Busy, busy, busy

It's been a couple crazy days here at the Centro.  I'm beginning to see why Anna warned me that there wouldn't be very much time to yourself.  But of course I say this right before the start of my first weekend at the program which are largely unscheduled.  Tomorrow there is a trip to the Villa Guilia to see the Etruscan artifacts, which I plan to follow up with a further visit of the nearby Villa Borghese.  But that's tomorrow.  What have I been up to?  Well,

Yep, repeated trips to the Forum Romanum!  This is a shot taken from near the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (shhhh, it doesn't exist yet.) of the land that once held the Domus Publica.  That is, the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus.  And the most famous one of those (perhaps) was Julius Caesar.  So on this spot, Julius Caesar once lived and owned a house.  But that doesn't exist yet either.  Still, pretty cool, eh?

Otherwise, we've been gallivanting about the countryside to witness the magnificence that was Etruria.  So yesterday was a day trip up to Tarquinia to see the museum, the Etruscan tombs and necropolis nearby, and a second Etruscan town at Cerveteri  (pronounced with a 'ch' at the beginning).  These monumental tombs were most often carved out of the living rock and then occasionally embellished with paintings and sculpture.  There were some fantastic paintings, which I couldn't take pictures of, so you'll have to settle for a shot of the interior of the Tomb of the Capitals from Cerveteri.

Notice here that the column itself is carved into the Tufo rock of the Tomb.  So that whole structure is just one giant piece of stone carefully carved out to resemble a set of bedrooms for the deceased.  Way cool?  Certainly these bystanders from the group seem to think so.  (Sorry about the flash, guys)

Today was even more travel by bus.  First up to Lavinium, where we saw the famous 12 altars (apparently they discovered another 2 recently) of the supposed Latin League and the 'Heroon of Aeneas'.  Yes, Aeneas is buried there.  I even stopped in a coffee shop named the Caffe 'Enea which proved the identification.  The Lavinium Museum was a bit silly, designed to appeal to schoolchildren and get them interested in the history of their area - but even so had some interesting artifacts.  Then we rushed off to see Lake Nemi and the famous ships of mad emperor Caligula.  (Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed there.)  The real tragedy is that these ships, which were recovered in the 1930s, were burned up by the retreating Germans during World War 2.  On that account, the museum now holds 1/5 size models - and even those were impressively sized.  I cannot imagine what the full ships must have looked like.  Just gigantic.

Finally, on our last stop of the day, we parked the bus next to an example of a Roman aqueduct, the Aqua Claudia.  I won't say much about these, except of course that they are awesome example of very practical architecture.  But it was extraordinary that even today the modern city of Rome runs a gigantic water pipe along the exact same course.  I suppose when modern and ancient peoples have the same problems, they tend to find very similar solutions. 

With that said, I think I am heading to bed.  The Villa Guilia and Villa Borghese tomorrow!  

The First Few Days

So, as I mentioned before, I made it to Rome.  Another city I can totally get lost in - although the busy first few days of the program have kept me from wandering off too terribly far.  I just found a decent map that shows some of the major bus routes, so from now on I'll become a little bit braver and perhaps crazier in my travels.  So far, however, I feel a little bit like a baby duckling - must follow the group!  And the spectacle of 25 people trying to make their way through the cramped and winding streets has been quite humorous.

But here, photographic PROOF that I have arrived in Italy!

Yes, that's me with Cicero!  Do you know what the red background means?  It means you're not supposed to take pictures.  (shhhh....) Fortunately another member of the program ran interference for me by distracting the museum guard and a second snapped my photo, Gopher hat and all.  Coniuratio Quam Propria!  (How appropriate a conspiracy!)

The whole program has a chronological organization which is rather interesting, but so far it has consisted mostly of jokes that "here's the remain of a Palatine Hut - that temple of Magna Mater is NOT HERE YET."  Or "don't look over THERE!"  because over there is the Basilica of Maxentius or some such.  

  

And the Monument of Victor Emmanuel?  Yeah, that is definitely not there.

Back to the chronological arrangement.  This means that we've been running about trying to get a sense of Etruscans, early Greek influence, and Regal Rome (The Rome of the 7 legendary Kings).  You know, back when the Forum was a swampy drainage.  

How exciting!  (Well, it's only a model.  But you get the idea.)

The accommodations here are actually rather amazing now that I've had time to process it a bit.  We have complete access to the American Academy Library and grounds at virtually any time, which is an amazing resource.  In addition, there's a pretty full library at the Centro itself and space to spread out a bit and enjoy the night air (without air conditioning, this is suddenly a rather important consideration).  Plus, the food has been absolutely amazing.  I am not kidding when I say they ring a bell to call all the current residents to both breakfast and dinner, but I can't really blame them because the food has been wonderful.  2 course meals, with dessert, for every dinner?  One could get used to this.  Plus, they're even willing to explain how to eat these traditional Italian dishes - and yes, it's definitely more than just spaghetti.

Anyways, with that I'm going to conclude.  It's currently 9:30 here and I'd like to do a little bit more reading before I head off to bed.  Gotta prepare for tomorrow's trip and what I'll do during my free afternoon.  

Checking in from Italy!

Well, I made it to Italy.  What a flight!  I'll save that story for when I had a little bit more time - suffice to say there was a particularly ridiculous English bus trip, a near miss of the connecting flight, and finally, a bag handler strike in Rome that left my baggage lost for 2.5 hours!  Woo.

I can't get photos up at the moment, as I just have a little bit of time before I need to head down to the Forum.  But the welcome here has been fantastic, the people friendly, the accomodations are... a little 'cozy' (rustic?) but definitely manageable.  And the sights - awesome.  I'm having a ball so far.  Now I just need to find time to do some of the readings for this week.  Hopefully next time I can get my laptop connected to the wifi and give you a real update. 

Pictures? Please work, please please, pretty please...

Dare I try to upload a few pictures?  I'll give it a go...

Here's looking down on London from the top of St. Paul Cathedral.  Whoa, pretty...  It was also extraordinarily windy up there.

The inside of the restored Glob Theater.  They were setting up for Doctor Faustus on stage.  Just in case you were wondering what that thing is on stage, well, it's the devil.

Only the British Museum would do this, and then have the nerve to call it the 'Reserve Room' of Greek Vases.  That is, not good enough to go into the 'real collection' downstairs.  Not that they don't have some fantastic stuff set up in their main Greek and Roman display area...

A Sleepless Night

            The past few days have been pretty wild – I am actually really enjoying this whole ‘travelling alone’ business.  It’s actually quite relaxing because there’s no one else to consult about what to do next or where to go.  If I feel up to it, I go do it.  If I don’t, I take a break and sit down for a few minutes and then head out again. 

            You should see the hostel I’m staying at, it has some seriously bare-bones accommodations.  I’ve got a bunk bed in a room with 7 others, a place to lock up my more important valuables, and a rudimentary kitchen in the basement where they serve a complimentary breakfast of corn flakes, nutella, and toast!  Not exactly the traditional English Breakfast (all that ham, mmmm) but it does get me going in the morning.  And unlike everything else in this crazy city (except the museums – boo yah!), it’s free.  One of my major impressions of London as a city is that it is extraordinarily expensive.  I don’t know if everyone is secretly eating ramen or if they’ve got some secret cheap restaurants out in the burbs, but every meal seems to take at least 8 pounds.  So thank God for that free breakfast and the 30 pence rolls at Tesco.

            On another note, this will be yet another picture-less update as the internet at this wacky hostel is somehow not able to handle pictures.  Maybe they’re afraid that if they did, everyone would use up all the bandwidth.  I just don’t know.  But in any case, hopefully once I get to Rome and get settled I will try to upload some of my photos from today.  And there are some seriously cool ones coming.  I’ve got the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the inside of the restored Shakespeare’s Globe.  I’m actually quite disappointed that I wasn’t able to get tickets to see the current show in the Globe.  But they were sold out of all tickets (even standing room only tickets!) for a production of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.  Now that would be a cool play to go see in a period theater!  Nevertheless, I took the tour of the new Globe, saw a swordfighting demo, learned about bear-baiting and the history of the south bank area, etc.

            The highlight of the day, however, had to be St. Paul’s Cathedral.  It is a magnificent building, to my American Protestant eyes which are used to bare wood and a nearly iconoclastic avoidance of figures it is perhaps even opulent or garish.  But if it isn’t beautiful, I don’t know what is.  Still, and I suppose this is a very ‘provincial American’ reaction, there is something creepy about the memorialization of war heroes (and by extension imperialism) in a place of worship.  I’m not saying it’s wrong (who am I?), but it is odd to have monuments to Nelson, Wellington, and the Blitz in the building of a religion of peace. I did, however, appreciate Admiral Nelson’s monument, which was decorated with four sleeping lions representing war which his actions had ‘put to sleep’ as it were.

            But those were all in the Crypt, the highlight of that visit was in the other direction: the seemingly endless ascent to the top of St. Paul’s Dome.  I believe they said it was around 500 stairs to the top (maybe 560?), but however many it was the trip is completely worth it.  And I finally lucked out and caught some sunshine up there.  But you climb and climb and climb, up to the Whispering Gallery, then another 100 steps up to the Stone Gallery, then another 150 up winding narrow metal staircases to the Golden Gallery.  If you have a fear of heights, avoid it.  But what a view of London!  The Cathedral, a 400 year old building, it still virtually the tallest building in the entire London skyline and you can see the city stretching all the way to the horizon.  It gives you a sense of the sheer magnitude of the place.

            And if I’m yammering a bit, forgive me.  I’m on a bit of a coffee binge at the moment.  I scheduled my flights very stupidly (7:15 am from Heathrow – what idiot... oh, right) and unfortunately the Tube doesn’t run early enough to get me there in time.  So that means I’m taking a Night Bus (route N9 to be exact) at around 3:30 am local time to make sure I have time to get through security for my flight to Frankfurt and then... Rome!  So I’ve decided, rather than trust myself to an alarm clock, that I will simply accept that I should not sleep tonight.  Instead I plan to get some rest on the planes.  This may not exactly do wonders for my mood, but at least I won’t miss my flight.  Once there, I’m going to be hopping a train from Fiumicino up to the Trastevere Station (and that ought to be fun for someone who doesn’t speak Italian) and then hoofing it up to the Centro.  So ‘tonight’ and ‘tomorrow’ (is there a difference?) could turn out to be quite interesting...  But I’m sure I’ll survive.  Next update will most likely be coming from the Eternal City itself.  Here I come!

Short and Sweet

The internet here is really pretty bad and it's taking forever to load photos.  In addition, I don't really want to bore you with the minutia of my day - but I really got all over the place: Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Tower of London (the tour by the Beefeaters is pretty hilarious!), and, of course and over and over again - the British Museum.  If I get a better connection at some point I'll try to upload photos.  But for now all you're getting is an apology.

But - hey, I'm a real Londoner now.  I got stuck on the Underground for half an hour!

Strangest thing about London: 50% of joggers are wearing backpacks.  That seems odd.

Thing I miss most about America: Ubiquitous public restrooms.  Yeah, those would be nice.

Coolest thing so far: I got a kick out of the Winston Churchill War Museum.  And the fact that there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln (!) in Parliament Square.

Pictures from the First Day

A Statue of Caligula?  1st Century Horseman from the Rotunda

The Parthenon Marbles!  Woo!

There's Lord Nelson, glaring down at the nation he saved.

Reporting from London

What a set of flights!  Woo!  First I had a 4:00 from Minneapolis, which left me in perfect position for an 11:20 out of Toronto – and then... the Air Canada service workers’ strike!  But don’t worry, it didn’t actually affect me, because they forced management to cover the shortfall somehow.  Don’t ask me, but I did get to see a Canadian talking head yelling like Glenn Beck on the airport news.  And I didn’t even know they had conservatives in Canada!

            But all in all, the flights weren’t terrible.  I was able to sleep most of the way once the flights got going, so now, sitting in London, I’m not feeling jet-lagged yet.  Tomorrow, however, remains to be seen.  I think I’m just going to go without an alarm clock and see what happens. 

            Back to the events of the day!  I did manage to figure out the London Underground, rode the Picadilly Line to Holborne.  I found the hostel fairly easily, although I have to say London’s streets here are just an unimaginable labyrinth.  I can see I’m going to be carrying around a map 24 hours a day – and dreaming of it too!   I found my way to the British Museum.  That, of course, really wasn’t hard since it’s all of a block away.  My planning in that respect was excellent.  I haven’t done the whole thing – who could in an afternoon?  I also can't seem to get photos to work at the moment.  But give me a minute.

In any case, after that, I looked at my watch and figured I’d go for a walk.  There’s only so much museum even a man like me can stand.  So I headed down to Leicester Square, found some dinner, got lost – wound up staring at Lord Nelson – and then bought myself a discount ticket to see Pygmalion at one of the many theatres in the area (did you notice the British spelling?  It’s an affectation).  That was great fun actually, but towards the end I started to feel tired.  In fact, that’s also going to be my excuse for this short short blog entry.  Best, my friends. 

A Few Fun Photos

Howdy ho!

I just went out to test the new camera around Minneapolis by walking down to the Walker Art Museum (did I mention it was free today?  No?  Oh well - it was fun)  Anyways, I wanted to play with a few more gadgets on the blog to make sure it's ready for photos.

So, how do they look, my friends?

A Graphic Re-Design

Phew.  I put a little bit more thought into the graphics around here.  What do y'all think?  Any suggestions/comments?

Preliminaries

The day is fast, but not fast enough, approaching when I will be off to Italy and Rome.  It will be a fantastic trip.

Here's how the whole thing shakes out, for those not yet in the know.

June 14th - depart Minneapolis for London

June 14th - 18th - Brief Stay in London, just booked myself a stay at a hostel right next to the British Museum.  But I am currently soliciting advice/suggestions for my brief stay in London.  What would you do if you had 4 days there?

June 19th July 31st - American Academy at Rome Classical Summer School (AARCSS - yes, that's supposed to be a helpful acronym)  I will be staying at the Centro for 6 weeks going through intense study of the material culture and development of the city of Rome.  This is, theoretically, related to my dissertation somehow.  Wink.

August 1st - 13th - Vergilian Society Summer Tour in the Bay of Naples.  A bit more touristy, but also a fantastic opportunity to explore a bit more of Italy.

August 14th - Happy Birthday to me!  Oh, and an extra free day in Rome to prepare for the return trip.

August 15th - Return Flight.  And hopefully the end of an epic summer.  "whoa" epic.

This is only a test

I wanted to test out this new blog, so here's a post.

Oh!  and a Photo!  Here's the Hagia Sophia from my last jaunt abroad.  (Will this work?)