Journal 1

Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini

Probably the most unforgettable solo excursion was my visit to the Capuccin crypt. Initially I thought it was a small church with a note worthy cemetery. I wasn’t really interested in it because I wanted to go to the church that housed the depiction of St. Theresa on fire. It was shown in Angels and Demons and I wanted to see it but Guerry said that Dan subtly challenged her to go to it. I wasn’t up to argue, and just wanted to get the assignment done so I agreed to go.

When we found it, we weren’t really sure what to do. We didn’t know how to get into the church so it led for an awkward five minutes. We then saw a line forming off to the side of the main entrance. As we waited in line we debated what there was to see and why Dan thought we would never forget it. I was confused, as I didn’t see a cemetery entrance anywhere. We donated a few euro and boy, I was not prepared for what we saw that day.

The first “room” was covered in bones. I was confused as to what was going one. I saw skulls stacked on top of each other. The bones all seemed to be organized and shaped into patterns. Guerry then told me to look up and I did. What I saw was a chandelier/hanging candle thing made completely of bone. I was freaked out and walked from underneath it. As we kept walking the next room was even creepier. There were full skeleton remains made up in positions still with their friar robes.

The walls were decorated with different bones from the body. It seemed like every bone was used for something. The last room made me very uncomfortable. There were about four full skeletons of what I assume are children. They were smaller than the priests seen in the other rooms. I wanted to get out once I saw that and surely enough we did. All we could do was gasp and reflect on what exactly we had just seen. I still am not sure how that was even possible. Dan was right, I wont be forgetting that anytime soon.

Momentary Blindness

As I sit on a bench I close my eyes. I hear laughter from a group of people. They’re talking low but I can still hear them. It sounds like they’re to my right but behind me a bit. It sounds like there’s a mix of guys and girls in the group. I also hear what sounds like kissing near me. It is on and off every few minutes. I hear many birds chirping around the park. A loud plane passes by overhead.

The traffic from below the hill can be faintly heard. Large trucks passing by are more easily heard than the standard small cars. I hear water from the fountain in the middle of the par poring out. The sound is being disrupted and I hear splatter for a few seconds. There was probably someone drinking from it. I feel nice (much needed) breeze pass by me. I hear a noise that sounds like steps behind me. I feel and hear a bird fly fast above my head. I begin to smell oranges, and I open my eyes to see Allan eating oranges from the trees.

People Watching

I observe a man sitting at a restaurant. He is alone at the moment. He is sitting with his legs crossed facing me. He is wearing a pink polo and khaki Capri pants. He is smoking a cigarette in his left hand. He has two cups of coffee on the table. He periodically looks around the piazza. He is wearing dirty white converses. He also has a popped collar. A woman has joined him at the table. She came out from the café. As she sits down and writes, he begins to put out his cigarette. As people walk by he looks into the piazza, watching people pass by him. He is also wearing shades.

As his friend continue writing he yawns. He appears to be quite bored. He talks to the woman and she responds as he leans forward to hear her. He begins to bite his nails. He leans forward leaning his left arm on the table. He rests his head on his right hand/arm. He talks to his friend again as she continues to write. She pays him some attention but continues to write as she responds to him.

I believe the two-maybe friends whom are traveling together and decided to have breakfast at this place. I think the woman maybe a writer or a wife. The man I feel, is just her gay friend she dragged along when her husband didn’t want to come. I believe the woman might have been writing in a journal about what she’s done so far. Or she could be writing a postcard. Whatever it was, the man was not amused.

Another Museum post

I observed a sculpture called Giovane Mora con fancivvole e un cane. Here is a woman kneeling down on one knee. Her right knee is on the ground, while her left leg is raised upwards. She is slouching down and her head is tilted to the left. In her lap lays a small dog. It appears to be a Chihuahua. The dog’s body is mostly on the woman’s right leg. The dog’s arms lay over her raised left leg. The dogs’ head is turned, looking at the observer, while its body faces the left. The woman’s right arm is hugging the dog with her right hand covering the dog’s neck.

The woman’s left arm is at her side with her left hand resting on top of a small boys head. The boy is looking up at the woman. He is squatting down and his arms are on the woman’s side. The woman is wearing a long white tunic dress. Her body is made of black marble. The boy’s body is also black, with a white toga. The dog is white with black eyes. The woman’s tunic-dress a belt design that is sectioned off into squares of different colors. Her hair has curls and she is wearing a hat. A leaf comes out of her hat and lays on her forehead.

In which i ate tiramisu and had some wine to boot!

So I had lunch at this nice little restaurant in the middle of ally today. Its called the Ristorante Pizzeria L. Anna. Me, Guerry, Nicole, and Liz totally had an awesome little lunch together as we sat outside and enjoyed the nice breeze and cars pass by us. We ordered a nice little jug'o wine for ourselves, and even though I'm not a wine person, it was pretty good. The girls ordered salads, and i of course had pizza. It was freshly made and warm, and extremely good. It tasted weird when drinking wine and eating pizza though. Very...different. We just sat there and talked about how we are liking it so far and what we hope to do, and what could be improved.

I must admit i was a bit nervous with them, because it was the first time so far in Rome that i was not with either Dan or Jackie, the two professors. Im having a hard time memorizing the city so i get easily lost. But thankful Liz had a good handle on navigation. As we left the restaurant, we went on a quest for some good gelato. We partially gave up in favor to find a way home with hopes of finding gelato along the way. Since we found the right bus stop, we saw a gelatoria close by.

I ordered an amazing strawberry and banana gelato that tasted soooo good. As we waited for the bus, we spotted Dan and his group, and then we got on the bus. We managed to make it back to St. Johns on our own, and I for one was happy/proud. After that we took a break in our rooms and i watched the season finale of glee which was rather mediocre.

For dinner we ate at a nice place in Trastevere, with an actual Roman artist who is friends with Jackie. Her and her partner showed us their gallery earlier and answered questions we provided. For dinner i had the fettucini with ragu, which Dan told me was a red sauce. Once i got it though in turned out to be a meat sauce. I was annoyed but once i tried it i realized it wasn't that bad and ate a good portion of it before it got really meat saucy. Another fun fact i learned is that soda isn't really popular here. people drink this thing called water. Or they drink wine or some type of coffee. For dessert i had this amazing tiramisu which was just to die for!

After dinner most of us followed Dan back to campus via the tram/trolly thing. After a few stops though Dan points out that we went in the wrong direction. Once we got on the right tram, the funniest thing all day happened. A man go on the tram and sat behind me to my right. He was a bald man of tan skin and looked like he was about in his early to mid 40's. After awhile, Melissa told me to look over, so i did. I then saw he was brushing a short wig with a comb, on the tram. I saw this and as most of you can imagine i started to laugh with melissa rather discretely-ish. As this was happening i looked over again and the man put the wig on. At that point I couldn't stop laughing with Melissa. The man then proceeded to leave with his wig on. It was the most funniest thing i witnessed so far. Truly. After that we arrived back and me, Erika, Melissa, and Emily got some gelato across the street. Peach gelato with strawberry is slammin yalls!

A Morning in the Museum

While visiting the Capitoline Museum, I came across a sculpture that caught my attention. At First I wasn’t sure what I was seeing but once I looked hard enough I began to put together what it was. That plus I looked at the name of the sculpture. It was simply named Musa, which I believe is Italian for muse.

The statue was fully intact with all of its pieces there except for its index finger on her right hand. There stood a female upright. She was leaning partially on her left side so her weight was shifted a bit. The muse remains fully clothed, and has a small tiara on her head. Her outfit seems reminiscent of a toga with a long scarf or shawl. Part of her clothing appears rather thin and may have been designed by the artist to portray a rather sheer aspect to it. Her arms are placed at her side, but she is holding them forward a bit with two items in her hands. In her left hand, she holds what initially looks like a face. Upon closer inspection I noticed that what she is holding is actual a mask that symbolizes theatre/actresses. In her right hand she holds what I think is a flute. Her hair isn’t very long and comes down just to the tip of her shoulders. She stands there presenting music and theater, with an oddly emotionless face. Defiantly one of the cool things I saw today J

One more thing

Me, Erika and Amari have talked about this but there's alot of people of color here in Rome. I initially thought i would stand out but turns out I'm nothing special here. The amount of people of color I've seen here puts Skidmore to shame. Its truly interesting to see.

PS. Italian people are like all skinny its ridiculous considering how much they eat!