Adventure to Campo di' Fiori

Although, I only have been in Rome for seven days Campo de’ Fiori became my favorite place. The first time I went to Campo de’ Fiori was on the second day of this trip and as soon as I saw this place it became my favorite place in Rome. Campo de’ Fiori is a very lively place through out a day and also around this area is less touristy area so I could see how locals live in the city.

I would like to call Campo de’ Fiori as a maze. If I was not going with Jackie I would never be able to get out of those narrow streets and never be able to find the piazza. Although I was going with Jackie when I was going to the piazza for the first time, I still feel like this is a maze. Buildings in Campo de’ Fiori are narrowly located to each other so we were constantly walking narrow streets and these are not even straight streets. So, once I starting walking down Campo de’ Fiori I am in a maze of buildings to find the piazza. Although I have been to Campo de’ Fiori several times, this is still a maze and I am following the route that I know as if after you solve a maze all you see in the maze is the correct route to find the ending area.

My favorite part of the place is the market place. Stalls in the market place are selling various products. They sell FRESH fruits, vegetables, oils, pasta noodles as well as clothes, flowers and souvenirs. Fruits and vegetables are really fresh here. Especially, the fruits here smell so sweet and the smell led me to the fruits and before I knew it I was paying for my cherries. However, the market closes in the afternoon around 2 p.m.

Other than the market place, small cafes surround the piazza. Near the fountain area, there is a pizza store. It was more like to-go pizza place so the pizza was cheap. However, the taste of this pizza was not at all a cheap pizza! It was just really good although it was not a hot pizza. The combination of cheese, prosciutto and fresh basil was just perfect. I couldn’t believe this was less than two euro. I cannot remember this place’s name but this is the must go place.

There are art galleries, clothes stores, small restaurants and other various stores on the narrow streets of Campo de’ Fiori. On the 3rd day, Guerry, Jovany, Liz and I had lunch at a restaurant on one of those narrow streets. It was very exciting to eat on the narrow street and see people passing by us. There are many clothes stores attract my eyes.

Nighttime at Campo de’ Fiori is very different from the morning or afternoon. All the cafes that surround the piazza turn into bars. A lot of young people gather at the monument to Giordano Bruno and drink. This is the time when Italian guys’ eyes get really busy staring at every attractive girl passing them. Since a lot of American students are studying here it is very usual to see signs to attract Americans to their clubs or bars.

My adventure to Campo de’ Fiori has not ended yet because there are streets and structures that I have not discovered. So, my journey to Campo de’ Fiori will be continued and it will be more magical place to me.

Orpheus!

It’s sixth day here in Rome. I am really enjoying the city but unfortunately my legs are sore. Waking up at 7 a.m. I forced myself to follow my painful legs to my classmates with my sleepy eyes. I had a cup of coffee before I left St. John’s but that’s does not really wake me up.

We arrived at Villa Borghese and waited Dan to get the tickets for the gallery of Borghese. I was still wanted sit and rest. We got into the gallery and I walked into the upper floor and Bang! I saw this mosaic painting and could not stop looking at this artwork.

This mosaic art piece was done by Marcello Provenzale and the title is Orfeo. In the mosaic of Orpheus, animals who are surrounding Orpheus in the center of the mosaic united in a concert, enticed by the melody of Orpheus’ viola. In the figure of Orpheus, he seems like he is soothing the animals with his music. The background of the mosaic looks like a park and Orpheus who is in the center of the painting is sitting in front of a tree. Different kinds of animals are surrounding the Orpheus and listening to the melody of Orpheus’ viola. Some of animals are not really directly looking at Orpheus like the dog in the mosaic. However, the reason I know that they are listening to him is their face expressions are very soothe and calm. Especially, even the lion on the left side does not look scary and look like he is carefully listening at Orpheus’ viola. However, the interesting part is the contrast of the calm face animals and the angry face volcano mountain on the behind of animals on the right side. I could not figure out why the volcano mountain has the angry face but it was very interesting to look at.

The most amazing part of this mosaic is its detail. This work is really interesting because it is made out of really tiny small pieces of tiles. The tiles are small enough to express the face expression of animals and also bring out shades onto the figures in the mosaic. If I did not look at the work carefully, I would not ever realize this is a mosaic artwork. I was just really amazed to see how sophisticatedly the work was completed with various color use.

The most modern place on the Palantine Hill

The Farnese garden is located in the area where the Domus Tiberiana was exited. The Farnese garden is a really pretty garden. It is surrounded by the orange trees and has colorful flowers. Also, the view from the garden was really beautiful because I could see the Basilica of Maxentius with other forum romanum. However, I felt like this garden is not really integrated with the remains on the Palatine hill.
The remains of the Palatine hill are mostly from the ancient Rome. Therefore, most of the buildings were destroyed. Honestly, some of them are hard to recognize because of the destruction. Also, I could see that the remains on the Palatine hill looks like they are really old buildings.
However, the fact that the garden is exited among those destroyed and obsolesce structures. The garden is made up of plants. Trees and flowers are the main things in the garden. They are still alive and they still have their functions in the gardens by amusing the visitors.
I was really confused by the fact that this lively place is exist among the obsolesce buildings. The Farnese garden was not really made in the ancient roman period. It was made in 16th century for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and was modeled on the classical viridarium of ancient roman villas. It was really well preserved garden considering that it’s made in the 16th century.
Well, although it is made in 500 hundreds years ago the fact that it is so lively among the dead buildings confuses me. Also, it made me think how would I differently accept this garden if all the remains of the hill is well kept and still continue on their functions.

Mi Piace Cane

This sculpture of dog, Cane, is not an artwork that most of visitors would pay attention compared to those other great artwork in Capitoline museum. However, my affection toward dogs still strongly exists in Rome and that made me to look at more closely to the sculpture.

There were other artworks related to dogs but the reason this sculpture of dog draw my attention is because of its sophisticated details of a dog.

Cane is located at the horti of Ancient Rome. Despite the fact that it is from ancient Rome, the sculpture is really well preserved. The sculpture is made out of greenish marble and has very smooth space. The shape of dog is very realistic although the size of dog is bigger than actual size of dogs. Maybe, St. Bernard might be the same size with this sculpture. Each part of Cane’s body is carved in detail, which embosses the realistic of the figure as a dog. I can see that the dog is muscular like other ancient Roman statues of human figures. Also, the dog is very fit like those statues of ancient Rome.

The way the dog is sitting is very imposing with its muscular figure. Probably it is because the sculpture of dog is used to be located in front of the house as a guard dog. However, at the same time the dog’s face looks very loyal. It is really interesting contrast because the way it is sitting looks like it is going to attack me at any time but the face of this dog looks like “I am ready to obey your order.” Especially, those eyes that are looking up at me reminds me of my dog.

Roman Forum

Walking down the Roman Forum was the amazing experience. When I was writing the travelogue I imagined walking across the Roman Forum from Colosseum. Although, I couldn't start walking from Colosseum I could get the sense of my character in the travelogue walking across the Roman Forum with his senator. While I was standing there looking at the structures, I felt like all the buildings were packed into this area of the Roman Forum. It was like walking down a street of modern Rome. Therefore, for me the Roman Forum was like a public area where people meet and do their business. I could imagine the ancient Roman citizens sitting on the shade of the structure and talk about their business or going to the structures for their business. I could imagine people going to the Basilica Amelia to do civic administration matters or for shopping. Also, as I walking down to go to Curia Julia, I became my character in my travelogue. I think the Roman Forum was the business place during day in the ancient Rome.

Profumo di Roma

Of course, I could not sleep last night! I was too excited that I had finally stepped foot into the ancient city I had been studying this whole semester. Although my eyes were tired, I could not take my contact lenses out because I had to wear my sunglasses under this gorgeous sunlight! Today’s weather and this sunlight especially reminded me of California, even though the smell of Rome was different. Every time I travel to a new place, I smell the unique scent created by the atmosphere of the city... Hmmm… Can’t wait to go out there and find out more about the unique scent of Rome!

“Nicole! Let’s go!” Shannon said.

I replied, “Oh! Okay! I am ready!”

My roommate Shannon just woke me up from my daydreaming about the city. Yes, it’s finally time to start our journey! Shannon and I went to the foyer of St. John’s to meet our group.
When I went there I saw that everyone was excited about our first day. Their voices were full of excitement. There I saw Sandy talking intensely about where she wanted to go today to Melissa and Allan.

“Guys! Where are we going today?” I asked.

“Of course you didn’t look at the itinerary, Suchin,” said Allan with that judging face.

“Hey, Nicole, we are going to the Forum Romanum, your favorite forum!” Melissa said.

“Oh, there’s a Gelato place we can go on the way there!” Sandy said with exciting voice.

As we arrived at the Forum Romanum, I couldn’t believe the fact that this place felt very familiar. Probably it looked familiar because of the intense stud about the structures that I did a couple weeks ago for retakes of midterm. I guess taking retakes pay off here, where I know every structure I pass by!

“Shannon! There’s temple of Julius Caesar.”
“Oh my god, Shannon, that’s the Curia Julia.”
“Can you believe that we are walking down the Sacra Via?”

I continuously shouted the names of the structures at Shannon and I could see her smiling back at me. I was just too excited to see the actual structures that I only learned about from pictures. I was amazed by the magnificent atmosphere of the forum. Although many structures were destroyed, I could still feel the grandness it had during the Republican and Imperial eras.

As we were going back to St. John’s, I couldn't believe what I had experienced and seen. I was still excited. Tomorrow would be another day of full of excitement, and I wouldn’t be able to sleep well tonight again, because I would be far too excited

Riflessione

During dinnertime, I just sat and listened to my friends while they talked about mythology and classic Roman history. In my head, I tried to figure out the subject they were discussing, but I did not understand their conversation at all. Before I came to college, I never thought I knew enough about the city as a famous place for tours. I knew that there were a lot of ancient ruins from thousands of years ago and the pope lives in Vatican City in Rome. Of course, I was surprised at how little knowledge I have about the city when I could not engage in my friends’ conversations. Afterwards, I could not cease my desire to travel Rome and explore this ancient city that I learned about in history class when I was younger, but never studied it deeply.

I was ecstatic when I came across the poster regarding the travel seminar last year. My first thoughts were: it is finally time for me to go to Rome and explore the land of history. Immediately, I told my friends about the travel seminar to see if they were interested. While money was not much of a problem in my decision to apply for the seminar, I was worried that my shallow knowledge about the city of Rome would not be enough for me to survive the class. Since I grew up in Korea, I did not have the chance to learn about the city, because it was not part of the school curriculum. My doubts were resolved after I realize this is the perfect time to learn about Rom.

Over the course of Reading Rome, I was overwhelmed by the immense amount of readings about Rome. Despite my willingness to learn about Rome, at times, I could not help but regret signing up for the class.  Even so, my disappointments about the course were nothing compared to my tremendous desire to go to Rome. As I learned more about Rome, my passion to experience the Roman life escalated. I am especially fascinated by the fact that Rome has a history that spans from the ancient times to the modern era. When I go to Rome in a few days, I would like to find out how the citizens of Rome feel about living in such a great city that contains so many aspects of magnificence in its history.

From the last group discussion, I was surprised to find out that each individual had distinctive attitudes and expectations toward going to Rome. In fact, my expectations of going to the city changed from “let’s study Italy as the root of western culture” to “let’s stand among the ancient structures and feel like we are a part of the ancient Roman lifestyle.” If I didn’t take this course, I wouldn’t appreciate the city as much as I would do now. Also, I can’t wait to imagine the full structures of destroyed ancient ruins when I am looking at the actual ruins not looking at the pictures.