Rome is Where the Heart is: Thursday Oct 13th: It Just Kept Getting Better

Thursdays are my Ginny days, where we travel around on our Conservation and Forma Urbis field studies together all morning. We started off to IES so that Federica could finish our discussion of xrays, then we hopped a couple buses and hiked up a hill (turns out we ended up on top of the Spanish steps) to reach Villa Medici. I believe the Villa is a garden/park/museum type place? Not really sure. We just breezed through the door and waltzed past the off limits ropes up to a garden area. Federica led us to the studiolo (small study) of Ferdinando de'Medici which is right above the Aurelian walls. When the French Academy took possession of the estates they painted the walls with whitewash, covering up one of the most scientific and precise (and earliest) depictions of North American wildlife which was frescoed on the ceiling. This fresco was uncovered in the 80's and restored, but the ethics, techniques, and goals of restoration have changed drastically since then. There is a team working on the studiolo now undoing or revising what they can from the previous restoration and simply "enhancing" what is already there, not adding or altering the original work. Surprisingly watercolors are one of the preferred tools of conservationist today. There are people getting paid (very little money, but still) to sit and listen to their ipods as they watercolor all afternoon in some of the most exclusive and exciting venues in the world!! What a life. We were permitted into the small room amid scaffolding and tarps and a wheelbarrow and buckets and many things I do not know the name of in English, with all of the workers and their bright white overalls and hoodies. That was really really cool to go inside where they were working. We couldn't see the ceiling very well but through the slits we got some glimpses...... then Federica and her best friend who was running the show took us up the ladder onto the scaffolding to examine it up close. Zero restrictions on photographs, I touched the fresco and examined it under raking light. So. Incredibly. Awesome. We had full private access passes to a work in progress with very funny Italians. It was such an amazing morning and I never wanted to leave! If you check the title of this entry though, you know that it only gets better from here (what a starting point!)

View from the back gardens at Villa Medici

Romping through the gardens

I really like this picture

Looking up at the ceiling through the scaffolding
We thought this was as close as we could get until....

Climbing up the ladder

ta-da! Ginny and Lauren

Jamming to their ipods ignoring us to continue watercoloring

Peacock fresco

Guy on the right was in charge and Federica's friend

Blurry picture of me

Next stop? Il Colosseo! For my Forma Urbis class we met Gianni at the Arch of Constantine for a quick review of the Valley of the Colosseum's layout. We then headed into the Colosseum for a tour with Gianni. After walking uphill to Villa Medici the very tall steps on the very steep staircase in the colosseum were not appealing, but climb I did. (Just now realizing how much climbing I've done since Thursday morning, you'll catch on shortly).At the top Gianni stopped and let us take a bunch of pictures, then proceeded with his lecture. At one point somebody asked about the authenticity of the movie Gladiator, thankfully he fully loves and supports that movie! He then broke down four or five scenes from the movie and used it to help teach our class. So cool. Of course he's worked on the colosseum before but no special tours this time. I learned lots academically, can't seem to remember anything fascinating or cool at this moment; except perhaps that when Nero was emperor he builts the Domus Aurea (Golden Palace) which was huuuuuge all the way around the valley and onto the three hills and he created a lake in the valley, exactly where the colosseum stands today! They used the foundations from the man-made lake to support the colosseum. The history of this area and the structures around it really exemplify the role of emperor and his goals as well as the interests of the public and their daily lives. We walked all around and up and down the colosseum looking at the bricks and arches and travertine. Gianni explained everything in a concise, interesting, and informative way just like he always does. After the colosseum we went out to the Arch of Constantine again so we could discuss it. I'm not quite a huge fan of the arch just because he stole from older monuments (including the Nerva Forum) to create his triumphal arch. Rude. Just pay people to make new art and stick it on your arch instead of defacing such treasures! In reality I can't be entirely upset with the arch because it is really cool and connects a lot of emperors together. Gianni apparently wrote a thesis book about the arch so he went on and on and on. I love him, it's all very interesting, however I had to run back home to do some last minute reviewing for my Italian midterm and pack for Florence! He finally let us go so Ginny and I came back to make lunch (at 4pm), study, and I packed. I was only a little bit rushed and no disasters.

Outside the colosseum

The wood pretending to be a sand platform hiding
the basement rooms

Amanda was so happy to be here!!

Colosseum

I chose the right day to rock the gladiators
Gianni even complimented them

Picture inside the colosseum

I really loved the scenic views from the upper level
(maybe more than the actual building?)

Detail of Hadrian's tondi

Snapped a picture of the Arch of Titus from the Colosseum

Dacian prisoner on the attic of Constantine

Arch of Constantine

I sat for my written Italian midterm which was ok. We watched an interview with Audrey Hepburn from the 80's, turns out she is entirely fluent in Italian! Brava bella! Tom and I got out of our test early so we walked down the street to the kebab place and got sandwiches/wraps made from freshly shaved meat on a skewer. It was a little bit spicey but delicious. We walked back and met up with Julie to go to the bus stop, stopped by Fillipo's for Julie's dinner of pizza. Rode the most crowded bus ever to Termini, found one street was closed off and had to stay on the bus along an alternate route taking another ten minutes. Once at the station we met up with the others (Aven, Mattly, Pepperoni, and Gatto) to catch our train. The train ride was so much fun, in fact the entire weekend was a blast! The combination of our personalities magically balanced out to perfection. On the train Gatto, Mattly, and I were in one cabin and watched Gladiator on Mattly's computer (since Gianni mentioned it this morning). Aven, Julie, Tom, and Pepperoni played card games in the cabin next door and there was some floating between the two. We brought two bottles of wine for the two hour trip and some higher power was on our side because nobody drank more than is prudent (when going to a city you don't know and trying to find a hostel at 9pm), everyone was laughing and having a good time, and Gladiator was timed perfectly! We caught the credits while the train slowed to a stop in the station. From the station Pepperoni led the charge to the hostel which was very close and we didn't make any wrong turns. We all shared one big room, there were two double beds so two boys and two girls doubled up but otherwise everyone had a bed and plenty of space. There were two bathrooms on this floor (there was one other larger group on our floor and one quiet couple you'll hear about later). A great hostel, thanks to Sara's apartment for the tip from their previous weekend in Florence.

We are like three year olds on the train

Turning our seats into beds

Once we were unpacked and settled we started thinking about the evenings activities. While a couple of us were in the mood for a bar or quieter scene Julie's need to boogie won us over and we tried to find some clubs online. I texted my high school friend Lexi who is studying abroad in Florence for ideas and she hooked us up with three or four places. We decided to try Twenty One, a bar very close to our hostel which has a Wed-Sat special, 3 drinks for 10 euro. Considering the price of a single drink at a club is normally like 5-8 euro this was a bargain! We went exploring and found a place to grab pizza on the way to the club, once there we were told it doesn't open until midnight (it was 11:35) so we decided to explore more until then. In our wandering we stumbled upon the duomo piazza accidentally. Seeing Giotto's bell tower (one of my favorites) rise above me with the piazza opening up in front of me at night, with nobody but my friends around, that moment will remain with me forever. We were all in high spirits and laughing and running around so happy to be in Florence, and there in front of me is one of the most decorated and innovative buildings in Italy. Pure joy.We found a bench to sit on and admire the church until the club opened. Just after midnight we were starting to get chilled so we headed back to 21. As many of you know I'm not really a dancer, I'm not really a girl who enjoys "clubbing". Overpriced drinks, cover charges, drunk people, creepy people, loud music, and nonstop dancing aren't that appealing to me. I had so much fun at 21!!! The seven of us were the first people to show up (so cool right?) and we found out there is no cover charge!! That is unheard of in Rome except sometimes girls can get in for free. So for 10 euros we bought a punch card for three drinks that was good until Saturday night at 1am. We took over the dance floor (since there was nobody to compete with) and tried some new drink ideas. I loved every minute I was out that night. We had a blast and danced for hours! At one point somebody was a little tired and wanted to go home, we all look at eachother and agree "yep, we're tired too! let's all go back together and go to sleep!" It was the most cheerful thing departing together and dancing ourselves the two minute walk back to the hostel. The clean hostel and comfy bed was nice to come home to. What a night. What a day. I would say perfect, but if you can believe it Friday was even better. I've dubbed Friday the most perfect day in Italy thus far. An amazing academic morning and a great beginning to our Firenze trip.