November in Rome

November in Rome was the first month that was actually spent entirely in Rome! An amazing novelty since all I feel I have done since getting to Italy is stay in Rome for a bit, go on a trip with my family, stay in Rome, travel to the south of Italy, and stay in Rome, travel to the north of Italy. Now, I had a whole month in Rome and I was not going to squander it. In November, we also started our final studio project. So there was quite a mix throughout the month of working on studio and crossing things off my Rome sight seeing bucket list. Also, the studio deadline is why this post is so late! But, what else is new...

So I won't talk about studio, because that wasn't due until December, so it's something to look forward to. But I will talk about some of the places I wandered to and made a point of seeing before I ran out of time. It is actually quite unbelievable how fast the time has gone by. I can't believe how quickly the first two months of term went by. And all of those place I have already seen. Anyways, enough reminiscing. On to something new!

One of the first places I crossed off my list of things to see in November was the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome. Rome, being the religious capitol of the catholic church, has very few non-catholic cemeteries. In fact, there is only one. This cemetery is famous for having the graves of John Keats and Percy Shelley. And it is amazing. The way the light filters through the trees here is almost surreal in its beauty and the way it falls across the space. An odd sentiment to express about a cemetery, but I will show you some pictures, so you can see what I mean.

The Main Entrance

One of the friendly cats that lives here

The light filtering through the trees

John Keats' Grave

Side note: My neighbor cat decided it wanted to try its hand at skateboarding this month:

So cute!

Through the month we had a few class trips as well. The first of which was a day trip to the Priory of Malta. Within this compound are a few amazing feature. One of which is a secret keyhole through which you can look and see a perfectly framed view of St. Peter's Dome rising out of the city. Unfortunately, this view was impossible to photograph, so I sketched it! The other hidden gem of the Priory is the Piranesi church, Piranesi was an artist who studied Rome and drew imaginative reconstructions of what he believed the ruins he saw looked like in their prime. The church we saw is the only building Piranesi ever designed and had built. It was quite unique for the time period in which it was built.

Piranesi Church

The seemingly unfinished back of the alter, but it was not unfinished, it was the way he designed it

My Sketch of the Keyhole

After this trip, I spent a lot of time walking around central Rome. Central Rome is a marvelous place, and I don't think I would be able to see all of it unless I had a lifetime here. For the first few weeks of November, I spent a lot of time simply getting lost, picking new roads, and following them until I could find where I was again. There's all fumy phenomenon in Rome where no matter where you go, you tend to get back to one of three places: The Vatican, The Colosseum and The Pantheon. It's almost as though someone planned it that way! I blame Pope Sixtus the Fifth, and his Rome rearranging ways. Here are some of my pictures from these wanderings.

During these wanderings, I chose to go to Castel Sant' Angelo to visit the museum and see the view of the city. I must say, the view of the city was by far the best part of visiting the Castel. There's really not much more to say about that... So here's some pictures!

Castel Sant' Angelo

The View from the Roof

From Another Angle

The Castel Angel

Our second day trip this month was to the EUR. A modern piece of ROme built by Mussolini for the 1942 World Expo, which never happened, for obvious reasons. The buildings he chose to build here were reinterpretations of the monuments already existing in Rome. He built a conference centre modeled off of the Pantheon, an office building based on the Colosseum, and used the general urban fabric of ancient Rome to borrow architectonic elements from. But, the most interesting piece of art in this area was a carving on one of the buildings, depicting graphically a timeline of the city from the time of the emperors to Mussolini himself.

The Mural of the Roman Timeline

The Office Colosseum

The Pantheon Conference Centre

Marconi's Obelisk

Another place we visited on this day was Richard Meier's Jubilee Church. This church was deisgned for a competition in the year 2000 for the 2000th anniversary of Catholic Church. The church that won was an incredible feat of architecture, but why describe it, when I can just show you?

The Jubilee Church

The third day trip we had was a disaster. It was a morning visit to the Tiburtina Train Station in conjunction with the University of Washington Rome Program. Our professors made the mistake of telling my class that the visit was optional. So my roommate and I showed up, and of a class of 60, we were the only 2, while the entire University of Washington program of 25 was present. Our profs didn't even go, which is slightly sad. This was a rare opportunity to see modern architecture in Rome, and I am glad I took it!

The Cavour Monument

Tiburtina Station

And our final day trip within the city was through Baroque Rome. We took a tour of several churches built during the baroque area for the ever expanding Catholic population of the city. Some of which were quite beautiful, although not entirely my thing. Thee was one statue I remember learning about once, Theresa in Ecstasy. It was amazing to see it in person, because of the context. You always see the statue in pictures, but you never see the surroundings. The entire chapel of the church is geared around this statue, guiding the views of the visitor towards it.

Theresa in Ecstasy

The Church from another Angle

Finally, I went on an adventure along the Janiculum walking trail, one of the best panoramic views of city from above. It is also a very good link between my house and the Vatican City. After going through this incredible trail, I went and saw the Pope speak. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear much because there were lots of school children around and the moment the Pope started speaking English, they got bored and erupted into conversation. It was still an interesting experience.

Along the Janiculum

And again

The Pope on a Big Screen

The Pope, as close as I could zoom

The Pope in front of St. Peter's

Okay. That's it. No more November in Rome. I am tired of writing and the rest of it is all studio and deadlines. Which is a lie. I will post about my moonlight wanderings at another time. But for now, I am tired, I have been writing for hours and do not wish to write anymore.

Ciao for now!

October in Rome: Part 1

October was a very busy month! As a class, we were all over the city all the time! For our Rome and the Campagna class we had 6 onsite lectures in the first two weeks of the month before Thanksgiving. The first of these was the mother load. Rick's famous lecture in the Roman Forum. 

From the time the Forum opened, until the time they found us hiding in a back corner and kicked us out, that man spoke. He told wonderful stories about the history of Rome and the importance of the space in which we were learning. He taught us that all tour guides lie, and what Roman life was like. He transported us for the land of the living, to the realm of the mythical and historic simply with his words. The experience was incredible, although it would have been slightly more enjoyable if it hadn't been so hot, with so little shade! Having spoken to people who had taken this class before, I knew that my most important tool for the day would be an umbrella, and boy was I right. At first, I probably looked silly sitting under an umbrella in the sun, but then my friend joined me, and then we were a group of 60 people, huddled under umbrellas without a cloud in the sky! 

Column of Focus

Temple of Castor and Pollux

Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius

The next two days of lectures were held at the Colosseum and San Clemente, and at the remains of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. The Colosseum lecture was far too crowded! I heard almost none of it, because I had to stand far away from the professor, and he was trying not to disturb other people that were there. But the Colosseum itself is definitely worth a visit! It's very rare that you get to go and see somewhere with that much history. Unless you go to the next place on our list, San Clemente. San Clemente is a church, built on top of another church, built on top of the roman remains of a cult building and the Roman Mint. It is so interesting because you can actually walk through the levels and experience each one, walking through it and knowing that each was once at ground level. Amazing. Finally, we went to see the remains of Hadiran's Villa. Wow. How one man could have conceived of that, I don't know. He experimented with architectural themes no one had ever seen before. And it wasn't until years later that many of them would ever be seen again. This Villa is home to the famous Maritime theatre. It's purpose it unknown, and it isn't actually a theatre, but it was a wonderful space to sit and learn from our prof.

The Colosseum

San Clemente Bottom Church

View from the top of Hadrian's Villa

The Maritime Theatre

The next, and final three lectures, were held at the Trajan Markets, the Baths of Caracalla, and the Pantheon. Trajan's Markets were built as a part of Trajan's forum. To build this forum, they took out part of the hill, making it necessary to build something to hold up what was left of the hill, and hence, Trajan's Market was born! Next, we went to the Baths of Caracalla. I can't remember if these were the largest or second largest public bath complex built within the Roman Empire, but either way, the ruins were gigantic! These ruins were commissioned by Septamus Severus, during his reign as Roman Emperor. At the height of their use, the baths could house thousands of people. There were separate baths for men and women, as well as separate change rooms and running tracks. I don't know about you, but communal bathing doesn't really appeal to me... Finally, we ended our course with a lecture at the Pantheon. This lecture was by far the best one of the course. Hearing it really connected us with the building, and its importance in history. We also learned of the importance of the building to our professor and his family. The lecture really transcended the class through time and space, taking us to each time period of importance connected with the Pantheon. By far, the Rantheon is my favourite place in Rome, I have since been back many times, and anticipate going there again before I leave the city.

Trajan's Market

Trajan's Market

Baths of Caracalla

The Pantheon

Pantheon Dome

The Pantheon's Original Second Tier

The Pantheon Entrance

This is a very long post, and I am only halfway through the month.... I think I will end this here and continue October in the next post.

Ciao for now!

September in Rome

Today is November 8. I have been in Italy for 80 days. Today is my father's birthday. I have a scholarship application to complete for my Master's. My current studio project needs a lot of work. And I have decided now is an excellent time to write a long overdue post about September in Rome. 

September is a wonderful season in Italy. It has all the best aspects of Canadian summer, with none of the humidity! From my many walks around the city in the early parts of the term, I ended up with a really nice farmer's tan on my arms and glasses tan on my face! 

Throughout the month of September we had a very interesting project to complete for studio. The class was tasked with designing a thematic pavilion within the area of the Colosseum and Roman forum. I choose to design a "White Box", which meant I was designing a room meant for exhibiting objects. I chose to locate the pavilion right next to one of the entrances to the forum, using the forum itself as the object I was displaying.

I designed an interior pathway, with a series of walls, framing and explaining specific views of the Forum, isolating individual objects so as to give people an understanding of them on their own, before entering the forum and understanding them as a collective.

These are the completed panels for the project:

The experience of creating this project was great, because I got to spend several days exploring the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, and Palatine Hill areas of Rome. I gained some amazing insights into the use of historical spaces as tourist destinations, and was given some inspiration for the next project on recreating the strategic plan for the whole area surrounding the Colosseum.

Ciao for now!