Hurry up and wait!

So the first round of waiting in airports has begun. Got to Valley International Airport about 1 1/2 hours before my flight ... printed my boarding passes, got through security and baggage check and now I have an hour to wait. Then fly for an hour and wait 6 more in Houston airport.Then in Frankfurt I'll have another four. Well, at least the whole TSA thing went really smoothly. The craziest part of this whole thing is that we have this huge build up to leaving for Rome but, at least for me, it will be more than 24 hours before I am there. 

This is it

I am in the final hours at home before leaving for Italy. It is relatively quiet at the moment but I expect chaos as my family wakes up to see me to the airport. I can't believe I will be in Italy tomorrow. :)

Last day

I can't believe that it is almost time to leave for Rome. I have been such a bundle of nerves and excitement that I am probably driving everyone around me a little crazy. I have packed and repacked my luggage several times today, reorganizing, removing things I can do without, adding things I remember at the last minute. Went to have coffee this afternoon with a friend who lived in Rome for 9 months. She gave me some last minute tips about packing and what to expect and handed me a little cash (great friend huh?) She also told me about a couple of really interesting place I should try to see while I am there. One of them is the ...

Capuchin Crypt

The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 4,000 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of life on Earth.
Described by Frommer's as "one of the most horrifying images in all of Christendom", large numbers of the bones are nailed to the walls in intricate patterns, many are piled high among countless others, while others hang from the ceiling as light fixtures. (Wikipedia)

Yes, all those decorations are made out of human bones.

Anyway, at the moment I have just about everything packed and ready to go. I think. I guess I will see all of my classmates in another day or so!

Getting prepared

So I ordered euros from my bank and received them already, so I have my little stash of cash for Italy.

I got the email that the scholarship money will be deposited. (Yay!)

I think I bought everything that I will possibly need to bring with me and I have worked up a rough budget for all the transportation, food and hotel costs so I know how much I will have to spend there.


And today I voted! This is an important thing to remember guys. Election day for the primaries is going to be while we are gone and early voting ends tomorrow so make sure that you vote before you leave!

Now I just have to do laundry and pack ... and print copies of my brochures.

Art and travel

So I splurged a tiny bit last night and bought a new small sketchpad and some good drawing pens for the trip. I am going to a region filled with some of the most amazing art I may ever see, not to mention fabulous scenery,  and I want to be sure that I am ready to capture the inspiration I am sure will strike.

I am staying 6 extra days, beyond the 2 weeks of the class. I will be heading to Tuscany, to stay in a small town called Montecatini Terme.

The great thing about this town, besides the relatively cheap prices of hotels (compared to Rome) is that it is central to a lot of places in the region. So I can hop on a train to Florence for one day, Lucca on another ... maybe Pisa too, we'll see.

There is a medieval town on the top of a hill there, with a funiculare (a sort of tram) that takes you up to the village from the modern town below.

It is a spa town too, because there are hot springs, so there are these resorts with amazing architecture that you can wander through.

Puccini was from Lucca so they have these concerts in his honor every night and I want to go there one evening after I wander around the town. I intend to continue blogging about my time there, sharing photos of the places I go after the class portion of the trip.

I cannot tell you how excited and amazed I am that I will be seeing and doing all of these things. Just over 6 months ago, I would never have thought I could do something like this. When I first saw the info for the Rome study abroad class, I thought "how nice ... I wish I could do that," with no real idea that I could. A month later I got another email from Dr. Weber mentioning and suddenly it struck me that it was something I COULD do. My mom supported the idea and lent me the money for the deposit (which I wouldn't  have had enough for since it was kind of at the last minute) I am so glad, because I could easily have let the opportunity pass me by.

Now it is creeping ever closer to the time when I will leave and so much of the preparation has taken place that it seems real now and yet I still can't completely comprehend that I will actually BE there, see the things that I have read about and seen in books for my whole life. The girl from South Texas who has never even been out of the state, except for a few border cities in Mexico, will stand in the Colosseum, St. Peter's Cathedral, the Accademia dell'Arte.

Non vedo l'ora! Ci vediamo.
(I can't wait. See you!)

Bartolucci

I would like to find something to bring home for my niece from Italy and a friend is going to give me some money to bring her son a handmade Italian toy, so I was looking around online for a good place in Rome to look. I found a recommendation for Bartolucci and it looks perfect! The store is near the Pantheon, Via dei Pastini, 98,tel. 06 69190894.

They carve and paint these adorable wooden toys and other items and the prices look pretty good. If anyone has a kiddo or two they want to bring something back for, this just might be the place to go.

The vagaries of time

My days here feel so long ... each day brings me closer to the trip but they also seem to drag out into infinity. I feel like a child watching the clock, waiting for the bell to ring, , waiting for the endless monotony to end so the fun can begin. I occupy my time going over all the details in my mind; the packing, the to-do lists, tweaking the essay and brochure we were assigned. I try to engross myself in studying Italian or reading the guidebooks, trying to be prepared but also trying desperately to distract myself from the way time seems to be moving achingly slowly. I feel like I have been reading for hours and when I look at the clock it has been less than an hour. I have a sneaking suspicion though that, like that after school fun, or maybe like Christmas morning, the more the time seems to drag beforehand, during that stage of anxious anticipation, when the time comes it will move too fast and be over too soon. Isn't that the way it always works? I am determined to thoroughly enjoy every moment of this trip that I can, absorb everything and drink in every last drop of the experience. Just under 6 days and counting.

Assisi

I think that on one of the class days I remember Dr. Weber recommending a visit to Assisi. Today, my mom mentioned that one of her friend's daughters went on a trip to Italy and she thought that Assisi was the most beautiful place she visited. So I started wondering about what it would cost to take a day trip there on one of the free days. After all, I don't have a ton of money to spend on extra stuff but I want to see everything that I can as well. I checked out the Trenitalia site and the cost of tickets to Assisi is super cheap. Some thing like 11 euro one way, when you book at least a day in advance. So for less than 30 euro ... that is something I might be into. Here are some pictures I found. Anybody think they might be down to go with me?

 

 

Grotesque

I learned something I thought was pretty interesting today. At work I had been working on my essay for most of the morning and so over lunch I decided to take a break and read one of my guidebooks for Rome. In a description of Nero's Golden House it mentioned that when the buried structure was rediscovered during the renaissance the rooms were called grottoes) which means a small cave or hollow and the style of decoration found there was revived and called grotesque ... as in like the grotto.

This is the type of thing grotesque originally described:

And this is the type of thing now considered grotesque

Kind of a big difference, huh? It fascinates me how the meaning of a word can change.

Classe di Jovedi - Scholarships, action plans Actionand pickpockets

Buongiorno! I know that many of my classmates were working on their blog during class but I was super tired last night and it is easier for me to write the morning after I think. Anyway, here are my thoughts on our penultimate class day.

Scholarships

Yay! We finally heard from the study abroad office about the scholarship applications. Thankfully everything was complete on mine so I don't have to worry about filling out anything else. I am busy enough with everything else I have going on right now. It is really good to know that I will be getting that extra money too.

Pickpockets

We talked in class about securing our belongings. I have already given this a lot of thought and have made plans. I have read a lot of tips on what to watch out for and how to best keep your stuff safe. I will once again recommend that you check out the blog Ron in Rome, particularly this post about pickpockets. I have included this video as well, which shows how many of them operate. I found it very interesting and informative ... and a little funny.

 

Emergency action plans

Some of the information that was shared in class was particularly helpful I think. I liked the suggestions of working up a basic communication schedule with our families and while I don't expect any legal trouble in Italy, writing up the "I am not saying anything without talking to my lawyer" statement in Italian is still probably a good idea. I have already made up a list of numbers for my parents, including my global #, Dr. Weber's and all of the hotels I am staying in (since I am staying an extra week). I also made up business cards with the name and address of the hotels to hand to taxi drivers or whoever. Great tips.

Brochure

I emailed my brochure to Dr. Weber but I got an email back saying that
"Delivery is delayed to these recipients or distribution lists."

Anyone else have a problem like this?

Euros

I finally got in touch with someone at my bank who could answer the question of getting Euros before I leave (the local airport does not have currency exchanges here). Apparently you order them and they FedEx them to you. Hmm.

More helpful info

I also found a site that has some helpful info about Rome for English speaking tourists and expats. It offers a list of events, like concerts, plays, movies etc., for the week. It also gives recommendations for shopping, spas, bars and clubs etc. Might want to check it out! In Rome Now

Classe di mercoledi

I am enjoying class so far but I have to admit this is a tough week. Trying to work, read the chapters, draw up the essay outline and make up a rough brochure and then four hours of class ... it's kind of a lot. But the class work is interesting and every day brings us that much closer to Rome!

The material is really interesting. I am a history buff, particularly when it comes to the middle ages and renaissance, so some of this has been familiar but there is still a lot that I did not know, which is great. I love to learn. I am into literature and poetry so dissecting the poems has been fun too.

The poem we discussed for Wednesday was "At the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats" by Thomas Hardy. First of all, I think it is kind of cool that I will get to see a pyramid in Rome. What an unusual monument! The poem made me think of a lot of things that we will see ... we may not understand fully who these people were or why they built the things that they built but we get to learn something of their lives by the things they left behind. The name of the class, Layers of Rome, seems so fitting because there are so many remnants of different eras there, side by side. The ancient, the medieval, the renaissance and Victorian each left there unique stamp on the city. Hardy explains that he did not know, or care, about Cestius or his life. Even the pyramid erected in his name had no meaning for him until Shelley and Keats were buried there. Then, the monument to a man who was a stranger to him stood as a marker to draw attention to the spots where these two poets were buried and because of that, it now had meaning to him.

We also talked about our readings in "Roman People" about Rome's second emperor Tiberius and his astrologer Thrasyllus ... how and why the role of astrology was important for many people in ancient Rome.

And we discussed the changing role of the pope after the fall of the empire, how beginning in the 15th century the pope began to have an increasing amount of temporal power and how this led to in many cases, like that of Julius II, corruption, nepotism and simony, which in turn motivated large groups to break away from the Catholic church.

In my preparations for the trip, I have been calling around to local banks trying to find out where I can exchange dollars for euros so I can have a little local cash on me when I arrive. Amazingly, some people didn't even seem to know what I was talking about. So far, the only option that I have been given is to drive to Brownsville, a city 1/2 an hour away, during business hours when I will be at work. Seems ridiculously difficult to get them here but I guess not many people in South Texas travel to Europe so they are not in demand or something. Boo! :( Hopefully I will figure something out soon.

Classe seconda giornata

Buongiorno compagni di classe e professore Weber!


So class for day two is done and now it is time to reflect on what we learned and discussed. So ...

We read two poems by Thomas Hardy. "Rome: On the Palatine" describes how the speaker felt transported when looking at all the various ancient wonders and listening to music ... he felt as if he was standing in the middle of history, as if time did not exist and there was no separation between the past and the present.
 

In  "Building a New Street in the Ancient Quarter," Hardy describes the ruins as skeletal, the broken remains of ancient structures that still have much to teach those who pay attention. Yet workers are erecting new buildings amidst these scattered remains ... buildings that he feels pale in comparison the the grand buildings that used to stand there.

We also talked about the chapters that we read in "Roman People," particularly about Chapter 3 which dealt predominantly with the life of Brutus and his ill-fated plot to assassinate Julius Caesar. He seems like a pretty self-interested and confused guy. There were two factions in Roman politics at that time: the optimates, who were interested in maintaining the traditional Republic (and their place of power in it) and the populares, who believed that change (and their rise to power) was needed. Brutus grew up stuck in the middle; his uncle, Cato, was a big-wig in the optimates camp and his mom was the mistress of Caesar, who was a leader on the populare end of the spectrum. Between the fairly common resentment of the new man in mom's life, the step-dad syndrome, and the fact that Brutus was educated by Greeks with a decidedly anti-tyranny bent, he ended up squarely on the side of his uncle and the optimates. But he didn't always stay there ... he married a woman from a family that was instrumental on the side of the populares and after his uncle committed suicide he briefly reconciled with Caesar and was given a position of power by him. He divorced his wife and married his cousin, Cato's daughter. Then he sides with Pompey, a man he hated for being responsible for his father's death, rather than siding with Caesar. 


It seems like he couldn't make up his mind but more than that, I think, is that he was selfishly seeking whatever he thought might best benefit him. Doesn't seem like a very nice guy. He was a money-lender that felt no qualms about extortion. He maintained connections on both sides so that he always had some ties to whatever side was winning at the time. He thought that he could bump off Caesar and be praised for it but he miscalculated ... people were pissed off not pleased by the assassination and by killing Caesar he actually contributed to the fall of the Republic.

Chapter  5 dealt with the beginning of the empire with Octavian Augustus and the eventual succession of his step-son Tiberius. Doesn't sound like a very nice guy either. He was not who Augustus wanted to succeed him but in the end, the choice was limited because everyone else had (conveniently?) died. He was kind of a downer and the people weren't crazy about him either. He spent a lot of time getting counsel from an astrologer named Thrasyllus ... at times the only person who seemed to be his friend, although Thrasyllus' fortunes were tied to Tiberius' success so he may have just been trying to get what he could out of the relationship. Mom is pushy, step-dad doesn't want you as heir, even your friends use you to make their fortune ... hard to blame him for being such a sullen guy.

Response from Monday's class

So class has begun. 1) It is amazing how short the week between finals and Maymester felt, 2) It is starting to hit me just how close the trip actually is ... less than 2 weeks until I leave! Wow. It is so exciting but I am starting to feel the tiniest bit panicked too. I am the kind of person that tries to be prepared for everything (possibly too much) and I am beginning to wonder if I have forgotten anything that I need to get ready. I am sure that everything will be just fine ... I like to plan ahead but I also have no problem just going with the flow once I am in the middle of it.

Anyway, back to class ... We were asked

1) What is the most memorable idea from the readings in the first 2 chapters of Robert Kebric's "Roman People"?

For me I guess what stood out was the phrase "defensive imperialism" when discussing the Roman expansion. The idea that many of the wars they fought and the regions they conquered were approached with the idea of preemptive protection of Rome. Strike them before they strike me or my enemy uses them against me. An interesting justification, although I doubt it stayed the only one for long. Most of the time, wars are fought for a variety of reasons and the one that is shared with the public may not match up with the private motivations of those in power. Obviously, conquering and assimilating and ever increasing number of surrounding regions added to the wealth of Rome and knowing human nature I must assume that at some point this became at least one of the incentives for continued warfare.

Another thing that stood out to me was the descriptions of Rome during that era. This last semester I took a Human Geography class and learned the term "shock city." I think that is a large part of what was going on at that time. A shock city is a city that cannot accommodate for the rate at which it is growing. Most of the shock cities we see in history came about much later, like Chicago and Manchester in the 20th century. But Rome was much like that ... it grew so fast because of its military successes that the city couldn't keep up. Too many people without enough jobs, space or infrastructure (like good roads and public buildings) makes for a whole lot of chaos until the cities growth is able to catch up with its population.

We were also asked what idea we found most confusing. Honestly, I can't think of an area were I am confused at the moment, as Dr. Weber addressed the issues I had during class.

We also read a few excerpts from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's selected letters from Italy

Letter 14 to Charlotte Von Stein: This very short note made me think of a love song for some reason.He talks about how he was looking at all of the sites and starting to get some clarity when he receives a note from Charlotte and suddenly he can't seem to appreciate them anymore. Whatever the note said or whatever his connection to her was, reading it clearly distracted him. Maybe he was thinking about her all of the time instead of paying attention to what was around him.

Letter 15: He discusses forgoing the initial pleasure of exploring the sites on his own to instead visit with architects and artists. I understand the appreciation for something that one can derive from learning about it from an expert but at the same time there is an awe, a wonder, that is lost when you have something explained for you. It loses its mystique. This reminds me of a magic trick ... if you know how the trick works, you can admire the skill of the illusionist, his slight of hand or his patter but the magic and wonder is missing.

Roman Fever

So the first reading assignment for the Layers of Rome class and blog was to read "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton and respond to it.

I really enjoyed this short story. At first it seemed a bit slow, maybe even boring, because it is just a conversation between two middle aged women in a rooftop restaurant in Rome.

I started to wonder if there was more to the story however when Mrs. Slade gives a rather harsh mental description of the woman who is supposedly her friend. There were definitely long harbored resentments. I must admit I had already guessed at the surprise ending when it rolled around.

In this story, Roman fever had two meanings; the first reference to the concerns of the grandmothers of these two ladies was a literal illness, in this case Malaria from what I have read. The second meaning is more figurative, a reference to the deep passions that were excited by experiences in Rome. The events and passions of their youth carried over into the decades that followed.

I particular loved some of the descriptive passages. My favorite was ...

"Her gaze turned to the Colosseum. Already its golden flank was drowned in purple shadow,
and above it the sky curved crystal clear, without light or color.
It was the moment when afternoon and evening hang balanced in mid-heaven."

::sigh:: So beautiful.

Sounds fun!

Here is one of the places I would like to go! Sounds awesome!

Mercato delle Stampe
Largo della Fontanella di Borghese.
8.00 AM to 7.00 PM
This market is a veritable haven for lovers of old prints, books (both genuine antiquarian and less-exalted second-hand), magazines and other printed ephemera. The quality varies, but it is a good deal more specialized than the banche or stalls near Termini station which area more obvious tourist trap. Italian-speaking collectors can enjoy a field day leafing through back issues of specialist magazines. Other visitors might prefer the wonderful selection of illustrated art books and old prints of Rome. It is a good place to pick up that Piranesi print of your favorite Roman vista, ruin or church – but be prepared to bargain hard.

Cucina Romana

One of the things that I am really looking forward to during this trip is the food.


The food is not what most of us will likely expect since the version of Italian food Americans know is not really Italian food at all. In fact, there really is not any particular Italian food. The cuisine of Italy is diverse and each region has its own unique style and list of specialties.


Pizza is not what we are used to in the U.S. either. It still looks delicious though!

There are a lot of really interesting descriptions of the types of dishes that we will see in Rome here.

There is also a description of what to expect from the many different types of places to eat: ristorantes, trattorias, hosterias, pizzerias, cafes, paninotecas and bars! Could be pretty confusing and this post was pretty helpful and very interesting!

I seriously love this guy's blog! He gives great information and advice on spots for wonderful coffee and gelato too!