Palazzos

6/31 So my last couple of blog entries haven't been exactly awesome, and I apologize for that. Of course, at this point, I've fallen so much in love with the city that I would rather be out and about inthehan hiding out blogging all afternohaveon. ThisAndll  whole trip has had a positive affect on me. For one thing, I feel like the loose traffic laws and crazy drivers have made me braver. :D

This blog will be a little more awesome though because we actually got done with our day a little early, so while I'm too worn out to do any walking, I'm not  falling asleep due to coming home late.  XD  

So, today we got a tour of Villa Farnesina, which was Agostino Chigi's (a papal banker) sort of vacation home. The interesting thing about this place was that it had a lot of old GrecoRoman mytholgical themes, such as the ceiling on the banquet hall telling the story of Psyche and Eros.

We also saw a couple of Palazzi (palaces) that belonged to Roman papal families. One was Palazzo Farnese and the other waa Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. Palazzo Farnese is significant because it was the home of whomever was the family of the pope for that time. Currently, it belongs to the French government, so I need to bring my passport there for some reason. Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne was funny because people at that time were not allowed to have elaborate portals along the road of the papal procession, so what the did was recess their portal behind Roman columns.

After that, I had lunch with my classmates, Thomas and Dylan. They actually went on this trip together as a couple. And they were kind enough to let me join them for lunch while the others had a more expensive lunch elsewhere. I had spagetti carbonera for the first time, and it was delicious. I couldn't finish it though, worse yet, it's very rude to not eat your entire meal in Rome. Thankfully, Thomas helped me finish it. Dylan thinks the mozerrela she had was buffalo mozzarella,  and it had a very chewy taste. It was weird.

I went on a mighty hunt for this gelato place that my one of my parents' World of Warcraft buddies, Jorge, recommended. I thought it was called Gelato Valentino, but I could find no such place. Per Jorge's instructions, I searched around the McDonald's a bit north of the Pantheon (man, that sounded badass for some reason XD) and next to the McDonald's (which, by the way, was still too crowded for my comfort). The closest thing I found was this place called Illy Creme. It was yummy though. :D Not sure if that was it. I have contacted Jorge with a request of confirmation on the matter.

Unfortunately, my excursion doubled with my lack of sense of direction, I got stupid lost and ended up about 15 minutes late for my meeting at Santa Maria del Travestere. Every local I asked for directions thought I was talking about a different church of a similar name. XD Lucky for me though, I didn't miss anything because they were having a mass not on the mass schedule. I went inside to take a look (as a fellow Catholic,  not a tourist, sitting in the pew and everything), and it looked like there was a small, intimate family mass of some kind. The inside of the church was absolutely gorgeous though. The golden mosaic ceiling just glittered brilliantly.

The last place we went was the bascillica of Saint Cecelia.  It was a beautiful church. There were white marble statues with drapery that was made in the 1920's, and the drapes looked like cloth instead of marble. It was so unreal.

The day ended with Andrew and I going to Santa Maria del Popolo in hopes to look at the art we would be doing our presentation on, but we got there too late and they closed up. It was sad. The Leonardo da Vinci museum was right next to the chur h, but closed 30 minutes early! XD oh well, we'll get it next time.

7/1 There were a couple readings we needed done for the class, of course, this is an eight credit class every bit as it has been an experience, which is very easy to forget now that im actually here. In relation to the events that will take place this morning, the required reading involved the Pallazzo Borghese was written by Patricia Waddy. In this segment, Waddy describes the purpose and functions of the papal palace throughot the fifteenth century starting with the fact that it was built Pope Paul V Borghese in 1608 in preparation for his possible visits in the summertime. The reading goes on to describijg a few key terms, such as QUADRO RIPRTATO the central field of ghe vault, SALA DEI PALFENEREI the guard room, RETROCAMERA service room, and PORTIERA or leather fabric hanging from the door, as these are some of the architectural and decorative elements  the visitors would see as they enter the palace.

It was also nice to read that even though the upper class who knew the family were probably given the best accomodations, people from the lower classes who dressed their best were still welcomed in the house, but since there were about two million Romans, and not enough space, Swiss guards were charged with keeping the house from flooding with guests.

As with a large multitude of houses and churches, the coat of arms was a prominant thing in this house as well. For instance, Antonio Barberni in 1653 inserted the coat of arms belonging to the King of France in order to gain favor with him.

And lastly, the most important thing about the place in my opinion; the art. Paintings by Carvaggio were displayed in the palace along with a multitude of devotional paintings and portraits of the papal family were displayed throughout the piano nobile in 1644. I cant't wait to see this art today.

Busy tour through Rome

Today was insanely busy. There was so much crammed into one day. Today was also the Feast of St.s Peter and Paul. Just about all the mom and pop stores were closed, but there were a lot more businesses open than I thought there would be. I had mele e porchette for the first time. It was very yummy.

After orientation, we hopped on the 46 bus to get from the Vatican to the Rome city center. Apparently, it's a hotspot for pickpockets, but at this point, I feel like it's no longer something to worry about. I have some advice for people wanting to go to Rome: just stay away from the Internet.  There's so many horror stories about pickpockets, but, honestly, just have a neckpouch, stay alert, and know where your phone and money is and you're fine. I realize I was way more paranoid than I should have been. XD

We took the bus to San Clemente basilica.  The reason why this place is so amazing is because it has just about every Roman era all sewn together, frome 2 bc to the Byzantine era (with the golden mosaics) to the Florentine Rennaisance period. We went down into the underbelly of the church where it showed the old Roman ruins from before Christianity. There was also an altar to Mithras, an old sun god that was worshiped privately. This was a religon that came from the east. The altar was Persian because the clothes on the figure on the relief sculpture were Persian.

Here's a link to a picture of it (I didn't take this photo. We weren't really allowed to take pictures)

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/images/cimrm339_altar.jpg

There was also evidence that it might have been an arisocratic house, probably Clement's because of the pattern that wealthy people turned their homes into churches so that Christians could worship in secret during Roman persecutions. The early Christians must've appreciate the coolness of the underground during the hot days.

After that, we met with a tour guide who gave us a tour of the Old Rome. We walked by the gardens where Romulus and Remus supposidly founded Rome, the Collusuem, the old Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill. The tour guide showed us artist renditions of what they might have looked like before in their original glory.

There were so many other things saw too, like Bernini's Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi, the fountain of Neptune, and the Altalre nella Nationale. I fell in love in love with that last building, but apparently, the local Romans hate it for multiple reasons one of which I remember was that the marble hsed to buld it was from Milan, and not Rome.

Beggining of Program, the Vatican, and Making New friends

Harg. I already posted an entry about my journey today, but when I tried to incorperate photos, the post got corrupted and I had to delete it.

So, in sequence, here's what happened today:
The study abroad program started today
I had to say goodbye to the nuns to go to my student housing
I met with one of my classmates, whom I met at Pallaza del Quatterno yesterday for dinner, and we took a taxi to my apartment, then walked to hers
There, Ellie arrived, and we went into Vatican City to find that the pope had made his final appearance if the season, and we did not get to see him
Two of my housemates, Andrew and Momo, arrived, and we got to see the Russian Orthodox Church, and a much better view inside the Vatican as the crows had dispersed

For school, I had to read Mixed Views by various authors from the late 1800s. It seems that Rome isn't always met with positive reviews. Many of the letters seemed to have found Rome overrated, underwhelming, or overwhelming (not the good kind). I wasn't in a most alert state of mind when reading this article, but from what I gathered, I believe a lot of reasons these authors may have responded the way they did could be due to any number of things; culture shock, irritability from traveling, having other expectations, or just pure snobbery. I found one entry particularly interesting where Henry Jame's traveling companion, Miss Garland, is lamenting over the fact that Rome is changing and the past is becoming dead and obselete. I interpreted this as to her sorrow relating to Roman buikdings either lying in ruins, or being replaced by the new in comparison, Catholic art. Her words sounded like that of a distraught woman aging or facing the rapid changes caused by the recent Industrial Revolution.

2nd Day in Rome

Hey, everybody! So, this is my second day in Rome and my last day here before the program starts. It's currently 2pm and I'm hiding out in my room! Disclaimer: I talk about my feelings a lot in this blog in the beginning.

This trip so far has been molto pazzo in more ways than one. Last night was a traumatizing nightmare the tended to fix itself up nicely. Now, it has been traumatizing in a sense that I never get traumatized, and what I went through was a piece of cake compared to other tourists, im sure. Last night, I had a fit of anxiety because the wifi at the convent stopped working for me, even though it was showing itself at full strength. This meant I couldn't get in touch with my family, whom I miss very much. What's worse was that I tried to call (I knew it would be expensive, but at that point, I didn't care) and I found that my phone couldn't even make phone calls. Now, I'm not completely dumb, I knew that phones worked differently overseas, but I'm on my boyfriend's phone plan, and he's traveled practically since he could barely walk and assured me before I left, talked to our provider even, that there wasn't anything to worry about, so I didn't. Turns out our provider is a group of big, fat dirty liars, because that wasn't the case.

I then realized there would be no way for my teacher or International Student Center get ahold of me if need be. I THEN realized I forgot to write the address of my apartment and the student center,  and since the wifi wasn't working for me, that pulling the addresses from my student email wasn't gonna happen. I kept telling myself to let it go, and deal with it in the morning, but I couldn't get to sleep. So, against my better judgement, I went downstairs to tell the receptionist my problem, mostly wanting to talk to someone rather than fixing anything. At the desk were two of the nuns. I told them in Italian thatni was sorry, but my Italian wasn't any good. They called one of their staff who could speak English to come help me. I heard them say, 'Ragazza' (girl). I like to think they said, "There's a crazy girl at the desk who only understands English, please hurry! She looks like she's about to break out crying!"

The staff member they got was very sweet. She told me the problem was probably that everyone was trying to use the wifi at once, and that was likely the cause. She let me use the receptionist wifi, that actually did work better. She also served as a bit of a therapist too. After we got the wifi working, I couldn't help but tear up I was so relieved. She kindly asked me why I was sad. In response, I apologized and assured her my first day in Rome was a wonderful experience, and I've always dreamed of coming, and now I'm here, and the city is so beautiful, but I've never been anywhere by myself, was tired, scared, and was missing my family. She then told me what I already knew, but just needed to hear: it was going to be okay. She told me I was in the most beautiful city in Italy. I believe her, but I tell people that about Portland in the states. XD I got the addresses I needed, and sent an email to my folks and boyfriend that I was feeling better,  then emailed my teacher to let him know I was having phone issues.

After, I went to bed, a feeling of relief washed over me, and the loud concert about half a kilometer away sang me to sleep. It was a welcome change from sleeping on an airplane. I woke up a couple hours later, and couldn't get back to sleep due to the lack of noise. I got an email from my boyfriend ten minutes after waking back up. He went to our provider and got me on an international plan!

I got up around 7am, had breakfast, then set out on my second adventure. I still took quite a few pictures, and made a couple videos, but not as many as I would like, especially later in the day with all the crowds. I felt paranoid that somebody would grab my phone while I was trying to take pictures. I did take pictures of things that I thought were really cool though. :) My plan for today was to go to a church that took confessions in English. The only one that was available to do that was Santa Sivestro. On the way, I went to the Pantheon. When I was there yesterday, it was completely packed, and I only got to see the outside. This morning, to my surprise, there was hardly anyone there. I went inside, admired the art, but the coolest thing about it was standing in front of Raphael's bones. As an arist, it's hard to imagine a cooler experience.

The church I was looking for, San Sivestro, was located in a large piazza of the same name, but I found it. That was a beautiful church too. I think it actually has a relic of St. John the Baptist. It was fascinating to see the age of the church. It had a beautiful celing mural that is somewhat faded, and it had what looked like bullet or shrapnel holes on the wall behind their enormous, lifesize stone statue of Mary. It could have been parts where the plaster was just losing its integrity, but my imagination ran wild there for a moment. They were supposed to do confessions at 10 am, but the priest wasn't there, so the nice Irish receptionist told me to come back 15 minutes before noon mass started. I thought, 'Okay, I've got time to kill and a gorgeous city to spend it in, so here I go.'

I then found a McDonald's.  Now, my mother advised that the one of the strangest things you can do is go to a very American fast food place in a foreign country. So, I went inside, but I realized that I wasn't hungry, and it was still like 10:30 and it was nowhere near lunchtime. Being in there was strange though, it was kind of fancy and had gelato and coffee up front, but you got your burgers in a basement floor. I thought I'd come back around noon and eat then: That was a really stupid mistake. I'll explain why in a minute.

So, I came back in the church, and I made my confession. It was a very interesting experience, the priest was very kind, and I feel like confessing my wrongdoings, immaturities, and listening to his advice and wisdom put me on another of many stepping stones towards maturity and growth. Having confession here, in the capital of my religon, especially far away from my family, forcing me to be more independant... I can't describe this feeling very well. I feel more at peace. In better control of myself. This is stark contrast from my infantile emotions of lonliness. Here, in my room, I still feel somewhat anxious, but it's nowhere near as bad as yesterday, or even this morning.

On my walk, I found a chocolate shop ran by this older couple. The lady did not speak any English, but i understood enough and spoke enough to have a conversation with her. She even took my picture, after warning me about pickpockets. Harg, one of my biggest anxieties. I was wearing a pair of tight jeans with a small dress, so I figured as long as I stayed alert and avoided crowds, I'd be fine. And I was. After that, I went back to the McDonald's and guess what I found! Crowds! So, that plan was a bust, but that was okay, I'm here for exactly two more weeks, and I'm sure I'll have many more chances. Hopefully I'll find a Starbucks instead,  they're evil as Hell, but they tend to taste better than McDonalds. Sometimes.

So, I got to see glimpses of  the Trevi Fountain, the Column of Marcus Areleous, Trinita Dei Monti, and I unknowingly went really far east and saw the outside of the Terme di Diocleziano, I think. That was probably the most crowded place.

Woo! Made it to Rome! First day!

So, I'm currently in my hotel room, which is at the convent, Santa Lucia Filippini. I was originally planning to take the train to Rome from the airport, but after giving it some thought, I figured since I don't know the city too well, suffer from jet lag, and found it would be a thirty minute walk from the termini, I decided to splurge on transportation and take an official Rome taxi.

I'm glad I did. The taxi driver was super nice and on the way to my destination she played tour guide and told me about the different places to see on the way. Even better, when we found my place (she didn't know where the convent was until we got there, finding it based on the landmarks I knew from Google maps. XD) we were on the opposite side of the road, which she insisted she would not let me off there because traffic was bad, and pedestrians I guess are viewed as expendable here. There isn't a whole lot of organization on the road like there is back in Portland. So, my taxi driver drove around until we could get to the other side of the street.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with Rome, I know what you're probably thinking, that by taking scenic routes and driving some more so I can get to my place safely, that it would bring my meter up. The official Rome taxis have a set rate of 48 euros, so she had nothing to gain by doing all that for me. ^_^

I got to the convent, and one of my paranoias was that my room wouldn't have been saved. I wasn't sure how reliable the booking site was. Turns out they had my room ready! :D I was having trouble with my outlet adapter at first, but, as it turns out, I didn't push it in all the way. This made me very relieved. My phone is charging a little slowly, but not too bad, and the wifi was also being slow, and  causing problems, but it looks like it's fine now. Wifi was also giving me problems at the airport. So I couldn't send my family a 'got here safe' message. That was very stressful for me. I typically prefer to be around my family, so being in another country far away from them with seemingly no means of communication is almost kind of traumatizing, but I just got an email back from my boyfriend, so now I feel much better and I'll get over it.

Heh. I feel dumb. Out there is an ancient city filled with wonders and beauty and here I am stressing out about technology and keeping in touch with me loved ones at home.

At the Airport

Whew! What a day! I'm currently at the Chicago O'Hare airport awaiting my flight into Rome. My boyfriend dropped me off at the Portland airport really early this morning so that I could get here. This is my first time traveling outside the country. Heck, this is my first time traveling alone. I almost didn't want to go. Right now, underneath all this fatigue, I feel exasperated with excitement,  but I can't help but feel absolutely terrified. This feeling will go away once I actually reach Rome tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure of it. :)

Unfortunately,  there was a bit of an issue on my journey. As it turns out, there was a fire in Fumencio several weeks ago, and it's messing up the flights as repairs are being done. Because of this, I will be leaving Chicago at 9:00 pm instead of 6:00 pm. Thankfully, my flight was scheduled in the morning, so I will be getting there later in the afternoon. I don't think I mind the long layover so much either. It's nice to have time to eat, blog, and read. I was dumb and didn't think to bring my pencils, so I can't draw. -.-

Maybe there's a shop around here that sells pencils... hm...

First post: Packing and Overview

Hey, everybody!
This is my first post regarding my study abroad trip to Rome. For those of you who don't know me, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ashley West. I'm twenty-three years old, and currently pursuing my bachelors in art history with a minor in chemistry. If this sounds like a weird combination, it is, but this is because my plan is to pursue my Masters degree in art conservation.

So, that's my goal for the future. In the present, I am procrastinating on the rest of my packing and  blogging in front of the television. In three days, I will be taking the plane from Portland to Chicago, then finally, to Fumienco airport in Rome.

This is for a 2-week long, 8 credit study abroad trip for art history specifically specializing in Rennaisance art and architecture.  Everyone in my class was assigned a work of art and will be giving a 30 minute presentation in front of the art. My art is the Chigi Chapel. This is a mortuary chapel of the Chigi family in the Renaissance period. The chapel was designed by the famous old master, Raphael. It also has statues a couple of which are St. Jerome and St. Mary Magdelene. These were built by Bernini years later in the Baroque era.

I will be heading downtown this afternoon to do some more research.

This concludes this entry. I wilk write again tomorrow.