Saturday, May 24, 2008

Photo Website

I was checking online today for different websites devoted to photography in Rome and I found a neat website that has pictures of many of the places that we have been too. Here's the link. I am hoping to use some of these pictures for inspiration. Hopefully it works out!

Viale Di Trastevere and The Gianicolo Hill


As I walking down Viale Di Trastevere this afternoon I passed the Standa Supermarket, which we frequent a decent amount seeing as how close it is to our apartment. Anyways, every time that I pass this supermarket, and I mean every single time, I see the same homeless man. He actually seems quite nice. Every time I pass him I give a nice smile and surprisingly he smiles back, unlike the other Italians I have smiled at. Directly across the street is a small little park (maybe 4-5 benches) and there is another group of homeless people (men and women) who do not smile and seem very disinterested in my passing by. Interesting enough though, Viale Di Trastevere seems to be the hot spot for homeless people. Of course there are homeless people in other places, but more of them seem to live on Viale Di Trastevere than any other place. As I was walking by the homeless man in front of Standa today, he was lighting pieces of paper on fire and watching them burn, smiling the entire time!

On a side note, I've been doing a little bit more exploring down our end of Viale Di Trastevere and noticed that a decent amount of the fountains are not working, for some reason. The one that I really wanted to see is called Acqua Paola and it's located on top of The Gianicolo Hill (which gives some great views of the city), but it was dry when we went up the other day. As far as I could tell from reading on-line, it was working as of recently but now seems dry. They had a problem with its water source a while back but authorities said it was fixed. When it is fixed, though, I will make sure to take pictures. It's a pretty interesting looking fountain.
*Check out this map of all the Roman fountains*

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Colosseum and The Forum





This afternoon a small group of us went to tour the inside of the Colosseum. It was much better than I thought it would be. For 11 euro you get inside the Colosseum, The Forum and The Palatine Museum, three of Romes best sites. I don't think words can really describe what you see when your inside, especially when you know what happened in there. The Italians have tried their best to keep the Colosseum in great shape, and it shows. The maze of tunnels underneath what used to be the floor of the Colosseum is dark and dirty, just like what you would guess it looked like. The walls are high and look as if they are about to crumble down on top of you. It's an experience, for sure. Just imagine being thrown onto the floor, then being hunted down by a lion all while 50,000 fellow humans cheer the lion on, both thumbs in the air. It's quite chilling. The Forum is where all of Romes social, political, and judicial business was conducted from. It's located down the street from the Colosseum, and is a site in itself. Located within the Forum is the place where Marc Anthony gave his famous speech. You can sit in front of this spot and enjoy views of all the other ancient sites in this enclosed area. Like I said, words cannot really describe it so here's some pictures from the afternoon.
Also, here's a link to an album containing all the pictures from the day. Enjoy!

Switzerland!

Good morning everyone! I have been debating how much I want to travel and where I want to travel while I am in Europe. The exchange rate is not working in my favor, so I believe I will only travel two weekends. I just booked a trip from Rome to Zurich, Switzerland for June 20-22nd. I don't know if anyone else is going, but it doesn't matter. I came over to Europe with Switzerland as one of my top choices for travel, so I will stick with that. I can't wait! It's going to be amazing. If you get a chance, search Wikipedia for Zurich and look at some pictures and information on it. I'm sure I'll have some good stuff to blog about on that trip!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Interesting Website about the Aqueducts

If you want to know a little bit more about the Roman aqueducts, then check out this site. It's a little long, and a little in depth, but it gives some great detail about what it was used for and how they were set up. A great read if you have a little time. It doesn't just talk about Rome, but also about how states like California and New York get their water. Save this for a rainy day read!

Slideshow


Here's a little video (with some music, so check the volume) of some pictures from the past week, here in Rome. Enjoy!

PS. Sorry about the low quality, it was just the quickest to upload on this internet.

The Vatican

This morning we met at 9am at St. Peters square. I don't know how it happened but I ended up getting lost because I walked by myself. I was just about to ask for directions when I rounded the corner and this is what I saw. I literally just stumbled upon the Vatican! I got there early so I took some pictures and hung out until the rest of the group got there then we ventured inside St. Peters Basilica. Once inside this is what we saw. We ventured around inside for a while and got to see all the things that make The Vatican so special. There were masses going on in various parts of the church, as well as Cardinals walking around. It was an experience for sure. Little did we know, but The Vatican is actually its own independent country. It is guarded by the Swiss Military, who happen to wear some very colorful uniforms. We also got a chance to venture into the Tomb of the Popes (no pictures allowed) and got to see John Paul II's tomb. It was controlled by secret service type agents, and no stopping was allowed in front of the tomb. Very neat to see. We ventured outside next to try and get into the Sistine Chapel, but it was closed. We'll have to do that next time we visit The Vatican, like in a week or so. Dom and I then split up from Brian and Jared and walked to the top of one of Romes 7 hills that gave us this view of Rome
All in all it was a great day. We're at the girls apartment now using the internet because the studio internet is not so good. We found one of the coolest drinking fountains in the Vatican. It was a long trough that had about 6-8 spouts coming off of it, and it was full of visitors drinking from it. I attempted to take a picture, but I failed for some reason. The fountain was tucked back in the corner, so the lighting was not so good. Well, I am going to get some work done now. Ciao!

Coffee in the Morning! May 21st



I apologize for the lack of pictures to accompany these posts, but the internet connection here is outrageously horrible, so after waiting 20+ minutes to upload a photo to here, I decided that it was not worth my time. I’ll get around to it sometime when I have a few hours to spare. Anyways, this morning it rained yet again. My typical thoughts of Rome were dry and humid. I was completely wrong. It’s been cool and rainy 7 out of the 10 days we’ve been here. The only bright part about this mornings rainy walk was the espresso that I got at the end of my journey. Our favorite little cafe is only minutes from class! It gets better and better every day. We discussed films and readings today. The discussions seem to get more and more heated every day. Tomorrow we venture to the Vatican for class. I plan on spending a lot of time there, even after the class is done. I’ll keep you all updated as often as I can, it’s just terribly frustrating having no internet in our apartment to do this, and then when we do have it, it doesn’t work. Oh well, bella Roma! Here's a picture of the Piazza that our class is in, Piazza Del Collegio Romano!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tuesday May 20th Evening Walk


Tonight I decided to walk up the hill behind our apartment, in hopes of finding some new and interesting stuff. I can safely say that I succeeded in doing so. There are some really cool indoor markets as well as a permanent outdoor style market that, I assume, sells the same sort of things that the other outdoor markets (ex: Campo Di Fiori) sell. I also found a park that afforded me a rather nice view of the city from on top of the hill (I'm guessing one of 7 hills in the city). I thought that I was rather far away from our apartment, but within an hour or so I was back down on the main street in Trastevere and only about 5 blocks from where I had started. I was a bit shocked, but I'm guessing I just took a huge oval shaped walk. It was worth it though. Once I was back down on Viale Di Trastevere I found two smaller photo shops. I decided to compare some prices of their cameras as compared to some of our shops back home. As I guessed the prices were a tad bit higher and I am guessing that this is thanks to 2 different reasons: 1.) we are in a city and 2.) the dollar is not fairing well against the euro. None the less, this was a smaller shop and mostly sold point and shoot cameras,and no D-SLRs or higher end equipment. The second shop I stopped in (which I noted earlier that I would stop in) was actually a photo studio, so I'm guessing that galeria in Italian does not mean the same thing as it does back home. Anyways, this photographer was great! He had a wide array of wedding photos, graduation style photos, family photos, and kid photos. His work rivaled that of any photographer I've seen back home in Zelie (Yes, I know there's not many!). I was tempted to ask the photographer about his cameras and techniques, but he was busily working at his computer on what I assume would be an editing program, so I left him be. It was great to see such splendid photography work over here! After I left there I decided that I should try and find yet another market/restaurant on Viale Di Trastevere, and I succeeded once again. I was attempting to take photos of the establishment, but they spoke no english and I wasnt sure how they would feel about me taking photos of their business. This bakery/market/restaurant had prices that rivaled that of Standa (the main market) and a wider selection of breads, which are fantastic by the way! The desserts looked great as well. I'm sure I'll be back down there at some point. I am attempting to take another walk tonight, so I will fill you in on more gems of Viale Di Trastevere tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tuesday Morning, May 20th-Roman Fountains Story

I found this interesting story from June 13th, 2007 about the clash between ancient and modern Rome. The water fountains that I have been talking about carry water miles and miles from outside the city to fountains such as The Trevi Fountain, Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and the various drinking style fountains placed throughout the city. It happened in an area called the Parioli district, just outside Romes center. Workers were laying concrete for a new parking garage, when they smashed the concrete tubes that carry the water from the mountains to the city center. With the constant growth of the city, this could happen more and more. Lucky for us, the issue was fixed and the fountains still flow today.
Read the full story here.

Tuesday Morning, May 20th

This morning we met at the classroom at 10am and discussed The Pantheon and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which is a beautiful church that is located about two blocks from our class space. The church was constructed in the 13th century and features a wide array of Gothic art. The inside of this large church houses about 8-10 smaller "chapels", which are located on the sides of the church. I personally find it funny that in some of the smaller side chapels you must insert a euro to turn the lights on in order to see it better/take better pictures. I would have taken some pictures today, but I got all the way here and realized that I switched to a 200mm lens, which is to big to shoot in these small, dark places. Both inside and outside the church are works by Bernini, who is one of Italy's great artists. This church is also where, in 1380, St. Catherine of Siena died. She is buried here in a tomb, which you can still see today. After that we ventured back over to The Pantheon, which is right next door to this church. The Pantheon impresses me each and every time I see it. It was originally a Roman temple to all the gods, but was converted to a church through time. The oculus, or the whole in top of the dome, is still open and when it rains outside, it rains inside. The most interesting part of The Pantheon is the tomb of Raphael, who was another great artist of a long ago time. Today in the Pantheon there were "guards" who were watching the tombs of Italian Kings, and asking tourists to sign a book with their name and home country. Of course I signed it in hopes of being a small part of history. We are now sitting in studio, writing our blogs and booking weekend trips, as it thunderstorms very bad outside. Hopefully we can play some more bingo tonight!

Bingo!

Monday night Jared, Dom, Brian and myself decided to go play bingo at the parlor down on Viale Di Trastevere. Jared had went down earlier in the day and won a decently large (137,00 euro) amount of money, so we went again to try out luck. We sat at a table with two women who spoke no english at all, they even asked us how to say "yes" in english. It was pretty amazing. I had never played bingo before (in a real bingo parlor), so starting off in an Italian one was probably not the best idea. They called the numbers out at a rate I didn't think was possible. We just happened to find this place last week while walking down Viale Di Trastevere, so with nothing to really do last night what better idea than to play bingo and spend a few euro! I hadn't really thought of Rome as a place with gambling, but after walking in this place and a few others along Viale Di Trastevere, I am seeing more and more slot machines. I have pretty good luck back in the states, but I don't wanna push it here. I think I am going to venture even farther down Viale Di Trastevere tomorrow and see what other gems I can find! On the bright side, I can now count to 90 in Italian! Ciao!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Good Afternoon!

Good afternoon, or good morning for those of you back in the States! It's a beautiful morning here in Rome, a bit chilly and a little rain earlier, but it seems to be clearing up now. We just finished our first section of class for the day, and at 2:15 we have our second section for about 3 hours, then my roommates and I are going to do some much needed shopping! For those of you who got to watch the Penguins win last night, I am jealous! I had to keep updating the web browser on my phone as well as have Josh message me on the Blackberry Messenger program with constant updates. Stanley Cup 2008, it's coming to Pittsburgh without question. Enjoy your day everyone, you'll be hearing from me later! Ciao

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Photo Gallery

I know I mentioned that I would visit the photo gallery down the street from my apartment on Saturday, but something came up with my fall schedule and I had to hurry down to the classroom to fix it. Today is Sunday so they are closed, and tomorrow we have class till 6, so I don't think it will be until Tuesday that I get a chance to go down there. I did find another photography store on my way to the classroom this morning, so I can add that to my list of places to check out!

Multiple Uses for Water Fountain

So last night on my way to the Sede Di Roma (Penn States class space), I was walking along Viale Di Trastevere and I noticed something that made me stop (not for long though!) and question myself as to if this was really happening. The homeless in Rome, although nothing like New York City or Philadelphia, are very much present. They must bathe too, right? Sure. So last night I witnessed a homeless man washing a certain area of his body in a fountain. There were people everywhere, but he did not seem to care. A young lady even walked by, but this did not phase him. This is something that you would most likely not find in America. It's a cultural difference I guess. They seem more tolerant of the homeless here, unlike in New York City where the number of homeless suddenly (and very sharply) decreased when Giuliani went into office. I'm just saying.
Ciao!

You still use a Polaroid?

When we were in Campo Di Fiori the past few days I noticed that the gentleman who offer to take your pictures (as well as sell roses, souvenirs, jewelery, etc.) use a Polaroid type of camera. When I first saw this I thought it was just my eyes playing a trick on me. Who would still use a Polaroid in the days of digital-SLRs? I went back a second time and once again they were out in full force equipped with their Polaroid style cameras. It blew me away. They see thousands of tourists a day with beautiful digital cameras, and they offer to take your picture with a format that is, for the most part, outdated. I guess they do get some business though, considering they are still doing it night after night. The location they chose is key to their operation. Campo Di Fiori is a tourist trap, in a sense. They know that Americans are coming here and eating, drinking, and socializing. They take advantage of the fact that some Americans tend to drink to much and waste money on useless things when they are in that state of mind. It's a business just like any other, but the equipment is outdated. Come talk to me, gentleman, when your using a Canon EOS 1D Mark III! Ciao!