Italy Spring 2011: 2 weeks in one post

Presentation is done! so now that I have some free time, naturally I'm going to blog. What else would I do?

The week after Gabii was spent completely in Rome- we got to wander around the city some more and saw even more ruins. One of the centristi even gave his student presentation in a toga. Overkill? Maybe, but it was a funny gesture nonetheless.

Here are some pictures!

Wandering around Rome...

Temples at Largo Argentina

Was Julius Caesar killed in front of that building?

Opus Reticulatum (apparently it's very sexy) from Theater of Pompey

Church built on top of three Roman temples

Some shots from the Capitoline Museum...

Hannah about to give her presentation on the Capitoline Wolf!

A dead....plastic man

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

View of the Forum from the Tabularium (arch in the background is the Arch of Titus- my student presentation)

The Dying Gaul

Random Centaur?

Yes, this is a drunk woman clutching a flask

Yet another River God

Thursday took us to the forum once again, but this time we had a permisso (so like special permission) to go over the gates and walk in some of the ruins and see some places that are blocked off. All these places are were built by Caesar or funded by him- fun fact. I loved the marble that was still there...I'm getting a little bit of geology!

Silly Juan after his presentation

Steps of the Basilica Julia. Some people carved these to play games

Marble columns!

"Onion" Marble

An interesting floor...some melted coins are visible in the marble

Basilica Julia (from inside, oh hey)

The Rostra (speaking platform)

We were starting to get into Imperial Rome as opposed to Republican Rome, which was awesome for me. I mean democracy is pretty cool and all, but with emperors you get the crazies who did things like make their favorite horse a senator, or win olympic chariot races despite falling out of the chariot. That stuff actually happened.

Anyway, it's so amazing to be able to interact with these sites in person. Sure, I could study it somewhere else, but there truly is something to be said for being there! A whole new bunch of questions pops up, and there are absolutely fabulous professors here who can give you a good answer.

For Art History, we had a full day field trip to some villas about an hour outside of Rome. I guess they were supposed to be good examples of mannerism and anti-mannerism? The professor tends to ramble, and it was freezing, so honestly, my attention span wasn't up to the task of an all day excursion. I know the pictures are what you want anyway.

The first Villa...uh Villa Farnese?

Outer courtyard

THE BATH

The most important feature is Paul Tegemeyer to the left

Staircase used in the Godfather III to kill a cardinal by throwing him

Creepy drain in the courtyard

A manmade cave. Cool.

Pegasus Fountain at the second Villa. Note the ICE...it really was cold

Water chain in the shape of a lobster (really)

Another manmade cave. What gives?

French style, not Italian

He's on a boat.

The next week took us to the Forum of Augustus, the Ara Pacis, the Mausoleum of Augustus, and the Horoglarium of Augustus. It was Augustus week at the Centro. We had a special permisso to actually go into the forum, but OF COURSE I picked that day to forget to charge my camera. Here are the few pictures I managed to take before it died on me.

For art history, we went to see a tomb with a Michelangelo sculpture, "The Moses", and then St John Lateran. The Moses sculpture is in the same church as the chains of St Peter, so that was incredible to see (though whether or not they are the real chains is certainly up for debate!). The Lateran is the seat of the bishop of Rome...aka, the Pope, so it's the first church in Rome (kinda the first church in the Catholic Religion)...technically, it's more important than St Peter's Basilica. I gave a presentation on the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament (the Communion Altar) and another girl have hers on the frescoes that surround the altar. The church is kind of...weird. You walk into a transept (like if you think church with a cross plan, the transept would be the arms of the cross) and all you see is color and gold. Then you walk into the rest of the church and it's stark white. Literally. I guess it's a baroque thing. I’m still not really sure if I liked it or not, but it was very cool to be there AND give a presentation on one of the most important aspects of the church!

Pictures...