When in Rome...

Trip Three: Rome November 8th-11th, 2011

After a morning of train rides, we finally arrived in Rome around lunchtime. After arriving in our hotel (on the same block as the Pantheon), we had to grab a quick lunch in order to make it to the Coliseum and the Roman Forum before they closed their doors at 3:30. On our walk to the Coliseum, it started raining a little, but not too hard. I was thinking I should buy an umbrella from one of the street vendors, but I thought for sure that it would stop raining if I bought one. Once it started raining little harder, I quickly bargained for an umbrella, and it ended up being the best three euros I have spent in a long time. Right after we entered the Coliseum, it started down pouring and it didn’t stop until six that night. The Coliseum was pretty much how I expected to be- big and impressive. It was really cool to see but it was a bit hard for me to imagine what it was like in its hay day. We walked around the Coliseum for a while before heading out to visit the Roman Forum… once again in the rain. The Roman Forum is something you should visit when it is nice outside. I was too busy watching where I was stepping to really take in the sites as well as I should. Once again, I had a hard time visualizing how the site would be fully constructed, as most of the ruins are very eroded, but it was really cool to think that the ancient Romans walked in the same spot surrounded by the same buildings that I was walking in at the time. After visiting these two sites, we walked back to the hotel to get dry clothes on and to rest for a little before dinner.

infront of the forum

Our second day in Rome started with the Pantheon quickly followed by the Piazza Navona. The Pantheon was really neat to see after studying it in many classes, and I though the inside of the Pantheon was beautiful- it amazing they could build something like this so long ago. After the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona, we went to roughly ten churches around the city designed mainly by Borromini and Bernini, some of which included the Chiesa di Sant’Andrea Del Quirinale, the Chiesa di San Carolino Alle Quattro Fontane, and the Chiesa di Sant Maria della Vittoria. I couldn’t tell you which one was which, as they all had similar characteristics, but each one was beautiful! We also passed by the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps which were less impressive then I thought they would be, and swarming with tourists. After a day of walking ALL over the city, I was glad to be back at the hotel and able to kick off my shoes!

sketching at the Parthenon

the group on the Spanish Steps

Our third of four days in Rome started out bright and early with the Vatican museum. I was eager to see this museum after hearing so much about it and studying it throughout school. My favorite parts of the museum were seeing Raphael’s work, and of course the Sistine Chapel. I have to say, they were nothing as I imagined them to be. While I did enjoy them, for some reason I imagined Raphael’s works, such as The School of Athens, to be in a much bigger room than it was in, along with his other works. I also imagined them to be a lot bigger, even though they were pretty big. The Sistine chapel was also really neat to see, however I thought it would too be a lot bigger than it was. I thought the room itself would be double the length and width and the ceiling would be a little higher. Although the size of the room was a little disappointing, the Michelangelo’s paintings did not disappoint me. They were as grandiose and magnificent as I was told they would be, and the amount of paintings covering the walls and ceilings of this chapel, along with the rest of the Vatican museum, was amazing. I have never seen such a ornamented place, ever. After the Vatican museum, we headed to St. Peters Basilica which I honestly did not know a whole lot about. I remember studying it in my art history classes, but it kind of blended with some of the other buildings I had studied. Once we arrived, I immediately remembered the square in front of the basilica (with all of the pillars), but I still did not remember the building itself. Upon entering however, I was blown away. Maybe I was so blown away because I didn’t really know what to expect, but I have to say, this is definitely tied for first (with the Sagrada Familia) as one of my favorite churches. I don’t think you can explain this place to anyone; they really have to see it in person to understand the enormity and opulence of it. The size, ornamentation, paintings, sculptures… everything… was over the top and amazing. After the basilica, we got lunch and made our way to the EUR which is home to many of the Fascist architecture buildings we studied in our Italian Rationalism class. These buildings were the opposite of what we had seen earlier this day. While they were interesting to see, they did not blow me away like St. Peter’s. The coolest Rationalist building we saw was probably the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana which is the building I picked for a paper and project for this class. So while we were visiting it, I was able to take many pictures of the now vacant building (but I could not go inside).

outside St. Peters

inside St. Peters

EUR building

Our last day in Rome (11-11-11… yes I made a wish at 11:11am) was dedicated to contemporary buildings. We started by seeing the Palazzetto dello sport, which was an Olympic stadium used in Rome’s 1960 something Olympics. While the building itself was not that impressive, I was impressed that it was built so long ago, and the design is still contemporary and interesting. After that, we headed to the Maxxi museum, which was designed by Zaha Hadid. This museum housed art all from the 21st century, so some of the art was really odd, and made me wonder why it was art. While the art was not too impressive to me, I thought the design of the building was interesting and it was fun to be in that interesting of a space. I need to take a look at Zaha Hadid’s contemporary art museum in Cincinnati now and compare them. After the Maxxi, we went to the Auditorium Parco della musica by Renzo Piano. This is a complex of three auditoriums housed in individual blobs (the best description I can think of). Although I call it a blob, they were beautiful blobs, especially the interior of them, and more specifically the largest auditorium. They were all engineered to have the best acoustics possible for the space, therefore it was amazing that such an interesting space could be made to have such good acoustics! Towards the end of the day, we visited the Ara Pacis museum by Richard Meier, and then we headed to see the Campidoglio by Michelangelo.

inside the Maxxi museum

inside concert hall