Week 1-Roma!!

Well, I guess that this is way overdue as I was supposed to start this quite a few weeks ago and am just now finally getting around to it. For those of you that are reading this, we are supposed to keep a daily blog entry of our time through Italy. I am now starting it and will be updating it every now and then, catching up over the exciting weeks that have been my education. This week, I will be starting with Rome and what we did through the week.

Starting out, I traveled all the way to Rome from Billings, MT for a program through Rocky. It's almost like a study abroad thing but without the whole, going to another college in a another country thing. I mostly wanted to do this because I thought that it would be interesting to go to another country and be able to explore the world. The program also helps benefit me in that I'm an Art Major and it's very art oriented. I also thought that it would be a nice break from school even though I still have to go to school; but it's in Italy. ;)

I've never been really one to travel by myself. I've driven places before, but never really did any flying. So, naturally I was a little nervous to be flying by myself. I went to the airport with my dad, got my ticket and ended up having my professors, the Moaks, and another classmate Amanda on my plane, which made things a lot better. The nervousness just kinda went away.

We did are little flying and it really wasn't that bad. I just watched watched movies over the long flight as I anticipated our arrival into Rome. We got there in the afternoon and made our way to the hotel, where our other classmates were. We all got introduced with each other and made our way down the road to eat at a local restaurant that was very close to the hotel.

I never really was a wine drinker, but its the big thing in Italy, so I thought that I had better go along with it. You know what they say, "When in Rome." (Pun intended)

This was a picture of us all at the restaurant. We all had a great time getting to know each other and the food was pretty good. If I recall right, I'm pretty sure I got some chicken that was covered in a type of gravy. 

The rest of the night consisted of me and my roommate Nick walking around Rome and getting to know the city. We were out pretty late and got to see quite a few things. The night life of Rome was interesting. As late as it was, the were tons of restaurants that were open. They all have seats outside and you could see people eating out under the lights or by candle light. It made for a very interesting scene along with the tons of tourists that were still out that late. Me and Nick made our way back to the hotel (getting lost along the way for an hour an a half!) and got back to bed.

Something I forgot to mention is that one of the courses I am taking is Art History. Our first week in Rome was what this had to do with and some clay pieces, but, that'll be later.

First day consisted of us going to a place in Rome called the Roman Forum. A forum, for the people that don't know, is a place usually built by emperors as a gathering place for the citizens to talk about politics, etc. Anyways, we went there and theres like 4-5 of them just built over the years by emperor after emperor. They did it to honor someone or just built it to show there power. There are temples, libraries; but the big thing are the arches. The arches are very massive and very detailed usually detailing stories and what not.

The Arch of Constantine

The Roman Colosseum 

All the ruins the we visited were very...ruined. Back when they were in there glory, they were just massive buildings that I would have loved to see fully constructed. But now, after years of decay and civilization living around them, not much remains but some columns, save for a few buildings like the arch and colosseum above. The colosseum was very impressive. To me, it's really just an empty shell of its former self. Its still an impressive building, but, when it was in its glory, it held 50,000 people with gladiator fights for entertainment and the building with strewn with decorative clothes that cloaked it. It would of been quite a nice site to see.

On the Tuesday of this week in Rome, we went to a large museum called the Capitoline Museum. Its 3 separate buildings that have a very extensive collection of statues, busts and pottery. It has almost any art you can think of from murals to paintings. As you walk up to it, you have to go up a large flight of stairs that just really add to the museums. At the top are 2 large statues and another one of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. 

The museum takes a couple of hours to get through because of the collection that they have. One of the first pieces that you see is a statue of one of the Emperors, Constantine. He was one of the great emperors of Rome and had a huge statue built of him. The only thing that remains now are the feet and a head. Even though that those are the only ones remaining, the size of them and what it once was, had to have very impressive as it still is.

This was one of my favorite pieces that is in the museum. Its a bust of Medusa. What really gets to me the the detail in it. In the sad face to the detail of each head of the snake just makes for something very impressive as to what artists were capable back when this was created.

Over the rest over the museum, you see busts of emperors and a lot of pottery. One of the main reasons that we went to the museum was also because of pottery. We had to have a clay class and replicate a style of pottery called bucaroo. Its basically red clay, that when thrown in the kiln, turns black because of a chemical process. We had to pick a piece over the few weeks and recreate it.

In the Wednesday of the week in Rome, we went to a small town called Tarquinia. Its a small town that's a few hour train from Rome. the town is actually pretty good sized and there are a lot of nice shops there. We made our way through town to a site that had a lot of graves. The graves, or, tombs, were rooms built underground and had paintings on the walls with the person buried in them and treasures along with them.

There were maybe around 10-12 graves and each one was empty, save for the paintings on the walls. You couldn't really see everything too well. You couldn't go into the rooms as a door was blocking them and locked. So, all you could do was peer inside and either, not see the paintings too well because of the thick glass, or the paintings were pretty worn. But, there were still quite a few cool ones and the color in them was gorgeous. Pictures didn't turn out very well because of the poor lighting and flash reflecting off the windows. :(

After the graves, we made our way to the museum that held the treasures. It was a lot of pottery that was also bucoroo and a lot of penants made of gold that had impressive craftsmenship and detail. Once again, no pictures because we were not allowed to take them in the museum.

Thursday, we visited the Villa Julia. Another museum that was in Rome and a very long walk. It housed a lot of pottery that we seen for more bocoroo designs that we could go off of and some more gold granulation are pieces. The museum took quite a while to look through as I got into quite a few of the pieces and decided to sketch some of them in my journal that we have to keep. I did have quite a few favorite pieces. The piece that the museum is most famous for is a sarcophagus of a young man and his wife that they were that to have been cremated and put inside.

Friday, we visited the town of Ostia, which had a lot of ruins in it. The town itself was very small, but the main attraction were the ruins. You could see all the walls of the buildings that were once there, but have been ruined by time. The coolest things was a giant amphitheater that stood along the side. It was almost like the coloseum, but not as impressive. It had huge steps that people sat on and were thought to have been covered with marble. The theater was half circle shaped and down below was the stage that people would either speak or act upon for theater performances.

Our last day in Rome, Saturday, was interesting. We had a free day, and so some of us decided to go to the Vatican. We made our way there and payed to get inside. Everything in the Vatican is very impressive, but, we didn't get to see much of that. We were so set on getting to the Sistine Chapel, that we just rushed through, thinking that we could see the Vatican Later. That wasn't the case, it was only a one way type of thing, and that was a bit disappointing. To me, I wasn't too disappointed because I was happy that I got to see the Sistine Chapel.

The roof of the Sistine Chapel was amazing. Most of the work up there is by Michelangelo. He isn't my favorite artist, but the era that he did is work is some my favorite. Its the color, the attention to detail, the shadows and the lighting, the realism of it all is what gets to me and I love it. I loved the ceiling and it was so awesome to be able to look up and gaze at it and see that this thing was hundreds of years hold and still in such fine shape.

The same night, we all met up and decided to go and check out The Pantheon. We all went had night and had a pretty fun time. I got a few pictures and a group picture. We checked out a few more places along the way to, such as a couple fountains. It was mostly just a group night to see the things that some people didn't get to see.

Group picture in front of the Pantheon

Picture from inside the Pantheon

As for my over all experience in Rome...it was pretty fun. I did get to see a lot of art. The thing that I enjoyed the most though, was the nightlife. Just walking around the big city and see things, eating at different restaurant, and meeting new people. The big hangout spot is the Spanish steps. Its a huge staircase were hundreds of people from different countries just hang out and chat. I had a few good memories there and met some awesome people there. The whole things was a blast.

As for these, these were 2 locations that were close to us that I thought I'd share. I hope you enjoyed my first blog entry and that it wasn't too long. ;)

Ceiling inside the Pantheon