In my last post, I had just arrived home and started to reflect on my semester abroad. There is so much to unpack from my time in Rome, both figuratively and literally!
I’ve been asking my friends, followers, and viewers online for questions they’d like to ask me about my time abroad, and let me say that you all did not disappoint! Thank you for your questions! Here are my answers to them.
Question: How did you choose a study abroad program?
When I was on campus, studying abroad was a something I hear a lot about! As a first-year, I heard older students talking about how they either planned to go abroad or had just returned from their time away from campus. I attended the Study Abroad Fair and got to hear first-hand accounts from students who had studied in different places. I learned more about specific programs through formal information sessions and through one-on-one appointment with the Office of Study Abroad.
I worked with both my Study Abroad advisor and my academic advisors to find a program that was right for me. I took into consideration my goals for the future. As a double-major, I had to look through multiple program catalogs to find one that would best help immerse me in another culture while still keeping me on track with my academic plans. I created several courseloads that would work with my two majors and looked at programs in more detail from there.
I chose Temple Rome because Rome was the best fit for my plans and interests. As a Classics major, I had always wanted to see the things I had studied for so long come to life in front of me. I started learning Latin in middle school and delved deeper into the world of the ancient Romans in high school. I loved seeing ancient artifacts and learning about the people whose language I was studying in museums.
At Holy Cross, I expanded my views of the ancient world beyond Rome: there were so many other cultures and peoples to explore in the ancient Mediterranean! I knew from my ancient history classes that ancient Rome had expanded into the largest civilization in the region and incorporated the cultures and histories of the lands it covered into the empire. And I had a chance to study in the city that was once the center of such a large expanse of land. I wanted to go to Rome not only to learn about not only the ancient Romans, but also to look for the influences of other cultures in the city and beyond.
I learned a lot about the diversity of the ancient world in Race in the Ancient Meditterean, a Classics course that included a lot of field trips to museums. This picture of the Rabirii relief in the Palazzo Massimo, where we had our last off-campus lesson, captures the multicultural world that was ancient Rome. The two people on the left have Greek names while the woman on the right was thought to be a priestess for a foreign deity.
My other major, psychology, impacted my decision as well. I learned about the beginnings of developmental psychology in my introductory psychology classes, and a name I remember seeing often was Montessori. I looked up this name, and it turns out that Maria Montessori was an Italian physican who devised the Montessori method of education for the underprivledged children of Rome in the early 1900s! I was lucky enough to have seen where the method had started in the San Lorenzo district in the city, an area I had explored in not a psychology course, but in my political science course! I’m glad I got to walk through history for not only my Classics degree, but also for my studies in psychology as well.
I saw Maria Montessori’s Casa di Bambini (House of Children) with my own eyes in Rome! A major turning point in the history of psychology.
Question: What was the most unexpected experience you had during your time abroad?
There were so many unexpected things that happened while I was abroad I don’t know where to start! I had two travel-related mishaps, one when I missed my bus to Pompeii because of construction on the Roma Metro (a misadventure I made the most of here) and the other when my flight back to Rome was pushed a day back because of aviation strikes (transportation strikes are common in Italy) and I stayed an extra night at a hastily-booked room in Catania, Sicily.
An unexpected experience I had in Rome was when I used three languages in one day while walking through the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino at Piazza Vittorio (an adventure I wrote about here). I heard a lot of the merchants say “Ni hao!” (“Hello!”) to me in Chinese (a language I didn’t think I would hear much of in Italy). My professor’s friend, Omar, who works at a butcher stand in the market, asked me a few questions in Chinese! It took me a moment to switch from English to Chinese to respond to him, and even longer for me to switch back to English to talk to my classmates, and later from English to Italian for Italian class! I was not expecting a trilingual experience that day!
Question: What are some highlights from visiting Florence?
When I went to Florence for a weekend in October, I liked seeing how different the place was from a city like Rome! The streets were less crowded and more colorful, with distinct architecture and art from the Renaissance. My favorite place was Ponte Vecchio, where I got to see an amazing sunset! The pictures I took from that short trip are some of the best ones I took from my entire semester abroad. The photo of the sunset in Florence was also one of the prints I gave away for my fundraiser; it was very popular in the Temple Rome community!
This photo, which I call “Bridge to Dusk,” is of the sunset I caught near Ponte Vecchio in Florence. It was in high demand in December!
Another highlight from my trip to Florence was the food. I had heard of Tuscan cuisine in the United States, but I had never tried until October! I tried charcuterie for the first time in Florence and loved the local pizza and pasta as well. I even got to try something new in the Mercato Centrale on my last day there! One of my former professors who read my post about Florence said I was “adventurous” for trying fried rabbit there! It’s fun to try new things.
Question: Did you have a new favorite food you tried?
This is a hard question: I had so much good food abroad! While I loved trying regional dishes in the places I visited (cannoli and chinotto in Sicily, sarde in saor in Venice, and so on), I have to say my favorite food from the semester is a tried and true Roman classic: carbonara. I tried the dish of pasta, eggs, pancetta (pork belly), and pecorino cheese (the local sheep’s cheese in Rome) several times, both near Via Flaminia behind campus and farther away from the center of the city. My favorite carbonara was at the seaside restaurant I went to in Ostia. I giggle to myself every time I think about the ingredients, because I can imagine trying to make an omelette from bacon, cheese, and eggs at home!
Carbonara: a tried and true Roman classic! Hope I can find it in the States. Maybe the North End in Boston is worth a try.
Question: What was your favorite lunch place around campus?
Yet another hard question! So many good places to eat lunch around campus. Almost every day, I looked for places to eat along Via Flaminia and tried a few different ristoranti (larger places to sit down and eat) and trattorie (places to get a quick bite of pizza or sandwiches.) I’d say my go-to place behind campus was Alice Pizza, a pizza chain with a lot of choices! I got to try classics I’ve tried in the United States like the margherita (tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese) and tried new toppings like prosciutto (sliced ham) and roasted melanzane (eggplants). Orders are priced by weight and heated up in the oven while you pay.
A photo of Alice Pizza’s selections I found online. So many kinds of pizza to choose from!
Question: Any activity recommendations besides just sightseeing and eating?
A very important question! While there is so much to see and eat while abroad, it is also important to get involved with local activities at school as well.
When I was at Temple Rome, I got notifications about upcoming events and could access places I could sign up for them. We all signed up for Italian cultural labs, which could be anything from exploring in the historic markets of the city to learning Italian with dogs to listening to Italian music!
Some of my classmates volunteered at local places like high schools near campus or the refugee center further downtown. Others signed up to play calcetto (soccer) or basketball after classes. I was lucky enough to sign up for the last cooking class of the semester. Making pasta by hand was hard, but it was lot of fun and definitely worth it in the end!
Made pasta by hand at the last cooking class of the semester!
We also got to attend special lectures on campus about issues we wouldn’t have learned about otherwise. I went to a discussion about race in Italy and met Susanna, an Afro-Italian activist who shared how she found her identity in Rome. I got to plan my own activity on campus through my fundraiser for QuestaèRoma, the organization Susanna works with. (Read about how I planned this project here.) I’m grateful to Temple Rome for their support through my independent project. I’m glad we could make something wonderful happen for the holidays!
Those are all the questions I got for this Q&A! Do you have anything else to ask me? Leave a comment below, and we’ll see if I get enough questions for another short Q&A next month as well. Happy New Year!
That’s right: I’ve returned home after my semester abroad! It feels strange, not writing this from Rome. The last time I published a blog post in the United States was back in September, on the day before I caught my flight to Fiumicino Airport.
Arrivederci, Roma! Adesso, a Boston! (Goodbye, Rome! Now, to Boston!)
As I unpack the many things I brought with me from Rome, I’ve been thinking a lot about my experience abroad. So many sensations – sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches – from just three and a half months in another country! The whole semester was a lot to take in and a lot of fun to explore!
I had a hard time packing my suitcases on my flight back to Boston, I can’t believe I got so much stuff! I paid a little extra for my checked bag because it was over the weight limit.
I’m slowly but surely recovering from jetlag. There is a six-hour time difference between Rome and Boston. It took me three days of naps to readjust to Eastern Standard Time.
I miss Temple Rome already. I smile every time I think about the people I met there. A lot of good memories! How time flies.
Miss you already, Temple Rome!
In the three days of re-orienting myself to my hometown, I looked through all of my previous blog posts and all of my favorite photos. I decided that it would be a waste not to combine the two and create a digital record of my experiences. Why not make a video of my adventures this semester?
On Christmas day, I did just that! Check it out right here!
One of the last things I saw in Rome before I left for the airport. How festive!
As I continue to reflect on my time abroad, I think it’ll be nice to hear from you, my readers, about what you would like me to write about in my next post. (I’m thinking about publishing a little Q&A based on what you would like to ask me.)
Leave a comment, and I’ll either respond to it on this post or include it in the future as I continue to look back on my experiences. It may take a little bit for comments to appear on my post, but be assured that I do take every bit of feedback I get! Can’t wait to hear what you would like me talk about as a study abroad blogger.
Happy holidays, everyone!
I’ll leave you with a picture of the Christmas tree in front of Piazza Venezia in Rome.
This semester, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to learn about the ancient world through not only lectures in my Race in the Ancient Mediterranean class, but also through many class trips. The last trip of the semester was a visit to the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, a museum a short minutes away from Termini station in the center of Rome.
Palazzo Massimo is a fairly recent branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano, the National Roman Museum. It was built in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. It was interesting to see ancient artifacts on display in such a new museum!
Our first stop in the museum was at the Rabirii relief. This 1st-century grave monument was found along the Via Appia, a road south of the ancient city. We can tell a lot about the lives of the people on the stone just by looking at their names. It looks like the two people on the left side of the relief had a special status in ancient Roman society as freedpeople, former slaves who had earned their freedom and lead their own, independent lives. There are Greek names written underneath the Latin on the stone, an indicator of the Rabirii’s origins in Greece.
The Rabirii relief in the Palasso Massimo alle Terme. This grave monument tells us about the multicultural background of the Rabirii family, who have Greek names underneath the Latin inscriptions.
We also a similar mix of Greek and Roman culture through a sculpture called the General of Tivoli. The General has the idealized physique of a Greek hero but the realistic head of a middle-aged man. Fascinating to see the two artistic tropes combine into one piece!
The General of Tivoli stands tall in this sculture, which portrays him with the idealized heroic physique of Greek art but with a realistic head that reflects his age.
In the next room, we saw a familiar figure in a different role. I learned about Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, in high school, but I had only read about him in the context of his military and political leadership. I got to see a different statue of him in his religious role as Pontifex Maximus, the highest priest of Rome.
The statue of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus.What a contrast between the ancient artifacts and modern architecture of this room!
One of the more famous pieces in the Palazzo Massimo is the bronze Boxer. Bronze statues are rare because historically, many of them have been melted down and so that the raw material could be repurposed. The Boxer has realistic wounds on his face that make him look like he was in a fight today.
The famous “Boxer,” cast in bronze, a rare material to be left intact in antiquity.
Many of the artifacts in the Palazzo Massimo come from the estates of wealthy Romans, who displayed elaborate art in their gardens. The museum houses one of the only true Greek originals, found in the gardens of the Roman writer Sallust.
In the basement of the museum is an important find in the city: the Grottarossa Mummy, unearthed in Rome in 1964. The mummy is of an 8-year old girl from the 2nd century C.E. While my classmates and I initally thought she might have been Egyptian because the practice of mummification came from Egypt, the girl is a fully Roman mummy. DNA analyses conclude that she was likely native to the area.
The girl was found in an intricately-carved marble sarcophagus, currently displayed in the same exhibit. The coffin depicts scenes from the Aeneid, a famous epic poem written under Augustus. The main character on the sarcophagus is not Aeneas, the hero the poem is named after. Instead, the carvings show his son, the boy Iulus, participating in a hunt.
The intricately-carved sarcophagus of the Grottarossa Mummy. There are several scenes from the ancient Roman epic, the Aeneid.
Near the mummy and the sarcophagus are also the objects found in the girl’s tomb. She was from a wealthy family that could afford not only to mummify her, but to do so with elegant jewelry. Right next to the necklace and amulets was the girl’s childhood doll, which would have been left at a special temple when she reached puberty.
Some of the items found in the Grottarossa Mummy’s tomb.
We went back upstairs to look at some earthenware and glassware from around the Roman Empire. Professor Bessi told us about how many of the objects we saw in front of us in the room were Gallic versions based on ancient Roman designs. This imitation craftsmanship was widespread throughout the empire, even reaching parts of Africa as well. Glass was also a commonly-reproduced material throughout the empire.
Imitations of earthenware spread through Gaul (modern-day Switzerland and France) and through the African provinces of Rome. Glass was popular as well.
The Gauls were not the only ones to make imitations of classical crafts – the Romans also made copies of Greek art. The Discus Thrower is a famous example in the museum. It is a copy-of-a-copy of an ancient Greek bronze statue that is thought to be lost.
The Discus Thrower. This is a Roman marble copy of a lost Greek bronze sculpture.
We also saw some artifacts recovered from the sunken Nemi ships. Unlike statues like the Boxer on land, bronze pieces submerged in shipwrecks were not prone to getting melted down and thus were preserved underwater. It was interesting seeing so many bronze animals holding rings in their mouths while similar statues on land might have had their material repurposed above sea level!
Bronze pieces from the Nemi ships.
In class, we learned about ancient Roman interactions with the people of Africa. What I found fascinating and noteworthy in studying these relations is the fact that from the late 2nd century to the early 3rd century C.E., Rome was ruled by an emperor from a region called Leptis Magna, which is in modern-day Libya. His name was Septimius Severus, and he was the founder of the Severan dynasty in ancient Roman history. Professor Bessi said that he spoke Punic, the language of the ancient Carthaginians in north Africa, as his first language and spoke Latin with a Punic accent in Rome.
Bust of Septimius Severus, the first Roman emperor from Africa. He was from the area of Leptis Magna (modern-day Libya).
Further along in our tour of the museum, we saw another remnant of ancient Roman interaction with Africa. There was a sculpture of a woman in Egyptian garments and headdress. She represents Egypt, which became a province of Rome in the beginning of the empire. I’m thankful for her choice of attire, because I can figure out who she is!
A depiction of Egypt, which became a province of Rome.
We saw a reprise of the Greek hero physique in a statue of Antoninius Pius, who ruled the empire in the mid-1st century C.E. He is depicted with an ideal body and a proportional face. It seems that he is immortalized in the prime of his life in this grand likeness of him.
A statue of Antoninius Pius, sculpted in the Greek heroic fashion but with Roman features.
In the last room we saw on our trip, there were intricately-carved sarcophagi. I was blown away by the detail on the so-called Muses Sarcophagus. It must have taken ages to carve!
The intricate detail on the Muses Sarcophagus is staggering.
Professor Bessi stopped at a very important artifact for our class: the sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus. We learned about the ancient Christians and how they interacted with the Romans in class, and I was surprised to see Christian iconography on the coffin. One of the main challenges in reconstructing ancient Christian history is the lack of iconographic evidence due to the people’s aversion to depicting themselves and their faith at the time.
The carvings on this sarcophagus are invaluable to tracing the Christian presence in Rome before Christianity became widespread in the empire in the 3rd century onward. Not to far away from the massive piece was a smaller work of art depicting Jesus as Orpheus, a character from classical myth known for his ability to move anyone with his music. He is known as “Iesus Docente,” which roughly translates as “Jesus as Teacher.” Interesting to see Roman myth and Christian beliefs overlap!
Some of the earliest exisiting Christian iconography is on this sarcophagus.
I was sad to leave the museum after this visit. This was my last class trip for Race in the Ancient Mediterranean, and my last class trip at Temple Rome. I enjoyed learning through a very active, in-person perspective during my time abroad, and I will look fondly on my photos and written reflections in the future to relive these experiences.
I blinked, and it is now finals week at Temple Rome! I am taking a breather halfway through my exams.
One of my favorite ways to recharge after a big test is to look at pictures of my favorite things. After some thought, I’ve decided to share some photos from one of my favorite adventures in Italy: my trip to Sicily during Fall Break.
Flew south in the fall! I went to Catania, Taormina, and Siracusa in Sicily.My first glimpse of Sicily from the plane! Is that Mt. Etna peeking over the clouds?
I spent three days on the east coast of the island, which was only a short flight away from Rome. I started in Catania, the destination of my flight. I met a friend at the airport and we went to the center of the city together. We saw the Piazza del Duomo, a large space with churches, statues, and bubbles.
Bubbles in the Piazza del Duomo!
I was intrigued to read that Sicily was once settled by the ancients Greeks and Romans, and I saw clear evidence of this at the Roman Theater in the city! My friend and I explored the ruins of the structure, which dates back to 300 B.C.E. What I found most interesting was the fact that this space was once an ancient Greek theater. The Romans built on top of it later on. It was quite an experience, knowing that I was sitting where people from different civilizations across time sat to enjoy plays in the city.
Taking in the sights and sounds of the Roman Theater in Catania!
I was also very happy to make a new friend in the theater: an adorable cat I saw wandering the ruins! It turns out that the ladies at the front desk have two cats that like to walk around the place. I really missed my own cat at home, so it was nice to pet a feline friend in Catania.
Made a feline friend at the Roman Theatre. Is this why the city is called Cat-ania?
We stopped by a local pastry shop to try a Sicilian specialy: a cannolo! Yes, I mean cannolo: the term “cannoli” I hear in the United States is actually the plural form! Cannolo is the singular! I got one with ricotta cheese and pistachios! Yum!
Tried a Sicilian cannolo! Pistachios are good.
We went back to the Piazza to look at a few churches. We stopped at the Chiesa della Badi di Sant’Agata, which had rooftop access for a small fee. I climbed up so many stair that day. The view was worth the climb! (This is why you don’t skip leg day!)
What a view from the the top of the Chiesa della Badia di Sant’Agata!
For dinner, we found an interesting restaurant that had underground seating near a creek! You bet we got seats there! I read in a book I bought as a souvenir that the east coast of Sicily was thought to be where the cyclopes, the one-eyed giants of Greek mythology, lived in their caves.
How fitting that we were dining in a cave of sorts like the cyclopes did! Although I know that the cyclopes wouldn’t have had the same taste for fresh seafood and Sicilian chinotto, a carbonated beverage made from a local type of citrus, that I had developed. I am also not a one-eyed giant.
Fresh seafood and local chinotto in a unique setting: near a creek in an underground cave!
My friend and I tried more Sicilian food the next morning, when we tried arancini (plural for arancino). I was curious about how it was possible to deep-fry a mixture of rice, cheese, and other fillings to an iconic golden-orange. (The word “arancino” is related to “arancione,” the Italian word for orange.) Arancini are everywhere in Sicily, and it wasn’t hard to find them in stores.
Tried an arancino – called so because of its orange color! Rice, cheese, and other fillings deep-fried to a golden orange.
Our next stop was Taormina, an hour away north of Catania. The small town is very high in the mountanious Sicilian terrain, at a lofty 204 m (670 feet) above sea level. It is famous for its massive Greek Theater. It was much bigger than the Roman theater we saw in Catania, and it had a much better view of the coastline.
What a view from the Greek Theater of Taormina!Haven’t had a view from this high up since I was in Todi in September!
My friend and I also bought tickets for an unlimited hop-on-hop-off bus in Taormina. What an amazing view as we went further up the mountain!
Had a lot of fun exploring Taormina in an open bus!
We stopped at Castelmola, which was an area 529 meters (a whopping 1,736 feet!) above sea level. It was a quaint little place full of artisan shops. There was a lot of handmade jewelry on sale, a lot which was made with volcanic rock from the Mt. Etna, which is a popular souvenir in the area.
What a view from Castelmola!Cheese, bruschetta, and pizza for lunch!
After lunch at Castelmola, we rode the bus along the shore. We passed through a region called Naxos Giardini, which was an early Greek settlement. I had fun reading some ancient Greek in the massive sign that said “ΝΑΞΟΣ” (“NAXOS” in the Roman alphabet). I enjoyed the sea breeze blowing on my face and through my hair as I took in all the sights and smells of the Sicilian shore. How it reminds me of Santa Marinella!
Fancy seeing some ancient Greek in Giardini Naxos!What a beautiful view of some mini-islands!
I also caught a glimpse of the sunset on the way back to the bus stop. What a breathtaking view to end the day in Taormina!
Stunning sunset along the Sicilian shore! (Try saying that five times fast!)
Our last stop in our three-day trip was the city of Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), which was an hour’s bus ride to the south of Catania. We started our adventure there in the southern part of the city, the island of Ortygia. The name is Greek, and there are signs of ancient Greek settlement there. We saw the massive ruins of the Temple of Apollo just across the bridge. According to the sign, it was built in the 6th century B.C.E. It was a lot to take in!
Saw the remnants of the Temple of Apollo at Ortygia!
We headed toward a new yet familiar sight: another Piazza Duomo! This is the second one we’ve seen in Sicily, the first one being in Catania. We looked inside the old churches and even caught a glimpse of some Carvaggio paintings displayed there for special exhibits!
Another Piazza Duomo, this time in Ortygia!
After lunch, we headed back north and walked to the Archaeological Park of Neapolis (Parco Archaeologico della Neapolis). There were even more ancient ruins there. I got to walk the same paths as ancient figures such as the Syracusan general Hiero II did; I saw his famous altar in the park.
Took a walk through history at the Archaeological Park of Neapolis! Saw the Altar of Hiero II, who was a famous figure in ancient Sicily.
We saw not one, but two more ancient theaters in Syracuse! There is a Greek theater on a hill with all of its seats and foundations still intact, and the Roman theatre on the other side of the park is overrun with grass.
Saw more ancient theatres in the Park! The Greek theatre is much larger and is not overrun by plants like the Roman one is in the park.
The most interesting sight of the day had to be a cave called “Orecchio di Dionisio,” or “the Ear of Dionysius.” I read that Dionysius of Syracuse was a tyrant who was fond of keeping his prisoners trapped in the cave, where he could hear every word they said as the sound echoed against their stone surroundings. Every step I took echoed through the entire cave, and I could hear other people speaking from further inside. Eerie!
Explored a cave called Orecchio di Dionisio, or “the Ear of Dionysius.” And called that for a good reason: there is quite an echo inside.
We went to the famous Museo Archaeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, one of the most important archaeological museums in Europe! We walked through a garden of sculptures to get to the entrance, which seems unassumming at first, but houses an incredibly large collection of Sicilian artifacts inside.
The museum looks unassuming at first, but there are so many artifacts inside.
I was taken aback by the sheer number of items on display inside the museum. There were remains of ancient flora and fauna from prehistoric times and remnants of the earliest human settlers in Sicily in the exhibits! The collection of Greek and Roman artifacts was impressive as well. So much in one place!
A lot of artifacts from all over Sicily! Covering millenia of history, from prehistoric times to the first centuries C.E. I loved looking at the remnants of Greek and Roman settlements in the island!Artifacts for days!
I learned a lot about Sicily through the interactive screens in the exhibits. I got to look at different maps that showed the history of the island. It’s amazing how much happened in just one city like Catania or Syracuse over centuries. Sicily was colonized by different ancient civilizations, with ancient Greece being one of the earliest. It was also a place of conflict between powers, such as during the Punic Wars, when ancient Rome fought against Carthage in north Africa for control over strategic areas of the island. Fascinating how so many civilizations impacted the development of the place! The plethora of artifacts in the museum spans across all the different cultural influences in ancient Sicily.
Learned about the history of Sicily through the interactive screens!
Before I headed back to Rome the next day, I stopped by a small café at the airport to try one last Sicilian specialty: cassata! I’ve never tried a cake with ricotta cheese before, and I was surprised at how crunchy the slice was! I’m used to soft icing in the United States, so the unexpected crunch of the sweet shell on top was amusing.
I did some reading about Sicilian food while waiting for my flight, and it turns out that a lot of traditional Sicilian pastries and sweets originated from elsewhere! Cassata became popular under the Muslim era of Sicily in the beginning of the first millenium C.E. Cannoli may also have been from this time as well. Fascinating to see how different cultural influences melded into one cuisine in modern Sicily!
Cassata at the airport! Couldn’t leave without trying one more Sicilian specialty!
Finally, I boarded my plane back to Rome. I took one last glance of the Sicilian landscape below and then saw the beginnings of mainland Italy. Ciao, Sicilia! It was a pleasure visiting over fall break. You were one of my favorite trips abroad. I miss your warm weather.
Ciao, Sicilia! Back to the mainland (and the present)!
December: my last month in Rome! Time and time again, I stop to wonder: where has all the time gone?
Three months ago, on September 9, I had my first day of classes. And now here I am, attending my final classes for the semester, taking care of big projects and papers, and preparing for final exams.
I don’t know how to feel about this day. It feels like only yesterday I published my first monthly reflection. I thought my October 9 post was a good landmark of where I was in my semester abroad, so I was happy to write another one on November 9. Today, December 9, will be my last monthly reflection on this blog. I guess I would say that this is quite a bittersweet moment as I sit at my desk and write this on my computer.
A lot has happened in the past month. I went on my first class trip to a different country (read about my adventures in Lisbon here) and got to see my parents in Italy over Thanksgiving break. I really missed Mom and Dad this semester. I talk to them on the phone sometimes and saw them through the occasional video call.
I picked them up at Termini station after they flew to Rome from Boston. Mom says that I’ve changed a lot since they dropped me off at the airport in August. I can owe part of that the haircut and the sense of fashion I’ve picked up in Rome (clothes seem to fit better on me here), but deep down, I can tell that I’ve grown a lot from my experiences learning to be independent in a foreign country.
I showed Mom and Dad the major sights in Rome. We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountains, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon.. We went back to the Colosseum a few days later to get tickets to go inside. I was happy to tell them all the things I learned about the place in class. In a way, I was like their personal tour guide!
My parents and I loved seeing the Colosseum together!
We also saw the Vatican Museums (which is right behind my apartment in the Residence) and went to Venice on Thanksgiving Day (read about going to the Floating City during flood season here). My parents were in just as much awe as I was the first I saw Italy. Even at the end of the semester, there is always another sight and experience else to take in.
So many rooms in the Vatican! Perfect place to spend a rainy Sunday in Rome.What a stunning view from inside the museums!
I turned 21 on the last day of November, and I am glad I got to celebrate it with my family. The sun was shining on that wonderful Saturday afternoon, and I got to rent a boat in the Parco di Villa Borghese (a short walk from Flaminio station near Temple Rome’s campus).
I had gone to the park before and have always wanted to get a closer look at the ancient Greek temple in the center of the pond, but I couldn’t rent a boat unless I had at least one other person with me. With Mom and Dad there with me, I got the row a boat on my birthday! It took a while for me to figure out how to row, but once I got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing from there!
And a very happy birthday to me indeed! Thanks, Mom and Dad! Couldn’t have rented the boat without you.
Mom and Dad treated me to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, where I got to show them how much Italian I had learned in the past three months. They were impressed at how I spoke to the waiter without using any English.
I’ve surely come a long way from my basic phrases of “survival Italian” at the beginning of the semester! I’ve been speaking to the Residence staff in Italian almost every day, and they say that I’ve improved as well. I like to tell them about my day and ask how they’re doing.
I’ve also been getting involved with events in the Temple Rome community. I was often given the task of photographing events both on and off-campus, and from my year as a student photographer I gained a lot of experience with my camera from my duties. I helped my professor take pictures throughout the Lisbon, and I think word of my photography skills reached a few others in the community.
I was invited to photograph a long-time staff member’s retirement party. I was very happy to help out like I had at Holy Cross earlier this year. And what perfect timing: I had found out about the retirement while I was in Lisbon, and I happened to walk past a nice cherry-red (Temple University’s school color) handbag in the shopping mall on my last day in Portugal. You bet I bought it as a retirement gift!
It is my token of appreciation for Mrs. Morelli’s kindness when I first arrived in August. She was also one of my first fans: several of the Temple Rome have come across my blog and read my posts! Mrs. Morelli liked my post about Santa Marinella the most. She said that it made her feel 20 years old again. As a new 21-year old, I can confirm that I too feel 20 years old when I re-read my posts. She seemed amused when I said that during my speech before giving her my present.
My favorite photograph from Mrs. Morelli’s retirement party. So much love from the community, and so many gifts! I bought her the red handbag from Lisbon.
My photography isn’t limited to events, though. I’ve taken a lot of pictures on my travels and had a hard time picking just two for the student art exhibition. I was surprised to see my photographs on display outside of the faculty offices on campus! I’ve gotten a lot of praise for my pictures. Some people even asked if I was selling prints of these! I’m very flattered that the community likes my work!
My favorite photographs – one of the sunset I caught in Florence in early October, and the other one from a particulary bubbly day in the Piazza del Popolo around campus.
I have taken all the feedback I’ve gotten into deep consideration, and I am working on something I can do for the with these photos. What do I have in mind? We’ll have to wait and see!
I’ll leave you with a set of photographs I’ve taken throughout the semester. Every month, I have taken a picture of the postcards and books I have above my desk in the Residence. Every month, my collection grows with all the new places I’ve seen on my adventures. It’s amazing to see how much I’ve experienced in what I realize is a short time!
October 9: I started decorating the shelf with postcards to make myself feel at home.November 9: I added more postcards and other souvenirs from my travel. It’s amazing to look back on how many places I’ve seen in just one month!December 9: my collection has grown quite large! I can’t help but smile every time I look at the shelf and think about all my adventures in the past three months.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of you, my readers, for going on this journey with me. It was a pleasure writing down all my adventures abroad for you to experience as well. I am sad that this is my last monthly reflection to you. If there is something I’ve learned from how quickly this semester as gone by, it is to appreciate every experience you come across, even the difficult, challenging ones. I’ve found all of my experiences, both good and stressful, very rewarding in the end. I’m happy with all I’ve done in three months. I will look back upon these entries and smile at these experiences in the future.
Onward, to wrapping up the semester! I wish the best of luck to everyone at Temple Rome and everyone at Holy Cross. You got this!
One thing I’ve learned to appreciate during my semester abroad is the opportunity to not only learn things firsthand through field trips in the city, but also to apply what I learn in class to new experiences outside the city.
This is the case with Immigration, Race, and Identity in Contemporary Italy, a political science class that has taken me to places as close as downtown Rome, under 30 minutes away on the Metro, and as far away as Lisbon, a three-hour flight from Fiumicino airport.
I went to Lisbon for an academic excursion in the middle of November with not only Professor Rinelli and my classmates from Immigration, Race, and Identity in Contemporary Italy, but also with Professor Bordignon and her Contemporary Politics of Europe class. We took a bus to the airport on Thursday evening and flew to Lisbon.
And the record for the longest transit time for a class trip this semester goes to Lisbon: three hours on the plane!
We arrived late that night, ate at an American(!) diner (well, what better way to welcome a group of American students than with some American cuisine?), and checked into our hotel. I fell asleep instantly and was ready to see the city the next morning.
Bom dia, Lisboa! Good morning, Lisbon!
After breakfast at the hotel, our professors gave us 24-hour passes for the Lisboa Metro. We used them at a Metro station close to the hotel and switched to another train before we got to our destination: the coast.
Off we go on the Metro!Snapshot under the city.Oh, I sea what you did there, Port-u-Gull!
After some ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the sight of the shore (and at a bridge in the distance, which looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco), we continued on our visit to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA for short).
Outside the EMSA (European Maritime Safety Agency) building by the sea! Photo by Professor Marta Bordignon.
We learned about the organization and their role in regulating maritime transport in Europe through a short presentation from an EMSA representative. From the 270 representatives from 28 countries in the European Union, many are from Portugal and Italy. EMSA has been making maritime regulations since 2002 and has added two major revisions to their policies in response to human migration in the Mediterranean since 2013.
Learning about the EMSA’s technology and protocols for maritime safety. Photo by Professor Marta Bordignon.
I was fascinated by all the expansive technology and protocols behind the scenes of maritime safety. In particular, I was intrigued at how EMSA monitors and communicates with ships through satellites and drones.
We asked a lot of questions during and after the lecture. Some of them were about EMSA’s domains in the international scene. EMSA is a broad organization that operates on the European level. We learned from the answer to a question about what EMSA can do about a region-specific issue, such as pollution from cruise ships in Venice, that it is up to each member state to handle local incidents.
I asked a question about EMSA’s involvement in cases of irregular migration aboard European ships. I learned that the organization investigates incidents that happen during maritime transport and works to determine the root causes and contributing factors behind the case. However, it is up to the member states to investigate serious incidents, such as deaths of migrants on ships. EMSA does keep records of incidents in state-by-state logs for its database, which can be accessed for legal cases in the future.
After the interesting presentation at EMSA, we headed to the local market and had an hour to explore by ourselves. I loved walking around the Time Out Market in central Lisbon. I couldn’t wait to try some Portuguese food for the first time!
Excited to try some Portuguese food in the market!
Seafood is a staple in Portuguese cuisine, and the Lisbon market was bustling with seafood chefs and customers. I saw trays and tanks of fresh fish and crustaceans on my stroll through the stands.
Seeing all that food made me hungry for all that seafood.
My friend and I decided to eat at a cleverly-named shop called “Sea Me at the Market,” where we ordered fresh seafood. I tried some cuttlefish with a twist: it was fried in black tempura! Quite different from the calamari I tried at the beach in Rome. I heard from my friend that the pan-seared tuna was very good as well. We shared some bacalhau (Portuguese for cod) in some savory fishcakes and enjoyed it with some tomato rice. Delicious!
Tried some bacalhau (Portuguese for cod, which I had in codcakes) and tomato rice at a stand called “Sea Me at the Market.”
After lunch, we met outside the market and took the Metro to our next stop: the Centro Nacional de Apoio à Integração de Migrantes (CNAIM), or National Center of Aid and Integration of Migrants. I had seen the migrant center near Termini station in Rome on a previous trip for Immigration, Race, and Identity in Contemporary Italy, but I could tell that this center was going to be much different from the one in Rome.
Our next stop: the National Center of Aid and Integration of Migrants.
On our tour inside the building, we stopped by the gallery next to the first-floor waiting room. There were photographs of migrants from a camp in Greece displayed on the wall with powerful messages next to them. I found the placement of these two-dimensional black-and-white photos next to a waiting room full of three-dimensional people fascinating. I thought about the stories and message each migrant told through their photographs. I wonder what stories the migrants waiting just outside have to tell, and how they might feel about the messages in the gallery.
Powerful display of images in the gallery of the migrant center.
We learned from our guide that CNAIM has been providing a variety of services to migrants of all backgrounds and legal statuses since 2004. 75% of its funding comes from other places in Europe while the remaining 25% comes from the Portuguese government. The center in Lisbon is the largest one in the country, bigger than the other two in Portugal. The organization offers answers to necessary questions about the integration process and has partnerships with other entities, including over 100 other centers in different municipalities.
CNAIM offers its services in 15 different languages on site and has access to a support in 60 languages through the telephone support line. There is also a small kindergarten near the first-floor waiting room, where the children of migrants going through the immigration process in the center can learn and play as their parents are in meetings with staff. With so much in one center, I was not surprised to learn that CNAIM has won many awards for what they do.
CNAIM has won many awards for its invaluable services and resources for migrants.
On our way upstairs, we walked past the health office, the board of immigration services, the family reunification services, the social security office, the ministry of justice, the education office, and the legal support office. Each office provides general information to migrants who need guidance and referrals to other centers for their cases.
In addition to the row of offices, there is also a mentoring program at the center, where over 1000 Portuguese citizens volunteer to mentor migrants one-on-one based on specific needs and skillsets. CNAIM is partnered with 60 other programs and has a 10-session entrepreneurship class that teaches and advises migrants who want to start businesses in Portugal. The program aims to promote networking and workshops with Portuguese professionals and encourages former trainees to share their knowledge with migrants currently in the classes.
View from the second floor of CNAIM.
After learning about all the services CNAIM offers migrants, we headed into a separate hall for a Q&A session. On our way there, I couldn’t help but think about the migrant center in Rome when I walked past a mural of a woman reading a book. It reminded me of the painting of an African woman facing Dante, the father of Italian literature, that I saw near Termini. The image represents a migrant working toward integration into society, and this is the message I got from the mural at CNAIM.
A mural of a woman reading. It reminds me of a painting I saw around the migrant center in Rome.
During the Q&A session, my classmates asked a lot of questions and learned a lot from the answers. I was happy to hear that there was no political backlash against CNAIM when it opened, and the Lisbon community is accepting of the center and the migrants it helps. I also learned that many new arrivals in the country first learn about CNAIM and its services through other migrants. The center opens at 8:00 a.m., but there are people waiting outside the door since midnight for CNAIM’s services.
I learned a bit about Portuguese citizenship as well. I was surprised to hear that there are no questions about the history or government of Portugal on the citizenship test: there is only a language section. As a naturalized US citizen, I couldn’t imagine a citizenship test without a question about the branches of government or years of a specific war.
Unlike American citizenship, Portuguese citizenship works under ius sanguinis, which is Latin for “right of blood.” People who are descended from Portuguese citizens are Portuguese by law. The United States works under ius soli, “right of soil,” which grants American citizenship to anyone born in the country.
We asked questions at the end of our visit to CNAIM.
Our last stop after our visit to CNAIM was the School of Law at the University of Lisbon, a public research university in the city and the largest in the country. It rained a bit after we walked out of the Metro station near the university. We did see a rainbow afterward, and I took it as a sign of a good visit ahead.
It rained a little outside the Metro stop, but at least we got to see a rainbow!Entering the School of Law at the University of Lisbon!
We went on a short tour inside the school. The University of Lisbon was founded in 1911 and holds over 100 years of history. We walked through its historic lecture rooms and its huge faculty room, which has paintings of faculty on its walls.
In the faculty room during our tour of the university.
We finished our visit with a special lecture from Professor Nuno Cunha Rodrigues, a friend of Professor Rinelli’s. He spoke about how Portugal is different from other countries in Europe. There are fewer political parties in Portugal, and none of them can be considered “extreme.” The country is also geographically removed from issues that other European nations are addressing in the political scene. There are also no regions and only one dialect of Portuguese in the entire country.
Before our trip, I remember how Professor Rinelli mentioned that Portugal was a “political exception.” I heard in the Q&A session at CNAIM that Portugal is not a racist country, and Professor Rodrigues’ lecture about Portuguese history helped me understand why this is the case. Portugal was, in his words, “traumatized” by a brutal dictatorship and a horrible war that was claimed more Portuguese lives than the Vietnam was did American soldiers. Younger Portuguese citizens fled during this period in the mid-20th century, and since then, the country has been more open to foreigners.
I was intrigued by the lecture. In high school, I only learned about Portugal in the context of the 15th and 16th centuries, when Spain and Portugal split the “New World” along a vertical line on the map. I don’t remember learning much about Portugal outside of the Age of Discovery, the Spice Trade and a little bit from the Scramble for Africa. This was my chance to learn more about the history of Portugal.
Through my questions at the end of the lecture, I learned that Portugal was actually on the same side as the US during World War I! It must have been a lot, since Portugal had an unstable government for almost two decades after its monarchy was abolished in 1910.
Portugal was also one of the only countries that remained neutral and was relatively unaffected by World War II. During the Cold War, Portugal was allied with the US it was isolated from the situation because of a war with Angola, which was a Portuguese colony fighting for its independence at the time. There was also a military revolution in the 1970’s that overthrew a dictatorship that had been in place since the 1930’s. I was in awe of how a brutal dictatorship ended so peacefully with the nonviolent Carnation Revolution.
Interesting lecture about Portuguese history and government from Professor Nuno Cunha Rodrigues! Photo by Professor Marta Bordignon.
In closing, Professor Rodrigues stated that Portugal is a country with over 800 years of history and has some of the most stable borders in the world. Its people are unified under a strong national identity. You don’t learn about that in a high-school European history class! I’m glad I got to learn a lot of new things from our visit.
After the lecture at the university, we went to explore the city by ourselves. My friend and I headed downtown to look at some restaurants. We settled for a small spot near the theaters of the city. We shared a plate of sauteed prawns with the heads and shells still on. I’m glad I got to eat some fresh prawns before I left Portugal! I was curious about them at the market.
My eyes weren’t the only ones to enjoy fresh prawns in Lisbon! I got the full experience at dinner. Yum!A view of Lisbon at night.
We took a taxi back to our hotel and fell asleep quickly after our busy day in Lisbon. I couldn’t believe I experienced that much in just one day!
You would think that after doing so much in one day, that would already make for a pretty full trip. But wait, there’s Moor!
The next morning, we learned about the multicultural history of Lisbon, starting with the influence of the Moors from North Africa. We met José Linu, our guide from the Batoto Yetu Association, an organization that promotes traditional dances from Africa and leads post-colonial tours of Lisbon, at the Igreja de São Domingos.
I first learned about the Moors in my high-school European history class. They were Muslims from North Africa who settled in the Iberan peninsula in the 8th century. I remember reading about how the Spanish Inquisition drove them out of the area in the 13th century.
At the beginning of our tour, we learned about the African influence in Lisbon. The very square we were standing in was a major meeting place for Africans in Portugal. The church itself was an important religious location for Africans who were freed from slavery, and they referenced African saints in the regions. The priests there were of African descent as well.
The church survived two earthquakes and a fire between the 14th and 17th centuries. It was almost completely destroyed by the natural disasters, and there are still signs of the destruction inside.
The Igreja de São Domingos, which has seen a lot in its lifetime.Inside the Igreja de São Domingos. There is still some damage among the restorations.
José gave us some ginger candy as a little pick-me-up on our tour. He said that, according to African tradition, there was magic in ginger candy. I was more than happy to take a few pieces: I grew up eating ginger candy in the United States, and according to Chinese tradition, ginger has multiple medical benefits on the body.
Ginger candy! I used to get these at Chinese stores in the US. Ah, the homesickness!
José told us about the cultural importance of Fado, a genre of music that originated in Lisbon. Fado is similar to the Blues in the United States, in that it is known for its melancholic tones. Homesickness is a major theme in Fado music. He said that Fado has influences from African dance, beginning as a lively dance performed in the streets of Lisbon. We saw artwork relating to Fado and the multiculturalism of Lisbon in the historic Moor area of the city which is known for its tunnels and stairs.
Learning about Fado in the Moor area of Lisbon.Colorful view of the neighborhood.A glimpse of Fado outside a restaurant.
This part of the city has seen a lot of cultural exchange throughout history, and it was here that some Portuguese nobles from the upper end of society mixed with the locals who performed Fado dance and music outdoors. Eventually, Fado was brought from the streets into salons and the music lost its lively percussion. José told us that it is important not only to promote new artistic-cultural movements, but also to remember the roots of cultural gems such as Fado.
The weather was really the star of the show! Nice day for a walking tour.
Further along in our tour, we stopped by a long street teeming with customers from multicultural shops. We saw one of the older buildings from the center, which survived the earthquake of 1755. Some people called the event a “punishment for Fado.” I would call it a natural disaster completely unrelated to human activity.
We learned about the colonial history of Portugal. There are streets named after former colonies. José, who works at the migration center in Lisbon alongside his job promoting African traditions and leading colonial tours with the Batoto Yetu Association, said that he is working on education people about the often-overlooked history of the country. It is important to remember the past of a place, even if it is not very well known.
We finished our tour with a walk in the park and a group photo in front of the School of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. We stood in front of the statue of José Tomás de Sousa Martins, a doctor who treated and helped find medical aid for the lower-class people of the city. Our tour guide José mentioned that he was from African descent and hailed as a hero, with people still leaving gifts and tokens of appreciation at the base of the statue today.
What better place to end our tour in front of a statue after a walk in the park?
After we thanked José for the tour, we had some free time to explore the city before our flight back to Rome. I decided to take the Metro to the Amoreiras Shopping Center to buy some gifts. The place looked like a skyscraper, and I was excited to find out that I can get a panoramic view of the entire city from the rooftop! I bought some handbags for my friends and family (and a cute hat for myself), had some fresh tuna (can’t leave Portugal without trying some!), and bought a ticket to the rooftop. What a view, from the highest point in Lisbon!
The Amoreiras Shopping Center! Looks like a skyscraper.Can’t leave Portugal without trying the tuna! Very fresh.A ticket to the panoramic view on the roof. Best purchase I made on this trip!What a view from the highest point in Lisbon!
I left the shopping center very happy with my trip to Lisbon. I was thinking about everything I learned on the plane ride back to Rome. I’m glad I had the chance to study abroad not only in Rome, but also briefly in Lisbon as part of this academic excursion. This is not an opportunity I’ve ever had before, and the unique experience has made my semester abroad even more special and memorable.
Tchau, Lisboa! It was nice getting to know you. Thanks for the fun, educational experience (and the cute hat)!
Friday: the end of the week, a time to wind down. I had just finished my third week of classes at Temple Rome and was thinking about what I wanted to do. I finished taking care of business on campus and just got back to the residence in the afternoon when I got an idea: I was going to see Ostia!
At orientation, I heard that Ostia was a common destination for Romans who wanted to go to the beach. It is easily accessible via Roma Metro. I would need to transfer subway lines a few times to get there from the residence, but it was affordable with the unlimited rides on my monthly pass. My Metro card is really paying off.
I brought my camera with me as I made my way onto the Linea A, and then the Linea B to take a new train: the Roma-Lido line. I did some research on transportation in Rome, and it turns out that the concept of this particular urban railway was a pressing issue since the 19th century, because people wanted a way to connect the center of the city to the shore. Projects to construct the line went on and off for over a century until eventually, the modern Roma-Lido line became what it is.
The stop I got off at was called Ostia Antica: Ancient Ostia. And for good reason: it was close to the Parco Archaeologico di Ostia Antica! I ran across the bridge outside the train station to the entrance of the archaeological park: I realized that the staff would stop admitting visitors after 5:00, and it was already 4:40 by the time I arrived.
I made it to the ticket office in time and got into the park without a problem. I had about two hours before the park closed, so I made the most out of my short visit. I was stunned by the sudden change between the modern park entrance and the first thing I saw inside: archaeological ruins! The remnants of a place where actual ancient people lived in!
First glimpse of the ruins in Ostia!
Ostia was a significant place in Roman history. Some historians argue that it was the first “colony” of Rome in its early days from the 8th century B.C.E. Access to the Tiber river delta was crucial for resources in Italy, and eventually, Ostia became a valuable port town of Rome. The ruins are what is left of the houses and public spaces people used, and are what we modern visitors wander around and look at today.
It’s not just 21st-century humans who walk on the ancient stone roads: I had an unexpected encounter with a friendly cat that approached me, meowed, and sat at my feet, purring. I stroked my new feline friend for a while. The way the stray cat walked up to me reminded me of how my cat would greet me every time I returned to my family home in Boston. The meows and purrs sounded like the ones my cat makes, too. I felt like I was missing something in staying in Rome, and this cat seemed to fix that by being so much like my pet at home.
Made a feline friend at Ostia – I miss petting my cat at home. Playing with this friendly kitty made me happy!Quite a walk in the park! Nice view.
I walked around the park and got curious whenever I saw steps leading to platforms. I thought it would be interesting to record my experience walking up the steps and taking in the view, so I did just that on my phone. I found stunning sights of Ostia from the high vantage point and discovered things I would have missed on ground level. Some of these things include a large mosaic that covers several rooms of what was once a large house and a view of the theatre that I would have missed otherwise.
I wonder how long it took to install all of these mosaics! Makes installing floor tiles look easy.What a view of the ancient theater!I may be centuries late for the show, but at least I got a good seat! No one is blocking my view.Show’s over. Time to head out! What a show!
I kept an eye on the time. I managed to find the exit and head out before the staff was scheduled to do their rounds and ask people to leave before closing time. I’ll definitely come back here some other time and explore the rest of the ancient port-town.
The sun was starting to set, and it dawned on me that seeing the sunset from the west coast of Italy is an opportunity I’ve only seen once. As a Bostonian, it was impossible for me to see the sun set into the ocean: the Atlantic Ocean is on the east coast, not the west. I decided to take the Roma-Lido line further toward the shore.
I explored the more modern part of Ostia and came across a bustling, lively area near the sea. I saw a lot of restaurants and shops. Even this late in September, business is still booming at the beach!
Ostia-mor? Roma-itso? Oh, it’s “Roma Ostia!” Of course.
I’m glad I caught the sunset over the Tyrrhean sea that evening. It was beautiful and reminded me of the fun time I had in Santa Marinella a few weeks ago. I was amazed at how a view like this is now so accessible to me from the Metro. It’s not something I can have in Boston!
Caught the sunset at Ostia! Seeing the sun disappear into the sea never gets old. I can’t see this at home!
As the sun sunk into the waves, a wave of hunger sunk into my body. I thought that since I was already so far from the Residence, and there were a lot of popular restaurants in the area, I might as well eat out.
I stopped at a place with a lot of outdoor seating. I felt more comfortable greeting people in Italian (“Buona sera!” means “Good evening!” Formal and appropriate.) and in ordering food. I find myself hesitant less as I learned how to get the waiter’s attention with “Scusi!” (“Excuse me!”) and start my order with “Vorrei” (“I would like…”).
I learned how to conjugate verbs in the present and how to form sentences. My pronunciation is improving, and I didn’t struggle as much with long words with a lot of consonants. I managed to order spaghettoni alla carbonara, a specialty in Rome. I found it funny how most of the ingredients – eggs, bacon, and cheese – sound like something I’d eat for breakfast in the States in an omelette, but in Rome, would be components of a classic pasta dish in the city. I enjoyed my carbonara and salad very much.
Spaghettoni alla Carbonara, a Roman classic! Egg, bacon, and cheese over fresh pasta.
I walked back to the train station and made my way back to downtown Rome. I retraced my steps on the Metro and returned to the Residence, tired from all the running I did at the archaeological park and at the shore but satisfied with my photographs and the dinner I managed to order in not-as-shabby Italian. Most of all, I was pleased to learn that an adventure does not have to be a huge undertaking to be meaningful; the little things like riding a new train, seeing just a bit of an ancient port-town, petting a local cat, and trying a regional dish matter just as much, if not more!
Ever since I was in elementary school, I loved going on field trips. Museums are some of my favorite destinations in any place, and I was excited to explore one on my first class trip of the semester!
I usually have three-hour lectures on Thursday mornings, but this Thursday, I went to the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (National Etruscan Museum of Villia Giulia) with my classmates. I am taking a class called “Race in the Ancient Mediterranean” this semester. I am excited to be studying the Classics in Rome, and I have been looking forward to this course since I first learned about it while applying to study abroad.
My classmates and I met our professor at the start of class and walked ten minutes to the museum. Temple Rome’s campus is in a very convenient spot – not too far from cultural gems such as the Villa Giulia!
Going into the Villa Giulia – my first class trip in Rome!
The Villa Giulia was built as a suburban residence for Pope Julius III in the 16th century. The Via Flaminia (which is the long road behind Temple Rome and very close to the museum) was an ancient street that lead into the city, but had some parts of it built in rural areas. The Villa was meant to be a comfortable, colorful dwelling away from the chaos of downtown Rome for the Pope.
What intricate paintings on our way to the exhibits!
However, the pope’s palace on the Via Flaminia was reclaimed by the state and repurposed into a museum for artifacts attributed to the Etruscans, an ancient people who lived in central and northern Italy before Rome was founded. The land they cultivated was called “Etruria” and spanned from the Arno River in the north (around where Florence is today) to the Tiber River in modern Rome.
Their civilization was a major independent power from the 8th to the 6th centuries B.C.E., but the cities were scattered and never unified into what we might consider a “nation” today. They were eventually “Romanized” and fully absorbed into the Roman civlization by the 2nd century B.C.E.
Many major geographic features of Italy are named after significant aspects of the ancient Etruscan civlization. The body of water to the east is the Adriatic Sea, named after the ancient port of Adria in the northeast, and the western sea is the Tyrrhean Sea, which comes from Thyrrenoi, an ancient Greek word used to describe the Etruscans in the context of piracy (a negative stereotype the ancient Greeks and Romans held about the people). The Romans called the Etruscans the Tusci, which is where the modern region of Tuscany gets its name. The Etruscans themselves, however, called themselves the Rasenna.
A map of the region called “Etruria,” where the ancient Etruscans lived.
After looking at the map and discussing the possible oriental (i.e., from Asia Minor, where modern-day Turkey is today) origins of the Etruscan people and their culture, we looked at ancient Etruscan artifacts. Many of the objects on display come from tombs, which were sealed after funerals and kept away from corrosive elements outside of the sites.
Wealthier Etruscans could afford more lavish grave goods such as chariots and intricate bronzework for their tombs. Some rich families even buried their dead with ancient Greek pottery, which was highly-prized by the Etruscans. There was a lot of interaction with the ancient Greeks through trade. Ancient Athens in particular benefitted exchanging pottery for goods from the mineral-rich Etruria.
The Etruscans had their own special type of pottery called “bucchero” (a Portuguese term that does not have origins in the ancient world, interestingly enough!) that saw vases turn black in the kiln, but the reddish-orange vases from Greece were especially valuable. Along with pottery, the ancient Greeks also had an influence on Etruscan religion, which involves the worship of deities similar to those from ancient Greece. The imagery decorating the traded goods is a sign of cultural exchange in the ancient world.
A reconstruction of grave goods in a wealthy Etruscan tomb – complete with fancy bronzework and other luxuries!The ancient Etruscans loved Greek pottery. There was a lot of trade with the ancient Greek city-states, especially with Athens, because of the popularity and high demand.
In the basement of the museum are more reconstructed tombs, this time from specific burial mounds called tumuli. I’m fascinated by how the archaeologists and curators managed to recreate the atmosphere and setup of a tomb outside of Rome in a modern museum setting. Walking into these reconstructions is like walking into the past. Only the past is ageless, with how the recreations are displayed today.
Another reconstruction of an Etruscan tomb.
Through a brief lecture on artwork in tombs, I learned that death was not necessarily a dismal time of grief. Some tombs had lively patterns and colors painted in them, with scenes of pleasure such as feasting and other cheerful social events meant to celebrate the life of the deceased. What an interesting combination of contrasting concepts!
Tomb painting – a lively scene meant to celebrate the dead.
At the end of the hallway on the first floor is a famous artifact in Rome: the Sarcophagus of the Spouses. The terracotta piece is modeled after a sculpture and portrays two figures, one male and one female, reclining. They are dressed in traditional clothing and wear the enigmatic “Archaic smile” that was common in art from the 6th-century B.C.E. The stylized features and outfits imply that there was artistic influence from Asia Minor.
The Etruscans were very different from the early Romans in the region in not only the places they drew inspiration from, but also in their social structures and cultural norms. The Sarcophagus of the Spouses is significant in that it exemplifies the trope of representing male and female figures together: Etruscan women joined men in pleasurable social events such as symposia (similar to the ancient Greek symposium, except in Greece, only men took part in the activity).
Early Greeks and Romans had a negative view of the Etruscans because they saw their women as “too free.” Ancient Greek and Roman women were excluded from social events; a woman who was present at a symposium was never a wife of one of the men at the event. Women at such events were dancers or learned conversationalists who entertained guests. None of them were related to the men at the symposium.
The Sarcophagus of the Spouses in the Villa Giulia is one of two of its kind: the other existing piece is in the Louvre in Paris. I think I might go see its counterpart in France one day. I’m curious to compare and contrast the two myself.
The famous Sarcophagus of the Spouses in Rome – the only other piece of this kind is in the Louvre in Paris!I joined the Spouses in watching the 21st-century museum-goers in the exhibits.
I went outside of the exhibit halls during a short break and looked at the nymphaeum, an open area resembling a grotto, where nymphs would be found in ancient mythology. I was stunned by the beautiful mosaic on the ground surrounded by shrubbery and complex columns and arches. What a sight!
The nymphaeum of the Villa Giulia, complete with plants and mosaics.
The final parts of our museum visit took place in the halls of Greek vases behind the Sarcophagus of the Spouses before we headed upstairs. On the second floor is a wide exhibit about the ancient Etruscan language. Our professor told us that Etruscan was not like ancient Greek or Latin, which are categorized as Indo-European languages in the linguistics family tree.
However, the ancient Etruscans modeled their alphabet from the ancient Greek one, which in turn was adapted from the ancient Phoenician alphabet. The Latin alphabet, which many western European cultures use today, also comes from the Etruscan alphabet. The challenge lies in not transliterating ancient Etruscan, but instead in identifying the grammar and syntax from the very little the Etruscans left behind in writing. I asked my professor why this is the case, and I learned that because the Etruscans were “Romanized” later on, they adopted and wrote in Latin instead of their former main language.
The second floor of the museum; we learned about the Etruscan language here.
We finished our visit with a discussion about the “contrast” and “otherness” with which the ancient Romans perceived the Etruscans and people who were “not Roman.” The ancient Etruscans were technologically advanced with their craftsmanship compared to other people in Italy in the 8th century B.C.E. and had complex religious rituals. The Romans took their ritual of using animals to fortell omens, whether through searching the intestines and livers of sacrificial animals or watching the flight patterns of birds, from the Etruscans.
Yet the Romans did not want to be as “primative” as the Etruscans, whose art and culture were different from those of other tribes in the area. Etruscan women were seen as “too strong” and “loose” compared to the “proper” Roman ladies who stayed out of social events, and Etruscan men were considered too lavish and “soft” because of a stereotypical tendency toward luxuries like jewerly (a large collection of which was on display in the museum) compared to the “harder” and “proper” Roman men.
This broader contrast in itself was good food for thought as I headed back to campus for my next class. It is fascinating how someone can want to be both like and unlike another who is perceived as “other” or even as a complete opposite. My first instinct was to react with confusion because I initially perceived the concept as a paradox, but after I took my professor’s advice about thinking more deeply about the visit for the next class, I think I’ve learned how to start processing seemingly-contradictory information. I am looking forward to writing my reflection paper about this visit and sharing my ideas in class next time.
Greetings, from a bus I boarded at the last minute! I didn’t plan to do this, but I’m glad that at least for the next three hours, I can rest assured that the rest of my trip will go according to my original plan. I feel relieved to be on my way to Pompeii and to be typing this amusing story on my phone.
I look like I’ve been through quite an adventure! At least I have a ride to Pompeii.
I booked this day trip a few days ago. I bought a ticket to Pompeii online and woke up early to catch my 8 a.m. ride at Roma Tiburtina station. Unfortunately, I didnt know that I’d be delayed by weekend construction at Termini station, where I had planned to catch the Linea B train to Tiburtina. The Linea B platforms were closed.
I took the replacement shuttle to the next Metro stop, where the Linea B was going to Tiburtina, and arrived at exactly 8:00. I think I saw the bus to Pompeii leaving the moment I got to the station. Ah, so close! And it was all because of the delay at Termini.
I got here just a little too late to catch the 8:00 bus I bought a ticket for.
I ended up buying a ticket for the next bus to Pompeii at the station. It was for 11:35 a.m. There was no way I was going to stay at the bus station for three hours, so I decided to explore.
The delay at Termini became an impromptu trip around the area. I did a lot of things for the first time. I took a bus for the first time (fun fact I learned at orientation: in Rome, a bus might not stop for you unless you wave at it like you would do with a taxi in the States!) to a local Linea C station and rode the new line as well.
This Bostonian’s first ride on a Roman bus!That’s Linea C! I have now taken all three of the subway lines on the Roma Metro!
I walked around the Lodi stop and found some interesting sites. There were plenty of remnants from the ancient world that I didn’t expect to find today. There is an ancient amphitheatre and several gates and walls from antiquity as well. I saw a Latin inscription on my stroll. I’ll try to figure it out from the picture I took when I can enhance the photo on my computer.
The amphitheater (Anfiteatro Castrense) on Viale Castrense! Wasn’t expecting to see that today!The Porta Maggiore is a huge gate! Wonder how long it took the ancient Romans to build it.An ancient Roman wall! There are a few aqueducts in the archaeological site nearby.
I gave myself about an hour to get back to Tiburtina. I made it to the bus station at 11:30. Close call!
I’m helping myself to the fast food I bought porta via (the Italian equivalent for “to go”) before I went to Tiburtina for the second time today. I think I’ve earned some lunch for my unexpected adventure this morning. Fries have never been so good on the bus!
I can now truly understand the importance of being flexible, able to adapt to sudden situations out of one’s control. I feel brave for improvising a new plan on the spot and for trying new things in a new part of the city.
I’m glad I could figure out what was in the previously unfamiliar area and how to get to interesting sites I found on Google Maps. I’m glad I got a nice Italian phone plan at Temple Rome during orientation. The local coverage and high monthly allowance for high-speed data was very useful in this “trip.”
This ended up being a fun adventure into the past, with all the ancient monuments and the archeological site I walked around this morning. And I’m enjoying writing this previously-unplanned post for my blog! Thank goodness I brought my battery pack and the portable WiFi device I rented during orientation.
I’m very happy that things worked out in the end, even if they didn’t at first. Making adjustments on the road is an special experience in itself.
As a city person, I appreciate the conveniences of public transportation. I was pleased to find out that both the Residence and the Temple Rome campus are short walks from Metro stations in the city. I bought my first monthly pass from a local Tabacchi for €35 during orientation. It has really come in handy: unlimited rides on the bus, tram, and Metro for an entire month! Just have to remember to pay another €35 at the Tabacchi when October comes.
I’ve been taking the Metro to class every day. The Cipro (pronounced “Chee-proh”) stop is five minutes away from the Residence.
Using my monthly pass to ride the Metro! €35 a month, value renewable at local Tabacchi (by giving money to the cashier, who will refill the pass).Here comes the train in the Metro! At Cipro Station, five minutes from the Residence.
I also ride the subway to other locations in the city. The Spagna (pronounced “Spahn-nya,” Italian for Spain) Metro station (one stop away from Flaminio, which is a 10-minute walk from Temple Rome) in particular is a convenient location for sightseeing. I see a lot of tourists taking pictures of the iconic Spanish steps and of the famous Trevi Fountain all the time – most of them walked from the Spagna stop. It’s a busy station!
One of my housemates who explored the city more than I did told me something interesting about the Metro. A lot of the main attractions are accessible from the subway stops, but was I interested in an archaeological site that was literally INSIDE a Metro station? You bet I was!
The San Giovanni Metro station, which is three stops away from Termini in the center of the city, is a significant station on Linea A of the Roma Metro. It is one of only a few stops on the entire subway system with a connection to the new Linea C of the Metro.
I was surprised to hear that Rome didn’t have that many subway lines – I thought a large city would have at least five lines. My hometown of Boston, which is much smaller than Rome, has more lines on the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority) than the eternal city does. (There are four subway lines in Boston.)
Here is the Rome Metro! Three lines: Linea A, Linea B, Linea C. (Pronounced “Leen-ee-ah Ah,” “Leen-ee-ah Bee,” and “Leen-ee-ah Chee” in Italian, respectively.)
The city of Rome has wanted to add a new Metro line for years. However, construction was delayed fairly often. Every time the city dug underground, chances were that people might find ancient artifacts buried there. It is important to preserve the archaeological context of any artifact so any research on the found material can be more accurate and give us a more complete understanding of the past.
San Giovanni has been the site of several of these ancient artifacts, and the city of Rome decided to install an exhibit inside the Metro station, displaying artifacts where they were found. The city even added artwork of the objects and timelines that indicated what time period and depth beneath the ground (in meters) they came from near the stairs and escalators. The first time I saw the station, I thought I was daydreaming about Classical archaeology in the middle of a Metro stop!
First view of San Giovanni station – can’t tell if this is a museum or a Metro stop!The artifacts on display! There is also a chart on the wall with a timeline of Roman history.Artwork and timelines on the side of the stairs and escaltors.
I took Classical archaeology at Holy Cross as a first-year student. One of the concepts I learned was the Law of Superpostion. Layers of earth form on top of each other for passing each time period – the oldest layer hidden deeper underground while more recent layers are closer to the surface. I got to experience this firsthand riding down the escalator at the station.
I kept track of how far underneath the surface I was going and what time period the layer of earth at that depth corresponded to. The lower the escalator went, the further back in time I went. There were artifacts from the Middle Ages to times of the Roman Empire to the Roman Republic to the Roman Kingdom and even to prehistoric times!
In Classical archaeology, I also learned about how modern people react when they encounter ancient artifacts while digging underground. I learned that in Athens, Greece, there is a Metro stop that is like San Giovanni in Rome. In fact, there is an entire collection at the Syntagma Metro station in central Athens! It is called the Syntagma Metro Station Archaeological Collection and is on display in the busy subway.
The collection at the Syntagma Metro Station in central Athens. Image found on Wikipedia. Funny how I found an analogous station in San Giovanni!
I’m grateful to my housemate for telling me about the hidden gem of San Giovanni. I’ve gotten to know my housemates over the past three weeks, and they have gotten to know me. They know that I love Classical archaeology and would love to see remnants from antiquity. I was thrilled to see the exhibit in the Metro with my own eyes! I now have a better sense of what it’s like to live a city that has been around since ancient times – I surely won’t find anything like this back home! Speaking of home, time to go back to the Residence! Going back up to the modern era by walking back up the stairs to 2019!
Returning to the modern time by going back up to the surface, toward the uscita (exit in Italian)! That’s the Law of Superposition!
