School Day – Walk Day: Another adventurous day in Rome

What an eventful day! In the first day of class, we met downstairs at 2:30 p.m. My whole class got here today and, after walking around the area (which I obviously already knew) we ended up on the metro and got all the way to the Piazza del Populo. We went into the church there, called Santa Maria del Populo, and it was beautiful.

Unfortunately, they didn’t allow pictures — but it was amazing. In fact, it was the church where one of the priests was burned in Angels and Demons (if you saw the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about). There, I also saw some Caravaggio paintings. He’s known for his Christian paintings (mainly for depicting people with dirty feet — which back then was a very rare thing for Christian paintings). Caravaggio is also famous for his painting of Peter being crucified backward (he had said he wasn’t worthy of being crucified like Jesus).

For me, it was amazing to see paintings in their natural place; where artists intended them to be with their natural light. It was a completely new experience and I am ecstatic to have seen it.

It was also very interesting to see so much human interaction. My professor said that, here, human interaction is essential to creating a community. To solidify this statement, we ended up going down the Via del Corso, which has existed since roman times. In fact, there is an old “ritual” or tradition called passé giatta (I may have butchered this spelling) where teenagers are allowed to interact with each other (conservative Italians didn’t like teens dating so this was a way to make them interact better).

This is where I found the little treasures — the art, the stores, the restaurants, etc.

In essence, Bailley (our professor) kept stressing how important it is that we are aware of the history of where we are. That, for example, you could be killed if you were standing right where we were just a couple hundred years ago. In just 100 years in the Roman empire, you could’ve been killed if you were Christian and you could’ve been killed if you weren’t.

After HOURS of walking, we ending up resting in the Spanish steps. This is important because this is where they linked places together. It’s actually a bachelor area, where single nights are frequent and groups of young men and women come to meet up. (Fun fact: John Keates — the English romatic poet — died here.)

On our way to our last stop, we stopped at a “talking” sculpture. These things are VERY old and they came at a time where no free speech or free press were available to the Romans. In essence, though, it’s a kind of roman sculpture where people would come and put political (or other kinds) of messages on it. In other words, it’s a speaking sculpture where people couldn’t get in trouble for saying things because the sculpture would be the one saying it.

Here, we ended our class — but my day was far from over. Part of the reason I’m blogging so late (it’s past 2 a.m. right now) is because, after Bailley said that class was over, some of us decided to go exploring. About 10 of us ending up in Trestavere, a beautiful little college-like town with lots of stuff to do. To get there, we walked A LOT and had to pass a beautiful bridge.

We then stopped to eat at an amazing restaurant called Grazia & Graziella, where I had the BEST lasagna I’ve ever tasted (picture might not be great quality).

After that, we got LOST. Well, not lost but we just keep walking for hours on end (class ended at 6:30 p.m. and we JUST got back to the apartments). We walked and walked and ended up sitting on the fountain steps at Trestavere, then eating gelato (duh), then walking for MILES on end until we — FINALLY — got to the colleseum. Obviously, it was closed but we actually go to it as a class later on this week — so no worries. Anyway, at night it is SO beautiful. I wish this picture could express it better.

When we tried taking the metro to go home, we couldn’t. Turns out, the metro closes early. So… YES… We walked all the way back to the apartments. It was a very long (and dark and uphilly and DID I MENTION LONG) walk. Over 45 minutes later, we made it. And, now, I’m sitting here with a bunch of the girls talking about how the wi-fi isn’t very good in Italy (at least here).

Anyway, tomorrow we go to the Palestine Hill and Bailley said it would be an even longer day, so……..

My feet are going to fall off. But, nevertheless, there’s really no place I rather be.

I love Rome.

My feet are killing me but I still love Rome.