Roman Holiday, part 2

Ciao,

After thoroughly exploring the Colosseum and taking pictures at nearly every angle possible, I went on to the Roman Forum.  Unfortunately due to the strike, the Forum was closed until 2pm.  I had about an hour to wait so I walked back to the Arch of Constantine, which is between the Colosseum and the Forum and snapped this quick picture:

It's 21 meters high, or 68 feet!

The Arch of Constantine was built around 315 AD to honor the victory of Constantine I (a very important Roman emperor) at the Battle of Milvian Bridge.  It was actually modeled after the Arch of Septimus Severus (another Roman emperor) in the Forum but this arch is special as it is the only one that extensively uses spolia, which is Latin for "spoils" and refers to the practice of re-using building material or decorative sculpture from old buildings on new monuments.  The arch features several major reliefs from monuments built during the 2nd century AD and is thus very visually interesting because it is full of intricate details.

After walking around the arch a few times, I found a nice spot outside one of the entrances to the forum to eat lunch.  I had been carrying around a panino with me all morning, which I had bought at the gluten-free panini shop the day before, so I decided that as it was quite sunny, I should go ahead and eat it.

I still had time after I finished, so I wandered up the Palatine Hill to see what I could find.  At the end of the path I found this tiny church:

Turns out this is the church of San Bonaventura, which I believe was built during the 1600s. Unfortunately there is neither much information on the signs nor on the internet, so I can't share anything more about it, other than that it was a nice surprise to find it at the end of my walk.

After walking back I STILL had to wait a few more minutes for the Forum to open so I sat down and people-watched.  By now there was a pretty large crowd waiting to enter, so when they did open the gates, I waited a bit longer for everyone to go in first so that I wouldn't feel rushed.

The Roman Forum is located in a valley between two very important hills, the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill and was the center of Roman public life for centuries and elections, speeches, triumphal processions, trials, and sales took place there.  The site remained important from the founding of Rome to the Middle Ages.  That's all I will say for now; I want you to be able to simply enjoy the beauty of the site as I did when I was there without getting caught up in long and detailed (but fascinating!) history.  I plan to return to Rome and do a more in-depth post at a later time.  Of course, if you have any questions just ask and I'll will happily respond. :)

Entering the Forum

The view as I started to climb up the Palatine Hill

A bathtub?  In case you just felt like taking a bath in the middle of the garden.  I was quite confused by this, honestly.

 It was around 3:45 by the time I wandered up to the top.  The sun was strong, as it always is at that moment right before it begins to set, and bathing the ruins in its light.  Excuse me for waxing poetic but it was so beautiful!

Rome, the Eternal City

Of course I managed to find a cat, too! :)

After my adventures at the Forum, I scurried back to my hostel before the sunset so I wouldn't be out alone in an unknown city in the dark.  I really enjoyed my solo adventure in the ancient ruins, which surprised me since I usually prefer to have company while out and about.  But, it was very nice to have time to be contemplative and fully enjoy the fact that I was finally getting to see the sites which I had dreamed of seeing since my first Latin class in high school.

Onwards,then, to Greece!

P.S. If anyone ever needs a hostel in Rome, I would highly recommenced the Beehive Hostel.  It was very clean, safe, and about as quiet as a hostel can be and the staff was very friendly.

Roman Holiday, part 1

Here's an Italian word you should know: sciopero (sho - per- o).  It means strike, or, as Merriam-Webster puts it "a temporary stoppage of activities in protest against an act or condition".

Strikes are commonplace in southern Europe and I've had my fair share of them this summer in Greece and this semester in Italy.  So far however, none have really affected me more than having to adjust my usual bus route/schedule or avoid a certain area.  This time however, I got to fully experience the effects of lo sciopero.  

I found out a couple days before I was leaving Florence for Greece that there would be a general strike that day, meaning that all trains and flights were canceled.  I was flying Ryanair, which if you are not familiar with them, they are a budget airline from Ireland and offer VERY cheap flights.  Unfortunately they do not fly out of Florence, only Rome.  So my plan was to take a bus to the train station from my house, take a train to Rome, take another train to the airport and then fly to Greece.  Thankfully I was able to switch my flight to Saturday but with all the confusion (because no one really publishes clear information/details about the strike) I ended up with an early train to Rome (before the strike began) leaving me stranded there.  After much headache, I ended up staying at the Beehive Hostel in Rome and decided to seize the day (carpe diem!) and spent my day in Rome sightseeing.

Sign for the sciopero in Rome.  It says something to the effect of "The way things are right now is not ok.  We have concrete proposals for change in Italy."

Senatus Populusque Romanus = The Senate and the Roman People in Latin.  The abbreviation SPQR was the signature of the Late Roman Republic and Empire.  Today it is the official emblem of the city.

The strike in Rome.  In the background the people are carrying flags and banners but it was a very calm atmosphere.

I decided that on this afternoon in Rome, I would go see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, two sites that I have always dreamed of getting to see.  It was about a 20 minute walk from my hostel and it was luckily a beautiful, clear day.  Because of the strike the forum was closed until 2pm so I went to the Colosseum first.

One ticket to rule them all.  This 12 euro ticket allowed me to see the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.  Best 12 euros I've ever spent.

 Construction for the Colosseum began in 70 AD during the Roman Empire under the rule of Emperor Vespasian and was finished ten years later during the rein of Emperor Titus, with a few modifications made in the follow years when Domitian was in power.  These emperors are part of the Flavian dynasty, so in Latin the Colosseum was called the Amphitheatrum Flavium.  It could hold anywhere from 50,000 and 80,000 spectators and during the classical era it was used for gladiatorial battles, animal fights, and other forms of (often-violent) entertainment.

Inside the Colosseum

I was so excited to be here!

 I took my time walking around the colosseum, admiring the architecture and trying to ignore all the selfie-takers.  There is also small museum exhibit inside about libraries in antiquity.  This is a topic I don't know much about (and somehow, I haven't thought about it that much either) so I enjoyed the exhibit.  Inspiration for a possible thesis/special studies project next year? ;)

They also have a gift shop (naturally) where I resisted the temptation to buy overpriced "veni vidi vici" totes and notebooks and found this amazing-looking book:

I really want this.  Ooooh maybe I will buy it on Amazon as an end of semester gift to myself? ;)

Yes, I am a nerd.  And I'm okay with that. :)

Stay tuned for part 2!

Santa Croce

Ciao amici!

Our second art history field trip during orientation was to Santa Croce to study the Italian Gothic style.  Compared to Romanesque churches (like San Miniato), Gothic churches are taller and are less dark inside.  The height of the church is representative of the desire to be closer to God (ie the church is reaching up to heaven) and the relative abundance of light in Gothic churches is because God is light.  When we think of Gothic churches, we usually think of grand churches such as Notre-Dame de Chartres in France:

Notre-Dame de Chartres, France.  www.wikipedia.com

Italian Gothic churches however, look quite different.  The Gothic style originated in Northern Europe and due to a history of Northern invaders it had a slightly negative connotation, so they changed it up a bit to make it more Italian.  This is Santa Croce:

Santa Croce, Florence.  www.wikipedia.com

It looks nothing like Chartres.  You can see that the Italian Gothic retains the heaviness/solidness of the Romanesque churches and it is more horizontal than Chartres.  Before we go inside I will point out one more difference between the Romanesque and Gothic styles: the arches.  Romanesque churches have a round, roman-style arch which is called arco a tutto sesto in Italian.  Gothic churches (Italian or otherwise) have an arch which ends in a point and is called arco a sesto acuto in Italian.

www.laterzalibropiuinternet.it

Inside Santa Croce

See how much more light there is?  There are also stained glass windows which you won't find in a Romanesque church and instead of mosaics there are lots of frescoes.  To enter Santa Croce we had to pay a small fee and wait in line as it is very popular among tourists for several reasons.  The two main reasons are: a. many famous people are buried here and b. the paintings of Giotto.  Let's check out the tombs first!

Michelangelo's tomb

Galileo's tomb

Back in the day, it was possible to be buried in Santa Croce if you were of a certain status so yes, these are actual tombs.  There are several other famous Italians buried here, including Machiavelli, and many more funerary monuments to people they wished to honor but aren't actually buried here.  The most famous of these is Dante, author of the Divine Comedy.  Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302 and is buried in the city of Ravenna, where he died. Florence came to deeply regret having exiled him and since then they have tried to honor his memory in every way possible all over the city.  In Santa Croce, they built this funerary monument:

Dante's funerary monument

Giotto's Paintings

Giotto was very influential in the transition between Byzantine-style paintings and a more realistic, humanistic style.  Byzantine paintings are very flat and two-dimensional, with no sense of movement.  Giotto (1266 – 1337) created his art from observing real life so his paintings have a greater sense of depth and movement.  During the Renaissance, this style will be more fully developed but Giotto is generally regarded as the first to have explored the three-dimensionality of figures.

Only parts of the frescoes remain

another capella by Giotto

How many arches "a sesto acuto" can you find? ;)

Note the attention to depth and perspective...

That's it for now!  If you've made it this far, congratulations!  That was a lot of information but there was just so much to share about Santa Croce.  This will be the final post from my orientation art history class.  The last church we visited for this class was San Lorenzo which is a great example of Renaissance architecture but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside.  It is a really neat church and probably one of my favorites so you should definitely click on the links and check it out. ;)

A dopo!

San Miniato al Monte

Buongiorno!

I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments on my blog, thank you!!  And I will certainly talk more about the food (and later I'll do a post about music too, Melanie ;) ) but unfortunately I don't have a lot of food pictures, so I will have to see if I can get some from my friends.  In the meantime, I wanted to share some pictures from my art history field trip to San Miniato al Monte.

In my art history class we are learning about the different architectural styles of churches.  San Miniato al Monte is a great example of the Florentine Romanesque style.  The facade (Italian: la facciata) is made of white Carrara and green Prato marble and features a mosaic in the middle of Jesus, Mary, and Saint Miniato.

San Miniato al Monte

As you can see it is up on a hill ("al Monte" means on the hill) and so we had a spectacular view of the city.

I can't imagine I will ever tire of this view

Inside San Miniato

This is what it looked like inside.  As you can see, it is very ornate.  Our professor explained that it would have also been very dark as there are few windows and the only light would have been provided by candles.  We can see the details in this picture because they have since added lights to the church and they leave the doors open during the day.  The darkness and heaviness (or sturdiness) of San Miniato is typical of the Romanesque style, as are the round arches (Italian: arco a tutto sesto) and the columns.  Each column capital (the top part of the column) is unique.  Very often these capitals, as well as other parts of the church, are pieces taken from ancient roman buildings and then reused as building material.  This happened all the time in the ancient world as well, in fact, this summer at the excavations in Greece we found all sorts of interesting things in the walls of buildings!

Imagine how this gold mosaic would glow in a church lit only by candles!

Check out the detail on the floor...

...on the walls...

...and on the ceiling of this cappella (chapel)

There are also some frescoes on the walls of the church that were added sometime after it was built.  Here we can see where the artist made the outline for his work but never actually got around to painting over it:

Sketches that were never painted over.  You can see the finished frescoes on the right.

 Well, that's all for now!  I hope that you have enjoyed all the pictures.  I am always in awe of how much attention to detail and fine craftsmanship is present in these churches and it is really great to be learning about their architectural styles.  I'm excited to share with you my trip to Santa Croce next week because you'll really be able to see how much the style changed and how it is reflective of changing perspectives on Christianity (and also there are some really cool people buried there!).  If you have any questions about anything feel free to ask and also let me know if you'd like me to go into further detail about something. :)

Ciao a tutti,
Isabella