Ancient Tombstone Inscriptions from the Capitoline Museum

This one says "Hunters, we have chicken, fish, ham, and peacock for lunch." Seems like a profound statement to put on your tombstone.



And more poetically... "Fare well going,
Fare well returning"

Vatican Museum

Vatican Museum photos... sorry if they look like blurry, nebulous blobs (no flash allowed):



Michelangelo's first commissioned sculpture depicting Mary holding Jesus



A fresco series. At this point I was lagging behind the group and got lost. So I was not able to hear who their creator was.



Raphael's depiction of Christ rising into heaven. This painting is actually 10 ft tall and incredibly detailed.



Here, I am focused in on Mary from the above Raphael painting. His paintings were some of my favorites--they are so intrinsically constructed and cleverly symbolic.



Outside in the courtyard.









This is actually a tapestry of the risen Christ emerging from the tomb, and it was fascinating because his eyes follow you as you walk past. I have no idea how that was managed.



This is Saint Peter in prison "San Pietro in Vincoli" when an angel appears to him and his chains miraculously break.



Outside the Vatican...think Angels and Demons.







These guys wouldn't let us cross the street to walk back to Campo de Fiori. So we waited for about twenty minutes and then we saw the pope! Well, I just saw his hand and part of his face, as he waved to those his entourage passed.



These nuns were very excited



On the walk back

Sunday Porto Portese Market

Sunday morning I got up early to visit the Porto Portese market. However, it turns out that it doesn't really matter how early one arrives at the market...it is always packed with throngs of people. An eclectic agglomeration of venders gather to market their wares--everything from car parts to hair products. The market extends forever. It took me two hours to walk from one end to the other, and I did not even venture down the numerous side streets.

Ostia Antica

This morning our group got up bright and early to take a bus and a train to Ostia Antica. Ostia Antica was the main port for Rome in the 2nd century, notable for its bathhouses and salt storage facilities. In a way this trip was much more fun than the visit to the Roman Forum because we got to walk through the actual ruins. Only 2/3 of Ostia Antica has actually been excavated. The rest is waiting to be pieced back together.







Look at the crazy way this brick wall was put together!



It was a beautiful day, so we went to the beach!


(the hatted figure in the distance is Yuting, not me.)

The beach was full of people and vendors trying to sell their goods, but it was a very relaxing venture nonetheless. The water was warmer than that of the Puget Sound (did I even have to mention that??) and tasted less salty.

some little notes

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Sadly, the McDonalds empire has slowly begun to infiltrate Rome... I blame the tourists.



Me. And un caffe. Coffee is rich, strong, and I like it a lot. It took me awhile to diagram the Correct Procedure for taking coffee like a local.

1. Take a seat at the bar.
2. Italian greetings AND ordering in Italian.
3. Receive coffee.
4. Throw it back in 3 gulps (partly because I am always reminded that I am not to sip it and partly because 3 is a good number).
5. Feel eyes brighten and mind awaken.
6. Move towards the door and place money on the tray (do not directly hand it to the person. This is rude.)
7. Smile brightly at the server because they are now an integral part of your morning.
8. Signal your departure with the appropriate goodbyes.

Updates, uploads, and away!

So here are some new snapshots of what I have been doing the past couple of days. I found out that I have to give an art presentation tomorrow instead of the original monday date, so I have been madly researching and synthesizing information for the past couple of days. So, I will edit this entry later to include more details and all of those personal anecdotes that I know you appreciate...



A visit to the Coliseum.



And the Roman Forum.



This represents a visit to the Joe Nafuma Refugee Center at the Church St. Paul's within the Walls. This is just a piece of artwork on the wall that I thought beautiful. I will explain more about the center LATER.



Beck and I with gelato. We were celebrating your birthday, Emily.



The inside of the Pantheon.

Until later... buongiorno!

Oh, I also rode a bus for the first time here! It was a fascinating experience! I don't know why I like buses so much...

A gecko fiasco

Those of you whom I have "skyped" (be not judgeful of my verbization)have been the recipients of a proud 360 degree pan of my living space. To those of you who have not seen my little apartment-- it is an adorable and cleanly living arrangement about three times the size of my dorm with its own kitchen, bathroom, 10 foot tall shuttered window, and two closets. So for the first couple of days I was content to ignore the odd sounds emanating from behind one of the cabinets. When the squeeky/frog-like noises became consistent my roommate and I decided to investigate... moving the cabinet was no small feat because I am inept at moving large furniture(as most of you know well). When my roommate had the cabinet moved a fair distance from the wall she began shrieking about something black and moving. I peered around her to find that the black and moving thing was actually a pair of stationary yellow geckos (she has bad eye sight).

Geckos are substantially less scary than baby mice... but we freaked out nonetheless. (I do not normally consider myself a squeemish person, but something about things crawling around in my space makes me overreact.) Now that we knew there were two additional life forms in the apartment, we could not rest until they were relocated to a different habitat. So for about two hours we commandeered all the tupperware, pots, and pans that we could find in an attempt to contain the geckos. Of course at that time there was no one else on our apartment floor to hear our panic and talk some sense into us. We eventually trapped one in a collander on the wall (the collander was important so that it could breathe. We didn't want a dead gecko on our hands!) but we lacked tape in order to secure it. So I continued to chase the other gecko, but he eventually disappeared under the kitchen panel. I dropped butter knives in there in an attempt to scare him out (it made sense at the time) but to no avail.

This is when I heard someone out in the hall, and ran out to get some help... and tape. Guess who it was? Two of my professors and their daughter. I think they were a little confused about what exactly was the problem, but once they entered our room they understood that we had reached a level of madness, and it was better to just go along. They helped us tape the collander to the wall and promised to call the center in the morning to find out what could be done.



It wasn't until after our professors left that we took a good look at the room and realized how ridiculous the whole thing was. The entire room was in disarray. Pots and pans were all over the place, class notes littered the floor, and our beds were piled high with a mountain of items that had been on the floor obstructing our sight of streaking geckos. All furniture had been pulled from the walls, we had sequestered all edible items in the center of the kitchen table, and had constructed a bridge of chairs in order to reach the door without stepping on the floor.

We made a memorable impression on our professors.

With one gecko still on the loose we considered sleeping in shifts, but in a stroke of maturity we abandoned that idea.

The next day we coerced an office guy from the UW's Rome Center to remove our collander gecko. And then we were told that geckos mate for life and rarely move from their established homes. So we just disrupted the natural order of our apartment and separated two geckos who could have had a full and happy life behind the cabinet. How terrible.

Wandering Surprises

These past couple of days have been free days, and in that free time I have been wandering the corners of the city. For the amount of time I have walked around, I have seen an great amount. Usually by accident, though, so I do not know the historical importance and gravity of what I've seen, but I am impressed nonetheless. Beauty is literally everywhere, and every building and corner is unique. You just have to concentrate on a building for a little while, pick it apart with your eyes and you discover layers and layers of history... with a layer of graffiti bordering its base.

Here is a little taste...



...eating pizza bianca. I have a slightly disgusted look on my face, but that is just because I am trying to listen, eat, and take a picture at the same time. Apparently it takes a lot out of me. I am really thinking "wow, this is fantastic!"




Me in front of a water fountain. There are water fountains in just about every square, and tucked into odd little corners.



A street shrine to the madonna-- these are also prolific throughout Rome.



This is the Ponte Sisto over the Tiber River. There is a night market alongside the Tiber River that opens as soon as it is dark. It's a little carnivalesque, and geared towards tourists, but fun nonetheless.



This is the rooftop view from the Rome Center (not my room, from my room all I see is a water heater).



This morning I tried to go to Piazza Novana. Instead I found the Italian National Museum (which literally stopped me in my tracks from sheer awesomeness), a dozen magnificent churches, and this elephant obelisk!



This is what sheer awesomness looks like. See the tiny people?




This was taken on a bridge over the Tiber river. Couples put locks on the bridge's facades for good luck... to symbolize their eternal love.



This is what clothing shops in the campo look like. Erin, I took this picture just for you... so drink it in.

Right now an anti-religion rally is going on in the Campo de Fiori around the statute of Giordano Bruno. It's noisy, and I wish I understood Italian, but I am going to go watch! Buona sera!

First Impressions

So far Rome appears to be a very eclectic place. Yes, the crazy drivers and traffic are amazing. The driver from the airport to the campo had a very flexible approach towards traffic laws. At one point I saw a motorcyclist duck his head nonchalantly to avoid being hit by the van's mirror. One thing that has surprised me is the amount of graffiti. Maybe it's the particular subsection of Rome that I am in, but graffiti is just about everywhere.

Say hello to Bruno...



Other shots from the Campo de Fiori...