We got up at 6:45 this morning to be in line at the Vatican for the free Sunday entrance by 7:45. We were still about a half a city block back from the entrance, where we waited until 9am for it to open, but by the time we went came out hours later, there were literally thousands of people lined up, zigzagging back and forth in front of the entrance in a mazelike queue and then lined up around not one, not two, but three of the Vatican's pointed corners.
Our first stop was a brief walkthrough of the Vatican Pinacoteca, where we really only paused to see Raphael's Transfiguration and Caravaggio's Entombment (incredible!). Then we traversed the extremely packed Egyptian gallery to get to the ancient sculpture hall, where after years of waiting, I finally saw the Augustus of Prima Porta statue in person! I've liked that statue since Dr. Rose's Roman art class, sophomore year of college, and it was in cleaning when I was in Rome before. Of Augustus I can only say: I'd hit it.
Then we went to the Cortile Belvedere, which houses the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvedere, some really giant Roman marble bathtubs, and ludicrous large Gorgon-esque masques (amid many other important pieces of statuary, but this is what I took away). Between each of these stops, meanwhile, there's like miles and miles of corridors filled with frescoes, painted maps, coins, etc. Finally, we make it to the Raphael Rooms, which are exquisite, and the Sistine Chapel, which is still kind of surreal, mostly due to its height. There were the obligatory loud "SHHHHHs" from the guards, as well as my favorite: "Silenzio...no foto..." plus a bonus Italian tour guide yelling at some people "don't take photos! this is a holy place! where do you think you are?" Um, in one of the most important art historical monuments of the Western world, that's where. Zip it.
Finally, I discovered to my dismay that only tour groups, of which I have previously always been a part, get to use the special staircase that shuttles you right to the Basilica. Us commoners had to take the long way out, which was still filled with beautiful things, and culminated in like a five story spiral bronze staircase. We decided just to go see if the basilica was open, so we go around to the Piazza and find it thronged with thousands of peope, probably the most people I've ever seen in one open space. It is of course noon on Sunday and the pope is blessing the crowd from his window, high above the piazza. He greeted everyone in Italian, French, English, Spanish, and German, which is pretty impressive, and the various nationalities cheered as he spoke to them. We took a couple photos and left, because none of us are Catholic, it was just fun to see the pope! Like spotting Brad Pitt, only less attractive and annoyingly against birth control.
After a spot of lunch, we headed to the Colosseum, where we discovered that today was the Giro della'Italia, the second most important race besides the Tour de France, and that Lance Armstrong was somewhere amid the cyclists. Because the Colosseo metro stop lets you off on the opposite side of the road-cum-racetrack from the actual monument, we had to take a very circuitous route to get in. It was, as before, anti-climatic for me, and we managed to miss the first group of cyclists as we walked from archway to archway on the upper level, so Lance was probably among them. We had to content ourselveswith the stragglers, each of whom was preceded by a cop on a motorcycle, and followed by his personal coach, who at one point we could actually hear yelling to the cyclist to step it up.
After the colosseum, there were grand plans to visit the Domus Aurea, but we had been going since such an early time that we were all totally drained, so we returned home, where we found Alice waiting. Now we're waiting till an appropriately continental hour to go out for some dinner, and then I need to reread Alberti, Pico della Mirandola, and some other theorist before class tomorrow. Whoot!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Forum Boarium, Palatino, and Forum Redux
After our orientation today we had a brief walking tour of Rome for those who had never been...basically we went from Piazza del Popolo to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Then Caitlin, Bailey and I (Alice has still not yet arrived, as of 10pm) went and found lunch, which included some awesome strawberries from a street vendor, and then decided on an ambitious walking tour that took us all the way down along the Tiber to, we hoped, the Baths of Caracalla. Along the way we stumbled on the Forum Boarium, with the Temple of Portunus, which I recognized, and the round Temple of Hercules Victor, which I had never seen before. Across the street was the Bocca della Verita, but we decided to pass on that tourist trap, which had a long line. It was a perfectly beautiful day, and the road by the river was shaded, so it was really lovely. Eventually we wound up seeing what we thought was the baths, but which turned out to be one end of the ruins on the Palatino, which we only realized as we continued up the street and suddenly saw the Arch of Constantine from the other side. So we bought the combined ticket for the Palatino, Forum and Colosseum, and spent about four hours wandering around. It was really, really beautiful--there are gardens up on the Palatino, and amazing views out over the Forum, and Augustus' house, which has gorgeous intact frescoes with the most stunning color of red (photos on facebook!). All the flowers are in bloom here, and there are huge bushes of oleander and honeysuckle plants everywhere.
Sadly, the grocery situation is not as simple as in Florence, where there was a Centro or Conad everywhere--there are only private groceries in this neighborhood it seems, and things are more expensive. The fresh food is also very anemic looking, so we have to wait to go to the open market next week. Plus, no mozzarella, even the Mukki packaged kind! Wtf? We're going to Florence this weekend, though, so I will gorge myself on food from Conad and the central market. Ahhh.
I like Rome more this time around than I ever have before. I think the weather, which has been a pretty ideal temperature, helped a lot. My roommates are really cool, too. We're going to try to be in line at the Vatican at 730am tomorrow morning for the free Sunday. Ticket office opens at 945--this should be fun...
Sadly, the grocery situation is not as simple as in Florence, where there was a Centro or Conad everywhere--there are only private groceries in this neighborhood it seems, and things are more expensive. The fresh food is also very anemic looking, so we have to wait to go to the open market next week. Plus, no mozzarella, even the Mukki packaged kind! Wtf? We're going to Florence this weekend, though, so I will gorge myself on food from Conad and the central market. Ahhh.
I like Rome more this time around than I ever have before. I think the weather, which has been a pretty ideal temperature, helped a lot. My roommates are really cool, too. We're going to try to be in line at the Vatican at 730am tomorrow morning for the free Sunday. Ticket office opens at 945--this should be fun...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Live from Rome, Friday Night
This is the view from the wrap-around balcony at our apartment...
The Forum, which my roommate Caitlin and I prowled around this afternoon, despite the forum being actually closed when we got there, and my beloved Augustus statue across the street being blocked the by the stadium seats set up for the celebrations on June 2, the 45th anniversary of the post-fascist republic.
Vatican City at night. 'Nuff said. Also, it was followed by gelato...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Buon Viaggio
Consolation
How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.
How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.
There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon's
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.
How much better to command the simple precinct of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyes camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?
Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the word for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress
known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.
And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the owner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal
what I had to eat and how the sun came in the window.
It is enough to climb back into the car
as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.
~Billy Collins
After rereading this poem, I looked up the word for ice: it's ghiaccio in Italian and hielo in Spanish. I guess I'm all set then!
Here's to the hopes of an incredible month and a half of European adventure!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Post-Wedding and Pre-Departure
So I kinda got married, and it was awesome. No, seriously: I think that might have been one of the most fun nights I've ever had. First of all, despite more than a week of weather predictions that showed rain and thunderstorms on our wedding day, it was cool, it wasn't humid, and the sun was out and stayed out until we had already gone into the tent for dinner. Even though it rained for a little while, it only made the gardens more beautiful as the sun went down. Our justice of the peace got lost and showed up at about 5:05, which was the main source of stress directly before the event; there I am, looking out the window of the bridal suite at 4:55 at Sean, who is supposed to be trying to figure out if she's here yet, but who is instead chatting up Dr. Davidson, and meanwhile my wonderful bridesmaids are trying to convince me that it's OK, except it's really not OK if your officiant does not make it to the ceremony. But she did, and even better, she immediately ordered the guys to all button their tuxedo jackets even though Sean had decreed that he wanted them open, so I loved her for that.
The ceremony was wonderfully brief! Everyone laughed at the Odgen Nash poem, and again when Sean emphasized the "for richer or for poorer"during his vows. The JP gave us the wrong rings at first, because of course the plain one should be the guy's and the one with diamonds should be the woman's, right? Wrong. Anyway, no one tripped, my sister's dress stayed up (the other source of pre-ceremony angst, my sister's infuriating presence), and it all went off swimmingly. Unfortunately, Rae's parents missed the ceremony, but we did manage to get the NWC group plus parents photograph that I wanted. Everyone looked amazing: the girls' dresses, another cause of angst pre-wedding, looked great on them, and the chocolate tuxedos worked out perfectly. And the flowers!! I loved those damned bouquets. Best shade of orange EVER. And I don't even like orange, in fact I generally hate the color, but in this situation it was just perfect. Sean looked so handsome, and I have to admit that I looked pretty damn hot myself. It's amazing what you can do with professional hair and makeup and a pair of Spanx. Amazing.
I really can't get over how gorgeous everything turned out. The florist who did our centerpieces was an absolute wonder; Linda and I talked to her less than a week before the wedding and she was so enthusiastic about making them all different and all looking like they came out of a garden, and they really did, they were beautiful. Everything was beautiful, even the freaking tent, which turned out to be something so grand that Phyllis commented that you could throw down some Oriental rugs and live their all year. Our DJ was great; his over-the-top personality, while slightly grating in normal conversation, was perfect for the occasion. I have never had that much fun dancing in my life, I can say that much--for some of the evening, Sean's friends were all gathered around the bar, but toward the end of the night, everyone was on the dance floor, and it was just, frankly, the best day ever. And that was just what Sean and I wanted it to be--we wanted to have fun, we wanted our friends to have fun, and they did.
Oh, but the fun did not end after the reception...all our friends went back to the hotel and the neighboring bar, where apparently Mr. Schread, Sean's high school teacher who flew in from Wisconsin, was doing shots with the guys. The next morning everyone came back to the inn to get their cars and a bunch of us went for breakfast at the Vanilla Bean cafe (this is after Sean and I had eaten the inn's incredible breakfast: fruit salad, fresh squeezed OJ, warm banana bread, french toast, and the best bacon ever). Then goodbyes were said and Sean and I headed off to the lake to see Linda and to drop some things off with her, and then finally we made our way to Mystic, where we checked into the lovely Steamboat Inn, which is right on the water by the drawbridge. Later we had dinner with Anna and TJ, who had come to Mystic for the day. Yesterday we went to Mystic Aquarium, where sea lions might just be my new favorite animal after watching them perform, and then to Mystic Seaport, which was like a salty version of Sturbridge Village.
Anyway, we're home now, and tomorrow I pack for Italy. Wow. What a whirlwind! Saturday night Sean and I looked at each other and were like, what the hell do we do now? Lol. I can't believe all this wedding business is over...done with...gone! But in the end, it was all worth it. It surpassed every expectation that I had had. Plus, any party that can get Pinto to declare that it set the bar for all future weddings is obviously the shindig to end all shindigs. But that could also have been because he showed up alone and went home with Ward's date....
The ceremony was wonderfully brief! Everyone laughed at the Odgen Nash poem, and again when Sean emphasized the "for richer or for poorer"during his vows. The JP gave us the wrong rings at first, because of course the plain one should be the guy's and the one with diamonds should be the woman's, right? Wrong. Anyway, no one tripped, my sister's dress stayed up (the other source of pre-ceremony angst, my sister's infuriating presence), and it all went off swimmingly. Unfortunately, Rae's parents missed the ceremony, but we did manage to get the NWC group plus parents photograph that I wanted. Everyone looked amazing: the girls' dresses, another cause of angst pre-wedding, looked great on them, and the chocolate tuxedos worked out perfectly. And the flowers!! I loved those damned bouquets. Best shade of orange EVER. And I don't even like orange, in fact I generally hate the color, but in this situation it was just perfect. Sean looked so handsome, and I have to admit that I looked pretty damn hot myself. It's amazing what you can do with professional hair and makeup and a pair of Spanx. Amazing.
I really can't get over how gorgeous everything turned out. The florist who did our centerpieces was an absolute wonder; Linda and I talked to her less than a week before the wedding and she was so enthusiastic about making them all different and all looking like they came out of a garden, and they really did, they were beautiful. Everything was beautiful, even the freaking tent, which turned out to be something so grand that Phyllis commented that you could throw down some Oriental rugs and live their all year. Our DJ was great; his over-the-top personality, while slightly grating in normal conversation, was perfect for the occasion. I have never had that much fun dancing in my life, I can say that much--for some of the evening, Sean's friends were all gathered around the bar, but toward the end of the night, everyone was on the dance floor, and it was just, frankly, the best day ever. And that was just what Sean and I wanted it to be--we wanted to have fun, we wanted our friends to have fun, and they did.
Oh, but the fun did not end after the reception...all our friends went back to the hotel and the neighboring bar, where apparently Mr. Schread, Sean's high school teacher who flew in from Wisconsin, was doing shots with the guys. The next morning everyone came back to the inn to get their cars and a bunch of us went for breakfast at the Vanilla Bean cafe (this is after Sean and I had eaten the inn's incredible breakfast: fruit salad, fresh squeezed OJ, warm banana bread, french toast, and the best bacon ever). Then goodbyes were said and Sean and I headed off to the lake to see Linda and to drop some things off with her, and then finally we made our way to Mystic, where we checked into the lovely Steamboat Inn, which is right on the water by the drawbridge. Later we had dinner with Anna and TJ, who had come to Mystic for the day. Yesterday we went to Mystic Aquarium, where sea lions might just be my new favorite animal after watching them perform, and then to Mystic Seaport, which was like a salty version of Sturbridge Village.
Anyway, we're home now, and tomorrow I pack for Italy. Wow. What a whirlwind! Saturday night Sean and I looked at each other and were like, what the hell do we do now? Lol. I can't believe all this wedding business is over...done with...gone! But in the end, it was all worth it. It surpassed every expectation that I had had. Plus, any party that can get Pinto to declare that it set the bar for all future weddings is obviously the shindig to end all shindigs. But that could also have been because he showed up alone and went home with Ward's date....
Saturday, May 23, 2009
1,000th Post
Today is my wedding day!
I woke up at 6am AGAIN and then tried ever so hard to go back to sleep, but I could only manage to doze till 7 and then I said screw it, I'm up. I was so incredibly tired yesterday from the stress of the rehearsal dinner, which Linda and I agreed we spent way too much energy planning and doing errands for in light of how totally easy and informal it was. My sister even behaved herself admirably, only making a couple of comments on the ugliness of the dresses.
Now I have to wait ten more freakin' hours to get this show on the road. Sean commented last night that people are so taken aback when we say that we just want to get this over with--he said, wait till they have to do it, and then let's see if they're skipping through a meadow, la dee da, or if they're freaking out over 'did you call this person?' and 'did we remember to get that taken care of?" This is, bar none, the most stressful thing I have ever had to handle in my life. I took care of my mom's will and sold our house, blah blah blah--but it was nowhere near as stressful as this.
Speaking of my mom, I honestly haven't thought that much about my parents in the past few days. I guess I don't want to, because it will make me sad, and I don't want to cry at my own wedding, and certainly not because I'm a sad little orphan. But I do wish they were going to be there today, I do. I wish JTD were walking me down the aisle with his giant bear paw hands, and I wish my mom were trying to sit wherever she could best sneak away after the ceremony and not talk to anyone. This is the biggest milestone in my life so far that they're both missing; even college graduation, I think, was a little less big, and plus, even if they'd both been alive only one could have come to my graduation, since Jen graduated the same day from law school. I know that they would both be very proud of me, but I would do anything for one of my mom's patented iron-grip hugs before I walk down the aisle. Ah, and now I am crying on my wedding day, even though I said I wouldn't! As long as it's not during the ceremony, I guess it's OK.
Let's finish this 1,000th post on a high note: today I'm marrying the man who makes me happy!
I woke up at 6am AGAIN and then tried ever so hard to go back to sleep, but I could only manage to doze till 7 and then I said screw it, I'm up. I was so incredibly tired yesterday from the stress of the rehearsal dinner, which Linda and I agreed we spent way too much energy planning and doing errands for in light of how totally easy and informal it was. My sister even behaved herself admirably, only making a couple of comments on the ugliness of the dresses.
Now I have to wait ten more freakin' hours to get this show on the road. Sean commented last night that people are so taken aback when we say that we just want to get this over with--he said, wait till they have to do it, and then let's see if they're skipping through a meadow, la dee da, or if they're freaking out over 'did you call this person?' and 'did we remember to get that taken care of?" This is, bar none, the most stressful thing I have ever had to handle in my life. I took care of my mom's will and sold our house, blah blah blah--but it was nowhere near as stressful as this.
Speaking of my mom, I honestly haven't thought that much about my parents in the past few days. I guess I don't want to, because it will make me sad, and I don't want to cry at my own wedding, and certainly not because I'm a sad little orphan. But I do wish they were going to be there today, I do. I wish JTD were walking me down the aisle with his giant bear paw hands, and I wish my mom were trying to sit wherever she could best sneak away after the ceremony and not talk to anyone. This is the biggest milestone in my life so far that they're both missing; even college graduation, I think, was a little less big, and plus, even if they'd both been alive only one could have come to my graduation, since Jen graduated the same day from law school. I know that they would both be very proud of me, but I would do anything for one of my mom's patented iron-grip hugs before I walk down the aisle. Ah, and now I am crying on my wedding day, even though I said I wouldn't! As long as it's not during the ceremony, I guess it's OK.
Let's finish this 1,000th post on a high note: today I'm marrying the man who makes me happy!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Blergh
It's 6:22 in the morning and I am awake. There's dew on my car! I am never awake in time to see dew on the car! I think I drank a leeeetle too much last night, so my stomach still feels a little like it hates me. Whoops.
Confession: I've been putting up lots of small posts in the past week or so for a specific purpose. Tomorrow morning I will write my 1,000th post on this blog, on the day of my wedding. Booyah!
Confession: I've been putting up lots of small posts in the past week or so for a specific purpose. Tomorrow morning I will write my 1,000th post on this blog, on the day of my wedding. Booyah!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Poem
The River-Merchant's Wife
While my hair was still cut straight across my foreheadI played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.
~Ezra Pound
Two Days
It's a beautiful day today, it's going to be beautiful tomorrow, and it's going to be "cloudy with chance of thunderstorms" on Saturday! Super awesome.
I dropped off my dress, shoes and some other things at the inn this morning, and on the way home I talked to Carla, who arrived late last night. Now Sean is off getting a massage (why is the bride to be not getting a massage, you ask? Who knows!) and I'm kinda dirty because I weeded the back patio. I also talked to this girl Bailey who is the only non-Temple student doing the Rome program. She goes to Case Western in Ohio and she does Baroque art, so it will be very helpful to have her around in Rome, I'm sure! She's never been to Italy, or even abroad, before, which kind of took me aback, but she seems really nice, and she said she was dying to go to Tivoli, which is awesome because that's got high priority on my weekend-trip list as well.
And! Carla told me she saw this incredible exhibit on Bernini portrait sculpture at the Bargello but that it had closed already...but I just discovered that it runs until July. Yessss.
I dropped off my dress, shoes and some other things at the inn this morning, and on the way home I talked to Carla, who arrived late last night. Now Sean is off getting a massage (why is the bride to be not getting a massage, you ask? Who knows!) and I'm kinda dirty because I weeded the back patio. I also talked to this girl Bailey who is the only non-Temple student doing the Rome program. She goes to Case Western in Ohio and she does Baroque art, so it will be very helpful to have her around in Rome, I'm sure! She's never been to Italy, or even abroad, before, which kind of took me aback, but she seems really nice, and she said she was dying to go to Tivoli, which is awesome because that's got high priority on my weekend-trip list as well.
And! Carla told me she saw this incredible exhibit on Bernini portrait sculpture at the Bargello but that it had closed already...but I just discovered that it runs until July. Yessss.
Star Trek Cont'd
Sean and I rented Star Trek IV: The Journey Home tonight, and I laughed my ass off. I've never seen the original series, but as I told Sean I'm pretty sure there's no way the other movies can top Kirk, Spock and the rest trying to blend in with the 1980s in San Francisco. The plot of the movie: they have to travel back in time to bring some humpback whales back to their present so they can save Earth from an alien probe that is trying to communicate with the by-then extinct whales. Yes. It is a thinly-disguised "save the whales" movie, complete with a thrilling last-minute save of the whales in question from dastardly cetacean-killers. And it is hilarious.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Yessss
I finished the last of the Rome readings (whoot #1); I finally remembered to buy my ticket from Rome to Madrid (whoot #2); and I got straight As this semester (WHOOT #3!)
Monday, May 18, 2009
Prep Continues
Test-pack number...two? three? Maybe three, I don't remember. Anyway, this time I had everything in there, including guidebooks and conditioner (I figure I'll buy the shampoo over there, that really doesn't matter as much as the conditioning part), and my check-in bag clocked in at about 28 lbs. Which is not bad, for a month and a half trip, but part of me was kind of disappointed that it wasn't lighter. Boo.
I'm down to two readings left to do: Alberti's On Painting, which I picked up from the library today, and the last Lyotard essay. The other one I read was on the sublime and its relationship to the avant garde. Yes, it was about as interesting as it sounds...
I'm down to two readings left to do: Alberti's On Painting, which I picked up from the library today, and the last Lyotard essay. The other one I read was on the sublime and its relationship to the avant garde. Yes, it was about as interesting as it sounds...
Sigh
Weather.com, The National Weather Service, and even the freakin' farmer's almanac are allllll in agreement that it's going to rain on Saturday. Dammit!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
My Saturday Night
I spent most of the afternoon struggling to fix my computer, which has a particularly nasty case of malware that is preventing me from using anything that could possible remove it. My computer works OK, I just get annoying pop-ups that try to convince me to download Coreguard Antivirus protection, which is just a scam. Frustrating, but at least I have Sean's laptop for backup.
Sean's bachelor party (I originally wrote bachelorette...whoops) is tonight, so he's off living it up, while I am on the couch watching You've Got Mail (good movie!). OK, I'm a little less lame than that--Linda and I went out for a drink at a restaurant in New Haven, then we came home, and now I'm watching 1990s rom-coms. Not so pathetic, one would hope. I miss young Tom Hanks. He's old now, and getting kind of chunky. Although, hearing him talk on the Daily Show the other night, I still have affection for him. He's not one of those actors you'd want to hop in bed with (hello Christian Bale, temper and all) but I could settle for an amusing afternoon at Starbucks. Or I could lie on the couch and he could read to me. I think I'd have him read Lamb, I bet he'd do justice to the voices.
Ah, memories of reading our favorite passages aloud in Florence while we were trying not to go to sleep, the night we were leaving...Italy, here I come (again) in a couple of weeks! Whee! And thence to Spain. Sean floated the idea of going to Paris for a day or two in the middle of our trip--I wasn't really tempted, probably because I've already been to Paris, but then I heard about the exhibit on at the Petit Palais: 200 Byzantine art objects from Mount Athos, which is a monastic island colony in Greece that has been closed to women for over a thousand years, and still is today--sneaking in is punishable by three years in prison! They don't even have female animals, only cats. Anyway, these pieces have never been shown outside of Greece, and may never have been seen by female eyes before. Imagine that. Gah. Alas, it would really disrupt the trip to go, and I'm a firm supporter of doing one country, and really experiencing it, rather than the butterfly method of flitting from country to country. I'm in Spain, I want to know Spain. Another time we'll go to France, and then we'll do France, up, down, and sideways. I want to go to Normandy, I want to see the monastery of Sant Michele, I want to see the Louvre again and really spend an entire day there...and I do not want to be rushing, rushing, rushing, trying to pack everything I can see into 36 hours. Not for me. Alas, Byzantium! I'll buy the catalog, if they ever publish it in English.
Sean's bachelor party (I originally wrote bachelorette...whoops) is tonight, so he's off living it up, while I am on the couch watching You've Got Mail (good movie!). OK, I'm a little less lame than that--Linda and I went out for a drink at a restaurant in New Haven, then we came home, and now I'm watching 1990s rom-coms. Not so pathetic, one would hope. I miss young Tom Hanks. He's old now, and getting kind of chunky. Although, hearing him talk on the Daily Show the other night, I still have affection for him. He's not one of those actors you'd want to hop in bed with (hello Christian Bale, temper and all) but I could settle for an amusing afternoon at Starbucks. Or I could lie on the couch and he could read to me. I think I'd have him read Lamb, I bet he'd do justice to the voices.
Ah, memories of reading our favorite passages aloud in Florence while we were trying not to go to sleep, the night we were leaving...Italy, here I come (again) in a couple of weeks! Whee! And thence to Spain. Sean floated the idea of going to Paris for a day or two in the middle of our trip--I wasn't really tempted, probably because I've already been to Paris, but then I heard about the exhibit on at the Petit Palais: 200 Byzantine art objects from Mount Athos, which is a monastic island colony in Greece that has been closed to women for over a thousand years, and still is today--sneaking in is punishable by three years in prison! They don't even have female animals, only cats. Anyway, these pieces have never been shown outside of Greece, and may never have been seen by female eyes before. Imagine that. Gah. Alas, it would really disrupt the trip to go, and I'm a firm supporter of doing one country, and really experiencing it, rather than the butterfly method of flitting from country to country. I'm in Spain, I want to know Spain. Another time we'll go to France, and then we'll do France, up, down, and sideways. I want to go to Normandy, I want to see the monastery of Sant Michele, I want to see the Louvre again and really spend an entire day there...and I do not want to be rushing, rushing, rushing, trying to pack everything I can see into 36 hours. Not for me. Alas, Byzantium! I'll buy the catalog, if they ever publish it in English.
Scheduling
So in typical me fashion, I've attempted to plot out how I'm going to attempt to see the entirety of Rome in a month, taking into account that I have class Mon-Thu from 9-12:30, several required afternoon tours and two weekend field trips, and that many places have wacky opening hours/days of the week....
Saturday 5/30: 11am orientation at the school
Sunday 5/31: Vatican (free)
Monday 6/1: Ancient Rome
bus stop Gianturco, bus 628 eight stops to Piazza Venezia
Colosseum/Palatino
Circo Massimo
Roman Forum
Piazza della Boca della Verita/Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin (2:30)
Forum of Trajan
Vittoriano
Campidoglio
Santa Maria in Aracoeli (2:30)
Tuesday 6/2: afternoon perspective tour, dinner
Wednesday 6/3: afternoon screening (Borghese Gardens?)
Thursday 6/4:
Farnese Palace
Pantheon
Elefantino
Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Chiesa del Gesu (4-7:45, Loyola's rooms 4-6)
Piazza Navona
Palazzo Altemps
Santa Maria della Pace (4-6)
Friday 6/5: Train to Florence, Uffizi, Brancacci chapel
Saturday 6/6: day in Florence, Katti B&B, return to Rome
Sunday 6/7:
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (10-12, Sun only!)
San Luigi dei Francesi (7:30-12, 3:30-7:30)
Sant'Agostino (7:45-12, 4-7:30)
Chiesa de San Andrea della Valle 7:30-12:30, 4:30-7:30)
Galleria Pamphili
Monday 6/8:
Santa Maria Maggiore
San Pietro in Vincoli (3-6)
San Andrea al Quirinale (4-7)
Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quatto Fontane (3-6)
Baths of Diocletian (9-7;45)
Museo Nazionale at the Baths (9-7:45)
Tuesday 6/9: morning tour, 11am
Wednesday 6/10:
Domus Aurea (10-4)
Ara Pacis (9-7)
Mausoleo Augusteo
Thursday 6/11: Southern Rome
San Giovanni in Laterano 7-6:30
Baths of Caracalla (9-7:15)
Basilica di Santa Sabina (3-7)
Basilico di San Paolo Fuori le Mure (7-6)
Friday 6/12: trip to Naples
Saturday 6/13: Trastevere
Villa Farnesina (9-1)
Chiesa di S.Francesco di Assisa 7-12, 4-7
Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, 7-12:30, 3:30-7:30
Porta Settimiana
Janiculum
Orto Botanico
Tempietto di Bramante, 9:30-12:30, 4-6
Sunday 6/14: Cerveteri/Tivoli?
Monday 6/15:
Villa Borghese (pre-book) (9-7)
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (8:30-7:30)
Tuesday 6/16: afternoon tour, Sta Maria della Vittoria
Wednesday 6/17:
Capitoline Museums (9-8)
Thursday 6/18:
Appian Way
Catacomb of Callixtus (2-5)
Basilica/Catacomb of St. Sebastian (2:30-5:30)
Circo di Massenzio
Friday 6/19: morning visit Casino Ludovisi
Basilica di Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mure (4-6)
Santa Costanza
Saturday 6/20:
Galleria Colonna (9-1 Sat)
Or Vatican?
Sunday 6/21: Cerveteri/Tivoli?
Monday 6/22:
Tuesday 6/23: afternoon tour
Wednesday 6/24:
Thursday 6/25: goodbye dinner
Friday 6/26: depart for Madrid!
Saturday 5/30: 11am orientation at the school
Sunday 5/31: Vatican (free)
Monday 6/1: Ancient Rome
bus stop Gianturco, bus 628 eight stops to Piazza Venezia
Colosseum/Palatino
Circo Massimo
Roman Forum
Piazza della Boca della Verita/Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin (2:30)
Forum of Trajan
Vittoriano
Campidoglio
Santa Maria in Aracoeli (2:30)
Tuesday 6/2: afternoon perspective tour, dinner
Wednesday 6/3: afternoon screening (Borghese Gardens?)
Thursday 6/4:
Farnese Palace
Pantheon
Elefantino
Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Chiesa del Gesu (4-7:45, Loyola's rooms 4-6)
Piazza Navona
Palazzo Altemps
Santa Maria della Pace (4-6)
Friday 6/5: Train to Florence, Uffizi, Brancacci chapel
Saturday 6/6: day in Florence, Katti B&B, return to Rome
Sunday 6/7:
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (10-12, Sun only!)
San Luigi dei Francesi (7:30-12, 3:30-7:30)
Sant'Agostino (7:45-12, 4-7:30)
Chiesa de San Andrea della Valle 7:30-12:30, 4:30-7:30)
Galleria Pamphili
Monday 6/8:
Santa Maria Maggiore
San Pietro in Vincoli (3-6)
San Andrea al Quirinale (4-7)
Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quatto Fontane (3-6)
Baths of Diocletian (9-7;45)
Museo Nazionale at the Baths (9-7:45)
Tuesday 6/9: morning tour, 11am
Wednesday 6/10:
Domus Aurea (10-4)
Ara Pacis (9-7)
Mausoleo Augusteo
Thursday 6/11: Southern Rome
San Giovanni in Laterano 7-6:30
Baths of Caracalla (9-7:15)
Basilica di Santa Sabina (3-7)
Basilico di San Paolo Fuori le Mure (7-6)
Friday 6/12: trip to Naples
Saturday 6/13: Trastevere
Villa Farnesina (9-1)
Chiesa di S.Francesco di Assisa 7-12, 4-7
Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, 7-12:30, 3:30-7:30
Porta Settimiana
Janiculum
Orto Botanico
Tempietto di Bramante, 9:30-12:30, 4-6
Sunday 6/14: Cerveteri/Tivoli?
Monday 6/15:
Villa Borghese (pre-book) (9-7)
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (8:30-7:30)
Tuesday 6/16: afternoon tour, Sta Maria della Vittoria
Wednesday 6/17:
Capitoline Museums (9-8)
Thursday 6/18:
Appian Way
Catacomb of Callixtus (2-5)
Basilica/Catacomb of St. Sebastian (2:30-5:30)
Circo di Massenzio
Friday 6/19: morning visit Casino Ludovisi
Basilica di Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mure (4-6)
Santa Costanza
Saturday 6/20:
Galleria Colonna (9-1 Sat)
Or Vatican?
Sunday 6/21: Cerveteri/Tivoli?
Monday 6/22:
Tuesday 6/23: afternoon tour
Wednesday 6/24:
Thursday 6/25: goodbye dinner
Friday 6/26: depart for Madrid!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Cosi-cosi
Well, today was a bit of a mix! On the plus side, Linda and I spent most of the day exploring north-eastern CT, and it was a beautiful day for it. We arranged for table flowers and a mini-Venetian table to complement the cupcakes, procured a guestbook and double sided tape for the back of my dress, and ate lunch at this little Lebanese place in some town called Yantic. I got a feta wrap, but the beef shwarma wrap that Linda got was so delicious and better than mine that I brought one home for me and Sean to share. This place was like a mini version of Homsy's, the store in MA near my grandfather's house where we used to buy Syrian pepper (aka allspice), pignoli nuts, and Syrian bread--which, amazingly, they had, even though it was called Syrian-Lebanese bread. Syrian bread is a pita, but it's rolled very thin and is larger than most pitas, maybe a foot in diameter. The owner told me that they have it made for them at a bakery in Worcester. If you have to have it made to order, that explains why I haven't seen any anywhere since Homsy's closed except in a random foreign-food store in Florence, which of course was gone when I returned last year. Anyway, a supply has been found! Sean decreed that now we have to make hushwei so we can eat it Arab-style out of the Syrian bread. Yummy.
Later this afternoon I got a facial, which is always fun--except not really, because some of that stuff they use stings and itches (which, according to the woman doing it, lets you know it's working. Ooook.) Also, you always leave with no makeup on and giant red blotches if they extracted a blackhead, and yet the lady at the front desk assured me that I looked radiant. Please don't lie to me, just let me pay and go hide in peace.
Then I came home and discovered that Hubbard passed out in the entire hour I'd been gone and had been taken to the hospital by ambulance! She had really bad diarrhea the past few days and was severely dehydrated, so now they're keeping her overnight to give her fluids. Sean's aunt went with Linda, leaving us to guard Lulu, who is Michelle's brown, fluffy standard poodle. She looks like a Snuffleupagus, I'm not kidding! She is also very energetic, high-spirited, and strong, as I discovered when we took her over to the sea wall. She terrified some tiny little morsel of a dog that looked like it thought she was going to eat it, and I saw my first chow dog, which is kind of freaky looking. Sean took off to go see his friends, leaving me with the beast, but I think we wore her out. Meanwhile, my computer has a virus of some kind--I'm writing on Sean's computer, as I attempt to run Norton on mine. Ugh. No problems for years, I bring it to New Haven and bam, virus! I tell ya.
But let's finish with a positive--my friend Alice booked us a room at a B&B in Florence that's on Via Faenza, the same road as our school was on, and she insisted that it is her wedding present to me. No Hotel Tina with the bathroom door that doesn't exactly close, what!
Later this afternoon I got a facial, which is always fun--except not really, because some of that stuff they use stings and itches (which, according to the woman doing it, lets you know it's working. Ooook.) Also, you always leave with no makeup on and giant red blotches if they extracted a blackhead, and yet the lady at the front desk assured me that I looked radiant. Please don't lie to me, just let me pay and go hide in peace.
Then I came home and discovered that Hubbard passed out in the entire hour I'd been gone and had been taken to the hospital by ambulance! She had really bad diarrhea the past few days and was severely dehydrated, so now they're keeping her overnight to give her fluids. Sean's aunt went with Linda, leaving us to guard Lulu, who is Michelle's brown, fluffy standard poodle. She looks like a Snuffleupagus, I'm not kidding! She is also very energetic, high-spirited, and strong, as I discovered when we took her over to the sea wall. She terrified some tiny little morsel of a dog that looked like it thought she was going to eat it, and I saw my first chow dog, which is kind of freaky looking. Sean took off to go see his friends, leaving me with the beast, but I think we wore her out. Meanwhile, my computer has a virus of some kind--I'm writing on Sean's computer, as I attempt to run Norton on mine. Ugh. No problems for years, I bring it to New Haven and bam, virus! I tell ya.
But let's finish with a positive--my friend Alice booked us a room at a B&B in Florence that's on Via Faenza, the same road as our school was on, and she insisted that it is her wedding present to me. No Hotel Tina with the bathroom door that doesn't exactly close, what!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Formalities
We got our marriage license today! There was a moment of brief panic when she looked at our application and asked for our social security cards. Mine is in Philadelphia. In my head I was immediately calculating how much time it would take to get in touch with Phyllis and have her FedEx the card to me...but then the girl behind the counter said it didn't matter. Why they even bothered asking for it, then, is beyond me, whatever, we paid our $30, waited with a couple of other couples (including two guys, go CT!) and then, quite anti-climatically, received a form signed by the town registrar. Whoo?
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Done and Done
Today I finished my first year of graduate school! I am halfway to my master's and perhaps one-sixth of the way to my PhD. A couple of good things happened today; Dr. Bolman told me that I should consider marketing myself in the future as someone who can teach both Renaissance and Byzantine, since I've shown so much interest in the field. Then, I got the following email from the head of the grad program:
Dear Michelle,
The graduate faculty has met for our annual review of students. We note that you are making very satisfactory progress toward your Masters.
We have agreed to waive the comp in view of your background in art history and your performance.
We urge you to consider taking one of your excellent seminar papers and converting it expeditiously to a thesis.
The Cheshire Cat grin is therefore firmly in place. Even better: I'm getting married to the most amazing man in the world in a couple of weeks, and then I'm going abroad, and then on my honeymoon. Life, overall, is good.
Dear Michelle,
The graduate faculty has met for our annual review of students. We note that you are making very satisfactory progress toward your Masters.
We have agreed to waive the comp in view of your background in art history and your performance.
We urge you to consider taking one of your excellent seminar papers and converting it expeditiously to a thesis.
The Cheshire Cat grin is therefore firmly in place. Even better: I'm getting married to the most amazing man in the world in a couple of weeks, and then I'm going abroad, and then on my honeymoon. Life, overall, is good.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Oww
Somehow I managed to hurt my neck this morning while sitting on the couch planning out my sightseeing in Rome. I sit down fine, and get up forty-five minutes later with intense pain in my neck if I look to the right. Thank you, universe. Of course that didn't stop me from going through with Test Pack Number Two, after which I was able to eliminate a few items of clothing I decided I wouldn't need. I always try to pack as light as possible, but since we'll be moving around in Spain a lot, and without the benefit of the car we had in Greece, it is of extra importance not to be bogged down with crap!
Now I need to type up my notes on a few of the readings I need today, including St. Theresa of Avila's autobiography. Now, people have always commented that her description of the beautiful angel who pierced her in the heart with his spear repeatedly until she reached an ecstatic state sounds like lot like she was just having an orgasm, but combined with her description of the way she could be almost paralyzed, unable to move or communicate, for as many as three days after one of these experiences, sounds like something a little more medical and less mystical. After all, she herself acknowledged she was pretty sickly, and she died fairly young, so maybe she was just having some sort of seizure/hallucination combo? I also rolled my eyes when, after her endless reiteration that only people who are awesome enough to have experienced this pain/pleasure could ever hope to understand it, she also snarkily mentioned that if someone doesn't experience this exactly as she did, then their experience is coming not from God, but from somewhere else-- ie the Devil. Come on--if you believe God so omnipotent that you think he can stop time while you're getting your spiritual jollies(which she mentions), you really don't think he could manage to manufacture a variety of such experiences? Is he just that uncreative, or are you just that nuts? (Answer: the latter).
Now I need to type up my notes on a few of the readings I need today, including St. Theresa of Avila's autobiography. Now, people have always commented that her description of the beautiful angel who pierced her in the heart with his spear repeatedly until she reached an ecstatic state sounds like lot like she was just having an orgasm, but combined with her description of the way she could be almost paralyzed, unable to move or communicate, for as many as three days after one of these experiences, sounds like something a little more medical and less mystical. After all, she herself acknowledged she was pretty sickly, and she died fairly young, so maybe she was just having some sort of seizure/hallucination combo? I also rolled my eyes when, after her endless reiteration that only people who are awesome enough to have experienced this pain/pleasure could ever hope to understand it, she also snarkily mentioned that if someone doesn't experience this exactly as she did, then their experience is coming not from God, but from somewhere else-- ie the Devil. Come on--if you believe God so omnipotent that you think he can stop time while you're getting your spiritual jollies(which she mentions), you really don't think he could manage to manufacture a variety of such experiences? Is he just that uncreative, or are you just that nuts? (Answer: the latter).
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Tired
I got up at 6:30 yesterday so I could take the 9am Chinatown bus to DC. It was not a pleasant day for travel, cold and raining. Also, the Chinatown bus was slightly skeevy and the guy drove like a maniac in the pouring rain and occasionally yelled for one of the passengers to come wipe condensation off the windshield as he veered around other cars. Megabus and Boltbus are infinitely nicer, but alas, from Philly they only go to New York, not DC.
The day was pretty nice, though. I spent a few hours in the mostly-empty National Gallery, and then I decided, despite the rain, that I would walk down to the Lincoln Memorial and see the WWII memorial, which was not there when I last went to see the monuments in 6th grade or so. I actually really liked it, despite having been slightly prejudiced against it by this speaker I heard this semester who compared it to the work of Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect, and pointed out that contrary to its name, it's a monument, not a memorial. And it's true: the Vietnam Memorial is just that, a testimony to the thousands of individuals who died, but the WWII memorial/monument is in every way larger and grander, fitting for the last war that we feel like we can be proud of.
However, even as I found myself very affecting by the entire setting, I was conscious that this, too, is a performance; not only are there are no good wars, but we tend to focus on our bravery and to deny our complicity in letting WWII and, with it, the Holocaust ,happen. We focus on the fact that it was our push starting in 1941 that brought the war to its conclusion, which is true; we had resources and manpower that the other Allies, after years of fighting, sorely lacked. But just because we stepped in (when forced, by Pearl Harbor, to do so) and helped carry the day doesn't erase the years we spent vacillating on the sidelines. Isolationist arguments aside, we knew what was happening in Europe, and the government knew what was happening to the Jews--maybe not the full grisly details, but Eleanor Roosevelt received visits from Jewish emigres who told the government what was happening to the ones left behind and implored the Americans to do something, and we didn't, not until we absolutely had to. And even in the end, while we memorialized the troops who lost their lives, we only lost around 400,000, or 0.32% of the population. The Soviets lost 23 million people. 13% of their population died. Yes, they originally sided with Hitler, and yes, 'communists, bad,' but they still faced a loss unlike that of any other nation; what's more, could we have won the war without the Russians fighting the Germans on the Eastern front? Perhaps, but it would have been longer, costlier, and far bloodier for the Allies.
Thus, while I found myself affected by the ideals of patriotism, unity under a just cause, and American exceptionalism that the monument presents as historical fact, I had to step back and remember that this is what propaganda does. Someone said in class a few weeks ago that we'd like to think of propaganda as 'what the other guy does' but it's not true; it's all around us, in the Lincoln Memorial as much as in the war memorials--the ideological myth-making of the American people.
The day was pretty nice, though. I spent a few hours in the mostly-empty National Gallery, and then I decided, despite the rain, that I would walk down to the Lincoln Memorial and see the WWII memorial, which was not there when I last went to see the monuments in 6th grade or so. I actually really liked it, despite having been slightly prejudiced against it by this speaker I heard this semester who compared it to the work of Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect, and pointed out that contrary to its name, it's a monument, not a memorial. And it's true: the Vietnam Memorial is just that, a testimony to the thousands of individuals who died, but the WWII memorial/monument is in every way larger and grander, fitting for the last war that we feel like we can be proud of.
However, even as I found myself very affecting by the entire setting, I was conscious that this, too, is a performance; not only are there are no good wars, but we tend to focus on our bravery and to deny our complicity in letting WWII and, with it, the Holocaust ,happen. We focus on the fact that it was our push starting in 1941 that brought the war to its conclusion, which is true; we had resources and manpower that the other Allies, after years of fighting, sorely lacked. But just because we stepped in (when forced, by Pearl Harbor, to do so) and helped carry the day doesn't erase the years we spent vacillating on the sidelines. Isolationist arguments aside, we knew what was happening in Europe, and the government knew what was happening to the Jews--maybe not the full grisly details, but Eleanor Roosevelt received visits from Jewish emigres who told the government what was happening to the ones left behind and implored the Americans to do something, and we didn't, not until we absolutely had to. And even in the end, while we memorialized the troops who lost their lives, we only lost around 400,000, or 0.32% of the population. The Soviets lost 23 million people. 13% of their population died. Yes, they originally sided with Hitler, and yes, 'communists, bad,' but they still faced a loss unlike that of any other nation; what's more, could we have won the war without the Russians fighting the Germans on the Eastern front? Perhaps, but it would have been longer, costlier, and far bloodier for the Allies.
Thus, while I found myself affected by the ideals of patriotism, unity under a just cause, and American exceptionalism that the monument presents as historical fact, I had to step back and remember that this is what propaganda does. Someone said in class a few weeks ago that we'd like to think of propaganda as 'what the other guy does' but it's not true; it's all around us, in the Lincoln Memorial as much as in the war memorials--the ideological myth-making of the American people.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
WTF, Martin Jay
This gem is from one of the essays I have to read for Rome, entitled "The Rise of Hermeneutics and the Crisis of Ocularcentrism":
"Within linguistic interaction, there may be an implicit teleology toward specular hermeneutic consensus in which transparent intersubjective communication is achieved, but in our current world of distorted and impeded communicative exchanges, it is necessary to assume, in an "as-if" manner, the possibility of a monologic, objectifying gaze in order to examine the blockages."
What does that mean? I've read it four times. Your guess is still as good as mine.
"Within linguistic interaction, there may be an implicit teleology toward specular hermeneutic consensus in which transparent intersubjective communication is achieved, but in our current world of distorted and impeded communicative exchanges, it is necessary to assume, in an "as-if" manner, the possibility of a monologic, objectifying gaze in order to examine the blockages."
What does that mean? I've read it four times. Your guess is still as good as mine.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Rome
We had our orientation for the Rome seminar today. Alice and I walked into the auditorium and found it filled with about a hundred undergrads, the less well-heeled versions of the kids I studied abroad with three years ago. The study abroad people started off by showing a slideshow of images of Rome, but when they asked us to close our eyes and meditate on what our lives in Rome were going to be like, I knew there was trouble. Luckily, at that point, the equally-disgusted head of our program jumped us and whispered something to one of them, and then they announced that the Art and Culture students would be continuing their orientation elsewhere. As we left, they were beginning the part on "don't be freaked out by Italians invading your personal space." No thanks.
So there are nine of us; three photographers, two sculptors, three art historians, and one girl who studies English lit. Besides the English lit girl, who Alice and I requested as our third roommate, I'm pretty sure everyone else is over thirty. Listening to Dr. Singer explain the program and go over the syllabus, it certainly doesn't seem as god-awful as some of the other girls made it out to be; yes, it's intense, but he emphasized that they know these readings are difficult and that we're not philosophers, the intention is that by the end of each week we'll have grasped the arguments being presented and the consequences of accepting or dismissing that argument.
We have two trips outside Rome. For the first trip to Florence, they give us an open-ended ticket for the fast train, which is sweet (sweeter if I could stay with Carla). For the second trip, to Naples, we're going down and back on a bus in one day, which is going to be the definition of grueling, but we're going to see an active excavation site of a Roman villa in the Bay of Naples, and eat some Neapolitan pizza, duh. Dr. Singer is definitely a foodie, he kept reverting to talking about food, and how the bread in Rome is the best in Italy, and where we'll have dinner in Florence, etc. Thus, I will wind up having two weekends where Sat/Sun is free, which will still probably preclude me from going to Venice, because it's five hours away. Dr. Singer pointed out that the Biennale will be on at that point, though, so it's going to be even more of a madhouse there.
So there are nine of us; three photographers, two sculptors, three art historians, and one girl who studies English lit. Besides the English lit girl, who Alice and I requested as our third roommate, I'm pretty sure everyone else is over thirty. Listening to Dr. Singer explain the program and go over the syllabus, it certainly doesn't seem as god-awful as some of the other girls made it out to be; yes, it's intense, but he emphasized that they know these readings are difficult and that we're not philosophers, the intention is that by the end of each week we'll have grasped the arguments being presented and the consequences of accepting or dismissing that argument.
We have two trips outside Rome. For the first trip to Florence, they give us an open-ended ticket for the fast train, which is sweet (sweeter if I could stay with Carla). For the second trip, to Naples, we're going down and back on a bus in one day, which is going to be the definition of grueling, but we're going to see an active excavation site of a Roman villa in the Bay of Naples, and eat some Neapolitan pizza, duh. Dr. Singer is definitely a foodie, he kept reverting to talking about food, and how the bread in Rome is the best in Italy, and where we'll have dinner in Florence, etc. Thus, I will wind up having two weekends where Sat/Sun is free, which will still probably preclude me from going to Venice, because it's five hours away. Dr. Singer pointed out that the Biennale will be on at that point, though, so it's going to be even more of a madhouse there.