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