I successfully made it to the eternal city! It has been quite the few days.
My trip overseas went incredibly smoothly. To begin, I was blessed with a wonderful AlItaliaemployee at the check in counter at Logan Airport who turned a blind eye to not just one, but two extremely overweight suitcases. Secondly, the seat next to me on packed Alitalia Flight 615 turned out to be unoccupied, so I had a nice big space for my long legs. Thirdly, the in-flight movie was “Letters to Juliet,” featuring the actress Amanda Seyfriend (who plays Karen Smith in Mean Girls) as the protagonist Sophie who accompanies a sexy Brit named Charlie and his grandmother on an adventure through Tuscany. The trio attempts to find the old woman’s long lost Italian lover named Lorenzo. Corny, but nonetheless an enjoyable motion picture with great cinematography that made me increasingly excited for Italia! Lastly, both of my bags arrived intact only two carousels away from Brittany’s - a fellow student also heading to the ICCS Rome who I had arranged to meet at the airport. Her flight arrived on time, as did mine (bright and early at 7:45 in the morning). The only word that comes to mind when I think about the ease of this transit is my go to acronym – TG!! (THANK_OD!!)
We wheeled our suitcases out of the airport towards the taxi line, and were warmly greeted by a taxi driver who resembled a guido version of Josh Becket (he did indeed have big diamond earrings, gelled air and a goatee). After he loaded our four bags into the back of his white Mercedes station wagon and we settled in for the ride into Roma, I, in what I am certain was impeccable Italian, began to instruct him where to take us. La Via Alessandro Algardi nella Trastevere! I was a little deflated when he interrupted me mid-statement and handed me his GPS device, into which I proceeded to type our destination. Along the ride I practiced my Italian with him. We discussed his dog named Luca, who “ha un occhio azzuri e un occhio verdi e ha quindici anni!” (Had one baby blue eye and one green, and was fifteen years old). About twenty-five minutes later we arrived at the Centro.
I can now attest to what I have heard about the Centro building. It is truly stunning. An old nunnery, it fits perfectly into its neighborhood upon the Janiculum (the hill) of Trastevere (the region directly across the Tiber river that overlooks the ancient district of Rome). My immediate examination of the building’s dimensions makes me realize how much of an art historian I am becoming. It fits beautifully into the small piazza it overlooks, and strikingly fashions a Madonna statue outlined in neon blue set back into the façade. What makes its integration into the surrounding area possible (it is much larger then most of the other buildings in the vicinity) is the simplicity of its monochrome pinkish outside walls and simple brown shutters. I love the nonchalant simple slab of stone found on the left wall of the façade next to the high gate of entrance engraved with the ICCS letters.
My first few hours in Rome were procedural- obtaining keys, filling out forms, unpacking, and then taking a nap. In the late afternoon, after pulling myself together, I ventured downstairs to meet other students. I am a relatively outgoing person, comfortable throwing myself into conversations or inviting myself into people’s plans (as most of you know), so upon hearing a group of ragazzi (dudes) beside me chat about going into the city, I interrupted their and told them I was joining(not even having really introduced myself). To my relief, it took about 1 second for the girl to my right, Alex, an UPenn double major in Classics and Art History, to assert that she was coming too. So off we went. It was quite the evening, walking down the Via Trastevere into the city making a few stops here and there. We dined at a delicious trattoria by Piazza Navona with free drinks. In the events that led up to our choice of this specific pizzeria I had another realization - I am definitely a Cohen. I convinced our party, consisting of four guys and Alex, to leave the restaurant we initially sat down at because the service was bad, it was way over priced (a tourist trap!), and I had a suspicion that the man on the street who lured us fibbed when he offered us an free appetizer of mussels and bottle of wine. It took some convincing, but I did receive “mad props” for this one shortly after.
We returned to the Centro relatively early to make sure we had enough sleep for our early start scheduled the next morning.
Monday – The Program Starts
The ICCS program certainly lives up to its reputation of intensity and regimen. My alarm is set for 7:30 a.m. every weekday. The bell rings at 8:00 a.m. and we proceed to the bottom floor dining rooms for breakfast, finishing by 8:30 a.m. The first morning after meeting academic and management faculty in the air-conditioned rooftop classroom, we split into groups for a walking tour of the monuments in the immediate neighborhood of the Centro guided by one of the academic staff members. My favorite was the massive fountain that overlooks the city called the Fontana del Giglio. It is absolutely stunning at night especially as the water shimmers an aquamarine blue underneath an intricate, classical style marble façade.
Already I am assigned over 70 pages of reading– some Livy, some selections from my Rome text books, and an article with background info on the authors I will be studying in my Greek Class.
The first official evening of the program was a blast! The staff hosted a spectacular dinner for all students and faculty in the beautiful garden/terrace backyard of the Centro. Candles surrounded the tables, and we feasted on a delicious buffet of foodand wine. I enjoyed the break from bread, pasta, and more pasta and devoured a big plate of bistecca and grilled eggplant and zucchini slices tyrannosourous rex style while listening to our program manager, Franco, (with whom I am slightly obsessed), give a toast. Perhaps I drank a little too much wine and enjoyed the Trastevere nightlife with my new friends alittle too much, but we checked in early in fear of our 7:30 am alarms.
Tuesday. A great day for an Obelisk hunt.
The academic staff divided the forty of us into squadra of four, and dispatched us to downtown Rome on a mission to find two specific obelisks. On the previous morning we learned that dozens of obelisks were transported from Egypt and erected in various locations in Rome as symbols of power. We were to return to the Centro by 4:30 p.m. ready with a presentation on our “prime” obelisk. My group was assigned to discuss the Obelisca dell’Esquilino. It was stressful, but we successfully located our obelisks and completed our presentation. The Obleisca dell’Esquilino was in fact erected with its twin (which now sits on the Quirinal Hill in another part of the city) infront of the Mauseleum of the emperor Augustus but was violently torn down by Ostrogoths when the Empire was in its last years. Pope Sixtus V resurrected it on the Esquiline behind the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore to act as a marker to lead pilgrims through Rome during the Christian counter reformation.
WOW! What a day. It concluded with reading in the Centro library until I passed out. But the alarm stuck again at 7:30 a.m. and it was two hours of lectures this morning.Which brings me to right now. The trajectory for the rest of this week: Greek at 4:00 today, and then two more 7:30 wake ups tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow morning we go to the Forum Romanum for an on site lecture day, and Friday is my first Art History field trip – it is still unknown where we are headed. I am quite excited for the weekend already, but still am not even close. My girlfriends and I have been planning a trip to the beach at Ostia about half an hour away for Saturday. It is just a one dollar train ride! This is all for now, I will update again early next week for a debriefing on the weekend and end of the week field trips.
No comments:
Post a Comment