Rome, Page 1: The First Few Days in Rome, Italy!
Elizabeth and I stayed at a really cute hostel our first night in ROme, before classes started with some of the other girls from our trip. Here is Elizabeth sitting in the lounge as we regained energy to go out and get lunch (after hauling all of our stuff from the airport).
Apparently a lot of hostels are very close together in Rome, because we ran into almost 10 other people from our trip. We spent the afternoon together, had dinner as a big group, and went to see some of the sites in the evening.
This is what I came "home" to that first night. It was an adventure staying in this "dorm room" for the night. It was nice to move into our appartment the next morning, and know that the only people around were people I knew.
The first thing on the first day of class: the Roman Forum. We studied ancient Roman history briefly, as a basis for our study of Renaissance and Baroque Art and History in Rome. This forum was once the center of law, commerce and politics, before it became ancient ruins.
At the end of the Forum is a "Triumphal Arch", built to commemorate a leader's conquest. This one commemorates Emporer Titus' sucessful sack of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. I thought it was interesting that as part of the commemorative decoration, a menorah is carved, to show one of the most important menorahs of the Temple in Jerusalem. Sadly the actual menorah was lost after it was taken by this guy Titus, and this is one of the only surviving pictures of it. Since it was so important, the Israeli government, when founding their nation in 1948, used this exact picture, just like this, to be the symbol of its army. If you look at any IDF (Israeli Army) badge, it looks almost identical to this carving!
Since my apartment is only a block or two from the Pantheon, some of us went to go visit it one evening. It looks really cool, and there is a great ice cream place pretty close.
One of our big projects while in Rome is that every student must present a significant monument to the class, including its history, who built it, etc. I was assigned the Piazza in front of St. Peter's Basilica, so my friend Julia (a fellow Physics major) came with me to visit the Piazza, so that I would know what I was talking about in my presentation.
Of course, a classic picture of the awesome outfits the Swiss guards get to wear.
Me, with one of the fountains in "my" Piazza
On the way home from the Vatican, Julia and I decided to take a scenic walk along the river.
Lisa, our Art History Professor, knows a lot about Rome, and knows some little secrets. This is a random courtyard that we passed on the way to get somewhere the other day. It was absolutely gorgeous, but we never would have seen it if she hadn't known about it. This city certainly has a lot to it!
You can't go to Rome and not see the Colosseum! So there it is.
The inside of the Colosseum. It must have been amazing to see when it was still new.
Here are our other 2 Professors (they both teach International Studies - since they came as a family, they tag-team during classes watching their daughter), their daughter and one of my co-students, Geoff, who is about to explain the Colosseum to us. (Kathie is wearing the black shirt, and her husband/co-professor Resat is wearing the brown. Their daughter Melise is in pink, and Geoff is wearing blue).
One of the many seemingly-random "old things" in Rome. We learned about this column right after we finished at the Colosseum.