More Adventures from Week 1

After being able to adjust to life in Rome, most of us at the Rome Center set off for some great adventures around the city.  Since both of my classes here usually take place on site, I’m usually downtown a lot.  For Art History this first week we spent time at both the Forums and the Colosseum.  The Forums were the main gathering area of Rome.  Many think that this place was reserved for politics, but it truly was a center for exchanges, commerce, religion, politics, and social interactions.  There were lots of temples, market places, and the Senate where the heads of government would convene.  There is also the triumphal arc through which the victorious Roman Army would return home, Julius Ceasar’s grave, and the spot where Romulus murdered his brother Remus (where Rome gets its name).   

 

The Roman Forums

The column on the left is where all measurement of distance are based from. Cool!

The Colosseum was just as cool the second time we visited.  I again heard incredible stories of how this monument could hold about 80,000 people and would be evacuated in less than 15 minutes.  Lets just say that AT&T Park can’t quite do that…  To celebrate the opening of the Colosseum, they had games every day for over 100 days in a row.  Everything from animals fighting animals, gladiators fighting gladiators, and animals against gladiators.  They even had an elevator system to lift the animals from their cages below the arena up to where the stage was.  Pretty incredible stuff.   

In photography we spent time at Piazza Navonna taking pictures of the fountain, tourists, and street artists.  A lot of the small streets off the piazza had great authentic shops and people.  

After class some of us attended the Welcome Mass at St. Ignatius Church in Rome.  The church itself was gorgeous and I immediately felt at home knowing I was with the Jesuits.  After Mass everyone met up for a wonderful dinner at a close by restaurant.  The food was outstanding.  The highlight was probably the pear filled ravioli with carrot sauce on the side.  Simple amazing.  The cheese stuffed tomatoes drizzled with pesto was a close second. 

 Delicious food!

Also during the first week we Americans at the JFRC celebrated the 4^th of July! After a week of pizza and pasta (make that 7 weeks for me!) we were all craving burgers.  So we headed down to Rome to an Irish Pub, “The Abbey”, and found some American food.  I had a bacon burger, and Budweisers.  Baseball was on the big screens and we all felt at home.  Afterwards we quickly jumped back into Roman life with a bit of Fridgedarium gelato.  I had a red berry sorbet that they dipped in white chocolate.  SO GOOD!!! 

Happy 4th!

After such a great first week we were all looking forward to a nice four-day weekend to enjoy without classes.  We had a day trip on Friday to Naples and Herculaneum, and then after that a group of us were headed to Ischia!