Tuesday, September 7, 2010
I was a little startled this morning when I walked into my kitchen… out the window I could see the legs of a worker (from the knees down to his shoes)! They must be cleaning the side of the building… they put the scaffolding up yesterday, but I was surprised they were already started by 7 am. The Italians do keep their city of Rome clean! The street cleaners are always out, and yesterday when I was out in the morning, they were cleaning the monuments. You could smell the bleach! I know the air quality is compared to LA, but you never see smog here… the skies are always clear and blue. But, you can see the pollution build up on the buildings.
There is so much to see here, and so much you can see without paying an admittance fee. I have the luxury to go back to places over and over at different times of day if I don’t feel the natural lighting is at the best angle for photos. Yesterday, I decided I wanted to walk over to the Colosseum in the morning, just to see it in that light. If I had just walked there and back, I would not have been “late” for work. Technically, I wasn’t late… we really weren’t meeting at a specific time, and we didn’t have class. But, as I walked to the Colosseum, I realized I was walking past the Capitoline Hill area and had to check it out!
The view of Rome from on top of the hill was breathtaking! I did eventually make it to the Colosseum and was surprised at all the tourists there on a Monday morning. I guess it doesn’t matter what day you are in Rome; it will always be busy. I had two Roman Gladiators (and there were many all over the place) who wanted to take a “sexy” picture with me. I told them politely no, but maybe when my kids are here visiting. Their response was, “No, not with the kids!” The one reminded me of the guy with the long hair on the cover of all the romance novels! After Cheri and I finished working (we’re still figuring out the north field trip), she took me to see an area called Bocca della Verita, which is one of the sites the students can use in their identity/signage project. The “Bocca della Verita” or the “mouth of truth” is on the outside corridor of a church there, which is featured in the movie, Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. This is very close to the Capitoline Hill area, so we went up there too because this morning the sun was so strong I didn’t think photos would turn out well. It was later in the day than I had wanted for photos, but I took some anyway. I decided I’ll just have to come back some day we don’t have class in the early afternoon.
I was asking Ferro today where his class was going tour on Thursday morning. As we were talking I found out that the Italians don’t give group discounts to American groups, only to European groups! I don’t know if Canadians get discriminated against too, or if it’s just tourist from the USA, but I was certainly offended. For a city that has millions of tourists every year, I wouldn’t think they could afford to offend anyone.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010:
It rained for the first time today. It really came down hard for awhile and the wind picked up, but we were in the studio. Hopefully, it won’t rain tomorrow as the Art History classes start their “walks” and I am going with the class going to the Forum. I had class all day, 9-6 so I’m spending my evening at home. It was 6:45 pm before we left the studio.
The Jewish Ghetto is partying hard tonight! Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, started at sundown. The ghetto was packed with people all dressed up and there were so many cars double and triple parked in my little piazza area.
Thursday, September 9, 2010:
I met one of the art history classes at the Colosseum for their tour. I cut through the Jewish Ghetto to take a short cut to the Colosseum. I didn’t think about it when I left my apartment, but there were barricades blocking part of the Ghetto, and several police officers standing at the barricade. I asked if it would be ok for me to cut through, one officer asked to look inside my bad, and then they let me through. I found out later that “back in the day” people (I’m going to guess Catholics) would throw bombs into the Ghetto. To this day the Jewish community still posts guards at the entrance points. Back to the Colosseum, I think this is the bargain in Rome. For €12 I bought a ticket to get inside the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum; plus the ticket is good for two days. I probably would not have purchased a ticket after finding out how Americans can't get group rates, but I had already told Ferro I was going and Cheri told me to get used to it... Americans can't get group rates anywhere in Italy.
Ferro is a wonderful story-teller, so he was a great tour guide. The third level of the Colosseum has a modern support on both ends (that blend in so well with the ruin I would never have noticed them if they hadn’t been pointed out) to keep what remains of the third level from falling. I hadn’t really thought about why the interior of the Colosseum looks as it does today… it isn’t from age and exposure to the elements; it ‘s because after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Pope’s and heads of churches “stole” the marble in the Colosseum to build their churches. It was stripped of everything of value. Kind of like when a really old house/building in the US is going to be demolished and someone goes in and removes everything that can be salvaged and re-sold.
From the Colosseum we walked to Palatine Hill. Rome was built on seven hills, and the Palatine Hill is the central hill as well as the site for one of the oldest parts of the city. It is in a cave here that (legend says) Romulus and Remus were suckled by the famous she-wolf. Romulus founded Rome once he grew up – so this hill is not only extremely well-known but also revered in Roman mythology. The Palatine Hill overlooks the Roman Forum on one side and the Circus Maximus on the other. The buildings on the hill once included the palaces of Augustus, Tiberius and Domitian. We went into the House of Augustus, which is where the ceiling fresco still survives. As you can imagine, this place is huge, and we spent so much time there, it was noon before we even made it to the Roman Forum. Several of the students, and myself, had class at 1 pm, so we had to leave. I hope to go back tomorrow after class and walk around the Roman Forum.
As we approached the Jewish Ghetto, it was filled with people all dressed up in their best clothes. When I got to the studio, I looked out one of the windows toward the largest Jewish Synagogue in Rome and the street was packed with people.
We were in the studio until 8 pm tonight. It’s been a long day. I’ll sleep hard tonight.
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