Exploding Mountains, the Emperor Caligula, and Plane Trees

Wednesday, 7/14/10

A plane tree

   

Today the group spent the whole day at the Vesuvian Institute. The change of pace was most welcome. Until 1:00 we had presentations and study sessions. Leigh gave a great presentation on the details of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. I hope I remember the terms subduction, pyroclastic flow, and pyroclastic surge.

 

 From another presentation I learned that Caligula once gave a dinner-party in a Plane Tree. I took some pictures of a local plane tree. It is too small for a dinner-party, but the shape gives you the idea. It might be a shady spot for a party. A platform could be built where the tree widens beneath the crown.

A nice, cool spot for a dinner-party?

 This afternoon I did my PT exercises and took a walk to the Terme di Stabia to see if I could get more aqua s. ferrata. I could get in for free, but the particular spigot I wanted apparently only flows in the morning. Maybe on Saturday I can get some more. The other ladies who have problems with rashes want me to bring some back for them, since they see it is clearing up my rash. I only have a  little it left and will be sad when I run out.

 We met at 7 tonight to go over tomorrow's plans. The group will be going to Ischia, site of the first Greek colony in Italy. The Greeks called it Pithecusae. Some of the ruins are beneath the church of Sancta Restituta, a Roman Catholic saint from North Africa. From Pithecusae another Greek colony, Cumae, was established, where Matthew and I will be staying for my last two weeks in Italy. Our group must get going early tomorrow, meaning out of the hotel by 7:30 am, to catch our boat ride to the island on time. We are warned to be at the correct harbor on Ischia (there are two) at 5 pm or we will miss the last ferry home and have to find a way to spend the night there. After our morning educational tour, we will have some free time to enjoy the beaches, dining, thermal spas, or gardens of Ischia. It sounds like a nice place to get stranded, although I have no intention of doing so.

I would like to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding this portion of our trip, whether I get stranded or no.

Pompeii, First Visit 2010

One of the victims of Mt. Vesuvius' eruption in August of 79 A.D.

Monday 7/5/10

 

For readers who have just found this site, this is a travel-log of a Latin teacher's grant-funded summer study in Italy in 2010. Click here for more info.

Today our group took its first visit to Pompeii. The site is as hot and almost as crowded as I remember. One improvement is the fact that the ancient public water fountains have been fitted with spigots so we can refill our water bottles. Between that and the shade our group leaders tried to steer us toward, this was the most comfortable trip to Pompeii I've ever taken. It's my third or fourth trip over many years.

Ancient water fountain with modern spigot. The worn spot is from ancient pots being lifted up and rested on the lip.

 

There are two railway stations in Castellamare di Stabia. To get the site, we got to the proper train station and boarded the train  to get off at the third or fourth stop, Pompeii Scavi.

Exploring Pompeii's forum

The tour itself was excellent. Different members of the group had been assigned different houses, and they had done their research and were amazingly well prepared. We saw the House of the Faun, of Menander, of the Small Fountain, of the Ponza, of Sallust, and of the Tragic Poet. We also saw the Odeon, which is the smaller of the two theaters, the temple of Isis, and the Fullery where clothes were washed. Mid-day we met with Steve Ellis of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. He is an archeologist in charge of a dig that is not open to tourists. He had invited our group to come to the site of his dig where he gave a fantastic presentation of the work his team is doing on the more “middle class” houses in Pompeii. I was excited to get pictures and video of archeologists at work for my students.

Steve Ellis comments on recent excavations

It was also interesting to learn that his team was excavating the drains of these houses, examining the food remains there to get a better idea of the diet of the residents. He said two houses looked the same, but the food remains in one showed that the inhabitants were probably much wealthier due to the wider variety of food and the fact it had been imported. Some was very exotic, like the knee of a giraffe, a unique find in Italy. A National Geographic special is coming out this year. It is a series and Steve's dig is in one part of the series. Its name will be “Rome Unwrapped” and this work will be featured in the Pompeii section.

 

I think I have walked around Castellamare di Stabia enough now that I can find my way during daylight into town and back. I have some errands to run while the stores are open, but now I need to find my own necessities around our group's schedule. Today on our way back the stores were still closed for the afternoon. They seem to reopen around 5 PM. To give you an idea of the intensity, the earliest we could get back into town was 4:30 PM, when we all desperately wanted a change of clothes and a shower to cool down. After taking care of our personal needs, our group will meet this evening at 6:30 for a discussion and Latin translation session before dinner at 8 PM. Tomorrow we go to visit the temple of Vedius Pollio, to Cuma (ancient Cumae) to visit the acropolis and the “Cave of the Sibyl” and then the site of the ancient remains at Baiae “with its luxurious accommodations for the very wealthy and its unusual baths along with the Museo di Castello di Baia to view artifacts taken from the sea and surrounding area,” according to our handout.

 Tonight's session is in less than 15 minutes and I still want to have a chance to upload pictures to my computer from today and yesterday, as well as the video clips I took. Wish me luck!

I wish to express my gratitude to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.

Free Time in Campagna, Italy

The Grandeur of the Greek Temples at Paestum

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Sunday, July 4, was a “free” day. The group split into two groups more along the lines of age rather than whether we were Latinists or not. The younger group took a ferry to Capri and took a boat tour and hiked up to see Tiberius' villa. They also got to see the Blue Grotto... I would have liked that! 

The young-at-heart generation followed a tour leader, Tom, to Paestum to see the museum and ruins there, particularly the Greek “Tomb of the Diver” and the incredible Greek temples. Southern Italy was dotted with Greek colonies for centuries, giving the culture of the south a different flavor from Rome and the north. For more pictures of Paestum, visit this set on Flickr.

It was worth the trip despite the fact we missed a train. This forced us to delay in the lovely town of Solerno where we saw its “Duomo,” which oddly doesn't have a dome as far as I can tell.

Tomb of the Diver

That evening we were all exhausted, except Sister Therese, who had prepared a detailed lecture about the early history of Pompeii, which she attempted to deliver after dinner between 9 and 10 pm. Unfortunately for her, but perhaps luckily for the rest of the group, she kept getting interrupted by fireworks and so had to cut her presentation short. It sounds like a full day at Pompeii is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Interior over the Nave at Solerno

I have had some serious medical issues with my knee since my Treeing Walker Coon Hound knocked me down on February 4. My orthopedist told me before the trip he thought I would get better without surgery and gave his ok for me to go. I was not sure he was right, but I am walking and going up and down stairs and mostly staying up with the group. And the knee seems to be feeling better each day. It seems a miracle in this land of holy places and healing. I begin to hope that the doctor was right.

Magnificent Temple at Paestum

Many thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.

Tuesday and Wednesday in MD

The name of the N.E.H.-funded portion of our summer-study program was, "Houses of Gods and Mortals." Our group would be spending time in Italy studying temples as houses of the gods, the architectural remains of ancient houses, and tombs as houses of the dead. It made for a nice thematic unit.

Dr. Glenn R. Bugh, Virginia Tech

On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Dr. Glenn R. Bugh of Virginia Tech presented a lecture on the archaeology of Roman Italy. The next day he lectured about the Etruscans, an ancient race to the north of Rome that declined in influence as Rome was coming to power. They eventually died out and their language along with them. We mostly know about them from their tombs and from what we can make out of their inscriptions. Dr. Bugh told us there are three types of these tombs:

• the Aedicula tomb, like a little house
• the Cassone tomb, like a box or coffin
• the Tumulus tomb, like a little hill with an entryway

In almost all cases, except Cassone, they were intended to be family tombs. There's a communal nature to the tombs and their use. The tombs are arranged in a necropolis, or city of the dead. There are whole streets of the dead in Etruria. I had visited these tombs in the 1980s. They were a favorite part of my summer study then, and I was looking forward to going back.

Mary Lou presents about graffitti

Although this was an N.E.H. Institute, the format was closer to an N.E.H. Summer Seminar. Participants were required to not only do research but to take on many of the lectures. I had the opportunity to be one of the first participant lecturers. My topic was about ancient Roman graffiti, which is mostly found in Pompeii. I gave an overview about what types of graffiti have been discovered and why we should study it. This presentation dovetailed nicely with Sr. Dougherty's, which followed. She had many more examples of graffiti for the group to study than I had in my rather brief but well-received presentation. To view it  on Google Docs, click here and download.

I would like to thank the folks at the National Endowmnent for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.

Beginnings in Maryland

 My Italy adventures during the summer of 2010 began in late June at Notre Dame of Maryland University. I traveled to Baltimore by Amtrak train and was met by a representative of the campus, who took me and my bags by car to a pleasant residence hall. The two Roman Catholic nuns who were running the program were Sr. Therese Dougherty and Sr. Theresa Lamy. Therese, in general, ran the academic end of the program, and Sr. Theresa ran the administrative end. Both were helpful, kind, and wonderful! The campus was lovely as well. The summer study program they ran had been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sr. Therese

Sr. Theresa

About five months before my adventures began, my Walker Hound accidentally knocked me down while he was playing with his friend, a standard poodle mix. Walkers are fast, powerful animals, and he tackled me in the left knee with his shoulder. The pain was incredible, and my knee has never been 100% right since then. My orthopedist, Dr. Shall, suspected he knocked my patella (kneecap) out of place.

When I started this program, I was still in pain, undergoing physical therapy, taking drugs, and doing all kinds of exercises to strengthen the knee and relieve my suffering. For a while there was doubt, at least in my mind, about whether I could even accept the grants. But Dr. Shall cleared me to go. He told me that if I continued to do my exercises every day I would be 80% better by the time I got back from Italy.

I had doubts, and so did my fellow participants. When I arrived at the campus I walked from our dormitory across the parking lot to the dining hall slowly and with great difficulty. I had traveled to Italy on summer study back in the 1980s, so I knew this trip was not going to be for he faint of limb or faint of heart. But I was determined to give it my best shot and not to hold other participants up.

In the end, Dr. Shall was right. Not only did I make it through the program, but it was actually therapeutic for me. I avoided surgery by doing the exercises. And all the walking, hiking, and stair-climbing I did on this trip strengthened my knee. My time in the summer Italian sun was much less depressing than visiting the physical therapist, too. I even managed to climb Mt. Vesuvius during my second visit, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wish doctors could prescribe similar trips, perhaps with a stay at one of Europe's many health-spa resorts, to patients with symptoms similar to mine. If not exactly restful, my summer was certainly healthful for mind, body, and soul. For more images of the campus, visit this Flickr set.

 I should also mention that I spent quite a few months learning some phrasebook Italian. I can't recommend enough at least a little Italian for anybody who plans to spend time in the country. Anyone who has toured the country and told you that most people speak English is WRONG. This is true of the tourist-traps, but not the rest of the country. Besides, it's just polite to learn a little about the language and customs before you go. The most useful thing I did was to pick up some Berlitz Italian CDs in a local discount/close-out store. I listened to these over and over during the course of several weeks, mostly as I was falling asleep. When I felt comfortable I knew the whole disc, I would play them in my car as I traveled back and forth to work, reciting the Italian out loud and playing each section over and over until I was pretty confident I could make myself understood.

It worked pretty well. The main drawback to this method is that you speak enough Italian, and decently enough, that folks that you speak to in Italy actually think you understand Italian. They'll talk to you a mile a minute, and you're not well prepared to follow what they're saying unless you get lucky and they hit something you've practiced in a script. But if you live, like I did, in a spot where it's impossible to take an inexpensive course, it's better than nothing. Even if you take a course, practicing scripted dialogues helps you develop your listening skills and pronunciation. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank the folks at the National Endowmnent for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.

Background Information

I am a Latin teacher. Until the summer of 2011 I worked in communities with high poverty rates, either urban or rural, most recently in North Carolina. Toward the end of this time, North Carolina, in its infinite wisdom--please note the sarcasm here-- decided to make staff development in one's content area mandatory for renewing teaching licenses. Finding high-quality staff development in Latin near home or at an affordable price turned out to be nearly impossible.

Desperate, I applied for grant money from three different organizations for summer study in Italy. I was lucky enough to land two of them. Hence, an awful situation turned into a learning experience of a lifetime as I spent a week in Maryland, preparing for the trip, and then six glorious weeks in Italy. Funding for Maryland and the first four-week program in Italy came through the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for a the two-week program, which dove-tailed perfectly with the first one, came through the Fund for Teachers and the Rural School and Community Trust. The two-week tour was with the Vergilian Society. Our groups studied mostly in Rome and its environs and in Southern Italy, especially Campania and the surrounding islands of Capri and Ischia. We also made forays into Etruria to study the ancient Etruscans.

I originally blogged about this trip for the benefit of my students and of students everywhere. It was also part of a requirement for the second grant. That blog is no longer available, so as I have time I plan to re-construct my adventures as much as possible from my original notes and digital photographs.