Days 19-23

Day 19. The last day of Course 1. To celebrate, we went to a Mithraeum.



No, that was just for our presentation! Silly me. (I did get to climb some ancient roman stairs, though!)


So yes, Course 1 was over. We did still have a Final, though, for which I had to try to decipher my notes....can you tell where I started falling asleep?




And also a Travel Report, where I pulled my favourite act of all- turning in a piece of art for a non-art class.




I also got sick that weekend. Inevitably. But the final was shockingly manageable!

Now, onto Course 2!

Day 17 Photos

Presentations at the Capitoline Museums and the Aqua Claudia.

(there are so few pictures from the museum because I decided to use my lunch break for its intended purpose- quelling my rumbling stomach.)











I gotta admit, I was looking for a picture at the Aqua Claudia, just so I could tag it on my map.

Day 16

Saturday being our day of departure from the Villa, we drove one mile over to visit the ruins of Cumae, said ruins consisting of several temples and Vergil's cave of the sibyl. As our resident Latin scholar would mutter, the fake one. Which is good, considering how disappointing it was (it wasn't even a true cave!)

Yet exploring ruins is never a bad thing, so our disappointment quickly vanished. Don't-fall signs and fences were ignored and clambered over as well, which is always fun.





Sadly, I was not able to climb that ancient staircase. There were only bits of two stairs left, and they looked slightly precarious.


After some cavorting, we boarded the bus to go back home.

Day 15 Pictures

Pompeii






















Archeological Museum





Caracalla, Older and Younger


Two of Marcus Aurelius, who always appears to be rolling his eyes...






Most Venuses are a little more staid than this, heh.

Day 15

There are extra pictures for this post, to make up for the previous day's woeful lack of pictorial representation. Don't worry. (there would have been extra pictures regardless)

Friday we went to a ruin site and a museum as is our rote extended-excursion. But the ruins happened to be POMPEII and the museum happened to be the NATIONAL ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM. It was a day worthy of italic caps indeed.

We had to wake up freakishly early to jump on the bus to arrive at Pompeii at an hour not totally swarming with tourists. This hour is approximately 9:30 am. We were to meet back at the bus at 11:30 am, a paltry two hours later when confronted with the entirety of Pompeii. So confront Pompeii we did, though hardly the entire thing and with probably much more confrontation than the excavation security intended, considering that the tours only stop in front of the houses and never go through them. Such a waste. I, for one, made it my goal to climb every set of accessible Ancient Roman stairs in my accessible vicinity. (this dream was first realized at Paestum, actually, where there was a rather magnificent staircase just waiting for me to clamber up it) Said Pompeian stairs were frequently only plural by a margin, but still. We (myself and two friends) meandered through villas and gaped at wall paintings (wall paintings!! extant ancient roman frescoes!!) and generally had a blast.

Unfortunately, we did eventually find ourselves on the main thoroughfares and dodging tour groups, but by then we were running out of time and had a more direct path in mind. (a path they were all milling around in) We ended up running through the forum, pretty much, making a detour to visit the house of ill repute that was so packed with tours the first time we had to swing by again in hopes of a lull (there wasn't one, but we pushed our way in anyway) and then dashing down the streets in hope of catching the last theatre before we had to leave. I would not, mind you, recommend any kind of dashing on any roman road, ancient or not, as they tend to be cobblestones of the most ankle-breaking kind. Me and mine are fine, much to my honest but greatful surprise.

En route to the theatre we ran into the professor and those who toured around with him, and a few other tagalongs joined us (there's no fear of being late when you are accompanied by the professor) After a cursory entrance and viewing of the amphitheater we decided to forge our own path, by which I mean push through brush, jump down a ledge, and hop a fence, in order to return by some modicum of the correct time. Once ensconced in our transportation, complete with warm sandwiches provided by the Villa and then left carelessly in a hot bus, we were shuttled to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

The museum, though vast, was mostly under construction, it seemed. Regardless, it held not only more ancient roman wall paintings, but famous ancient roman wall paintings! Like Sappho's! There were also, you know, the Farnese Sculptures and hallways and hallways of imperial busts and cult statues and the ilk. It was truly impressive, despite the renovation distractions. The gift shop was disappointingly lacking, though, as they had neither postcards of Sappho's portrait nor the Farnese Sculptures, undoubtedly some of their most well-known acquisitions.

That night at the Villa was preposterously hilarious, in part because one should never be able to play one's professor in wine-pong, nor have one's TA/Italian instructor mediate a game of flip-cup. And yet...

Day 14

At this point I'm writing about things that took place two weeks previous. Disgraceful!

Thursday we began our journey to lands far away...well, just Naples, but it sure takes a while by bus. We stopped in the middle of nowhere first, ostensibly just for lunch. Much to our surprise, the restaurant was attached to a museum attached to an ancient ruins site. I suppose these things happen, but generally I prefer to be warned about it first. For one, I did not bring my camera with me to lunch, so the glories of Paestum will have to remain shrouded for you all. I mean, you could go to the wikipedia page, but I know you're only here for the pictures. You'll have to move along.

After Paestum we all got back on the bus and shuttled ourselves to the Villa Vergilia, a rather nice little place that is aparently the Italian residence of the Vergil society or something equally astounding. A university provided-dinner and several bottles of wine later, we all dragged ourselves up to the lounge-ish area to listen to me expound upon my text presentation. I couldn't tell if the wine helped or hindered my grade via the professor, but i was glad to have it over with regardless.

We then played a couple games of Mafia (oho, we're in Naples! and we're playing Mafia! oh, we're so funny!) and in general lounged about.

Day 10 Photos

The church:




The bridge:


(this is after the second day of painting, though. still unfinished)

Day 10

Man I've been wanting to post Day 10 for a while now. Did I mention I like maps?


View Larger Map

I might have mentioned that I like walking.

The day plan was, as I think I mentioned before, to sketch. Sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch.

In the end, I spent a few hours working on one painting and then the rest wandering around Rome. Also not a bad plan. Also on the not-itinerary were finding an Awesome Baroque Church, giving directions to Italians, and mostly trying madly (and vainly) to avoid not only the Wedding Cake, but the tourist throngs. This proves problematic in Rome on a sunny sunday, but I was valiant, even once braving the Disneyland Crowd around the Trevi Fountain (though the first time I attempted I balked at the visible crowd a block away and headed directly opposite) The loop I made was unintentional, though amusing when I realized it. I also stepped inside the Gesu (though Mass appeared to be starting so I quickly disappeared) and ran into my Civ Professor, who, characteristically, gave me a slight wave and continued on. I ate lunch, well, 'lunch', it was more second lunch and the sun was going down anyway, in a park looking out over a piazza, and meandered home.

All in all, an excellent day.

Day 8 Photos

And as an added bonus, I've been geotagging all my photos, so here's a MAP! Gods, maps are awesome.

Day 8

On Friday some of us went to Tivoli, because it was cheap and historic and we do things like that.

One bus and two trains later we were there! Well, that was what it took to get to Tivoli, the town. To get to Hadrian's Villa, we needed another bus, then a bit of a trek. We and some older French couples kinda followed each other around for that bit, trying to make sure someone knew which bus, and which stop, etc.

It was a cloudy, kinda dreary day. But the ruins were incredible. And after it rained they got all glossy and the sun came out and it was even better. Of course, the rainstorm prevented a ill-timed watercolor (would have been a tad too watery), but thankfully a lot of the buildings still had roofs. And i got an ink sketch in, which is always nice. I attempted, during the sunny lull, to watercolor of what is apparently called the Canopus, which is basically a large oval pool with lots of columns and statues. This ended up being mostly abandoned by both time restraints and the continuous throng of tours, all of whom, it seemed, required individual pictures with the ass of the statue I was painting. I was not amused. I scowled at the Drunken Classmates (who had just arrived) the most, though, telling them they annoyed me even when they weren't trying to. Such is life.

We made it back to the train before it poured the second time, unlike the other group (who were too lazy to wake up early and sleep on the train over, nyah nyah) so we had enough time to get back home and have a nice sit-down dinner. (of course the other group ended up finding quicker transit home, but bah) Day 9 would be reserved for a marathon of reading, both catch-up and assigned, in order that Day 10 be a wholely devoted Sketch Day.

Day 7 Photos

Site Presentations at, among other things, the Theater of Marcellus and the Baths of Caracalla.