The Beginning...

After my whirlwind day of arriving in Rome and being extremely tired, it was pretty nice to have a full night of sleep.

We started the day of 18 June by having a short meeting about some class logistics in our classroom in the Rome Center. The classroom is pretty big with big windows and I think that my two to four hours in that room four times a week should be pretty bearable. We were then taken to a café which is actually right below our apartment where the program bought us espresson and marmalade-filled croissants. Immediately after this breakfast, one of my teachers, Ricardo de Mambro Santos, took us on a tour of our vicinity in Rome. He is truly amazing! He knows so much about EVERYTHING and I feel really lucky to have him as a teacher. He originally from Brazil so he knows Portugese, but he moved to Italy where he completed he education and then studied and worked for 22 years -- mostly in Rome. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Washington and now he is on the faculty of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers

On this tour, we started by exploring Piazza Navona -- which was built in the shape of a horse-racing track and the buildings are built from that stone. In this Piazza is where the "Fountain of Four Rivers" by Bernini is located. We also were able to visit the Brazilian embassy, which is located on this Piazza, to see a gallery which had an amazing frescoed ceiling. We continued the tour by walking behind the Pantheon to a church (Santa Maria Sopra Minerva) which had one of the least known, but most amazing, statues by Michelangelo (this one had been censored several times -- the latest time by the fascists). Of course Ricardo could tell us anything we wanted to know -- maybe even more than that -- about anything in the church so we spent a considerable amount of time there.

Statue by Michelangelo

Walking through the streets of Rome with Ricardo is pretty amazing. We could be walking down any street and he will stop and then explain that there is a line on a wall with a date showing where the Tiber river rose to in 1840 and explain the entire history of flooding in Rome. He may also point to the smallest fresco on a wall outside and explain it's entire history starting in 1520. It's pretty amazing. With him, each building has a story and he knows it! I've seen the building which housed the first art academy in the world and then the first location of the University of Rome (the third oldest university in the world).

Pantheon

After all of these amazing sites, it was time for the Pantheon. Walking in the Pantheon, Ricardo told us to not look up until we were in the exact center. Looking up to gaze upon the largest open dome (possibly largest dome) in the world was pretty astounding! We continued around the Pantheon with Ricardo pointing out the tomb of Raphael to us and then explaining why the statues were several different colors (additions throughout time to Christianize them). On this tour, we finished by seeing different parts remaining of the Temple of Hadrian.

The rest of the day continued a siesta, course reading, a three-course group dinner, a walk across the river to Trestevere (a district in Rome), a midnight walk from our appartment to Vatican City (about 20 minutes away), and then a 1am gelato stop.

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

After being in Rome for a couple of days, of course I became acclimated to the time quickly so I slept in on 19 June to a more normal time of 10am. I spent the morning and early afternoon reading for class on Monday.

At 1pm, the class took a trip to an excavation site of a Roman House in Palazzo Valentini. It was one of the most amazing exhibits I've ever seen! First you walk into this normal building, but then you descend down a couple of levels and you start walking on this glass floor. Below you is the excavated ruins of a Roman House from the times of the Roman Empire! It was huge! Glass floors cover the whole thing and you are pretty high above the ruins (about 10 feet). They use multiple projectors and lights in each room with a narrating voice to explain the many features of the room. They use the projectors to fill in the ruins to what it possibly could have looked like. It was amazing to see the baths of the house, a swimming pool, the largest staircase EVER excavated (even larger than the ones in Pompeii), wonderful mosaics on the floor, a rubbish heap with dishes and even a meal remaing, a head from a statue of Minerva from the fourth century BC, and more! After this amazing tour, it was time for a quick gelato stop supplied by the program. This time the flavours I chose were Lemon, Peach, and Pineapple -- each great separately, and together a great combination! It was definitely the hottest day so far in Rome so that meant it was reading and siesta time indoors. I finished my reading and then napped until about 7:30pm. We then went out to a restaurant near the Campo where I ordered Pizza Margherita (tomato sauce, basil, and mounds of fresh Mozzarella). After this, the people from my apartment walked to one of the other student apartments by the Colosseum. It was pretty amazing to see that and the other ruins at night!

Colosseum

Now, I'm back writing this post before my first day of class tomorrow.