Open Air History

Open air history. That’s the phrase our tour guide first used to describe the Roman Forum and Rome in general, and it could not be more perfect. Being in Rome is like walking through a history book. I walked on the same ground as Julius Cesear. It’s the place where almost everything derived from, almost every concept, idea, or even word can often be traced back to Ancient Rome. As they say all roads lead to Rome. (And yes, every cliché saying about Rome was utter upwards of a million times this weekend).

No matter what the weather Rome would be beautiful, but throw in a clear, sunny, warm day and it was absolutely perfect. I could have gotten a tan, I swear. It’s funny too because whereas we were taking our coats off the Italians were wearing winter puffy jackets, our spring is their winter…must be rough.

This trip to Rome was organized by our program so everyone went, and we were there all day Thursday and Friday and left around 5 on Saturday. It was just enough time and it was perfectly balanced between school organized activities and free time. The first thing on the agenda was to met our tour guide in Piazza del Campidoglio in front of the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. The lady that gave us a tour was the cutest little thing! She was so funny and made the tour really enjoyable. She started out by telling us a few general things about Rome. For example, the letters SPQR are written everywhere and on everything in Rome. It stands for the Latin phrase, “Senatus Populusque Romanus” or “The Senate and the People of Rome.” It has been used as a mark of the government of Rome since roughly 750 BC and is still used today! It is written on everything in the city (sewers, statues, etc) and is

on every legal document.

Rome is known as the city built on seven hills, yet it is not that hilly anymore. The reason for this is that whenever a new building was commissioned instead of building a new foundation they would just build on top of or over an existing building. So the foundation of many buildings in Rome are very, very deep below ground. And the street level has been changed dramatically throughout centuries. This idea leads well into the Roman Forum. I honestly had no idea what the Roman Forum was before I got there so I’m going to assume than that some of you don’t either. The Roman Forum is basically a plot of ancient ruins, it’s everything that has been excavated from ancient Rome or what is left of it. There are always archeologists working here because they never know just how deep things can be or what they can find. Two of my friends took a break and sat on some large stones on the ground, and it hit me they are sitting on thousands of year old marble- crazy. So ya the Roman Forum is really cool, and the grounds beyond them are really pretty. There were a couple of places higher up that you could just perch at with incredible views of ruins, the Colosseum, and the city. Through in the sun and a perfect breeze and I literally could of sat there all day. But unfortunately for me there is no sitting in Rome, way too much to see!

The next stop on our journey was the Colosseum. So generally here’s the deal with everything in Rome (and Italy for that matter) it really is JUST as cool and awesome as it’s hyped up to be. Coming into this whole experience I was like there is no way that everything can be as amazing as it’s hyped up to be… WRONG. The Colosseum is unreal. It was completed in 80 AD, 80 AD, can you believe that? Although, yes it is not all completely there, it’s still pretty unreal that there is a structure still around from that long ago. This is also when I learned that Rome is a pretty seismic area. I always assumed much of the damage to ancient works was attributed to while time mainly and war- but Rome has been victim to many devastating earthquakes in it’s very long history. It’s so cool to just sit in the Colosseum and think about everything that happened in there, to just look around and imagine it filled with people watching a joust or a battle… it helped that we had just watched Gladiator on the bus there!

Rome is also the opposite of Mexico. You know how you aren’t supposed to drink the water in Mexico, well you are supposed to drink the water in Rome. There are all these “water fountains” throughout the city and they have really good fresh water. I say “water fountains” because they are like ancient sprouts that you stick your finger into to close the spout and make the water come up a hold like a fountain, it’s very convenient.

After the Colosseum we had the option of going off on our own or going with our art history professor to a couple more places. Given that my professor knows everything about everything (including how to get back to the hotel from where we were) I decided I’d stick with her. First we went to a church and I for the life of me have no idea what it was called (sorry). But we went underneath the church, it was like a cave with some frescos. It’s crazy this little random, one of a thousand churches in Rome has so much history.

Then we went to the Pantheon at night which was beautiful. The most interesting thing about the Pantheon was that the dome on top has a hole right in the middle of it so when it rains it literally rains right into the Pantheon. We then ventured to Piazza Navona, a famous piazza with some caffes, fountains, and where artists and musicians hang out.

So by this time (yes, this was all Thursday) I was pretty tired and hungy, but I was dragged to the Trevi Fountain. So I was tired (honestly, a little crabby) and hungry and I was like seriously how cool can a water fountain be? IT CAN BE REALLY, REALLY COOL. Okay, cool is such an immature and poor word choice I’m sorry. So I turned around the corner and there was this masterpiece with water (from the same water system installed when it was built in 1762) flowing like a dream through it. We had just watched La Dolce Vita in my Italian Cinema class (which I highly recommend for anyone coming to Italy, it’s an Italian classic) and there is seen where one of the main characters goes into the Trevi and sticks her head under the water. Our teacher explained to us that this scene was like a baptism, she was being cleansed of her sins and renewed. That’s how I felt being at the Trevi, I felt rejuvenated and with a renewed spirit. I had another, WOW, this is my life moment. And of course I threw some euro coins in and made a couple of wishes (apparently over 3,000 euros are thrown in there a day, some homeless dude could make a killing swimming in the Trevi).

Friday was our day at the Vatican. On the Wednesday night before we left we had an orientation about the Vatican so once we got there we could walk around on our own (because it’s too crowded and difficult to tour it with a group our size). So it was nice to just wonder in small groups taking it all in, and wow, was there a lot to take in. Essentially the catholic church will (and has for a very long time) take any and all art it can get it’s hands on. You would think that it would all be focused on Catholicism, but no they will take whatever they can get (Egyptian art, maps, modern, etc). I walked with a small group including one of my friends Kate, who has a very similar Catholic background to mine, so it was nice to have someone to share that aspect of all of this with.

So obviously a highlight, strike that the highlight, of a trip to the Vatican is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, but there is so much to be seen on the way there. From the moment you walk in there are signs directing you to the Sistine Chapel, so I got a little over anxious and I don’t think fully appreciated everything that I passed. Luckily I’ll be back, but for anyone going take your time going through the Vatican, you’ll get to the Sistine Chapel, it’s not going anywhere. Anyways, I just love all the statues. They are so massive, and I don’t think I will ever get over how artists can take a slab of marble and create something so beautiful out of it… it baffles me. Our Art History professor explained it as like being in a bath and pulling the drain, with a figure emerging from the water perfectly. I also loved the Gallery of Maps. The ceiling of this room is pretty impressive, it obviously gets overshadowed by Michelangelo’s but still it’s amazing. Then the walls of the hallway are filled with maps of Italy, because cartography was considered a science and an art at the time.

Eventually we did indeed make it to the Sistine Chapel, and o, my goodness. You can get a serious neck cramp in there because you never want to stop looking up. It’s… it… it absolutely leaves you speechless. I really enjoyed (as I have with most of the art I’ve seen) the religious aspect of it. It is fascinating to see the different ways that biblical scenes were portrayed, and being able to point out which scenes he chose. Essentially recalling everything I learned in all those years of CCD. Last Supper depiction are really interesting to me. Although every artist does something slightly different there is a common thread between them all and typically every figure in the picture does the same gesture to signify who it is. Interesting to, Da Vinci was the first artist to put Judas on the same side as Jesus at the table, before Da Vinci did this Judas was always the only one on the other side. So in Michelangelo’s Judas is on the opposite side of the table.

Something else I am really enjoying is seeing first hand some things that my teacher made of point of in class, especially stylistically. It makes me feel smart, haha! For example, in Michelangelo’s ceiling if you look at the figures from right to left they get increasingly bigger. This is because after he finished the first couple Michelangelo studied how they would look from the floor, and realized they needed to be much bigger. So the figures on the left are more massive. They also have a lot more depth to them, a skill Michelangelo got progressively better at in the four years it took to complete the ceiling. It’s absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to share the experience (again) with some of you!

Then we finished our day at the Vatican in St. Peter’s Basillica. If anything has ever had a wow factor it’s St. Peter’s. It’s again, just unbelievable. It’s huge, first of all, the high alter could probably barely fit into IJP. And everything about it is just marvelous and grand. It’s so massive and open too. There was actually mass going on at the time, but because it was like the middle of mass we couldn’t participate. I did get some holy water thought and I took a second (with my friend Kate) to say a prayer, it was a good prayer.

We then ate a good lunch at a nice quaint restaurant (we strayed away from everything that claimed to have a “tourist menu”) and then headed to the Spanish Steps. While at the Spanish steps we ran into a third of our program (proving it was literally the last thing we hadn’t done in Rome). The Spanish steps are just a fun place to be, there isn’t anything extraordinarily spectacular about them (the fountain at the bottom is pretty awesome) but it is a very cool place to just hang out. Unfortunately, it was a little rainy so we didn’t hang out too long but still got some good pictures and some amazing views of the city. Actually at one point my friend Emma and I were walking down and our friends Tricia and Kate were already at the bottom so they took a picture of us and then we started posing as models (just for fun) and were almost immediately bombarded by Italian boys… it was pretty funny. So we are in a bunch of random Italian boys pictures from the Spanish steps, I’d say that’s a pretty good accomplishment.

We just walked around a little and hung out. That night we went to this really good restaurant (actually recommended by one of mine and Tricia’s friends from Madison that we had literally run into the night before… weird) and had amazing Chicken Parmesan and excellent wine. The next morning we went to a Villa with our Art professor as a requirement for class, it was pretty cool. Then we went to Villa Borghese which was amazing. Everyone coming to Rome has to go there. It is definitely in my top 5 favorite places I’ve seen so far. The grounds the Villa are on are never ending (it looks like a classier Central Park) and perfectly picturesque. And inside the Villa houses some of the most beautiful pieces of art I’ve ever seen. The two biggest highlights for me where two of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s statues: Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina. It felt as if either of these statues are going to move at any time, these figures told a story and you could feel their emotions, and there was different scenes all happening at once. The tear on Proserpina’s check almost made me cry, they embodied beauty. The ceilings at the Villa are also surreal, looking up at one was like watching a 3-D movie.

And then we went home. So “when in Rome” I did everything and loved it all. In case you couldn’t tell by this incredibly lengthy entry. That was actually two weekends again, this weekend I just hung out in Florence. We went and saw the David (it is HUGE and beautiful) and went to the Medici Palace (also huge and beautiful, but in a slightly different way), and maybe I’ll find some time this week to write about those more. It was a good weekend, relaxing which was very needed after last week and this week’s school work and with spring break sneaking around the corner.

So this week I just have to get through a whole novel for my Fascism class (not going to happen), an Art History Midterm, and an Italian midterm…. And then it is off to Paris, Barcelona, and Milan! Yes, you heard me correctly I’m spending Spring Break in Paris, Barcelona, and Milan! So absolutely excited! Look forward to long, very intense blogs about those trips!

Arrivederci!