Monday 20th

So, this morning, I got up at six, fifteen minutes before my alarm clock went off. I actually purchased a special alarm clock that attaches to your pillow and shakes when the alarm goes off. I haven't needed to use it yet, I was just so intent on making sure I wouldnt miss class that I got up early anyway. Plus the natural dawn outside the window was as stimulating to me as coffee. Our room has a really stunning, gorgeous view of all of Rome, from the hill you can actually see from the top of the mountain where we are all the way down to the whole of the valley that Rome sits in. But there's no air conditioning in the hotel at all, so keeping the window open is crucial to keeping the room from not getting stuffy. So the fresh air woke me up too.

I padded around for about a hour and slowly got dressed and read books with the other two roommates (the fourth roommate finally came in yesterday, but was still asleep). The coffee was brought out at the last minute before we had to get ready to go on the train to Rome, so we quickly chugged it down. The train was packed on the way to Rome; the Italians really utilize public transportation here. It's really neat and pretty efficient, the trains are never more than a few minutes late. Termini Train Station on a business morning on Monday was utter madness, and our teacher walked a little bit too quickly for us, we had a hard time keeping him in sight with all the people walking back and forth in the train station. The train station is almost mall-like in construction (with the exception of the trains in the background, of course!) Right outside the train station was the best preserved example of the original city walls that the Romans built in response to the horror and humiliation of the Gallic invasion after the Gauls sacked and burnt all of Rome (except for the Capitol). The wall was just a fragment of what it used to be, about maybe 15 feet high and 45 feet wide, and made of a sort of yellowish volcanic stone called tufa. It was pretty incredible to see something that was at least 2,300 years old in the middle of such modern surroundings (the 1950s train station, and a 1930s office building behind it).

After that, it was on to the metro, which was yet another terrifying but thrilling adventure! Pickpockets are also a danger on the metro (subway system) but we all did well. It was only two quick stops to the Colosseum, and as soon as we emerged from the Colosseum, there it was, to our left, in all of its immense glory. We didn't go there today, instead we turned to our right. It started sprinkling rain here and then, but this wasn't really a damper on things (ha ha, bit of a joke there). My ankle was inflamed today, but the braces I put on my feet today definitely allowed me to get around and keep up (and ironically, even though I was limping and my ankle was inflamed, I was still able to keep up with the teacher better than most of the class!) Our first destination was a pretty new archaeological site, where they're still continuing to discover new things. He indicated several layers of excavations--the teacher pointed out the uncovering of original ancient Roman pavement, and then a drain on another level of the area being uncovered. It was pretty neat.

Then it was on to the Roman Forum! This place is just really big, and it has all sorts of old, crumbling ruins from the years before Christ. It cost to go in, but definitely well worth it. It was funny because we were waiting for the rest of the class to catch up, and I pointed at some random flowers and said they were pretty to the teacher, and he said he was going to talk about that next. The specific plants I pointed out were actually the inspiration for the acanthus decorations on many Corinthian capitals and other Roman columns and architectural devices. Neat! I took a picture of these flowers.

Then we just spent the next couple of hours going around the fourm. The rain stopped, although it was still cloudy. this was actually perfect because I didnt have to get so concerned with being sunburnt and it made it easier to see my interpreter. The teacher showed us patches on the ground where they actually buried people after cremating them and inserting them into little hut-shaped urns. We saw the enormous Arch of Septimus Severus, which had been recently cleaned so it was bright white. It had originally almost been black since it had been exposed to the grime and pollution of over two millenia. It was just really cool. The Roman forum is full of crumbling old things and broken columns, almost nothing is in its original state except for the two major arches on either side of the forum. We saw the original temple of Julius Caesar, which they built after his assassination. We saw the sites of where the Senate of Rome met. One is actually under another church, but the other was still standing although somewhat partially rebuilt over the century.

We saw the remains of the building where the Vestal Virgins (the chaste women who spent their lives dedicated to religious service). There were lots of broken remains of the original buildings that were there strewn all over the walking paths and you could actually sit on these 2000 year old hunks of carved marble and granite. The last thing we saw was the Arch of Titus, which was one I wanted to see particularly, as it has a frieze (a shallow relief) of the ransacking of one of the last of the great Jewish temples. In the relief, you can see them carrying off a great menorah from the Jewish temple, and even though it shows ransacking and looting, it's still a beautiful work of art.

During all of this, I avoided trying to take pictures of the major monuments, since there were too many people there, and I could get perfectly good postcards of said monuments. Rather I focused on getting small details that stood out to me--the beautiful red poppies that were everywhere, carvings on the broken columns that were laying around, and so on.

After this, the class was free to do whatever we wanted. Natasha, Mica, Kate and I went back to Termini, ate lunch there, browsed about a bit in the stores and then decided to come back to Frascati because the shopping in Termini wasn't that hot. And there'd be plenty of shopping to do later on at any rate.

Tonight will be just keeping up with the readings, going to our first official dinner together as a class at the owner of our hotel's restaurant, and strolling around Frascati. Tomorrow, back to Rome, and then another post!