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Rome

Did That Really Happen?

As you probably could have guessed, we’ve been hiking all over Rome non-stop for days now and haven’t had much of a chance to update the blog, but rest assured that we’ll keep on top of it henceforth. How have we been busy you might ask? Well let me explain.

Two days ago we covered the many major hills of Rome, as described in the previous post.

Yesterday we had our papal audience and almost too much time to explore on our own.

A papal audience you say? Did we personally meet Pope Francis and talk with him? No, not exactly, unless you count being 24 within a couple thousand a personal experience. That’s right. It was a literal sea of people.

Shall we play “Where’s Francis”?

It took place inside their designated Pope-cosmodrome and had separate segments for people who wanted to pay least, more, and probably a section for donors (so the really high rollers). Prior to the event, we were told to go for the aisle seats so we would have a chance to shake his hand if he came walking through, so we planned to arrive about two hours early. When we arrived, you know what seats were taken? Every aisle seat and the twenty next to them. Of course. We decided we could make do with other seats, so we headed as comfortably close to the front as we could. An hour and a half of sitting goes by and then to our surprise, a circus comes onto stage.

Just… what?

Yeah, I’m not kidding. I know if I didn’t have pictures to back this up none of you would believe me but it’s true. Clowns, acrobats, what looked like a barbershop quartet, it had it all. They performed their individual acts for around 20 minutes and then departed. It turns out that they were part of a circus that was trying to imitate Cirque du Soleil. It was a decent attempt at being weird, but Cirque du Soleil did it first, just saying. Not long afterwards the large tv screen at the front lit up with live video of the pope headed into the front of the building we were in, and as soon as people saw it, they mobbed the aisle. That wouldn’t have been a big deal but the people began to get up on their seats for better views and so everyone behind them could see nothing until the pope had reached the stage and even that took quite a while. It took around 10 minutes to travel the approximate length of a football field since he kept shaking hands, holding babies, and at one point he took a drink of something from a fan (not sure if he actually did but I’m sure that cup now has its own pedestal at the guy’s house).

A Pope and His Throne

When he was up there, he greeted everyone and went through a speech in Italian and then every individual translator (there were about 6) got up, translated the speech, and then rotated back to their seat. Following that routine was another, shorter speech where the pope blessed everyone in the room and their families, which had to be translated 6 more times. Some of you may be doing the math right now, figuring out that yes, the vast majority of the time was translation of the same thing, over and over and over. Still, it was pretty neato. After the speeches, the circus came out to perform for the pope. It all seemed like a king and his jesters at that moment, but with less certainty of death upon failure. Once they had jested to completion, the pope gave yet another short speech, but it wasn’t translated since it was a completely spontaneous speech. I believe the jist of it was it’s good to have fun and be weird if I’m not mistaken.

Anyways, the next time our group had to meet to do anything was in around 6 hours, so we all split off to do separate activities. The group I ended up with went southwest on an exploration journey that totaled about 8 miles if my calculations were correct. We ended up heading south along the Tiber, going all over what I shall dub “west bank,” taking a journey all around the Vittorio Emanuel and cat sanctuary (yes, it’s actually a sanctuary for cats), and then heading back to the hotel via the Pantheon. Quite a full day, but that wasn’t the end of it.

Some call it fascist. Others call it extremely fascist

After a break since our feet were about ready to fall off, our entire class had a meal in a small restaurant called the Piacere Molise just a block away from the hotel. We had appetizers galore, a pasta sampler, wine, and tiramasu. The general consensus was utter satisfaction. And finally, the day was over.

Keep watch for the next update coming soon!

– Chris Apfeld

January 8, 2015 by

Rome

Forums, Hills, and Romans, Oh My!

Please pardon the delay on this, but we’ve been terribly busy. This post is actually about 1/6/15 .

Being on top of Palatine Hill started to make me realize why the emperors thought of themselves as gods. If I owned a city like this, in which I overlooked something as gorgeous as this everyday, I would probably think of myself as a god as well.

This was our last stop of the hill for the day, and what a conclusion it was. Palatine Hill was a center for a ton of different commotion within the city of Rome, but one of the most important features of Palatine Hill was its ownership to the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the place to be in Rome, where a ton of different trading, entertainment, and emperor addresses had taken place. It truly was one of the most important areas for those in ancient Rome, and it showed with the scale of space in which the forum took up.

Another really cool part of the Palatine Hill was its ancient structures (obviously), but one that stood out to me was the Arch of Titus! The Arch of Titus is an arch built by the Roman Emperor Domitian, after the death of his brother, Titus (go figure). But I personally think the most interesting part of the arch is its more modern history. Up until the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, Jews refused to walk under the arch due to the carving within the walls that depicted Jewish diaspora. The Jews, after the establishment of the state, would then walk backwards under the arch, signifying their redemption from exile from Rome.

Finally, after the day was over, the engineers had a night to themselves to explore Rome and to hopefully avoid being parked on (you should see the parking here, picture to come within the next couple of days). Rome really is super special at night, and walking down the strip that leads to St. Peter’s Square is something extremely magnificent that all of us get to enjoy for the next month.

This upcoming weekend we have a lot of engineers going to Venice, and some going to Assisi! So hopefully we can get some great pictures and stories to share with all of you on our brief stays there!

– Alex Manning

January 8, 2015 by

Rome

“Are you not entertained?”

With jet lag on the decline, our brave students set out on their daily academic journey filled with lecturing, documentaries, excruciatingly talkative guides, and the world famous Colosseum.

We managed to get the group together for once

For starters, today we received our first dose of Francesco, the highly energetic cook that prepares the breakfasts at the hotel. Francesco works in the corner of the room preparing most of the food and cleaning the dishes. He greets everyone with a smile (sometimes a handshake in addition) and will gladly take any special requests. While he’ll clear your table for you, if you bring your dishes straight to him, you may receive another handshake or even a pinch on the cheek. After hours, it’s possible to find him around the hotel, and if you make eye contact, you’ll surely be berated with questions about how the meal was. Breakfasts actually are served on the top floor of the hotel in a room filled with small, four person tables and windows galore to get a superb view of the Vatican Museum roof, surrounding apartments, and the other branch of the Hotel Alimandi. Food is served like a small buffet, ranging from scrambled eggs to extremely floppy bacon and then to yogurt and small pastries. There’s nothing distinctly Italian about breakfasts here, but we’re positive the pasta will emerge sooner or later. It may not sound like the best, but it’s all quite appetizing despite the sarcasm.

Directly following breakfast was our first lecture, which was about the sites we would be visiting during the day. Those sites included the Arch of Constantine and the main section of the Colosseum (we will be visiting the highest and lowest levels in a week). After a bit of lecture we watched a brief documentary on the Colosseum and then split off for lunch. Around an hour later, we returned to be introduced to Gino (nickname for Luigi). As I can best describe, he was a short, elderly, and highly opinionated Italian man who came recommended from our coordinator as the best guide in Rome. While he knew his material very well, Gino liked to talk, and talk he did. There was never a quiet moment with him since we all had headsets transmitting his rants to us from wherever he was. Gino will be our continuing guide throughout our journeys in Rome, so we’ve surely only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his ramblings.

Following the “brief” introduction to Gino, we hopped on a tour bus and took off for the Colosseum. Along the way, Gino pointed out countless ruins and buildings. That would have been great if not for the blinding sun, which completely prevented anyone on the wrong side of the bus without high-quality sunglasses from looking directly outside. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the site. The Colosseum, properly known as the Flavian Amphitheater, is surrounded by a plethora of other ruins and structures, including the Palatine hill and Roman forum among other things. Immediately, there is the Arch of Constantine, which was built in 315 AD to commemorate – you guessed it – Constantine. As can be seen in the picture above, it’s actually got 3 arches and is pretty large in scale. For the arch, I use the phrase “large in scale” pretty loosely since next door is the Colosseum, an absolutely massive amphitheater with a dimensions of 617 feet long, 512 feet wide, and 157 feet tall. It was designed to hold 50,000 Romans (about 5% of the population at the time) but could hold around 87,000 when packed to the brim. Not only that, but it’s estimated the stadium could empty in 30 minutes by utilizing its 76 entrances. Let’s not forget it’s the site of the infamous gladiator fights and, as some would argue, one of the highlights of Russell Crowe’s acting career. Quite impressive, no?

A panoramic view of shadows. Oh yeah and the Colosseum

Well enough of the details. After Gino’s detailed discussion of the Arch of Constantine, we were set free for a while so we had a chance to explore before entering the main attraction. While we had seen plenty of street vendors before, nothing seems to compare to the amount of guys walking around selling “selfie sticks” at the Colosseum. At one point we witnessed a gaggle of 8 of them and as soon as some police came around every single salesman bolted as if they were in a parkour race with Usain Bolt. It was spectacular. After the free roaming, we rejoined at the entrance and went through another Gino-riffic lecture. Again we were set free like the caged animals that were at the Colosseum back in the day, minus the deadly combat. It had two levels to look through with the upper level containing a mini museum. Every angle only seemed to make the structure seem even larger, and since the actual floor where gladiators fought was not present, you could see into the lover levels, also called the Hypogeum. Our exploration had a relatively strict deadline, and all but two students emerged on time. While it was unfortunate, we did manage to run into another American student group during our wait for the stragglers.

Panoramas just capture it all, don’t they?

With the day’s scheduled touring out of the way, we hopped back on the bus and headed straight back to the hotel for a bit more lecture on the upcoming activities. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Roman Forums, Palatine hill, and some other stuff, but I’ll save that as a surprise for those of you who don’t already have a copy of our schedule.

– Chris Apfeld

January 5, 2015 by

Rome

We made it!

After a somewhat uncomfortable 18 hour travel day, the young, great looking, and extremely intelligent engineers of the University of St. Thomas have finally landed in Rome! Though some of us have caught a mild bug, which I will deem the ‘traveler’s plague,’ we seem to be making it, and enjoying every second that we’ve already spent here.

The events that really followed up after landing in this beautiful city have consisted of: not understanding really what anyone is saying, being unable to extract euros out of ATMs due to banks not realizing that we’re traveling, and being somewhat off-put by a slightly too smug customs officer. But none-the-less, once we made it to our hotel, we actually have already had some fun!

Now I can’t really figure out how to properly put in the pictures of what I’ve taken whilst being here, but I’ll link the instagram account that I will be uploading most of the photos to. The pictures uploaded right now is that super clichè airplane photo above the ocean that’s supposed to represent some sort of deep introspection, while the other is a view from a room that we are staying in that shows part of vatican city from the window (how cool!).

That night of our arrival was spent wandering around the city and seeing different landmarks along the way. We waited until the evening to wander around because our professors told us it might look a lot more special (spoiler: it did). A lot of us would agree that our final destination, St. Peter’s Square, was our favorite out of all the places we went to see. The best way to describe the places we’ve saw is that we’re all kind of living in a literal dream: it seems to be that these buildings are way too beautiful to exist in real life.

Anyway, our trip today consists of visiting the colosseum, so hopefully I’ll be able to take some pictures that truly give the landmark its justice! But until then, ciao!

-Alex Manning

January 5, 2015 by

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