La Nostra Casalina (Our apartment)

I may be avoiding working on a speech about Palatine Hill for tomorrow.  I may also be sitting here with a cold, wet towel because I became a tomato after falling asleep at the beach yesterday.
So, I am going to upload pictures and fill you guys in on our apartment.
We have been very blessed... much much better than anything I was expecting. It looks like something out of an Ikea magazine, very modern for such an old place!


Here is the view of our kitchen when you walk in the front door. I love the key-hole look! (We also have a very cool butter-fly key. An interesting thing about keys, they go in the door upside down here.)

(Other view- right)

To the left,  the entrance to my room. I share with one girl, Melissa. We have four total girls living here. They are great- super respectful, clean, fun to hang out with, cook, and memorize poetry together.  To the right, my first experience drying laundry, Italian style. This is our balcony.


This is funny. Some Italian toilets have two buttons: one for more water. Need I say more? :)

Our washer is terrifying though. We were warned to be very careful: If you put in too many clothes, it breaks. If you don't put in enough, or run it empty, it breaks. If you open it too early, it breaks.
After running my first load, it freaked out and starting doing another load empty. I pressed pause, and then didn't know what to do. It was stuck like that for a couple days before our apartment manager said he'd come in. We figured out how to fix it the night before, so I left a message on his phone not to come in. But unfortunately, he sent a worker in to fix it who didn't speak any English. It was very difficult trying to communicate everything was okay, and we felt bad about it.

Lastly, funny story. We were left with a fish tank in one of the rooms. A couple days later when showing our apartment to some other girls in the program, we noticed a fish in there! We almost starved a fish! We have named him Trevi and have moved him into the living room, so he can socialize with us and we won't forget to feed him.

Alright, I really should go. Ciao!

A World Below Glass

We visited Palazzo Valentini today.

(Here is a link if you'd like: http://www.palazzovalentini.it/index.php?lang=eng)

Our prompt today was to describe 4 rooms, each having a season that followed a literary archtype: summer: romance, spring: comedy, fall: tragedy, and winter: irony/satire. I'll share these snapshots with you:

Spring

Our own beloved stories must have first lived in Rome.
At the Pantheon, I entered the walls of Mines of Moria.
The Villa Julia, I saw the balcony of Juliet
There is even a statue near our apartment that glows green and stout
a Yoda he is.
Today, we entered the Twilight Zone (or the Tower of Terror)
with glass floors over a cemetery of pools, wells, and broken stairways.
An epic soundtrack and a man's enthuisastic voice lead us through the strange tour.
Our stomachs cringed as we were swallowed up in darkness,
and then watched the Roman world repainted, while teetering on glass.

Summer

The Roman recipe for roman-ce
needs only inspiration.
Love is crafted in the party pools under mosiac ceilings
with flushed servants carrying trays.
He orders flamingo tongue and she: peacock brain- a dainty morsel
she lifts to her lips, that flirts the torch light off her utensil.
He swallows hard, a tinge of sweat crowning his forehead.

Fall
 (to a Decian soldier)

Rome won because of its strength in weapons and organization.
I cannot fathom such a battle, that once adorned a temple's pillar in chiseled color.
They saluted your courage,
though their men pushed forward with swords
while holding your brothers' heads in their teeth,
and their women seared your naked, captured brothers with torches.
Though you died a humble beheading,
your king slit his throat to die proud.

 Here is the column, which once stood in the middle of the temple, telling the story of the Roman victory over the Decians (my spelling is likely terrible, but I'm having trouble finding out their correct name at the moment). It has over 2,500 characters etched from bottom to top. Everything had to be calculated from the beginning before hammering into the marble.

Winter

Goddess of knowledge and war,
Minerva went tumbling.
The archeologists found your white head
at the bottom of a hardened pool.
Helmet useless, your face slighted.
They inquire of you,
pleading for answers to the riddles
your faulty worshipers left behind.
What is a goddess without her people?
What knowledge to share, or war to advise
when her Romans find themselves deep under
a Renaissance tide?

Capitoline Museum and an Opera concert

Buona sera! (Good evening)

Musei Capitolini- my favorite museum so far. Here's the link for a virtual tour:
http://tourvirtuale.museicapitolini.org/#en
Our writing prompt was to draw 2-3 different things and write about them. Apparently so many artists flood the museum that they only allow you to draw with a permit. We only got a permit for one room, so we fulfilled the prompt for the rest of the museum as stealthily as possible :)

Giant foot! 


To the left, a gold statue of either Hercules or Apollo. The Romans specialized in intimidation.

Interesting myth. How did Rome begin? To the left is a sculpture of the she-wolf and two twins: Remus and Romulus. These brothers were descendants of Aeneas, hero from Troy. They were abandoned and rescued by a wolf who nursed them back to health in a cave within Palatine hill. Romulus eventually killed his brother Remus after a heated argument, and took possession of the area, establishing Rome. Thus, "Rome" comes from the name Romulus.










There are so many other beautiful things to share! One area that especially overwhelmed me held a variety of important documents, such as:
a letter from Marie Antoinette to her brother in law describing her despair, the dogma of Mary's Conception, Mozart's golden spur, a letter from Jefferson Davis to Lincoln, the imperial ban against Martin Luther declaring him a heretic of the Catholic church, the Copernican theory, and other books or letters regarding popes, Henry VIII, Columbus... and many other important people I felt like I should know.

Despite the awe of this... my favorite moment so far on this trip happened spontaneously last night. My roommate and I decided to wander around, and stumbled upon what seemed to be a church service. It was actually an opera concert. We ended up watching the whole thing for free! It was the most beautiful concert I've ever been to.  The isle lined with white flowers, candles and chandeliers circling the front, voices echoing and filling every corner of the church... It was very special experience this with the Italian people. I felt like one of them. No camera, and I was glad not to have one.

I shall have some Nutella and catch some of the soccer game on TV (a big deal here, so I probably should participate) before bed.

Buona notte! (Night!)

Che bello! Flowers and Food

Hello again!
After a long day of visiting the Etruscan tombs (a people that were wiped out by the Romans but were very influential), I felt like I should be more excited. But I kept getting distracted by living things: a very friendly lab who greeted us when we stepped off the bus, a field of sunflowers, the wind blown trees, a deep well that had been closed off...
So I just won't write about the Etruscans.  Enough dead people for now! :)
Here is the field that we saw on the ride there (about an hour from Rome). I was very very excited.
I didn't even know sunflowers came in fields! I have only seen them in gardens or grocery stores.

On the right- a butterfly hanging out by a tomb. There were tons of them.

On to food! Today we ate at a Pizzeria, and one of our professors ordered this pizza. It was too cute to resist taking a picture. Feeling daring, I ordered fettucine con lepre (or fettucine with hare). I couldn't distinctly taste the meat with the sauce, but it was still pretty delicious. Kim, one of my roommates, ordered pasta with boar. Since we were near, if not in the Tuscany area, these meals are more common out of the city.

I ordered this cappucino the other day for 1.10 E. This particular place required you to order in line and then stand at the bar to drink the coffee. Italians believe that you should never drink milk after noon, so I was sure to order this before 12. (They also are particular about beer, never serving it cold but room temperature. Apparently a cold beer shocks your system.)

To the left, some of the images on the wall. I especially enjoyed seeing the clock with coffee beans. 

And of course, you can't forget gelato!
Here is a picture of the store next to our apartment (which just adds to the temptation):

 

I'll end with a picture from the night we out to eat. Our class went to a fancy restaurant together (it must have already been paid for in our study abroad fee). They served us four courses- meat that melts in your mouth, peaches with brownie as the pit... everything seemed to ooze butter or cheese . Here is the first course and our wine below:

Keyholes, Doors, Reflections

One entryway always leads to another world. 

I loved following this turn in this road and seeing a man reading the paper outside his front door.

Me and Kathryn, one of my roommates, looking into a fancy clothing store.

 One of my favorite glimpses. This is a courtyard for an apartment. It's common for Italian apartments to have one big door, and then a hallway into a courtyard, which greets you with a statue before proceeding to the stairs. Because the rooms are always tall to allow the heat to rise, you don't feel claustrophobic like you can in the streets. I caught a glimmer of this through a door someone had left open. It was truly like looking through a little keyhole.

 The classic vine over the doorway. This time, just direct stairs up to the apartment.

 There is a lot of graffiti in Rome. I love how the light pours through though. Rome might as well be called the "city of light," whatever the Parisians say :) This is the apartment above, but I haven't zoomed in on the woman yet.

A reflection in the holy water. Floating in the upper left corner is Santa Maria (Mary).

The windows in the churches are always glowing. I do believe the wall is gold. Going into such gorgeous churches, it's amazing thinking about how much money, time and energy it took to make them. I can understand why people responded so differently (and why it spurred Martin Luther to begin the reformation).

 A sunset view of the Vatican City (St. Peter's I think.)

Do not rest, for today is a day for poets!

So...everyone has been feeling pretty overwhelmed here.
I mean, it's Rome. It's like wading through layers. You feel the weight of the sun, the heaviness of the smoke, the dirt on the ground (and the dogs poop freely :) and the sheer gravity of the history, and all the remarkable beauty- absolutely impossible to capture. It's begun to feel more and more like swimming up stream.
I was thinking today, it'd be nice to be in a dark forest right now. A safe, pleasant one that's moist with huge stars above and a nice tree hole to just curl into. Also, a BIG drenching thunderstorm. No smoke, no aggressive drivers, no people, and fresh mountain air. For just a little while.
But I won't complain anymore. It probably sounds silly. (It actually is nice to write about the things I see, because at the same time it helps me work through the flood of sensory overload.)

Today we went to see the Keats and Shelly house. It sits on the right side of the Spanish Steps.

Keats and Shelly were friends. Keates lived a very short life and died tragically at the age of 24 in this house, separated from his love in England. Shelly is another important Romantic writer, though I mostly remember his wife who wrote Frankenstein.
Ode to A Grecian Urn by Keats: http://www.bartleby.com/101/625.html

Fun facts about Keats:
He was less than 5' tall, and felt very manly around his love Fanny, who was shorter than him.
When gravely ill with tuberculosis in Rome, he hated pasta and would throw the plates delivered to him out the window.
He wrote his best works while sick. Sorry if this is a gross fact, but after his death the doctors discovered his lungs were absolutely gone- consumed by the disease. It is amazing that he lived so long with it.
He was fascinated with "beauty and truth."
He was buried with his love letters from Fanny unopened, too pained to read them.

The house is now a sort of museum. We saw letters, original books, the library, even letters about Keats by Walt Whitman, Theodore Roosevelt, and Oscar Wilde. To the right, his sketch of an urn from the Louvre that inspired "Ode to a..."

His supposed "death bed" was there, along with some odd things that felt more creepy to me than thoughtful: locks of hair of the Shellys and him, the jawbone of Mr. Shelly in an urn... I suppose keeping these things meant something different than today.

An encounter with the gods

All the gods are in ruins now.
Vespas sputter by, tearing through the streets
Locals smoke cigarettes under a gently hissing fountain,
Tourists gawk through cameras, pointing-
see, look how the gods have crumbled now.

Yet their throne remains, in perfect sphere.
Enter into its mouth,
descend down its marble throat
into the cool belly.
A distant memory- the street noise fading,
as your own greatness unhinges,
and above you it rises,
the blue orb,
the perfect holy water,
a vessel to the eternal.
Stare. Stare as it closes in on you, ever closing and ever growing.

How did one speak to the gods here thousands of years ago?
Did the gods demand joy or mournful penitence?
Did music charm their ears?
Did bowed heads inspire revelation and healing?
Or was it the silence that they desired most?

Yet the gods are in ruins, replaced by saints
solemn marble, aglow and gazing,
calm, yet strangely full of vigor
as if having once lived.
How they speak of holy things among such earthly people.

But the small man on the cross, hidden near the golden sarcaphagus
does not stare.

Is heaven achieved by the grandest schemes
or extended through the arms of suffering?




Below: entrance to the Pantheon.
A perfect inner sphere, it was first built as a place of worship for the gods, which were represented in statues surrounding it. Now, the statues are in ruins but the temple still stands.

(When I was first entering I felt like I was going into the Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings)

View of the ceiling from inside:

 

Below, another glimpse of the inside and two of the many statues who look upon the church.
It has been a powerful draw for the ancient Romans, Catholics, and even the Nazis during WWII. They barged through its doors to plunder the gold inside, but instead circled their horses back out the door, unable to destroy such a breathtaking place.

 

Below is Raphael's glowing burial, and to the right, the crucifix I referenced.

Engraved in Latin on Raphael's sarcophagus is: "Here lies Raphael, by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die."  

It is hard to see, but in the middle are two birds holding beaks. They almost look as though they are tumbling mid-air.