Largo Furgentina!

(The title is in celebration of my finally coming up with a name for the Largo Argentina that reflects the cat sanctuary inside).

It's been another week and the business has only gotten crazier! Luckily, I'm having fun pretty much 100% of the time (even when I complain about it), so I'm good. It's crazy to think that my midterms are this week and spring break is coming up in just a week and a half. Where is my semester abroad going?!?! Well, here's where I'VE been going- (see what I did there?)

On Friday I joined the art history class for their trip to the Villa Farnese which is a palace built by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in Caprarola. It is insane. First of all, it's pentagonal. Why? Because he could. Second, it has about a million rooms, all intricately painted by theme (like the fabric room, presumably used to store fabric. What) and surrounding a beautiful arcaded courtyard. Additionally, the entire palace is on a hill that overlooks the medieval-looking town of Caprarola and the Italian country-side which, as I have already established multiple times, is the best thing ever. Here's another picture to prove it.

 So pretty, I raged a little

The palace in it's medieval glory

So that was insane. When I got back I went to the AAR to continue my internship, and this time since my internet worked I got to do actual stuff! I saw/touched a bunch of my artifacts, which include a lot of lamps and some pots. I have already started thinking of them as my babies. Don't worry about it. During my internship I discovered yet another reason why the AAR is the best place on earth- every day at 4:30 is tea time, where you can go into the café and get served 2 varieties of loose leaf tea accompanied by some cookies. Simply the best. 

On Saturday to celebrate the lovely weather (we all wore shorts and dresses and got dirty looks from fur-clad Italians) we had an evening barbeque. Everyone got meat and other fun things and we grilled away! That will definitely be a repeating occurence over the next few months...
Sunday was a homework day, and on Monday we had a half day field trip to see the so-called houses of Augustus and Co. (they're not actually called Augustus and Co.). After lunch and classes I got all dressed up and headed over to the AAR (again) for dinner. As part of their trying to build ties with the Centro (so they can get the best of the best as future fellows?) they invited us in groups to 3 different dinners. Dinner was amazing. Fancy appetizers, bread toasted in the fireplace, endless wine and an open bar after dinner. Again, I want to live there forever.
On Tuesday we walked all around Rome looking at monuments built during Augustus' time. We saw his mausoleum, the Aura Pacis, and the Augustan forum. My favorite part of the day was when we stopped by the Pantheon for about 2 minutes while our professor told us, "Yeah, this is the pantheon, obviously. We'll come back later. Let's go." But here's a picture anyways.

Is it artistic, or was I just too close and had the sun in my eyes? The world will never know...

What was good about Tuesday's field trip is that we walked through pretty much all of the important monuments we've been talking about, so I finally have a somewhat good grasp on where everything is in relation to each other and how small Rome really is. The Pantheon, for example, is really only a 10 minute or so walk from the forum and the Colosseum. Huh.

After an exciting Tuesday night dinner, during which I ate what I'm pretty sure was lamb pancreas, I tackled my research proposal and got incredibly nerd-excited when I found books in the library on Ancient Synagogues, which I am researching this summer. 

As for today, we just returned from a morning trip to the forum. I could probably guide a tour through there by now. (Post-college option for when I don't find a job?). We went through the monuments and focused on Augustan ones this time. And we'll be back again soon! Hurray!

This weekend we're leaving for a week-long trip to Sicily and spring break is right afterwards. So we'll see what happens to this whole updated blog thing... 

Even More Dead Things!

Wow, it's been a busy week. Instead of our usual Tuesday and Wednesday field trips, we had an additional Thursday field trip. That, added with an Italian quiz, Latin project translation, research proposal and the entire book we have to read for Ancient City- People are going a little bit crazy!
Despite the craziness though, we did get to see some cool places this week!
TUESSSDAY- We spent another full day around the forum area. We started out at the Theatre of Pompey, where you can see how the modern street plans still reflect the design of the theatre.

Like this cool curvy building

We also got to go down to the basement of a restaurant that was built over the theatre. The basement is basically the original structure of the theatre, and the restaurant uses it as another eating room. Dinner in the theatre of Pompey would be amazing. Unfortunately, the restaurant is ridiculously expensive, as any respectful fancy Italian restaurant should be. We continued from the theatre to the forum of Caesar and after a pigeon-heavy lunch (as in, we were surrounded. Not eating them) we had a tour of the Capitoline museum, where it was apparently French tour day. Because EVERYONE was French. Anyways...

On Wednesday we got to make up the second half of the field trip that got cancelled next week- Nemi and Velletri. At Nemi we saw the remains of an ancient temple to Diana where people would come to be healed and give thanks. In Velletri we saw an amazing relief sarcophagus and another relief that somewhat inspired my semester research project. Hurrah!

Today was one of the cool tomb days. Those are becoming my favorite! We started the day at the Villa Pamphili down the road from the Centro where we saw a tomb called a Columbarium, which was painted and incredible. 

After this we went to the Jewish Catacombs on the other side of town. Which was AWESOME. It's just a giant system of underground tunnels with tombs everywhere, so we got to walk around with flashlights, read Greek inscriptions and find bones. Luckily we only saw the spiders on our way out. I got some helpful pictures/info for what I will hopefully be researching this summer, and I got to show off some knowledge based on last summer's research! And everyone else got to make fun of me in the Jewish Catacombs. But look- MENORAH. 

(And other Jewish symbols) These were everywhere

When we got out of the Catacombs, a miracle happened- it was suddenly spring! Birds chirping, children playing, daisies blooming! Let's hope this lasts, so I can enjoy it from my window while I sit inside studying for my Italian quiz... :/

Mosaics Galore!

This weekend our entire class took a 2-day trip to Ravenna. Ravenna is a city in northern Italy where Caesar had his seat while in Gaul. Later, it became the capital of the Western Roman Empire (opposite Constantinople in the East). Also, it's where Dante was originally buried. Obviously Ravenna is a very important city for many periods of history. Which brings me to my question- why had I never heard of it before last week? History fail!
We left for Ravenna on Friday afternoon and with all the snow and what-not, got there at about 8, just in time for dinner. After dinner we explored the city for a bit, which was not terribly exciting because at 10 PM on a Friday everything was closed and no one was out...
Saturday was a mosaic-filled day. We walked over to the Ravenna museum and through there entered the basilica of San Vitale, an early Byzantine church. The mosaics in there were like nothing I've ever seen. Some of them looked like actual paintings-unbelievable that they were made of little stones!!

Jesus and some bishops

Funny random story about the little stones- they're called 'tesserae', which is also the word used in the Hunger Games for something completely different. So, this weekend I was both looking at mosaics and reading the Hunger Games, and I did not make the connection that it was the same word. When I finally did, it cleared up why that word was in my brain ALL THE TIME. Anyways...

After San Vitale and the nearby Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which held more amazing mosaics, we walked down to the Neonian Baptistry. Again, amazing mosaics. Unfortunately my pictures from there are a bit too blurry to be blog-worthy, but they'll be on facebook! After seeing that the Arian Baptistry we were going to see was closed off, we went to another museum and saw a really cool ivory chair carved with scenes from Jesus and Joseph's lives (random?). Finally we went to the basilica of San Apollinare Nuovo, where we saw these amazing mosaics.

I had to just pick one- the magi

Later that day, after lunch, we saw the Mausoleum of Theodoric, one of the conquerers of Ravenna, and then went to Sant'Apollinare in Classe, another basilica with wonderful mosaics (sensing a theme...), and pretty marble columns that are 'the best marble you will ever see'. There, we did our first practice autoptic, in which we had to sketch the building in multiple ways, including details and measurements by paces. I thought it was a lot of fun, which is a good thing since the next ones will be graded... 

After a riveting Saturday night, we left Ravenna bright and early Sunday morning. We crossed the Rubicon, which was as exciting as Ravenna on a Friday night ('oh... Umm, I think we just crossed the Rubicon guys. It might have just been a puddle though'). On our way back to Rome, stopped at Rimini and Fano, two small northern towns with Augustan arches. Terribly exciting. At Fano we happened upon a Carnevale parade (Carnevale is basically the two-week Italian equivalent of Mardi Gras), which meant there were a lot of street stands selling gummies that we could buy. 

The best moment on the bus ride back to Rome was my waking up from a nap to our art history professor rambling on about the Mines of Moria and the Fellowship of the Ring, and seeing this out the window:

Far over the Misty Mountains cold... NERD

Things got a bit weird when another professor joined in and I heard snippets of 'THE BALROG!' 'Gandalf, no!!' and 'Run, Frodo, run!'...

We also passed through a long tunnel in the mountains which apparently houses a famous astrophysics lair. (I say lair, because it is underground, and all science that happens underground happens in lairs). After dropping our art history professor off at the side of the road in his mountain town, (he sees that view every single day...), we stopped at a magical gas-station where I bought this:

Addie modeling the Kinder

Then we headed back to Rome to do all the homework we put off during the weekend. And now I am going to take a nap because I'm falling asleep while writing this!

Gettin' Busy

This week was full of snow-related failures, but it turned out pretty well. On Monday morning during our Ancient City lecture (That's the class we all take- we have a Monday lecture to talk about what we'll be seeing Tuesday and Wednesday) we found out that the sites we were planning on visiting on Tuesday were shut down due to snow. (Spoiler: We still get to go!). So on Tuesday, instead of the usual full-day field trip, we took the metro down to the Testaccio area, where we visited a branch of the Capitoline museum that used to be a factory. They left all of the old factory-looking things and added ancient things, so walking around, you come upon many strange (but intentional) juxtapositions, like this one:

After the museum we walked down to a large Pyramid tomb in the middle of the street. I would have to consult my notes to tell you more about that, so here's a picture instead! 

That afternoon I decided to make good use of my unexpected free afternoon and went over to the AAR to start my internship! Basically, I am in charge of 50ish ancient artifacts, and my job is to make sure that the information I have about them matches the information on the AAR website. A lot of my objects are completely missing from the site, or don't have pictures, so I'll have plenty of work to do! My first day was slightly a failure, as my computer refused to connect to the AAR wireless OR ethernet. I ended up working on a library computer, away from my artifacts. Hopefully next week will go better!
We spent Wednesday morning at the AAR again. We got to see some cool inscriptions, something called 'burrito guy' which, to everyone's extreme disappointment, was not a man passing out free burritos, but rather an ancient man wrapped burrito-style in a lead tank and buried. They think he may have been a zombie. (No, but really though). We also got to go down part of an ancient aqueduct that lies beneath the AAR. That was quite nerve wrecking, as we walked up to a dark hole in the ground and heard 'alright, who climbs down first?' Um. WHAT?

But it was not as scary as it looked, and the aqueduct was another one of those cool experiences only Centristi get to do that I can brag about later! Among other things we did at the Academy- see the collection of ancient things just laying around- the back yard, the porch, where ever there's room, really. Also, at one point Ernest Hemingway's grandson walked by. This place is magical!
Wednesday afternoon was brutal- I had double Italian and our Latin class ended late, so I had way more class than I was willing to sit through. After dinner, too burned out to do actual work, we sat down and planned our spring break, which is in a month. Me and five other friends are going to fly out the Barcelona, then Brussels, where we will also take a day trip to Bruges. Ryanair is the best.
Thursday we got to do half of our cancelled Tuesday trip- Palestrina. It's the site of an ancient sanctuary that scaled the side of a mountain and, judging by the models, was an amazing sight. Today, due to ruinage and medieval building, not much is left. We got to see an incredible mosaic from one of the temples and the view from the top of the mountains, which, of course, was breathtaking. The trip, however, involved so much failure. First, of course, the trip was cancelled on Tuesday. When we got there on Thursday, we found the escalator going up the first part of the mountain was broken, so we had to climb up by foot. Once we reached the forum area, we found out that we could not get into the building built around the ruins. We kept climbing, and when we reached the museum on top, the room holding the mosaic was full of loud italian kids doing an art project. When we finally found a quiet lecture room in the museum so we could have our lecture, someone outside the room decided to start banging a large metal pipe against, by the sounds of it, more metal, or the ground. Really, just everything went wrong. But we got our amazing view and the trip and failures were worth it after all! See for yourself (though of course pictures don't do it justice)

Amazing, once again.
This weekend we're taking a trip to Ravenna. It should be awesome, though unfortunately it means early wake ups and heavy duty learning during my usual resting time. So now I'm going to pack for that! Ciao!

When in Florence...

(I don't know why this is high-lighted. Sorry). That's right folks, I spent the weekend in Florence! I went with 10 other people, while about 20 people from the Centro were going to Venice at the same time. So the Centro was near empty. And Florence was amazing! We took a 3 hour train ride there, which made us very nervous for the weekend, because this was the view outside our window for the entire trip:

Guys... did we accidentally board a train to Moscow?

Through some miracle, when we reached Florence there was not a speck of snow to be seen. I still don't know how this is possible, but since I did not bring snow shoes, I won't complain! Once we got in we walked to our hostel, which was not as sketchy as I feared (we did realize too late that our room had no doorknob, but it worked out!), and then headed out in search of dinner. One of the first things I noticed about Florence- It is SO clean! After three weeks in Rome I've gotten used to looking at my feet while walking in fear of stepping in dog crap, and seeing papers and wrappers everywhere. Florence, compared to that, is spotless. However, it is also basically made of tourists and American study-abroad students, so I'll take Rome. 

We ended up having dinner at a small Italian (shocker) restaurant with OK food for Italy (which is really really good). After dinner we wandered around for a while, found nothing but cold and returned to the hostel for sleep. 

The next morning we headed out at 9, got a quick breakfast and headed off to Uffizi! Another thing about Florence- it's tiny (or at least the part we were in). What I thought, judging by the map, would be at least a 20 minute walk ended up taking 5 minutes. And almost anywhere we went, this was looking down on us. 

Not a bad view, huh....

At the Uffizi I was overwhelmed by all of the beautiful things including Boticelli's 'Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera'. Seeing all of these incredible works of art which I've heard about and learned about so often was like a dream. When I reached the room holding these two famous works, I just stood in front of each in awe for a few minutes, not believing that I was actually looking at the real thing. After this awe-inspiring beautiful thing, we split up and headed over to the next awe-inspiring beautiful thing on our list, Duomo (seen above). We spent some time inside, though it cost money to see the actual interesting things, and then, after lunch, headed over to the Archeology Museum, which was closed. So the Academia came next! Once again, full of overwhelmingly beautiful things including David! I might have taken an illegal photograph of David... But now I am one of few people who has pictures of all 3 Davids in Florence:

                         Replica outside Uffizi and Bronze overlooking the city.                                            

Erm. This is illegal.

After breaking the law and such, we walked around Florence for a bit, where my soul died every time I looked at a relatively cheap pair of leather boots I could not afford (I keep reminding myself I will be here with my parents who love me and buy me shoes). We got some gelato, which may have been the worst decision of my life since it was below freezing weather outside, and then happened upon a chocolate festival! If you know me, you know that there is nothing better I could possibly come upon, ever. I got some spiced wine (Ancient Greek/Game of Thrones reference? Eh?) and, of course, chocolate. Which was amazing. After some more wandering we crossed the river on the Ponte Vecchio and found an amazing restaurant for dinner. I had gnocchi with tripe, which I discovered was stomach half way through the meal. Which is fine, because it was amazing! Another new food-xperience! We then climbed a giant hill to see the 3rd David and get an amazing view of the entire city and all of it's bridges, got some drinks and went to bed. 

This morning a few of us got up early to go to try the Archeological Museum again. It was open, and once again, we saw amazing things, like this Etruscan chimaera bronze that we read about for class just a few weeks ago!

This is NOT an illegal picture! Hurray!

After this it was off to the train and back to Rome! It was a nice feeling getting back to Rome and realizing I felt like I was back home, even after only 3 weeks. Now that I'm home, I need to tackle the homework I put off all weekend! Ciao!

Under the Tuscan Snow

Hello World! Let's start with good news- it has not snowed in Rome since Friday! Bad news? It's supposed to snow/rain all weekend! While I'm in Florence!

Anyways, what have I done this week? I went to Cosa! It was not the most exciting day-trip we will have this semester, but it was interesting none the less. After a two hour drive during which I managed to not get my picture taken while sleeping (quite an achievement) we were dropped off on the side of an off-highway road, and started our very steep ascent up to Cosa, an ancient Roman colony (or what remains of it, which is not much.) We started out in the museum, where we also had lunch in order to stay out of the cold for as long as possible. Thing is, the museum was as cold/colder than outside. Unpleasant. After losing feeling in my toes and eating my sandwich, we left the warmth of the museum and entered the cold sea-side cliff that is Cosa. The views were breathtaking. Exactly what you would imagine seeing among Tuscan cliff-top Roman ruins. 

Just like you imagined!

Though I did enjoy the views, that was probably the coldest I've been since I stood at the National Mall for 7 hours without moving in mid-January. Too cold to take notes, so all I really know about Cosa is 'Forum is in valley' and 'there was a garden.' Useful information for life.

After Cosa we stopped at the François tomb, a large Etruscan tomb that used to have frescos in it, and then headed home. 

This morning we took the bus down to Rome-proper (I made that name up), where we visited a few mid-republic buildings including the temple of Hercules (where I could only think of Disney and the pigeon flying dangerously close above my head) and the creepy crypt of a church built between two other temples ('Don't pay attention to those bones over there... they're just Medieval'). We also visited the Largo Argentina, an area where 4 temples once stood in a row. Here are some amazing pictures of those ruins:

 Meow

 Meow

Columneow

...Oh, sorry Professor, you were saying something about history? 

More good news, on our few to the Largo Catgentina (not my best work), I found a few falafel places which I will be visiting soonly. Also, I discovered that apparently Roman Jews have a thing for artichokes. Fine by me. 

Back at the Centro we had gnocchi for lunch, which may be my favorite food ever, and now I have 4 free hours to do homework... right. 

More Snow!

In my last post I mentioned some snow. Said snow did not stop until Saturday morning, when I woke up to  this:

Since I grew up in Montgomery County, naturally my first reaction to this sight was "NO SCHOOL!" I soon reminded myself that it was Saturday, and besides that school here would not require leaving the building and thus snow would be irrelevant. My excitement soon returned, though, when a few of us embarked on a snowy adventure; our goal- sledding on the Circus Maximus. Because what else are 2,000 year old monuments here for?
So we started walking down to Trastevere, which unfortunately required going down some very slippery steps. (I will say now that during this entire excursion I managed not to slip once, though there were a few close calls.) On our way down we were throwing many snowballs at each other, but in Trastevere we found ourselves in the center of a piazza-wide snow ball fight. Unfortunately there were some casualties.
As we crossed the Tiber and made our way to the Circus Maximus I was amazed over and over again by the beauty of Rome in the snow. Seeing those orange-y mediterranean buildings and ancient temples covered in snow is unreal.

I don't know what this is. It's ancient and snowy, though. (ed: I learned today that this is the temple of Hercules Victor!)

Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin

There were also some comical sights such as the huge line outside the sporting goods store where one could presumably find snow boots, and all the unnecessary chains on car tires. 

Eventually we reached the Circus Maximus, which was packed. Kids, tourists, adults, dogs, everywhere! 

Unfortunately we did not have sleds (though really, who in Rome has sleds?) but we came to the C.M. to sled, and sled we did! The guys in the group all decided to dive down the hill face-first. I decided to be slightly safer and go down feet first. After a challenging climb back up the hill and an encounter with a very very friendly dog we decided, feeling accomplished (I successfully disrespected an ancient Roman site I learned about just last week!), to continue down (up? I don't know geography) to the colosseum. 

Never having seen the colosseum before (Hey, I've only been here 2 weeks), seeing it in the snow was breath-taking, despite the obscene amount of people around. How many people come to Rome and have the chance to see the colosseum covered in snow?? Amazing.

Proof that I was there

After this we walked a bit farther, took some pictures by the Victor Emmanuel monument and had a quick lunch. We also saw an old man putting testicles on a snow penis. Amazing.

Then we boarded the bus and got back to Monte Verde, where four of us continued on to a quick thrift store visit, and then some hot chocolate with Baileys (how have I ever drunk anything else?).  Saturday night some people went out, but I decided against struggling down the hill and stayed in. Around dinner time Franco, our program director and most amazing man on earth, warmed up some tortellini soup for us and made sure we were all wearing socks before going home for the night. We spent the rest of the night playing board/card games, in my opinion a wonderful activity for a cold snowy night. 

I spent this morning doing homework and studying for our weekly quiz. I also walked/ice skated down to the coffee bar ('my' coffee bar, as that is the one I've become 'loyal' to) and the supermarket to buy some necessities like real laundry detergent and Fanta. So far, the most exciting thing that has happened today was our discovery that the library has a heater, which means I will no longer be studying at outside temperature.  

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

It's not Christmas, you say? Tell that to the Italian man singing Jingle Bells to us as we trudged past him in the snow today. It's only snowed in Italy two times in the last 20 years, or so I've been told. So of course it's going to snow when I'm here.
On Thursday night it was rainy and cold so we decided to stay in and and play card games instead of going out, thinking we would just go out Friday night instead. Ha. Instead we played some very intense card games and then mafia, Roman version, with the Praetorian Guard, Cicero, and Minerva's divine intervension instead of the normal roles. Again, I love classics majors.
Today (Friday), I decided to do laundry. This plan took a wrong turn when I realized I purchased hand-wash only detergent (That's why it was so cheap!). So I thought, hey, I'll just hand-wash all my clothes, what could be so bad? Everything. I will leave it at that, and let you know that for the next 2 weeks I will be wearing ever so slightly soapy clothes.
After the laundry adventure and homework, a few of us walked over to the American Academy in Rome (about a 5-10 minute walk) for an orientation meeting about an internship they are offering to Centro students. This internship is basically what I want to do with my life. The meeting was basically, "here are about 5,000 ancient Roman artifacts. You will be in charge of them. When can you touch them? Why, whenever you so please! Oh, by the way, there may also be 6,000 more of them buried in our garden, so if we find those your internship will just be the most epic thing ever. And before you go, here is a flash drive containing 6 GB of professional photos of these objects. When should you give it back? Never!" No, ladies and gentlemen, it's not Disney World, it's the American Academy in Rome.
On the walk to the academy I took some pictures of Mediterranean things that should not have snow on them, including palm trees and the Villa Aurelia, one of the AAR's buildings.

When we got back from the meeting (which half the group didn't even make it to because of the snow), we had a wine symposium so we can learn about wine and hopefully how to drink without getting drunk. It was quite a pretentious event, as we were constantly told how painful it is to watch people who 'don't respect their wine' and buy those 1 euro bottles in the supermarket (because who would EVER do that? cough cough). The wine was quite good though, and the guy they brought in to talk at us for an hour was, as was agreed by almost everyone afterwards, one of the most attractive men in Italy.
After an exciting day, I spent this evening playing a rousing game of Monopoly at which I was not the first to lose, so that is an accomplishment.
That is all for now.

Double Date with Death

Well, that's a morbid title, isn't it? That is because the theme of our week in the Ancient City course (the main Roman History course everyone here takes) was tombs! Actually, Etruscans, but most of what we have of theirs is tomb-related. On Tuesday we spent the day in all kinds of different tombs!
First, we went to three tombs outside of Tarquinia, which is a little north of Italy. These three tombs are not actually open to the public, which made them even more exciting to see than they already were! The tombs are all covered (or used to be) in beautiful wall paintings of different daily or mythological scenes, such as Polyphemus being stabbed in the eye from the Odyssey myth,

Or two figures being charged at by an erect bull while copulating...

So really, just average, day-to-day things.
After these three tombs, we went to a nearby site where the rest of the painted tombs were. Every pair of people got a snazzy speaker thing, and when you pressed a number it played a short British explanation of the corresponding tomb, each complete with a subtle mention of the park's Snack Bar. After that and lunch, we went to a museum with lots and lots of urns and things just sitting around, no cases or anything. That made me quite nervous...
The best part of the day by far was Banditaccia. It's an area by Tarquinia with things called Tumuli, (1 tumulus) that were giant mound-tombs. We split up and started climbing around. We went into some tombs, climbed over some tombs (which was probably a terrible terrible thing to do) and laid down in dead people beds. Nothing wrong with that... Here I am in a tomb:

Also important to note- there were at least 10 stray cats in one area of this park, and we were all more interested in them than the missing people we needed to find in order to leave the park on time. But... Cats!

Today we went to the Villa Giulia and saw more Etruscan vases and such, and then spent some time in the British School in Rome, listening to a fairly pointless lecture about things we will see and learn about later in the semester...

Apart from the exciting sight seeing, I don't think much else has been happening... So there you go!