Rome 5

Today we had a free day in Rome with absolutely no planned activities.  This was a welcome opportunity to go find things that we were truly interested in and explore the city on our own. A sizable portion of the group embarked on trains to nearby cities such as Pompeii, but my immediate friends and I, at the advice of one of our professors, decided that there was simply too much that we had not yet seen in Rome and did not want to waste half the day on a train.  We woke fairly early and took care of some necessities such as laundry and an early lunch.  We headed toward the train depot, and located a bus that would take us to the St. Callistos Catacombs.  There we received a guided tour of the oldest Christian burial ground in the world, dating back to the third century.  It was an interesting experience, and I’m certainly glad that we went.

Following this activity, we planned out an ambitious path that would take us all over Rome in one day, to dozens of Plazas, famous churches, fountains, and the like.  I honestly would not be surprised if we covered 15 miles on foot (not to mention all the bus and train rides).  Each plaza had a great deal to offer including beautiful scenery, good food, and several surprisingly talented street musicians.  We eventually settled on a plaza called Campo di Fiori.  We had been told that it is one of the most active places in Rome in the late evening, so we planned that to be our last stop.  There, we had a fantastic dinner.

On this final day, I finally felt as if I had truly experienced Rome.  Although I’m sure we saw only a small portion of the city, I feel fully comfortable navigating through the city unaided should I ever return.  To this end, I must credit my years in Atlanta.  There are very few cities in the world that are more confusing.  My peers and I have been able to skillfully navigate each city that we have gone to within two days, much in thanks to our having faced greater challenges in the past.  We must also credit Atlanta for giving us a healthy amount of fear.  Often, criminals prey on tourists because they are unaware of the dangers of city life.  I’ve noticed that most Tech students view public areas with a considerable amount of suspicion, and this has kept us safe thus far.

Tomorrow there will be no entry as it is a travel day.  We will depart for Padua, Italy (near Venice) at 8:30 am and arrive late in the afternoon.  With any luck, I may be able to post some of the entries I have been writing these past few days.

-Sean

Rome 4

How shall I sum up Wednesday? You are walking around the streets of Rome. You spot an old, slightly dilapidated building sandwiched between a Tobacco shop and a bank. There is an irritating peddler attempting to sell you pink sunglasses or a bean that makes loud noises (true story). You decide to walk inside the building and are nearly knocked to the floor with shock. The inside of the church features hand-painted ceilings, sculptures by the likes of Bernini, and the paintings of Caravaggio. You spot a familiar work, and then realize that it is featured on the cover of your art history book. And to think, you almost went to the bakery across the street instead.
I’m attempting to portray how full of surprises our morning was. We walked all over Rome, inspecting famous sites. While many of the most famous locations are both inwardly and outwardly impressive, this is not always the case, and on several occasions, we could not believe our eyes as we stepped into what looked like a dreary venue. Following this tour of churches, we convened in the park with Dr. Ulrich to begin choir practice.
Let me start by saying that Dr. Ulrich is not only known for his musical brilliance, but also for his comical spontaneity. We agreed to meet him at a train station where we would be doing—well, we weren’t quite sure and neither was he. We were walking through the park in the direction of the Borghese museum when he seemed to find what he was looking for. It was a small gazebo structure at a fairly prominent intersection. The steps suited us as choral risers. We set up there and began working on determining voice parts. After all, most of us had never sung before. After putting together rag tag groups of sopranos, altos, tenors (of which I was one), and basses, we did a few simple warm up exercises. At that point, we still didn’t really know what to expect. After the warm up, Dr. Ulrich point blank asked us what we wanted to sing. We decided that our focus would be on popular music, rather than church music. Dr. Ulrich had heard most of the songs that we suggested (being a big fan of rock music in addition to choral music). Without a piano, recordings, or even a pitch pipe, he began arranging parts on the fly, only relying on his memory of the song. Early on, he would cover his ears and hum several octaves to determine what key the song is in. Once he had decided this, he would teach the parts by singing them to us.
It was truly a fun rehearsal (if a group of students singing rock songs and doing vocal percussion can be called a rehearsal). Even though we didn’t have much going for us in the way of experience, by the end of the rehearsal we had found out that one of us knew the solo to a good song well enough to sing it, and another could do the best impression of Louis Armstrong any of us had ever heard. It was a start.

Rome 3

As I write this, I am listening to Miserere Mei, Deus by Allegri. The performance of this vocal piece was only permitted during two Holy Week services each year. Otherwise, the piece was locked away in a vault. Any who dared copy it would risk excommunication by the church. Young Mozart, being the prodigy that he was, transcribed the piece after listening to it during one such performance. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. I highly recommend that you bring along an iPod with a recording of this piece if you ever visit the Sistine Chapel so that you can experience it as was intended.
I mention all of this because today’s explorations were of the Vatican, including both the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Cathedral. Of all the places I have been thus far on this trip, the Vatican has to be the most awe-inspiring. I should probably mention now that I’m not a Catholic, in fact quite far from it. But I don’t care if you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, or atheist, the Vatican is worth seeing. The sheer amount of beauty in this place, be it expressed as artwork, architecture, or pristine faith makes for a surreal experience. The intangible but pervasive power of this place is seductive to say the least, for this small country within a country has survived all. Despite the chaos it has witnessed, this entity persists to this day. While I continue to be skeptical of the Catholic Church, I cannot deny this formidable achievement.
One last thing regarding the Vatican—for a small fee, you are allowed to climb the dome in St. Peter’s. I highly recommend doing so. Not only do you catch a glimpse of how the church is structured (an engineering feat in its day), but you are granted the best aerial view one can find in Rome. I must warn that this climb, while only involving stairs, is fairly physically taxing and could even be considered terrifying to anyone who is particularly claustrophobic or fears heights.
That’s pretty much the end of that day. We were exhausted.

Rome 2

After several great days in Florence, we left for Rome. If you’ll remember, we initially flew into Rome, so we returned along a similar path, only varying to stop in a small town called Sienna for several hours to eat lunch and explore. After arriving in Rome, we really only had time to eat dinner and sleep, so we found a decent restaurant nearby. Easy day all things considered.
Tuesday, on the other hand, was an action packed day on the bustling streets of Ancient Rome. We took the subway to get to center of the ancient ruins since there was a stop (or fermata in Italian…woo music vocabulary!) right outside the Coliseum. By the way, the subway system here is pretty nice. Definitely makes me wish MARTA could reinvent itself a little bit. The stations here are immense and the trains are packed with commuters. The central station even features an enormous mall, all underground. We toured many of the buildings (or what was left of them) at the former capital of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. It was quite eerie to stand on the original floor of the Roman Senate. And of course, we could not visit Rome without checking out the Coliseum. It was as breathtaking as I had ever expected, perhaps more so. Performing such a feat of architecture and engineering several thousand years ago is truly a wondrous thing. Even so, our 80-year-old architecture professor responded to our bewilderment with, “Well, it really wasn’t very long ago.” I guess everything is relative. There are a striking number of similarities between Roman society and our own. Suffice it to say that he raises an interesting point.
After returning to our hotel for a much needed rest, we headed out to explore the modern day city of Rome a little bit. Since it was raining, we located a bar near our hotel that we deemed a suitable hang-out spot. I should probably explain that the term “bar” reflects something quite different here than in the United States. In the US, our concept of a bar is a wooden plank behind which an amiable keeper mixes drinks for inebriated patrons who complain about various aspects of their lives, perched on stools with bottles clutched in their hands, all the while communing with others who share similar bottles and more similar troubles. Here, most bars more closely resemble bakeries by American standards. They just happen to serve alcohol in addition to pastries.

Rome 1

Everything is going well in Rome, but the internet in our hotel is extremely unreliable.  Rather than frustrate myself with constant disconnections, I’m going to wait until we get to the next hotel to update the blog.  I’ll keep notes offline.  I have a ton of great photos too, but uploading them here would be like pulling teeth, I’m afraid.

Until then,

Sean