What I Learned from My Summer in Italy

The nuts and bolts of Classical Culture in the Amtrak Train Station under Washington, D.C.

Lessons I learned from my summer in Italy in 2010:

• Upper-class Romans had a less firmly delineated concept of public vs. private spaces than we do. Business was transacted from the home quite often, with clients coming to the door at dawn. There were also no separate spaces for children, making Roman homes very different from our modern homes.
• Masters' spaces were  delineated from the slaves' spaces in the homes in a clear manner through the use of decoration, which also emphasized the importance and the tastes of the master and his family.
• Public spaces such as public buildings, public works, venues of entertainment, temples, and even tombs could be used to promote the needs of and to publicize the “private” family through inscriptions, sculpture, etc.
• There was more of a middle class and a working class in ancient Roman society than I realized. There was also more social mobility than I used to think, although most people probably were born poor and died poor.
• Archeologists like to find drains to find out what Romans ate and about their daily life from what they flushed down the drains. Eww, but true!
• Capri and Ischia are two of the most beautiful and pleasant places on earth. I would like to learn more about Axel Munthe.
• The war-like Samnites gave the Romans more of a problem in its Republican history than I ever realized. Samnite tomb paintings foreshadow the Romans' love of beast-hunts and bloody gladiatorial games.
• I am tougher than I and even other people think. Fellow participants expressed their doubts I would make it through the whole program with my injured knee. But I did, and I'm stronger for it. I even made it to the top of Mt. Vesuvius and into the substructure of the Amphitheater at Capua by the end of the trip, adventures I didn't dare attempt at the beginning.
• Italy seems less crime-prone than when I last stayed for an extended time in 1988. I heard fewer tales of members of the group being ripped off by taxi drivers or robbed by pickpockets. I saw NO bands of Gypsy children roaming in large groups with boxes or newspapers over their arms to pickpocket tourists, although I saw Gypsies in small “family” groups or older individuals begging. I'd love to know the reasons behind the change in tactics.
• I should have memorized the PIN numbers of ALL the credit and debit cards I carried with me, just in case I needed cash. Which I did.
• An unlocked Italian cell phone with a SIMS card is a nice thing to have. But don't activate it by sending in your passport information until right before the trip because the TIMS company will start charging you money before you even arrive in Italy, wasting money and losing out on service. Or just pay the minimum and rely on free incoming and emergency phone calls with no outgoing calls, like I eventually did.
• Don't put tildes in any of your passwords before you go to Europe. It's impossible to find them on the keyboards there, which I guess is why it's a good security feature in one's passwords at home.
• Others may be stronger at remembering names, dates, and historical details than I am, but I'm a strong Latinist. I liked having the opportunity to sight-read Latin this summer. I also got better at reading inscriptions and, to a lesser extent, graffiti.
• My son, Matthew, is growing up to be a fine young man and good company.
• A guest house or casa per ferie in Italy can be just as nice as a hotel, cost less, and support a cause. Some even have free internet connections.
• My favorite spot to stay in Rome is the Hotel Villa Rosa in Trastevere, although I'd like it even better if it had internet access, preferably included.
• I want to learn even more Italian if I ever have reason to come back here again.
• The Romans believed in peace, but they thought that peace could only come at the end of a sword. And that sword might as well be theirs.
• There are nice people everywhere, and most people are nice.
• Don Burke is the best friend I've ever had. (PS: He later became my husband!)
• I want to travel some more. But having said that:
• There's no place like Rome, but there's no place like home.

If you enjoy these adventures and would like updates on my other travels near and far from home, follow me at http://mlbstravels.blogspot.com/, If you would like to your Italy in July of 2018, click here for tour information.

The Pantheon at Last!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

A Latin water fountain  at the museum. "Drink, dog!"

Our group checked out of the Villa Vergiliana around 9 AM, stopped at a the Capodimonte Museum for about 90 minutes, and then headed to Rome. The Capodimonte mostly contains paintings, most of which are of a (Christian) religious theme. My favorite of these was by Caravaggio. There were also some nice mythological paintings. My favorite of these was one of Zeus about to make love to Danae in the form of golden rain. Unfortunately, this museum does not allow photos, so I cannot share.

Matthew and I checked into the Villa Maria Guest House or Casa per Ferie in Trastevere in Rome. This hotel is owned and operated by the Sisters of the Divine Savior. It is clean and has hot showers, which Matthew and I were very happy to take advantage of. Wireless internet is available, but you have to pay for it by the hour, so we're skipping that.

 But the good news is that we got to Rome by early afternoon, so Matthew and I had time to make it over to the Pantheon, which was open today. We had a chance to take in the beauty of the space, admire the dome constructed under the Emperor Hadrian, and get pictures of the exterior and the plaza where it is located. 

The dome of the Pantheon

The inscription says that Agrippa, Augustus' general, built it. Hadrian preserved the original inscription when he rebuilt it. Work is being done on the exterior, but we can still read the inscription under the scaffolding that covers half the front of the building. The Pantheon is well preserved because it has long been a Catholic Church. It was stripped of the bronze from the interior of the dome, however. One of the popes reused some if it toward the Baldacchino in the dome of St. Peter's, and the rest to make some cannons. So sad!

The exterior of the Pantheon, undergoing restorations

For more pictures from our last day in Rome, visit this set on Flickr.


 Tomorrow we will head over to the airport quite early to help out a friend who wants to split the cost of a taxi to save some money.

The Beginning of the End of 6 Weeks in Italy

Friday, August 13, 2010

 

 Our last full day touring Southern Italy! I will miss the Villa Vergiliana and the food, sights, and friends here, but I am looking forward to hot showers with water pressure. 

The Villa Vergiliana has been undergoing upgrades since 2010. It was beautiful but sorely in need of attention

There's no place like home!

 Today we went to Saepinum and Beneventum. Saepinum was pretty and had the remains of a nice theater. Medieval buildings were built on Roman foundations in places. Our guides used Saepinum as a form of “final exam” for the students. We mostly explored on our own and came up with our own comments. It was a small town but had all the items you would expect to see in a Roman city: a forum, a Macellum, bath complexes, fountains, an orderly layout of streets with a cardo and decumanus maximus, etc.

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A reproduction of a water wheel at Saepinum

Water wheel at Saepinum: another view

Remains of a theater at Saepinum

The Arch of Trajan and a related museum were in Beneventum, modern Benevento. I had been to neither site before so I took a lot of pictures. To view more of them, visit this set on Flickr.

In front of the Arch of Trajan in Benevento

Pleasure Palace of the Bourbon Kings in Italy

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

 We returned to Capua today for the amphitheater and the Mithraeum. This time my knee was well enough that I could spend some time and take some pictures in the substructure of the amphitheater, which was interesting and strangely beautiful. 

The substructure of the amphitheater with a drain running down the center

The current amphitheater was built around the time of Hadrian and Trajan. I liked being able to see the drains under the structure, probably for washing away animal manure, etc. I saw some frescoes at the Mithraeum I hadn't noticed before. 

We spent the afternoon at the Reggia di Caserta, a palace built by the Bourbon kings (of Spain, who ruled Naples) to rival the palace of Versailles in France. But it cost a lot, took a long time to complete, and was eventually used as more of a weekend hunting lodge than a center of royal power. 

The horse and carriage behind the fountain gives an idea of the scale of the grounds at Reggia di Caserta

The palace was influenced by discoveries in Herculaneum funded by the Bourbon kings. The style is Baroque but with hints of NeoClassicism to come. I especially liked “Venus' Bathing Pool” in the English Garden. For more pictures, visit this set on Flickr. If you wish to tour Italy in the summer of 2018, click for details.

"Venus' Bath"

The Climb Up Mt. Vesuvius

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The ascent up Vesuvius from the bus parking area is arduous but not impossible

 We started our morning with a climb up Mt. Vesuvius. We were lucky that the morning was a little overcast, so the hike wasn't as hot as I'd anticipated. With Matthew's help, I made it to the top! Yee-hah!! Last month I took a pain pill and worked on my physical therapy exercises while the group made the ascent. Today I made it with very little trouble. I feel great!

Matthew and I both reached the summit. Gotta work off that gelato somehow!

 The visit to Herculaneum was very productive. We saw some houses I hadn't seen before, and I was very excited to get into the Suburban Baths, which were closed on our last visit. There is evidence that the windows were glassed in. The pyroclastic flow knocked a basin into more “lava” and fragments of the glass from the window can be seen in the impression in the cooled rock. I have digital pictures of this that I've posted below.

The basin where it stood under the window

The impression in the pyroclastic flow

Close-up showing evidence of broken glass

For more pictures from this day of our trip, visit this set on Flickr. For an account of my first visit to Mt. Vesuvius in 2010, visit "The Inferno."

Paestum, ancient Poseidonia

Monday, August 9, 2010

 

Matthew enjoying the Greek temples at Paestum

Today our group of teachers on a Vergilian Society tour spent the day in Paestum, ancient Poseidonia, originally a Greek colony. 

Anne Haeckl lectures as part of our tour

 New for me this time was the Ekklesiasterion, a public assembly space for Greek-style elections and political meetings. The Romans covered it over when they took over, probably because they wanted to set up a space for more Roman-style systems of government. 

The Ekklesiasterion

Model of the Greek ekklesiasterion

It is the only Ekklesiasterion in Italy. We don't know if there were more, destroyed by the Romans or otherwise. This is the only one that has been found. It looks like a rounded amphitheater. 

Christopher Gregg, our other guide and lecturer

We also spent some time examining the tomb paintings of the Lucanians, an Italic people. There are definite interests there in blood sports and chariot racing, perhaps foreshadowing the rise in interest in arenas and circuses in Rome and the prevalence of gladiatorial training schools in Southern Italy. I purchased a small model of the lid of the Tomb of the Diver at the gift shops here for use in my classroom. 

Tomb of the Diver

 
For more pictures of Paestum, visit this set on Flickr.

Tomorrow we go to Herculaneum and climb Mt. Vesuvius. I am hoping my knee will feel good enough to allow me to reach the summit this time.

Naples, Boscoreale, and Pozzuoli's Amphitheater

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Students often ask how plaster casts of Vesuvius' victims were made

 Today we went to the National Archaeological Museum at Naples, to Boscoreale to see an example of a villa rustica, and to Pozzuoli to see its amphitheater. The amphitheater is the 3rd largest in Italy and the 10th largest in the Roman world. I got some new insights into some of the artwork and some inscriptions to share with my students back home. At the museum at Boscoreale, I got some great pictures of a boar's tusks and a good picture of a wild boar. These will help students understand part of the storyline of our Latin I text. For more pictures from this day, visit this set on Flickr.

"Eros with a Dolphin" at the Naples Museum

 

Pompeii Revisited

Saturday, August 7, 2010

 

The goddess Venus with attendants. Her presence would have been felt in the Lupinarium!

 I was back at Pompeii for the third time this summer. This was the best visit of all. We got to see the Lupinarium, a brothel. Chris wrote his dissertation on Pompeii's prostitution, so he was very knowledgeable about the site and about the topic. The Lupinarium was well lit, and we didn't have to bribe a guard to get in. Things have certainly changed since I first visited the site in 1988. I bought a cute reproduction black-figure Greek vase to use for a classroom project. It shows a centaur dancing with a deer. It was fun to take Matthew around and share a little about what I'd learned this summer. For more pictures from this day, visit this set on Flickr.  Tomorrow we go to Naples for the Naples' Museum and to Boscoreale for a look at a villa rustica.

A wine press at the Villa of the Mysteries

Lavish Views, Luxurious Villas, and an Animal-Lover

Friday, August 6, 2010

 

 Wednesday we went to Oplontis to the so-called “Villa of Poppaea”. This was my second trip there this summer but with different lecturers I saw the site with whole new eyes. It was interesting to look at the layers of ash, pumice, and pyroclastic flow that covered the villa before the archaeologists dug it up. We also looked carefully at the styles of wall-paintings in this well-preserved upper-class home outside of Pompeii.

Layers of ash, lapilli, and pyroclastic flow can be seen behind Matthew

In the afternoon we took a hydrofoil to Capri for two nights. We returned this afternoon. What a great time! We saw the Villa Jovis, one of Emperor Tiberius' villas. We stayed at a four-star hotel on Anacapri called the Hotel San Michele, which boasts the largest swimming pool of all the hotels on Capri. This trip is usually a highlight of the end of this two-week program, but we had to do it this week due to scheduling conflicts. Apparently next weekend is a major Roman holiday, and hotel rooms on Capri are not to be had for love or money.

"Capri" means "goats." Here are capri on Capri! We were near Tiberius' villa.

 Matthew and I enjoyed taking the Funiculare, a kind of tram that climbs up and down the hill, to the beach, where we took a boat tour around the island. We didn't get into the Blue Grotto due to tides and weather. This cave may have been a dining room for Tiberius. Fragments of statues of Tritons were found in the cave which could connect him to it. 

Mother and son enjoy the boat tour around the island

Heading for the "Kissing Cave" on the boat tour

We also visited the Villa San Michele, quite near the hotel, which is a former residence of the Swedish-born physician and writer, Axel Munthe. He died in 1949 but lived an intense life. I plan to look up his book, The Story of San Michele, when I get home. It sounds like a great read. His love of the island of Capri resonates in the book and helped popularize it as a destination. He was also quite the animal-lover, according to the signs at the museum.

A photo of Axel Munthe, the animal lover with his menagerie

The gardens of Axel Munthe's home, the museum at San Michele, are as gorgeous as the views!

The views from San Michele, just like views all over the island, are fantastic, and the grounds and gardens are worth the visit in themselves. I also got some nice inscriptions from a cemetery on Anacapri that will be a nice challenge for my Latin Two students.

One of many spectacular views on Capri

 San Michele is Italian for the Archangel Michael, by the way. There used to be a church by that name on Munthe's property, which may have been another villa of Tiberius' in a former life. The property was run down when Munthe bought it and fixed it up. Munthe liked Classical antiquity. There are even a couple of sphinxes, one Etruscan and one Egyptian from 1200 B.C.E., on the property. 

I thought it most interesting that as a physician, he never billed for his services. He found some wealthy patrons who supported him quite lavishly but he served the poor as well, including a stint in the Red Cross during WWI. For more pictures from this leg of our trip, visit this set on Flickr.

Tomorrow we go back to Pompeii. I had better rest up while I can!

Rome: the Colosseum, Palatine, and Capitoline Hills

Sunday, August 1, 2010

 

At the Colosseum

 I let my son, Matthew, sleep in until about 9 this morning. After breakfast we headed out to the Colosseum. First we saw the Ludus Magnus, the barracks outside the Colosseum where the gladiators trained while waiting for their turn at the fights. They didn't live there long term, however, because the Romans were leery of having armed slaves trained to fight hanging around the city. 

Then we splurged on a tour guide to beat some of the lines heading into the Colosseum. The guide was actually pretty good and had some good illustrations and explanations. Then we headed to the special exhibit on gladiators, which had some good reproductions of gladiatorial costumes that can give my students a better idea of the different types of gladiators.

A type of gladiator: murmillo

Included in our Colosseum tour was entry to the Palatine Hill and Forum, so we spent some time there. Our tour guide was so bad and rude that we left him and finished looking around the area on our own, which was more satisfactory. 

We saw the Palatine Museum. The House of Augustus and the House of Livia were closed to the public, unfortunately. But we got to see “Romulus' Hut” where evidence of the first huts on the Palatine Hill, the first settlements in Rome, are to be seen. It's basically just some holes for supports of these huts in the ground, but it's still neat to see. In the forum there was a special exhibit on the family of the Aemilii,  which had some beautiful relief sculptures in it. Matthew also liked looking for the remains of coins on the floor of the Basilica Aemilia in the forum. There had been a massive fire there, so hot that coins left behind by the bankers actually fused to the marble floors.

 Our original plan had been to make our way from the Capitoline Museum to the Pantheon before it closed, but we had trouble finding the right bus and couldn't make it there on time, so we made it back to Trastevere to pack and take it easy before our trip to Campania, modern-day Campagna, tomorrow. Seeing the inside of the Pantheon again was one of my big goals for my stay in Rome, so I was sad not to have made it. Hopefully it will be incentive for Matthew to come back and see it someday. It is my favorite spot in the city.

Endings and New Beginnings

Friday 7/30/10

Latin Teacher on the Appian Way

 This is it, the last official day of our N.E.H. Program, and the last day that all the participants will spend together, although many of us will take in the sights of Rome during this weekend, since the flight back for Rome is not until Monday. I meet my son, Matthew, in the morning, of course, and after our weekend together in Rome, we will be meeting up at the Villa Vergiliana program for a bus ride back to Campania and more educational touring, thanks to the Fund for Teachers and the Rural School and Community Trust, which are underwriting my portion of the next two-week trip.

 The morning we traveled by coach to the House of the Quintilii. This house excited me because it was once the property of Marcus Tullius Cicero's best friend, Atticus. It has had a long history. At one point two remarkably admirable brothers, the Quintilii, owned it, until they were suspected of a plot against the throne by Emperor Commodus. They were killed and their property confiscated by Commodus. The property then became Commodus' favorite property in Rome. He expanded it to suit his tastes. We walked around just to get an idea of its immensity. The bath complex has traces of marble floors and columns and the hypocaust or heating system.

Statue of Zeus

Next we headed for the Via Appia Antica, the ancient road that led from Rome to Capua and eventually to Brundisium. Along the way we stopped at the Villa of Maxentius, the Roman Emperor who ruled with and eventually fought against Constantine the Great at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge; he obviously lost. He died in 312 A.D. His son, Romulus', tomb is also on the property; Romulus is obviously not the same guy who founded Rome in the 8th Century B.C. The most interesting part of the villa is the Circus of Maxentius, smaller than the Circus Maximus but better preserved. It is “the only Roman Circus in existence in which all of the architectural components are still well preserved,” according to the brochure. It seems huge when you stand in it: it could hold 10,000 spectators. But this is puny compared to the Circus Maximus, which could hold 150,000 spectators.

 Finally, we went to the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella. She was a wealthy relative of (we think) the wealthy Crassus of the First Triumvirate. The Metelli were a prominent family of the first Century B.C.,  and the tomb was built around 30 B.C. Tombs, by Roman custom and law, had to be built outside the city, so the Appian Way was lined with them. The group also walked past the museum and mausoleum to the part of the Appian Way that still has some of the large, ancient Roman paving stones, and we took turn taking our pictures as we stood on them.

 For more pictures of any of the above, visit this set on Flickr.

Sharing a Laugh at Pompey's Theater

Tonight we went to a dinner-party in the substructure of Pompey's Theater. It was sad to be together for the last time as a group, but we had a lot of fun. Sister Therese, Sister Theresa, and Tom made up a “final exam” for us. They gave us hints from the trip, and we had to figure out which member of the group the comment belonged to. One person was so gregarious she spent lots of time talking to the Carabinieri, or military police, for example. I was the person who could not get enough of archaeology  from this experience and so had signed up for two more weeks in Southern Italy. That one was easy for everyone to guess. As people's names were guessed, Tom handed out their certificates and letters of participation. I have to take good care of mine, because I need it for CEUs for recertification in Latin back in North Carolina. This program was worth three graduate courses, according to the paperwork. That should more than take care of my CEUs in my content area.

 Jessica gave the Sisters and Tom some framed photos of the group. The picture was taken in front of Cicero's Tomb and came out nice. Each frame was a little different, and all three were wrapped in paper that Susan had hand-decorated. Wendy presented them with information about a cat that the group adopted from the program at Largo Argentina. We will be supporting this cat for the coming year. He is Feline HIV positive, is easily frightened, and is having a hard time finding a home. Allen and Ryan did a top ten stand-up comedy routine that was pretty funny, especially when Kaitlyn, our former Poppaea, acted the part of a rather bad tour guide we had suffered through in Etruria, rambling on about things we already knew or didn't want to know in broken English. Justin Short wowed everybody with a little poem he wrote about our trip that was inspired by Ovid and the tradition of the lover complaining to the lover's door that won't open for him. It's an actual genre. 

Sister Therese told the group that we are not allowed to apply for future NEH programs at her school, but if any of us ever applies to another NEH Institute, to have her write us a recommendation. She said we were a fantastic group and that she would write a “recommendation for any” of us “for anything.” I have to admit, that comment brought a tear to my eye. It has been that fantastic a group and that fantastic an experience. I hope we stay in touch through email, Facebook, or some other means.

 When we get home we have been asked to submit to Sister Therese through Blackboard a final project as well as to take the NEH Evaluation Survey that will be linked to the group's blackboard site. I'll try to take care of these things shortly after I get back.

 I got a quick call from Don tonight to tell me that Matthew's flight for tomorrow is being bounced around by Continental Airlines. He said Matthew called to tell him his plane might be a half hour late or the flight might be four hours late at this point. I told him I'll go to the airport for the time Matthew was originally expected and wait as long as I have to. Don will call me if for some reason this plane is not expected tomorrow. I hope things go well and our plans for the day and evening don't get too messed up. I'll wait for him and read, I guess. 

I can't wait to see him here in Rome!

My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making four wonderful weeks of academic study in Italy a reality for me.