Site Visits and a busy day

Ciao everyone, I know today's blog is coming at a bit later time than normal as far as posting goes, but since I left here before 8am, I got back here around 7:30, so a good 12 hours away from home, living in Roma.

And what a life to lead, eh?

So this morning Bert and I had to make it over for a site visit to Santa Spirito, an old church from just after Constantine legalized the practice of Christianity in Rome in 313. No, that's not a typo. 313 as in about 1700 years ago. Yikes. The church is one of the most well preserved and unaltered in terms of structure in Roma, and it's really cool to think that the two-aisle, nave, apse designs, complete with mosaics and window adornment has been there for, oh, you know, 80 times longer than I've been alive, and depending on your age (say, 40), it's still 40 times older than you. Think about that for a minute. Even if you're 80, it's still 20 times older, so I mean, that's really, really old.

We figured out last night the best way to get over there would take the metro and switch lines and get off at Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) and walk about a kilometer to the church. We did so, and the Metro was so crowded in the morning with commuters. Remember: cars here are limited, and so everyone takes public transportation. You think the MAX gets crowded? I mean, this is people stand on other people's shoes crowded, like you can't fall over since you're physically touching someone else. It's gnarly.

But Bert and I got off and checked out the Circo Massimo, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill, and just took in for a minute that man, we're passing by this on the way to something else historic, while everyone is just going to work. It's there, it always has been, and it's in the heart of everything. The picture shows the Palatine Hill former Emperor's Palace ruins, and the Circo Massimo is right beneath it, and since it's below ground, it's tough to really show.

But we walked over and got to Santa Spirito about 15 minutes early, checking out views of the city from within the walls of the garden nextdoor. I mean, the Church is in this really cool neighborhood and has a beautiful park next to it, filled with Orange trees, apparently from Spain, like some of the original genus of Orange trees, pretty cool stuff. But yes, and on the other side of that garden, there is a view of the whole city that was pretty cool, and below it ran the Tevere, or the Tiber, River. Really cool stuff.

We met up with our professoressa and our class got together and we all entered the church on our little private tour. It was really cool to have her guiding us through a lecture and actually BE in the site for a disucssion of the material. Now that is a major reason for coming to Rome for school. I mean, you can't have an art history lecture in San Diego, Boston, New York, you name it, and actually be in the churches of the lesson and talk about history that goes back over 1500 years. You just can't.

We went inside and it's really, really well preserved. I mean, it's been restored in many artistic senses, but as far as the structure, it's been this way since the early 5th Century. Man. That is old. The structure was like many Roman Basilicas used to be, and Basilicas used to be used for courts, markets, etc, and we not religious institutions, really. But the Christians picked up on this, and made it their own places of worship.

The basic layout, if I can show it, is to have a large, high-ceilinged Nave in between two large collumns, which seperate the two lower areas of aisles, and in the front was the Apse, where the alter was placed, usually with a domed area that was frescoed to decorate with Christian symbology. The picture to the left shows an aisle of collumns, and outside it with a larger area, the Nave. It was a little dark and no flash was allowed, but I did my best to show it all in there and the collumns, especially. Cool stuff.

In the church, we saw this wooden door that may be the the first public inscriptions depicting the story of Christ and the Christian doctrine. It's in perfect condition, and if you can see it, it has iconography from the Bible all over it. I mean, it's wood! And it's still preserved! What a beautiful thing to behold, I mean, wow. Wood.

We spent about 40 minutes in there with the lecture before leaving for a seperate area for the visit, the Domus under Santo Giovanni e Santo Paulo, or the House under St. Joseph and St. Paul. And during this walk, we walk right by the Colosseo, yes, the Colosseum. Woohoo, it was pretty awesome. It was excavated only a few decades ago, and opened only a few years ago, and it's really, really cool to see a house that was used as a place of worship before the Edict of Milan, both for some Pagan religions and Christianity as well. There were NO pictures allowed here, but, in usual fashion, I had to at least try, right? I mean, this place is 1,800 years old, it needs to be shared with all of you, right?

The fresco on the wall here is of Pagan origin, and just remember that this is completely unedited and for nearly two millenia. Whoa. I really dug going underground into these monuments; it's tough to believe that these places used to be houses over 1800 years ago, the history just blows you away every day, and today was really like that.

We really spent only about 20 minutes in there since our two hours were almost up for class, and Bert and I had to absolutely BOOK back to class that we had at 11:30, and we got out at 11. I mean, we were over 4 kms away from class and we literally ran past the Arch of Constantine, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Piazza Venezia. I mean, it's a trip to go past all of these places on a daily basis, whew!

On a little side-note, today, I saw may have seen Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. So how do I know this? As I was running, I had to tie my shoe a little after the Arch, and we stopped for a second as I did this. Now, as I was doing so, there were tons of people going into the Colosseum, as always. But I thought I might have seen him, and part of me thought well, no way.

Turns out he was there. So was Jessica Biel. I mean, whoa, small world, eh?

But I made it back to class with 2 minutes to spare, and I just enjoyed my day and made it back. A little bit of a quick let-down, but hey, that's what the day was. I am just reading now and readying for bed too, I've got to get to sleep to go to class and then off to Italian tomorrow morning, and it's over for the weekend, how cool is that?

Not as cool as Kirsten in Crete this week, but still cool. I want to go to Crete someday! It sounds amazing, for sure, but I'll be seeing some new things soon, more on that to come.

Until next time,

Ciao.