On Thursday we had class and then we went to the Uffizi Art Gallery. To say the least it was a good time. The gallery is actually an office building that the Medici built once they took power and established a Duchy, that why no one else had a chance to gain power in the government without their approval. Anyhow it was one of the nicest office buildings that I have ever seen, taking up an entire block. Our tour guide was pretty good and she lead us to see things that were fitting to our class and our tastes. We started out in the Medieval times where she showed us the alter pieces and the difference over time of how man tries to express himself, beauty, and heaven. In the Medieval times faces are always flat, somewhat squarish, and always look bad. We tend to think of this that they just couldn't paint well, however as she explained to us that was not the case and in fact the idea was that because these scenes took place in Heaven they were supposed to be beautiful; so much so that we as humans could not comprehend it, hence why their paintings look funny to us. As time goes on however the point of paintings begin to shift to a more humanistic nature, which is central to the ideas of the Renaissance, placing humans as just as important as heavenly affairs. We noticed this as we continued as we saw paintings with mortals in them, more realistic saints and angles, and finally a painting that had no religious meaning to it, just a painting of people. It was all very interesting and we learned a lot. We also saw Botticelli's works like the Birth of Venus (which happens to be one of my favorites) as well as works by Raphael, and Michelangelo. Even though I like the works of Botticelli, my favorites of this trip so far are easily Bernini for sculpture and Raphael for painting. I feel both have no equal in the realism to their works, and that is what I like, and can relate to the best.
Friday, if i can remember we did not do that much as we were rather tired after a very busy week. Oh wait I remembered what we did, we went to Santa Croce which is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It also happens to hold the tombs of the most famous Florentiens in the world, such as Machiavelli, Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo. It was amazing to see so many famous dead people all in one place and it made it well worth the 5 euro to get in, even though there was restoration being done on the alter. For Saturday we had planed to meet a friend the next day for lunch and go exploring, however I somehow slept for a straight 12 hours, while having taken a 3 hour nap earlier in the day, so we missed that. We felt very bad, but at least we were not tired anymore. lol That leads to things on Saturday when we an English Mass at the Duomo with our Professor. We liked the mass but were slightly disappointed that 1) there was no music, at all 2) they seemed to have a contempt for the English language, like "why do I have to do this? there are better things to do then say mass in English". That was the feeling we got from the priest the entire mass. Anyhow it was still nice to have a English mass. After that we had a nice dinner with our professor under the Duomo. It was another nice night.
Finally things come to today, Sunday. We were going to go to mass again, this time for high mass with Latin, signing, other cool things, however somehow Brandon managed to lock himself in our bedroom and we couldn't get him out.... yep this happened. So it took us about 30 mins to get him out, even calling the landlord to try and get help. In the end Dylan figured it out and saved our friend from being stuck in our room with nothing to do (and by nothing to do i mean his computer, wireless internet, and a bathroom). lol So after that event we meet up with our professor again after mass and climbed the large tower next to the Duomo, which is only slightly less taller then the dome itself, and got a good view of the entire city and the valley it sits in. And that was our day.
Also random, happenings that have been going on around town. I think they are to celebrate the feast of St. John, which is this Friday, and he is the patron saint of the city so there will be fireworks!!!!! Anyhow, the other day we saw a parade of men in Renaissance military apparel marching down the street. It was pretty cool and we got lots of pictures. And last night, i stress the night part, there was a marathon through the city. So its been rather exciting around here as of late.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Facts Don't Matter, Truth Does
First things first, yes that title makes sense. Ok now on to other things
Lets see....This week has been super busy, hence why i have not been keeping up with my posting. Just about every single day we have a class or lecture in the morning, then another class, lecture, or trip somewhere in the city in the afternoon. That coupled with the long walk to and from our apartment after every event keeps me pretty well beat. So what has happened since I have gotten here.
Well first of all, the weather is pretty much the same as in Rome. Instead of 75 and sunny everyday it is about 85 and sunny. There has been no rain as of yet, at least that i can remember, and the morning tend to be cooler then in Rome but it heats up later in the day.
On Tuesday we had our first class on Machiavelli in the morning, which was utterly amazing. We discussed his ideas of Virtue, a new style of Republic, and human nature, all of which I find fascinating. After class we headed back to our apartment and found our nearest supermarket so we could buy some food. After relaxing for the next 45mins we walked the 30mins back to the Accent building and had a lecture about the history of Florence. It turned more into a lecture about the art history of Florence, which was actually ok because i have gathered a growing interest in art because of the this trip, and I know next to nothing. Thanks to the lecture i learned a lot about the different styles of renaissance art, and also learned that almost all of Florence's famous landmarks are actually Medieval in nature instead of renaissance.
The next day was tons of fun. We went to the Medici chapel in the morning which is the private chapel that the family built on the back of the church that they had built with their own money. The church is called San Lorenzo which is a patron saint of the family. We had the same guy who gave us the lecture the day before give us a tour and he was great and knew so much! The biggest thing that we learned is about a stone called Porphyry. It almost like a purple marble, except its much harder and very rare. (how rare and hard is it?) well its so hard that if you try to chisel it, the chisel will break. Its so rare that it doesnt exist anymore in nature, so its worth more than gold. Almost all of it was mined in Egypt under the Romans, and all of it now is recycled from Roman ruins. Because of the rarity it was known as the Imperial stone and related to royalty, and the Medici tombs where covered in it. It was all over the place! so that just speaks to how much wealth that they had. There was also another room and tomb designed by Michelangelo. And we learned the story of how the Medici rose to power and its a very godfather-esq story, which made it even better! After that we had class later in the day, after which the day got even better. After class it was 5 and me and my friends were hungry as was our professor, however a place that was recommended to us was not open till 7 so instead we bought some drinks and went back to our professor's apartment and talked in his garden (yes his apartment has a garden! its really nice!!). So we talked for about 2 hours and then went to eat. The place was very Italian and fancy and we had to ask what everything on the menu was. Brandon ended up getting ravioli with octopus with it. FANCY! We talked about our majors, things that interested us, and other random things. We stayed there till 11. yep we spent 6 hours with our professor and had a blast.
Ugh I cant blog anymore right now. I'll post the rest tomorrow.
Lets see....This week has been super busy, hence why i have not been keeping up with my posting. Just about every single day we have a class or lecture in the morning, then another class, lecture, or trip somewhere in the city in the afternoon. That coupled with the long walk to and from our apartment after every event keeps me pretty well beat. So what has happened since I have gotten here.
Well first of all, the weather is pretty much the same as in Rome. Instead of 75 and sunny everyday it is about 85 and sunny. There has been no rain as of yet, at least that i can remember, and the morning tend to be cooler then in Rome but it heats up later in the day.
On Tuesday we had our first class on Machiavelli in the morning, which was utterly amazing. We discussed his ideas of Virtue, a new style of Republic, and human nature, all of which I find fascinating. After class we headed back to our apartment and found our nearest supermarket so we could buy some food. After relaxing for the next 45mins we walked the 30mins back to the Accent building and had a lecture about the history of Florence. It turned more into a lecture about the art history of Florence, which was actually ok because i have gathered a growing interest in art because of the this trip, and I know next to nothing. Thanks to the lecture i learned a lot about the different styles of renaissance art, and also learned that almost all of Florence's famous landmarks are actually Medieval in nature instead of renaissance.
The next day was tons of fun. We went to the Medici chapel in the morning which is the private chapel that the family built on the back of the church that they had built with their own money. The church is called San Lorenzo which is a patron saint of the family. We had the same guy who gave us the lecture the day before give us a tour and he was great and knew so much! The biggest thing that we learned is about a stone called Porphyry. It almost like a purple marble, except its much harder and very rare. (how rare and hard is it?) well its so hard that if you try to chisel it, the chisel will break. Its so rare that it doesnt exist anymore in nature, so its worth more than gold. Almost all of it was mined in Egypt under the Romans, and all of it now is recycled from Roman ruins. Because of the rarity it was known as the Imperial stone and related to royalty, and the Medici tombs where covered in it. It was all over the place! so that just speaks to how much wealth that they had. There was also another room and tomb designed by Michelangelo. And we learned the story of how the Medici rose to power and its a very godfather-esq story, which made it even better! After that we had class later in the day, after which the day got even better. After class it was 5 and me and my friends were hungry as was our professor, however a place that was recommended to us was not open till 7 so instead we bought some drinks and went back to our professor's apartment and talked in his garden (yes his apartment has a garden! its really nice!!). So we talked for about 2 hours and then went to eat. The place was very Italian and fancy and we had to ask what everything on the menu was. Brandon ended up getting ravioli with octopus with it. FANCY! We talked about our majors, things that interested us, and other random things. We stayed there till 11. yep we spent 6 hours with our professor and had a blast.
Ugh I cant blog anymore right now. I'll post the rest tomorrow.
Monday, June 13, 2011
GTL
ok so its been awhile i know and im sorry. So lots to go over. Ok not too much happened in the last few days of Rome, at least worth writing whole paragraphs about. On thrusday we went back to the forum and went to the Palatine Hill which has a bunch of ruins on it. We actually got to explore a descent amount of everything this time around instead of being driven around by a tour guide. This time we also knew what we wanted to see so it was a lot easier to go see everything. On friday we had planned to go to some cool churches however we were all rather beat so we siestaed instead.
The fun part of friday was our end of Rome dinner and party. We planned a dinner for the entire group at a very nice restaurant downtown, with a 3 course meal, wine, and the works. I had probably the best lasagna that I have ever laid eyes upon, and had a couple of glasses of the house wine, which was also excellent. After we ate we went for a group picture in front of the Vatican at night. Always fun to have a bunch of political theory majors in such a spiritual place. Oh, our other professor for the trip had just arrived that morning in Rome, and met us for dinner and then joined us for our picture, which added to the fun, as he is one of the most colorful teachers i have had in my career as a student. After the picture, we did some things, at a bar....you get the picture, but it was aptly named the drunken scholar (also fitting because professor petrie joined us for drinks there).
Saturday was amazing as well, as a couple of my friends and I went to the Vatican Museums with Professor Petrie to give him the grand tour. I must say, it is hard to come up with a better time than that. Professor Petrie hates crowds, and he mostly just wanted to see the Sistine chapel, so accordingly he blasted through most of the rooms, stopping occasionally if we mentioned a piece, or to look at a nice window view. Yes he stopped for the window views in the Vatican Museums and not most of the art. It made our day, as his remarks are also incredibly witty, much to our enjoyment. Afterwards we had lunch and chatted about the upcoming class, the parts of the program he missed, and philosophy. It was a great time.
On Sunday we didnt do much, but pack, and clean the room to get ready to leave for Florence, which we were all pumped for. We got up at 630, and where at the train station at 715 ready to go on Monday, which is today. AHHHH!!!!! So, train ride, it was really fast and took only about 1 hour and 30 mins, I thought that was pretty good time. We got to the place, met the Accent people who got us Taxis to our apartments. We quickly learned a few things. 1)We were in Florence! 2)our apartments are very nice, and bigger then in Rome (or at least look bigger) and 3)We have internet!
We dropped our stuff explored our apartments for a bit and then went to meet up for a tour of the city, which started at the steps of the Duomo, which you may say where is that, but in Florence all you have to do is look up and you found it, that's how big it is. Spending about 15 mins walking in the city I have basically decided that I love this place! Its SOOO amazing!!! Its smaller then Rome, and more compact, there are less people, it is quieter, its cleaner, and its just so nice to explore. After our little walk we took another walk to show us around the major points of the city, including the accent center where we will be having class. AHHH just so much over load and its almost time to go eat, so i shall blog more later.
One last thing though, on our way back from the tour, we saw Pauly D from Jersey Shore. I could not stop laughing. I think im going to like this place....
The fun part of friday was our end of Rome dinner and party. We planned a dinner for the entire group at a very nice restaurant downtown, with a 3 course meal, wine, and the works. I had probably the best lasagna that I have ever laid eyes upon, and had a couple of glasses of the house wine, which was also excellent. After we ate we went for a group picture in front of the Vatican at night. Always fun to have a bunch of political theory majors in such a spiritual place. Oh, our other professor for the trip had just arrived that morning in Rome, and met us for dinner and then joined us for our picture, which added to the fun, as he is one of the most colorful teachers i have had in my career as a student. After the picture, we did some things, at a bar....you get the picture, but it was aptly named the drunken scholar (also fitting because professor petrie joined us for drinks there).
Saturday was amazing as well, as a couple of my friends and I went to the Vatican Museums with Professor Petrie to give him the grand tour. I must say, it is hard to come up with a better time than that. Professor Petrie hates crowds, and he mostly just wanted to see the Sistine chapel, so accordingly he blasted through most of the rooms, stopping occasionally if we mentioned a piece, or to look at a nice window view. Yes he stopped for the window views in the Vatican Museums and not most of the art. It made our day, as his remarks are also incredibly witty, much to our enjoyment. Afterwards we had lunch and chatted about the upcoming class, the parts of the program he missed, and philosophy. It was a great time.
On Sunday we didnt do much, but pack, and clean the room to get ready to leave for Florence, which we were all pumped for. We got up at 630, and where at the train station at 715 ready to go on Monday, which is today. AHHHH!!!!! So, train ride, it was really fast and took only about 1 hour and 30 mins, I thought that was pretty good time. We got to the place, met the Accent people who got us Taxis to our apartments. We quickly learned a few things. 1)We were in Florence! 2)our apartments are very nice, and bigger then in Rome (or at least look bigger) and 3)We have internet!
We dropped our stuff explored our apartments for a bit and then went to meet up for a tour of the city, which started at the steps of the Duomo, which you may say where is that, but in Florence all you have to do is look up and you found it, that's how big it is. Spending about 15 mins walking in the city I have basically decided that I love this place! Its SOOO amazing!!! Its smaller then Rome, and more compact, there are less people, it is quieter, its cleaner, and its just so nice to explore. After our little walk we took another walk to show us around the major points of the city, including the accent center where we will be having class. AHHH just so much over load and its almost time to go eat, so i shall blog more later.
One last thing though, on our way back from the tour, we saw Pauly D from Jersey Shore. I could not stop laughing. I think im going to like this place....
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Pigeon Lord
The days are starting to blur together as we move close to the end of our time in Rome. It is hard to imagine that after all of this amazing time, it has only been 3 weeks, and we still have another 3 weeks to go and then a week in France. If the next 3 weeks are the same as the past 3 weeks, I'm not sure if my senses can take it. This has very easily been one of the best times in my life, and to say that it is yet to be doubled is beyond comprehension. Lets hope my poor mind can handle it!
Anyhow since the last time that I blogged, we have done a few things. On Monday a couple of my friends and I went to the Castle Sant' Angelo, and a couple other spots we wanted to see before we left Rome. The Castle is actually built on top of what was Hadrian's tomb from Ancient Rome. The Pope's during the Middle Ages decided that they needed to build a fortress to defend against their enemies (how many religions have to build fortresses to defend against their temporal enemies?). Since it was also made for the popes to live in, it is rather lavish on the inside and they also have a rather large collection of art and military pieces because of the fortress's ability to store things. The view was also very nice from the top of the castle however it was no Vatican or Victor Emmanuel. All things consider it was nice and worth it to go to, allowing to see how Rome has history on top of history.
After that stop we found a pretty cool outdoor market where we did a bit of shopping for friends, family, and even ourselves. After looking through all the cool things we moved on past the Supreme Court of Italy which we took plenty of pictures of. We really couldn't go in or anything, so we just took pictures of the front of it. On our way we then crossed back over the Tiber and went to Mausoleum of Augustus. This was built to house the remains of the first emperor of Rome, who was also the most successful politician in history. While this was really cool to see, it was rather run down, and it is closed to the public because so many people try taking things from it. It was still very cool to see something that has stood as long as Christianity, and something so important. After we took some quick pictures of the Mausoleum, we went to the Alter of Augustan Peace which was right next to the mausoleum. It cost money, which it really wasnt worth that much to go see, but again it was cool to see something that old, important, and relatively in good shape. Oh yes it slipped my mind but the alter was made by the Senate to commemorate the peace that came after the civil wars that was won by Augustus.
After the Alter we went to the Piazza del Popolo, which was really nice, and very large. It was also very nice because the church that is on the Piazza was in Angels and Demons as one of the Alters of Science. So that was very cool. It was a very nice small church, with some very nice art, including lots of skeletons. It even had some Bernini works, and had two of the most famous Caravaggio paintings in existence; The Conversion of Saul, and the Crucifiction of Peter. Those were worth the trip to see. That was it for that day.
Today we went to the Ancient port city of Rome, Ostia Antica. This was a lot like going to Pompeii except it was slightly smaller, had less tourists, and was more well preserved due to not being under a volcano. We went to see pretty much all of the important places in the city, as our tour guide was an amazingly intelligent human being (he got his PhD from Stanford in Classics) who knew just about everything there was to know. He took us to the burial tombs of the city, the fireman's barracks, the city gym, the forum, a bar, and the public baths, all were very cool to see in such a preserved state. After climbing around the ruins for a couple hours with him most of the group went off to go to the beach, however myself and some others went back to siesta and get food. It was a good day all told, and I got my first sunburn on this trip. Yet I'm already tan enough where i cant even really feel it, and I have no idea how I lasted 2 weeks without burning here, its a miracle you ask me. Anyhow have to get off to class so I will post later today after we tromp around the forum again.
Anyhow since the last time that I blogged, we have done a few things. On Monday a couple of my friends and I went to the Castle Sant' Angelo, and a couple other spots we wanted to see before we left Rome. The Castle is actually built on top of what was Hadrian's tomb from Ancient Rome. The Pope's during the Middle Ages decided that they needed to build a fortress to defend against their enemies (how many religions have to build fortresses to defend against their temporal enemies?). Since it was also made for the popes to live in, it is rather lavish on the inside and they also have a rather large collection of art and military pieces because of the fortress's ability to store things. The view was also very nice from the top of the castle however it was no Vatican or Victor Emmanuel. All things consider it was nice and worth it to go to, allowing to see how Rome has history on top of history.
After that stop we found a pretty cool outdoor market where we did a bit of shopping for friends, family, and even ourselves. After looking through all the cool things we moved on past the Supreme Court of Italy which we took plenty of pictures of. We really couldn't go in or anything, so we just took pictures of the front of it. On our way we then crossed back over the Tiber and went to Mausoleum of Augustus. This was built to house the remains of the first emperor of Rome, who was also the most successful politician in history. While this was really cool to see, it was rather run down, and it is closed to the public because so many people try taking things from it. It was still very cool to see something that has stood as long as Christianity, and something so important. After we took some quick pictures of the Mausoleum, we went to the Alter of Augustan Peace which was right next to the mausoleum. It cost money, which it really wasnt worth that much to go see, but again it was cool to see something that old, important, and relatively in good shape. Oh yes it slipped my mind but the alter was made by the Senate to commemorate the peace that came after the civil wars that was won by Augustus.
After the Alter we went to the Piazza del Popolo, which was really nice, and very large. It was also very nice because the church that is on the Piazza was in Angels and Demons as one of the Alters of Science. So that was very cool. It was a very nice small church, with some very nice art, including lots of skeletons. It even had some Bernini works, and had two of the most famous Caravaggio paintings in existence; The Conversion of Saul, and the Crucifiction of Peter. Those were worth the trip to see. That was it for that day.
Today we went to the Ancient port city of Rome, Ostia Antica. This was a lot like going to Pompeii except it was slightly smaller, had less tourists, and was more well preserved due to not being under a volcano. We went to see pretty much all of the important places in the city, as our tour guide was an amazingly intelligent human being (he got his PhD from Stanford in Classics) who knew just about everything there was to know. He took us to the burial tombs of the city, the fireman's barracks, the city gym, the forum, a bar, and the public baths, all were very cool to see in such a preserved state. After climbing around the ruins for a couple hours with him most of the group went off to go to the beach, however myself and some others went back to siesta and get food. It was a good day all told, and I got my first sunburn on this trip. Yet I'm already tan enough where i cant even really feel it, and I have no idea how I lasted 2 weeks without burning here, its a miracle you ask me. Anyhow have to get off to class so I will post later today after we tromp around the forum again.
Monday, June 6, 2011
This Place about to Blow
So a long time has pasted since my last post, mostly because i have been elsewhere and not around my computer to blog, so i apologize. Anyhow lets see where i left off.
We went to the Vatican again on friday after our class. We had all pretty much been there at least once before but this time i was ready to take soooo many pictures it wasnt even funny. We got there and it was just as magical and awe inspiring as the first time. This time though i was ready with my camera taking pictures of just about every piece of art (which is pretty much every inch) in the Basilica. after having sat through mass, i was able to take in most of the wonders of the place, so this time around i went straight to the things i wanted to see better. For example i got pictures of most of the Pope's tombs, so of Bernini's works, the alters, and got to rub St. Peter's feet for good luck! A interesting fact that i had not known before was most of the huge "paintings" in the basilica are actually all mosaics. This realization was huge, because just the amount of effort and detail that needed to go into that whole place to make that much art is just mind boggling. The entire dome is all mosaic as well, every singe piece, all about the size of a small pebble.
So after taking gratuitous amounts of pictures, we decided to climb the stairs of the dome and go to the top of the Basilica. It was 5 euro to walk, so we decided to go with it. We made it to the inner top portion of the dome, so we could see everything from above on the inside. It was EPIC! The middle alter, which is made of bronze and is also a work by Bernini, is 7 stories high, yes 7 STORIES HIGH, and it doesn't even come close to the same level as the dome we were at. The lettering around the inside of the Basilica that is the dedication of the church, once you get up that high, you realized every single letter is about the same size as you, thats how big this place is.
After marveling about the inside we decided to go to the very top and see the city from there. This was a very interesting trip. at this point the dome is beginning to slope up very rapidly, so you are walking between the inside mosaics, and the exterior dome. At some points we were walking up stairs that where bending around the dome, with the outer wall basicly at a 45 degree angle with us, so we had to lean against the inner wall just to walk up. It was also very hot, and muggy, and smelled of thousands of other peoples sweat from the last few years. It was fun to say the least. Once we got to the top though it was all so worth it! The Vatican we soon found out is the highest point in the city; there is no higher building, not even the Victor Emmanuel monument. we looked down on everything in the city, and we could see everything. It was the best view i have every seen. worth every stair and every last penny of that 5 euros. After the Vatican we went home, packed, and then got ready to head to Naples in the morning.
We got up early. Too early for my taste, but we went to Naples so its ok i guess. We took the train which was very easy. It took about 2 hours to get there and we got to see some very nice mountains and parts of the sea when we got closer to Naples. the only problem we had on the train was we picked seats early, but somehow we found the one first class car in the middle of about 5 2nd class cars, and we had 2nd class tickets. So we had to move and find seats again in a 2nd class car, which wasnt too hard. we had fun on the way, mostly we slept and just kinda chilled. Anyhow we got to Naples. WE WERE IN NAPLES! actually i felt it was kind of a huge let down. While the city was much more lived in then Rome, which is mostly a tourist city, Naples was.....well more lived in. The only real way I can describe it as, and some of my friends came to the same conclusion, was that it reminded us a lot of Detroit. It was dirty, lots of graffiti everywhere. Things looked like they had been grand at one point, but it all looked like it had moved past its heyday. But i still did enjoy the city very much. Anyhow we went to our hostel checked in, had a good 30 mins discussion with the guy at the desk about American politics, and then we got on a train for Pompeii.
Pompeii. We quickly decided that the appropriate theme song for the city is "Blow" by Ke$ha, as it was stuck in Brandon's head and was very fitting for the city we felt. The only thing was is that he kept singing it and we felt that was temping the mountain which was looming in the background. Anyhow, the great thing about pompeii is that it is a fully preserved Roman city. the key word there being CITY. when you think of pompeii i always thought of just a city square that somehow withstood time, however instead the entire city is still pretty much preserved just the way it was. it was a good mile by mile and it even had a whole preserved ampatheater and theater. It was just so amazing and so very BIG!
after that adventure we found our way to our hostel and then slept like the dead. the next morning it was the first rainy day that we have had since we got to Italy. but it wasnt bad. we ate some Naples pizza, the best pizza i have ever had, untill the rain was just a drizzle. we then saw the Royal palace of the Naples Kings, and saw some of the nice courtyards and castles of the city, but because it was sunday and we were in Italy, nothing was open. :( We however got lucky with the Doumu in Naples which was open. While it was no Vatican, it is not a second rate church, it was just as nice and almost nicer in the aspect that it actually felt like it was supposed to be used as a church instead of as a showpiece. While there I donated some money to the patron saint of the city, whose bones where buried there, St. Januarius. While there in the very nice sactuary that they had i light a prayer candle for my grandfather, who i am very sure is happy with being remember in that place. :)
After that we found an earlier train back to Rome which took about 3 hours, and was much more crowded. we were lucky to find seat when we did, because there where people that stood for the entire 3 hours. Anyhow im sure i have forgot things, but there was so much to get out ill edit things tomorrow. bye for now
We went to the Vatican again on friday after our class. We had all pretty much been there at least once before but this time i was ready to take soooo many pictures it wasnt even funny. We got there and it was just as magical and awe inspiring as the first time. This time though i was ready with my camera taking pictures of just about every piece of art (which is pretty much every inch) in the Basilica. after having sat through mass, i was able to take in most of the wonders of the place, so this time around i went straight to the things i wanted to see better. For example i got pictures of most of the Pope's tombs, so of Bernini's works, the alters, and got to rub St. Peter's feet for good luck! A interesting fact that i had not known before was most of the huge "paintings" in the basilica are actually all mosaics. This realization was huge, because just the amount of effort and detail that needed to go into that whole place to make that much art is just mind boggling. The entire dome is all mosaic as well, every singe piece, all about the size of a small pebble.
So after taking gratuitous amounts of pictures, we decided to climb the stairs of the dome and go to the top of the Basilica. It was 5 euro to walk, so we decided to go with it. We made it to the inner top portion of the dome, so we could see everything from above on the inside. It was EPIC! The middle alter, which is made of bronze and is also a work by Bernini, is 7 stories high, yes 7 STORIES HIGH, and it doesn't even come close to the same level as the dome we were at. The lettering around the inside of the Basilica that is the dedication of the church, once you get up that high, you realized every single letter is about the same size as you, thats how big this place is.
After marveling about the inside we decided to go to the very top and see the city from there. This was a very interesting trip. at this point the dome is beginning to slope up very rapidly, so you are walking between the inside mosaics, and the exterior dome. At some points we were walking up stairs that where bending around the dome, with the outer wall basicly at a 45 degree angle with us, so we had to lean against the inner wall just to walk up. It was also very hot, and muggy, and smelled of thousands of other peoples sweat from the last few years. It was fun to say the least. Once we got to the top though it was all so worth it! The Vatican we soon found out is the highest point in the city; there is no higher building, not even the Victor Emmanuel monument. we looked down on everything in the city, and we could see everything. It was the best view i have every seen. worth every stair and every last penny of that 5 euros. After the Vatican we went home, packed, and then got ready to head to Naples in the morning.
We got up early. Too early for my taste, but we went to Naples so its ok i guess. We took the train which was very easy. It took about 2 hours to get there and we got to see some very nice mountains and parts of the sea when we got closer to Naples. the only problem we had on the train was we picked seats early, but somehow we found the one first class car in the middle of about 5 2nd class cars, and we had 2nd class tickets. So we had to move and find seats again in a 2nd class car, which wasnt too hard. we had fun on the way, mostly we slept and just kinda chilled. Anyhow we got to Naples. WE WERE IN NAPLES! actually i felt it was kind of a huge let down. While the city was much more lived in then Rome, which is mostly a tourist city, Naples was.....well more lived in. The only real way I can describe it as, and some of my friends came to the same conclusion, was that it reminded us a lot of Detroit. It was dirty, lots of graffiti everywhere. Things looked like they had been grand at one point, but it all looked like it had moved past its heyday. But i still did enjoy the city very much. Anyhow we went to our hostel checked in, had a good 30 mins discussion with the guy at the desk about American politics, and then we got on a train for Pompeii.
Pompeii. We quickly decided that the appropriate theme song for the city is "Blow" by Ke$ha, as it was stuck in Brandon's head and was very fitting for the city we felt. The only thing was is that he kept singing it and we felt that was temping the mountain which was looming in the background. Anyhow, the great thing about pompeii is that it is a fully preserved Roman city. the key word there being CITY. when you think of pompeii i always thought of just a city square that somehow withstood time, however instead the entire city is still pretty much preserved just the way it was. it was a good mile by mile and it even had a whole preserved ampatheater and theater. It was just so amazing and so very BIG!
after that adventure we found our way to our hostel and then slept like the dead. the next morning it was the first rainy day that we have had since we got to Italy. but it wasnt bad. we ate some Naples pizza, the best pizza i have ever had, untill the rain was just a drizzle. we then saw the Royal palace of the Naples Kings, and saw some of the nice courtyards and castles of the city, but because it was sunday and we were in Italy, nothing was open. :( We however got lucky with the Doumu in Naples which was open. While it was no Vatican, it is not a second rate church, it was just as nice and almost nicer in the aspect that it actually felt like it was supposed to be used as a church instead of as a showpiece. While there I donated some money to the patron saint of the city, whose bones where buried there, St. Januarius. While there in the very nice sactuary that they had i light a prayer candle for my grandfather, who i am very sure is happy with being remember in that place. :)
After that we found an earlier train back to Rome which took about 3 hours, and was much more crowded. we were lucky to find seat when we did, because there where people that stood for the entire 3 hours. Anyhow im sure i have forgot things, but there was so much to get out ill edit things tomorrow. bye for now
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Happy Republic Day!
So today is Republic Day here in Italy, or the day that Italy decided to become a Republic instead of a Monarchy by a referendum vote. To say the least it was a pretty big deal. Normally the streets are busy and shops are bustling as we head to class at 8:30 in the morning. Today there were only a handful of cars on the streets and most of the public transportation was not running at full force. We were not able to go out and enjoy any of the parades or anything despite being let out of class an hour early because most of the festivities had actually ended by that time, but we were able to find a small cafe where they were showing a replay of the events. It was pretty much a full blown military parade, with just about every imaginable branch of the Italian military present. I'm not kidding either, they had their k9 units in the parade, boats from their coast guard on the back of trucks, and even some of their missiles and robotic drones. It was pretty cool, and the event ended with a flyover of 9 planes trailing smoke in the tricolors of the flag. Yay republicanism!
Anyhow the past couple days have been fun. 2 days ago now, we decided to go for a night trip just around the city to see what we could find. What we did find was a very cool little plaza tucked away in a neighborhood somewhere off the beaten path. We didn't stick around long as we wanted to head toward the Vatican and see it at night so we wondered back until we found the Tiber. The Tiber was beautiful that night for whatever reason, it was smooth enough to basically be a mirror of all the lights along its length which led to some cool pictures. We followed this wonderful mirror almost all the way across the city to the Vatican where we cut inland to find a wonderful view of the Basilica. We took loads and loads of pictures and went down into the plaza of st. peter with almost no one else there, so we had the place to ourselves. Actually thats not entirely true, we actually saw a limo on the way there just outside the Vatican that looked straight out of a Sweet 16 show on MTV. And lo and behold out jumped a bunch of teenage girls taking pictures and being stupid outside the Vatican. One was even wearing a tiara. *huge eye roll* After we had recovered from the stupidity of such an action we strolled around the square looking for things for Angles and Demons and taking pictures of the Basilica. Lastly on our way back we walked over to the Castle Sant Angelo where we crossed the bridge that is talked about in the Angles and Demons book again. It was really cool and had a bunch of statues of angles on it, making again for lots of cool pictures. After that we made our way home and slept forever.
After forever we got up and went on our class trip to the Gallery Borghese which is in the equivalent to the central park of Rome, which happened to be full of wonderful tidbits of art. I also learned that my favorite sculptor of all time is Bernini. They had some of his early work there and it utterly blew me away with the amount of emotion and detail he was able to put into his art. Just look at the face on his take of David.
The emotion there just blew me away. Anyhow they had some other really cool painting on the second floor, including one with a unicorn, but after this everything i felt was a little underwhelming. Overall I have gained new respect for art through this trip, which I am very happy about, so it was a good day.
Anyhow the past couple days have been fun. 2 days ago now, we decided to go for a night trip just around the city to see what we could find. What we did find was a very cool little plaza tucked away in a neighborhood somewhere off the beaten path. We didn't stick around long as we wanted to head toward the Vatican and see it at night so we wondered back until we found the Tiber. The Tiber was beautiful that night for whatever reason, it was smooth enough to basically be a mirror of all the lights along its length which led to some cool pictures. We followed this wonderful mirror almost all the way across the city to the Vatican where we cut inland to find a wonderful view of the Basilica. We took loads and loads of pictures and went down into the plaza of st. peter with almost no one else there, so we had the place to ourselves. Actually thats not entirely true, we actually saw a limo on the way there just outside the Vatican that looked straight out of a Sweet 16 show on MTV. And lo and behold out jumped a bunch of teenage girls taking pictures and being stupid outside the Vatican. One was even wearing a tiara. *huge eye roll* After we had recovered from the stupidity of such an action we strolled around the square looking for things for Angles and Demons and taking pictures of the Basilica. Lastly on our way back we walked over to the Castle Sant Angelo where we crossed the bridge that is talked about in the Angles and Demons book again. It was really cool and had a bunch of statues of angles on it, making again for lots of cool pictures. After that we made our way home and slept forever.
After forever we got up and went on our class trip to the Gallery Borghese which is in the equivalent to the central park of Rome, which happened to be full of wonderful tidbits of art. I also learned that my favorite sculptor of all time is Bernini. They had some of his early work there and it utterly blew me away with the amount of emotion and detail he was able to put into his art. Just look at the face on his take of David.
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| Bernini's David |
Oh! I also saw my first car accident, and it took 1 1/2 weeks. I'm actually surprised that it took that long seeing how crazy all Italians are while driving, but hey it was a cool cultural thing. And with that I must now finish my paper.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Jupiter Wants you!
To fight in the Roman army!........
but only kind of. I mean you can choose not to, and yell at the consuls when they call a levy and just don't answer when your name when it's called. You can get the tribunes to rouse the plebs so that way they dont want to fight. Even if you are in the army you could just loose on purpose if you dont like your leaders. So in other words, kinda do what you want.
That would be a Roman Republic war poster to enlist. Its amazing just how little cohesion there was in the Roman state at this point in time because its mind boggling that a state in such poor domestic shape can conquer the region and hold it. Anyhow this was more of a funny for my friends also reading livy.
Anyhow, IM GOING TO NAPOLI!!!!!!
we got tickets today, its going to be a blast!!
Besides that we havent been up to much. have a paper to write, and lots to read for class, and sleep to catch up on. It takes a lot out of you being in a foreign country. Anyhow there will be more about tomorrow for sure as we have another trip. Untill then.
but only kind of. I mean you can choose not to, and yell at the consuls when they call a levy and just don't answer when your name when it's called. You can get the tribunes to rouse the plebs so that way they dont want to fight. Even if you are in the army you could just loose on purpose if you dont like your leaders. So in other words, kinda do what you want.
That would be a Roman Republic war poster to enlist. Its amazing just how little cohesion there was in the Roman state at this point in time because its mind boggling that a state in such poor domestic shape can conquer the region and hold it. Anyhow this was more of a funny for my friends also reading livy.
Anyhow, IM GOING TO NAPOLI!!!!!!
we got tickets today, its going to be a blast!!
Besides that we havent been up to much. have a paper to write, and lots to read for class, and sleep to catch up on. It takes a lot out of you being in a foreign country. Anyhow there will be more about tomorrow for sure as we have another trip. Untill then.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
nbd
So this whole trip has been nbd (for my family that means No Big Deal). It has become the motto of our trip, every time that we do something that normally sounds epic to our normal American selves it is completely normal to our Roman selves. For example we went to the Forum today, nbd. So this has become our go to phrase to make ourselves realize just how amazing of a time we are really having, but nothing has compared to this weekend so far. Yesterday and today, I went to see the sights at the Vatican.
Being the good Catholic that I am, I was utterly awestruck by all of it, and felt a certain sense of pride for my religion's ability to create such beauty (granted that most of it came about because of corruption, thats besides the point :P). None the less after seeing such wonders it is impossible to say that religion does not have its good points, one of which being art.
On the first day myself and 2 other friends went to the Vatican Museums to see all of the art and the Sistine Chapel. We had gotten our tickets the day before on a slight whim, which turned out to be the best idea ever! We started out our tour going into a large courtyard, and we had no idea where to start, so we picked a random hallway. That hallway was a good 100 yards long and all throughout it there were literally hundreds of marble statue heads from the Roman and Greek era. We quickly realized that there was so much, and we had no idea what all of it was, but we were liking every second of it. we slowly worked our way down the hall to another wing of the Museum, where we found more complete statues from the Greek and Roman era. As our minds were being overwhelmed with not knowing what things where our friend David showed that he knew some about art from his art history class in high school. This came in handy the rest of the day as he was able to point out the really famous pieces and give us some background. This helped end some of our confusion, but the shear amount of art still left us breathless. We continued down this second hallway where we found the Augustus di Prina Porta, which is the most famous statue of Augustus in just about the world, and it is in pristine condition. And for our pictures the light was streaming down on his face just right making him look even more majestic then he was already.
OH! By the way, everyone told us you cant take pictures in the Vatican Museums. LIES!!!! ALL LIES!!!!! You can take pictures everywhere in the Museums except in the Sistine Chapel.
Back to the art. after finding this masterpiece we continued down the rest of the hallway finding other wonderful pieces of art, including gods, and other famous Romans, and there was even a famous one of the Nile River.
After finishing with this hallway we went back the way we came to be able to move to the next area of the tour. We came into a courtyard where we found a statue, that is very famous, made by greeks called
Laocoön. It is a statue of the guy who tried to tell the trojans not to fall for the Trojan horse being eaten by snakes (the gods really wanted the greeks to win). Anyhow the are of it was just fantastic. We moved on into another room, where honestly things just start to blur together, there was SO much art! We did find some very cool statues of gods and emperors, and other cool people, but none stick out in my mind enough to rant about them long enough to post it. At this point out minds are just being blown. We came down another hallway and it was full of tapestry from what looked like the middle ages, then after that came the map room which is filled on all sides with detailed maps of Italy and its cities. We even found a papal insignia made of cut marble, so not just a mosaic but cut marble, inlaid in the floor. It was even so detailed it had the tasseled rope connected the keys of the papacy inlaid as well.
Being the good Catholic that I am, I was utterly awestruck by all of it, and felt a certain sense of pride for my religion's ability to create such beauty (granted that most of it came about because of corruption, thats besides the point :P). None the less after seeing such wonders it is impossible to say that religion does not have its good points, one of which being art.
On the first day myself and 2 other friends went to the Vatican Museums to see all of the art and the Sistine Chapel. We had gotten our tickets the day before on a slight whim, which turned out to be the best idea ever! We started out our tour going into a large courtyard, and we had no idea where to start, so we picked a random hallway. That hallway was a good 100 yards long and all throughout it there were literally hundreds of marble statue heads from the Roman and Greek era. We quickly realized that there was so much, and we had no idea what all of it was, but we were liking every second of it. we slowly worked our way down the hall to another wing of the Museum, where we found more complete statues from the Greek and Roman era. As our minds were being overwhelmed with not knowing what things where our friend David showed that he knew some about art from his art history class in high school. This came in handy the rest of the day as he was able to point out the really famous pieces and give us some background. This helped end some of our confusion, but the shear amount of art still left us breathless. We continued down this second hallway where we found the Augustus di Prina Porta, which is the most famous statue of Augustus in just about the world, and it is in pristine condition. And for our pictures the light was streaming down on his face just right making him look even more majestic then he was already.
OH! By the way, everyone told us you cant take pictures in the Vatican Museums. LIES!!!! ALL LIES!!!!! You can take pictures everywhere in the Museums except in the Sistine Chapel.
Back to the art. after finding this masterpiece we continued down the rest of the hallway finding other wonderful pieces of art, including gods, and other famous Romans, and there was even a famous one of the Nile River.
After finishing with this hallway we went back the way we came to be able to move to the next area of the tour. We came into a courtyard where we found a statue, that is very famous, made by greeks called
Laocoön. It is a statue of the guy who tried to tell the trojans not to fall for the Trojan horse being eaten by snakes (the gods really wanted the greeks to win). Anyhow the are of it was just fantastic. We moved on into another room, where honestly things just start to blur together, there was SO much art! We did find some very cool statues of gods and emperors, and other cool people, but none stick out in my mind enough to rant about them long enough to post it. At this point out minds are just being blown. We came down another hallway and it was full of tapestry from what looked like the middle ages, then after that came the map room which is filled on all sides with detailed maps of Italy and its cities. We even found a papal insignia made of cut marble, so not just a mosaic but cut marble, inlaid in the floor. It was even so detailed it had the tasseled rope connected the keys of the papacy inlaid as well.
So yeah. then we hit the big boys. We entered into the Raphael rooms where it was not just pictures on the wall as we expected, but the walls themselves where the paintings. Take for example my favorite, the School of Athens, which i had thought was a painting, but no, its a whole wall! This went on for about 3 or 4 rooms, all with stunning detail and done so well it looked as if the painted figures where going to jump out of the wall and interact with us. After this there was only the contemporary art gallery before the Sistine Chapel, needless to say we walked very fast through and ignored that gallery, as compared to the others it was lack luster.
Then the gods descended down from the heavens in the room called the Sistine Chapel. I have heard people say numerous times that the chapel is smaller then you expect, full of tourists, and not that impressive. The only account that was right on was the amount of tourists. The room was huge! everywhere you looked it was just a giant piece of art. There were frescoes of popes around the edge and all looked so life-like that it was hard to see that they were not actually a statue in an alcove but a painting on a wall. It mesmerized the eyes. We were lucky enough to find so seats on the outside wall of the room and sat for a good ten minutes just trying to take it all in. That room alone was so beautiful and breathtaking that it made the 20 euro that we payed for tickets completely worth it. After we left the Sistine Chapel everything after that was just a shadow, competing even to be worthy of being considered to sit in the same museum as the Sistine Chapel. It was one of the highlights of my trip so far.
Ok long post but almost done.
Today we went to the actual Basilica. We wanted to try and see a mass but we were not sure when it would be or if there would be one, but we wanted to see the place anyhow so we were all very excited to be inside. You have to understand that I have wanted to go to St. Peter's Basilica for just about my entire life. The ultimate seat of authority for my religion in one building, is hard not to be considered moving. As we walked inside I just about burst with utter enthusiasm! However some of that was shattered when i soon realized that i had forgotten to put my memory card back into my camera after uploading photos last night. FAIL! but none the less it allowed me to focus on taking in the sights and then coming back another day to take pictures. The Basilica is also one of the most beautiful places i have ever been in. The Sistine Chapel is amazing, however it is small compared to the Basilica, and the Basilica is just a giant work of art in every aspect. There is not an inch of that building that some artist did not bleed his soul into. As we were walking around they began to herd us tourists away from a certain area, then we realized that it was because they were about to start mass. My friends and I quickly got seats and sat through mass at the Vatican! YAY LIFE! i mean it wasn't as great because it was all in Latin and we couldn't understand it but it was still very nice and we received communion.
Take that Dad! I went to mass, and at the Vatican! I also gave money during the offering! So you can no longer bother me about not going to mass until you go there and do the same! :P
Anyhow after mass we made our way outside with EVERYONE else. Everyone was just being dumb in a crowd, and it was pretty bad, but we stuck together and were working our way into the plaza when we quickly found out that the Pope normally comes out every Sunday at noon to address the crowd, guess what time it was! Pope Benny gave us a nice little blessing in about 5 different languages and we even managed to get a couple descent photos of him in his apartment. Lastly to make our day even better, we found some Swiss Guards and they let us take a picture with them. Like I said before nbd.
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Glory that is Rome
So I just got done making myself a wonderful lunch. I cooked up some chicken breast, which i had bought earlier in the week, which i then threw into a sauce that already has cheese in it. After that i cooked up some noddles and had some makeshift chicken parmesan. Joe 1 Cooking 0.
Yesterday we had a wonderful little class where you talked about the kings of Rome, and how good they were, until they got to the Tarquins, and then it was about how bad they were. Besides that class went by relatively fast at which point me and my friends went to what is called the "typewriter". It is actually the monument to Victor Emanuel II who was the King who united Italy in the late 1800s. Why they call it a typewriter i do not know, because i dont think it looks like one, it is also called the "wedding cake". I also dont see that. It just looks really big! Anyhow we went up to the top where you can see the entire city on all sides. It was rather wonderful seeing all that is Rome. You could see the Colosseum, which was rather close, the Forum, which was right next to the monument, and the Vatican off in the distance on the other side of the river.
Speaking of the Colosseum, I keep forgeting to post an interesting tid bit about it. They have just recently found out that instead of being built with public funds, which was the traditional thought, it was actually built with money from the sack of Jerusalem. Go figure.
Lastly after taking some very nice group pictures we all went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. Then today we had class and I just ate lunch. Yep not too much going on. Plan to go do some paperwork things that I need taking care of, and then traveling to the pantheon again? we shall see.
Yesterday we had a wonderful little class where you talked about the kings of Rome, and how good they were, until they got to the Tarquins, and then it was about how bad they were. Besides that class went by relatively fast at which point me and my friends went to what is called the "typewriter". It is actually the monument to Victor Emanuel II who was the King who united Italy in the late 1800s. Why they call it a typewriter i do not know, because i dont think it looks like one, it is also called the "wedding cake". I also dont see that. It just looks really big! Anyhow we went up to the top where you can see the entire city on all sides. It was rather wonderful seeing all that is Rome. You could see the Colosseum, which was rather close, the Forum, which was right next to the monument, and the Vatican off in the distance on the other side of the river.
Speaking of the Colosseum, I keep forgeting to post an interesting tid bit about it. They have just recently found out that instead of being built with public funds, which was the traditional thought, it was actually built with money from the sack of Jerusalem. Go figure.
Lastly after taking some very nice group pictures we all went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. Then today we had class and I just ate lunch. Yep not too much going on. Plan to go do some paperwork things that I need taking care of, and then traveling to the pantheon again? we shall see.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I Created Freedom!
So a few things that I forgot for my post yesterday in our "study" induced stupper. (no worries family, we were perfectly safe inside our own apartment just hanging out :P )
1) the bust of Brutus that I mentioned from the Museums. One of the coolest pieces of Roman art that I have seen. It was so very life like and the scowl on his face just seems to say "I created Freedom! What have you done with your life?!?" I enjoyed it a lot!
1) the bust of Brutus that I mentioned from the Museums. One of the coolest pieces of Roman art that I have seen. It was so very life like and the scowl on his face just seems to say "I created Freedom! What have you done with your life?!?" I enjoyed it a lot!
2) We also found the Senate house in the forum, which i mentioned before, but it was rather awesome the scope of it. Even though it was small, this was where the Senate sat and decided matters of state. Also a little known fact but Caesar actually rebuilt the Senate house, which is the one we went in, moving it slightly and having it so the doors of the Senate house opened into his forum that he had built for the city. Impressive if you ask me. lastly it was so small that all the Senators could not fit into it, and actually most had to wait outside building during a meeting. good little tid bits there.
3) look back at the picture of Brutus and think about your life....
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
A Big Pile of Rocks, They MUST be Important!
At least in Rome. It seems that every pile of rocks or ruins has history on top of its history. We went on a class trip to the Capitoline Museums, and the ruins of the Roman ruin. We started the trip at the museum which we quickly found out was built upon the ruins of the ancient temple of Jupiter by the orders of the pope. It was built on top of the ruins and also around the old Senate building from the medieval age, and even directs your eyes toward the Vatican. Talk about trying to break from your ancient ties. So in the process of all of this building Rome has just become a giant pile of history. We even found a building that’s side was ancient and the rest of the building was from the 1600s. This just makes it so much fun to explore!!
So anyhow the trip to the museum was amazing! There was SO much Roman art that it was just piled up around the different rooms. There were busts of every single Roman Emperor, a bust of the first Brutus, a list of every single consul of Rome, the She-Wolf statue, it goes on and on. There was a statue of Marcus Arrelius, which was the only full equestrian statue left from the Roman era, and tons of statues of Constantine, Hadrian, and so many gods. Idk even how to describe it, there were just so many. See some of the pics below.
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| Marcus |
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| She-Wolf |
After we went to the museums we went to the coliseum, which was loads of fun, because our tour guide knew so much about the topic. We also got a tour with some of the headphones over walkie talkies so we all looked like secret agents walking around the coliseum. We walked around the different levels, debating how the floor was flooded for sea battles, and how the seating was arranged for the different classes. There is the is the saying that the entire coliseum could be emptied in 15 mins, our tour guide told us “that is totally not true. No one in Roman gave a damn about the plebs.” So great! So after we walked the different levels and found out about the structure of the building, we also learned that most gladiator fights did were not actually fatal, and in fact a thumbs up was for a kill, and thumbs down to live. Then we moved on to the Forum.
There we found all the different temples in various states of disrepair, as well as the senate house and the funeral sight for Julius Caesar. All the temples were pretty much the same, so there is not much to say about them, however the Senate building was actually very small but very well built. We also found out that the Senate had multiple places that it could meet, and the one in the Forum being only one of the places they could meet. This means that Caesar was actually killed elsewhere, and in fact, ironically, he was killed in the theater of Pompey. To make up for it however like I said before his funeral sight was located in the forum, where Mark Athony gave his famous speech and the plebs of the city burned down the Senate house in response.
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| Funeral pyre of Caesar |
Much later we tried to go to the movies to see the Hangover 2 but we found out it was only in Italian. We got gelato and wine instead and decided to blog and read livy together. A good choice! That is what we are doing now, and with that I leave you all for now.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Fragelay, It must be Italian!
Well yesterday was supposed to be a boring day of orientation and learning to speak Italian. At least it started that way. Orientation went well, not much to tell there. We were told not to get kidnapped, raped, pick pocketed, or be stupid Americans who get lost on the buses. We learned all of these wonderful tips (some actually where very helpful. Accent knows their shit!) and then we had a 3 hour break for grocery shopping and eating! SO MUCH FUN! After we had our Italian class to help us not be so touristy. However this failed epicly as the teacher took us to get gelato after the class to test our skills. So in summery we got ice cream, without learning anything. Bene!
So after this we were planning on just going back to our apartment, however with a sper of the moment desicsion (and by that i mean we planned it just before the Italian class) we had a crazy adventure. We did this
All of foot. It took us a good 5 hours to complete. We saw the Piazza Navona first which is a really nice long plaza with some huge fountains up and down its length, as well as flanked by a beautiful church (along with every other plaza in Rome). After the Piazza we found our way to the Pantheon. First word that comes to mind to describe it is "OLD", the second being "HUGE". This is by far one of my favorite places that we have been to so far. Not only was it built by the romans and still standing, it was also converted into a beautiful church on the inside. It was absolutely stunning. It also contained the graves of Victor Emmanuel II who was the King that united Italy, and Raphael the artist. It was a great experience.
After our Pantheon stop we hit the Trevi Fountain. For that one stop the first word that comes to mind is "OMG TOURISTS!" While the fountain is so beautiful and a nice place to be, there are just so many tourists around it that it takes a little bit away from the beauty. Despite this it was still great. All of my friends and I threw coins in so that way we can be promised to return to Rome sometime in the future, or so they say. We took plenty of pictures there as well, and even stole some water for one of the fountains on the side.
Lastly we came upon the Spanish steps, which was the goal of our excursion in the first place. While the steps where also very beautiful and I did enjoy them, they may have been my least favorite of our stops, however this may have been because I was just about exhausted and dead. I do plan to go back there though and appreciate the steps more throughly. As we walked up the steps we made it down a road a ways talking a quick walk along the huge park in Rome, the Villa Borghese. as it was later we only stayed for about 5 mins before heading back to find a place to eat. We found a very quaint place, where we were put in the basement almost by ourselves (it was still very nice). We shared some pizzas and water and were off back to our apartment. the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful besides a quick stop to the Trevi Fountain once again to see it after dark. We also bottled some of the water to take back with us. All a good time. As we got back I died until class this morning, but i wont bore any of you with those details.
So after this we were planning on just going back to our apartment, however with a sper of the moment desicsion (and by that i mean we planned it just before the Italian class) we had a crazy adventure. We did this
After our Pantheon stop we hit the Trevi Fountain. For that one stop the first word that comes to mind is "OMG TOURISTS!" While the fountain is so beautiful and a nice place to be, there are just so many tourists around it that it takes a little bit away from the beauty. Despite this it was still great. All of my friends and I threw coins in so that way we can be promised to return to Rome sometime in the future, or so they say. We took plenty of pictures there as well, and even stole some water for one of the fountains on the side.
Lastly we came upon the Spanish steps, which was the goal of our excursion in the first place. While the steps where also very beautiful and I did enjoy them, they may have been my least favorite of our stops, however this may have been because I was just about exhausted and dead. I do plan to go back there though and appreciate the steps more throughly. As we walked up the steps we made it down a road a ways talking a quick walk along the huge park in Rome, the Villa Borghese. as it was later we only stayed for about 5 mins before heading back to find a place to eat. We found a very quaint place, where we were put in the basement almost by ourselves (it was still very nice). We shared some pizzas and water and were off back to our apartment. the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful besides a quick stop to the Trevi Fountain once again to see it after dark. We also bottled some of the water to take back with us. All a good time. As we got back I died until class this morning, but i wont bore any of you with those details.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
What would Caesar do?
So where did I leave off. Breakfast, yes that’s right. Ok so we were just about to go down to the market to go check it out and buy some really cheap Italian goods when…. We got a fb message from one of my friends from home saying that our last roommate to arrive was lost in Rome. Luckily just about after we got that message we found out that he had gotten a cab to take him to the correct location for our apartment. We found out, as Dylan stumbled in the door looking half dead, that he had spent two hours walking around Rome (because his cab driver had dropped him off in the complete opposite side of the city from where he was supposed to be. After about an hour of walking around and calling my phone, which was dead because I didn’t get it set up for international calls, he ended up calling the American embassy. Yes the American Embassy. The thing you go to when you’re in a foreign country and then there is a revolution or a riot. That’s how lost he was. Well thank the State Department because they gave him the number of the Accent people and they got him a cab to our apartment, which he arrived at safe and sound.
After we had all survived arriving in Italy we ventured down into the market to see the sights. It was rather wonderful. The market filled the entire street for a good 4 blocks, about 3 stalls deep, and all outside. There were so many things there, just about anything you could have wanted you could find. For example I found an Ethernet cord which now allows me to get the internet on my computer. YAY! And our oddest find was a confederate flag, yes the American kind. Besides that we found some fedoras, ties, lots of shirts, sunglasses and watches for 3 euro, and one of my friends got a purse for 5 euros. All the shop vendors were willing to haggle. It was very nice, and a good time.
After we ate a quick lunch of pasta, we decided to walk to the old parts of the city and try and find the ruins. It was a fairly straight shot to the place, we walked around the area alittle before we actually found the Colosseum but it was worth it. On our journey we found what was left of the Circus Maximus (the old Roman chariot race track) which is only a dirt path around a small raise in the ground. It was very sad to see something that used to be one of the greatest buildings in the world reduced to only to a park with some gravel to preserve where the track had been. None the less it was still very cool to see. After walking past that we found the Triumph Arch of Constantine which was huge, and for being almost two thousand years old, was still utterly breath taking in its stone work. Next to the arch was the Colesseum which was nice, but before going there we also wanted to see the Arch of Titus which was also in the area on the Palantine Hill (which is also full of ruins). As we reached the arch of Titus however it started to rain, and then storm. At this point we decided to turn back for the day.
As we were walking back however street venders somehow sensing that it was going to rain put on ponchos and began trying to sell umbrellas to the tourists. These people just came out of nowhere, and I mean they were all over the place. It was a fine example of capitalism at its finest and I must say I was very impressed by it. So by the time we had made it back to our apartment we were utterly soaked (except for david who had gotten an umbrella) and we just about collapsed. After this we had a meeting with our professor for our class as he described his plans for the next 3 weeks and then we went to dinner afterwards. I had my first Italian pizza which was very good, and not as different as I thought it was going to be from American pizza. For those of you wondering it had sauce, tomatoes, and spices on it. For dessert I had a tiramisu which was rather fantastic. And now I’m about to call it a night.
And with that, Goodnight world
Joe
To the Death? No, to the Pain!
So there are few words to describe the situation that I now am in. Some few that come to mind are awesome, crazy, and merp. Where to start this tail of only two days....
I guess the flight is not a bad start. Well first about that, IT IS NOT NATURAL FOR THERE TO BE A 4 HOUR NIGHT!!!!! When you see the sun set and rise again in about 4 hours your mind just cant comprehend it. And this is not like Alaska where this is normal and the sun just kinda sets; no this is where the sun goes all the way out and then the stars come out, then woops! sun again. Not cool for my internal clock. Besides that the 8 1/2 hour flight was not too bad. They had movies on demand for us and food (which was about as bad as caf food). In other words me and Brandon survived.
Next we got into the EU. That took about 2 seconds. We waited in a long line thinking that we are going to have to show our passports, tickets, a DNA sample and possibly sell our soul. Instead I go to hand the guy my passport and he just waves me through without even giving me a second glance. After we got out luggage the same thing happened for customs. there was a line for "yes i have something to claim" and "no i dont" there was no one checking the "no" line so anyone could just walk out. YAY boarder security !
Next come our taxi ride, of course me and brandon being the newfound tourists that were are, got fanagled into getting a taxi with the airport people for overprice and a sketch taxi. So we were almost convinced that we were going to get trafficked for a second, but alas our taxi driver was pretty cool (picture sterotypical Italian man: olive skin, crazy driver, and stopped to stare at every good looking women in sight). So he dropped us off in the square where we were supposed to be....However that didnt help us find the building. X( We then proceded to walk within a block radis trying to find anything that will help us. We asked Italians for help, some pointed us down the block, others sending us back the way we came. We even found the pantheon in our exploring! We finally found our building after asking a french person we found, go figure.
After all that we got a alittle speel from the Accent place and then took taxis to our apartments. We arrived and then got another speel about all the rules (basicly dont be an ass). We walked into our apartment and our jaws dropped, ITS HUGE!!!!! there are five of us in here and there is plenty of room. We were expecting like dorm style apartments but this is crazy! We have a kitchen, full bath, two different bedrooms, and a lounge, and each room has its own balcony!
So after we moved in and a few of our other spartans friends had arrived we all figured we needed food. We were all so shell shocked we walked around the store looking at all the different things saying "oh, we need this" look at it, dont decide what to get and move on to something else. We got enough for pasta and that was it. After we made a list.
At this point me and Brandon are dead on our feet off our 3ish hours of sleep. We try fighting the sleep to allow ourselves to better fit the time change. This lasted until untill a bunch of things went wrong. All the converter plugs we have are for WESTERN EUROPE not SOUTHER EUROPE. So we only have one charger that one of our roommates has. We still did not get phones at this point so cant call anyone back home. My computer is being dumb and wont pick up the internet in our apartment so i can only use brandon's computer (like i am now). And we hadnt found a good atm yet. At this point we just gave up and slept for 2 hours.
So it is now 5pm in Rome, and we wake up and our friends had made the pasta we had gotten. We ate that with a very good cheap wine that we had aslo picked up. WIN FOR EATING! After that we split up as a group. Our friends went to go buy the things on our shopping list while me and Brandon decided to try and walk and find the Accent building where our classes were to be, and then meet back up just after 8 to go for dinner to celebrate our first day in Roma.
Luckily the Accent building is not too hard to find (after you know where it is...) being on a plaza which happens to be right down the road from the Vatican. So Brandon and I took the main street by our apartment all the way down to the Tiber and followed that up all the way to the Vatican. It was a long walk but so nice and beautiful! It took us about an hour but our route kept us from getting lost. Once we got to the split point between Accent and the Vatican however, being the good Catholic that I am, I couldnt handle it and me and brandon (knowing the way to Accent for sure and how long it would take) walked down to St. Peter's square. There are not words for that place. It is just so majestic and the structure is just beautiful! But it was a good side trip as we found a good ATM and got us some Euros. We found our way back just in time for dinner.
We went to dinner at a nice place not too far from our apartments (this is about all the sophomores on the trip). It was very nice and fairly good priced as far as I could tell. I got a calzone with pruchette (sp?) and cheese, which just about killed my mouth it was so good, while a bunch of us shared a bottle of wine. After dinner and after we Madison majors were able to figured out the math of how much everyone owed for the meal we headed out to celebrate being in the city. we walked up and down our main street for awhile until we found the perfect place, which was a gelato place that also sold alcohol. College students dream! We all had a good time, not doing anything too stupid, while enjoying ourselves at the same time. Shorlty after we got back I passed out from the pure death that had been the day (no I had drank that much :P).
Now i sit in our kitchen listening to the outside market that is going on just outside our apartments today. After I get some food I'm going to check it out. Should be fun! :)
So as of right now my trip has been utterly crazy and very hard, but I am loving every minute of it!!!!! :D
Love you all of my friends, family, and girlfriend ;) back home!
Joe
P.S. Yes i know my titles dont make sense but i like them :P And yes pics will be coming soon!
I guess the flight is not a bad start. Well first about that, IT IS NOT NATURAL FOR THERE TO BE A 4 HOUR NIGHT!!!!! When you see the sun set and rise again in about 4 hours your mind just cant comprehend it. And this is not like Alaska where this is normal and the sun just kinda sets; no this is where the sun goes all the way out and then the stars come out, then woops! sun again. Not cool for my internal clock. Besides that the 8 1/2 hour flight was not too bad. They had movies on demand for us and food (which was about as bad as caf food). In other words me and Brandon survived.
Next we got into the EU. That took about 2 seconds. We waited in a long line thinking that we are going to have to show our passports, tickets, a DNA sample and possibly sell our soul. Instead I go to hand the guy my passport and he just waves me through without even giving me a second glance. After we got out luggage the same thing happened for customs. there was a line for "yes i have something to claim" and "no i dont" there was no one checking the "no" line so anyone could just walk out. YAY boarder security !
Next come our taxi ride, of course me and brandon being the newfound tourists that were are, got fanagled into getting a taxi with the airport people for overprice and a sketch taxi. So we were almost convinced that we were going to get trafficked for a second, but alas our taxi driver was pretty cool (picture sterotypical Italian man: olive skin, crazy driver, and stopped to stare at every good looking women in sight). So he dropped us off in the square where we were supposed to be....However that didnt help us find the building. X( We then proceded to walk within a block radis trying to find anything that will help us. We asked Italians for help, some pointed us down the block, others sending us back the way we came. We even found the pantheon in our exploring! We finally found our building after asking a french person we found, go figure.
After all that we got a alittle speel from the Accent place and then took taxis to our apartments. We arrived and then got another speel about all the rules (basicly dont be an ass). We walked into our apartment and our jaws dropped, ITS HUGE!!!!! there are five of us in here and there is plenty of room. We were expecting like dorm style apartments but this is crazy! We have a kitchen, full bath, two different bedrooms, and a lounge, and each room has its own balcony!
So after we moved in and a few of our other spartans friends had arrived we all figured we needed food. We were all so shell shocked we walked around the store looking at all the different things saying "oh, we need this" look at it, dont decide what to get and move on to something else. We got enough for pasta and that was it. After we made a list.
At this point me and Brandon are dead on our feet off our 3ish hours of sleep. We try fighting the sleep to allow ourselves to better fit the time change. This lasted until untill a bunch of things went wrong. All the converter plugs we have are for WESTERN EUROPE not SOUTHER EUROPE. So we only have one charger that one of our roommates has. We still did not get phones at this point so cant call anyone back home. My computer is being dumb and wont pick up the internet in our apartment so i can only use brandon's computer (like i am now). And we hadnt found a good atm yet. At this point we just gave up and slept for 2 hours.
So it is now 5pm in Rome, and we wake up and our friends had made the pasta we had gotten. We ate that with a very good cheap wine that we had aslo picked up. WIN FOR EATING! After that we split up as a group. Our friends went to go buy the things on our shopping list while me and Brandon decided to try and walk and find the Accent building where our classes were to be, and then meet back up just after 8 to go for dinner to celebrate our first day in Roma.
Luckily the Accent building is not too hard to find (after you know where it is...) being on a plaza which happens to be right down the road from the Vatican. So Brandon and I took the main street by our apartment all the way down to the Tiber and followed that up all the way to the Vatican. It was a long walk but so nice and beautiful! It took us about an hour but our route kept us from getting lost. Once we got to the split point between Accent and the Vatican however, being the good Catholic that I am, I couldnt handle it and me and brandon (knowing the way to Accent for sure and how long it would take) walked down to St. Peter's square. There are not words for that place. It is just so majestic and the structure is just beautiful! But it was a good side trip as we found a good ATM and got us some Euros. We found our way back just in time for dinner.
We went to dinner at a nice place not too far from our apartments (this is about all the sophomores on the trip). It was very nice and fairly good priced as far as I could tell. I got a calzone with pruchette (sp?) and cheese, which just about killed my mouth it was so good, while a bunch of us shared a bottle of wine. After dinner and after we Madison majors were able to figured out the math of how much everyone owed for the meal we headed out to celebrate being in the city. we walked up and down our main street for awhile until we found the perfect place, which was a gelato place that also sold alcohol. College students dream! We all had a good time, not doing anything too stupid, while enjoying ourselves at the same time. Shorlty after we got back I passed out from the pure death that had been the day (no I had drank that much :P).
Now i sit in our kitchen listening to the outside market that is going on just outside our apartments today. After I get some food I'm going to check it out. Should be fun! :)
So as of right now my trip has been utterly crazy and very hard, but I am loving every minute of it!!!!! :D
Love you all of my friends, family, and girlfriend ;) back home!
Joe
P.S. Yes i know my titles dont make sense but i like them :P And yes pics will be coming soon!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Staying Classy
So the last couple days have come with lots of things getting done and lots of things also going wrong. I have changed my wardrobe for Italy, hoping to make myself look less like the American that I am, and blend in with the Euros. I went to the bank a few days ago to gain some Euros as spending money for cab fair and food once we land (my dad promptly told me they looked like monopoly money, and not very good monopoly at that). I also figured out how I am going to deal with money in Italy (yay ATMs!). Lastly I also got all my books in the mail and I'm super excited to read just about all of them!
However with most of these things now figured out there was the bad news. First, my friend who I was supposed to meet in France after the Italy program is over is now not going to France for the summer. Now me and my friend have 5 days to do things in France with no agenda there. While there is the bonus of just traveling France and doing whatever, I will not be able to see my friend over the summer now. Also I may be able to see my other friend in Spain during this time, so I guess it equals out in the end. Second, the Detroit Red Wings, the best sports team in the history of forever lost in game 7 to the San Jose sharks last night, and I am still in morning as of today. :'( Horrible, horrible things.
Now I must focus on the most dreadful part of my pre-journey adventure...Packing. I shall let you all know if I survive this ordeal sometime in the near future. If you don't hear from me know that I thought highly of all of you, and remember me fondly!
However with most of these things now figured out there was the bad news. First, my friend who I was supposed to meet in France after the Italy program is over is now not going to France for the summer. Now me and my friend have 5 days to do things in France with no agenda there. While there is the bonus of just traveling France and doing whatever, I will not be able to see my friend over the summer now. Also I may be able to see my other friend in Spain during this time, so I guess it equals out in the end. Second, the Detroit Red Wings, the best sports team in the history of forever lost in game 7 to the San Jose sharks last night, and I am still in morning as of today. :'( Horrible, horrible things.
Now I must focus on the most dreadful part of my pre-journey adventure...Packing. I shall let you all know if I survive this ordeal sometime in the near future. If you don't hear from me know that I thought highly of all of you, and remember me fondly!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
All Roads Lead to Rome....
Or at least I hope so, otherwise I will be helplessly lost!
So this is my blog for my Italy trip with Michigan State University and James Madison College. We are going to be going to Rome and then Florence for a total of 6 weeks to study Republicanism throughout history. You might ask, does that have anything to do at all with any major that is relative to real life? The answer is probably no, but I like to think it is! As my major is Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy this would make some amount of sense for me to express this delusion. In my major we study the works of major philosophers throughout history and look at what they say is the ideal human society, and other major subjects on life (e.g. Justice, government, morality, etc). So with that in mind, it makes sense that I would think this applies to life.
Any how, more details on the trip. In Rome we will study THE Republic; that is the Roman Republic. It will be a blast to be able to actually learn about something so pivotal to our history, in the actual place where it happened; I'm looking forward to it! After that we shall take a pleasant 3 hour train ride through the beautiful landscape of Tuscany to the city of Florence. There we will compare the American Republic to the European Union, using Machiavelli's blueprint of a Republic as our point of reference. This part is essentially my dream class for a number of reasons. 1) I love the works of Machiavelli. 2) I like learning the intricacies of the EU. 3) We will be in Italy! Also for this part of my trip we will be visiting Machiavelli's farm where he spent the end of his life and wrote most of his works. SO STOKED!
So why do I think this applies to life in a practical way? Ummm, good question! I like to believe that studying the past will give us better clues about where we came from so we will be better able to understand where we are going.
So, yeah that's my major and trip in a nutshell. I hope to put more up soon. I shall try and share all of the craziness of getting ready for traveling abroad with all of you! And with that to try and get in the mindset of an ancient Roman
Pax, and may the Republic stand!
So this is my blog for my Italy trip with Michigan State University and James Madison College. We are going to be going to Rome and then Florence for a total of 6 weeks to study Republicanism throughout history. You might ask, does that have anything to do at all with any major that is relative to real life? The answer is probably no, but I like to think it is! As my major is Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy this would make some amount of sense for me to express this delusion. In my major we study the works of major philosophers throughout history and look at what they say is the ideal human society, and other major subjects on life (e.g. Justice, government, morality, etc). So with that in mind, it makes sense that I would think this applies to life.
Any how, more details on the trip. In Rome we will study THE Republic; that is the Roman Republic. It will be a blast to be able to actually learn about something so pivotal to our history, in the actual place where it happened; I'm looking forward to it! After that we shall take a pleasant 3 hour train ride through the beautiful landscape of Tuscany to the city of Florence. There we will compare the American Republic to the European Union, using Machiavelli's blueprint of a Republic as our point of reference. This part is essentially my dream class for a number of reasons. 1) I love the works of Machiavelli. 2) I like learning the intricacies of the EU. 3) We will be in Italy! Also for this part of my trip we will be visiting Machiavelli's farm where he spent the end of his life and wrote most of his works. SO STOKED!
So why do I think this applies to life in a practical way? Ummm, good question! I like to believe that studying the past will give us better clues about where we came from so we will be better able to understand where we are going.
So, yeah that's my major and trip in a nutshell. I hope to put more up soon. I shall try and share all of the craziness of getting ready for traveling abroad with all of you! And with that to try and get in the mindset of an ancient Roman
Pax, and may the Republic stand!
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