After leaving the dorms a little after nine this morning, we walked to Piazza da Popolo. We first sat down on the step outside of Santa Maria del Popolo. Professor Bednarz briefly talked about Habakkuk, Caravaggio, and Jonah and told us different chapters of the Bible to look at. Since there was mass going on in the church, we went into the Piazza and talked about the Egyptian oelisk of Ramesses II from Heliopolis that is in the center of the Piazza. We also talked about the “twin” churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli that are located at the entrance of the Tridente. As we were doing this, we were able to see what some Romans are “really” like. A woman must have decided that she did not like or want her pants anymore. She took off her pants, walked over to a fountain (completely naked on the bottom) and threw her pants in the fountain, stood there for a few minutes staring at them, and then walked away. As amusing as this was, it was kind of uncomfortable she did this so casually.
We then proceeded to talk about the fountains at either side of the Piazza. On the west is the Fontana di Nettuno, where Neptune stands in the middle with his trident and a titans and two dolphins. We then talked about the fountain on the other side that included the founders of Rome and their proceeder, but no one is exactly sure what the statue is. We then went into Santa Maria del Popolo and walked around the church and talked about Caravaggio’s art (which was inside) and Kristen told us about a few of the paintings.
We proceeded to go to two more churches and looked at statues, their meanings, and different art works. At the third church, we went to a first century church that was located under the church that people use today. It was really interesting because we got to see first century brickwork and how they were able to construct a church for themselves. A really interesting part of that church was a section in the back that was most likely used for baptism. There were two sections for baptism and it is thought that either one was used for washing feet before going into the main baptismal, or one was for the kids and one was for the older people.
After we took a break for lunch and some time to relax, we started an adventure throughout Rome. We students had no idea where we were going to go, so we were all filled with suspense. We ended up going to a market from the Roman era that had may levels. It was really interesting to see this market and to realize how complex this was. It was really impressive, especially because the area that it was built on was so uneven that it must have been hard to stabilize this. We then walked a little ways and went to dinner. After dinner when we were sitting in the small piazza, it was interesting to notice people noticing us. Italians, or Europeans in general, dress well, and to see a group of people dressed in tennis shoes and t-shirts it must have been funny or unusual to them. It was also funny to see them laugh at some of the people in the group because of how crazy they were acting. Some people must have had some good drinks at dinner and were just having some fun, and the Italians thought it was funny and were mimicking them.
When we left the piazza, we walked around Rome a little more and saw the Colosseum. It was really cool on the top of the hill we went to because from the angle we were at, we did not see any of the modern day Rome, just ancient rome, and it was beautiful.
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