pictures! and filling in the gaps

i realized i left out a day of experiences on the blog! so here goes: june 3

we met in the morning at a bookstore near our school and had a little orientation session and then italian class. the school i go to everyday is BEAUTIFUL! commissioned by some rich brothers in the medieval era, it served as their castle for some time and was later acquired by the roman government and turned into one of the most prestigious areas for american studies in the world. every ceiling and wall and doorway and floor is beautifully decorated and the piazza it sits in is full of gorgeous statues and carved reliefs...i'll never be able to sit a regular classroom again! i'll upload more pics of the actual school periodically but for now i'm trying to take it all in! everyday i come in i see something more beautiful than i did the day before and wahhh it's just awesome.

brianna and i with one of the many statues at our school

anyway, after our morning class we had about an hour to kill before heading to the fora romana (roman forums) so we headed to a great little pizzeria called "PizzArte" for some delicious, authentic italian pizza. it really is just better here.


so after a delicious lunch we headed to the fora romana for our afternoon class. there we saw the ruins of what used to be the bustling center of rome during the republican and imperial periods. the remains of temples, rostrum, triumphal arches, living areas, shops, and other awesome ancient roman things are all over the fora and it was really cool to see those remains. although i must say that it is incredibly difficult to imagine what used to stand where the ruins are now and i am having a hard time contextualizing the overwhelming number of deteriorating remains we see everyday...one of many of my goals for this trip is to figure out how to do that...wish me luck. anyway, here are some shots of the fora, specifically the arch of titus (still in tact) with one of my favorite ancient roman friezes depicting the spoils of the roman victory over jerusalem.

a view of the fora from the street


arch of titus

arch of titus (detail, frieze: spoils of jerusalem)

after finishing at the fora, we went on a long trip to pick up our cell phones (an adventure in and of itself) and then home for dinner! a great (and EXHAUSTING) first day!