Monday, July 20: Fun Around Rome

Our Ancient Rome midterm was a solid two hours of writing. We identified monuments, compared monuments, and had an official “essay,” but the whole thing was an essay! I think I did all right though, it really just depends on how it is graded. I felt so liberated after this! My presentation, paper, and midterm are complete! I went out to lunch with some friends and then went to Italian class. We were going to go to the colosseum but realized we didn’t really have enough time before they would close. So Francesca, Avery, and I wandered around and eventually went to the Pantheon instead. The Pantheon is a very interesting building that includes ancient architecture as well as renaissance. The place is one of the best-preserved buildings in all of Rome. It is also the place of Raphael’s tomb! My favorite aspect of the Pantheon is its open dome, where rain comes in! The floor tapers and holes are hidden in different parts of the floor to drain any rainwater. In the past, enough candles were lit that water vaporized at the top of the dome!

We wandered over to the Trevi Fountain after, but we knew that it is currently under construction. It is massive, but completely drained and surrounded by construction materials. They do, however, have a small pool for tossing coins. But I guess you are supposed to throw three and we only threw one. Bad luck? We got a nice but affordable dinner at a little place and returned home.

Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19: Napoli

Saturday, July 18

Francesca, Yasmine, and I went to Naples for the next two days. We opted for a very cheap train ticket and got what we paid for: a horribly crowded, hot, late, slow, smelly, rambunctious train. It felt great to get off of it! However, our first greeting from Napoli was not much better. The streets are disgusting and felt uncomfortably unknown. We found our bed and breakfast because someone came out to greet us. When we entered through the creepy gate and followed the guy, I have to say it was a little sketchy. But after climbing a few flights of stairs and being shown to our room it felt much better.

We walked along the nasty streets for awhile, headed toward the Teatro San Carlo, the oldest opera house in Europe. We planned to get lunch on the way and go to the beach after. We did find a very nice, cheap pizzeria where we had delicious Neapolitan pizza just the way you would expect it! We kept walking for quite awhile and then found the opera house. For five euro, we got a nice tour of the opera house, mostly discussing the fancy boxes where the richest families sat. I did get a peek into the pit, where I saw scores for La Boheme! We ran into a couple from Russia, Roman and Julia, who seemed very excited about us. Our first encounter was when they asked me if I was Russian, saying I look Russian. That’s kind of cool! But then I found out the man was a music teacher, and my roommates got along with them well too! We all left the tour together and they took us to Piazza Plebliscito. Here, the famous thing to do is walk across the piazza blindfolded and try to walk between two giant bronze horse statues. They are pretty far apart and it seems like anyone would be able to do it, but no one actually can. Julia was so excited to help us try it! We used my towel because it was the best option we had for a blindfold. I completely veered to the right and was nowhere near the horses when I stopped. It was kind of hilarious. We said goodbye to our new Russian friends and continued walking along the coast in hopes of a beach.

The view on the coast was beautiful and turned into a very nice path. The rumors about PDA in Naples are true! We probably saw at least ten different couples making out full-on in public. (There was even one in the previous opera tour – DURING the tour!) We began to see the nicer part of Naples, but when we did find a beach, it was terrible. Before we found it we discussed whether it would be nice or not. Yasmine said, “We probably don’t want to go to a public beach. Private ones are way better.” To which Francesca and I replied, “How bad can it be? Can there really be a bad beach?” Yes, there can. And we couldn’t find a private one. I think the beach was 75% sand and 25% cigarette butts. It was also full of shameless people of all shapes and sizes in very skimpy suits, which was fine! But also plenty of angry yelling mothers and angry yelling seagulls. We laid out to get some sun, but mostly just got some sand. Francesca and I went to get in the water, but realized it was mostly trash in this particular swimming area. There was a beautiful line of rocks that we climbed to see if we could jump in the water instead of wade through the trash. But this was, as I expected, a little scary. We did see some cool mussels and barnacles though! After one more attempt and going in the swimming area, we got about knee deep and just looked around for awhile. This was interrupted by bird poop, just barely missing Francesca’s face. From my peripheral view it looked like she had thrown up in the water. Fortunately not throw up. Unfortunately bird poop. Luckily it just barely missed her face, but we took it as a sign to get out. (Yasmine was smart enough to not even attempt going in the water.)

We then had a wonderful dinner at Sorbillo Pizza! We had decided that we would eat pizza the whole time in Naples. This pizza was the best! We got one that was pesto, tomato, and cheese and another that featured small yellow tomatoes. Yum! I splurged and got chocolate mousse for dessert, which was incredibly worth it. After this, we walked for about an hour back to our accommodation and zonked out after attempting to rid our hair of sand in the shower.

The next morning we visited Napoli’s Duomo, which was beautiful of course. Although, I wasn’t very impressed with the electronic candles, complete with little engravings to look like wax in the plastic. While were there a mass started with hymns in Latin. As much as I appreciate this, we felt so awkward that we had just been taking so many pictures that we got out quickly. Our next stop was a contemporary art museum, the MADRE. Some of it was really cool while other exhibits were disturbing and odd. For the most part, it was a good experience. We roamed the streets until we found our next stop: Napoli Sottoranea, an underground tour of old ruins, location of WWII bunkers, and a Roman theatre. Waiting for the tour to start, we noticed several people smoking right next to no smoking signs, inside! We also started about ten minutes late. Ah, stereotypes.

Our tour guide was Scottish and hilarious! Parts of the tour were through tiny tunnels that hugged all of our hips. One section including each of us carrying candles through the tunnels and viewing the underground water system via candlelight. I have to admit that while walking through the tiny tunnel with candles I had to keep myself calm and wonder whether this situation would meet health and security regulations. It was fun though! I always used to daydream about walking through an underground tunnel with a candle. Seriously, if I was ten I would have been even more thrilled.

After this tour, we headed to an outdoor seating area to take a break. I went in a little shop where we had bought water before to buy another bottle. (I hate bottled water, but there was really no option, and it was literally one hundred degrees.) I went in and asked for two bottles of water in broken Italian and apparently charmed the shopkeeper. He said a couple things I didn’t understand, then asked me where I was from (which I did understand!) to which I replied. After one more sentence I couldn’t understand, I shrugged and said cheerfully, “Hablo Espanol!” He laughed, patted me on the back, and handed me a bag of chips as I left. I felt a little bashful as I sat down outside with the others. A couple minutes later, the shopkeeper came over and sat with us, introducing himself as Antonio and asking all of our names. He was obviously flirting with me, but I think it was quite innocent. He called over an old man to come help translate. The old man was hilarious and relayed the message, “Little kiss from you,” pointing at me. Antonio pointed to his cheek, and I laughed. I mimed the air kiss on each side from across the table but he shook his head. I then explained, in Italian, that I had a boyfriend to which he responded by showing me his wedding ring…. He asked why my boyfriend wasn’t here, and I explained that I was a student and he was a guitarist in Detroit. The old man was amused and got up. Antonio went and got another bag of chips for us from inside the shop. Then he called his other friend over, closer to his age. The friend laughed at everything Antonio said disapprovingly. I think he was refusing to translate out of embarrassment. He did say, “It’s a joke,” several times, and it really did seem innocent. Don’t worry, we were in a very public place and my hand was on my purse!

We changed the subject by asking for directions to get to a castle, and they helped, gave us a new map, and walked away for awhile. As we were leaving, Antonio came over, asking one more time for a kiss on the cheek, so I half-obliged by giving an air-kiss near the cheek. It was still pretty funny and he laughed and walked away. Then the old guy asked why he didn’t get one, so my friend did the same.

This was all very silly and uncomfortable but it did make the day a lot more interesting!

Our next destination was a castle up a hill. It was pretty steep. Your typical hike up a hill in the heat. And then we felt like we didn’t really have time to go in the castle, plus it was kinda pricey. So we enjoyed the view for a few and went back down! We looked for dinner for awhile, and everything was closed. It wasn’t until after retrieving our stuff from the b&b and heading toward the train station that we found an open place! One more pizza, and I was a little pizza-ed out, though it was hard to believe. We got on the train, which was cheap again but much nicer. It was also quite late, but I took the whole time to study for my Ancient Rome midterm, which was the next day!

Honestly, I wouldn’t really recommend Naples. But I’m glad I went, and we definitely made the most of it.

Friday, July 17, Wine Tasting and Visit to Montalcino, Tuscany

I woke up quite early for a trip sponsored by JCU that included wine-tasting, a winery tour, and a visit to Montalcino, a hilltown in Tuscany. We sat on a (very nice) bus for over three hours to get to the winery, Caparzo. When we got off the bus we had the most picturesque view of Tuscany I could imagine: rolling hills, skinny trees, flowerpots, etc. We had a tour of the winery which included going into the cellar where wine aged in different barrels. I had no idea of the significance of the wood of the barrel! Different wines are in different types of wood from different areas, different sizes and different periods of time. I guess I was just ignorant! Our wine tasting was with a light lunch of cheese, honey, bread, and meat. The meat items were a little adventurous for my taste. I did try each one, but almost regretted it. The cheese we had dipped in honey was amazing! And we got to have four glasses of four different wines, each interesting and good in its own way. We then had plenty of time to walk around the winery, go to the shop, etc.

We got back on the bus to Montalcino, a beautiful hilltown where we had a guided tour. It is a lovely village where they sell an abundance of wine and honey, mostly to tourists. The end of our tour was at a medieval fortress that is used for various events. On this day, they were setting up for a festival called Jazz and Wine. Sounds like my kind of festival! Francesca and I went up in the fortress and walked around its ramparts to get some amazing views! It felt like being in a castle and at times was even a little scary in terms of heights! We browsed a couple of shops and got back on the bus home. It was a lovely, relaxing, pleasant day. Though we had gotten a lot of sleep on the bus, we were exhausted when arriving home and had another early morning!

Wednesday and Thursday, July 15-16

Wednesday, July 15

Wednesday I got up early to put last minute touches on my paper and print it out. We also had two quizzes in class and spent a very hot day outside in the Roman Forum Valley. In Italian class, we prepared for our first test the following day. For dinner that night, I went with four others to a place I had heard about from others called Tony’s. They have a special where they bring unlimited food and wine in multiple courses for 20 euro. We tried it and were stuffed! It included bruschetta, calamari, delicious bread, penne, ravioli, mysterious meat and cheese, potatoes, tiramisu, and tons of wine! It was a great deal, but let me tell you…it was kind of Americanized. I felt stuffed afterward, just like I would have in the US! I was impressed at the abundance, but not necessarily the quality.

Thursday, July 16

For Ancient Rome, we went to a museum of portrait sculptures from ancient Rome. We learned about different styles of sculptures and their significance, including the meaning of a toga! Togas were worn only at special occasions and were not secure on one’s body. The point was to show discipline by wearing the toga and not letting it fall. However, if an official were giving an impassioned speech, the toga might fall off by the end because of their heartfelt words and movement. This was a positive thing as well!

I had an Italian test in the afternoon, which went pretty well. Then, we went to the Spanish Steps! You could barely see the steps there were so many people on them, but it was nice to see that they were there! We ate at a restaurant nearby which was mediocre, but we followed it up with gelato. (The gelato was also relatively mediocre, but it was gelato, so it was good.)

Tuesday, July 14

Happy Birthday to Matt! I believed it was good luck that my presentation for class was on Matt’s birthday. My presentation was on the Theatre of Pompey, created in 61 BC. The research was quite interesting, but I was extremely nervous to present the monument considering I was the first presentation in the class. Here’s a little about the Theatre of Pompey taken from my essay:

While most triumph recipients built a victory temple to honor gods who had assisted them in battle, Pompey had extravagant plans for much more than a temple. Instead, he built an entire complex, mostly a theater, which was constructed between 61 BC and 55 BC. In the end, the payoff would be greater than just a beautiful monument. The initial step in Pompey’s rise was building a revolutionary structure unlike any other in Rome.

With an entire complex beautiful in appearance, revolutionary in extravagance, and entertaining for the public, Pompey created a center that would easily help his popularity increase. He hoped to draw attention to himself and away from the current government, eventually gaining so many supporters that he could take over Rome. In many ways he achieved this with the excitement of a new public space. All people of all classes could enter free of charge, attracting the masses.

The Theater of Pompey and its entire complex marked a turning point in Rome when they were completed. This structure was so grand and unique that it changed the standard in architecture. Perhaps more importantly, it changed the role of the individual in Republican Rome, leading to a mentality around individual rulers in power. Pompey easily broke the rules set out by the Senate and gained individual power from his own great success. He no longer needed support from the government. With Crassus and Julius Caesar undergoing similar surges of power, Rome was being run by individuals rather that the supposed council in place. Pompey’s complex was so profound that we can see it as the beginning of the fall of the Republic.

I was excited to be done with my presentation, but I wasn’t finished with my paper. I did a good chunk of it and went out for drinks in honor of Matt’s birthday! We found a place in Campo di Fiori called the Drunken Ship where they had Ladies’ Night: drinks for only 3.50! After a couple drinks we were all craving French Fries and went to this place in Trastevere called FRIES. Yum! All they serve is French fries with a poking stick and a cup of sauce. While there were many sauces to choose from, I got regular cheese because it just sounded so good. I might have to back next time I feel homesick! (Although, they were not quite as good as fries in the States.)