…D.C. has nothing on this city

Ok, despite all the little inconveniences of living here, I kinda love certain things about this place called Rome. Specifically, the history. It’s a bit overwhelming sometimes that this city has so much history housed in such a small area of a little over a thousand kilometers.  Crap! Am I turning European with all this talk about kilometers?!?!

I traveled (inside!) to I Musei Capitolini today with one of my new classmates — another person from the Estati Uniti! The design of D.C.’s Capitol Hill was influenced by this place.

      I did not take many pics since I’ve visited this museum before. I am still amazed that these stone walls were original to one of the largest temples of the Capitoline Hills.  This little bit you can see, was about 1/32 of the actual building.  There was a model of the original building, but it was made of clear plastic and did not show up well in the photo. We were only able to see this, and several statues in this one museum since we spent the majority of our time viewing the special exhibit, Lux in Arcana. Lux is an exhibition of the secret, private collection of the Vatican — *&^%!!!! — and we spent most of our time ooohing and ahhing over this. I don’t know about you, but seeing documents that were written in the 800’s is pretty damn cool.  These historical artifacts have never been viewed  by the public, and it covers over 12 centuries of history starting at the 8th century.  Yes, the 8th century – and yes, we are currently in the 21st. That the paper is still intact, that the words are still legible – its truly amazing. We saw a transcript of a famous trial – it was a long scroll and reached the height of the ceiling. I would love to show you pics but I’d be in an Italian jail right now. In another section we saw Galileo’s signature within a book that he wrote, in another, we saw Bonaparte’s! GTFOH!!! There was even a section on Abraham Lincoln and how he attempted to secure the services of Guiseppe Girabaldi with regards to the Civil War. I don’t recall learning anything about that in school.  We were global before it became a buzz word. Here is the website for more info: http://www.luxinarcana.org.

Here is a pic of an elaborately carved sarcophagus. I’m really not in to recording death, but I find the intricate detail fascinating.

Anyway, this special exhibit and the regular museum is pretty dang amazing, and I’m going back again.

Ciao a tutti!

…Luca is my favorite guide

My school offers passiggiato‘s for its students throughout the week. I was encouraged to sign up for them when I first started, but I delayed, and now I wish I had done this earlier.

Today we visited I Musei Capitolini, or rather the area all around it.  Walking behind the Capitoline Museums we rested for a few to take some pics.

This wall is what is left of the Tabularium. If you look above the archways, you can see that the Romans built on top of the already existing wall in later centuries. Preserving history!

Here is another view from behind the museums – you can see the Colloseo in the background. All passiggiato‘s are in Italian, and I do my best to understand what our guide’s are saying. I think I get about 25% of it, and then I ask my more fluent classmates if they were able to get more.  So far, I’ve had Luca and Franchesca as guide’s. However, Luca is my favorite.  He speaks solidly and moderately fast, and I always think that if I close my eyes I will understand more. Franchesca is great too — I really enjoy that she asks questions and really engages us in the learning process. However, I don’t understand her as well as Luca! I wish I did. She speaks fast, and unfortunately, a bit too softly for my non-Italian ears.

I continue to attend the passiggiato‘s without comprehending the majority of the tour because I am immersed in the language and culture. And that’s all I want. I’ll look it up later on the net to figure out what Luca or Franchesca were actually saying.

Ciao a tutti!