rome, and I enjoyed it a lot because I got to see a lot of places in the city in one trip, and I learned a lot about the modern city from it. 95 students and faculty finished the walk, which is a record for the Wall Walk. We got our picture taken and its going out in some newsletter. Highly prestigious stuff.

This past week, during class, I went to Palazzo Massimo with my Museum class, and we saw many pieces of art. The ones I liked the most were these two Greek bronze statues. One is of a prince standing with a spear. Neato. The one I liked better, though, was this old boxer sitting down after a fight. He has this sort of real pain in his face. His knuckles are all taped up and he is heaving from this fight he just had. Its crazy the sort of emotion that can be interpreted from bronze casts. Then we went to this church that used to be these old baths. The church was nuts. Huge, crazy, insane, a lot of detail in it. Very cool. There was pendulums inside, because apparently it is dedicated to Galileo. It was a very scientific church. Odd, cool, awesome. Story of my life.

Last Thursday, for my Italian class, we met at the Trionfale market by the Residence and went around to different stands, asking for things in Italian and utilizing our vocabulary. I got a very nice fresh loaf of bread. I have a cheese guy, and I got pecorino dolce. So good. Such amazing cheese.

After the market, I had to take a bus to Campo De Fiore for my Art History class that I just switched into. I took the metro to the Barberini (Trevi Fountain) stop, and waited for a bus. The bus was this like little van converted into a shortbus. Very funny stuff. I wasnt sure how to count the stops, because I was in an area that I didn't know, so I asked a woman on the bus, "Dove Campo De Fiore?" and she asked the man next to her, who told me to follow him. Nice older Italian guy. He was happy to meet someone from New York City. I tell all the Italians that I'm from NYC because they have no idea really what New Jersey is all about, or what it is, and if you are from NYC or LA, the Italians suddenly get very interested in you.

So, we met in Campo for this class, and it was raining. So gross out. I bought an umbrella off a street vendor, so now I have that for a little while, at least. We saw the Chancellory, which is a big marble building that now has a museum in it. This class is high Renaissance art history, and there seems to be a focus on architecture, which is cool. We're going to take a trip to Florence in March some time. We saw the French Embassy, which is an awesome building, designed by Michaelangelo that the French rent out at some symbolic rate, like 10 euro for three hundred years or something.

Thursday night, we went to Scholar's pub right by the Wedding Cake monument for this Beatles cover band called the Beaters. Really great night. The band played mostly early Beatles songs, and we got them to do like 5 encores. They were all dressed up in the grey suits and had all the right instruments like the Hofner bass and the Gretsch semihollow.

The next day, I went on a Temple-organized trip to Tivoli. Tivoli is awesome! We went to some ruins in the first half of the day, of what used to be Hadrian's Villa. Very cool stuff. The place was huge back in the day. There's this big plastic model showing what it used to look like and the place was enormous. Then we went to Tivoli. I got lunch with a bunch of people at this pizza place and I got a panini with prosciutto and mozzarella. For dessert, I got pistachio gelato which was awesome. He sprinkled fresh pistachios on top. Crazy tasty.

In the afternoon, we went to Villa D'Este. AMAZING. Its this huge Renaissance palace that was created by cardinals and worked on through the years. The place is out of control. The view is amazing, you can see these huge mountains and everything. I'm going to post pictures to my Flickr account, and I will either embed them here or post a link, So keep an eye out for that.

Last night, we went out to a bar in Trastevere, which is a neighborhood in Rome that has many Italian bars. Its nice to avoid all the American Bars (Scholar's) and all the other touristy places. It was a very nice atmosphere and it was fun to just sit and relax with a couple drinks instead of going out and partying and dancing.

Next weekend, I'm going to Venice for Carnevale. I'm going to buy my train tickets this week. I'm staying in a hostel with a bunch of other Temple people, and I'm looking forward to having a blast. Then we're gonna get back on Sunday in time for the Superbowl! Its going to be a blast.

Again, keep an eye out for my post about my Flickr account, and I'll keep writing!

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Comments

[meg Campoli]

nice
nice commentary, keep us up to date