A Rainy Day in Roma – J-term Abroad: Roman Structures, Engineering & Society
Field Trips!

A Rainy Day in Roma

Hello everybody! Sorry to take a day off from blogging. We had a free day yesterday and spent most of the day exploring the city and catching up on sleep. Today, on the other hand, was back to our typical adventures with the addition of some Roman rain. In order to stay out of the rain we switch today’s schedule with a day that was originally meant for next week. I think we were all grateful to spend this hazy, rainy day inside museums rather than climbing the terrain at the aqueduct park.

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We started off the day touring Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs). Just like every church we have visited, it was breathtaking. You’d think that touring churches could get old, but it definitely hasn’t. Each one is unique in decor, style, and layout leaving us in amazement after every visit. A couple of aspects that caught my eye today were the meridian line, the painted coffers, and the Christmas Crib.

meridian

The meridian line was a diagram etched into the stunning marble floors and used to determine the location of the sun by the location of sunlight on the floor. This tool was most important for determining which day Easter should land on each year as well as for measuring a whole year more accurately.

The painted coffers were a small engineering aspect that I noticed. In many of the dome structures that we have visited, the dome required coffers to reduce the weight and overall force acting on the base of the dome. In the basilica we visited today, there were coffers, except they were not actual indentations. Instead, they were painted in a manner to resemble the true coffers that we have seen in St. Peter’s Basilica and the like.

crib

We also saw an elaborate Christmas crib, which could also be known as a nativity scene. Gino explained that our Christmas traditions are more similar to those of northern Italy, like the Christmas tree for example. In southern Italy, Christmas cribs or nativity scenes are far more common than decorated trees. The amount of artistic detail was mind-boggling. I’ll let the beauty speak for itself above.

baths

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the ancient Diocletian baths, weaving between exquisite statues, and staring at intricate mosaics. The Diocletian baths being so prominent in ancient Roman culture proved to be just as magnificent as you would imagine. The incredible usage of arches, brick, and marble created very luxurious pools for wealthy families.

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One of the favorite sculptures from today was easily The Boxer. We learned all about the construction of the sculpture from the holes in the eyes and back of the head that allowed the entire head to be hollow. Gino explained the difference between using marble versus bronze when sculpting such large pieces. It was so interesting to see the development of detail, expression, and movement in art over the centuries. The first few sculptures we saw seemed to be in very forced, stiff positions. As we continued on to slightly more recent pieces, fluidity and movement became much more prominent.

Also, today just happened to be Dr. Besser’s birthday! What a way to spend such a special day. Tonight, we will have the chance to celebrate with a birthday dinner here at our hotel.

That’s all for today! We have this entire weekend free, so keep an eye out for our next post summarizing everybody’s individual adventures.

Ciao!

 

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