Post 8- Last day in Rome

Blog 8,

June 18, 

This trip to Rome has been an interesting one for me, for both good and bad. This whole trip in general has meant a lot to me in both the fun and learning aspect. I loved the fact that wee were at the sites when our professors lectured and that we had an almost paper free class, it was a good trip over all. It meant a lot to learn more about the Roman culture and more cultures that surrounded the Romans. It was a very good class. 

What I learned on this trip was survival, in academics and daily life. I learned how to mage time, some what for getting stuff done and how to live like an Italian. Both were difficult for me at least. But I made it through three weeks worth. I think I will do a study abroad trip again. They were a lot of work, but they are fun and interesting. I have had both good experiences and bad ones, but that happens in everyday life, not different than being at home.

Today, I did not stay in Rome. I went to the awesome city of Florence. It was a beautiful city and I highly recommend going there, it is worth the train ride. Although, I realized that after today, that one could spend a ton of time there since there was so much todo. I went with 9 people from class. They all were a great group to spend the last day off on this trip. We all pushed really hard to get up early in the morning to go to this city. We all had to wake up around 5-5:30 to get to the train station to catch the train. We were early to both trains going there and back, we were very cautious about getting there, hence the main reason to getting up early. We really did not have an agenda planned, so we just winged it when we got there.

The first thing that we did was check off at least one thing of 2 places that everyone wanted to go to. That was to go to the museum that held the famous Michelangelo statue of David. I will admit that waiting in line was a little too long for it, but it was worth it just to see one statue. But, in the end it was, the detail on that statue was incredible. Then we walked around the museum and saw a bunch of old Christian items, I think there always fun to see. After that, we went to the famous Duomo Church in the city. It was really awesome in terms of architecture on the outside, the inside however was a little plain I will admit, but it was cool to see the inside as well as the basement of the church was cool. I did not get a chance to read the inscriptions there, but I got tons of pictures. After that we went to see the the bell tower of the Duomo. That thing was rough to climb to the top. After the first 130 steps or so I was feeling it. But thankfully there were platforms that you could stop and take a break. There was a total of 414 steps that we climbed. Some people thought that they were going to die while climbing up, but we had all 9 people when we got home here in Rome. After that we had a lunch and did some shopping. I walked around the city with 2 other guy's on the trip. 

We walked around and found some leather stores and looked in them, and found one we liked and bought some items from it. I got a wallet for my mom and my dad that the guy claimed was made in Florence there. I hope they were at least. I got a aqua color for mom and a black for my dad. Then we made our way to a sport store and the other guys I was with got some stuff, while I was there looking around and did not find anything that I wanted. Then we stopped at another leather store and I got a belt costumed made for me, it was cool at least I thought so. Then we walked and found a gelato place, it was not the greatest, but it was something to eat. Then we went to the river that ran through the city, and saw the gold market there. Really expensive stuff I will say. After that I wanted to go to the Dome to climb up it and get some pictures. 

I wanted to climb the Dome at the Duomo, but the line would have taken an hour plus the walk up, so I decided to pass, next time I'm here, that will be the first thing that I will do. After that I walked around for a while and was going to try to find the famous synagogue in the city, one of my classmates told me to go and see it. But I could not find it int eh amount of time that I was given before meeting up with the group. So I got my walking in for the day. I went instead to the leather shop that I bought a wallet for my mom from to exchange it for a different one, the one I did get I though she may not like it. It was a little big I thought. So I got a different one for her.

After meeting up with the group we had an awesome dinner and then we left for Rome. Although, when we got here all the Metro subway lines were closed, so we had to take a bus or taxi. When in doubt take a taxi, because bus's can be misread. We got on a bus and started heading the wrong way, but we did figure it out and got on the right bus finally. Then we got back to our apartments.

The train that took us there to Florence.

Statue of David.

The Duomo

The Duomo again

Inside the chapel that was right next to the Duomo, cool stained glass window..

Post 7-The Vatican

Post 7 for June 17,

Today was the day that we went to the Vatican. That place was huge I will have to say, I have been there before, but It is always fun to come back and they also added some newer exhibits to their museums. The Vatican has a museum of museums, almost like museum inception. There was a total of 8 museums here at the Musei Vaticani and we only went to just one as a class, which had mostly Greek and Roman sculptures in it, which was cool. I went to all of museums that were open, there were some that had been closed for renovations, which made some members of our class really bummed out about that. Although, I did walk buy there and you could still see some statues in there that were really important, for example the Augustus statue and that one is a favorite amongst one of the students on this trip. Not only was that statue really cool, but there was another one in the Museo Pio Clementino, which is the one with 2 boys and his father getting attacked by snakes(visual-arts-cork.com)

The famous Prima Porta Augustus.

Tat statue, the one with the snakes is called the Laocoon and sons in pain. It was an impressive sculpture made by Michelangelo in the 16 century era. The pope around that time, pope Julius II, wanted Michelangelo to do restorations on the original statue, since it was in bad shape at the time when it was found. So Michelangelo and a few other sculptures recreated the statue for the Vatican. The sculpture is describing the story of Laocoon, who was a Trojan priest  during the fall of Troy, anyways him and his sons were looking at the Greek horse that the Trojans were going to accept as a gift of victory of the Greeks. They went up to it and tried throwing a spear into the horse to see if there was anything in it, then all of a sudden some snakes or "sea serpents" come out of no where and attack the 2 boys and Laocoon. The snakes were sent by Poseidon and supposedly Athena as well so the Greeks could have there victory over the Trojans (mlahanas.de). It seems interesting to me that people like seeing that and yet make a sculpture of it too, the emotions of people getting attacked. Yet, its the way people express there emotions through the sculpture that make people be attracted to them. One of my sources said that that sculpture was one of the "best in the world"(mlahanas.de). I was interested in it when Aaron told us about it and when I saw the snakes, I had to take a picture.
Then there was another museum there that I went to that I thought was interesting, the also in the Museo Pio Clementio.

Laocoon and his 2 sons being attacked.

I was shocked to find out that there were Egyptian artifacts at this museum. We breezed by them earlier as a class, but when we got to roam free I went back there and looked through that museum. I like Egyptian items very much ever since I saw The Mummy movies. There were these little artifact there that caught my eye called Shabti. They were little minnie mummy statues that would be buried with the person themselves and would be used as tools for the afterlife. The poster said they would help with agriculture in the after life, but part of the message was cut off from my picture. But, they were used in the afterlife of the deceased. They started showing up around the Middle kingdom era in the mid B.C. range of time, they would be wrapped up in bandages just like the mummy's were back in ancient Egypt. I thought they were cool. Also there was a mummy there, which was pretty cool. Then there was the rest of the Vatican too.

The Shabti statues.

When I walked through, I wanted to look for the famous rugs or tapestries. I did find them and found the one that I wanted to see, but I also saw some other stuff along the way. I saw the gallery of maps, which most were cool but I did not know where they were mostly, except for a few that showed the size of Italy. Then I came across the tapestries'. there was one that I liked the most where it was of Jesus being resurrected from his tomb, and he is in the door way of his tomb having his knee on top of the stone door, it was a cool scene. I remember that a couple of years ago when I went here they told us that as you moved along the side of the tapestry, that Jesus' knee would follow you as you walked by, It sure did, it was awesome to see it again.

Jesus tapestry.

Then after that I saw the Sistine Chapel, it was a little crowded, but I get the just of it, it still amazes me even though I have seen it before. It was still good to see it again. After that I walked around to the square for a while, St. Peters and counted the statues of the saints, I think I got 170 roughly. But were going again on Friday and I can confirm that number with Aaron.

Second to last post

A cool painting of the Greek academy.

Source
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Laocoon.htm

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/laocoon.htm

http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/vaticanmuseum.htm

Post 6

Post 6

June 15,

Today we went to the church called Santa Maria of Saint Clemente. That was a church that was built upon layers of other churches, mainly a temple then two churches above that. Before the churches existed, there was a temple for the Mithra religion, which is a religion that many people followed back in ancient Roman times, built around the beginning of the first century, or in late B.C.. All the temple that was there for us to see was a tiny, single room with enough space for an alter and a few people at a time. I think that mostly soldiers and their family's would go there to pray and do rituals. It was buried due to a great fire that happened in 64 A.D. when Emperor Nero was in charge, and it was not resorted back to its original state and it would eventually become the foundation for the Church of Saint Clemente. I am not sure how deep we were, but it was very far underground, at least it felt like it when we were going down several stairs to get there.
This was really deep under the surface of the main church that we can see today.

Then we went up to where the first church was and looked around at the paintings/frescos that were left over and we listened to our guest professor, whom I do not remember their name. She was a professor from the Accent Center here. The first painting that we saw was of the the Saint himself and she told us that this painting we were looking at was located right over his tomb. Although, his body was not there underneath it like it would have been many years ago. Then we moved on to another painting which had a story behind it.

The story goes, there was a Roman senator who had a son, named Alexis and he raised him like a normal Roman and he was about to get married to a young girl, then he realized that he did not want that life. So after his wedding day, he told his wife that he loved her and moved on to go on his own live as a beggar in some other country in the middle east, I can not remember what country. Anyways he was there for a while and then he moved to another country for some time and then he came back to Rome. When he returned to Rome, he ran into his father one day, which is shown on the painting. However, his father does not recognize him and Alexis does not tell him what his real name is. He did ask his father for place that he could stay at for a while? His father told the man, aka Alexis, that his home was open; yet Alexis decided to chill under the staircase at his father's home for 17 years. When I heard that, I was like wow; I would have not like to live under a staircase for that long. Then Alexis knew that he was dying, so he asked for some paper and a pen or writing utensil and he wrote the story of his life and then left it for his family to see. The next scene on the painting was the pope visiting Alexis before his death, and then the last scene is on the right side showing Alexis dead on his bead and the family crying very hard about the fact that they did not know that their son had lived with them for several years and they did not treat him like a son. His wife was also there too, grieving like everyone else is. I was in awe when I heard that story, I don't think that I could do that for 17 years.

After that, we looked at some more paintings around there and herd their stories. I have to say that the one about the Alexis was my favorite.

Then we went up to the main level of the church, which was built in the 10th century, maybe if not earlier than that, but regardless of what its age was, it was a beautiful church there. wE learned about some more frescos or paintings that were there, one of Saint Catherine, and that was a interesting story about her protecting Christianity with her life. If I understood it correctly.

Here is the outside of the church. This is all I could get.

Here is our group

I apologize for not having a lot of pictures, because we were not allowed to take any inside; which was a huge downer for me.

After that, we went to the Gladiator school which was not too far away from the colosseum. There was not much left, but It was cool to see though at least. It was called the Ludus Magnus. It was built by Domitian.

Here is the School.

Another view of the school. 

The gladiator school again.

After that, we got to listen to Alexis, who was our last and one of the greatest presenters of our group. She had a presentation on the Arch of Constantine. That arch is the one that is located right next to the colosseum. I think it is pretty cool, aside from the Arch of Titus, I will always like that one.

Arch of Constantine.

Here is Alexis by her arch, Arch of Constantine.

Post 5 for June 10 and 12

Post 5, June 10

Today we went to Pompeii and the museum in Naples. They were both really fun tours. We had to get up really early in the morning for both of them, but it was worth getting up to ride in a nice train and see the ruins of the famous Pompeii. Although, the train from Naples to Pompeii was not as nice and more "sketchy". When we got there, it looked just like what Ostia looked like when we got there. The ruins still intact, but unlike Ostia it was crowded in many spots. But it was not very popular in other spots as well. First we got there and saw the main street of the city. it was really cool and it still had all the big stones and everything. we had to climb a big hill, but it made us earn the right to get into the city. Then we walked into the main courtyard or it would have been known as the Forum of Pompeii. It was designed just like a Forum from Rome, it was interesting to see the influence that Rome had on this city. I believe that it originally was a Greek city, judging but some of the artifacts that were there on display and the way the buildings were built looked like it could have been one. Until Rome took it over and made it a part of their empire.

Pompeii on the outside.

Pompeii on the inside int he Forum.

One thing that really caught my eye, and I believe it caught everyone else's too was that there were big rocks that were rectangular in the streets that were lined in rows. One of the guys on our trip said that they were used like a crosswalk on a normal street today, and they were elevated so that people would not have to walk in the streets. It was really a cool invention and unique, not only does it help keep people from walking on the stones on the streets, but if it rained or it was raining the people of Pompeii would not have to walk in the streets.

The crosswalk's

Then we walked around and found some homes of some wealthy individuals from ancient times. There was on in particular that was really cool. He had a huge courtyard in the center and had a fountain in their and looked like they had a second level. After that we tried walking around the city for more homes, we did find some more, one did have a bunk system in it. other than that one, we did not find anymore that would be available for us to walk in to see.

The big house there

We then made our way to one side of the city where the was a villa called the "Villa of Mysteries" according to our professor. The reason why it was called that is because there was a mysterious painting in the villa and no one knew what it could mean. Our professor, Aaron, told us that there is one theory that the painting is of an initiation ceremony of some sort, for a bride maybe he said. Anyways it was very cool.

The Villa of Mysteries.

Then we all wanted to go and see an ancient brothel, it was not in use of course but we got to see what one would have looked like and see all the paintings that were inside of it. They were erotic I will say, but they were however faded so you could not see as well what they could have been. I can now say that I went to my first brothel, but it was closed and it was part of a museum.

The brothel paintings.

Moving on to the dead bodies we found. We first found some that were cast out from rocks with a plaster of some sort and they were in glass cages. Then we found another set them in the center of Pompeii's amphitheater, which was also cool. It was amazing too see what the bodies looked like from back then, due to the ash and part of the lava coming from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. There was one scene of a child standing on top of his mother and they both became froze when they volcanic ash cloud hit. It is kind of like seeing the actual body of the people. It was scary and a amazing to see them like that.

The cast's of the dead bodies.

Very cool statue.

Then we went to the museum in Naples, and that was a fun trip. I fell asleep on the train ride back from Pompeii, should not have done that but nothing got stolen from me there. The museum was interesting I will say, lots of statues, although there was one that was cool I will comment on. It was a bunch of statues in one and it was a very cool action shot. Also, there was another erotic scene part of the museum, that was a little weird, but I could say that I saw it. After that we went to a pizza place near the train station in Naples, ti took a while to get there, but we eventually got there and then we got back to the train station just in time to get on to the train to get back home. We were very worried that, but we made it just fine.

Mt. Vesuvius and me.

Mt. Vesuvius.

June 12,

Today we had the morning off, which went very nice with the day off that we had yesterday, which was an excellent day to get my page mostly done and get stuff caught up around the apartment. But on the 12, we went to Forum of Trajan, and we also herd a presentation about it from our friend Rachel. She did very well. According to her, that Trajan wanted to be like Augustus very much so and he copied almost everything that he did, he built a Forum just like what he did and had the same attitude towards everything like Augustus did. Trajan did a lot of good things for Rome, expanded the empire and also contributed to its architecture. We also got to see the column of Trajan too, which was cool as well. Then we walked around the museum and saw all the artifacts that have been dug up from the Forum and what was found on the ground around it that needed to be preserved. It was pretty interesting.

Trajan's Forum here.

Rachel at her presentation at the Forum of Trajan.

After all that, we went to have a discussion with Aaron about the museum. We talked about how most of the architecture from Trajan's Forum was a lot of cupid and Venus stuff. I think there was mentioning of Apollo too or Mars would be the Roman God. and that they symbolized love or something along those lines. Then we listened to Lisa lecture, and it was interesting to what she had to say about the pre-Christianity items and how making the new testament was happening here in Rome. I remember hearing that again from the book The DaVinci Code, but did not know if that was completely true. Then from there we ended our day.

     

Post 4 June 9

Post 4,

Today we went to Ostia, which is near the main port for Rome during ancient times. We took the long distance train to the cities ruins. And most of us had to stand the entire time going there. It was not too bad, just made your feet more sore than usual. It took about 45 minuets to get there.

Here is view of Ostia from lookout.

Once we finally got there, we had  run down of what the city was like in ancient times from Professor Aaron's point of view. He said that it was a busy bustling city and that many ships would come in and out every day and then would come in to Ostia down the Tiber river a bit and the cargo would get organized and put into storage until it was purchased or reshipped to Rome. One thing Aaron mentioned was that this cities ruins are very well preserved due to the fact hat people have not inhabited the area for over 500 years due to nature side effects, like insects and the weather caused people to not come back. I would not either if the area turned into that.

Her is part of what is left of the apartments and the living quarters of the people here in Ostia. 

First we went to the living parts of the city, where we saw a lot of apartment buildings that were intact, kinda at least. But Aaron showed us a map or a floor plan of what the apartments really looked like. And I have to say that they were big for what I estimated would be in ancient times. He said that they would be around 1000 square feet or more, which in my mind is a lot of room. Then we did some more exploring more around the living parts of the city. One fact I found interesting is that they had a huge area and living space for a fire department or where Roman soldiers would be on the look out for anything like that and other trouble in the area. I think that this is a smart move the ancient Romans did, having people always be on guard for fires and other things that potentially could happen. Its crazy, to me at least that they had a fire department way back int he ancient times, like we do today. I wonder, since Rome had so many fires, if Rome ever had a fire department like Ostia did? If they did, there would not be probably as many fires in Rome's history.

Here is the area where the solders had their headquarters.

Then we moved on and found some ancient bathrooms, which seemed very interesting to me that they had those and that they were intact for us to see them.

From there we moved on to the theater that they had there, it was supposed to host 3000 people back in ancient times. Today, it looks like it could still host that amount, then again it has been restored many times over the past few years. But it amazes me that it is still around today and could be used if it was needed to. When we were there, one of my classmates, Steve, tried speaking from the stage and me and a few people were up at the top and could hear him really well, surprisingly.

Left side of the amphitheater.

Right side of the amphitheater

After seeing that, we saw a temple and another court yard where the merchants were back in the glory days of the city. It was cool that there were mosaics that had the shops or the items they sold right in front of the stands. Then we also got to see a what was known as a grain storage site. It was in a temple like building frame, but it was used to hold grain for people to buy and to be shipped to Rome.  If I could compare this to something that is in our todays society, it would be a modern agriculture elevator. They take grain in, store it and give it out to people when they want to buy it or when another company wants some. Just like back in the ancient Roman times. Over the years we see many civilizations do this type of thing, having a surplus of food. But at this site, this was huge and about the sze of a modern elevator in the United States, as I stated earlier. I grew up in a background of agriculture; when I see something that is relatable to Ag I take an interest in it, very much so.To me, that was one of the coolest things about the trip today.

Here is the grain storage site, or the ancient elevator

Then we went to a museum to look at some statues that were found during the excavation of the site, and many of those statures were very unique in there own way, then we saw the Forum that was there and that was interesting too see, then we saw some more bathhouses, other than the first that we saw around the apartment there.

The bath houses.

After that whole day trip, we did listen to Lisa on her lectures about religion in the Roman culture relating it to medieval history. I learned a lot about some things that certain religions had that I never knew. Like, the term agnostic, I remember reading it, kinda, in the Dan Brown book series; thats it though and I did not know the definition of it.

Here is the Forum here.

Post 3 for June 8

June 8,

Today we went to the park where all the cats where, or as I like to call it the "cat palace" or its real name is Largo Argentina. Where some temple's to some for the strange Rome Gods were located as well as the Theater/Temple was located. There we talked about the Poems we were supposed to read, They were interesting Poems but they were hard to understand for me, but when Someone read them out loud, it was better for me to understand them. There were some about the Colosseum that were pretty interesting as well as the one of the man giving the tour of Rome to a stranger and explaining the past to the present.  Then we made our way to the Forums of Augustus and Vespasian.

Here is Hannah at her Presentation at the Forum of Augustus

A random bird at the Forum of Augustus 

Here is JT at her Presentation at the Forum of Vespasian, not much remained for ruins to take pictures of. 

A little more of the Forum of Augustus 

The Forum Nerva ruins, not much left.

These were the sights of the presentations that went on today, and they were very good. They were better than mine.Hannah was the first one who presented, and what we learned from the Forum of Augustus is that Originally the project was going to be Mark Antony's, but then both young Augustus, or Octavian, had a civil dispute between them both and the project was taken over by Augustus later on when he defatted Mark Antony. It was very interesting at the site, because there was a huge retaining wall, and I found that very interesting that did that type of technology back then. But then again its the Romans, they did a lot of what we are doing today or just figuring them out in regards to building items now days. Then we went to the Forum of Vespasian. This was our friend Justina, aka JT. She did very well with her presentation, I thought personally. I knew a lot of what she already told us about the Vespasian dynasty and family. I did forget to tell some of that info during my presentation, but she said them in her presentation and it went along better with her topic rather than mine per say. A fact that I found interesting was that the Forum never really was opened to the public for quite some time and then it was opened to the public, the reason for that is unknown according to JT, but it was an odd thing that they would have something done and not allow people to use it for certain things for a long time. That idea sounds a lot like what Minnesota does sometimes for construction projects. For example there was one ordeal that happened where I live near Mankato, MN and there was a highway that was all done construction wise; it was all painted and ready to be used, but no one could drive on it since it was not "inspected" for close to 4 years. Once it was inspected and "approved" We could drive on it. Maybe that's what happened here with the Forum of Vespasian, maybe something had to get inspected and approved in-order to be used by the people. Another fact that I believe was in the main temple in the Forum, don't remember which one it was, but it had a map of the whole city inside of it showing to the people of Rome that there was more to the city than just people's little main go to areas within the city.

After all of that, we walked back to the Accent Center and then we were free to go back to the apartments, figured out the bus system by myself back to the apartments as well.

Me at the Vatican, in St. Peter's Square

Inside the Vatican

Inside the Vatican again

The Awesome Arch of Titus

Our Group at the Colosseum

Post for Jun 5

Post 2 for Jun 5,

Today we went to the Forum of Caesar and we got to hear the presentation made by Severina. She did very well and was very informative about it all. What i found very interesting from her presentation, other than the truck coming right through the middle of her speaking; was the fact that he did have a lot of interesting things in his temples that he built there, specifically the statue and picture of Cleopatra and then another sorceress who was in the Greek history more so than Roman history. It was interesting to hear that he did have women in his temples and such, then again Caesar did have a "thing" for Cleopatra during his time.

Then we went on to get some lunch and then we headed on to the museum Called Centrale Montemartini which was in a what used to be the power plant for the electricity of Rome but now it was converted into a museum. According to our professor, he said that it was running until the 60's time frame and then the museum was looking for more space to put some statues they received and were restored and wanted to be put on display, so the Museum Montemartini rented the building from the city and worked around the big Diesel engines and put up the sculptures around them. It was very interesting to me again seeing the idea of having old building sites like power plants for example getting shut down and then being used for another completely different business, they are constantly recycling things and sites here all the time. I think that its kinda cool and is a very good idea to use buildings that are decent and making them better and better for different business's. Although, there can be a down side of not getting anything brand new from ground up or feelings similar to that. But on to the sculptures.

We learned a little bit about some that were originally in Greece, for example the main statue has Athena and some other scenes that was from a temple and then put on another temple here in Rome. Why did they steal it? I don't know but they must really like there culture, because when you think about it the Romans and the Greeks have many of the same characteristics, just Rome in my opinion made them a little more "stand out like"; making it there own. We then learned about some other statues there too. Another example would be the statue of this one man who was holding two heads, one of his grandpa and the other his dad that he would show around and brag about them at social gatherings or parties. When you think about it, we still do the same thing; yet we don't go around the house and find statues of heads of individuals who were important to our lives whether it be family or a good friend. We use pictures that are either developed or on our computers, smartphones, and /or tablets.

Severina at her presentation site

We were asked to find what was our favorite statue in the museum. For me, I really did not have a favorite one, but there were a lot of ones that I thought were interesting, like a man who looked like he was trying fight a snake, although the head and tail were gone on the snake but it looked cool to me. There was no inscription on it but I would like to find out more about it.

The daily life statue

The favorite statue that I mentioned at discussion was this one where it was called the Asian sarcophagus. It was just an image of a temple with half of peoples body's, the idea that intrigued me the most was that it was not really Mediterranean based for influence, it was a whole other continent and that shocked me to see them be going to another area like that for a sculpture. I don't think it was middle-eastern, but it could have been. Then there were two others that I though were pretty cool; the one where it showed a bunch of carpenters working, and then there was a scene with two people and then two bulls in a pasture setting.

Statue that I thought was cool

The statue with the other statue

Another cool statue

The main statue at the museum

Huge floor art that was amazing

Lunch.