AAR CSS: Day 6

Today was a half day. We spent an hour and a half circling the city by public transport to reach Villa Giulia, which houses the second biggest collection of Etruscan artifacts after the Vatican. It probably would have taken us a similar amount of time to walk there, but most of us got to sit on the bus, which was much better than walking in the heat. We had breakfast at the little cafe there - the woman behind the counter was completely overwhelmed by 25 people walking in and ordering food and drinks. I had a great little pastry - kind of like a yellow cookie with some chocolate cookie bits in the middle. This was a strictly no-photo museum, but they do allow photos of the grounds:

Afterwards, I picked up a mozzarella and tomato sandwich from the cafe (with some lettuce-y stuff and what looked like a whitish condiment stuck in there as well - I closed my eyes and ignored it). Then Tom Keeline (from Harvard) and I went in search of a couple of bookstores he had written down and wanted to go see. We went through a bit of the Borghese gardens...

...and the Piazza del Popolo:

We were distracted by a bookstore window on the same street as the first one on his list but across the way - it was closed because it was Saturday. We crossed the street to see the bookstore he had noted down only to find that it had moved - across the street. We'll probably go back at some point, since the books in the window looked cool. They'll probably be expensive, though. The second bookstore (remainders at 50% off, a la Raven) had closed permanently. On the way to the bus stop we found Libreria M. T. Cicerone (basically the "M. T. Cicero Bookshop"), which just seemed to attract classicists - we met up with four other people from our group there. Got a small catalogue of the Domus Aurea, which is now permanently closed following a structural collapse two years ago. Glad I got to go with school years ago.

The night's entertainment was a lecture by Larissa Bonfante, a leading expert on the Etruscans who currently teaches at NYU. Among other things, I learned that Etruscan is not an Indo-European language (languages in that family include Latin, Greek, the Romance languages, English, etc.), and that we have some 200 Etruscan roots and 16,000 Etruscan words from some 9,000-13,000 epigraphical sources (i.e. inscriptions). However, our Etruscan dictionary is basically a telephone book: we have 15,000 personal names, which means we don't have enough Etruscan to recreate it as a viable language (that requires 2,000 words that are not names).

There was no dinner at the Centro, since it was a weekend, so I went with a few of the girls to a place in Piazza San Calisto (#7A) called Paris in Trastevere. Charming elderly waiter, good pasta, phenomenal chocolate mousse. Not cheap (not fantastically expensive either), but highly recommended.

AAR CSS: Day 5

We had the world's worst driver today. His name was Paolo. Everything was fine when we took a brief stop at the "Servian" wall, remnants of a wall rumored to have been constructed in the time of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome. An artillery arch (the ballista would go on a platform just behind it and shoot at people from there):

We started to suspect something was not quite right when Paolo missed the exit on the highway and took the one after it. On the upside, we got the unexpected bonus of seeing the walls of the acropolis of Ardea. Our actual goal was Lavinium, the town named after Aeneas' second wife, Lavinia (so say Virgil and Livy, among others). There we saw the Heroon (~hero shrine) of Aeneas:

...the Thirteen Altars (as well as numbers Fourteen and Fifteen):

(where Julia Scarborough extemporaneously recited the first 11 lines of the Aeneid from memory):

(area for a basin to collect the blood):

...and the archaeological museum, which was designed by someone who worked on the special effects for ET. Another no-photo museum --> another photo taken before they told us no photos (Minerva Tritonia):

The diorama show on the third floor, which prompted calls of "ET phone home":

From there we went to Lake Nemi, a place associated with the cult of Diana Nemorensis (and the Golden Bough of James Frazer fame):

There's a "Museum of the Ships" there, but no ships - they were noticed buried in the lake bed in the late 15th century, finally excavated in the 1930s, and burned (probably out of spite) by the Germans during World War II. The Italians in this area still hate them - we were warned not to speak German there (though I don't see why we would. Of course, a few people here like holding conversations in Latin, so I guess anything could happen). There's still a bit to see in the museum, including photos of the ships at various points in time and reconstructions of bits and pieces, as well as scale models (1:5 scale) and the lead pipes with the name CAESARIS AVG GERMANICI, which lets us identify the owner of the ships as Caligula. No photos, sorry - but here's one outside the museum. At the bottom is part of a project to reconstruct one of the ships, now abandoned; you can probably tell what's behind the tree (scratching up the far side of it, actually):

Lunch at an out of the way osteria in Genzano, the nearby town. This amusing-yet-disturbing construction was photographed from the bus:

Then onto the Park of the Aqueducts near Cinecittà (Rome's Hollywood: home to the now partially burned sets of HBO's Rome, among many, many other productions). There were a few moments when Susann and Seth wondered exactly where Paolo was taking us, but we ended up where we needed to go, complete with backing down a one-way street in order to park (in Italy, apparently, the rule is you're fine going in either direction so long as you're facing the right way). Got to use a digital SLR for the first time when one of the people in our group asked me to take a picture of him in front of the aqueduct. I might be addicted now.

An aqueduct:

Dinner: Gnochetti al pesto Genovese | Filetti di salmone con grigliata di verdure | Bomba al cioccolato

AAR CSS: Day 4

Etruscans!

Note of the day (from the itinerary): N.B. WEAR STURDY, CLOSED SHOES FOR HIKING, LONG PANTS, AND BRING WATER.

We had an early breakfast at the Centro (where "early" = 7:00am. Breakfast is usually at 7:30. Yes, I have made it to breakfast every day so far.) so we could board the bus to Tarquinia at 7:30. My bread roll looked like a crocodile head (picture forthcoming whenever I manage to get it from the woman in our group who took it).

Helen "Illi" Nagy ("Naj". No relation to Greg Nagy of Homer & Harvard fame - Nagy is a very common Hungarian last name) showed us around some of the tombs at Tarquinia. No photos allowed! Of the frescoes, at least - here are some of the things we were allowed to take photos of:

Unidentified lizard on the modern hut covering entrance to Tomb of the Bulls:

Butterfly on flower outside aforementioned tomb:

From there we went to the Banditaccia Necropolis of Cerveteri, where I managed to take a photo of a fresco before someone inevitably asked about taking pictures (grrr) and we were told not to. Silly people - take photo first, ask later!

This is Charun, related to but not exactly the Greek Charon, from the Tomb of the Anina family in the Monterozzi necropolis, Tarquinia:

We were let loose for a bit to run around the other tombs (the ones open to the public, that is) like chickens with our heads cut off (40 minutes for over 15 tombs, each of which was down a separate flight of stairs - you do the math). Great pictures, though, like this giant slug (3 in.?) on wall down to one of the tombs:

Then we went into the town of Tarquinia (formerly Corneto) to see the museum, where Susann Lusnia took a picture of me with Cerberus in honor of my T-shirt choice:

Lunch at a little place next to the museum called Arcadia. Then onto Cerveteri, which has better preserved tumuli but not very many frescoes. A tumulus in the necropolis of Cerveteri:

One of the rooms inside a tumulus. Dead people would either be laid out or put in a sarcophagus which was then laid out on the couches.

Inside the Tomb of the Reliefs (probably the best preserved of the tombs at Cerveteri, since those are reliefs and not frescoes):

We were given some free time to run around (and into) the tumuli, giant burial mounds carved out of tuff/tufo (not tufa, as it's been called mistakenly for 150 years). Found some creepy crawlies and pretty kitties:

Bus driver's name: Fabio

Guide's name: Signor Tortellini (you can't make this stuff up)

Dinner: Risotto ai funghi | Petto di pollo con cicoria e carciofi | Crostata di marmellata

AAR CSS: Day 3

Russell T. "Darby" Scott, one of those people at the AAR reception the first day, gave us a little talk in the Forum Romanum. He discussed the newly reopened Temple of Vesta, the Shrine of the Vestals, the Domus Publica (where the Pontifex Maximus stayed), and the Regia (formerly assumed to be the king's house).

The Temple of Vesta:

Afterwards Susann and Seth showed us the Temple of Castor (and Pollux), the Lacus Curtius, the Curia Hostilia, the Lapis Niger, and the Comitium. When they let us go, we took advantage of the Nero exhibit that's on in the Forum and the Colosseum to see the inside of the Curia Julia (actually a 3rd-century AD building) and the "Temple of Romulus", which is not usually open to the public. After a small detour to the Palatine, I went with a small group to the Jewish Ghetto, where we ducked into "The Everything Store" (I think it's actually called "the Rainbow" in Italian, but the name isn't really advertised and they do sell pretty much everything from fairy statues to flashlights). We had lunch at the "milky Kosher" side of Ba" Ghetto (think "Bar" pronounced with a Bostonian accent).

Part of the Palatine (modern buildings and fountain):

Surpriseattack!lizard:

Ba" Ghetto (the meat kosher side of the street):

Returned to Centro, went looking for a flashlight for trip to the tombs of Tarquinia and Cerveteri. Hardware store was closed. Went to supermarket (cat food, but no flashlights), stopped by a Hello Kitty-themed cartoleria/libreria to see if they had one. Told to go to hardware store (which takes an afternoon siesta until 4pm, apparently). Found great little flashlight for < E10.

"Played" ping pong with a few people in the garden at the Centro until dinner. One of my shots ended up like this:

Dinner: Penne all'Arrabbiata | Prosciutto di Parma con melone | Panna cotta ai frutti di bosco

AAR CSS: Day 2

Next up: the Palatine, first visit. We spent a bit of time at "Romulus' hut", where a little lizard ran around while Susann Lusnia spoke about the Palatine in general and the "huts" in particular.

He's waving hi:

We also went into the basement of the museum to see the remains of a few burials and a model of a hut:

In the Forum Romanum we saw the Sepolcretum (or rather the green tarp and fence surrounding the Sepolcretum), the early burial site for people living on the Palatine in the Iron Age. We also saw the (closed and locked) entryway to the Cloaca Maxima (Rome's Giant Sewer), which smells like it's still in use, though it isn't. We also went to the Velabrum, the little valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline where the waters of the Tiber can reach during a bad flood and which used to be marshland before the Romans got sick of it (perhaps literally) and filled it in with 11m of debris so they could build there.

Onto the Capitoline Museums, where we saw a few portraits at the exhibition on view; the Capitoline she-wolf (with Renaissance twins); and the Fasti Capitolini, lists of Roman magistrates and triumphatores. We hit up the cafe upstairs for lunch. 

The Capitoline She-Wolf:

The Capitoline Topiary (new this trip!):

Afterwards, we went down the Vicus Iugarius to the Sant'Omobono area to see twin temples to Mater Matuta and Fortuna. Apparently Sant'Omobono is not a legit saint - Susann Lusnia suspects a connection between Omobono (uomo bono = "good man" in Italian) and Evander (eu aner = "good man" in Greek), a Greek who in Virgil's Aeneid inhabits a sort of proto-Rome and gives Aeneas and his son the grand tour when they came over from Troy.

Archaeologists in their native habitat (Sant'Omobono area - these are actually friendly specimens from Brown):

Also on this date: the gelateria Miami is discovered in nearby Piazza Cucchi ("cooky"). For E2 (2 euros) you can get a small cone (that's three different flavors) - plus you can get it "affogato nel cioccolato caldo" (dipped in heated chocolate) with whipped cream at no extra charge. Think Dairy Queen but better (and cheaper).

Dinner: Castellane con zucchini | Stracetti rughetta e parmigiano | Torta Caprese

AAR CSS: Day 1

Non-stop orientations. We got to see the inside of the American Academy, where we had lunch and then a lecture, but first we took a short tour of the Janiculan with T. Corey Brennan, a Roman historian from Rutgers:

He showed us a newly cleaned fountain (more impressive than it sounds):

...a monument to war dead:

...the first Renaissance building (inside the Spanish academy):

...and the rooftop of the Villa Aurelia (another panorama of Rome):

Then an orientation to the AAR library, an overview of our program, lunch, and an introduction to the course, followed by an orientation to the Centro (ICCS) with Franco Sgariglia, the guy who runs it. His family also runs the place where people who do the optional add-on down by the Bay of Naples stay - he's very nice, but the sentiment "it's all in the family" takes on a slightly different (read: Godfather) connotation in Italy. They definitely have a monopoly on people staying at the Centro during the summer and the school year. That said, the food is good (M-F breakfast and dinner).

The day ended with a pre-dinner reception in the garden of the AAR, where T. Corey Brennan and Susann Lusnia said a few words. There were quite a few other people there, most associated with the AAR in some way; we got the feeling a lot of them thought we were supposed to recognize them, but none of us did. On the way out some of us saw the Lead Burrito, a burial in which the skeleton was wrapped in a lead sheet. They couldn't x-ray it, of course, but they did some sort of scan to show that there is in fact a skeleton inside. It's now kept in the locked up wine barn in the AAR garden:

The Lead Burrito (warning: not edible):

Dinner: Rigatoni alla Puttanesca | Caprese | Gelato con panna

AAR CSS: T-1 Day

Eight of us went exploring the day before CSS started. First we went to see the American Academy in Rome, the institution that is running our program. (This is not where we're staying, of course - it's reserved for people in the humanities who win year-long fellowships, like our assistant director, Seth Bernard.)

Both the Centro and the American Academy are on the Janiculan Hill, the only one on the other side of the Tiber (Trastevere = Trans Tiberim, "across the Tiber") from the rest of Rome. Vatican City is almost directly north of us. We went to Piazzale Garibaldi, the highest point in Rome, then walked down to the Tiber. Saw this little guy (or gal) on the way down the hill:

Part of the view from Piazzale Garibaldi:

Garibaldi, now a pigeon perch:

Staff hard at work:

From the Janiculan we walked along the Tiber to the Mausoleum of Hadrian (now Castel Sant'Angelo):

Ponte Sant'Angelo:

Part of our group at an intersection:

Statue of Victory at the end of the Ponte Sant'Angelo:

Lamppost along the Tiber decorated with ship prows (rostra):

The Synagogue:

4.4 miles (and a long uphill + stairs we nicknamed "Heartbreak Hill") later, back at the Centro. Then we went back down those stairs and hill to Dar Poeta for dinner. Good pizza, even if they insisted mozzarella di bufala (yes, made from real buffaloes - Campanian water buffaloes, that is) couldn't be cooked with the rest of the pizza in the oven. Silly Italians.