A beautiful church, fantastic pastries, a castle with a REAL princess and Pompeii!!

This week has felt really busy and today I gave myself a much needed break to relax and do some laundry. On thursday my morning class, Byzantine, had an on-site visit to a church - Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. The church and much of the surrounding area of the Piazza outside was once the Baths of Diocletian. The ancient Romans' typical would often include time at the bath where it was a place not only to get clean but also to socialized and engage in physical fitness activities. You can google more about them if you're curious. Diocletian's was the biggest of the Roman Empire. And unless you're physically standing in the church it's hard to explain how unbelievably huge this bath must have been. The church is not even half the size of the bath, however it did keep the same ceiling height I believe as the baths and when you look at these pictures you won't believe me when i say this was only the entrance of the bath...







Now that's an organ..







So after class Kate and I decided to try out a pastry shop our professor told us was, in his mind, the best pastries in Italy. He was not lying...



Dagnino!





We decided to share these two. And yes, they are served on a gold plate. I'm sold.

Later that night, I had another on-site lecture with my Italian Design class to a castle called Castello Odescalchi Bracciano where there was an exhibit of Roberto Cappuci's Sculpture Dress Collection. I had the same reaction as you right now, "Who is Roberto Cappuci and why is this castle's name completely ridiculous to pronounce?" First, let me just say my Italian Design class has me slightly puzzled on what it is I'm suppose to be learning. It's a little all over the place still and the syllabus really does me no good. But the trip was a little long and annoying at times but the castle and collection was actually kinda of interesting. The castle is about an hour 1/2 away by train from Termini and it's a little town so transportation out of the little town is a complete pain in the butt, especially in the dark and in the rain. But anyway I digress. The castle was beautiful and, yes, it has it's very own PRINCESS! She wasn't there and I have no idea who she is but I was intrigued to know it was still used as a residence.








We we're aloud to take pictures of the inside of the castle or the exhibition with the dresses but I managed to snap one photo of the last room that had the most dresses and it was probably my favorite room. It was interesting to see the dresses up clothes. None of them were eve worn, they were meant to be like a study on shape and materials and colors and things like that. I thought it was pretty cool. A lot of the dresses were from the 80's in this room but I think they ranged from the 50's or 40's to the present.

Yesterday I was VERY excited to wake up because Ashley and her friend from Scottland were going to Pompeii and let me tag along!! It was my first time taking a trip without a professor or organized by Temple. We took a train to Naples then took another train to Pompeii. I actually liked the trains of TrenItalia. They're comfortable, a little stuffy but I didn't mind too much. Anyway so Pompeii was a complete dream for me because I had taken a class on ancient Rome and knew the background of what I was looking at and what Rome had accomplished up to 79AD when Pompeii was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius. When we got there it was for the most part empty. And the weather was perfect. Sunny and in the 50's. I took so many pictures but I'll keep it to a few.



Entrance into the city Walls



Wasn't expecting such a steep incline when going into the city.



First view of walking into Pompeii. Seeing it completely desolate like a ghost town was the best lucky moment I think I've ever had. It really put the devastation that happened there into perspective.



Really couldn't have had better weather...



A mini amphitheater with a restorationist cleaning the center. There was actually restorations happening all over which is typical for off season sites. My ancient roman professor last semester had said it was difficult to excavate at Pompeii because whatever funds you raise or grants you receive to do work, only 10% can go towards further excavation of the site. The remaining 90% goes towards its preservation. And when your there you understand why. There's countless numbers of intact frescos and mosaics and building structures, it takes tedious work to keep them in their best condition without altering them for the worse.



The first ancient house I got to physically interact with. I couldn't believe, and still can't believe, I was able to walk around in these ruins. Especially in the houses and shops. I learned so much about them and then to finally see it for my own eyes made it completely overwhelming.



Couldn't go in this one and it was probably the best preserved that I could see. Very bummed about that.



This is the view you'd be looking from if you were working at your shop in Pompeii.



The large amphitheater



Luckily no one released any lions on me.



This is a teeny tiny fresco painting of a landscape. There were 4 fresco style paintings that were found at Pompeii which gives them the name "Pompeiian Style". This is part of a 3rd Pompeiian style frescoed wall in one of the houses we were in. It's characterized by slenderized architecture painted on the outsides corners of the wall with little frescoes like these meant to look like a picture of a landscape on the wall. But they were very tiny. This one was only maybe 9 inches long. I personally like the 2nd Pompeiian style where they decorated the whole wall as if it were looking outside so it didn't feel like you were in a room at all but in a garden or under a roof with columns supporting it overlooking an imperial view of the city. They're most noted for the bright blues in the sky that they were big on at that time.



This guy knew how to make a garden in his house..



Mt. Vesuvius





Pottery and a plaster cast of a body. I actually thought there would be more plaster casts on display. I only saw maybe 5 or 6.



Mt. Vesuvius again. Looks so harmless doesn't it?





The Mystery House. This house was quite huge. And kind of far away from the rest of Pompeii.









This is a frescoed room in the house that I've learned about extensively in many art history classes that no one is entirely sure what it's purpose was or what the frescoes mean. They think it may have something to do with the secret ritual preformed before a woman was married.

There were a few interesting surprises to find in Pompeii... For instance, what the heck is THIS doing there???





Are you kidding me Italy? It's the most bizarre thing to see right smack in the middle of all the ruins. A big old cafe...

And Dad you better thank your lucky stars I can't have a pet in the residence or I was quite tempted to adopt a dog at Pompeii. That's right. There's a sign that says to adopt the dog pictured on it. I saw two of those black dogs and this little white one. I actually met him at the entrance where we bought our tickets and figured he was either a stray or someone brought him to work (they take their dogs EVERYWHERE around here. Metro, the indoor market, and if it's small enough, on their vespas).



So wanted to keep him!

Well that's been my past 2 days. It's almost 8pm here. I need to go make some dinner!

Ciao xoxo

It's been almost a week I know!!

Besides from yesterday and today's on site lectures there hasn't been too much to blog about. Just the usual food shopping and homework, etc etc. So I'll run through yesterday and today's adventures to let you know what I'm doing. First though, I want to share a picture of a random lunch I had last week at a place called Obika. It's a mozzarella bar a few windy side streets north of the pantheon. It's by no means authentic Italian cuisine in the sense of the little mom and pop joints but I really enjoyed my sandwich and took a picture of it so I could try to recreate it at home! I can't remember what it was called on the menu but it's grilled veggies with, of course, mozzarella.



Kate then also got a cafelatte (they are fantastic by the way) and also a great dessert that I wish I took a picture of! It was peaches with some sort of creamy, ice-cream looking like topping. It was complete heaven let me tell you..

Ok so yesterday, January 26h, my Baroque class went to Galleria Doria-Pamphilj located right on Via del Corso which is one of the oldest intact museum since the Baroque era mostly because the Pamphilj family still infact lives there. To live on Via del Corso, by the way, meant you must have been very wealthy because it was the main street in Rome where triumphal processions as well as important visitors would come down the Corso and the wealthy would be in their windows, showing their faces and being recognized as being high ranked in society. The road has been around since the time of Augustus in ancient Rome so it's quite historical.
So the Pamphilj family married into the Doria family, hence the name, and together they collected many beautiful artworks and have very grand looking rooms. One of the rooms was designed after the french style seen in the hall of mirrors of Versailles. We actually weren't suppose to take pictures but since when do I listen?



The outside of the gallery isn't really much to look at, but the garden area inside has lemon and orange trees and was pretty.



Carracci's "Flight into Egypt"



The french styled hallway.

It was a fairly small gallery but it had some Caravaggios and Berninis so I really enjoyed seeing some of their earlier works.

So that was yesterday, today I wen to see two churches - one in Santa Maria in Trastevere, and another a few blocks over called Santa Cecila. Santa Maria is a main piazza in Trastevere and many of the locals believe that area is the true center on Rome and that Piazza Venezia and the Forum and all that is just the political and traditional center. And in many ways it is. A lot of my friends and classmates have gone down there and say it's their favorite area of Rome because tourists don't really gather there, and American students are all in Campo dei Fiori so it's been nice to walk through the area and see what people mean.



This is the church in the Santa Maria piazza area. It's squished between two buildings and has a bell tower that was added in the 12th century maybe and then soon after the front was put on with the statues so it's not like it was originally but the inside is very beautiful.



The columns are originals from ancient Rome. Many of them were taken from the Temple of Isis. There are different capital styles ontop of the columns, the width of them differ, and even the height. The people at the time had to use their own mathematical equations to make each column completely the same in height or if they'd be off even by a millimeter the whole thing would have fallen down by now. And the building has survived earthquakes and nearly 1,000 years of civilization building up around it so clearly they knew what they were doing.







This is Saint Anthony. People write to him and leave their paper on his statue. There's also a big pile on the floor. Oh and that's my Renaissance Professor on the left. He's the one from England and probably my favorite professor this semester.

Next we went over the Santa Cecila. Cecila was a Christian back when Christianity was illegal and she was tortured and killed for her beliefs. This church was built in her honor for her martyrdom. The church, for the jubilee of the coming year 2000, wanted to dig up some of their sacred pieces they had underneath the church and kind of spruce up the place for the big celebration. In doing so they came across a mummified body of a woman who was perfectly preserved. Cecila was killed by having her neck slashed on the side, this mummy also showed a deep slash on her neck. Now keep in mind Christianity wasn't legalized until the rein of Constantine in 313 AD. She's an OLD mummy. And she still had her skin and fingers and hair. The church immediately had a sculpture make a replica of exactly how she was found and it now sits under the alter in the church, and they gave Cecila another burial underneath the replica. It's a very fascinating story and the sculpture is very well done, kinda of creepy in a way when you see he slash mark sculpted into the neck. I couldn't get very good pictures of it.







So that's it for now! I ave to run and get ready for my Byzantine class but I hope you enjoyed the little update! Sorry this was so brief!!

A domani, si? Ciao!

Yesterday's Vatican Museum and Today's Capitoline Museums

As promised, I'm updating you on the on-site lectures from yesterday and today. Ok so yesterday I went to the Vatican Museums with my Baroque class and got to see a small portion of the massive and ridiculously impressive collection of the Catholic Church. I haven't yet been in St. Peter's Piazza where everyone stands to see the Pope but I did see the Sistine Ceiling! The Baroque lecture itself was, well, terribly boring. My professor has no charisma whatsoever. Anyway, here are a few pictures I shot of my trip and yes, even the Sistine ceiling and walls!



Entrance into the painting gallery



Raphael's Transfiguration which was absolutely incredible in person. This is technically part of the early Mannerism style.



The infamous duomo of St. Peter's Basilica



Many long hallways that were elaborately decorated and well preserved.



Sistine Ceiling!..... and my forehead...



The far wall's fresco. And Kate on the right.






After class Kate and I went to grab lunch at a restaurant right around the corner from the Vatican. They have fantastic salads. Definitely would recommend it to future travelers!







Now for today's on-site lecture! I won't have as many pictures because most of what I took is stuff I learned about in previous classes on ancient Rome and may not be all that interesting to everyone. So today we met at the Pantheon which I was so proud that I found al by myself and didn't get lost. It's actually a whole lot easier then I had thought. We spent maybe about a half hour lecture in there and it was FREEZING this morning so I was glad I had already taken pictures and able to keep my hands in my pockets. After that we walked down to the Capitoline museums in Piazza Venezia. Saw the huge sculpture pieces of Constantine and the original horseback sculpture of Marcus Aurelius which was really interesting to see for me. But what was the highlight was seeing the Forum from higher up in the museum. I can't wait to actually walk around in there. It's amazing to see it in person and know the background to many of the monuments and temples. Just incredible.





So far I like my classes. My Baroque professor, as I said earlier, is lacking in the interesting department. She's supposedly lived in Italy for many years but has a painful American accent in her Italian that she barely uses. My Italian Design professor seems to be ok. She has a strange accent that comes on randomly that I can't quite place but generally sounds American. My Early Renaissance teacher is my favorite. He's British and sounds like poetry when he speaks and makes wonderful use of vocabulary which I particularly enjoy. *Nerd*. And my Byzantine professor I just met tonight and he is quite intimidating but very well known. He's from Belgium and is a working Archeologist like my two professors last semester which makes the class so much more interesting when hearing them make connections to digs. But he's definitely serious about what he expects from us and so I'm nervous about that class a bit..

Anyway that's my little update for now. Tomorrow I have two on-site lectures and then i'm sleeping in on friday for sure!!!

Until then,

Ciao!!