Filling in the Gaps Round 2

Ok, here we go. The next week was sadly the week that I was sick. I missed the trip to the Pantheon but went another day. I was looking for a book store, (I had walked right past it), and found the Pantheon instead. Maybe it was hormones or the heat or who knows what but this was one of two places that hit me hard enough to make me cry. The Colosseum is impressive, the Forum is cool, the Pantheon is incredibly beautiful. Full of people to be sure and layers of Christian alterations from over the years but still jaw dropping. It took the people pushing past me to wake me up. I walked around a bit and took some pictures, my favorite of which is up into the light of the hole in the roof. Event the floors are stunning. Thats another thing about many of the old buildings, they don't neglect the floors.

Back to week two. We went to the Ara Pacis on Wednesday, that is 6/20. The Ara Pacis which was found in central Rome was right next to the Mausoleum of Augustus. For those who aren't familier the Ara Pacis is an alter to the peace brought about by Emperor Augustus. We spent the afternoon attempting to find various things on the alter then creating ridiculous Latin skits to describe the scenes on the alter. Let me tell you, the lady who 'guarded' the alter was straight psycho. She absolutely hated us, I thought we were going to get kicked out. It was like having some sort of very vicious animal staring you down as you walk around. Also, no offense to whoever designed that space but its waaaaaaay to white. Everything is white and with the light shining in the huge windows (which is very nice) its blinding. Just saying. After visiting the museum Viki and I wandered around the Mausoleum which is sadly not open for visiters. A large group of us ended up at a little buffet place about a block away.

Now my schedule says we went to a site visit to 'Renaissance Rome' which I don't remember. Lets see if I have pictures.... as she gets distracted by Facebook. Twice. Yea, ok, no pictures. Either I forgot my camera or didn't go. I found that after a week and a half of living with that many other people and being around the same 40 people all day long I really needed some alone time. It was days like that when I would take off into the city and get as lost as humanly possible. That really is the best way to get to know any city. Rome doesn't really have a 'bad area', not in the day. I was usually loath to take my camera out on these days and snap pictures because I could almost sometimes blend a little and not look horribly like a tourist.

On one such occasion I went in search of the library. Yes, I know. Nerdy McNerdison from Nerdville. I missed the smell of the books. So I took the train and got off and walked into the Rome National Central Library. No, Rome isn't a nation. Don't ask me. The take their books seriously, wow. To get in I had to present them with a copy of my passport and get a card then lock everything I had except for the card in a lock box before I could go in. Brilliantly, I walked basically directly over to a shelf and pulled the Aeneid in Latin off the shelf. Its inescapable, this language. I wandered around for a bit then went outside to smoke. I was sitting on the bench when a woman with a stroller came over and we somehow communicated that she wanted to sit down and that I didn't mind. This is an example of the interactions that really make international trips awesome and amazing. We spent the next few minutes, myself speaking no Italian and her speaking no English, fumbling through where I was from and how old the baby was and what his name was. Then I got on the metro and headed to school for sub arboribus.

I don't know if I've explained what that is. If I have skip this. Every Tuesday and Thursday we would have class from 4-6pm then have a break before regrouping. A few of us made a nice little tradition of going to the bar down the block and getting brandies and cognacs before coming back. They liked us at that bar, we kept coming back with more people. There was a pidgin there missing a foot, we named him Stumpy and spoke for him in pirate voices. Then we would walk back to the school and sit under the trees in small groups and speak nothing but Latin from 6:30-7:45. Sub arboribus. Under the trees. Awesome and really hard. Some of my proudest moments were under those trees. Constructing a multipul part sentence to say exactly what you're trying to say is very satisfying. It doesn't sound like much but when you're doing it in a language that you've learned by translating ancient texts its an accomplishment.

Ok lets stop for now. Ciao!

Filling In Some of the Gaps Round 1

It's amazing how much easier it is to write a blog post when you don't have to figure it out in Italian. When I got to Rome my computer decided to go native and start talking to me in Italian. I'll try to fill in some of the missing days on my trip using the handy calendar they gave us... If I can find it. If not I'll use my packets of Latin literature of which there are many to reconstruct. Chronological order is probably a bust but who cares :)


The first weekend in Rome we left to drive to Sperlonga and Formia via charter bus. The bus drivers are amazing. They can get those things into places you wouldn't dream of trying to fit a buz in a million years. We reached Sperlonga where theres this awesome cave that Emp. Tiberious apparently was trapped in a rock fall at some point. Spelunca means cave in Latin, the name just changed a little over time. The villa lays at the bottom of the hill right next to the water. The cave sits to the left if you're facing the water. At the time of Tiberious there were many statues inside the cave the remnants of which now reside in the museum at the top of the hill. The central statue was said to turn on a large dias in the middle of the pool in the middle of the cave. The roof of the cave collapsed on one of Tiberious' dinner parties and while he wasn't injured others were not so lucky. We sat in the cave, the cut of the center still visible, the bricks of the dining dias still somewhat intact and read several accounts of the event. In the cave. Where it happened. This was rather typical of the whole LLIR (Living Latin in Rome) experience but also what made it so amazing. Standing somewhere translating a 2000 year old text in the place described in the text is not a feeling that can be described. It connects you with that past far more than sitting in any classroom laughing at Pliny's tactics or cursing Tacitus for being so damned laconic. I could almost hear the rocks rumble. 
After the cave, we were taken to a restaurant outside of Formia I believe. Somehow they were willing to feed all 40 of us an amazing 2 1/2 hour meal of sea food, pasta, and steak, (not to mention the wine), which the Paideia institute was gracious enough to pay for (the food, not the wine). Satiated and thoroughly stuffed we drifted down to the area where Cicero was assassinated on the Via Appia. We read some of the account and wandered around a bit. We went into another museum and saw some very intact amphora. Then we drove to Cicero's tomb and read a more detailed account of his death. There were tears. At this point we were completely exhausted so of course we drove to the beach and dove right into the Mediterranean. We swam for about an hour and a half then made the long, sticky drive back to Rome.
We had sunday's free for most of the program but there was usually an optional trip to go somewhere. I think this Sunday was actually free and we ended up just lounging around the house, shopping, and doing laundry.


Ok. Round one/week one complete. Four weeks to finish. Hah.

Some Special Moments and Napoli

Forgive me followers, its been too many days since my last Blog post. I think I've just passed the halfway mark of my trip which is hard for me to conceive of. The days fly by and I keep trying to keep track of them but the pictures are my best recourse. My flat has become home and sometimes when I wake up I almost forget that I'm in a different country. Sadly everything I'm doing here has taken a heavy toll on my online classes. Apparently my Latin is improving though. I was trying to think of what my favorite part of the trip so far has been. I can't find one specifically but here are some of them.

Campo de Fiori is kind of the Pearl Street of Rome. Its where everyone goes to hang out and go to the bars. Theres a big fountain in the middle where everyone sits. Its loud and crazy and fun, not to mention everyone here is gorgeous. We sat on the fountain drinking wine and nerding out on Latin until late into the night with the tinkling of water in the background.

We went walking on the Via Appia a few days ago. That road is about 2300 years old. Its a bit out of town and much of the stones have been replaced  but some of older ones are still there. Its beautiful out in the countryside, walking down the old stones, the road lined by trees. We sat at end of the road wrote stories of our trips to Rome, in Latin of course.

Sometimes you just have to take off and get lost to get to know a city. I jumped on the metro and got off after a little, no idea where I was. Turns out I was right next to the Italian International Library. I walked in the big austere front and got a cappuccino. Thats another thing about Italy. You just kinda get caps or espressos all the time. Its totally normal to have three or four a day. Everyone does it. So I get a cap and some how figure out how to get a library card. They don't mess around with their books there. You have to leave you're bags locked up outside and you need photo identification to get a library card. I walked in to the cool, de-humidified, filtered air and some how managed to walk right up to the shelf that held Virgil's Aeneid. Speaking of Virgil....

We went to Napoli for the weekend and stayed in 'Virgil's' villa outside of town. There was an amphitheater being excavated right outside. But when we first got to Napoli we went straight to Vesuvius and climbed to the top. This is not as easy as it sounds. Its basically straight up and there is no shade. They must make a killing selling water. You can see inside the volcano and out over the city which is hazy from pollution. We read Virgil's letter about the eruption which preserved Pompeii. He saw it happen and 2000 years later I read his description standing on the mountain that it came from. Yea. We walked back down to the bus and headed back to the villa where they made us all dinner which was amazingly delicious. I've never had tomatoes like that. Then a few of us got bottles of local wine and walked down to the amphitheater to sit under the stars and share them. The next day we woke up early and drove to Pompeii. Oh, thats another thing I've learned on this trip. How to sleep basically anywhere; on the bus, on the train, face down on a table, siting on a bench..... I think this is a good thing. I think. We walked down ancient roads into ancient houses with the ancient paint still on the walls. A whole city frozen in time. Its really amazing, theres no way to describe it. The metal grates are still visible in the windows in some places. You can see the 2ooo year old paint brush strokes in the paint on the walls. Oh, did I mention that we spoke nothing but Latin inside the walls? No? Well we swore an oath to use only Latin to get our ideas across for the entire time we were in Pompeii. Thats immersion for you. We left the city and went to cave of the Sybil. Exhausted we finally made it back to the villa and had another amazing dinner. I bounced between the amphitheater and the stone pingpong table in the back yard for the rest of the evening and collected a hefty assortment of mosquito bites. The next morning on Sunday we drove to Virgil's tomb and recited some of his work inside. That was probably one of the best parts of the whole trip for me. It brought tears to my eyes. We went to the museum after and I got to see the mosaic with Alexander the Great and Darius in it. Then we walked through the middle of Napoli to a pizzeria and ate lunch. I won't even try to describe the pizza to you. It wont do it justice and might actually be a sin. Then we walked in the city more and met our bus to take us to the train station to go back to Roma. It was about 38 in Napoli and humid. In Roma it was 40. Thats about 104 for those of you who don't want to do the conversion. What happened was this. We took the 4:30 train which should have been a 2 hour and 15 minute train ride. When we left Napoli all the seats were taken. Between the next two stops all the standing room was taken. You see the Euro cup final game between Spain and Italy started at 8:45 and everyone wanted to get back to Rome in time for the game. So every time the train stopped we spent about 15 minutes trying to either squeeze more people on the train or convince them they weren't getting on. The air conditioning went out about half way through. 3 and half hours later, when we finally pulled up to Termini in Rome, the people who were trying to get on the train to take it back to Napoli were flattened by the outpouring of sweat soaked exhausted people clambering out of the train. We finally made it home and then Italy lost the game. It was so sad. And now I have to go to class. More soon I hope.

My Trip to the ER in Rome

I know this sounds like the beginning of a horror story but honestly that was probably the best ER visit I've ever experienced. I have major swelling in my tonsils and a really bad sore throat. One of my Magisters, Jason, took me to a hospital not to far from my flat. We had brought books anticipating a few hours of wait time. Instead we were immediately admitted to see a triage nurse who giggled at my passport photo then asked me a few routine question. They then took us right back to see the doctor and we sat outside her office for about 2 minutes. She didn't speak english but her assistant did and he helped me tell them what was up. No gloves, she looked down my throat with a tongue depressor and a flashlight and nodded sagely. As we went through the paper work dance of insurance and hospital forms the doctor asked me via her assistant if I was here in Italy alone. I said no, that I was here with a group for school. She said she was glad because I was too small to be roaming around Italy alone. She made sure I knew a few good swear words just in case. When we finished all the paper work they gave me a prescription and told me how to take it when I got it and told me where I would go to pay the small fee for coming to the hospital. (They said it was 41 euro but it ended up only being 25). As we were wrapping things up the doctor laughed and wiped her forehead with exaggeration and said that we all deserved a coffee and a cigarette. We all laughed and I left amid a chorus of 'ciao's' and 'arrivederci's'. We went to the main part of the church to pay, all of the hospitals are run by churches, and then walked in search of a pharmacy. My prescription, which I have found out consists of Amoxicillin and an antinflammatory, was 1.44 euro. Then Jason bought me some ice cream to make my throat feel better. It had bourbon in it. I felt like a big little kid getting candy after a shot. Now I'm home waiting for the drugs to kick in and make me feel better. I love this city.

The Beginning of the Week. Still.

Its hard to keep up with posting, after traveling around all day I just want to sleep. Please feel free to Wiki any of the names you don't recognize, I wish I could explain them all but alas I fear I'm too young to write a history book.

On Tuesday this past week we went to the Capitoline Hill at the center of Rome. We didn't have time to really look at the Forum or Trajan's Column, we had to meet the rest of the class. We all sat on top of the hill and talked about the many different buildings which had been built and leveled on the hill. Everything used to face the Forum and now faces the Vatican. Mind you most of this discussion is in Latin. We were invited to stick around and keep exploring but I wasn't feeling well so I went home. I spent the next few hours trying to find little things like an ATM, a supermarket, a pharmacy, and so on. Rome is not on a grid system. It makes things interesting. Later that day we met again as a group and I can't for the life of me remember what else we did.

Wednesday morning, I had my usual Cappuccino and we had our first small group meetings. I ended up in the easiest class and was severely disappointed with the level of the class. We had taken a placement exam the first day to see where we should be and, having gotten off of a plane less than 24hr before and not having known about the exam, I ended up looking like a beginning Latin student. Fortunately after a brief discussion with the staff I've moved to the intermediate section. Wednesday afternoon was an amazing site visit. We met at the Arch of Constantine, there are pictures on my Facebook. We went into the Colosseum and began to delve into the history of the building. I won't name dates and if I get something wrong don't shoot me. The land where the Colosseum sits was originally part of the site of the Domus Aurea, the Gold House. After the Great Fire of Rome in 64CE which leveled a large chunk of the city Emperor Nero began construction of his palace using the space which had been cleared. He leveled out a large area in the middle for a fish pond/lake. This flattened area became the land for the Colosseum. Another interesting note is that my flat, which I hope to get pictures up of soon, sits on some of the stones of the Domus Aurea. I will also post pictures of me climbing the wall of those ruins. This is generally frowned upon. Shh.

A few years after Nero's suicide The Colosseum was built on the land to host the gladiatorial games popular in ancient Rome. The gladiators were slaves, though if they fought well were highly prized. These men would face not only each other either in single combat or in groups but also any number of wild animals, bears, tigers, elephants. These animals were also pitted against each other. There are some ancient accounts of flooding the floor of the Colosseum in order to reenact naval battles however this is unconfirmed. It seems so distant when put is such steril terms. Thousands of men and animals fought literally tooth and nail simply to survive. And most of them didn't. The Games as they were called could last for months. Each time. The activities for which the Colosseum had been built, the blood sports which captivated the Roman interest, fell out of favor eventually. The Colosseum was used for apartments, looted for metal (there are holes in every wall from where the metal used to line up the blocks of stone were dug from the walls), turned into a monastery, looted for stone and marble, renovated, and finally closed off as a historical site. But that last didn't happen until fairly recently.

Being in Rome is amazing. It literally amazes me every time I wake up, when I walk out of the door of my flat, buy lunch, all of the mundane things. Being in the Colosseum, which I'll remind you is about 5 min. away as I write, is an entirely different level of WOW. Honestly, I look around sometimes at the ruins and they make me really sad. Sad for how much we've lost of that distant time, how much we could have learned had preservation not come about so late. But there are little things that spring up and surprise me and make me happy again. Like this. Did you know there is a specific dialect of Italian in certain parts of Rome called Romana which has a particularly strong and noticeable influence from Latin? Did you know there is a mound in the south part of the city where the old amphora (containers used to ship oil and wine) were thrown and it pilled so high it became a small hill? The neighborhood there is named after what used to mean "that gross, smelly, old pile of Greek amphora". Its called
Testaccio :) and its one of the most authentic Roman areas of the City. I was there this morning to buy groceries. We're having a Roman cooking lesson at our flat tonight and having a few people over.

My goodness, so much more to tell but I think we'll leave it at that for now.

Vale!

Ostia Antica

Today's site visit was Ostia Antica, which is said to be the first colony of Rome. The city and port were built at the mouth of the Tiber river. This allowed Rome to have access to sea trade routs while having some defense from pirates. Ostia was also the location of large salt mines. Sea water would be let into drying fields and allowed to evaporate. The salt would be collected and sold.

As for my experiences in Rome, I'm coming to the close of the first week here. When I arrived at about 5:30 local time I was exhausted and disgusting from being on planes for so long but I was in Rome. I found my party after a few minutes searching but we had other people to wait for so I spent another hour or two at the airport. When we finally left to drive to the city the numbness had settled in and I was glad that I had other people watching out for me.

People in Rome drive different. Hah. I first noticed when we were getting in the van and people were just kind of not paying attention to the lines. Then we got on the highway. The lanes are more like guide lines. And no one really follows them. Then you get into the city. The streets are tiny with tiny cars parked on the sides and pedestrians who don't seem to notice that there are cars driving. Or at least they don't really care. I'll have to take some pictures of the small street so you get the idea. Nothing else really makes you understand. The other thing is that in the cross walks pedestrians have the right of way and they use it. I've become one of them. If theres a cross walk you don't stop and look both ways. No, if you wait for someone to stop for you you'll spend all day on one corner. You just keep moving at the same pace and walk right out into traffic. They slow or stop long enough for you to get out of the way then they keep going. Its very.... exciting. Oh and the mopeds and motorcycles just go around the cars and keep going. And they're everywhere.

The first day I was here, Monday, myself and one of my room mates, Dani, went and got cappuccinos at the cafe down the street. Its become my regular morning routine at that spot, they're very sweet which cannot be said of everywhere you go. Our flat is not in a tourist area. We live in an apartment complex where most of the residents live here full time. Every shop I go into, before I start trying to get what I need by pointing and using what scant Italian I've picked up, I ask, "Parla inglese?", do you speak English? I've found two people in a 5 block radius. They're not rude but the guys at this particular cafe are especially nice. After jumpstarting our brains we took the metro to school, theres a station about 5 minutes from the house. We had our welcome lecture and were then broken up into groups and given a scavenger hunt of sorts. We were to find a monument and answer a question about it. We broke for lunch and had planned on meeting at a certain bridge before continuing to the monument. I went home with the roomies and had my first slice of Italian pizza which I wont even bother trying to explain, I wont do it justice.

I started walking because I figured that I could get to the meeting spot in time. I went down the street and around the corner and looked up and the Colosseum was about 2 blocks away staring me in the face. I almost fell over. I have to wonder if people sit at the Metro stop outside the Colosseum and just watch the tourists eat it when they step out and see this thing for the first time because. Its. Right. There. I walked through this lovely little park, I found out it was lovely later, I couldn't stop staring at the Colosseum. Its really big too. FYI. I continued on my treck and got lost somewhere between 4 and 10 times and was about 1/2hr late. I was also the first one there. We wandered and wandered up and down hills, through city streets and could not for the life of us fine this monument. Finally, some really nice lady who spoke english asked us what we were looking for and we told her and she said it was back up the hill we had just walked down. So we sat down at the bar and had a beer instead. Good plan. About an hour later we met up with the rest of the class at the Piazza del Garabaldi and had pizza and wine for dinner. I walked home with the girls, drinking bottle of wine between the 5 of us, got lost another 4 or 5 times. I think we left the Piazza around 8ish. when 11:00pm rolled around and we still hadn't made our way quite home so we stopped for a martini. We did eventually make it home and on reflection 14hr on my feet the first day may not have been the best idea. But it was an awesome way to get introduced to the city.

Ok I think thats enough for today, time for diner.

Vale!

Friday 15th of June: Day 6

I'm a bit behind on posting, its day five and I've just opened this blog. I'll have to catch up on the first days later. Today is the second day I haven't woken up at 5:30 am. Yay! Yesterday felt shorter than the rest of the week. After my usual stop at the Cafe down the street for a Cappuccino I went to buy some salami, cheese, and bread. Those three major staples seem to always be in the house. Class was amusing, we watched an episode of the Pink Panther as a group or, if you prefer the Latin, Panther Rossa, while trying to narrate it in Latin. Then we spit up into our smaller groups and translated a John Keats poem into Latin. They let us go for some gelato or diner and we came back for more Latin discussion. The topics ranged from "fortune favors the brave" to "in vino veritas". I'm still fighting some illness of sorts in my throat so I came home and went to bed. The metro's here are interesting, the A line is very nice and clean and the B line is covered in graffiti and has no air conditioning. We're about to go get coffee even though I'm channeling my inner mad scientist and look like I stuck my finger in the light socket. More soon I promise.