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February 28th, 2007

06:21 pm I suppose there's no reason not to pick up right where my last entry left off... The Palazzo Altemps This palace houses a significant percentage of the classical statuary in Rome, so naturally, Joanna and I decided to go there and have fun before we go there to "learn" with our Ancient City class. One of the parts that suprised me the most was that the museum staff will let you get mere inches away from the statues, allowing us to enjoy ourselves to the fullest. We will later learn that not all museum personel are so nice. It is a story better told through pictures, so I'm going to let them do the talking. ( Fun with statues ) Cosa That Tuesday, it was off to Cosa, which set the new standard for field trip awesomeness (for the record, the scale runs from Obelisk Walk to Cosa). Though the sites we saw were nothing extraordinary, it was a gorgeous day in northern Italy, on a mountain by the sea. It didn't hurt that the Roman colony that we saw there still had a few buildings standing either. ( Pictures, of course ) My visit with St. Valentine Our Thursday trip was dampened by rain and mostly underground anyway - we saw a couple of temples that are under the church of St. Nicholas Imprisoned. However, we did get a bit of a treat at the end when we went to the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, home of the Boca Della Verita (most famous for its role in the movie Roman Holiday) and, apparently, the relics of St. Valentine. Since it was, in fact, February 14th, they trotted out his bones and a bit of his cloak for all to behold: It was weird, but in a "Cool, I'm seeing St. Valentine's decomposing skull!" sort of way. Just for kicks, what's the best, least offensive way to keep warm on a cold, wet day? Use the votive candles, of course! The Castel Satnt'Angelo was the site of our art history field trip that week because of a room that Paul III decorated in the mannerist style. For those unfamiliar with the mannerist school, some key phrases: complex, elongated, emotionless, and kind of boring. The building itself is amazing, though! Though it once served as the mausoleum of Hadrian, it was converted to a papal residence, and housed Clement VII during the sack of Rome in 1527 by Charles V. The building's current name comes from the reign of pope Gregory the Great - the legend goes that during a great plague, the Archangel Michael appeared at the roof of the building and sheathed his sword, ending the pestilence. Now, like most important buildings in Rome, it's a museum. Those are all Bernini statues lining the Ponte Sant'Angelo - a closeup: And finally, the view I'm going to enjoy when I finally get what I deserve and become pope: The Campidoglio After the Castel, we headed over to the Capitoline Museums, another one of the primary classical collections in Rome. Though we were there to see Michelangelo's courtyard and a few mannerist (ugh) rooms upstairs, we ended up playing with statues again. The courtyard used to house the statue of Marcus Aurelius (which survived the middle ages because they thought that it was Constantine), but now it's a copy because they've brought the original downstairs for restoration and protection. I could go into a lot of boring detal from the 100 pages of reading that we had on the Campidoglio, but I'll spare you and just post some pictures. ( They used to hang people from the hoof of Marcus Aurelius ) Praeneste was less impressive than the trips from the week before - though it too was on a hill, it was a rainy day and we spent most of it inside a museum. However, that museum used to be one of the largest temples in the ancient world!  Not much remains of the original structure, but it still manages to impress. The mountain on which it was set looks out between two mountain ranges, and between the two, you can just barely make out the sea in the distance: The real fun came when our professors were late finding us after lunch and we got to use the playground: Palazzo Farnese Our one full day art history field trip was last Friday, when we visited the Palazzo Farnese in Caparola, about an hour and a half north of Rome. This is where I want to live. The cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew (really grandson) of Paul III, built this villa/palace at huge expense toward the end of his life and spared nothing. He even carved out a six mile stretch of road leading up to the building so that he would have a more impressive approach and built an aqueduct which not only gave his building water, but also supplied the entire town. As I said, when I make my first, oh, 20 million (I'm not a greedy man...), I am going to build myself an exact replica of this building. You don't even get a sense of how amazing this place is until you see the backup palace. ( Images ) ...and that's where we'll stop this time. Dinner is soon and I'm starting to become irrationally aggitated because I've been concentrating on the computer screen for so long. I'm off to Sicily on Friday, but I'll try to post something before I leave for Turkey (spring break) the following Sunday. Have a lovely week! Current Location: Roma, etc. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

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February 13th, 2007

05:28 pm Yes, it's been a while. It would probably be even longer, but I need something to do while I'm praying  that the Italian washing machine doesn't destroy my clothing. It's probably in my best interest to update more constantly anyway, since I now have to cover two weeks worth of material in my entry. Trying to go in roughly chronological order: The Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel A bit of a letdown, honestly. It would have gone better had our art history professor not spent close to an hour talking in front of a copy of Michelangelo's "Pietà," which happened to be by the gift shop in the Pinacotecca. Apparently, sometime in the early '70s, "a mentally disturbed geologist named Laszlo Toth walked into the chapel and attacked the Virgin with a hammer while shouting 'I am Jesus Christ.'" Cool! Unfortunately, as a result of the attack, the statue has been moved to a more secure location in St. Peter's, and our professor doesn't like the way that the light falls on it in its current location. So the plaster copy it was! While gawking at comments about all of the "Oriental" tourists who were going to "come at [him] with a samurai sword,"  we spent an hour tantalizingly close to Raphaels, Caravaggios, Sebastianos, and the Sistine Chapel listening to a dissertation on an imitation. Mutiny was considered, but the resulting carnage probably would have damaged the paintings. And nobody wants that. ( Anyway, pictures. ) Siena From the chapel, Joanna and I hopped on a disconcertingly rickety train to go to Siena to celebrate our four year anniversary. Most of the rest of the Centro went to Florence, but we didn't feel like we were missing out on much; nothing good can happen when 21 people who are living together anyway decided to travel in a group. Besides, Siena is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, from the medieval ( Duomo ) to ( the castle on the Piazza del Campo ) and the ( view from our hotel ) . I also ate two of the best meals of my life at this tiny little restaurant off of the main Piazza. Anytime a meal makes you completely change the way that you think about something as simple as spaghetti with red sauce, you know you've done well. The second night I had wild boar at the same place (why mess with success?), which was just as rewarding. We spent all of Saturday sightseeing and shopping (Joanna bought boots, I bought wine). I would like to take this opportunity to plug the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, seeing as they lead us to both the amazing restaurant and a small enoteca near the Duomo, where the owner spoke to us in very patient Italian, let us taste an enormous number of wines, and gave us a free bottle when we left! We were already purchasing three of the four DOC wines from the region, and he wanted us to have a complete set. An awesome end to a nearly perfect weekend. ( A few more pictures... ) Latium, Nemi, and Cicero's villa. Heading back to school after that weekend was a struggle, but we had some decent field trips to make up for it. Last Tuesday, we went to Latium, Nemi, and some place on top of a hill to see some early Latin sites, including the legendary grave of Aeneas. In Nemi, we visited an old temple to Diana (incidentally, a popular hangout for neo-pagans for them to do whatever it is that neo-pagans do. More on this later) where we learned about all of the weird stuff that the priesthood got up to. Only a runaway slave who had taken sanctuary in the temple could become the high priest or "Rex Nemorensis" (king of the wood) - but to assume the position, he had to kill his predecessor. It was fun stuff, although I didn't get any pictures of Lake Nemi, which is also called "Diana's Mirror" because my camera ran out of batteries. I replaced them on the second half of the field trip when we went to see a couple of Caligula's "Pleasure Barges" these things were enormous, ( as Joanna can attest... ) . Finally, we went up to see Cicero's villa at the top of an enormous hill, which felt like a bit of a pilgrimage for me. Appropriate for Rome, I suppose. ( Pictures of the day's events. ) Forum Romanum and the Mamertine Prison Last week was also the week of my joint oral report, which constitutes something like 10% of my grade for the Ancient City class. Three guesses as to with whom I worked. We did a report on the Mamertine Prison, where people like Vercingetorix, Jugurtha, Sejanus (played by Patrick Stewart in I, Claudius), and the Catiliniarians were taken to be strangled. There is also a legend that SS. Peter and Paul were kept there during Nero's persecution in 64 C.E., which means that the space is remarkably well-preserved since it holds the shrine of St. Peter in Carcere. Naturally, we gave an amazing presentation. Our report was a part of our first trip to the Forum Romanum, which holds things like the Arch of Titus, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Curia (where the Senate met), the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and basically everything interesting and ancient in Rome that isn't the Colosseum. ( Pictures within! ) Santa Maria del Populo Last Friday's art history class involved the Chigi Chapel in the church of Sta. Maria del Populo right inside the Aurelian Walls. Apparently, its best known to contemporary readers from Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, but I've never read it and I never plan to . There was a tour of middle-aged Scots outside the church while we were waiting for our professor (he was an hour late because the Italian bus workers went on strike [you know, just to pass the time] that morning) who signed up to be lead around the city based on the sights Our Hero sees throughout the course of the novel. There were a few cool things there, but since we mostly just hung out in the Piazza del Populo, there's only one good picture: It was hard for me to get this, because the priest in charge didn't want pictures taken, but this is an icon of the Madonna and Child supposedly painted by St. Luke. You can tell that it's authentic because it's glowing. This past weekend was fun, but that's a story for another day - my laundry is surely done by now and I've got to put it in the dryer (with the requisite sacrifices to the laundry gods to see my t-shirts through to the end of their journey) before dinner. The next update will come more quickly, mostly because I don't want to have to try to recall two weeks worth of events again. Current Location: Roma Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch

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January 31st, 2007

03:50 pm - Week 1.5 I know, I know...it's taken me a very long time to start writing in this. However, I have an excuse. Last Friday, my computer's hard drive decided to fuse into itself thanks to a defect in its cooling system, so until further notice, all entries will be posted from Joanna's computer. So...after a relatively easy flight (especially after China), I landed in Rome on the 21st exhausted but excited. Joanna and I split a too-expensive cab to the Centro from the airport and after unpacking, I promptly fell asleep for 5 hours. The first week was spent in a general orientation to both the program and the city of Rome, the culmination of which was the now-infamous "Obelisk Walk." There are 13 extant obelisks in the city of Rome and the program's directors set aside last Wednesday to see them all (lest we feel shortchanged, they also took us to see the place where another one used to be. Mussolini swiped it from Ethiopia during World War II, but after much debate, the Italians recently returned it.) The whole walk was, according to a pedometer one of the professors was wearing, 13.2 miles. I'm not one to complain, but...oh wait, I am. The walk wouldn't have bee so bad were it not for the 35 mile per-hour wind gusts combined with a steady drizzle which was punctuated by the occasional downpour and hailstorm. Though we went into the occasional early Christian church, there were very few times when we weren't outdoors, and I think that fully half the group came down with something. Needless to say, once we got back we made a straight line for the eneoteca down the road, where Theodoro (a close friend of the program) provided us with vino to warm us up during dinner. I suppose the trip wasn't a total wash though. ( I did get some good pictures out of it. ) On Friday, art history class, which covers the Renaissance through the Baroque in Rome, was a welcome respite (if only because we spent a lot more time indoors - the weather was miserable again). We went to see see the church of San Pietro in Montorio with it's tiny ( tempietto )-  and Villa Farnisina, a palace outside of the ancient city in Trastevere which has some work by Raphael. Unfortunately, because photography destroys the art work, I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures. Over the weekend, a few of us went to see the national art collection, which isn't as extensive as one might imagine because many of the most important pieces in Italy are in The Vatican (where our art history class goes on Friday!) and the Villa Borghese. Still, there were a couple of cool pieces there, including a portrait of Raphael's mistress, by Raphael: this famous picture of Henry VIII: and a few overly violent Old Testament scenes: We also went to see a football (soccer, calcio in Italian) match between AS Roma and Siena. Newly decked out in our Roma gear, about 20 Centristi descended on the Stadio Olympico to cheer on the boys in red. Roma won 1-0 on a goal in the 61st minute from Vucinic (his first goal in the top Italian league), whose jersey I had purchased before the game. Clearly, I have impeccable taste. Most of us also got scarves, some of which read "I hate everybody: Milan in Flames, I hate Juventus, Lazio is s**t, there is only Rome." It felt Harry Potteresque, but with a more adult flavor. Nobody died in the crowd insanity, but someone did come close to getting hit by a firework. For the next game, we plan to lear all of the songs and chants that the crowd recites during the game so that we don't feel like idiot Americans. ( A couple of pictures ) After that eventful weekend, yesterday we visited a series of Etruscan tombs outside the city. The weather finally cooperated, and the sites were gorgeous. Most of the pictures speak for themselves, so I won't say much. The first place we visited was on a hill about an hour and a half north of the city, which housed about 25 tombs of Etruscan aristocrats from the 7th-5th century B.C. While the tombs were wonderful, it was the view from the top of the hill that was really spectacular. After an hour or so of poking around musty shafts, most of us opted to picnic at the top of th hill instead. The next place was even more beautiful. The Necropolis at Caere (or Cerveteri) houses the tombs of some less-affluent Etruscans. The location is picturesquely overgrown, and the tombs, though somewhat dilapadated, are fantastic. ( Pictures of Etruscan stuff ) The Vatican is on Friday, then Siena or Florence for Joanna and my 4 year (!) anniversary this weekend. I'll update as soon as I can wrest the computer from her again. Ciao! Current Location: Roma Current Mood: busy Current Music: Camera Obscura - Dory Previn

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