All Roads Lead To Rome

sicily

2009-03-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

Back from Sicily, a land of well-preserved Greek, Roman, and Punic remains, wonderful food, and beautiful scenery. I picked up some olive oil that tastes like what Sicily must taste like if you could grab the whole island in your hands and squeeze. We spent a whirlwind of a week there, staying at a different place each night. Being more of a Hellenist myself, the Greek remains were more to my liking than the stuff we see at Rome. Not that I'm all that into material remains...but this stuff was really fantastic. The Greeks really took location into consideration when they built their temples, theaters, or anything else for that matter. Theaters were built into the sides of hills, so they always overlook a sprawling vista. Quite a backdrop. Last night we took a boat from Sicily to Naples, then we bused back to Rome. It feels good to be back.

whoops

2009-03-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

due to the influx of schoolwork I have had to do over the past few week in preparation for a relaxed spring break, I have neglected to update this blog! On Friday, though, we go to Sicily, and you can expect an update then with pictures and more.

The other day I went to what must be one of the biggest flea markets in the world. I got batteries, a t-shirt, a sandwich, and moisturizer. A very diverse market. All very cheap, lots of pickpockets floating around..but we were careful.

My band's cd is now available for sale online at http://exitstencil.org/store.html

EXCITED!

another weekend

2009-02-15T07:27:00.001-08:00

The weeks are truly flying by. There is something about how our week is structured that lends itself to such flying, a very busy monday through wednesday, and then an easing through until the weekend.

this weekend in the city has been wonderful, lots of exploring, trying of new things, and even..shopping? well for like shampoo and stuff, so i guess that doesn't count. The store where i got shampoo gave me all of these little like fragrance samples that smell really weird, although one of them actually smells kind of good. this afternoon i went to a park i hadn't gone to explore and took some lunch there. very crazy statues with shrubbery grown around them but then carved away.

i'm starting to think about spring break plans, and in a whirlwind of investigation this morning i debated a number of things...sicily to tunisia to the southern tip of italy? rome to istanbul? rome to berlin to amsterdam? rome to amsterdam to florence? rome to marseille?? sicily to malta to sardinia? ATHENS? athens then the greek isles?

we go to sicily very soon for a week long field trip. the other day i learned about wine and was able to tell (before i was told) that there was a hint of vanilla in the white wine that we tried. i really like vanilla, and as a result i was probably too tipsy for dinner.

tomorrow is another monday!

my band has released our cd on oberlin campus, sorta like a little pre-release.

to end with an interesting little tidbit from a roman historian:

I mention this for the sake of the improvement of the readers of this history. For there are two ways by which all men can reform themselves, the one through their own mischances, the other through those of others, and of these the former is the more effective, but the latter less hurtful. Therefore we should never choose the first method if we can help it, as it corrects by means of great pain and peril, but ever pursue the other, since by it we can discern what is best without suffering hurt. Reflecting on this we should regard as the best discipline for actual life the experience that develops from serious history; for this alone makes us, without inflicting any harm on us, the most competent judges of what is best at every time and in every circumstance. Well, on this subject I have said enough.

pretty much saying....look: when something horrible or unexpected happens to you, you have the opportunity to learn a good lesson and change in some way for the better. this way of changing is fairly dramatic, as something has just happened to YOU. another opportunity is given by studying what happens to other people (through history). he says you never choose the first way of change (because you can't choose to have something horrible and unexpected happen to you), but we can choose to learn through studying history, and this is a safe and unharmful way to improve yourself.

not sure how i feel about that, but i thought it was pretty interesting.

gabe

today

2009-02-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

Today we visited a few very interesting sites. After looking at Etruscan sites last week, we have since moved on to Latin sites. The Latins were indigenous occupants of Italy who were eventually subjugated by the Romans. We visited three sites today, the first of which was a place called Lavinium. The archaeological site is somewhat unique and disastrously situated in its environment. To the right is an air force base, and to the north is a very important water buffalo herding area wherein some of the best water buffalo mozzarella cheese is produced (from what i could gather from our italian guide who knew very little english). To the south is a factory. In any case, we looked at a tomb that was rumord to be the tomb of Aeneas, the famous hero of Virgil's Aeneid. Probably a hoax invented in antiquity to attract pilgrims to the site, but interesting nevertheless. Aeneas, after all, is said to have landed amongst the Latins when he finally reached Italy. Then we hit Tusculum where we got a fantastic view of the Italian countryside and looked at the place where hotshot elite Romans constructed their villas for out-of-town use. They could just go to Tusculum to escape the craziness that is Rome and still be able to hang out with a few select friends. We checked out a museum with a bunch of remants of Latin culture, they liked to bury stones carved into all manner of things..pomegratines, penises, feet, and apparently a uterus (it just looked like a lump, might as well have been a banana). Some people in our group could not obey the rules and often stepped over the yellow boundary markers in the museum and set alarms off. VERY LOUD. Tomorrow we go to a museum in Rome, and then we have language classes. Should be relatively peaceful...and then another full day trip.

Sometimes I think I could use a Tusculum every once in a while :)

the roman forum

2009-02-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

preface: for some reason i couldn't get those weird blue underlines out of my text! weird..

The other day we went the the ruins of the roman forum. Walking on the same street that Cicero walked down, viewing the door to the building that Cicero's hands would eventually be nailed to...quite an experience. The backdrop of the modern city against the ruins is quite striking. Even for me, a classicist not being as interested in material remains as some of my colleagues, this was truly a sight.

As for tonight:

Pone merum et talos. Pereat qui crastina curat.
Mors aurem vellens, ‘vivite’, ait, ‘venio’.

Set down the wine and the dice, and perish who thinks of tomorrow!
Here’s death twitching my ear, ‘Live’, he says, “for I’m coming.”

etruscan necropolis

2009-02-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

weekends

2009-02-01T01:03:00.000-08:00

My first weekend here was lots of fun.

During the day I started working on my assignments for Wednesday so as to not feel the crunch on Tuesday night. At night- hit the town. Because they don't feed us on the weekend, we all need to learn the fine skill of getting good food cheaply in the city, without eating only delicious pizza all the time. So far I've pretty much been okay with eating delicious pizza all the time.

The nightlife in our area Trastevere is hopping. We decided to become regular patrons of one bar, the "Bar Belli", due to the friendliness of its employees and warm ambiance. First taste of Gelato today, Italian ice cream, and it was absurdly good. Coffee flavor.

2009-01-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

My band Like Bells has been popping up on the web:

http://skopemag.com/2009/01/29/exit-stencil-signs-like-bells-mp3s

http://www.scenepointblank.com/news/6746

http://popstereo.blogspot.com/

http://advancecopy.blogspot.com/2009/01/future-like-bells-similar-dirty-three.html

http://www.comfortcomes.com/2009/01/27/like-bells-atlas/

stadium of domitian

2009-01-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

This is one of the fountains on the piazza navona. They are all really gorgeous, and this area is really cool for a number of reasons...one of which is the fact that underneath it is an ancient roman stadium, the stadium of domitian (so we suspect). It's a cool blend of the old and the new. We went down to the ruins of the stadium, popped back up, took a coffee break, and then continued on our way to another area that is layered with old and new stuff, excavated in such a way as to show each layer..ancient, renaissance, new, etc..really sweet.

Then me and a few greek students got mind-spanked by our homework, and then my latin homework felt like a breeze. For dessert at dinner tonight there was the best ice cream i've ever had in my life.

hehehe. sorry.

Tomorrow I can sleep in, and then we have a trip out. Then..it's friday night in Rome!

update

2009-01-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

First full day of classes today, quite full indeed. Class/Work from 9 AM to 11:30 PM

I'm getting the hang of the bus system, meaning I can go where I want and find what I want in the city! A very important development for me.

Found some real hot spots in the city last night.

The Tiber River looks beautiful at night, I would have snapped a shot but I didn't have a camera. I'll do it this weekend.

Rome is overwhellllllmmingly crazy.

Sorry not much substance here,

Gabe

Airplane

2009-01-25T02:31:00.000-08:00

(Written while on Plane) - I’m on the airplane right now next to an Italian! I was a little shy at first due to my inadequate Italian, so I asked for her name in English. What I heard was “Marlbora”, kind of like the cigarette brand but a little more feminine. Looking back, it could have been “Marba”, “Marbury”, or anything really beginning with M and ending in A. In any case, she’s an Italian Phd student in Physics who was studying at Nashville for a few weeks, and from Nashville had a flight to Philly then back to Rome. I told her my Italian was bad but she encouraged me to try some. We ended up practicing some verbs (to do, to come, to see), and I could tell when my pronunciation was bad when she just said “okay”, as opposed to when my pronunciation was bearable and she said “yes! yes! yes!”. Typical. So, “okay” came to mean “not so much”. Fine in my book, I want and need the practice.

I asked her how she liked American food and she said that she didn’t even know what “American food” was, but that she liked the Indian and Chinese restaurants in her hotel in Nashville. I explained to her that I was a vegetarian but that I was maybe interested in having fish a few times in Italy. Then things got REALLY confusing. I forgot that in Italian when a c is followed by an e it’s a soft sound. Marcella is pronounced Mar-che-lla, not Mar-k-ella. I knew that rule but for some reason thought that there was an exception when there was an s before the c. S before c, though, just means a “sh” sound. So when I said the Italian word for fish (pesce), I was saying “pes-kay”, not “peshay” as I should have. Now, it turns out there is a fruit in Italian called pesco (pronounced pesko, peski in the plural), which is what she THOUGHT I was saying because of the hard c sound. So basically, in Italian I was saying…"I’m a vegetarian but when I’m in Italy I’m really thinking about trying this fruit!” That really threw her for a loop. I couldn’t get to the bottom of what a pesco is, she described it as a “round, orange summer fruit.” Maybe an orange? Anyway, I’m pretty good pals with Marlbora or whatever her name is. It’s probably a good thing that she’s asleep and not reading as I type this, though. ☺ Especially now that she thinks I’m a vegetarian who for some reason thinks oranges qualify as meat.

Well, now I'm at the Centro. Jet-lagged, overwhelmed, and really happy. Just took a few shots while strolling around, but now really have to hit the hay for a nice noon-time nap.

This is the view from my window. It's a nice sight. I very much like that curvy tree.

Here is my roommate Tim Platt. All smiles!

2009-01-18T19:03:00.001-08:00

Hello all: family, friends, teachers, and beyond!

This is a travel blog that I will update as frequently as possible while I spend a semester studying abroad at the ICCS (Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies) at Rome with 37 other language and literature enthusiasts. Expect main courses of photos accompanied by ramblings about the photos, and side dishes of general reflections from me about what it is that I'm learning and experiencing in class. For dessert: general reflections about what it is that I'm thinking while I cruise around this city about which I have read and studied, but never lived and truly experienced. Dessert may not come as frequently, but... we all know how dessert goes sometimes, right? Sometimes it's the only course.

On this post, dessert comes first. I must admit that while I am almost overflowing with excitement about this upcoming semester, this experience will come at something of a cost. The band that I play in, Like Bells (myspace.com/likebells) is on the brink of releasing our first cd, and these next few months are going to be very busy for the band and our record label. I regret that I will not be able to give as much attention as I am able to this very important part of my life. As the Italians say, "campa cavallo, che l'erba cresce". The sense of this is: "while the horse starves, the grass grows". I thank my band members and labelmates for graciously encouraging me to do this.

I will miss my friends and family in the United States. There are some people who I have only in this past month been able to interact with in ways that I have been unable to manage in the past. For that reason and others, this trip is coming at something of an inopportune time.

Distance, however, has been known to do strange things, both good and bad. It's something of a riddle. Perhaps I should just take the advice that Catullus wrote to himself a few thousand years ago: "desinas ineptire, et quod vides perisse perditum ducas". In my other ear, though, comes Virgil's words: "et nos cedamus amori". But hell, Catullus never took his own advice anyway...but here I'm getting a little off-topic. Sue me.

I owe much to my parents and teachers for encouraging me in my studies and providing me with the tools necessary for me to follow this pursuit. Studying Greek and Latin is a privilege. When I first heard about this program during my freshman fall semester at Oberlin College, I knew that I would have to try to go. My teachers made this possible. Thanks for pushing me. And it was you, Mr. Mastrangelo, who first set me on this path at Dickinson College, this path so rarely followed but so alluring precisely for that reason. A sense of necessity draws me towards it, one good glimpse was all it took.

For those of you who are thinking about coming to visit me, I assure you that the later in the semester you come, the more fun will be had. Quid petis, hic est...."Whatever you seek is right here." So, quod petis? Che cerci? What do you seek? Let's find it together.

Well! Here's what I'll be studying:

In Latin, I'll be reading Suetonius' Life of Nero, an ancient, gossip-ridden biography of a figure who is one of the most notoriously brutal leaders of ancient Rome. One story that I am familiar with describes how he tried to kill his mother by giving her a present of a nice boat ride, not informing her of the fact that he had the boat made such that it would collapse in the water after a little while! That's just a taste. He also killed Christians like it was his job. According to him, it probably was his job!

In Greek, I'll be reading Book Six of Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, the book which recounts the Athenian invasion of Sicily which was the beginning of the end of Athens with respect to their war against Sparta. A few different parties convinced the Athenians that invading Sicily would be the right thing to do, citing a whole host of reasons that turned out to be for the most part fabrications. The Athenians didn't know a lot about Sicily, and were easily convinced that vast amounts of money were to be had from a successful Sicilian invasion. Wrong! Kinda reminds me of a more recent situation, wherein one country is convinced that a bunch of WMD's are stashed away in another country far, far away about which the general population knows very little, and for that reason (the weapons) has to invade it. Wrong! At least the Athenians, though, were honest about their motives! ;)

In Italian, I'll be learning beginner's Italian. I've started a few things in the past month here at home, but my pronunciation is undoubtedly wretched and my grammar is as of now quite limited (conjugations of the present tense, perfect tense, imperatives, and a basic grasp of nouns). I am finding Italian pronouns to be somewhat confusing. In any case, I plan to be at least decent by the time May rolls around. If I end up having to drop a course due to workload issues, this would be it, although I would still plan on being pretty good in Italian.

Then, the Ancient City, the course where we get taken around to the sites in Rome and learn about Roman history, architecture, art, politics, etc. This class counts as two classes (8 credits?!), and takes up the most time. Intimidating, but this is going to be a real treat. And it's the reason why we get awesome, serve-all-purposes bus passes!

τρέφεται δέ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ψυχὴ τίνι; "And what, then, Socrates, nourishes the soul?" So someone asks Socrates in one of Plato's dialogues. For me, this stuff does. And even then only parts of it.

Be well, readers.

Gabe