weekend, Monday

This weekend was pretty low-key; on Saturday we met the mayor of Frascati, the town we're staying in, and toured the outside of a very old Italian Renaissance villa on top of the mountain that overlooks Frascati. It was pretty hot though and it made me feel unwell, so I quit early for the day. Spent the rest of the day washing my garments, reading and going to dinner.

Sunday was also relatively unfrantic--there was a free museum exhibition in Rome about the return of looted artifacts to Italy from other museums around the world. Some of these items had never been seen before and were absolutely gorgeous and/or completely intact. Another teacher from LSU in fact met us at the museum; and I'd actually had her for one of my first art history classes a few years ago. It was really pleasant to see her again. I fell in love with one sculpture, of a clothed woman, and Kate and I actually pulled up chairs and sat there drawing her for a little bit. On the way over to the museum, we actually walked past the Trevi fountain! There were a TON of tourists there though, so we didn't spend too much time looking at the fountain. The best view of it is supposedly at night, so I'll have to make a return visit (not alone, of course!) After that, we had lunch and were pooped so we went home. But something went wrong at the train station, and we missed our train home, so we had to wait another two hours for the next train to Frascati (meaning that Natasha, Kate, I, and John who joined us later at the station, were stuck there for almost four hours). At least it was just Sunday evening.

To answer some questions in the comments from my last post, gypsies are definitely not dressed in gaudy costumes with colorful headscarves and big gold earrings. Most of them wear regular clothes, that are somewhat on the shabby side. You can almost always assume that a person is a gypsy if anyone with a dark sort of olive complexion comes up to you begging for money or tries to ask you to do a favor for them or asks you questions. Also, as far as children in Italy go--we really haven't seen so much of them. They seem to be pretty shy though. One thing that they do here, that children don't in the USA is sing. They literally do sing songs all the time out in public. It's really neat.

As far as my roommates go, Mica is a wonderful woman who lives about 30 minutes away from LSU. She's actively involved in many different activities--she is a veterinarian for all sorts of animals; grandmother to 5 children (with two more on the way soon!) and a photographer in her free time. She is studying art at LSU, loves to travel (this is her third visit to Italy) and is actively involved in her church. Kate is trying to get into the graphic design program at LSU, so hopefully when she does get in, she'll be a couple of years below me in the program. She does lots of drawing like me, and we've been spending time trying to draw in our sketchbooks during our free time. We find ourselves talking about lots of silly and fun things and I really enjoy the time that I spend with both Mica and Kate.

Today was a very exciting day... we got to see some serious churches today; early Christian churches at the very least. All but one of the churches that we saw today are not in their original 4th to 6th century state, because of constant revisions and remodelings done to them over the last 14 to 16 centuries. First, we went back to the Colosseum to inspect the Arch of Constantine, which is close by. This is another enormous triumphal arch, and there were lots of wonderful and interesting things about it.

Then we took a brief break to get some snacks before going back to the train station to go to the churches on our itinerary. Natasha got a bag of dried fruits and while we were eating outside, she accidentally spilled some of the dried fruit. There was an Italian close by who gave Natasha a dirty look, even though the fruit was biodegradable (and would most likely be eaten by birds or stray animals within the day). Italians throw cigarette butts and trash all over the place! And in fact, about five minutes later, a woman with an enormous Doberman on a leash did walk by, and the dog tried to go after the fruit on the ground (but the woman pulled him away from the healthy treat on the ground). Geez.

So, we were able to see three major early Christian churches today. They're listed below in order of oldest to the most recent, and snapshots of each one that I pulled from the Internet as usual, not being able to develop my film here at the moment.


Santa Pudenziana (4th century CE). One of the most well preserved and oldest churches in Rome, this was a little gem. It was pretty small, but absolutely beautiful. There were original mosaics in the apse from the 4th century, but also lots of artwork added over the centuries (especially in the Renaissance). There were no real churches prior to this time, because it was around 312 that the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, thus allowing Christians to come out of the underground and worship in public.


Santa Maria Maggiore (about 5th century CE for the interior)
This church was immensely impressive and had a gorgeous gilded, coffered ceiling. There were original mosaics from the time the church was first created, and then later sculptures and paintings that were just beautiful (especially a row of frescos that went all the way around the clerestory (the top of the long, middle part of the church), showing the various scenes that occurred before, during and after Christ's crucifixion. Various popes are interred here, as well as the great Baroque sculptor Bernini who created stunningly beautiful works of art such as the following representation of Apollo and Daphne (Apollo fell in love with the wood nymph, Daphne, but Daphne did not want to be taken by him, so instead of allowing Apollo to capture her, she turns herself into a tree).



Another really neat thing about this church is that they have relics; one of which are fragments from (supposedly) the True Cross.


Basilica of St. John Lateran, considered to be the most important Catholic church in the world. Popes were established here for quite a while. On the high altar, only the Pope is allowed to conduct mass here. This church is overwhelmingly huge, and the interior no longer looks like it did in the first millenium; the interior was transformed in the Baroque period and is full of enormous sculptures, richly colored marbles and all sorts of insane things. The downside of this church is that there were so many things to look at one didn't know where to start.

Today was very warm, and the trend is going to continue for the rest of this week. Also, my body really is reacting severely to the general pollution of Rome and all the pollen in the air here; my antihistamines are only just barely keeping me from getting really sick. Cross your fingers for me that my general health holds out until the end of the trip!